Seeing Blue

I am 21 weeks pregnant now and we are having some exciting things happen. I still get sick quite frequently, but can sometimes manage it with Zofran, but I get a headache when I take Zofran, so I have to decide if I want to be nauseated or have a headache. I am more than half done with this pregnancy. I feel the baby move a lot now, which to me is pretty exciting. I went to my 20 week sonogram yesterday and it is always fun and reassuring to see the baby.  Below are some pictures of the ultrasound.

On The Left You Can See Two Little Feet

                                          This is the baby's profile.

We are going to have some exciting changes in our family because this time we are having a BOY!!! This is a picture of the two legs and confirmation that we have "boy parts." Click on a link to listen to the baby's theme song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLBZLjLBMKs

We decided that we are going to name this little brother Carson Kent Ralphs. Darin brought the name up a month or so ago and I started thinking about it and thought that it would be a perfect tribute to my two favorite men. My dad's name is Carl Harrison, so we take the first three letters of his first name and the last three letters of his middle name and make Carson. Kent is Darin's middle name and we decided 8 years ago when I was pregnant with Abigail that if we ever had a boy his middle name would be Kent. So, it is decided and I feel pretty good about the name. I have another sonogram scheduled in a few weeks because Mr. Carson was not cooperating with the sonogram tech and she was unable to get some of the measurements that she needed. He kept moving and showing his bum off and was not interested in letting her measure anything else.

Garage Band

Darin cleaned his garage out and as soon as the girls found out that it was clean they decided to set up a garage band. Elizabeth played the guitar, Emily was on the laundry-basket drum-set and Abigail was the singer of the band. I could totally see these girls 10 years down the road jamming out with real instruments in the garage.

Let's Play Music Recital

The twins had their end of the year Let's Play Music Recital. Elizabeth is in a red shirt on the front row with her fingers in her mouth and Emily is right behind her. Let's Play music is an excellent program for children ages 4-7 to teach them music theory, singing, and ear training in preparation for playing the piano. The twins had alot of fun and I am very impressed with the program. If you want to give your little one a great foundation in learning music Let's Play Music is the program to check out www.letsplaymusicsite.com .

Busy-ness & Family Visit

The last 3 1/2 weeks have been a whirlwind of of events in our family. My mom, Heather, and I went to the BYU Women's Conference and it was a weekend of fun and spiritual growth. We got to eat breakfast with my cousins Kristin and Ben and their families. I haven't seen them for a few years so that was nice. Unfortunately, when I start getting busy and having fun I forget to take pictures, so that is how much of the last 3 1/2 weeks have been for me.

The weekend after women's conference my dad and Aunt Susanne flew in for Heather's pinning. Heather gratuated from ISU's nursing program in December and has been working at the hospital, but they only have one pinning each year, so she was pinned with all of her friends. We are proud of Heather's accomplishments and will miss her when she moves to Bountiful, UT this summer. At least she is only moving 2 hours away. Shane got a job as a high school shop teacher and track coach and Heather is looking for employment in the Bountiful area.

 The girls loved having Papa & Grand Nan and Aunt Susie to play with.

 One of our favorite activities was going on a nature walk/hike near Mink Creek. It just melts my heart to see my little Elizabeth hiking the trail with papa.

 There was a troll guarding the bridge that the girls had to cross.

 My parents and Aunt Susanne stayed because I had a big concert in Helena, Montana. I performed Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with about 400 other singers and 100 plus instruments. It was a wonderful experience for me. I don't think I will have many opportunities in this life to perform that piece of music, so I was definately up for the challenge. It was the hardest piece of music I have ever learned. While there, a family that sponsored the symphony let me stay in their guest house. It was very cute and I loved the property. Helena, MT is beautiful and Scott and Heidi Kinner's 11 acre property was georgous.

 One of my favorite places in Helena was the Helena Cathedral. It was so beautiful and the acoustics were amazing.

 Idaho meets Helena.

 I think one of the reasons why I liked Helena so much besides the obvious support for the arts was that they preserved their history so well. We went on a walking tour of Last Chance Gulch and Reeder's Alley and learned about how Helena came to be in the 1800's.

It was a fun trip and I am so lucky to have the support of family members that love me. While my parents were here they helped out with the kids alot and helped me with a few projects around the house. We painted and decorated my kitchen. My dad and twins worked on my flower beds. My mom did a sewing project and cleaned and organized like crazy and they also helped Heather pack up her house for her move to Bountiful. We also enjoyed talking to Harrison on Mother's Day. I think his spirit is up and he is excited about doing missionary work. It was very good to hear his voice.

Free Photo Shoot

So about two months ago I entered a contest to win a free photo shoot with one of my childhood friends who happens to be a fabulous photographer. I didn't think I had a chance cause I seriously have never won anything in my life, but to my surprise I was the winner!! I live in Idaho and my friend Heather lives in Utah, but it was totally worth the drive. I can't believe how old Abigail has gotten and how absolutely beautiful she is. She has a pretty fun personality too. Heather Ferguson, the photographer is moving soon, but if you wnat to get pics before she moves in July, you should totally do it. Check out her website at http://heatherannette.com

 This picture takes my breath away.

 I love this picture of Abigail cause it totally shows off her bubbly personality.

I really wanted pictures of Abigail in her baptism dress and these pictures could not have turned out better. Abigail looks so reverent and thoughtful. I can't believe my oldest baby is almost eight. She will be baptized on August 4th and we couldn't be prouder.

 I love this picture. I hope to put it up in Abigail's room as a reminder of what she believes and who she is. I also love it because of Abigail's fingers, her fingernails are a little dirty and chewed just the way an almost eight-year-old's fingers should be.

The Twins Style

Today when I told the twins to get dressed this is what they came up with and I totally thought that these outfits embodied their personalities. Above is Emily - she loves leggings and skirts and shirts with some kind of embelishment. There always has to be some shade of oink in Emily's outfits and she loves to pose for the camera. Also, if you look close you can see a band-aid on Emily's foot. She is definately my most accident prone child at the moment and tends to have a boo boo somewhere at all times. Below is Elizabeth - she is definately my little tom boy. She loves caps and hats, tennis shoes, and overalls. She actually set these close out for church yesterday and it was quite the power struggle trying to convince her to wear a dress. She thought I was being pretty silly taking her picture, so the best I got was a half smile with her hands in her pockets. These girls are definately becoming best friends and the difficult moments are getting less and less as they get older, just in time for our new addition to make his or her arrival in October.

Ballerinas and Monster Trucks

We had a very busy weekend and will have several busy weekends for the next few weeks. On Saturday, we got up bright and early for the Idaho Dance Fest competition. We arrived at 7:30 a.m. and didn't leave until 8:00 p.m. with the exception of taking a lunch break. Abigail's dance teams did well and really, I thought all of the other teams did well too. I thought the competition was a good representation of dance in Idaho. At the end of the day the dancers did a dance down. A Dance Down is where a choreographer teaches a dance and then the dancers are judged according to memorization, personality, and technique, there was also a freestyle section. There were four categories Novice (age 5-7), Beginner (age 8-10), Intermediate (age 11-14), and Advanced (age 15 and up). Abigail was in the Novice category and she WON! I was shocked. There were about 30 other girls in the Novice age group and she was the last dancer standing. The judges give the dancers a ribbon if they want you to sit down until there are three dancers left and then the dancers do a dance down. Lots of pressure and kind of scary if you ask me. There are two runners up and a winner. The winner gets a trophy and a certificate. ABI WON! I was laughing and about to cry and her little heart was beating so fast, but she worked that dance floor. Proud mommy moment for sure! I am so bummed though that I didn't get a video recording or picture of it. I wasn't prepared for the outcome that is for sure. Her other dances Yellow and World of Toys did well. Yellow got four stars and a technique award and World of Toys got five stars and a high score of the day.
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This picture is of Abigail and some of the "toys" in her dance. Abigail is the toy soldier, there is a bear, jester, ballerina, and a doll (the doll didn't want to be in the picture).

Below is a link to the World of Toys dance. I have to say that this dance wasn't Abigail's best performance, you can tell that she really has to go to the bathroom and the distraction of having to "go" makes her get off beat for a little bit. I am still proud of her though, even if she is doing an underlying potty dance. She is the toy soldier in the front of the soldier group in the red shirt. The one in the white shirt is a little boy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzlGy8dPj3Q&feature=share

Abigail has become really good friends with a little girl named Maddie Long at dance. They are buddies and really cute together.

This is one dedicated dance dad! He woke up at 6:30 to cook Abigail french toast for breakfast before her competition. I was just going to feed Abigail a bowl of cold cereal.

Since we experienced all things girly at the dance competition it was time to get in touch with our red-neck side and go to the Monster Truck Rally. I don't think I have ever seen the ISU Holt Arena so full. And wow, there were some interesting walks of life that came out of the wood-works for this show. Darin got free tickets because he had to work after the show hauling away the smashed cars. It was a fun and EXTREMELY LOUD experience.

This truck was the girls favorite. It's name was BIG FOOT!

Sometimes the trucks didn't make their jumps over the cars and they had to be towed away.

We got some pretty good shots with our camera. Too bad they were blurry.

This was a tow truck. Elizabeth was pretty mesmorized by the moveable hood.The girls had fun at their first Monster Truck Show. What a long day! 12 hours of dance and 3 hours of Monster Trucks. Everyone slept well after all was said and done.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

The twins got kites in their Easter baskets and we didn't have to wait long for a windy day. They had a blast flying their kites and the kites only got tangled in the tree 4 times, flew over the house twice, and got tangled up 3 times. The funniest thing was watching Mr. O'Malley go "nuts" because he couldn't catch the tails of the kite.

These pictures are kind of in reverse order, but oh well, they give a short re-cap of our Easter weekend. The picture below was of the girls in their Easter dresses, they sure looked cute despite the tears.

Elizabeth was ecstatic to get her first glove and ball from the Easter bunny. She didn't want to put them down all day, hence the tears in the above picture.

The Easter Bunny came. The girls didn't get very much candy, but they did get stuff for t-ball and softball, a Frisbee, kite, hula hoop, and some coloring books.

Our ward had their Annual Easter Egg Hunt and Pancake Breakfast, the girls made off in the candy department.