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!  :)

Lily's First day of school EVER!

Lily started preschool this week!  It is kind of crazy!  I can't believe that she is so big.  She has been SO excited to go to school.  We took her to walmart and let her pick out a backpack and she has been wearing it and talking about school non-stop for the past week.  She is so ready to get out there!  Yesterday was her first day and she loved it!  Here are her first ever 'first day of school pics'!

The most wonderful thing about summer, is summer's a wonderful thing!  I guess now that we have a kiddo in school our summer is at an end (kind of...preschool's only 2 days a week and it is still over 110 outside so...).  We didn't have a very eventful summer.  Matt was crazy busy with school and work, I was pretty sick and we moved, so we didn't get to do too many fun activities.  Matt was simply unavailable and I just was NOT up to the task of being out in the heat with both girls by myself.  It was kind of a summer of survival.

But here are some of my favorite things about summer.

Baby Names

Hey ya'll it is that time again, we are thinking about baby names!  So what are your opinions?  Take a vote!  But please be aware, we will likely ignore whatever you say and go with our gut (if it ever speaks up), so don't be offended if that happens. 

I am more at a loss, this is our 3rd time going over girl names and at this point I don't have any super strong feelings pointing the way, but I do have 3 that I am strongly considering.  Oh, and since I actually like all these names, please limit your comments to positive ones and none of the "Well, I absolutely HATE 'this one'".  Anyway, I would LOVE to hear some input, and even if you have suggestions that aren't currently on our list, we are open to them!  Here they are!

JANE

(I am a HUGE Jane Austen fan and this classic name makes me think of the beautiful Jane Bennet)

KATHRYN

(after my mom whose name is Kathy, we would probably call her Kate, maybe Kitty as a little girl)

ELLE

(and call her Ellie as a little girl)

Anyway, as you can tell we like more simple classic names, our other girls are Lily and Isabel, and we'd like to stay in that classic category.  So...what do you think?

And the baby is a...

...nother girl!  We are 90% sure that this one is a girl :)  We will check again at our next appointment to make sure.  The baby looks healthy and great so far.  She is measuring just over a week behind our due date, which isn't too suprising for us since we think conception-wise she is about a week behind the standard time table, so maybe she will only be one week early instead of 2.

I am actually really excited that it is going to be a girl.  It will be more convient at this point in our lives and certainly more cost effective to have a girl.  Plus we know what we are doing with a girl.  If this were going to be our last baby we would have been hoping for a boy, but since we are sure that we will have at LEAST one more, we are just happy for healthy and actually kind of relieved that it is a girl, since it will be easier at this point.

Now I am just wondering what her little personality will be like.  Lily and Isabel are SO different and they each add such a unique dynamic to our little family.  It will be so interesting to get to know this little one and see what effect her personality has on our group.  I love her already and it will be great to meet her and know her.

Now we have to figure out a name so she stops being "her".  We are kicking a couple of things around, so we'll see. 

Photos From Thatcher

Alright here are the photos that I left out of my last post that my mom sent me this morning

Kaleb and Ben in their Jungle Book get up

And a slide show of fun things that they did with Grandma, while I was either sick or when they were there without me.  My mom is always so great to do lots of fun things with them.  I think these have pictures with them at the park, duck ponds, on the mountain, playing with cousins and in a huge box that she saved so we could color it and make a house.  Good Times.  Once again please close the little pop-up add so that you can read cations.

IF I WERE A GLADIATOR MY NAME WOULD BE...

...Vomitous Maximus.

For real.  This pregnancy was really unexpected.  And it has taken me a while to wrap my head around it.  Especially because I have been more sick than I have ever been.  Like vomiting 5 & 6 times a day EVERY single day, and constantly feeling like you are on day 2 of the 48 hour stomache flu.  Needless to say it has been a big challenge to try and live life and get ANYTHING done, when I feel shaky and exhausted from all the vomiting.  But finally things are getting better, I am only throwing up a few times a week and I have even gained back a few pounds.

I haven't blogged in so long because I have been so sick and have thus gotten SO behind, that the thought of catching up has been WAY too overwhelming.  But this blog also serves as my journal of sorts, so it is time for me to just suck it up and get it done :)

Now I will try to catch you up on the going-ons of the past couple months.  It will be really brief.  Each activity really should have it's own post, but instead we will go for a summed up megablog.

The first weekend in May we went to Thatcher, we saw 2 of my nephews in the play "Jungle Book" which was the youngest age group of EAC children's theater program.  It was so fun.  It was their first play and my nephew Kaleb (the older of the 2 brothers) was Mogli.  It reminded me of doing theater at their age and they were so cute.  That same weekend we went to the Gila Valley Temple open house and Matt's oldest sister Heather and her husband and 4 kids came Friday night and stayed all day Saturday with us.  We all stayed at my mom's house and on saturday we went swimming in roper lake and had a picnic on the mountain.  It was lots of fun.

I didn't take ANY pics on my thatcher trips this summer, since I was feeling pretty nasty and photos weren't a priority so thanks to Heather for emailing me copies of her pics.  Also my Mom is supposed to send me copies of the ones she has taken this summer, but the power is out in Thatcher and I am too impatient, so I will post them once I get them.

If you close the add at the bottom of the slideshow you will be able to read my captions

Also in May, Matt and I took our FIRST EVER vacation alone together.  Even though we are spending a TON of money on school this year, planning on paying off our car by the end of the year (2 years early) and trying to save $ for grad school, I just decided that it was TIME.  Matt has been SO busy with school and in May he got a 5 day break from school and also had those 5 days in a row without work, so I planned a suprise trip to a nice resort in Vail, CO.  He had NO idea and I packed for him and got it all set and ready so that I didn't tell him what was going on until we pulled into the airport.  He was totally suprised and he deserved it!  We had a GREAT time, even though I was puking my brains out.  One of the fun things we did while we were there was to go ziplining.  It was awesome.  I had also planned on us going white water rafting, but I had planned the trip the week before I got pregnant, so there were a few things that got cut out of the original plan due to the baby.

Here I am taking off on the first zip of the day, it was the slowest of the zips, the speeds got faster as the day progressed, they try and ease you in.

And here is Matt on the final zip, it was the lowest down into the canyon by far (it went under the other lines), but it was fast and long.  The zipping noise sounded kind of like a little girl screaming...but its not Matt, I promise :)

We got home and Matt started right back in with school and work and after a couple weeks I went to Thatcher for 2.5 weeks.  It was nice.  Although, I really missed Matt.  It was by far the longest we have ever been apart, but he was SO busy with school, I wouldn't have seen much of him anyway.  And it was SO good to let my mom take care of me and the girls.  My mom COMPLETELY took over full time care of the girls and let me try to relax.  I was still puking all day everday, plus getting up 1-3 times every night to vomit.  So she let me lay around and nap off and on all day.  I didn't do anything or go anywhere while I was there, I was just SO sick.  Although I DID go to the temple with GG, my great aunt and my mom and Hank one day.  It was SO great to be there and especially with them. 

 Part of the reason that I went to thatcher when I did was so that I was there for the one year anniversary of my Grandpa's death.  It was really hard on me to lose my Grandpa and even harder on my GG.  My mom and I wanted to do something special for her so my mom made a special dinner on the actual day for our family and GG and she emailed all of GG & Grandpa's decendants asking them to write out something about Grandpa, then I went through old and new pics and made a scrapbook of Grandpa's life and of his memorial services.  In the memorial section we inserted pics from the luncheon and the letters we had recieved about Grandpa.  I think it turned out nice.  We also bought her a bouquet of flowers in Grandpa's favorite colors.  Last year Grandpa passed away and just a couple days later (the day we held his funeral acutally) was his and GG's 60th wedding anniversary.  So it was that day, their anniversary, that we had planned to all go to the temple and then to lunch.  I really wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it, I was really just SOOO sick.  but I prayed and prayed for days hoping to feel well enough to at least be able to go and not throw up anywhere other than a bathroom.  I thought for sure I would be the first person to ever "not make it" to the bathroom in the new temple.  But it was fine.  I did great, and I was really lucky to get to spend that day with GG.

As soon as I got home I was in full speed mode looking for a new apartment or house to rent.  Where we were was great and cheap and was allowing us to pay for school without having to take out loans each semester (4,500-7,000 bucks a semester just for his tuition btw), but there was NO way were were going to be able to fit a 3rd baby into that place (which was part of the reason that we had not been planning on having anymore babies in the near future), and our lease was up at the end of July.  Anyway, after a couple of weeks of searching without feeling good about anyplace, we decided to pray about the offer that Matt's parents have been making us for a while now.  They have 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a large living room up stairs that they do not use and they have been offering for us to move in for a while now.  We have been too prideful to ever seriously consider the offer, but after I found out I was pregnant in April they have been offering more often (like every week), and the time came where we decided to humble ourselves (easier said than done) and really think about that option.  It would allow us to save some money towards his medical program.  We will apply next year for school and when we (hopefully) leave for school in 1.5 - 2 years it is going to cost us at LEAST a hundred grand.  So the offer of being able to save for a year to 2 years and be able to reduce the amount of debt we will have to get into for school was very tempting.  And we took the offer.

So we have spent the past 3 weeks moving the essentials over and packing up ALL our other stuff to be put into storage.  Matt has been a big help every moment that he isn't busy with school or work (which is not often enough), and I have spent all day everyday packing and organizing and taking loads over. My mom came down and took the girls back home with her for 5 days, which was a HUGE help.  Have you ever tried to organize or pack anything with the help of a 3 year old and a 1 year old?  It is tricky.  So I got A LOT done while they were gone and  now we are FINALLY officially done.  The day the girls came back I headed over to Chandler with them to babysit my sis-in-law Heather's kids.  It was fun and good to be able to spend time with them, and an interesting look into how much parenting changes as your kids get older.  I can't imagine my kids being that old.

Here are the girls upstairs at our new place playing dress up with thier cousin Rory (Barry and Janeal's oldest), who slept over to stay with Nana for a few days last week.

Anyway, so far it has been a vomit-filled, exhausting, HOT and busy summer.  We haven't done much of anything fun with our kids, but they have been great sports.  Next time we move we are hoping it won't be during July, in phoenix, with a sick & pregnant mommy.  Anyway, now that we are done I am looking forward to getting back to normal life...whatever that is!

PS- We should find out on monday, if the baby cooperates, whether it is a boy or girl.  So hopefully I will blog about all things baby on Monday!