Maternity Pictures

This week we went and got our family pictures taken. 

Including maternity pictures!

 I have never done maternity pictures. Just like I never did bridal pictures. I think pictures of just me are crazy and ridiculous. However, this pregnancy I am trying to do things a little differently and I took the plunge and got my pictures taken. 

(don't worry, there are no naked belly wraped in a scarf kind of pictures... not that those aren't beautiful, I just wouldn't take that plunge)

 Until I get those pictures back, these cute ones of my girls will have to work in its place. 

Best Day Ever

Cara told me that the day she got her Jasmine doll was the best day ever!

 Ryann was able to get a Rapunzel doll and she told me I needed to take a picture and put it on the computer. She refused to have me take a picture with them and the dolls... whatever... I am tired I will do whatever is easiest. 

Thanks to the Disney store in the mall my girls were happy campers. 

My best day ever? The night of memorial day when my mother in law and Vicki picked up Ryann and Cara with these two dolls above and took them for 2 nights and 2 days!  Rich and I are going to go get them Wednesday night. What do I plan on doing? Sleep, not clean up messes, and no rushing out the door because I am late to work. 

Sunday Funday

Cara asked if she could do my hair for church. She was so proud of herself and thankfully she didn't notice when I took them all out before we left.

Documentation

I had to post these pictures because I am always so negative on Cara never eating food. Well, apparently she will eat watermelon and corn on the cob all day long. 

 I think she ate 4 pieces of watermelon and 2 corn on the cobs. I had to threaten her with meat to get her to eat the rest of her quesadilla though. As in, "Cara, if you don't take a bite of your quesadilla then I will make you eat a piece of chicken."

 Ryann was more than happy to eat her steak. She loved it.

34 Weeks

 This is what you do when you are tired at work, have your feet up, and need a drink of water. Pregnancy in the summer is overrated. 

Half Way There

 While Devyn was in town we worked on getting the girls' room finished. It is almost there. Rich put together the new dresser, we put the fish tank in place, spray painted the frames to match the bedding, and then we hung most of the picture frames. The girls LOVE it and I am sure Ryann will be hard at work trying to find and color the best pictures to put into the frames. 

We moved an old dresser into Baby Mac's room, and now we just have to decide what to do with the old one... repurpose it for somewhere else in the house? Or sell on craigslist or just donate? What do I have the time and energy for? 

I think I'll head over to pinterest.

Last Day of Kindergarten

Today was a hard day for me because it was Ryann's last day of Kindergarten.  She was pretty sad about it too because she thought that she wouldn't see her teacher, Mrs Lock, again.

We had to remind her that she was starting summer school in a week and a half and Mrs Lock is teaching one of her classes. (snack attack! where they learn how to make healthy snacks)

Here is my sweet baby girl. I can't believe how grown up she is. It is so much fun to see her reading and writing so well. Her report card said she "passed" everything except she was "developing" the ability to finish all of her tasks as assigned. Which I am assuming she jumps ahead because she thinks she knows what to do and then finishes her work fast so she can start coloring some more. 

 This girl sure loves to color. She brought home an awesome art folder with all of her drawings and paintings. She is already trying to decide which ones to put on her wall. 

Photo Book

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Zupas and Last Chance

One of the perks of having a sister in town is that you don't have to stick to the previous budget that you and your husband set up the week before... right?

Especially not if that said sister lives in Nebraska with horrible shopping and no Cafe Zupas in sight. 

It just so happens that Cafe Zupas in Phoenix is right next to Last Chance. 

 And seriously, where can you find a gently worn Hobo wallet for 25$ except at last chance?  Especially since your last one broke?

Enough said.

When all is said and done though, Rich loves having Devyn in town because she rubs my feet at least once a day... which is one of Rich's least favorite things in the world.

More Auntie Devyn

 Auntie Devyn is so much fun because she plays Just Dance Disney edition with the girls when mommy is too tired. 

 She also goes swimming with us. (here is Cara lying on baby Mac like he is a pillow or something)

 She also gives us good excuses to go out for yummy dinners... like Sushi Eye!

Not to mention her life saving netflix on her iphone. Whew. We dodge plenty of bullets trying to get these girls to stay happy just a little bit longer when we had them out and about past their bedtimes. 

Auntie Devyn

Devyn came in to town for a few days to help with my baby shower, do my hair, and do some nursing clinicals with me. She was so very helpful it was wonderful!

Here she is doing my hair to get ready for the baby shower. I didn't get any pictures, so hopefully Devyn will send me a few and my friend Heidi will get me some more. 

 After the baby shower I was able to get a prenatal massage. It was amazing and wonderful and did I mention free?  Yes, my midwife has all sorts of perks and connections. 

Friday Night

This is our typical Friday night Target run with the girls. We stopped to talk to some friends and the girls ran off. When I found them again this is what they were doing. 

Pepper Spray

I also got pepper spray for mothers day. Not quite sure how to use this fancy kind though. 

Rich is always thinking about me since I work in some sketchy neighborhoods.

This one is kind of fancy because it has a belt clip, a crazy loud alarm, has a flashing strobe light, and it is pepper spray. He told me about a you tube video I can watch to learn how to use it. yikes. 

Watch out gangstas... I am armed and dangerous.

Mini Donuts

For mother's day I got a mini donut maker. Delicious. 

 We all tried our hand at making the donuts and they were so delicious. 

I am not sure who liked them the most, but they were sure a big hit. 

 

 Thanks Grandma Mingo!

Little Swimmers

So these girls are no where close to being swimmers, I mean, Ryann is safe in the pool, but it takes a lot of convincing to get her to stop bobbing like a cork and start swimming with her head underwater. 

Either way, they ask to go swimming at the Bakers house at least once a day.

 Good thing they have such cute suits. I have a feeling we will get a lot of good use out of them this summer.

They also start swim lessons the first week of June.

Mother's Day Pictures

We had to be at church early today so we didn't get to take picture before church. I originally had us all matching in my mind, but Rich had a stain on his white shirt, Ryann refused to wear the dress I picked out, and whatever I was wearing was NOT working out with this belly.  

 But I made us take pictures anyway. In front of the brick wall at church because that is what Cara wanted. Whatever. 

Basically until nap time after church the mother's day morning was a fiasco. I did have an amazing breakfast ALONE in bed... but not before the girls licked off all the whipped cream off of my pancakes and they ate most of the strawberries. The rest of the morning with with no less than Cara crying 8 times. Ryann pouting for over 20 minutes total. Fights over the ipad, cara crying in the aisle at church while the primary kids were singing to their mothers, spilt juice box all over Ryann's dress and the pew at church, the people in front of us had to take Cara while Rich and I were singing in the choir because Ryann smacked her in the face for not sharing the ipad, and the list continues. 

Nap=bliss

After nap= relax at the mother in laws house while the girls watched TV, ate food, and were thoroughly entertained by Rich's side of the family. 

Topped it off with a bath, modern family at bedtime and now finishing up this blog post.

Overall I think mother's day was a success. I felt an amazing spirit during relief society and I am thankful for my sweet girls that have turned me into a mother. I am also thankful for my mother and mother in law, as well as all those other mothers who have been such an important part of my life. 

Mother's Day Speech

I was able to go to a Mother's Day "SPA" at Ryann's class yesterday. 

I haven't ever been to one of her class parties because I have always been working. But she was so excited and I was able to rearrange my schedule to be able to be there with her. 

We ate cookies, drank water, she painted my nails, they sang, and she read a speech that she made about me. 

The speech was like 5 pages long, but Mrs Lock her teacher only let the kids read the first page. 

It was so sweet and you bet there were tears shed.

These hormones are awesome! 

(or maybe it is just the Wagner genes in me...probably a little of both)

Grown Up Pictures

I snagged a couple pictures on my phone too of some of the rest of us at the wedding. 

Here are the sisters (minus Madeline!)

 Me and a handsome groomsman

 Our little family which is rapidly starting to grow into a "big" family of 5.

At the Wedding

Our camera was out of batteries at the temple when we went for Uncle Zach's wedding. So I finally got the pictures off of my phone for the blog. 

Kid pictures are so much better than adult pictures!

 Addie, Cecily, and Cara

 Dean, Addie, Cara, Hazel, and Ryann

 Oliver, Cara, and Addie... I think I bribed them with gum to take this picture.

 Ryann made me take a picture of her flower. She was concentrating really hard on making sure that flower stayed in place. 

 A photo bomb by dad. Cute Addie, Cecily, Ethan, Ryann, and Cara waiting for the happy couple. 

We had such a fun time and can't believe how it seems like just yesterday but the weeks keep passing by!

Short Day

Wednesday is my short day at work. Right now I am working in the office 5-6 days a week so that I can get home at noon on wednesdays and by 3:30 every other day of the week. I know, it is crazy, but this is what works best for me right now to be able to spend the most amount of time possible with the girls.

In the past 24 hours I had attended 4 births and was pleasantly surprised when everyone delivered in time for me to rush home and play with these nuggets. 

I actually had a lot of errands to run, they just thought we were playing the whole time because I tried hard to make it fun.

 While getting our oil changed we walked to the local water and ice. Cara paid with her birthday money to get snow cones in "princess" flavor for her and Ryann. She also bought herself some candy. 

Then we headed over to costco to get the tires rotated. This costco has the busiest tire center so it took an hour and a half. We played for awhile in the tires. Then headed over to get every sample possible, then to shop for baby Mac, then we tried out all the bikes and chairs and found a place to color and basically we wore ourselves out.

But we had a good day. And no one is in labor so I might get some sleep tonight!  (might have just jinxed myself, but who cares, I said it anyway!)

Midwife Appointments

Most of you know the plan for this baby is to have him at home. It doesn't always work out that way but right now that is the plan. The best part of this plan is that my midwife comes to my house for my visits!

(I can also go to her office, but it is so much easier when she comes to me!)

Please excuse my extremely white belly, but seriously, when am I gonna tan this thing?

Ryann loves to be a part of the visits. She helps take my blood pressure, listen to the baby, and here she is trying to hear baby Mac with the fetoscope. 

 My wonderful midwife Jen and Ryann taking my blood pressure. 

It is really a neat experience to have Ryann so involved with this baby. Cara too, but she is just always so busy that she doesn't want to sit still.

Bunk Beds

Well, in order to find bedding that the girls liked we had to go to quite a couple different stores. There were negotiations made, tears, bribes, pleading, begging, and more. 

We finally picked some out and I got some spray paint in order to repaint all of their picture frames. Since their last "room" was red and bright blue we are looking at a lot of purple and pink. I guess that is okay since a baby boy is on his way!

The girls love it, Ryann sleeps mostly on the top bunk, but she and Cara trade off sometimes too. Either way, they love the bunk beds and can't wait for visitors to come stay with them.

Present from Ryann

Seriously, how much better can it get than a barbie movie from your big sister and a birthday crown??

Bunk Beds

This is happening this weekend. The sheets are in the wash and the girls are ready for their new beds!

Colorado

Part of our trip was the wedding reception in Colorado. I had never been so it was nice to see a little change of scenery. My parents looked adorable as usual.

Cara was constantly getting in to trouble. She ate a dinner that consisted of 3 crackers. 

 After Cara ate her "dinner" she wanted frozen yogurt (BEST reception idea ever!). I told her no. That little stinker is smarter than we give her credit for. 

 She comes out holding frozen yogurt with sprinkles and I say, "How did you get that?"

She looks all innocent and said, "The boys inside gave it to me. One gave me ice cream and the other put sprinkles on top"

 Of course she was talking about the two teenage boys who were hired to run the frozen yogurt machine. Why would they question a cute 4 year old who comes asking for some? They just work there. 

It was so funny that of course Cara got her way and ate her frozen yogurt without any dinner.

Ryann on the other hand ate great and earned her frozen yogurt straight up. She also loved being outside in the amazing weather and climbing all over the rocks and walls.