This Face...

...cracks me up! Chloe makes the most mischevious little faces!

Cascade Falls

Here are the pictures of our waterfall hike. It was about a half mile hike and Morgan made it the whole way hiking on his own!

One of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on! Quick, challenging, and stunning...what more could you ask for?

Back to Reality

I am so glad to finally be home! I love taking the kids on vacation, but it is a lot of work and it is nice to be back in our normal groove again! This weekend we went to my family reunion down in Cedar City. We camped at the most beautiful campsite, spent lots of time at the pool with my family and my aunt's family, watched fireworks in Cedar City, endured a night of Chloe crying...all night long, slept soundly through an entire night (quite an accomplishment with 2 kids and 2 adults in one tent), missed all the kids' naps, hiked to a beautiful waterfall, and did a LOT of driving!

Grandma Colleen showed her great grandkids where she was baptized. Is that a cool font or what?

My cousin has a little boy Morgan's age and they are best buddies! They loved watching fireworks together.

The kids had so much fun exploring our campsite, getting really dirty and enjoying their camp chairs!

This picture pretty much sums up how all of us felt on the way home...exhausted!!!

The Fountain of Youth

A few weeks ago I went in for my first OBGYN appointment and had to get some blood work done. Seeing that all my tests were pregnancy related, the lady drawing my blood decided to make some friendly conversation...
"Is this your first baby?"
"No, it is my third"
"No way, you are way too young to have 3 kids!" (this was not meant as a compliment...this was a disapproving 'are you a crazy person?' comment)

This is fairly typical lately ... the looks, the comments ... and it drives me nuts, so I want to share some thoughts that have crossed my mind.

I realize that I am 24 years old and pregnant with my 3rd child, but...
I was not having kids in my teens...Morgan was born when I was 21.
Seth and I had been married for a year and a half when Morgan was born (fast I know, but we were happy and stable).
I had graduated from college before any of my kids were born and Seth graduated when Morgan had just turned one.
We bought a house before we got pregnant with Morgan.
My kids are almost exactly 2 years apart, which is actually pretty typical spacing.
And finally, all of our kids have been prayerfully planned.

So there you go, the crazy rantings of an irritated pregnant lady. On the flip side, the Young Women were over at my house for their class activity a few weeks ago and we were playing guesstures. The word was "Old Lady" and one of the girls pointed to me. Thank heavens no one guessed it...I am pretty sure that I haven't crossed that line yet!

Sleepless Nights

I am a little embarassed to admit that I have been completely obsessed with the Bachelorette this season. Like many of you, I feel a little ashamed watching (and enjoying) it, but I really liked a couple of the guys and was rooting for them. Graham, Jason and Jesse were my favorites from the beginning, so when it came down to Jesse and Jason as the final 2, I was pretty happy about it (I wished it were Graham and Jason, but it was okay). I was completely and totally sold on Jason - he was so sweet and fun and I am a pushover for good dads! So, needless to say, when Jason got sent home, I was shocked and so sad. Then they did the little "After the Final Rose" deal-e-o and I was even more sad. So last night was another sleepless night caused by TV. I was tossing and turning thinking about poor Jason and hoping that he finds someone amazing ... man, I gotta stop watching this crap!

Progress

Sorry for the plethora of posts today, I've been on a bit of a blogging dry spell with everything going on lately so I am trying to catch up.

This post has been a long time coming, but I didn't want to post all the bad without any good, so I had to get to a happy place and this is it!

The blessed/cursed garage is progressing! Here is the scoop...

- Hired a guy for excavation and concrete who turns out to be a flake and a gambler...blah blah blah...he is no longer "hired"...this man has caused me more stress and phone minutes than the rest of the project combined (including inspections, permits and the like)!!!

-We poured our own concrete slab for the garage...not pretty, but level and solid...the driveway will be much prettier (and we are welcoming all volunteers who wish to help us pour;) !!!)

-We have a beautifully framed and ENORMOUS! (though smaller than our old one) garage that is ready for some final sheeting, roofing and siding in the next week or so!

-The backyard is still a mess

-We could not ask for a better next door neighbors in the entire world - not only has John helped, he has taken the project on like it was his own, sacrificed a SOLID week of his time from dawn to dusk, plus the many other days and hours he has spent, and is still excited to get out there tomorrow and knock some more out! The "grills" have watched Morgan, been water girls, and played with Chloe, and Allison has spent her days off helping and making food for us! Seriously, we will never have better neighbors!

-All 3 year olds should have the opportunity to live at a construction site - Morgan has loved the concrete trucks, the bobcats, the diggers, the dumpsters, the trucks that delivered the supplies - all of it! He has also loved getting out his tools and working right alongside his dad!-I am officially sick of eating out.

-I am officially too tired to cook.

-My poor family never gets to eat!

-Seth and I have some totally white trash farmer tans!

-My kids have learned to be more independent.

-I have been drinking more water than ever before in my life!

-Seth is so amazing, strong and such a hard worker.

-Sutherland's Garage kits are definitely the way to go if you are looking into a new garage - they are awesome (and you can hire people to put them together if you have the $$$ and lack the skills/time/motivation)

-Callie ripped her side open on a nail and had to get stitches

-Morgan stepped on a nail

-Seth got a concrete burn on his legs

-Women get more help when they go to Home Depot than men do - especially if they take the building plans and their 2 kids and ask for help!

-We have seen the windows of heaven opened and blessings poured down in the shape of wonderful people who have offered their time and talents to help us!!!

THANK YOU to all who have helped, the encouragement, the listening ear for my complaining, the food, the HARD LABOR, the input, the use of your tools, the help with the kids, the recognition of progress - all have been noticed and appreciated!

Special thanks to John and Allison and the "grills", Ryan - our superhero!, Sherm, Denese, Smelly, Jess, John (my step-dad), Mom, Dad, Michael, Stephen, The Clarks, Wes, Jeremy, Emma, and anyone else I have forgotten.

And an extra special thank you to Seth! Thank you for being such an amazing provider and a man of many talents! Thank you for teaching me about patience and faith! Thank you for giving your all to this project despite work, church responsibilities and school! It is a special man who works a 12 hour shift and comes home to work another 3 hours on the garage! You are the best husband a girl could ask for!!!

Hakuna Matata

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to Sun Valley, thanks to my fabulous mom a.k.a. Grandma Becky! We had so much fun relaxing by the pool, jumping on the hotel beds, bike riding all over Sun Valley, eating yummy food, getting ice cream and fudge, and watching movies on the laptop! Here are some pictures of our fun times...

Saturday we rented bikes and took a ride up toward the ski slopes. We stopped and had a picnic lunch at a little Rotary Pary and the kids loved playing on the swings. This is Morgan giving Chloe an "Underdog"!

Here is Chloe, chowing down! Saturday night we had dinner at this great italian place and they had tortelini on their kids menu. As you can see, Chloe really likes tortelini!

We spent a lot of time by the pool. The pool itself was freezing cold, so we dipped in the hot tub and splashed our toes in the water. So fun!

Morgan wanted to be just like his little sister and play in her floater. Is he adoreable or what?

This is where the kids spent a good deal of time. Luckily they love the outdoors and all that comes with it! We had a couple of "stop the bike" moments when someone was invading someone else's space and causing a scene, but for the most part the kids loved their bike trailer!

This was certainly my favorite part of the trip...nightly Ice Cream runs to Le Roy's. We rode our bikes Saturday night and then went back for more on Sunday! Mmmm!

The only bad part of the trip (other than the fact that I remember why I don't like traveling when pregnant) was sleeping. We had this great hotel room with a full kitchen and plenty of space, but the kids had such a hard time getting and staying asleep. Sunday night, I gave up, so we watched Shrek, secretly hoping that Morgan would fall asleep by the end. Alas, no sleeping happened until after 11:00 that night. Needless to say, we have all slept much better since being home! Note to self: new rule, do not travel and stay in a studio hotel room until youngest child is at least 2. Even then...it is probably still not worth it!

Newbie

I realize that I have done this whole pregnancy thing twice in the past three years and should be an old pro by now, but I still feel like it is all new this time. For one thing, being home with kids is much less forgiving than being at work with empathetic people when you are feeling icky, tired or blah.

For another, the physical toll on my poor little body seems so much greater this pregnancy. This is surprising since I worked retail my entire (up to the day before I delivered) pregnancy with Morgan, but carrying my 30 and 40 lb. kids up and down stairs and out to the car and restraining 2 giant dogs from loving people to death when they visit our house is catching up with me. I guess that helping to build a fence and garage in the hot hot sun hasn't helped much either.

And speaking of the hot hot sun...pregnancy has never caused my internal temperature to rise, but man, it is hot this summer (thanks for letting me get a/c Seth - bet you are glad you did)!

And finally, my first trip to the ER last night after blurred vision, left-side numbness and a bad headache got Seth worried enough to come home early and whisk me back to the hospital. After 4.5 hours, an entire IV, 3 warm blankets (thanks to a husband who knows his way around the ER), blood tests, a CT Scan and some headache meds, we finally made it back home (at 12:30 AM). The diagnosis: a migraine and a pre/mini-stroke type thing (Seth could give you the technical term), but symptoms had passed and all is well. So wierd! That has certainly never happened to me during pregnancy (or ever) before.

So, I hope you will bear with me as I journal all the craziness of this third pregnancy will all the wonder, complaining, and surprise of a first time mom over the next 7 months!

ADDENDUM 7/2 1:22 pm: Sorry if I worried anyone with this post... as I mentioned, all is now well! An ultrasound today showed a strong heartbeat and a perfectly growing blob (baby)! Another new thing about pregnancy this time around...morning sickness freaks kids out! Morgan saw me throwing up this morning and ran into the living room to seek solice on the couch. When I found his trembling little self we had a talk about how it is normal for mommy's to throw up when their belly has a baby in it. Unfortunately I think next time he throws up he will go around telling people he has a baby in his belly - I tried explaining, but it was just too confusing for his little mind!