Fun on the Fourth

Happy 4th of July! You knew the girls would be matching didn't you? :)

Megan was excited for the bike parade at our church pancake breakfast.

Mikayla was excited to ride her bike with NO TRAINING WHEELS!! She worked on it all week and is now riding sans lil wheels and is doing great!

Having fun in the hot tub in the afternoon. Seriously, hot tub in July?!

Another summer achievement for Mikayla is going off the diving board all by herself with NO LIFE JACKET!! She's getting braver and it is so much more fun to take her swimming now.
She loved the sparklers and all the fireworks, Megs just kinda cowered under a blanket on my lap and wasn't a huge fan. We had a fun time though!

Happy Canada Day!

My half-Canadian cutie!

Can you tell we were having a little argument about who got to hold the flag for the picture?!

Daddy with his girls

Baby and I got in on the Canada Day fun too!

I made maple leaf cupcakes for our little Canada Day party!
Mikayla posed us with the flag and took our pic--not totally centered, but it is clear!

We made a Catch Phrase wheel with famous Canadians and Canada words(like "hockey, Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, province," etc. How many Canadians can you name?)

We ate poutine, a Canadian dish made of French fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds. It actually was pretty darn good! We drank Canada Dry and had fruit and veggies too.

Some more Catch Phrase, it really was fun! It was fun to share some Canadian trivia, play some games, and all wear red/white in spirit of the holiday. Not surprisingly, no one had celebrated Canada Day before so it was fun to do something different with family and friends!

Girl's Camp 2009

I had SO MUCH FUN with these ladies at Girl's Camp!! Girl's Camp is for 12-18 year old girls in our church and we go to Camp Nauvoo for a week. The theme this year was "Basic Training" and it was such a great theme and such a great week. Megan and I had the 15 yr. olds and we were the Air Force, and Dawn and Kelsey had the 14 yr olds and they were the Marines. Also represented was the Army, Coast Guard, Navy, and Special Forces. We had fun with our "costumes" and decorations and the four of us got to go on the overnight hike with the girls and had a blast. We got the girls all to bed around 11pm and stayed up laughing and talking for a few hours, so fun! I only have a few pics from camp but they have a cd with hundreds more that I should be getting soon!
My cousin Samantha and her mad archery skills.

My favorite night! Bishop's Night! All the bishops and stake pres. come up and talk with the girls and sing silly camp songs and do skits and it really is so much fun to have them all there.

At the end of the week each level makes a "boat" out of the decorations and we send it down the river with girls on both sides singing church and primary songs. Ours was definitely very cool.

This year, being 5 months pregnant, I opted out of the water ball dodgeball game with the bishops. So instead I ended up babysitting 2 phones, 6 pairs of sunglasses, and a camera for others who were playing. And yes, I rocked the braids for 3 days. I would shower and rebraid them because honestly, what's easier than braids when camping? Thanks goodness for long hair! Even though I came home dirty, exhausted, and tired, it really was a fun week overall and I'm glad I got the chance to go. I just love Girl's Camp!

Christmas in June

We stood in line with the thousands of others who braved the sun and heat to see Disney's Christmas Carol train. Worth the almost 2 hr wait? Not really, but cool in its own right. Here is Mikayla and me sporting our sweet 3-d glasses. She loved the 3-d effects, Megan was scared out of her mind by the 10 minute movie though. I'm not so sure we'll be seeing it in theaters, I think it might be meant for a slightly older kid crowd.

One of the costumes from the movie. The girls loved the dresses and wanted their pictures taken with all of them.

The head mask things were kinda creepy, but toally cool. They enjoyed morphing the pic of their face into a character from the movie the most. Oh well, kinda cool tour, neat movie showing, fun jugglers to watch outside, and best of all it was free. We're trying to find fun, new things to do with the girls each week to keep summer fun and going strong.

Family Night Slumber Party!

We're trying to get creative this summer with fun things to do with the girls. So, for family night this week we all camped out in the tent in the backyard! First we set up the tent...

Then we had a song by Megan(Popcorn Popping of course) and a lesson by Mikayla (about who knows what! It was supposed to be on manners I think!).

We had s'mores that I made in the oven b/c you "have to have s'mores when you're camping!"

Then we all piled into the tent for some fun and a movie.

We ran an extension cord out from the house and watched "Bedtime Stories." Hil-ar-i-ous! We were laughing our butts off and the other day when we got free rootbeer floats from A&W Mikayla said, "For FREEEEEE!!" Adam Sandler style. Okay, I guess you had to be there.....
After the movie we snuggled a bit and then....

the girls fell fast asleep. Yeah, okay, they wanted a sleeping picture and I told them to pretend and I guess this is the best a 2 year old can do! Pretty funny if you ask me!

Funny part is she pretended to snore too, as if she really does that at night! haha It was a fun night and hopefully we'll do it again this summer!

Megan's Surgery

Getting ready for surgery, just got the smock and the wristband on.

Holding on to her baby doll who came along for the ride.

She kept trying sooo hard to get the wristband off!

Watching Elmo with dad waiting for the anesthesiologist.

Litt Megs trying to wake up from her surgery with her oxygen mask on. She had tubes put in both ears to clear out the large amount of fluid that has accumulated and not left in over 6 months. Hopefully this will help her hear better and in turn, speak more clearly. We had to be there at 6am, hence all of our sleepy faces, but it was a quick surgery and all went smoothly.

The funniest part was when they gave her "happy juice." She drank the cherry Valium-like medicine and within minutes her eyelids starting fluttering and her head was rolling around. I kissed her cheek and she started licking me! All over my face and neck, she thought she was so funny. She was so out of it though that her laugh was a low chuckle and it took all she had to keep licking my face without falling asleep. It was so funny! Trent and I and the nurses were busting up.

Feeling Guilty

I took a class at the gym with weights yesterday, taught a high-impact class later, swam with Mikayla for an hour, and went back and taught two back-to-back classes this morning. After all that and running a few errands I put Megan down for a nap and decided to rest too. I hadn't laid down in bed for more than 5 minutes when I hear Mikayla, "Mom, aren't you going to watch the movie with me?" I said no and that I needed to rest.

She says, "Fine. I'll watch the movie and you just lay here in bed doing absolutely nothing..." and walked off. For a fraction of a second I felt guilty. Yeah, it's the middle of the day, what am I doing in bed--that kind of guilty. But, I got over it and fell right to sleep chuckling at how lazy my kid thinks I am!

Painted Toes and Beauty Rest

Last week a few preggo friends and I went to Bryan College 3 days in a row for free pregnancy massages, paraffin hand/foot waxes, pedicures, facials, etc. It was FABULOUS. The students needed pregnant women to "practice" pregnancy massages on and Trent's cousin is the head of the massage therapy department there and asked if I could come and bring pregnant friends. Well, what a treat it was, let me tell you! I went home so relaxed and rejuvenated and just feeling plain good each day.

I had 4 ladies working on me and at first I thought a massage with 8 hands was kind of sensory overload, but I loved it! Talk about having your head, arms, legs, and back all massaged at the SAME time! Bliss.

On my birthday last week the girls that were working on me also gave me a pedicure and did blue nails with red and white stars for the Fourth of July. I've never had blue nails before and I'm not sure I'm in love with the color, but the girl was a certified cosmetologist so I get a free pedicure and wasn't going to complain about the color!
As a special treat for Mikayla last week I took her shopping with me and told her she could pick out a new nail polish color. She chose sparkly purple/blue/pink for her fingers and a bright purple for her toes. She rocks the purple toes and loves the bright color!
For use during my massage, my ladies gave me a mask to wear to help me relax more and block out the light. Mikayla thought it was pretty cool and wanted to wear it to bed. For as much as she tosses and turns though, this is how I found her when I checked on her before bed. Not so sure it's working right! She's such a girly girl!

This Is How We Roll

That's right! I am 27 and have a minivan. I DID NOT think I would have one so young, but alas, here I am going on kidlet #3 and found it time to enter the world as a minivan momma. It's a 2008 Sedona that we got for a screamin' deal with only 45 miles on it. Now, 2 weeks later, it has many more miles--sniff, sniff-- but I absolutely LOVE driving it. The color's called "olive gray." You tell me what you think that means. Some say blue, some say green, some say gray. I think the color kinda changes depending on the light.


I have way more visibility than the Durango and Mikayla loves that her seat reclines for trips to Chico and just when she's tired. And no, we don't have 4 vehicles now. The Corolla was totaled in an accident (no, I wasn't driving, thank you very much!), the truck was put out to pasture (needs thousands more moolah in work than it is worth, hey, it was a work truck), and now Trent uses the Durango for his signs and has a trailer that he hitches up behind it to tow all the signs in. So we just have the Durango and a minivan.

Heck, in the fall, I will officially be a soccer mom as Mikayla starts her first year of soccer and will be escorted to and from games in a minivan. :)

Mikayla, reclining and resting on the way back from the Folsom outlets.
Megan loves her ride and can see out the windows.

The Reason It Takes Girls So Long to Shop

I took Mikayla with me to run errands this morning. By store #4 I was tired and had to keep reminding her to stay with me and keep coming and let's go faster and finally she stops, looks at me, throws her arms in the air and says, "Mom, I would go faster but I just keep getting distracted! There's too many good things to look at!" I just sighed. She's right. I even get distracted when shopping, I can't blame her...

Day At the Ball Park

Trent took Mikayla to a Rivercats baseball game on a daddy-daughter date and I was a little worried she would barely last a few innings. I packed some snacks and a game for them to play and she was so excited to go to her first real ball game. To make it even better, Trent brought his ball glove "just in case" to catch any stray balls. Well, wouldn't you know it, a nice first baseman tossed one up to them on his way into the dugout and Mikayla was SOOO excited that they "caught" a ball!

Megan of course had to get her picture taken too! What a fun day!

And Baby #3 Is...

A Girl!!!

Here I am before the ultrasound today, too bad you can't see the ultra-cute shoes! haha :) I'm 19 weeks now and we went in and found that everything is right on track and baby is healthy and that Trent has no male sperm in his body. lol Just kidding, but seriously. 3 girls?! Holy mole!

We were driving home tonight and the girls for some random reason both decided to scream at the top of their lungs and not a nice scream either--the ear-piercing siren scream that drives me up the wall! They were laughing and trying to outdo each other and I just looked over at Trent and said, "Seriously? One more of these?! My ears cannot take it!" :)

So, the tech showed us several pictures of the girl parts and lack of boy parts and I don't know why, but I cried. Right there on the table. Not the, "I'm so emotional and full of joy" cry, but the "I can't believe it, because I was secretly sure it was a boy and planned out his wardrobe and crib bedding and have to give away the cute outfit and blanket I prematurely bought!" I was a little shocked.

I know it's silly and stupid in fact. She's healthy and growing well and that's all that should matter. Another girl will be wonderful. I'm a "girl Mom." I know how to do girls and I love the cute clothes and hairbows, but I was so caught off guard by my emotions that I didn't even call my mother, she called me about 4 hrs later saying, "Wasn't your ultrasound today?" I said yep and she said, "Well, I'm guessing since you didn't call we're having another girl?" And I cried. She's excited and said my brother Dusty heard the news and said, "Great! Another girl for me to love" Very sweet. So yes, there's the news! Don't rib me about not having a boy because I will most likely cry. But I'll get over it. :)

Any girl names to suggest? We found out we can't leave the baby-naming up to Mikayla. Her picks? Zelda Isabella, or Tina. Seriously.

Megan's Cookie Monster Party!

Megan turned 2 and had a Cookie Monster party. When you ask her what Cookie Monster says, she sticks her hand in her mouth and pretends to eat it while making loud munching sounds. It cracks us up and is pretty cute to watch! She's standing with a Cookie Monster cutout that my mom made, it's become tradition to make a wooden cutout for each party. So far we've had Elmo, Dora, giant ice cream cones, and now Cookie Monster!

Blowing out the candles!

Our family.

I've been so busy with work and end of school stuff and life in general that I opted to make cupcakes instead of a cake this year! They were super easy and everyone had their own Monster eating a cookie!
Megan with Mikayla, Erik, Brock, and Matthew. Happy Birthday Megs!

I Want An Imagination Like That

While watching the sunset the other night, Mikayla saw lots of images in the clouds. I seem to see airplanes, bugs, and a cookie with a bite out of it. Not Mikayla. She stares up at the clouds and says,

"That one is a T-Rex with lava coming out of his bum." Huh?! Okay.... and how about that cloud?

"That one is a mommy alligator and a baby alligator sleeping and the mommy is laying on a pillow and she has one eye open to watch her baby sleep." You got all that from a cloud?!
And the next one?

"That one is a T-Rex sleeping, then he gets up and chases a pelican." Either we're not looking at the same clouds or I am seriously boring. :)