April=Finding out the gender, 2 birthdays, anniversary, & Easter

First of all, on April 1st we went to an ultra sound place to find out what we are having...and it is.......................

A BOY!!! I'm excited for Jake to have a little brother, and for us to get to love another sweet baby boy.

On April 2nd was Jake's 3rd birthday, and we had a big Buzz Lightyear party for him. It was a toss up between that or a Hot Wheels party...two things he really loves...but we went with Buzz. When Jake woke up the bounce house had already been delivered and set up.

We told him, "Happy Birthday Jake!" And he kept saying "Happy Birthday" back to us all morning. "Happy Birthday Mom. Happy Birthday Dad." I was real excited to get the bounce house WITH the big slide...and the kids really loved it. I'm glad I got the slide.
This boy sure loves blowing out candles...he'd been talking about it for weeks leading up to the party

my Buzz cake
I spent much time constructing these Buzz wings for the kids to wear and take home. They all looked so cute in them. We also had a game where they fished for prizes. But mostly, the bounce house was the big hit...I gotta say, that is the way to go for a kids party!
Marc's birthday was 10 days later...on the actual day we went out to dinner at Claim Jumper, bought him new running shoes (definitely not what I would want on my bday:) and came home to do presents. Then that weekend we did a bonfire at the beach with friends.
On the 23rd was our 7 year wedding anniversary. We went out the night before to dinner at P.F. Changs and then went dancing at this country place called In Cahoots...next time my goal will be to get Marc to wear boots and Wranglers...haha...can't picture him doing that! On our actual anniversary we went to ice cream and the park as a family, and came home and colored Easter eggs.Then came Easter. Jake can't believe his fortune when he can wake up and instantly eat candy in place of breakfast...he definitely hit a sugar high before church even started.
After church we went to Aunt Trina's with all the fam down here and watched the boys do an Easter egg hunt...
Both little boys...and big boys

Ahh, the month of April is coming to an end...what on earth will we have to do in May?? Oh wait... maybe we'll actually finish the kitchen. I make no guarantees though.

A Weekend Cruise and My Little Rockstar

Last weekend I got to do something I've wanted to do for a long time...have a girl's weekend. And even better, I got to do it on a weekend cruise! As Lauren put it...she's one of my besties, a sista from another mista...when she lived by me, we taught summer school together, then did our graduate/credential schooling together, then got hired on as full time teachers together at the same school as math teachers. We were connected in all parts of life. So, it was very sad when their family moved away. But this was a great weekend where we got to totally hang out and catch up with no kid distractions. We had so much fun. It was so fun to be with someone who wanted to do all the same things I did all the time (normally with husbands, more compromising is happening:) During the day we lounged by the pool, had tons of girl talk, read books, took naps...During nights we went to the shows, the comedy club, did karaoke, and went dancing every night. As you see too, we had fun taking silly pictures on the ship with the photographers.This is Ensenada behind us...we decided to stay on the ship and soak up the sun all day rather then go to Papas and Beer...where I'd say at least half of the people on the ship went. It turned out to be a good choice since the next day was cold and rainy.

Since it was a weekend-spring break cruise...and people were in party mode...it really did make it that much more fun. At karaoke, everyone sang along and danced (compared to our cruise last year where people took karoake as a serious chance at becoming a recording artist)

Dancing was a lot of fun too...we went to the club every night. And then on the last night as we were headed to our rooms tired from club dancing, we passed a live band with a bunch of people singing and dancing. So we went in there--and that was seriously the funnest of all. We danced until the band finished. Although I will say I came home with my clothes smelling of beer...not because I drank any:) But I seemed to be a magnet for having beer spilled on me by people. This one time, this guy literally completely fell over onto me with his beer. I can't imagine the hangovers these people all experienced the day after the cruise ended!

Anyway, we had such a great time...thanks to Jeff for really being the one who made it happen. It would be awesome to make something like this an annual tradition!

Now switching gears, I thought I'd include a pic of our viewing party for our Renovation Realities show. So funny. I had to watch it back a 2nd time to actually hear the show since I missed everything the 1st time...I was laughing so hard at seeing us on t.v.

And switching gears again:

A couple nights ago we had our roadshow performances. I directed our ward's roadshow...so that has been a very busy and large part of my life for 2 months. Jake had the time of his life through all of our rehearsals...He was just one of the teenagers--they loved him and gave him so much attention. So of course Jake was always on stage through all of our rehearsals, and learned all the songs and dances. Earlier this last week, everyone in the cast started saying I had to let him be on stage for at least the Young Men's number. So we did...and guess what. I've got a little performer on my hands. He was a total ham and wasn't shy at all. They had a rock number to Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top. Jake stayed front and center and sang all the words and did the dance moves. It was really fun to watch. Our stake did it as a traveling roadshow. So we went to three buildings and performed it 3 times in one night. Here's Jake and Dallin in the parking lot.

Here's our committee that worked from beginning to end on the show. I really liked getting to know so many more people in my ward, both adults and the youth. We were really happy with how our show turned out...we had lots of musical numbers...it was ambitious, but we did it!

And here's some shots of Jake in the Sharp Dressed Man number with the Young Men. I couldn't help but stop doing director things during that number, and just watch and take pictures of my little boy:)

And that's my little rockstar

Our big news...

You guessed it! We are having another baby...woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We waited a while for Jake and we've waited even longer for this one. And I feel so blessed and so grateful that we can grow our family.

We did In Vitro to get pregnant with this one...I can't even say how nerveracking it is to wait and find out if it worked...it was a hard process of doctor appointments and medications and injections...and the biggest try you can do. So it feels like there is a lot at stake to find out if it worked. So when we heard, I was ecstatic...and really almost couldn't believe it for a while. I'm 11 weeks now...getting to the end of the 1st trimester. So we'll be finding out in a couple weeks if its a boy or girl. So exciting!