Baby update.....10 weeks down, 30 to go or so.....

We had another ultrasound and check up today and baby Dennis #2 is doing well. You can now clearly see arms and legs, resembles a tiny baby now instead of a bean. Heartbeat looks nice and healthy only he/she would not cooperate to get a reading......nor hold still to get an accurate measurement or a clear profile picture, go figure huh! He/she is VERY active already and believe it or not growing at a "normal" rate of growth, not at the typical "Dennis" rate (we will see how long that lasts). I have about 2 more weeks and I can come off of one of the medications I have to take and then we get to have once every 4 week check ups. When we hit around the 20 week mark we will find out if we are having a boy or a girl and the more accurate size monitoring of the baby will begin!

and a one and a two......

Tonight was Gracie's very 1st performance, dance recital that is. She did magnificent and looked cute as a bug of course! She is growing up so fast and getting all girly on me.......

Bear Necessities dance (from Jungle Book)

I See The Light (from Tangled)

A job well done, finished off with a candy cane!

Snow fun

It's December in UT and it has not snowed much at our house we got tired of waiting and went up the mountain where there is snow, just not as much as there should be..... but still enough to have a little fun!

Uncle Justin and Gracie hanging on and trying to push each other off! Oh and did I forget to mention when we play in the snow our idea of fun is tying ourselves to 4 wheelers and going fast!

This picture only tells half the story..... Dad went down so guess who else had to go down....she did not see dad hit a tree but dad and the rest of us did see her come off, cartwheel down and have face full of snow! Don't worry she was laughing as hard as the rest of us!



We did find a decent sledding hill free of tree's for Gracie to get her fill of "need for speed" and Sadie too!



Needless to say we stopped here......but does not mean we didn't have fun getting to here!



Turkey in the oven!

A Thanksgiving surprise is in the oven!

"Hey, listen up! This li'l turkey has something BIG to say.....I'm gonna be a BIG SISTER!"

That's right! We are expecting baby #2, I will give you all a minute to pick yourselves back up off the floor for those of you thought we would never have another........ Well with the big "30" next year we decided we had better make up our minds and get busy or get fixed! So we set a time frame and a mindset of if it's meant to be it will be, and well I guess it was meant to be!

We had a plan up our sleeve's to break the news to our parents and thought what a perfect time over Thanksgiving. So I got Gracie this adorable shirt (pictured, words on it above) she got to wear it to each house we visited and could not say anything, just had to see how long it would take everyone to figure it out. Here are the reactions.......

My mom....

My dad & step mom....

Brian's mom....

I would say the overall reactions were a mix of stunned, shocked, and excited!

We spilled the beans early but given our past pregnancy history we need all the prayers and support to make this baby grow into a healthy baby boy or girl! All of the same precautions are being taken as they were with Gracie and careful monitoring of my health and baby. And now......

Meet baby Dennis #2

Many more postings of course to follow our progress! :)

Live and learn....

Some people tell me that Gracie should have been a boy because of the things she does and I look at them and tell them "no, it's just a Dennis thing." The family "Dennis" gene I am talking about pushes the limits as far as they can reach (literally). Sure they come back bruised, scrapped and sometimes bloody.......and MOST of the time they learn from their falls, sometimes not and they try and try again!

It took me some time to adapt to the let them live and learn theory, and to accept that I have a half monkey for a child. I would watch my nephew do things that I thought were "just a boy thing" until I had Gracie and watched her do the same things later on...... Gracie and her cousins may not choose the exact same dangerous adventures, but they can sure can give us a few extra grey hairs!

You want what?

Gracie finally agreed to get her ears pierced

and immediately after asked if she could have her

bellybutton and nose pierced too........

(I of course let her & then took her to get a tattoo) :-)

Apples, and a lot of them.......

We had some friends from Washington visit us last weekend and they brought us 2 very large boxes of apples. The one thing we do miss about the Yakima valley is the fresh fruits and veggies (and a few friends a family)! But we make due and grow our own now (veggies that is). Anyway, with about 40lbs of apples on hand I knew that the inner Martha Stewart in me had to get busy! However there are a few basic steps that one must know before embarking on such adventure.......

1.) One must first have a qualified assistant (safety orange optional)

2.) Apples of course

3.) Peeler, bowl for sliced & bowl for compost

4.) Waalaa! This is what you get!

Lesson of the day,

40lbs of apples sure does not look like much at the end,

but it tastes amazing!





Ain't no messin' around!

I am pretty sure my last post was boasting about how beautiful fall was and what a fun time of year fall is. Well that was abrubtly halted today by the morning's news weather forecast and driving by these!

When the weather man calls for snow, well guess what, UT has these!

(I am still not too sure yet how I am going to like winter around here.....)

Fall.....

I know it's been a while since my last post but it is fall, and with fall comes many things to do to prepare for winter. The buzz of chainsaws, the smell of firewood, the sound of gunshots and the most fashionable attire of camo and orange.

I might not enjoy every minute of fall, however I will enjoy that my home will be warm, my freezer will be full and I get to have beautiful scenery like this!



Fish'in

With the last month being filled with a lot of, well, work we took the weekend of Labor Day to kick back and relax in the mountains and go fishing. Brian and I are officially (according to the state) Utah residents so we were able to buy our license. Gracie has been so patiently waiting to go fishing since we moved and she was ecstatic when we told her what we were going to do all weekend. We cruised around on the 4-wheeler across the mountains and went to 5 different reservoirs/ponds to fish out of. Some we had lots of luck and others no luck at all.

As most of you would guess Gracie had no problem at all grabbing the squiggly, slimy, squirmy worms and putting them on a hook and just the same with grabbing squiggly slimy fish.....

The pictures do not show it but Brian and I did actually catch fish too however Gracie had to hold everyone of them!

Little brother is married!

Mr. & Mrs. Justin Dennis

 



Brian's youngest brother Justin got married this weekend. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and it brought tears to every ones eyes. We love you both! Welcome to the family Jesskia.





My little girl

My baby is growing up and is turning into a little girl. It’s hard to believe she will be 5 next year and staring kindergarten. It seems like yesterday when we brought her home from the hospital and now she tells us that boys have cooties (let’s hope she keeps that attitude for a while). I am not sure where the time has gone, but I remember every minute of it.

She may test my patients, drive me nuts, is a drama queen, has a major attitude and makes me dread what is to come in the teenage years. But I love her more than words can express and she will always be my little girl!

 



A horse of course!

As most of you know I am still obsessed with horses, have been since I was little. Riding is my one thing that is all about me, it is a release for me. Some women knit, scrapbook, garden, gossip est. the list could go on (even though I have taken up some crafting, it’s still horses for me). Not many people understand horse obsession and they all wonder why in the world you would want to feed, clean up, and care for such a big animal that just eats your money and poops it out!

Well my answer to that is because of moments like this!



Not everyone that rides shows, but I can guarantee they have all felt this feeling that we all strive for in the horse world. A feeling of absolute power, accomplishment and pride that is almost indescribable.

I am thankful and grateful for where I started and for where I am at today. Starting like all little kids should with 4-H to learn the basics and values, to now showing in the NCHA with some top riders and horses and actually winning!

Some parents stand out in the hot sun or pouring down rain to watch and cheer for a soccer or football game for their kids. Mine however would do this too but it involved getting up at the crack of dawn, hooking up a horse trailer drive me and my horse all over the state, pay entry fees, help saddle, clean stalls, “coach” me, and whatever else needed to be done. Sometimes it was only for a weekend and others for a whole week at the county fair. I love them and thank them for doing it for me. Now this job has been passed to my husband (he REALLY thanks you). Some little girls grow out of their love for horses but not me! I am competitive and tenacious (as mom puts it).

I am proud to announce that Gracie will soon be putting me though the same things I put my parents through. She no longer has any interest what so ever in ponies, it’s all about the cutting horses now! I am not sure that Brian is as excited for it as I am.



Let's get crafty!

With a VERY strong influence from my sister-in-law and teachings from my mom I am going to give this whole "crafty" thing a try. With my list in hand I ventured to Walmart to get the basics to get me started. And this is my first product!

Ok I admit they are not super creative and kinda basic, but this was my first attempt. So now that I have the basics figured out, a trip to a REAL craft store is in the near future. It may take me a few trips to stock up my craft room to the magnitude of some craft rooms of a few ladies I know......



Just a little bit girly

All who know Gracie know that she is about 75% tomboy and 25% girly! If it involves dirt, poop, getting messy or anything creepy crawly she is in!



That very small 25% of girly that she will let show now and again is however VERY girly. I guess that is her way of making up for not being girly all the time. She informed me after she picked out her outfit for the day that she could show me how to be fashionable too! 





Giving technology another try...

Ok so I tried to do the whole blog thing when my FB account crashed, then gave up on it when FB came back.  I have had a change of heart cause I love my sister-in-laws blogs, they are so funny and I love reading them. So I will subject you all to reading my ramblings and I hope you find them funny, entertaining or something!

So we will start the first blog about Gracie's day with Dino's and some good friends! There is this amazing dinosaur museum just a short drive away that is completely kid friendly, this means very little "don't touch that" has to be said because, well they can touch stuff! I had a difficult time capturing any cute photo's because she would not hold still. Most all photo's turned out a blur of Gracie and dinosaur bones, however I did get a couple.

Gracie and her cousins

Showing her inner dinosaur

Very intellectual....

And of course she found one to ride!

There were MANY more pictures, but these were my favorite! She now has another  favorite thing. What goes better together than; pink, dirt, 4 wheeling, horses and now DINOSAURS!