Emma at her studio dance rehearsal!

Emma practicing her foot work. She takes this very seriously! She is quite the perfectionist. Her recital is this Sunday evening.

The girls are in line up position. Emma is the second girl. I think their costumes are cute. Some moms may disagree but I think it's important for kids this age to be involved in at least one activity. It has given Emma a lot of confidence in herself and its good exercise for her. She looks forward to going and she really likes her teacher Sherry and her friends she has made. We are only taking ballet and tap, just the classy dancing. We are all looking forward to her recital this Sunday! I went to the doctor last week and heard baby's heartbeat which was such a nice relief. We are officially in our 2nd trimester! And I think I'm starting to feel movement! So we are excited. And on May 28th we get to do an ultrasound and just maybe, if the baby will let us, we’ll find out if we're having a boy or girl! Have a good week. We have been getting a lot of rain in Iowa. But by the weekend it's possibly going to be nice and sunny! Hopefully we can start getting our garden ready. :).

Ethan's party with his friends.

Ethan blowing out his candles. We had a Spiderman cake.

The kids playing a game in our sunroom. Whoever got the highest points won a special prize. We bought this at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon so it cost us around 10 dollars. And it's made out of sturdy canvas so we'll be able to use it again! Ethan picked out this birthday hat at the Dollar Tree and to my surprise he wore it during most of his party.
Ethan opening presents. With some help!

Kid's singing at church.

Every Wednesday night the kid's at church this month have been practicing sign language while singing. On Sunday they got to perform in front of the congregation. I think they all did a great job. Ethan is in the front row wearing green and Emma is next to him in pink.

Happy 6th Birthday Ethan!

We treated ourselves to some yummy cupcakes from our local bakery with sea creatures on them. Ethan loved this Spiderman shirt that he got for his birthday. We found it at Old Navy. We had Little Ceasars pizza with crazy bread for Ethan's b-day lunch in Dubuque. Mario and I ate this brand of pizza a lot when we were kids in Oklahoma so Ethan wanted to try it out. He liked it. We don't have a location close to our house. I told Emma the Crazy Bread made her crazy so now she tells everyone that she ate Crazy Bread and it made her crazy! Oh well. I have been cleaning and brainstorming ideas on games for Ethan's friends when he has his party Sat. And Ethan has been telling me how I should decorate. He's so visual. I don't know where he inherited that. HA! Have a good weekend! ~Amy

At our home.

I couldn't believe how nice it was on Ethan's birthday! I took these pics before we left on our family adventure as Emma called it!

Our Mississippi River trip.

On Ethan's birthday we went to The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque. The kids really enjoyed it. I took some of these pictures outside the museum. The kids got to go over the river which they thought was neat.

Our Easter.

We went to Von Maur and hit the sale rack and I gave Emma 3 choices and she picked this dress. She has good taste!

Our Easter was great. We went to church, hid some eggs, ate a good meal, and just spent time together as a family. This last month has been just a blur. I am thankfully feeling much better. There were a few weeks that were rough; this baby likes a very healthy diet. This is a good thing for me. I’m hoping to just change my eating habits altogether. And what a better reward than to not feel sick! Anytime I try to cheat and eat pizza or anything fried I severely pay for it with feeling nauseous and heartburn for hours. And now I am finding myself wanting a nap in the middle of the day. :) We have been very busy with field trips. I will upload pics later. Today Ethan was so excited because he got to touch a real snake, turtle, and Blue Tongue lizard. We also went to a maple syrup class for kids a few weeks ago that was really neat. We are celebrating Ethan’s 6th Birthday tomorrow. I look at him and it just does not seem possible that he is going to be 6. Even though he is at the 97% on his height so he looks more like a 7 year old but when I see him sometimes he is still just this little guy sucking on a pacifier and carrying around this soft animal we called Lou the Lamb. I still have Lou tucked away with a few of his important baby things. Emma is the complete opposite she is only at 5% on her height so all the 3 year olds are about her size. But she will be 5 years old next month. It’s just amazing to think they are only 13 months apart when you just look at them. We are taking Ethan and Emma to an aquarium in Dubuque for part of his birthday, so he’s excited. And this Sat. he will have his birthday party with his friends. So I am going to have to start my deep cleaning on the house today. But I find I just don’t want too. I think Mario is ready for the nesting phase of this preg. It's kind of a joke because I went crazy with Ethan and Emma. Mario likes to remind me of how crazy I went cleaning everything and room in our house with my "big" tummy. Mario has been sick with an acute sinus infection and bronchitis so he has been out of it the last few days but is thankfully feeling better today. I have my 13 week doctor’s appt. next week and Emma’s dance rehearsal studio practice along with a couple of eye appointment’s so next week will be pretty hectic. Emma’s very excited about her dance recital. Her costume is very cute. She is dancing to the song Do You Love Me. The girls all have worked so hard. I will take lots of pictures next week at the rehearsal. Have a great week. ~Amy

Refurbished foot stool.

My mother-in law was so nice to give us this foot stool that belonged to Mario's late grandmother. I found some fabric at Hobby Lobby on sale a while back and the trim but we just now got around to reupholstering it. I think the fabric turned out nice! And for around $14 we now have a new refurbished foot stool that matches our furniture. :)