random

- The first presidency message from President Monson in the January Ensign: Living the Abundant Life. A great read and a great reminder.

- Diet Coke. I don't know that I would be alive without it. I've been making myself drink 12 ounces of water before each can to even things out ... but I just love it so much.

- This is an awesome blog. Thanks to my SIL Paulette for showing me ... especially the "scripture study" section.

- Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University - We're going! Starting next month ... I'm super excited for financial freedom :)

-Lucas is going on Trek this weekend. He'll be gone for a few days and I might get lonely .... I am working a lot, and I have a fun dinner planned with some of my best girls on Saturday .... but if you find yourself wanting to catch a matinee or go to lunch, please give me a call ....

Boulder Trek, April 2011

thank you.

First of all, thank you thank you thank you for your kind messages and words of encouragement. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends, neighbors, and family. Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, we have definitely felt it.

Secondly, I wanted to document my 2012 goals. Here are mine from last year: 2011 goals. I succeeded with about half of those.... Here are my new ones (with some repeats):

Improve my personal spirituality. I need to do better at my personal morning prayers, my individual scripture study (hooray for the B of M in Gospel Doctrine this year!), and my personal relationship with my Father in Heaven.

Family Home Evening. We never do it because it's just the two of us, and that's ridiculous. We have plenty of opportunities to improve ourselves and our relationship and why shouldn't we get in the Monday night habit? (I say as I blog this from work on a Monday night....)

More house projects. We did some work on the house, but there's still a long way to go. We will definitely be doing some outside projects this spring, including a garden (fingers crossed), and a fence around the yard. Chickens and bees may have to wait until our next house ...

Uggg - will obviously lose 20 lbs. I want to get in great shape, and hopefully run another half marathon this Spring or Summer. The fire department boys are doing the Timp Trail at the end of May .... wouldn't that be fun? Of course this goal also includes eating healthy, eating at home, and drinking more water :)

Finally, win the HGTV dream home. Have you seen this thing?! It's in Midway. That's right, a short 25 minutes from my very own house. Lucas and I drove up there the other night and spent the whole trip back planning our rich, awesome future. The grand prize also includes a GMC Terrain SUV and $500,000. Here is some of the awesomeness:

All pictures courtesy of HGTV. I might be slightly obsessed. But it was fun day dreaming with my darling husband about what kind of parties we would throw and how awesome our holiday decorations would be and what we would do with half a million dollars ... I think our odds are about 1 in a billion, even though I enter twice a day.

family update

December 19th. The best day of my life, and the worst day.

I got to be a mom. Even if it was for just a few minutes before I had to send them back to their Father in Heaven, I got to be a mom.

Lucas and I have come to recognize our important role in the lives of our sweet babies. They were lucky enough to come to earth only for a short time to fulfill their missions. We were lucky enough to supply them with the bodies and the love they needed.

I am so grateful for the wonderful doctors and nurses at Memorial Hospital. They were there to support us through difficult times, and difficult news. They cried with us. They shared their own stories with us, and made me feel at home for the worst weekend of my life. In Indiana. When Josie and Wyatt were born, they let us hold them and take care of them for the few minutes they needed us. And then they let us hold them some more. They made phone calls for us, and took care of everything we needed. They let us be a family.

I don't know what I would have done without my Kane family. I wanted my mom to be there with me, but my in-laws were perfect. Their love and support was unmeasurable. We received so many wonderful and encouraging messages from our family and friends, we are so blessed.

Lucas is my rock. He didn't leave my side. He prayed with me and gave me Priesthood blessings. He was encouraging and faithful, and the best dad I could ever imagine for my babies. Oh how I love him.

My cousin Wendy shared this quote with me ... I've read it a hundred times in the last week:

Joseph Smith rightly taught:

"The mother who laid down her little child, being deprived of the privilege, the joy, and the satisfaction of bringing it up to manhood or womanhood in this world, would, after the resurrection, have all the joy, satisfaction, and pleasure, and even more than it would have been possible to have had in mortality, in seeing her child grow to the full measure of stature of it's spirit...When she does it there, it will be with the certain knowledge that the results will be without failure; whereas here, the results are unknown until after we have passed the test."

announcement

I know most everyone has seen it on facebook already, but here's the announcement. We get:

1 girl baby

&

1 boy baby

Lucas and I are dying of excitement and I'm starting to get the shopping/crafting/decorating bug. Since I'm not crafty, and these kids are making us poor already, I'm going to need someone to make/buy me the following items:

(all images courtesy of pinterest of course)
Any volunteers? I'll let you come play with them when they're born ....

And for those that have requested maternity shots, here you are. Please keep in mind, I'm only halfway through this pregnancy.

Maybe it's time to give up on those stretchy non-maternity shirts.

Links

Some things on the internet:

Best-selling books of 2011, according to Barnes & Noble -- I need to start making a list.

The 2011 First Presidency Christmas Devotional -- Super awesome, watch if you have a chance. This is one of my favorite things each holiday season...

Kelle Hampton's Awesome Christmas Party -- I can't wait to do fun things like this for my kids...

*PS my SIL Ellen LOVES Kelle and promised to have a party like this for me next week in Michigan - can't wait Ellen!

I'm obsessed with these boots. They're practically a million dollars, and I have several pairs of boots already, but I just LOVE them.

Pinterest is still the best thing on the internet. I love love love pinning things for the kiddos.

2 babies (tumblr)

I want this. (etsy)

baby outfits (etsy)

- - - - -

And a baby update: Still feeling super awesome, getting pretty big pretty quickly. Maybe I'll put some pictures up one of these days ... Wednesday is the big gender reveal, so get excited :)