Happy Father's Day...

...To a man who plays with his kids like he's a child himself.

...To a man who isn't afraid to get just as excited for a pink butterfly purse as his two year old daughter.

...To a man who can ALWAYS make any "dinosaur bites" or "bonked oodles" feel better.

...To a man who can always put a smile on his kids' faces.

...To a man whose three year old wants to be JUST like him.

...To a very handsome man indeed!

Thanks for all you do for our family Darling,  I'm grateful on a daily basis for the husband, father, and man that you are!

If you think Rice Krispy Treats are too childish...

...then you need to make them like this:

Then the simple combination of marshmallows and cereal will become a sweet, chewy addiction.  I would know, because I have made 5 or 6 (but who's really counting) batches of these babies in the last two weeks.  It might be the extra butter that makes them so wonderful, or the added peanut butter, or possibly the addition of white and milk chocolate...I don't know, but whatever it is, you need to trust me on this one.

Here is what you need:

in microwavable bowl combine-

30 large marshmallows (my kiddos love to help count!)

1/4 C peanut butter

4 TBS butter

Microwave together for three minutes, stirring after each minute.

When it's done, add:

 3 C of Rice Krispies

1/2 C white chocolate chips...don't leave them out, they kind of melt into the mixture and make for a fun, creamy texture.

Press into a greased 9 x 9 inch pan, then drizzle 1/4 C melted chocolate chips over the top.

Put them in the fridge for a bit...or the freezer if you are like me and can't wait that long!

Enjoy!

Oh, and you should all hop on over to my darling mom's foodie blog to see her version of the recipe, along with some other fabulous treats!  (Oh, and I stole these great pictures from her blog...there is  definitely something to be said about a decent camera and good lighting!)

And then he turns into a man...

As I was browsing through the clearance racks at Target, I stumbled on this adorable little suit.  It was the only one on the rack, and just Jack's size.  Upon gazing at the price tag, I knew it was meant to be...only $6.24!

When I dressed him for church today, I couldn't believe how old he looked...

Such a hansome young fellow...

Wouldn't you agree?

Proof...

I know I have gone on and on about Bianca and her obsessions with shoes, purses, clothes, and anything "pretty".  I have also mentioned that not getting her way when it comes to an outfit results in a tantrum...for like 30 minutes. 

You all probably think I exaggerate about this girl and her pretty things.

I don't.

I wish it was all a gross exaggeration in an effort to make a good blog.

It's not.

And now I have proof for you.  Here is a video to give you a little taste of what we experience in the name of fashion AT LEAST once a day at this house. 

This is a fairly mild tantrum...there wasn't any hitting or biting involved, and I was able to get those sparkley shoes on her within about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Oh, and don't mind the shabby looking blanket hanging with tacks over the window...Jackson thought the blinds that were there doubled as a jungle gym. That turkey. They have been removed :)

Sometimes, being a good mom means...

...letting your vivacious two year old wear whatever she wants.  Even if it means she wears a massive tutu, purple shirt, red bracelet, and giant flower in her hair. 

Because when she gets to wear whatever she wants, the little treasures she finds outside are more exciting...

She can run even faster...

And dance even crazier...

It's easy being a good mom to Jack, because all it takes is giving him free reign to squish every bug and spider he can find...

Then not only will he be the happiest boy around, but will also be kept busy for hours.

I sure love being a good mom.

Pink, sparkles, purses, and shoes...

Well folks, it looks like Miss Bianca will have a sister to share shoes and purses with...heaven help this household if we have another little gal who is as girly as Bianca.  I have a feeling I am going to need  A LOT more pink sparkley purses!

We couldn't be more excited about the news.  I was secretly hoping for a girl just so we could take the name "Fox" out of the running.  If this baby was a boy, scott was dead set on that name for his son.  

Yikes.

And, for all of you wondering how this baby belly is progressing...

Here I am.

In all my glory.

.At  21 weeks. 

(they pushed me back a couple weeks at my last appointment. ugh, I hate that)

Meeting the Pioneer Woman...

I love the Pioneer Woman.

If you have no idea who I am talking about than do yourself a favor and go check out her site, The Pioneer Woman and you will most definitely spend a couple of hours there reading her Confessions, checking out her sweet photography skills, and drooling over some of her recipes.

Well, I got to meet her.

She recently came out with a fun cookbook, and has been all over the country at book signings.  When she came to Seattle, I was graciously invited by a friend to fill an empty seat..."Um, heck yes I will go with you" was pretty much my response when Ali called to invite me.  But in your head, imagine an obnoxious, shrill voice saying it.

We headed up to Seattle and waited for over 5 hours to meet Pioneer Woman.  There were nearly 700 hundred people in front of us...that poor woman, can you imagine signing that many books. ugh.  I most definitely didn't mind the wait though, I was with three fun gals and we just chatted, laughed, and ate for the entire 5 hours.

When it was finally my turn to meet her, I became a pre-teen meeting the Jonas Brothers.  Seriously.  I was shaking and nervous, and there may or not have been a tear {or two} in my eye.  I honestly had no idea what came over me.   

The Pioneer Woman was an absolute delight.  She was so personable and friendly...and I am pretty sure we are new BFF's because she touched my pregnant belly AND said she loved my hair.

Yup, I'm pretty sure that makes us best friends. 

These are the cuties I went with...what a great night!!

After we got our books signed at 10:30 PM, we all decided that a late night trip to the CheeseCake Factory was definitely necessary.  Nothing like fried mozzerella and rich chocolate coconut {YUM} cheesecake at midnight!  I felt like I was in college again...except this time the fried mozzerella gave me heartburn, and I was awakened by two toddlers only 5 hours after going to bed.

So worth it.

Introducing, the newest member of the Springer Family...

No, NOT a baby...heaven forbid, I am only 20 weeks along! 

Today we added a sweet addition to our family, a 2008 Hyundai Entourage...

This is exactly what our car looks like, she sure is a beaut isn't she?!?

 I am officially in love with this mini-van.  Truth be told I always thought I was an SUV kind of gal, but let's be honest...an SUV is NOT the car you want with three carseats. seriously people.

We went to the dealership today with a budget, and monthly payment in mind.  When we saw this car, I fell in love with the stow-and-go seating, ceiling mounted DVD player with wireless headphones for the kiddos, automatic doors, seats, mirrors, windows (even the passenger side windows roll down, how fun is that!), and lots of other fun gadgets.  I thought for sure it was out of our price range, but saw it was just the price I wanted.

After everything was finalized, the owner came out and mentioned to our salesmen that the listed price was supposed to be for a based out Entourage, when in fact ours was fully loaded.

Cha-ching!!  We lucked into a sweet deal!!

We couldn't be more excited, and I am officially converted to the mini-van life style.

 

The Happiest Place on Earth...

It's true.

Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth.

I think between work and the hideous rain we've been receiving, we could use a little dose of Mickey.

So, we decided to go.

In two weeks.

I couldn't more excited.  Most of you know me well enough to know that I might was well be a 7 year old child when it comes to things like this.  The "magic" is real to me, and I can't WAIT to see little Jack's face during the Pirates of the Caribbean ride!

I am giddy.

So, now I need some advice...we haven't ever taken the kids anywhere like this.  Do any of you have any genius tips on disneyland with kiddos? 

Come people, I need to know all the secrets!

The Utah re-cap...

Before our awful attempt at driving home, we had an absolute blast in Utah. The trip was VERY last minute. My cousin called me on a friday and mentioned she wanted take a quick trip down to visit her family before her baby was born...Of course I jumped at the chance to go home for a week!  We left 6 days later and had a fantastic 15 hour ride.  Luckily for me, the kiddos were complete angels. (I'm sure the constant goldfish, movies, and fruitsnacks didn't hurt either!)  

I knew the trip would be really low key.  My mom had major back surgery just two days before we arrived, so we went down with no plans.  we just wanted to relax, and I wanted to help aid in my mom's recovery any way I could. 

So, we did A LOT of story reading...

And when Auntie Candise and Eliza Jane came to visit there were even more stories to go around.

And when no adults were around to read to Jack, he made do all by himself...I'm pretty sure Jack looked at books for most of the trip.

I didn't complain.

Of course we fit in some time for pudding,

and walks in the sunshine.

One of Jacks favorite things to do was play "this little piggy" with Nana's beautifully pedicured toes. 

This is about the only picture I could capture of our sweet patient recovering from back surgery...she wasn't feeling quite "camera beautiful" enough for a close-up.  Maybe next trip :)

Then a few days before we left, Bianca decided to liven things up with a spill out of the bathtub onto Nana's tile floor.  She fell hard and split her head wide open...needing 6 stitches.  Geez, I swear that girl has seen the Emergency Room more than any 2 year old should ever have to!  Between this incident and the car accident two days later, you can imgaine she has become a little more clingy than normal!! (You can also notice the wound AND the bruises on the top picture of Bianca reading stories with Auntie Candise)

Paul and Kaytie came up to visit while we were there, and I was amazed at Jack's reaction to darling baby Dean...

He was smitten. 

If Dean was around, so was Jack...I thought poor Kaytie would never get privacy to feed him! Seeing Jack be so gentle and concerned about him made me excited to have a new baby in the house this summer. I think he is going to be such a fun big brother!

It was so nice to come home and take it easy...I think I prefer going on a trip with no plans sometimes.  For some reason, when I am home, I like nothing more than to just sit on my mom's couch and visit with family. 

It was perfect.

  I was also able to see a few friends, go to all my favorite Utah restuarants (oh, how I miss Rumbi's and Taco Amigo...sigh), and my Grandma Scott took me and the kids to the Aquarium in Draper (which will be a post in and of itself in the next few days!)  So I guess our little vacation wasn't totally low key :)

So there you have it, our trip to Utah in a nut shell.  I am also pleased to report that my mom is recovering from surgery like a champ.  Even with 38 staples down her back she was still so much fun to be around...I am SURE not many people can do that!

We miss you all, hopefully our next visit to Utah will be much less traumatic, and won't involve ANY visits to the ER, stitches, staples, or totalled cars!!

A little update...

Don't worry everyone, I'm alive!

I had several doctors appointments this week to follow up with injuries and other things.

I had an ultra sound to double check the baby.  I had a little internal bleeding from the accident so we have been monitoring things to make sure it doesn't get worse.  The ultrasound let us know that baby springer is going to be just fine...no more need to worry.  phew!  And I'm 15 weeks along too!

My staples have been removed, which has made a world of difference...no more sharp pains and obnoxious aches!

I have been having some awful pain in my ribs and back...I can't lift anything more than a gallon of milk, and it really hurts to bend, twist or breathe.  The doctor informed me yesterday that I most likely have torn some of the cartilage that's connected near the ribs.  He said it's extremely painful, and that I will enjoy this pain for another 4 weeks.  Awesome!! Thank goodness for strong pain medication, and a sweet hubby who's taking care of business around the house!

Scott's amazingly generous co-workers have donated LOTS of their sick leave to him so he can be home with me.  It's been such a blessing!

So there you have it folks, I'm on the mend and will be as good as new in about a month!

I promise some darling pictures on the next post!

Lucky...

**Just to warn you...there are details in this post that are probably gross, but I want to make sure and remember how blessed and lucky we have came out of this ordeal....

On Saturday morning we left to go home to Washington from Utah.  We hadn't been driving thirty minutes when I started to fish-tale on the freeway in Salt Lake City.  The rest is all very fuzzy, but we were in an accident. 

I remember swerving, screaming, and turning...Next I woke up, looked over at my darling, sweet cousin (who is 7 1/2 months pregnant too) and asked her what happened.  She told me we were in an accident.  I asked her if she was ok.  She said "yes".  Oddly enough I figured "Ok, well if you are ok, let's go!!"   It wasn't long before I looked around and saw what happened.  I looked down and say lots of blood (sorry, I will spare you all the pictures!)  then I looked to my left and saw my door smashed into me.  Funny enough, I didn't notice at that point that my window had been broken out....you'd think I would have put it together when the police officer showed up to talk to me, and I never rolled the window down.  I talked to the officer, but don't have any recollection of the conversation.  I remember he asked me what day and month it was, and I had no clue.  I couldn't remember to save my life.  My door couldn't open, so I was loaded onto the stretcher from the passenger side.  I remember that it really hurt my head to be strapped to the uncomfortable backboard...well duh Jill, it hurt because you had a massive gash on the back of your head!

So we were loaded into an ambulance.  The kids were perfectly fine by the way.  Jack was talking about how a T-Rex bit his momma, and he thought the firetrucks were neat.  As I think back, it makes me sick that I wasn't coherent enough to make sure they were unharmed.

When we arrived at the Emergency room, I started to realize how much pain I was in.  The left side of my body had been hit really hard by the vehicle that hit us.  My ribs, back, shoulder, hip, and knee all have bruises, and are extremely sore.  Somehow, probably when I lost consciousness, I bit me tongue hard enough to swell it up, and hit my jaw.  The CT scan in my head came back normal, but I got 8 staples put into the back of my head.   When I think about the very few details I can remember, and how horrifying it was, I can't believe we all made it out with minimal injuries.  My cousin Rachel was miraculously okay as well, but they wanted to keep her in the hospital overnight to make sure the baby was doing alright.  

We are all home from the Hospital now, and have been surrounded by family and friends that have shown us more support than I could ever imagine.  I feel so incredibly blessed to be part of the family that I am.  I only hope I can repay the service some day soon!

As for now, we are just trying to make arrangements to get home.  I am obviously in no condition to drive, so tomorrow my wonderful sister Candise is going to drive me half way, and then Scotty will meet us and pick us up.  I have been missing and needing Scott so badly since the accident, so I can't wait to see him tomorrow!

I hope to be feeling better in the next few days.  It will be nice to get all of the glass and blood cleaned out of my hair, and I look forward to being able to pick the kids up again with out wincing in pain. 

I realize I am blessed.  Extremely blessed.  People getting in an accident in a car going 65 miles an hour shouldn't come out so well.  I have prayed constantly since being in the Hospital, giving thanks for the way this ordeal has turned out.

Now back to real life my friends, and hopefully I will get this post out of the way with some fun photos of the trip in the next few days!!

Thanks for your love and prayers, we are lucky to be surrounded by such amazing people!