Busy yet very fun weekend!

Where do I begin!?  It seems like a whirlwind weekend:)  It started on Saturday with a double header soccer game (which the black bats played really well in) followed by a birthday party of a good friend.  By the time I got home on Saturday night I was pooped (exacerbated by the fact that I have been fighting this stupid cold for over a week:() But sure enough we woke up Sunday bright and early to go trout fishing with some friends...yes you read correctly, trout fishing.  I know doesn't seem like a Herzog thing to do but we are trying to broaden our horizons!!  Matthew caught a couple (I am sure with some close guidance), then it was time to go to Liv's first communion followed by baseball practice and then out to dinner with Liv's family and friends to celebrate!  She was adorable and was beaming all day!!  We managed to capture a couple of pictures of Matthew and his trout!  The crazy thing is that this week doesn't slow a bit!  We have two VIP birthdays and my parents are visiting! 

There are days when they love each other...

...and days when I question bringing a third child into this family because my other two fight so much!  I know it is just sibling stuff but man I can't stand to listen to them bicker!!  Anyway, luckily this post is about the first: them loving each other.  Last night as I was making dinner, I was watching them play outside in the gorgeous weather we have been having.  Then I noticed they were both swinging on the swing set.  Matthew had somehow linked the swings together so that they could both swing and he could pump for the both of them.  (Maggie isn't quite there yet...so hurry up and get here Mimi so you can teach her how!)  I thought I was going to cry because it was one of the cutest things I had ever seen!  I had to take photographic proof so in the future I can show them that there were days that they loved each other.  I was also proud at the problem solving skills Matthew had in thinking up a solution! 

Homemade Donuts...YUM

I made homemade donuts on Sunday and boy were they delicious!  I tad bit of work but worth every minute waiting for them to double rise.  I have always wanted to try and make donuts but what really made me do it was our friend/neighbor is very allergic to peanuts and can't eat at bakeries because there could be contamination:(  Poor guy...no 4 year old should have to deal with Hostess donuts his whole life so I was bound and determined to make the guy some safe donuts that were delicious!  I decided to try three different toppings and settled on glazed, cinnamon/sugar, and chocolate.  Chris wants me to try maple next time and I may try to fill some next time too.  They were all pretty decadent but my favorite was the glazed! Obviously not something you can do often but I figure whenever I get an order from the neighbor (and friend)...that is when I will make them!  FYI: I was told they were a hit in the Lofstedt household!  YAY!

Now It's Matthew's Turn...

I think because I spend so much time with Maggie I could go on and on about her but I can't forget my first born:)  It amazes me how much he has grown up this year.  I was looking at pictures of him from last year and he looks like such a young man now.  This is definitely bittersweet for me.  Of course I love seeing him grow into a young man but he is my first baby boy:(  He is currently playing soccer and baseball right now which is so great for him.  Thank god he inherited his father's genes because I have no sport coordination!  He loves it which is really all that matters.  And for a boy that seriously has boundless energy it is so good for him.  I do love this time of year for the vitamin D but also because Matthew could literally play outside all day and be happy.  He has always been super independent like that and I love that about him.  He told me the other day that I didn't need to wait for him in the school because he knew what our car looked like!  Haha I told him it was about me chatting with the other moms so there!!  Also, he is a reading machine!  He is at that point where he tries to read everything whether it is billboards or the TV.  Obviously Chris and I are very excited for him but now we have to be careful what we spell in front of him because he is catching on quick!  Much to Chris' delight he now asks to watch sports in the morning before school instead of cartoons and is obsessed with all things Messy (the soccer player).  He recently had a huge growth spurt and the size 6 jeans that I bought him are all high waters and he is growing out of his shoes like mad!  All glimpses of what it is going to be like to have a teenage boy.  I got some pictures of him at his last soccer game.  He has such a funny personality and loves to be silly.  I can't believe that he will be 6 in just a week...oh Lord:(

Maggie and her Hee Hiles

***Before I write about Maggie...I just want to let you know Miss Amy that there will be no minivans in the Herzog household!  Sorry to disappoint but I just cannot do it!  I know people who love them and I am sorry if it is any of my readers but nope not going to do it!  :)  I love my Expedition and this is as big as it gets before I start to downsize...***

Ok back to Maggie.  This girl seriously cracks me up on a daily basis.  Lately, she is ALL about princesses and dress up and spells and anything that is girly.  And she wants to do everything Matthew does (soccer, baseball, play in the dirt) as long as she can do it in her princess clothes.  I was at Michael's the other day and saw these dress up shoes.  I brought them home and you have thought I bought her a diamond necklace!  She loves them and wears them around everywhere.  She calls them her hee hiles (instead of high heels)!  It is awesome.  Yesterday, we rode bikes with the neighbors after school and she insisted on wearing her full princess get up while riding her trike.  She couldn't pedal really well but man she wasn't giving up! 

She is getting to be quite the little tap dancer.  She talks about it all the time and she dances around all the time.  Her balance has improved dramatically and she can do 90% of what the teacher asks.  I think her glasses have helped a lot too but watching her is really exciting!

The most recent development is that she no longer needs pull ups at night.  I am going to admit that I was a bed wetter so I was very careful not to make a big deal out of the at night potty thing.  Matthew told me about 6 months after he was fully trained that he didn't need pull ups at night and he was great.  Well Maggie has been trained for about a year (granted she was a whole year younger than Matthew when she was trained) and she still woke up with a wet pull up.  Then I started to notice that in the time we put them on after bath and went to bed (which is about an hour in between) she would have had peed in them...I asked her one time and she was like "yeah, I peed in my pull up!"  This is when I realized that she was just lazy and why not pee in them right?!  So I cut her off cold turkey and amazingly enough we haven't had an accident in 5 nights!   I figured I wasn't sleeping that well at night and getting up 14 times to pee anyway so why not try and see what happened to her.  Well she is my cold turkey kid.  So different than Matthew!  I am very proud of her though being 3 1/2 and not only potty trained but at night too.  She seems like such a big girl now and we have come so far with her.  She is so independent and says the funniest things.   The other day we were walking hand and hand and she said "Mom, isn't it great that we are best friends"  Seriously she melts my heart!

The New Beast!

Out of respect for the Honda I did give it a couple of days to have the spot light but I am not going to lie...this car is AMAZING!  We ended up getting a 2012 Ford Expedition EL.  A gas guzzler: yes but that is the ONLY downfall of this car so far.  I almost feel unworthy to drive it and then Chris says he will drive it and then I feel worthy:)  There is so much space in there I feel like I could fit a football team!  We got captain's chairs in the middle row so there is no putting the seat up and down. Everything in motorized from the back row up and down to the back hatch up and down.  There are so many navigation gadgets it is going to take me a while but I am getting the hang of them.  I love that it will read me my texts in the computer voice!  So far carpooling has been amazing.  Matthew and Liv get in and out of the back row with ease and I barely have to move.  Even with the baby coming, I still will have plenty of space.  I am still learning how to park it but all in all, I am super excited to be driving this car!

The End of an Era...

*Sniff*  I can't believe that we are going to let the ol' girl go but it is time!  Unfortunately the car that I drive (Toyota Hylander) just isn't quite big enough for 3 kids and extras from time to time so we knew that we were headed for another bigger car.  Our original plan was to keep the Honda because it was paid off and why not right?!  But when Chris took it in to have the oil changed they found too many problems with it.  We couldn't justify fixing her so bye bye.  I am not usually sentimental in my attachment to things but when we were going through her we found some papers that took us back...WAY back! So I am going to pay homage to the 1999 Honda Civic by whisking through memory lane:
*She was bought by Christopher in 1999 just a couple of months after we started dating!
*She was our only car for A LONG time!  We only had her when we lived in Kirkland and Ohio and for a few months in Spokane!
*She make the trek to and from Ohio with us being towed on the back of a moving truck.  (When I say us I mean my dad and Chris drove and I flew...)
*We brought Matthew home from the hospital in her:)
*She has survived a few accidents, one right after Chris bought her, and a couple of fender benders that I may or may not have caused:/
*She was a trustworthy girl and I am sad but excited for the new car that I will be getting so Chris can drive the Hylander. 

Even though he doesn't drive far for work, it always worries me in the snow so I am really happy he can have a bigger car to drive.  Besides, he works hard so he deserves and slightly fancier car that has been broken in by the kids and myself while I get the brand new car right!?  HAHA this sounds crazy to me but I guess that is what happens when you have 3 kids and carpool!  Excited for the new adventures we will have in this chapter.  One step closer to having this baby!

Sparky 28 weeks

Had another ultrasound today along with my glucose test and regular appointment.  The ultrasound tech thought I had some fibroid tumors along with a low placenta last time so Dr. H scheduled another ultrasound just to be safe.  I am such a boring pregnant person (which is AWESOME) because today I received another clean bill!!  I had a different tech today and she thinks that I may have had a small contraction during my last ultrasound which made it look low but it wasn't after all.  Either way I am ecstatic about the whole thing.  I got to see Sparky again and man does he look like Matthew!  He is a mover and shaker and is head down.  (Not that it really matters though:)) I did gain a few lbs...oops but I am carrying JUST like I did with Matthew so I am not that surprised.  The glucose test went as well as can be expected so I will just wait for those results.  So far, so good!  Only 12 weeks to go yay! 

 Hi!  I am Matthew's twin:)

Easter

Easter was nice and pretty uneventful as well.  We went to church (which is always interesting...a crap shoot on how the kids will act.) Then we stopped by Chris' uncle's house to see some of his extended family.  That was really fun and it is always good to catch up with the family that we only see a handful of times a year.  After that we came home and I cooked up a storm for Chris' parents and Agatha, Alex and Bennett.  We had a nice dinner but everyone was so tired that they all left by 6:30 and we were in pj's and in bed by 8pm.  I am still feeling tired today (well it could be because I am 27+ weeks pregnant) and all my lovely children did all day was bicker with each other.  Needless to say, I am so ready for life to get back into the swing of things with school starting tomorrow.  Wednesday I have another doctor's appt so I will be updating the blog after that.

Didn't get a family picture...oh well!  Next year:)

Spring Break

I feel like whoosh it has come and gone in an instant!  Since we went to Hawaii a month ago, we didn't really have any big plans to go anywhere for spring break.  We just were anxiously waiting for my family to make an appearance!  Since I am pregnant and feeling grouchy and huge and tired, my family has been really amazing about trying to come over here.  First, my parents came for the weekend on their way to MT to visit my little sister.  Then after they left, my older sister and her family came.  We went to Wonderland and they headed off to Silver Mt and we joined them for the day.  It was really fun (both places) and the kids had a blast hanging out with each other.  Then my parents came back through Spokane on their way home from MT and stayed for a couple of nights.  It was a good chance for Matthew and Maggie to see their cousin that they don't get to see very often.  As of today, everyone has gone home and now I am just getting ready for Easter.  Today we colored Easter eggs and have been playing outside to enjoy the semi-decent weather.  Hopefully, it will be nice tomorrow!  Hopefully, everyone has(had) a joyous Easter and got to spend time relaxing with the family/friends of your choosing:)

 Agatha came over with Bennett earlier in the week for lunch! 

 She is sacked out!  Jealous:)