Spring... just around the corner!

Can I tell you how much I am looking forward to Spring this year? Even after Spring officially came according to the calendar, no one could have told by the 6 INCHES of snow we got 5 days later!!! Crazy I tell you. But good news - I've been really wanting Matt to grill for about a week now, and tonight was our night!!! Matt made himself deer steaks (yuck) and I had a hobo dinner (mmmmm mmmm good) - we had a great meal and it made me so happy! Here's the grill master at work.


On another note, Vince & Charlie are still doing well - Vince is getting bigger EVERY day and is going to be able to take Charlie down here any day now... All that bullying is gonna come back and haunt poor Charlie :) Here are the boys playing nice with a stick... maybe it's an old corn stalk - who knows...

Our house is still in the works - the flooring is going down and looks fantastic, but we've run out of wood and are waiting a new shipment to come into the flooring place... which is now almost officially a week late. Let me tell you how excited I am about that.... oh wait, I'm not!

Our little baby is doing well - always letting me know it's still there whether I'm gagging at something, fighting off yet another headache, having cravings, making me get up 4 times during the night to pee or giving me weird growing pains... it's been a crazy ride! We go in this Wednesday again to the doctor and will hear the heartbeat again - YEAH! I love that part. This is already our 16 week appointment which means in another month we should know what we're having!!! The day after our appointment, I'm heading off for Spring Break - something I never thought I'd have again!!! Mom, Kim, Ethan, Addison, Katy & I are heading down to Sarasota for some much needed sun, relaxation and sleep! Yahoo! I'm sure Mom, Kim & I will all be blogging from the beach, condo or wherever we happen to be! I'm a little excited.

Anyways, that's it for my short little update - hope everyone is doing well!!! Let me know what you'll be doing for Spring Break!

My quarter-century celebration!

Yes, today is my 25th birthday - not quite as traumatic as I thought it would be... I survived!!!

Today was a great day - my co-workers brought me a bunch of yummy food to work to pig out on all day, they took me out to Hacienda, Stacey brought me a FABULOUS Bavarian Torte cake from Truffles AND I got to leave work early! Granted I had to leave early to get my license renewed, but hey, it's still leaving work early right?

Matt also was a HUGE sweetheart and took me to Sorg jewelers (don't worry - he was sweating the second me stepped foot in the door) over the weekend and let me pick out my present! (within budget of course) I got a REALLY pretty circle pendant diamond necklace! It's so pretty and I LOVE IT! But of course he was a stinker and had it wrapped and wouldn't let me open it until this morning... I was not happy, but at least I got it!!

He also humored me tonight and let me use him as a guinea pig for my first time making fondue!!! It was SOOOO YUMMY! We had cheese fondue followed by scrumptious grease for our veggies, meat & both of those dipped in batter!!! Here are a couple photos of our evening...

The table is set...

Baby's getting hungry!!!

Let's eat!!!

Another great surprise I got was a birthday message from my nephew DREW! What a sweety - here's what I got! Isn't he the sweetest?!

Flip this house!

Ok, so Matt & I have had this house for 2-1/2 years... we're getting really good at finding things we don't like about our house and then fixing it up to make it our own. It all started with flood lights in the back yard, electricity to the barn, unpainted walls, crown molding, an unfinished basement, and so on and so forth. Crazy right?

So, maybe you're saying to yourself... that's great Amber, so what? Well, there is one thing we haven't touched... the main level FLOORS! So what the hay - let's change 'em! Ok, granted when we bought the house I said... we can buy this house, but this cheap crap carpet HAS to go. My wonderful husband is a trooper with this house and has discovered his inner handy-man (maybe his inner Ty Pennington? hmmmm) Anyways, we're replacing all our living room, kitchen, spare bathroom and master bathroom floors with wood laminate flooring. The spare room, soon-to-be-baby-room and master bedrooms will all be getting new carpet that costs more than the cheap $.03 a square foot that was probably on sale 80% off on Lowes special :) if you can't tell - I really really REALLY dislike our carpet that came with the house. So here we go... our newest venture! We've only started, but here's where we are!

Spare bathroom pre-demolition!

Spare bathroom mid-demolition!

And just like that (with a little blood and lots of sweat later)... isn't it pretty?

Literally I think it was 75-degrees in the house - and here I am, hot, pregnant, with a hammer, knee pads & all. Go prego!

Those staples never stood a chance!

My studly husband measuring perfectly - yet again!

So far... so good!

...oh yeah and did I mention that after all this is done, we're doing a nursery?! Will it EVER end???????

The OFFICIAL Bontrager baby boom

Is something in the water? I'm thinking YES! Matt & I are PREGNANT!!!!!!!! Yep - you read it right the big prego! We're due Sept. 12 and are so incredibly excited!!!!!

And because I can... here is the heartbeat! It was really strong at 150 beats and it is just such an absolutely surreal experience!

Now you must be thinking... now wait a minute, how many is this for the Bontragers? The grand total (for this year) is 3 babies in 4 months! Katy is due June 5, Aimee is due July 12 and I am due September 12! It's an exciting time and we are all so excited!

I know, I know...

I know I know, it's been forever since my last post - so to make up for lost time, here's where we are in our lives...

Matt's birthday was last Wednesday - Feb. 27th, so of course what do we do to celebrate? We go out to eat!!! What better way to celebrate with the ones we love? Here are a few photos of that night with the Huffmans & my parents...

Matt with the munchkins

Jadyn wanted more screen time on the blog... she here's to Jadyn!!!

Ethan... would you like some lettuce with that ranch? Yeah, he literally could have drank it with a straw.

Addison.. cutie pie!The munchkins taking Willy bites of dessert - maybe Roger bites? Who knows.

OK, now for the next segment... Our dogs!!! These poor creatures, well, you'll see why I say that below. For an early birthday present, Mom & Dad got me LOTS of Harley Davidson stuff (my far off dream vehicle - a red Softail if you must know :) ) anyways, in my plethora of Harley stuff was a bunch of doggy wearables - ok a shirt & hat, but it was so cute! Who am I to deny them the ultimate cuteness? Here there are!!!Charlie wasn't too happy with me... notice the bows in his hair? Not only had he been at the puppy spa all day, but I made him wear a tough boy hat WITH bows in his hair :) He's such a sweety!
This is our attempt to get Vince to pose for the camera. With his Harley gear, he looked like a bad ace of base (if you get my drift). He was funny with the hat because it was too big and it kept covering his eyes, then he'd run around like a psycho trying to get it off and just kept running into things... oh the things you do for beauty :)

OK, along with dogs, Kelly (Matt's sister) was here last weekend and as some of you know, she has started her own at-home business of baby accessories! Well, one of her products she makes & sells is a sling to carry around your baby in... she also informed us that some of her customers get one for their dogs too! So guess what... yes, Charlie was yet again our victim. The funny thing was, HE LOVED IT! So here's Matt with our baby in a sling!!!Snug as a bug - What a pumpkin!

This section is dedicated to my mother. When Kelly was here, we (mostly Kelly) cleaned our ENTIRE house in preparation for the open house she held for her products last Saturday. Well, when I told mom this (because she's out of town) she didn't believe me that my house was clean. So mom, this is me proving it!

The living room

The kitchen

The spare room