The Waiting Continues in June

Well, June arrived and still, no baby! Her due date was June 8th, but in my mind I was hopeful that she'd come a week early or so. No such luck. I tried to plan fun activities with Charlie so we wouldn't both go crazy just sitting around the house waiting for life to change.

One afternoon, when Trevor wasn't working, we all decided to have a picnic on the back lawn. And yes, Charlie is still in his PJs. Best Mom Ever award goes to me. It was a sunny, warm day and we thoroughly enjoyed the change of scenery. I also took Charlie to the pool again. This time I had a new flotation device for him called a Puddle Jumper. This thing is absolutely amazing! It keeps his head above the water no matter which way he tips, and he can actually swim by himself in the deep pool! Love love love it! It just means I can relax a little more when I'm at the pool with him.

Pony Express Days is a fun Eagle Mountain community event that happens for a week every year. This year, it was during the first week of June and I took Charlie to a free family event on Wednesday evening at Nolan Park. They had bounce houses, face painting, food, and even balloon animals! We met up with our friends the Schramers. Charlie just loves his little friend Aunika... and even though we waited in line for at least half an hour, they were thrilled to get their balloon creations. Charlie got a sword and Aunika got a giraffe. Look at those smiling faces!

On June 6th, my Mom came into town. Much to her delight, I was still pregnant. She wanted to be here when I had the baby. But then, I started getting stressed about whether or not I should get induced earlier (I don't really like the idea of being induced unless it's at 41 weeks and I don't have another choice). She was only going to be in town for 10 or 11 days, and I didn't want to have the baby a week late and then have her leave a couple days later. So, I scheduled a tentative induction date for the 9th of June.

When my due date came and I wasn't in labor yet, I was getting more and more impatient. I didn't want to be induced and I wanted this little girl to be here already! It was a Sunday, and after church, I went for a walk with my Mom and Charlie around the neighborhood. We even stopped for a second and I jumped on the neighbor's trampoline (with their permission haha) to try to induce labor. I was so big and was feeling so much low pressure that I didn't really get any air when I jumped, but I hoped the motion of just going up and down would help. It didn't... it just made me tired. But I was determined and we kept walking around the neighborhood. We probably walked a little over a half mile, stopping along the way to look inside some of the houses that were being built. Here's a picture of Charlie looking like a total "mini-man" with his sunglasses and cool guy strut. :)

I didn't go into labor that night, and the waiting game continued a little longer. Stay tuned for the next post. ;)

Picking Pumpkins

This past Saturday our little family took a short drive to a local pumpkin patch in Eagle Mountain. I had heard about it through the community newsletter and since it was close, we decided to give it a try. Upon arrival, we were a little surprised at how few pumpkins they had... but then we realized that the pumpkins were FREE and they were asking for donations to a charity. Score!! So we walked around a bit, snapped some photos, and found our perfect pumpkins despite the slim pickings!

Charlie's trying to make the perfect pumpkin selection:

I called this one a zombie pumpkin because it was all deformed... or it looked like a zombie was chewing on it last night! ;) (Oh, and this is a straight out of camera picture! It was too pretty on its own to edit!):

He also made friends with a scarecrow, and definitely gave Trev a hard time when it was time to leave. He was having too much fun!

Until next year, little buddy!

Family Fall Drive

This year's drive was taken on the last Sunday in September (the 29th). We always try to time it perfectly, but this year it was tricky. We had recently seen trees on the mountains turn red, but hadn't seen many changes in the valley yet. We couldn't decide if we were too early or too late. It turns out that we were a little of both. The reds in the mountains, for the most part, had already turned and fallen... but many of the yellows, including the aspens, hadn't even started turning yet! Apparently the less-than-ideal conditions this year were caused by a drier summer and also a sudden, early snow in the mountains. Regardless, I took some pictures of the most colorful areas as well as the aspens, even though they are still green! :)

The aspens (my favorite!):

Charlie thoroughly enjoyed the twisty ride through the Alpine Loop! He decided to serenade us the whole time with his rendition of the ABC Song as well as other made up songs. I just love his little singing voice! Video to come :)

Salem Pond

A couple days before the 4th of July, we went and hung out at Salem Pond for Troy's birthday. It was a lot of fun to watch Charlie actually get to interact and play with his cousins and eat his weight in watermelon and chocolate chip cookies.

Meanwhile, the adults enjoyed a bit of good food and conversation... except for me because I was constantly watching and chasing Charlie!

I love this one of Meg and her little Scarlett from behind :)

The men flaunting their manliness with a "leisurely" game of toss. Or throw as hard as you can to make the other person drop the catch. Whichever one. ;)

Near the end of the day, Uncle Trent and Grandma Jill took the two littlest grandkids down the path to the other side of the pond where the ducks were swimming. Even though this pic is a little blurry, I love it <3

Happy Birthday, Troy, you handsome devil! ;)

Girl's Camp

I was called as the first counselor in the Young Women's Presidency at church about a month ago. I got called less than 2 weeks before this year's girl's camp! For a while I didn't think I would be able to go at such short notice, but my wonderful husband moved his schedule around and I was able to go on Monday and Tuesday! It was SO MUCH FUN! I probably had more fun as a leader than I did as a youth!

We met at the church at 6am on Monday morning (bright and early!!) and I drove three of the leaders up with me in my car while the girls rode the buses. We were lucky enough to get to go to Heber Valley Camp near Heber City, UT where they have nice cabins and an amazing campus for Girl's Camp. Believe it or not, the bags in the picture below are luggage, not trash!! The other ward we camped with had tons of girls. We came with our 12 or so girls and we had a small, but close-knit, group.

It was pretty warm the first day I was there, but cooler the second day where we almost felt chilly at times! Blue skies the whole time! Oh, and there were TREES up there! It was so nice :)

Here's Cassi, my new friend and awesome Mia Maid adviser:

Here are Jade (one of my Mia Maids) and Chelsey (2nd Counselor), both amazing girls! They spent a lot of time playing guitar and singing, and they are both extremely talented! Chelsey also had her birthday on Monday while we were there, so we celebrated with that cute pendant banner and ice cream!!

Cascade and Acacia, two of our Beehives, having fun with the mustache sticks that Chelsey brought for entertainment. They provided many a good laugh!

Here is sweet Nicole (my neighbor who loves to babysit Charlie, who just turned 14) writing in her camp journal:

Gathering and pondering and smiling. We spent a lot of great time in our cabin. The one night I slept there I was on the top bunk you can barely see hidden in the back. I didn't have much of a camping "pad" under my sleeping bag so it was a pretty hard surface to sleep on, but I LOVE the adventure!

Our first day there we went on a long hike over the mountain and through the woods. It was challenging, but invigorating! When we reached our destination, a clearing in a field with a fire pit to gather around, we had someone give us a devotional about the Atonement, using a story about a man and the shoes his brother gave him as an analogy. The man worked hard and every day his feet were in pain and injured from his work. His brother, who wanted to help, bought him and gave him a pair of shoes. The man was so grateful for his brother's gift, but he cherished the shoes so much that he kept them in a glass box to preserve them instead of wearing them to protect his feet. The brother was disappointed that his gift was not being used. The shoes are like Christ's Atonement, and we need to make sure to not be like the man and just be grateful for this gift. We need to make sure to use the Atonement in our lives and pray and repent of our sins, so we can reap the full benefits of protection and healing. This is what Christ wants us to do with His gift to mankind. Such a wonderful message. That night, I was in charge of leading the group for ward scripture study and I decided to learn more about the Atonement by reading about it in the scriptures. It was truly an uplifting day. I definitely feel like I was in need of a spiritual awakening and renewal, and my short two days at camp gave me that.

The second day we did the challenge course and the girls were faced with a series of mental/physical challenges that they had to solve, work through, and learn from. I was in charge of a station called Islands where there were three stumps (or islands) and three planks you can use to get from island to island, except the planks don't reach far enough. The girls had to figure out how to work together and make a cantilever system to cross from island to island without falling "into the grand canyon" below (aka the ground 6 inches down haha). It was fun to watch each girl learn about teamwork, trust, and balance as they walked across the boards. At the end, we would take a few minutes to relate what we learned to our lives. We learned we have to trust the Lord, trust our parents and leaders, and trust one another as friends to help us get through life. We also learned that having balance in our lives is very important. Too much of anything can make us feel off-balance, and often praying, reading our scriptures, and counseling with the Lord can help us find balance in our lives again. :)

We played hard, worked hard, ate hard, and learned hard, and by the end of the day, we were all so tired it wasn't hard to sleep (here's one of our young women taking an afternoon nap):

I was sad I couldn't stay for the rest of the week, but I am so happy I was able to go for two days! Being in Young Women's is turning out to be pretty fun! And I'm learning a lot about myself in the process.

Charlie Randoms from March

Just a couple photos off my Canon camera from the last couple of weeks.
Can I just say that nap time is divine? Charlie looks like an angel when he sleeps, and I get a much-needed midday break :) I'm always very happy to see his cheery face after he's woken up!

And these other three are a few I snapped at the park on March 11th. I really can't believe how big he is getting. Maybe I need to just take a step out of the land of denial and deal with it ;) I just love his little squinty grimace/smile face (hahaha) and his sweet little hands:

I think it's safe to say he had fun that day. :)

I'm just so grateful for my husband and his fabulous job, which affords me the opportunity to stay home with this sweet boy every day. I live a very blessed life.

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween Day Fun

Well I know Halloween was almost two weeks ago, but I've been swamped with so many things going on right now that I haven't had time to hardly look at all the pictures I took, let alone edit them. Better late than never, though, right? Since I have so many pictures from Halloween, I think I'm going to have to do a few posts to split it up a bit! So, to start off, here are some pictures we took on Halloween day. My Mom came in town for Charlie's birthday party and was still visiting on Halloween, so she was able to enjoy all the festivities with us!

We didn't have a lot of time, so I began carving the pumpkin while Trev was still napping. To help keep Charlie contained and entertained, we stuck him in this Costco milk box. And, he was pretty happy about it. That is, until he tipped it over. Oops!

 Sweet boy, looking like he was delivered by the milk man :)

 Those eyes. Those cheeks. <3

Then, after tipping over in the milk carton, my Mom and Charlie and Trev, who had woken up, went out to our "yard" near our apartments to explore! I stayed behind to finish carving our pumpkin masterpiece. And, yes, Charlie is still in his jammies. Haha. I suppose I deserve the laziest mother of the year award!

This tree is so weird. It loses its leaves in clusters and they are still green when they fall! So strange. Anyone know what kind of tree that is? Anyway, it makes for some pretty awesome pictures!

 I LOVE the sunlight in this photo:

 Playing with sticks... one of his favorite outdoor activities:

 Gah. That little foot!

Here's a shot of the extent of our Halloween decor this year. Spiderwebs, nasty spiders, and pumpkins!

Oh, and this next photo collage might possibly be the creepiest thing that happened this Halloween. Eyes are pretty cool, huh? ;)

Here's Charlie meeting my jack-o-lantern masterpiece for the first time:

 I bet this view is what he saw:

Checking out those awesome pumpkin teeth!

Oh... and we purposely carved the jack-o-lantern to look like Charlie, and named it "Charlie the Pumpkin". Can you see why!? ;) They have the same smile!!

More Halloween pictures and fun to come!