Ok, I admit it...

I am officially the worst blogger ever!  Sorry ya'll!  But I have actually REALLY thought about blogging this past month.  Once I even got on here and was geared up to go, when I couldn't find my camera cord.  And I have an awful memory.  The only way I can EVER remember what we have done over the past month is by looking back at my pictures and going, "oh yeah!"  Unfortunately, we have done alot of stuff this past month that I DIDN'T photograph, so we'll see how much I remember.

In no particular order here is some of what we have been up to!

 Lily giving the "I love you sign"

The girls started gymnastics, Lily, back for another year and Isabel in her first class ever.  They are both LOVING it!  I knew that Izzie would love it, and though she is definitely the youngest in her class she is just eating it up.  She goes around somersaulting to her hearts delight all day long.  Its funny, she has had no tears and has been relatively fearless (as I thought she would be) on all the apparatuses.  Lily hasn't cried at all yet this year.  Her first year she was scared to death of the bars and the beam, she is just such a cautious and careful girl, where as Izzie will jump off/climb up on just about anything.  but this year Lily is doing great and I am so proud of her progress.  It is so interesting to see how different my two girls are and makes me even more anxious to meet our newest princess!

We have been able to spend lots of time with family and friends this month, which is kind of crazy because we have been super busy!  We just sort of decided to MAKE the time and fit it all in.  We have been so busy/sick/exhausted this past year that we haven't made as much of an effort.  But in the past couple weeks, we have driven out to Chandler to spend a day with Matt's sister Heather and Tommy and their kids.  It was great, we love them so much and used to spend time with them ALL the time when we lived in the east valley and now we hardly ever see them!  My brother Charlie has driven over several days this past month since he has been home from his latest travels (he was gone from mid-may to mid august being in Argentina, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Prague, Amsterdam, Russia, somewhere along the black see and a couple of other places that I have forgotten--he is one busy dude!), he is so great to make the drive at least once a month and usually about every other week, even though is is SO swamped teaching at ASU and working on his PhD.  One week he even brought Matt and my great friend Gary over to spend the day as well.  He is such a great brother and just the BEST uncle, the girls absolutely adore him.  Maybe because he is putty in their hands and will do just about anything they ask of him.  Really...he is their play slave.  I am sure he'll hate me for this but here is some photographic evidence of his love for them!

We also went out with Matt brother Barry and his wife Janeal on a double date.  This was the first official date of Matt and mine in quite a while.  We are just too busy!  We had to go in the middle of the day (during naptime to make it work, we have been trying to get our schedules to match up so we could go out with them since last Christmas.  Pretty pathetic, but we finally managed it and we had a great time.  I am sure it was entertaining to watch Janeal and I bowl since we are both preggers.  We also had a barbecue while Matt's 'rents were out of town, with some of our friends from our old ward.  I LOOOOOOVED that ward and we really miss all of the ridiculously wonderful people who are in that ward.  Seriously it is like a freak occurrence with a highly condensed population of awesome people within one ward's boundaries.  I also had a girl's night out while my friend Tavia was in town, which as always, was a complete riot.  I have some great friends from back in the college days and we have such a random assortment of personalities you would never think to put us all together, but it just works and I love these girls SO FREAKING MUCH!  We always have a great time and never stop laughing.  They keep me on my toes, that is for sure.  It is weird to think that we have all been friends for almost ten years (at least...some of them I have known longer).  This pic is actually from our previous girls night in April.  We usually do this once or twice a year, this time there were alot fewer of us, but it was SOOO wonderful.  Anyway, I just wanted a pic, so you would get the idea and so this post wouldn't be quite so pic-less.

Matt's parents always have Sunday dinner at their house every week, which is now our house as well.  A couple weeks ago the WHOLE family was actually here at the same time (we try and make sure everyone is all here at the same time once a month but it doesn't always happen).  It was lots of fun, we get different groupings every week and its always nice (albeit crazy) when everyone is here.  Lily always prays (everyday) that her cousins will come over.

Both girls absolutely LOVE their uncle Tommy...almost to the point where I feel bad for him

 Janeal, Heather (who is giving me attitude...what a surprise!) and Grama 'Kernan

 What a wonderful backyard Nana has for us all, even if it is 110 degrees out!  I love the smile on Colton below!

 Rory (barry's), Eve (mandy's) & McKenzie (Heather's)

 Boopah & Nana (matt's parents) have assembled stuff to have a jug band and the kids love it.  Heather took a bunch of pics (which are much better quality I am SURE) from the previous week, but I have yet to see them...

Lily is still LOVING school.  After the first few weeks, I emailed her teacher asking how she was doing, or if there was anything we should working with her on, since it is her first time at school and I was curious to see how she did away from me and in a different environment.  I also wanted to diffuse any problems now early on, so that she can have the best school experience possible.  Her teacher wrote me a really nice email about her, and I have to brag a little/save it for posterity's sake :)  Here it is:

"You should be very proud of Lily! She is kind, polite and always follows the rules. I am most impressed with her social skills as she plays really well with the other kids in the class. She makes friends easily and shares well. I've even seen her invite others who are alone to help her with her puzzle during puzzle time. This is really unique at her age. Lily can write her name all by herself and isn't afraid to try new things. She is a happy little girl. I am so glad she's in our class!

 If I see that Lily needs help with anything I'll be sure to let you know. So far she is a perfect student!"

The girls are starting to have SOOOO much fun playing together, I love to watch them play, and dress up and make believe.  They get along really well most of the time and I know it is because Lily is such a loving/sharing big sister (most of the time) and Isabel just adores her.

This is how Izzie lays on the floor (with her chin in her hand, kicking her feet like a teenager) when she reads books and colors.  It cracks me up.

 OK, so lately I have been letting the girls watch one movie almost every day.  I don't let them watch TV (though sometimes they watch downstairs with Nana), but we have been doing a movie a day pretty consistently lately and although I do feel a little guilty about it, it allows me to get stuff done...like taking a shower.  Anyway, their favorite movies are the Toy Story movies and they always get decked out in cowgirl stuff and usually have Buzz and woody (who Lily -and now Iz-will only refer to as "buddy", don't bother trying to convince her that his name is actually woody...its a no go) and their stick horses, they are obsessed.

 Here is Izzie getting ready for Family prayer

 Matt doesn't always get to spend time with the girls everyday, but the days when he has a few minutes (even though he is exhausted and occasionally falls asleep while reading a book) he tries to read with them and play on the floor a little.  He really is the best Dad, and I love him for it!

Matt and I also went to the temple together last week.  It was SOOOO nice (even if we did have to get up at 5 am to get it in the sched).  I have gotten to the point where I just LOVE being there and wish I could go everyday.  Or even every week.  I set the goal in April to go every month and for the past 6 months I have only missed July (we moved and it was a CRAZY month).  It is hard when Matt is so busy and I have to arrange a sitter and this month was the first time we have been able to go together in a long time.  It was so nice, especially because we are just about to celebrate our anniversary in a couple weeks. It was kind of a busy crazy day and it seemed especially hard for me to leave the sweet spirit of the temple and come back to the craziness of life.  Between the AMAZING women's conference (that I LOVE that I was able to watch online in my jammies with a kid on my lap!  otherwise I would have had to miss it and it was SO good), and the temple this week, it was such an uplifting week for my soul!

If we did anything fun with you this past month and I neglected to post about it SORRY!!  I just didn't take a picture and my mind is so swamped that I can't even remember what I wore yesterday...seriously.

I feel like just adding in preschool and gymnastics has made our schedules SO much busier.  Things are just crazy and they are only going to get worse.  I feel like this baby just sucks the energy out of me and somewhere in the back of my mind I am always secretly (or not so secretly) wishing for a nap!  Life is really great, but I feel like it is one thing after another and there won't be anytime to come up for air and in just a few months this baby will come out and I will be even MORE exhausted.  Some days I love the structure of our busy schedules and other times I look to see when the next possible pajama day is where we don't have to be anywhere and can just do housework and stay home all day in our PJs all day long.  I have really been trying my best to be more cheerful and more proactive.  Some days it works and others I fall short.  I just wish I wasn't so tired half the time.  Although I guess that is just part of the challenge of motherhood.  Figuring out how to be exhausted and still productive and cheerful.  It is a work in progress for me :)

I am just past 6.5 months in this pregnancy, and I know the next 3 months will go by super quickly.  Next month we go on our first "real" family vacation (other than going to visit family) in 3 years.  If you remember correctly our last vacation (last year) was thwarted last minute (our car was literally packed up), by the arrival in our house of the swine-flu.  Well we are scheduled to be in Cali (in the beach house!) next week with Heather & Tom and we are SOOOO excited.  Matt will still be having to do school stuff while we are there, which is a bummer but inevitable.  The girls are currently sick right now, Lily even stayed home from school, and I am just hoping that since we have exactly one week before we go, they will both get better and not get Matt or I sick and not pass it back and forth.  Say a little prayer that we will all be healthy and get to enjoy a great trip! ***side note-if you have a toddle size life jacket (for Izzie) that we could borrow, that would be awesome!  We have one for Lily, but want a second one to strap on Iz***

After we get back we have something every single weekend in October, plus Matt being enrolled in like 6 classes, plus full time work.  So October will probably go by extremely quickly for us.  I just can't WAIT for it to cool off.  We got a bike trailer for the girls to ride in (it gets pulled behind Matt's bike) and it is lots of fun, but we have to go super early or else it is still just TOO HOT!  I am wishing it would be below 110 and even more that it would be below 100?  Is double digits in October too much to ask for?  Well, even if it is, I am still asking!

Anyway, that is our life in a nutshell!  Hopefully the next post will be LOADS shorter... and sooner... and be filled with lots of pictures of our vacation!  :)