Past and Present

I've gotten a little behind in my blogging, so this will be a little bit of catch up. First of all - I'm LOVING my little boy. He's the sweetest little thing and I love being a mommy to a newborn. On the other hand, I'm going a little crazy being a mommy to my girls. They are taking turns being extremely dramatic and emotional. But, all in all, we are doing very well and I'm quite happy currently - stressed at times, but happy nonetheless. :) My mom and sister came to visit and help last week - they flew in on the 30th and left on April 4th. The plan was that they would be here in time for the birth, since my induction was to be on the 31st, but Jacob had other plans and they missed it. But, the good part was that I got to spend more time with them once I was out of the hospital. They were a big help and stress reliever - they took the girls out to the park or library every day, giving me some much needed quiet time with just me and the baby. Wonderful! This past week we also had dinners brought to us everyday, which was also wonderful! LOVE family and good friends!

To back track just a bit - Ben and I had our 7th anniversary on March 30th! - since we knew the baby was coming, we celebrated early on Saturday, the 28th. Ben's parents kept the kids and we ate out at the most amazing place - Quiessence Restaurant at South Mountain in Phoenix. It's located on a farm where they grow their own produce - their menu changes nightly depending on what is in season and it was so good! Ben and I love to eat out and try new and fun restaurants and this one was one of the best we've been to. In retrospect, this dinner out became our 'last supper' of sorts, since we ended up having the baby the next day. It was incredibly good timing, really, because Ben's parents kept the girls overnight that night to give us a bit of a break for our anniversary. So, we went to church without our kids the next morning (and can I say that Sacrament meeting is sooo different without kids?!) and then during Gospel Doctrine I was suspicious that my water may have broken and was slowly leaking (no big gush, thank goodness!), so we left church and went to the hospital (with a quick stop at home to grab our bags and change out of our church clothes) - once at the hospital my contractions started coming very regularly, about 2-3 minutes apart and were getting progressively uncomfortable. I got my epidural and we eventually were greeted by a grumpy-faced Jacob at 6:02 that evening. :) The whole thing went very smoothly and with the kids already across town with Ben's family, it was so very convenient to go into labor. :)

And in honor of Ben and my 7th anniversary, you are lucky enough to see some of our engagement pictures. Look how cute and little we are! I was 19 and Ben was 21 when we got married, so yes, we were little. I love my Ben so much. I'm a lucky girl.




So, switching gears to more current activities - yesterday morning the girls had their first Easter egg hunt with a bunch of friends. Becca was too little last year to really enjoy this much, so this was really fun for her. She did well and collected as many eggs as her big sister.





Becca's birthday is tomorrow (Sunday, the 12th) and she is turning TWO! Ben has to work tomorrow so we celebrated it yesterday. We went to Chucky Cheese for dinner (not my favorite place, but for Becca this was heaven!) - afterwards she opened presents and had cake at home. What a cute 2 year old she's become. Yes, she's begun the terrible 2 phase (ie: recently caught coloring with crayon on the flat screen tv - thankfully it came off), but she's also extremely loving and motherly. She loves her little brother and her big sister. She's very orderly and enjoys putting things in their place and staying clean - she signs clean to me often if she needs something wiped up. She also comes to me when her diaper needs changing and says "poo" and pats her diaper - that always makes me giggle.






The ride above was her favorite - she rode it like 6 times.


The Hunter's joined us for birthday festivities - Craig climbed up through the tubes with the kids and into this little car - Emma, Craig and Addy are peering down giving their cheesy grins. :)





Today has been rainy and gloomy outside - we were going to go to another Easter egg hunt at Ben's school this morning, but we were deterred by the wet weather and stayed home instead. This afternoon, however, we cheered ourselves up by spending some time dying Easter eggs - this was messy but fun! My fingers are currently a little bluish-green.

Jacob Benjamin Dangerfield

Well, our little Jacob is here! And he was full of surprises! He came even earlier than expected with me actually going into labor on my own. :) Then when he popped out we quickly saw he had all this black hair - what a cutie! Then they weighed him and, oh my, he was 8lbs 2oz. Emma and Becca were both a little over 6 lbs, so we got ourselves a little chunker. Can you believe this sweet thing was inside of me?! I'm so glad he's now out in the world and making me smile. :)













Jacob Benjamin Dangerfield
Born Sunday March 29, 2009
8 lbs 2 oz
20 1/2 inches

The number 4

So, I have 4 more days till I get to meet our little boy. :) I'm VERY excited. And I went to my last appointment yesterday and I was surprisingly dilated to "almost a 4"! The doctor seemed to think that I may not make it to my induction date of March 31st, Honestly, I'd be surprised to really have to head to the hospital before then, but we'll see I guess. Just in case, I have my hospital bags packed... complete with snacks, card games, books to read, etc. I'm getting smarter and smarter about stuff to pack with each baby delivery and I intend to not be bored, in addition to getting lots of sleep and enjoying my abundance of hospital meals. I know hospital food has a bad reputation, but I really like it - probably because after having a baby, any food looks delectable! :)

In the meantime, while I wait anxiously for this baby to pop out, I decided I better get caught up on my blogging - in addition to all the cleaning/organizing/shopping I've been doing. I've got a random bunch of pics on my camera from the past month, so here they are-


First of all, we have awesome news! EMMA MATCHED! Who would have thought that Mayo would take a 4 year old, but we're just thrilled that she'll get to work side by side with her daddy through these tough residency years. She's been practicing her clinical skills as well as studying up from her textbooks this past week so that she'll fit right in with the other doctors.




A few weeks ago the girls had their first sleepover together. Ben got out the little tent and they had a little campout. I think what they liked the most about it was the flashlights.



They also recently played in their swimsuits on the tramp - we put a sprinkler underneath it and they loved jumping around through the water. LOVE Arizona!




We went out to a celebratory dinner together on Match Day. The girls (and I) loved the bottomless fries and the ice cream sundae we got to split. Becca obviously wished there was more ice cream left for her.



And, the last is a picture of Emma and Becca in their spring dresses outside of church. I love these girls so much. Can't wait to throw a boy in the mix too, though, just to keep things interesting. :)

So much GOOD NEWS!

So we found out this morning where Ben will be spending the next 3 years for his internal medicine residency! He matched with our first pick of Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ. Woohoo!! It's a great program and a beautiful hospital. We're seriously so excited about it and feel so much relief and peace to finally know where we will be - lucky for us, we won't have to go very far, seeing as the hospital is only about 20 minutes east of us - it's a relief to not have a big cross-country move to worry about.

In other great news, I had an OB appt this morning (it's been a very eventful morning!) and the doctor plans on inducing me on March 31st! That's only a week and a half away - holy cow!! I need to start getting my house in order for a new baby and I'm seriously running out of time.

To sum up, we are very happy today in the Dangerfield house! - lots of big changes coming up for us in the next few months and we feel very excited and blessed about it all. :)

Random Stuff

Ben says my blog looks sad, because it's been so long since I updated it. Well, what can I say - I just haven't been in a blogging mood. But I'll attempt to put together a new post anyway. :)

Stuff we've done and things on my mind over the past few weeks:

• Eating cake and ice cream: lots of friends have been having birthdays and as such, we've been eating lots of cake and ice cream. I'm looking a little rounder around the middle... that's the cake right?
• Ben and I had a fun date on Saturday - we saw Taken (which was entertaining... and a bit creepy), then we got hot chocolates at Starbucks... we usually go to Cold Stone for ice cream after movies, but it's cooled down a bit lately and we were not in the mood for something cold... we like to pretend like it's winter around here sometimes. At the end of our date we also made a quick run to Target to look at car seats and baby boy clothes. I'm really getting excited to have a boy!
• Match day is coming up in a week and a half, on March 19th. Ben and I have been having butterflies in our tummies for the past little while, and it only gets worse as the date approaches. We are very anxious/nervous/excited to find out if we'll be matching with a residency we want. I'll be glad when the waiting around is over!
• I'm getting a massage tomorrow! Ben surprised me and made an appt for me to go the Edamame Maternity spa and I can't wait! :) Ben's also been pampering me at home - he's had a very easy rotation the past couple weeks with an anesthesia doc and has been home quite a bit, so he's been waking up with the kids on most days and I've been sleeping in and taking afternoon naps. I'm giddy just thinking about all the sleep I'm getting. Maybe being prego isn't so bad afterall.
  
• Emma and Becca are super cute - he're a pic of them when we were eating lunch outside In 'N Out last week...
  

Chocolate, polka-dots, and plenty of LOVE

I have seriously been putting off blogging because it's all piling up on me... so now I'm trying to think of the quickest way to get caught up. I think I'm going to forget about slide shows and just put up some of the better pics from some of the events over the past couple weeks.

To start, we celebrated Chinese New Year at the end of January, but I neglected to put up pictures until now.. I love seeing the kids all dressed up!



At the beginning of the month we went to the Chocolate festival in downtown Glendale - we pretty much wandered the crowds and ate food, including plenty of chocolate! The kids really enjoyed the chocolate covered marshmallows-




Emma turned 4 yesterday! What a lovely 4 year old she's turned into. I love her so much. She's so weird and silly and fun! We had a little b-day party last week with some of her friends from primary and preschool and such. It was a polka-dot themed party and it was a lot of fun to plan and prepare, but lots of work.. I quickly got tired of cutting out polka dots!




Since her actual b-day was yesterday we celebrated with Ben's family at Makutu's Island and then had pizza, cake, and presents over at Grandma's house. Emma also got to try out her new scooter.





I LOVE Valentines Day! We had a great day with a fun Valentines party with our friends and then a really great date in the evening. We went out to dinner without the kiddos and then came home to exchange gifts, watch a movie, and enjoy the chocolate covered strawberries that we had prepared earlier. Yummy!

6 more weeks...

Well, Mr. Groundhog emerged from his burrow on a sunny morning yesterday and saw his shadow... so 6 more weeks of winter it is! I'm just not sure I can handle 6 more weeks of 75 degree Arizona winter days... it will just be horrible! ;) In honor of Groundhog's Day I attempted the silliest cupcakes you've ever seen. What do you think? Creepy or cute?

Trains, Travels, and Triceratops ;)

I've gotten rather behind on my blogging, so this will be a bit of catch up of the activities we've done over the past couple of weeks-

First off... we had a great at-home date last weekend. We've been rather strapped financially this month from Christmas and traveling expenses, so we've been spending very little money on entertainment to help make up for it - so dating has been scarce the past few weeks. We decided we needed to do something fun as a couple so we had a romantic dinner in our living room. :) Ben's always so good with setting the atmosphere - with candles, cloth napkins, and our china. He even wrapped up our pink lemonade bottle in fabric so we felt extra fancy (and pretend like we were drinking an expensive wine at a classy restaurant). Well, we had a lovely dinner after the kids went to bed and I am amazed at how well you can replicate dining out when on a budget.

As another inexpensive family outing we spent a Saturday morning at the Railroad Park in Scottsdale. We hadn't been in a long time and the kids loved riding the train and carousel, playing on the big playground, picnicking, and getting a little ice cream. Yum! And what a mess!

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Ben had to take a test near Philadelphia this past Monday. I really can't believe they make all the DO students fly all the way across the country just to take a test - the good part of it is it's really the last test he needed to take before getting his degree in June. What a relief that will be! (The bigger relief will be matching with a residency we want in March). Anyway, after taking his test he drove over to Valley Forge (it was only a few miles from his hotel) and took some pictures. He said that it was really awesome and was cursing my camera for running out of battery after only a few pictures. Oops! Probably should have charged it before giving it to him to take.




So, after buying a van (see previous post) last night, we woke up this morning with no where planned to go, but anxious to get out and drive our new vehicle! :) So, we arranged to meet up with Ben's sister's family across town to go to the Museum of Natural History in Mesa. What a fun place! It had been at least a couple of years since I had been there last and I forgot how amusing it is. The kids can pan for gold, go through old jail cells, and view lots of dinosaur fossils! It was a lot of fun. After the museum, we went to the Mesa Temple grounds for a picnic lunch and then had a little treat afterwords at Bahama Bucks. A very pleasant Saturday outing.

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So, I still need to post about Chinese New Year, but I'm waiting on pictures to get sent to me from the family. I know you just can't wait! ;)

I'm in the club!

Look! I have a van! I'm REALLY excited about it - we weren't sure it was going to happen in time for the baby to come, but we finally were able to get a deal we were happy with. In the process of getting this van, we had to trade in our Altima as well- we were sad to part with it, but I'm even more excited to be the owner of a minivan! Can you believe I just said that, mom? I'm quoted as saying to my mother "I will NEVER own a van!" - well, never say never. :) Anyway- we got a Nissan Quest, which is exactly what we wanted... it's got an interesting body style for a van, making it a little sportier looking and thus making me feel less like an old tired mom. ;) But, then again, it is still a van. We found a 2005, which is older than we were originally looking at (we're of the mentality that you should buy newer and repair less), but we soon realized we just weren't going to be able to afford much newer than that - however, it's got lots of cool features that came with it, like a built in DVD player, power seats and doors, new speakers, and even seat warmers! What the heck are we going to need seat warmers for in Arizona?!

Chicken and what?!

Can I tell you how much I love all the holidays through January and February? It's a great way to spring back from all the fun of Christmas since there is still so much to celebrate... and they're all simple holidays so all you have to do something small and it creates for such a fun day. Well, yesterday was Martin Luther King Day, so we had Ben's parents and sister's family over for a themed dinner. Now, you all will think we're super weird and crazy, but we decided to try eating chicken and waffles. Ben and I had been hearing about this for a while from Ben's brother and honestly I didn't believe it would be good (the concept reminded me of the Friends' episode where Rachel puts the beef in the trifle!). So, chicken and waffles is a southern dish and along with it we tried out a fun red white and blue drink in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day and the big Inauguration Day to follow. I couldn't believe how yummy it all was! Chicken and waffles with syrup drizzled all over the top was really delicious (and incredibly fattening... we opted against having a dessert to accompany the meal... but isn't that what holidays are for? to eat yummy fattening food?!)

So, other holidays/events coming up are the following (if any of you are looking for a reason to celebrate!):
January 26- Chinese New Year
February 1- Superbowl Sunday
February 2- Groundhog Day
February 14- Valentines Day
February 16- President's Day (and Emma's birthday!)

Happy celebrating!

My little Fairy Princesses

Ben's has been away this evening on a Young Men campout - the crazies are out there camping in the snow up in Flagstaff. He seemed rather excited about it... me, on the other hand, was glad to be able to stay home in my warm house. :) Since daddy was away, the rest of us girls decided to have a tea party. Nothing more girly then that, right? For Christmas we got Emma a new cookbook called, Pink Princess Tea Parties. She loves it, and considering she loves cooking, princesses, and anything pink, that's no surprise. Well, she picked out the recipe she wanted to do - the teacup cupcakes (probably because it was pictured so prominently on the front cover. We headed to the grocery store and picked up a couple things we needed and headed home to get cooking. She was a good help and did a lot of mixing, adding of ingredients, and most importantly adding pink sprinkles at the end. We made most of them as regular cupcakes in a muffin tin, but a few we made special in teacups. The girls dressed up as a Fairy and a Princess and happily dug into their special pink cupcake creations at our candle-lit table. So, other than a messy kitchen to clean up, we had a fun evening - even though daddy was away. So, once I have this boy that's on it's way... how will he fit into our pink princess tea parties? I guess you always need a prince right? Or maybe daddy will have to take him on his scout campouts so that we still have our girly nights. :)