A few pictures from my phone

My "pretty cute" (as all girls are) Audrey. Love those curls!

The girls learned to make their beds all by themselves. Notice Kirsten's has a "sheet bump" and Kirsten calls Audrey's bed "kinda pretty."

They have also learned to make their own cereal as you can see from Audrye's overflowing bowl

After getting up and going to the bathroom in the middle of the night I came back and thought poor Kirk burried in pillows and blankets while his wife tries to get comfy and he tries to stay warm in the freezing room.

Audrey got a scrape above her lip and has refused to be without a mustache bandaid ever since.

Kirk and I were lucky to have a "last date before baby" date a few weeks ago. I wasn't feeling up to doing much and it ended up being a perfect night for a pregnant lady. We decided to go to the restaurant BJ's and got parking right in front. We walked in and the place was packed but we lucked out and only waited 2 minutes. We got a huge booth with a table that moved so there was plenty of room for my belly. The food was SO delicious and our waiter awesome. We were very happy. We hit up Target on the way home and the checker gave us $5 off just because she could. (Kirk said she had sympathy for me). It was my perfect date!

The next night my friend Kashina and I went to the new Twilight movie (which was good although the fight scene gave me braxton hicks!). We went to dinner afterwards and it was so fun to have a girls night out!

Fast asleep on mom and dad's bed.

What Kirsten wears

Every morning Kirsten wakes up, walks to her closet, picks out her outfit for the day, then takes it to the bathroom and changes leaving her jammies on the floor. She has quite the sense of style. She loves the look of a skirt with pants and what she and I consider matching are definitely different. Most days I make her change either her shirt or pants before going out into public but some days I just let her be herself. I decided to take pictures of her outfits for a week so you all can enjoy the fashionista I wake up to each morning. Only two of these outfits could she leave the house without changing something and only one of them were something I would have put together myself. It sure is fun to have such a little lady in our home!

Friday

Saturday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Today

Kirsten's drawings

 The other morning I woke up to Audrey next to my bed telling me "Daddy went for a little run." Then Kirsten gave me this picture:

"Mom, that's you in a lady bug. Her ate you. Ohhhh"

 Then on the back:

"That's  you. The lady bug ate your head and your legs, sorry."

 I was sad so she ran out of the room and soon brought me this picture:

"Mom, that's you with yellow hair! You're all fixed!"

I told her I was embarrassed that my dress was so short to show my "panties." She ran out and came back with this:

"You're cute mom!"

The final countdown

So Timothy will be here very soon. As in less than 10 days soon. All of my friends and family who were due before have had their babies, it's now my turn. It seems like this pregnancy has flown by until we got to November. And since November 1st (when I was officially going to have a baby next month) it has gone agonizingly slow. My thoughts just seem to be consumed about Timothy all day long and how it will be when I finally get to hold him. Mostly I'm ready to feel human again, I think. This pregnancy has been pretty easy but this past month I have zero energy. I feel like all I do is sit on the couch and think of all the things I need to get done. When my burst of energy finally comes I end up in pain before all the tasks I want to get done are finished. It's frustrating. But it's almost over. Kirk has been awesome. We had a bit of a struggle for a couple weeks where he was oblivious to the fact that I'm very pregnant and need more from him. But as soon as he recognized that he could do more he has been. Any time I am not keeping up on dishes or picking up he steps in without being asked. He has been feeding the girls and taking care of them without hesitation when he sees I'm not up for it. He has been absolutely wonderful. I'm very very grateful for him and can't wait to experience the joy of holding our son with him.

Audrey says the greatest things when it comes to Timothy. She thinks about him often throughout the day and it melts my heart.

The other day, while I was making dinner, she was running around our kitchen table counting the four chairs when suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks and says "Mommy, where's baby Timothy going to sit?" I suppose we will be upgrading to a "real" dining room table in a year or so!

The other night we were talking about how baby Timothy was going to get out of my belly. I showed her my c-section scar (because I can!) and told her the doctor would cut me open and get the baby out. She thought for a second and said "and get suckers too?" Suckers?! I asked. And she said "ya, suckers and candy from  your belly can come out" it took me a second but I suppose she thought I would break open like a pinata! If suckers come out with Timothy I will gladly share with everyone, ha ha!

We were talking about Timothy's' middle name and Audrey stopped and corrected us "It's Timothy Inmomsbelly Howcroft!" I wonder if he would actually like that for a middle name?

I left the house around 8 pm about a month ago to go to a game night with some friends. As I was kissing everyone goodbye Audrey asked me "Mom, are you going to take Timothy with you?" I told her I was and she asked "Oh, in your belly?" Ha ha I'm not sure why she thought I could just leave him!

She's a little obsessed with where Timothy will sit in the car. She is so excited to sit by him and take care of him when we are driving. (I'm hoping it gives her something to do and she won't be as difficult to travel with.) Anytime she is struggling in the car all I have to do is ask her about where Timothy will sit and she goes off on a long explanation about how he will sit next to her.

Kirsten is also excited but not quite as expressive or obsessed.  :)

Timothy is a sweet little guy in there. He moves but seems calm and gentle, more so than the girls were. I feel his little bum on my right side and his feet on my left. I love pushing on those little feet! His hands are always doing crazy things in my lower belly and sometimes, when I'm sitting, I can feel his hand moving through my belly and tickling my leg (where the belly is resting). My belly loves to turn on our kitchen stove (it's gas). For months any time I clean, put something in the microwave, or cook my belly is guilty of turning the stove on. Nothing has caught on fire...yet. We are certain to keep things off the stove though. Hopefully Timothy isn't a little pyro!
I'm not really sleeping anymore which leaves me feeling even more exhausted. I like to sit in Timothy's room and  dream of him, it's my happy place these days!

A few weeks ago a couple of my awesome friends threw me a baby shower. It was so fun to have friends who wanted to celebrate Timothy with me. A bunch of friends from our old Coronado ward came. It meant the world to me for so many friends to come. Everyone was super generous. I went to the shower without having a single diaper in my house and now my changing table and closet are filled to the brim with diapers. And lots of cute outfits! I feel so very blessed to have such wonderful (supportive) friends here in Vegas!

Anyway we are ready. Well as ready as we are going to be. Any windows that haven't been washed or cupboards that haven't been cleaned aren't going to be until January. We are ready for Christmas. All gifts have been wrapped and are either under the tree or are waiting for usps to deliver them. I'm planning to just enjoy the last couple of days snuggling my girls and spending lots of time doing whatever their little hearts desire. We are ready and waiting and only slightly willing my water to break any second :)

Black Friday

Thanksgiving night as we were going to bed I told Kirk that we were canceling all plans of decorating the tree and doing shopping and we were just going to take the day easy. Hopefully we could just get the kitchen all cleaned up from Thanksgiving but that was our only plan.
 So when the girls woke up at 6:30 he quietly got out of bed with them so I could sleep a little longer (good man!). I slept until 8! I came downstairs to not only a clean kitchen but a clean playroom as well (it was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddd) and he was just about to vacuum. Oh do I ever LOVE that man! So we loaded up the girls and decided to go to Khols for a little black friday shopping (we both had $10 off coupons). The girls found  a present for each other and Audrey found a little bear for Timothy (oh her smile when she showed it to me! In her most excited voice she said "This for Timothy! I think he'll really like it!!!"). We waited in line for 30 minutes so after that I was d.o.n.e. But we hit up world market to try to find mermaid ornaments (because we live and breath by mermaids this year!). We found some cute ones and called it good. Kirk said he wanted to run into Target for a minute and I opted to stay in the car with the girls (D.O.N.E. by this point). (Also Audrey exclaimed "TARGET!!! I love Target!" and clapped her hands as we pulled up, she's my girl all the way!) Well my sweet husband came back out of the store with a "Happy Timothy" gift. A new Nikon camera! My nice camera broke and I was a little heartbroken at the idea of all Timothy's baby pictures being from my iphone. It's an awesome camera and he got one steal of a deal. Isn't he the best?! We hit up the park on the way home and took lots of pictures the rest of the day. After naps we put up our Christmas tree and holiday decorations. Add in Thanksgiving left overs and it was a perfect relaxing day!

Growing up much too fast!

I love this handsome man!

Wrapping Audrey's Christmas present

37 weeks and he is low ridin!

It's beginning to look like Christmas at our house

Love this picture. Kirk is cleaning up a broken ornament. Audrey is hiding in her Santa hat. And Kirsten is proudly showing off her favorite holiday decoration (which is from my childhood).

So in love with our Christmas train!

Dancing to Christmas music!

For 7 years I have slowly been collecting pieces of the willow tree nativity and finally this year it's complete! Thanks mom, Karen, Aunt Shar, and Granny B!

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home this year. It was absolutely wonderful. I love that there is a day for everyone to stay home with their families and cook. We spent the day cooking and relaxing. Being 37 weeks pregnant I would cook for 20 minutes relax for 30 and that suited me just fine! Around one some of our good friends came over to spend the holiday with us. They have the cutest little boys and our girls just adore them (and also spend a plenty of time torturing the poor boys by trying to make them their "princes"). The afternoon was so fun with good friends and good food! We played a few games  and Audrey made sure everyone had the chance to play go fish.
We have so much to be grateful for this year. Kirk pulled the wishbone out of our turkey for us to do and I had to stop and think about what I would even wish for, we have been so blessed! Our girls are healthy and very happy. Kirk's new job is a dream come true. It's wonderful to have him home and he is so much less stressed than he was. And it doesn't hurt that we are finally financially comfortable. We have a beautiful home. We are very blessed with many wonderful friends. We have family to love and who love us. And of course there is baby Timothy. He will be here in only a few weeks and we are sooo excited. Kirk and I climb into bed each night almost giddy with excitement to hold him soon. To kiss those little cheeks and snuggle his tiny body. We are so in love with him already and can't wait to have him join our family. I'm especially excited for Audrey to meet him, she is every so patiently waiting to love him.
And now a few pictures from our day and some of our Thanksgiving crafts from this year.

"Mom! come take a picture of us. We are really cute!"

Each feather said what we were thankful for. Some of my favorite were Audrey's thankful for naptime and her baby. Kirsten was thankful for chocolate, her princess bike, and her mom and sister!

 

Howcroft

For months I have been trying to teach the girls to spell Howcroft. But they were like 2% interested in learning how. So the other night I told them that if they learned to spell Howcroft we would take them to McDonalds for ice cream. Audrey gave a 50% effort and Kirsten didn't bother to try until it was bedtime, neither really even coming close to spelling our last name. The next morning while I was doing their hair I asked them if they could spell Howcroft. Kirsten said "yes I can" and then she did. Perfectly without prompting or help! I quickly got it on video and then asked Audrey if she could spell Howcroft like Kirsten. Not wanting to be outdone she spelled Howcroft perfectly as well. My mouth literally hit the floor. They must have stayed up all night practicing or something. Needless to say we had McDonalds for lunch that day! (Bonus lesson for parents, use McDonalds wisely!)

Lately at the Howcroft house

Audrey starts screaming
Kirk: "Audrey what's wrong?"
Audrey: "The wall hurt me!"
Kirk (pointing to the wall): "You mean that inadament object hurt you?"
Audrey (pointing to a different wall): "No, this one!"

Audrey has decided that "girls are cute and boys are silly" and she proudly proclaims it multiple times daily.

Audrey: "girls marry boys, huh?"
Me: "yep"
Audrey: "I'm going to marry Daddy"
Me: "You can't marry Daddy, I'm married to Daddy"
Audrey: "We both marry Daddy. Two of us. You can be married to Daddy at night."

Me: "Kirsten why is your hearing aid on the floor?"
Kirsten (sheepishly): "Because I love you!"
Me: "Kirsten where should your hearing aid be?"
Kirsten: "Because I make you happy" and she quickly puts the hearing aid away. What a girl!

After seeing that Audrey got a sticker for a reward chart Kirsten decided that she wanted one too. She stopped to think for a second then walked up to Kirk and recited her primary program part, needless to say she got the sticker!


Life has been pretty great lately.
Kirk has taken each girl on a date recently.  Audrey chose to go to the big park. She directed him all around the park and then up the mountains edge hill. She felt so special and big to have her daddy all to herself. They stopped at 7/11 on the way home and she picked a kit kat to bring home and share with her sister (they are Kirsten's favorite)!

Playing a game at the park

She's getting so big!

Standing in line to vote!

Thanks to day light savings it's dark when we get out of church now :(

Kirsten participated in her first primary program Sunday! She was so excited and has had her part memorized for weeks. "I can choose the right by cleaning up my messes." She said it over and over to practice. When the big day came she said her part like a rockstar. Audrey was so proud she loudly said "Mom she did it! All by herself!"

Can't see the tennis shoes she wore to church that day, mom and dad didn't notice until we were walking into church, oops!

Kirk's $3,000 suit he got for $90, isn't he a stud!

It's not every Dad that will climb to the top of a McDonalds tower to rescue a daughter in distress. Especially when it is just after he ran the Ragnar race and had a sprained ankle!

But this dad didn't hesitate!

Ragnar night + pregnant momma=early bedtime with the ipad

For fhe tonight we took the girls down to Old Navy to get winter coats. Aren't they cute!

Kirk filled in last minute on a Ragnar team with some friends. It's a 196 mile relay race ran by 12 members of a team. Kirk's team was able to do it in 32 hours. He was exhausted when he finished but enjoyed the adventure. He said it was harder than the tough mudder in a lot of ways. Audrey was really concerned about him and kept asking when he would come home. Especially after it started getting dark "Where's Daddy? He needs to come home and sleep!"

22 degrees and snow when the race started!

Waiting to see Daddy run!

Finishing the last leg of his run.

After seeing him run the girls and I cam home and napped. 3 hours, it was heavenly!