Counting Down

Did I mention that we're having a baby?

Because we totally are! Matthew and I found out we were expecting right around Christmas time and decided to try to keep it a secret for the full 12 weeks. I'm not sure how well we succeeded with that, but we did our best! Our ultrasound went perfectly and we finally told people that we were having a baby!

We have been waiting for years to have another little one. Partly because William and Lily were so close, but mostly because we wanted to be sure that it was the right time. After a while, it was discovered that I have a thyroid problem and we've been trying to catch my body up and get prepared to have another child since. We've had ups and downs throughout the whole process, but Heavenly Father definitely knows what's best.

At the beginning of April, we had our 20 week ultrasound. Everything looked amazing with the exception that my amniotic fluid was low and our modest kiddo didn't want to show us if it was a he or she with the legs crossed at the ankles and hands between the legs! I went for another ultrasound 3 weeks later to find out that everything was looking great and after lots of prodding and turning, our baby let us see that we're having a GIRL!

Our little family was in incredible shock because we thought we were having a boy! Poor William cried a little because he was looking forward to having a brother. Lily, on the other hand, was very excited to have the balance tilted towards the girls side.

We have since been shopping and trying to get everything ready and set up to bring this little lady into our home and life!

We're still working on a name and it's kind of gotten to the point of a game with the kids. They come up with some silly ones and other names that I'll just have to remind them of when they're naming their own children. I've been waiting to have that "AHA!" moment that I had naming William and Lily. I have names that I like and Matthew has names that he likes, so we're trying to find THE ONE.

Baby Girl Townsend is due August 24th, so we are 5 weeks and counting until we see this precious girl's face. Time seems like it has gone by so quickly! We can't wait!



Picture Overload

 

Well, catching up from my last post...

This guy turned 7 in April! 

William was a little excited about it. I loved flipping the calendar to April, only to find his little note on his birthday. We celebrated with a family day, William-style. Of course that means that we went to the Lego store and he absolutely wanted to go to Tokyo Hibachi Grill for his birthday dinner.

 

And he was extra excited (as were the rest of us) to have Eric and Stephanie Dunn come and visit us! They were here for William's birthday and he loved it! It was so much fun to be with friends we haven't seen in so long and I'm so sad we have 0 pictures of them or their beautiful baby girl!

 

I finally got around to taking William's 7 year old pictures like two days ago. I can't believe how big and toothless this little guy has become!

 

The end of the school year was a little crazy. After Spring Break, everything was just kind of squished into the month and a half left of school. So, we had the 1st Grade program that was Journey to the Moon. There was a huge prop in the way, so I have no picture of William performing.

And then we had the Kindergarten program called How Are We Gonna Get There? It was music all about transportation. Both programs were adorable. 

Then we had Award Days. William received a lot of awards for his English, Fast Math, and got recognition for reading the most books in the first grade. We read 300 books this school year. Yeah, maybe we're nerds, but we're awesome. 

Lily also received rewards for her reading and math and she got the award for having the neatest handwriting in her class. She was the first child in her class to get a skinny pencil. It's a pretty big deal to get a skinny pencil in Kindergarten. 

Then we had Field Day! Sometimes it's a bummer to have the kids only a grade apart because a lot of the K and 1st grade things are scheduled on the same days or times. Field Day was one of those things. Both grades were scheduled on the same time, but of course on different rotations. So I only saw a little bit of the day with both of my kiddos. 

Lily threw the farthest out of all the girls in her class!

Yeah, she's the stuff. 

And I learned that William, bless his heart, tries his hardest when he hula hoops. 

I promise you... these are not just pictures taken at bad times, my son really hula hoops like this. And yes, I was laughing until I was crying watching him! 

But, he did pretty awesome at soccer!

It seems like the school year came and went! It was so much fun to see my little ones grow and be involved as much as I could be. I was able to volunteer twice a week and have lunch on Thursdays with William and Lily. It made for busy weeks, but time and experiences that were well worth it. 

Now we have a 1st grader and a 2nd grader!



"Seven and Counting"

Today is our not so little William's Birthday! The title of this post is a direct quote from the kid himself. William is a bright light in our family. He always wants to do good and never let people down. William's had a big year and we're looking forward to the year ahead. Happy Birthday to the coolest boy in town. We sure love our William. 

Six Year Old Girl

Lily is six! The Saturday before her birthday, we celebrated like crazy! We went to shopping, went to lunch at McDonalds, we saw the Croods and had dinner at Subway. We were a little disappointed that it was a little rainy and so we didn't go to the zoo like she originally want to, but I think we made it up to her. We baked cupcakes and made chocolate frosting to go on top and everyone got to decorate some cupcakes. Lily was all over it because she is a little chef. Lily got a sleeping bag and flashlight, make up, a skip it (remember those?), a soccer ball, and a brand new bike that she rides everyday and lots more. We got a package from Grandma and Grandpa in Utah filled with goodies and Lily received this beautiful dress that I couldn't wait to take her 6 year pictures in. 

I can't believe this beautiful little gal is already six!

Purple and Gray

 Last Easter Lily fell in love with a pink floaty kind of dress, but the store was of course out of her size. When I saw that they had the same dress, but in purple, this year, I jumped on the opportunity to grab it! I thought to tie in some boyishness into it we could use gray too and I found the perfect gray and white shirt for William at a store close by. It was totally meant to be, my vision was complete. I was able to take the kids to the temple over Spring Break to take their Annual Easter pictures. It gets more fun every year because the kids get so excited to do it too. William and Lily scoped out the temple grounds and told me where they wanted to take pictures this year. I love this time of year!

 



Hustle and Bustle

In all of the craziness that has been this weekend, I wasn't able to sit down wish my little girl a Happy Birthday on here!! Lily's 6th birthday was on Easter Sunday this year. We spent all day Saturday together as a family and went out to eat and to see the Croods. I have more pictures, but I wanted to have a little collage of our girl throughout the year. She's big stuff. Lily brings so much life and humor into our family. I can't believe she's six!! She has definitely been growing out of some of her famous catch phrases like saying "clay" and "clease" for "play" and "please. But, it's always fun to see what comes out of this little one's mouth. When Lily wants to help me cook, she tells me that she wants to "make" with me. Last night she was telling Matthew about giving cupcakes to her classmates at school. They mostly wanted the "anilla" ones. With my little Lily getting older I know that funny words and phrases will be few and far between and I'm just enjoying it while it lasts.

I love this little Lily girl. 

Just Things

 We have been having Spring Break the past couple of weeks! It's been a blast with lots of Spring cleaning, playing, reading, doing crafts, and movie nights that would end like the picture above. It's been a lot of stuff, but now that it's coming to a close I wish that we had more time to do more! Yesterday, the kids and I went to the temple grounds to take our Easter pictures. It was a full afternoon of amazing conversations with William and Lily and fun picture taking. I'm excited to blog about it, but I wanted to share these gems first.

The last week in February/First week of March was Dr. Seuss week at William and Lily's school. There was a book for everyday of the week and they had special things to do for each day. I wish that I was a little more diligent in taking their pictures, but I do have Wacky Wednesday!

 Lily was SO into Wacky Wednesday. She wore her dress inside out and backwards, her cardigan backwards, two different socks and shoes. And two different colored hair bows. She loved it and laughed at herself every time she looked in the mirror.

 William, however, was a little more conservative with his wackiness. He wore his shirt inside out, two different socks, and two different shoes. They also wore red and white for the Cat in the Hat, Crazy socks for Fox in Socks, and Green for Green Eggs and Ham. William's class wore orange and yellow one day for the Lorax. I had the chance to read to Lily's class when I volunteered. It's such a fun week to celebrate reading and the birthday of one heck of an author.  

During the fun craziness that was Dr. Seuss week, William had a project due. We had to make a robot out of recycled objects. We saved things up for weeks and used cracker boxes, toilet paper rolls, soda cans, cup holders, bottle caps, and a bar soap box to complete our Robot that William named Willy. He also had to write a paper about Willy and what he likes to do. William decided that it would be cool of he could hand out suckers, so we packed Willy's pockets with Tootsie Pops.

The children start back at school on Monday. I'll be taking cupcakes during lunch to celebrate Lily's birthday with her class. It's only a matter of time before I have these kiddos for the summer. The countdown starts NOW!