ABC's

This is Andrew singing his ABC's at 20 months old.  It's mostly just the right tune, and some correct sounds - he knows the whole thing, but this was the cutest video.  He loves to sing (wonder where he got that from ... Rachel!) and has quite the repertoire.  He can sing Happy Birthday, I love you (Barney), Teach Me To Walk in the Light, I Am A Child of God (both these he sings with mom/dad), Wheels on the bus, Baby you're a firework (chorus only), Scripture Power (chorus), just to name a few.  It's obviously not in full words, but it's the right tune with some of the words intermixed.  Pretty darn cute!!

29th Birthday & Father's Day

In our house, June 17th was Rachel's birthday, my birthday and Father's Day.  Whew!  

We tried to celebrate the birthdays on Saturday, so that we could make Sunday special for dad.  I think he still got the shaft, but it was an honest effort on my part.  I made a nice breakfast and was sure to have bacon since Brandon loves it (I don't like bacon, and really don't like it cooked in the house because the smell lingers all day, so it's a treat when I instigate this).  I think he got to relax a little, and I made a nice dinner - chicken cordon bleu is one of our favorites.  It had been a long weekend, so we were all pretty tired.  And church seemed extra crazy - Andrew wouldn't nap beforehand, so he fell asleep in Sunday School in Brandon's arms and then I was teaching Beehives third hour, and Brandon had to bring Andrew to me because he had just woken up and they were short handed in nursery with lots of crying children and we knew he wouldn't deal well, and the reason Brandon couldn't take him was because his teacher in Elder's Quorum didn't show up, so at last minute notice, Brandon taught.  I think he ended up more than his fair share of poopy diapers that day from Andrew, and that little tyke also ate most of his rice crispy treat that they gave fathers in church.  While he was out changing a diaper, one of the congregational hymns was "I Am A Child of God" and Rachel was belting it out - all 3 verses by heart - it was so sweet and the best part of my day.  And I think this was the same week, that Andrew got our of row and ran up to the stage before Brandon could get to him, so that was exciting.  

29 feels old!!  For my birthday cake, I really wanted the cinnamon rolls from Costco - oh man, they are heaven on earth!  I went to pick them up a couple days before our birthday, and I didn't see them anywhere, so I asked someone in the bakery and they said they were making their very last batch (ever!) and that they'd be done in an hour.  So we totally waited - we went and got lunch and stalled, because that's how good they are.  I don't know if all the Costco's stopped making them, but our store doesn't sell them any longer.  I think I ate at least 4 out of the 6 rolls over the next few days, and they were amazing!  

All week, my ankle seemed to be getting worse instead of better.  For a week and a half, I wore a brace during the day, and as soon as the kids went to bed, I was down and on my back, elevating and icing it for the rest of the evening.  I have been able to get very little done.  It was still hurting and very swollen - by the time evening came around, I couldn't walk on it because it didn't feel strong enough and it was too painful.  And since I'm pregnant, I only took tylenol when I absolutely had to.  It also didn't help that on Friday, I went up to Youth Conference for the afternoon, which really set off things with my ankle, then to Sunsplash on Saturday.  10 days after my sprain and it getting worse and not better, I finally had enough sense to ask Brandon for a blessing, and that day was the first day it started getting better, and it has continued to get a lot better since then.  I am very grateful!!  Here's a picture of my ankle on day 2, and you can see the picture I posted below on day 9.  I don't mean to be a baby about this, but this was a terrible sprained ankle.  Way worse than I anticipated, and after a follow up with a sports medicine doctor, he said this was a grade 2 sprain and would be at least a month before I was feeling back to normal.  It's been two and a half weeks now, and is still swollen, but is not giving me much trouble.  

I should probably mention something about Youth Conference since I spent a lot of hours on it ... all I'll say is that a week and a half before, I got an assignment to be in charge of reenacting the coming of the Savior from 3 Nephi (this was a ward level YC and it was all about the Book of Mormon).  They suggested that I get a picture of Chirst and shine a spotlight on it ... and apparently they don't know me very well, because that wasn't significant enough for me - we're talking about the culminating moment in the Book of Mormon here!!  So I wrote a script, where we followed along and read the most important scriptures and summarized various parts.  We blindfolded them during the "darkness" and we created a storm of sorts, and did a little activity.  We also had a "voice of Christ" and an a Savior figure up on a mountain dressed in all white, followed by a short video clip of "The Testaments" version of the coming of Christ with the song, "This is the Christ".  I hope it was meaningful for the youth.  And now I own a Jesus wig and beard.  

For family home evening last night, we took the kids to the Gilbert temple, which will be completed sometime this fall.  It is about 25 minutes from our house, and a very beautiful temple.  The Mesa temple is about 20 minutes from us in the opposite direction.  The kids got a rock that is from the same material as the temple, and it made me remember that I had been given one when the Timpanogos temple had been built.  Rachel says it is her favorite temple, and that she wants to get married there someday.  Spoken like a little Arizona girl!  

Top o' the morning birthday cake and picture!

Sprained ankle - day 9, still swollen and hurting

Gilbert Temple Site - opens this fall (25 minutes away from our house)

Bedtime on Father's Day - we were all pretty exhausted!

#3

We have some good news to share!  

FAQ:  :)

How far along are you?  20 weeks - half way mark!

When's your due date?  Technically it's Nov. 3, but since we have big babies, I'll get induced a week early unless she comes before then (Andrew came 2 weeks early) so I told the kids it will definitely be before Halloween.

How excited is Rachel?  SO SO SO excited!  She really wanted a sister but said that if it was a brother she would not throw a fit ("get what you get and don't throw a fit")

Does Andrew get it?  Sort of.  He points to my tummy and tells me baby, which is very sweet.  But he is also lifting up his shirt a lot and saying baby, so I don't know.  For now, he doesn't love to have me hold other babies, but this is normal for any child and he'll adjust to it when she gets here.  He'll be a great big brother.  They'll be just over two years apart.

Are you ready for 3 kids?  As ready as we'll ever be - we are getting ready for complete chaos, and we're excited to meet her!

Do you have any names?  We're down to two names we really like.  We'll let you know when we know.

How is it to be pregnant during the AZ summer?  Not very fun.

How are you feeling?  Fine.  My pregnancies are pretty easy and slick.  No morning sickness as long as  I eat constantly, so I'll take early weight gain over morning sickness any day.  The worst part has been this sprained ankle - my tummy already draws enough attention, now I have an ankle brace and a limp, plus it's hot, so people just look at me and feel bad.  But we're really doing A-OK.

Did you know it was going to be a girl?  I didn't, but Brandon was pretty sure.  I am thrilled that Rachel will have a sister since I come from a family of all brothers.  Either way, we would have been so happy.  We're so grateful she's doing good and is healthy.

Rachel's 4th Birthday!

4th Birthday Cake made by Brandon

SO THRILLED with the cake her daddy made her!!

Sunsplash!!

What a fun birthday for Rachel!  If any of you follow me on Facebook, then you'll be surprised by everything FLAMINGO!  Here's what I posted about a week and a half before her birthday, "My (nearly) 4 year old daughter REALLY wants a transformer birthday (and both her and I are completely unfamiliar with everything to do with transformers).  Thank you older-boy cousins for having memorable transformer parties.  :)  Transformer little girl birthday ... here we come!"  She has honestly been talking about her transformer birthday party for the last 4 months, and every time she'd talk about it, I'd try to give her a different idea, but she kept coming back to it.  So when I told her she needed to decide, she chose transformers.  So then I sat her down at the computer with me and we looked at transformer cakes together, and she didn't like any of them.  Then she said, "Mom, how about a flamingo party instead!?  Sorry but I want to change my mind."  I let her sit on this idea for another 2 days, and it stuck, so I gratefully went with it.

I really wanted to do a simple family party, rather than friend party (we can start those around age 5 I'm thinking) but when we're celebrating it in AZ, there's not much family to celebrate with us.  I stressed about this for a bit, but then we got creative and came up with a pretty good solution.  We celebrated her birthday on Saturday instead of Sunday so that we could give some attention to daddy on Father's Day.  We took the kids to Sunsplash, which is a fun waterpark down here and spent hours in the sunshine playing in the water.  Rachel loved all the big slides with dad, and Andrew and I enjoyed relaxing in the kiddie areas and lazy river.  Bless his tender little heart, he's not much for adventure yet (like getting splashed by huge buckets of water or even going on baby water slides).  But it worked out great, since my ankle is still swollen and sore! Ouch!

Rachel got lots of presents from family in Utah, so she got to open presents all throughout the day.  She was such a good girl, kind to her brother, and even shared her presents.  When she opened a stuffed animal toy set with Simba & Nala that was from Andrew, without even hesitating, she kept Simba for herself and she gave Nala to Andrew.  She also got "doodle bear", a scooter and new crayons from Grandma & Grandpy, roller-skates and new outfits from Nana & Papa, a new baby Simba (same one that she lost on the airplane) from Disneyland from her cousins, a toddler digital camera from mom and dad.  We also signed her up for a singing and dancing camp in July that was also part of her birthday gift.

We invited the Olsen's over (friends from our ward) for cake, ice cream and smoothies in the evening.  It was fun for Rachel to play with her good friends, Sami and Janie while the adults visited.

And of course I have to write about the cake, which turned out amazing!!  Have I expressed how stressed out I get about children's birthday cakes?  It's ridiculous, but it nearly gives me hives.  I just feel so much pressure to make an incredible over-the-top cake.  And when this is NOT a talent I have (plus, I don't even enjoy eating cake!) it causes me undo stress.  This is where my wonderful husband comes in to save the day!  Cake decorating runs in his family (his aunt made our wedding cake and his grandma, mom and sister are all talented in this arena as well), and he is really good at it too!  He just doesn't get to practice very often.  His mom tells me that he started decorating his own cakes at the age of 7 since he had in his mind what he wanted.  So yes, Brandon made the flamingo cake and even made the fondant from scratch.  He'll point out all the flaws on the cake if you ask him, but overall, it turned out so cute and exactly what Rachel wanted.

Lots of 4 year old pictures

I took Rachel out for a little photo shoot (100 degrees at 6p) to get some 4 year old pictures.  I wanted some pictures of her with her long hair, which I have loved but it's too high maintenance for all the swimming we do so this was right before her summer haircut.  She looks so grown up!  And she is quite the little poser with some funny little smiles.  And yes, I bribed her - she got a an entire pack of Starburst all to herself.  :)

Usually I would edit these and narrow it down to a smaller number of pictures, but I've got a lot to do with not as much time as I'd like, so these unedited pictures will have to do for now.  And my other disclaimer is that I brought our straightener to fix her hair beforehand, but I learned the hard way that our car charger does not have enough power to run the straightener.  Bummer, so her hair is a little more scraggily than I'd like.  

  

"MOM, are we done taking pictures yet?!"

Finally got her laughing with some burping sounds!!

 

Memorial Day Weekend

Rachel at swimming lessons with Miss Allison.  Reminder to self:  on the next child, try to avoid goggles!!

Bubba enjoying some homemade peanut butter chocolate ice cream at a Memorial Day BBQ

Rachel wanted to build Chicago with her blocks - not too shabby if you ask me!  

Andrew - filthy dirty at Fathers and Sons Campout

For the last seven weeks, Rachel has been taking swimming lessons with Miss Allison in Mesa and she absolutely loves it.  I absolutely adore her teacher - she is meant to work with children and is so positive with them.  This may sound silly, but she has inspired me to do a better job giving Rachel positive praise and has even changed the way I speak to Rachel in stressful moments.  The class always has four students around her same age and they practice freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, correct breathing techniques, diving, jumping off the diving board, ring dive, and swimming across the pool.  Rachel has improved dramatically during these swimming sessions and dare I say that she is a better swimmer than I am (which is not saying much, but still!).  She obviously hasn't mastered all of these, but she can swim independently if needed and understands the different strokes and how to breath and swim underwater, and most importantly, she loves it.  *In Rachel's first class, all the little girls wore goggles every time, I got her some (she picked that bright green color) and I feel like they are kind of a pain.  Hopefully with Andrew, I can convince him that he doesn't need goggles and avoid that whole thing!* 

We really enjoyed Memorial Day weekend and took a day trip up to Payson, AZ to create a camping experience without actually having to stay the night.  It was actually unseasonably cool in Phoenix that weekend, which meant that it would have been too cold to camp in the mountains.  What sparked the whole idea was that Brandon attended Father & Sons with Andrew in May and Rachel wanted to go camping with daddy and kept talking about going to Father & Daughters with him.  

p.s. Against my better judgement, Brandon took Andrew to Father & Sons.  And surprisingly they both had a great time!  Brandon didn't get very much sleep next to the little wiggle worm, but they both said it was a lot of fun.  

So we headed up to Payson on Saturday morning (an hour and a half away) and we went on a small hike and ate lunch near a stream where Brandon caught a fish with his bare hands in about 5-10 minutes - not even kidding!  The kids and I were both very impressed!  He said it was something he learned as a scout?  After letting the kids "pet" it, he let it go back in the stream since we didn't have a place to store or clean it.  Then we went to the fish hatchery, and then to Rancho Tonto Catch a Trout in Christopher Creek since we figured this would be an easy place to go for our kid's first fishing experience.  And it was a quick and painless fishing experience (great for me since I am not a big fan of fishing!).  We rented a pole and caught 3 fish within seconds, and you can pay to have them cleaned and put on ice right there.   Sign me up!  It was super easy and fun.  Rachel understood that we were going to eat them, but she really wanted one as a pet.  One that could play with her and sleep in her bed with her? ... it was a fun conversation.  Anyway, we took our freshly caught fish, found a campsite for the afternoon and cooked our dinner while the kids played in the dirt.  It was a fun day trip, and we all slept good in our own beds.  Note to self:  we need to practice our camping cooking skills - it was just ok, but not great.  

On Monday, we enjoyed having Brandon home and met up with the Perkinson's at the Clubhouse for swimming and a BBQ.  We're so lucky that they share their families with us and include us in family parties - they are great friends and belong to wonderful families.  

"Stained" Ankle

Early Saturday morning, Andrew strangely woke up crying at 4:30a, so I pulled him out of his crib and sat with him in his rocking chair where he and I quickly fell back asleep.  I woke up at 5:30a and went to put Andrew back in his crib.  Unfortunately, my legs had been crossed, and when I stood in my delirious state, I was unaware that my right leg was very asleep below the knee.  I took one step and my ankle was like rubber and just buckled beneath me.  I heard a loud snap/pop and fell to my knees and elbows and looked down at Andrew who was still asleep in my arms - my cute, little 30+ pounds of dead weight.

The rest is history and I now have a very badly sprained ankle.

The pain wasn't bad at first, I was only crying because of how stupid the whole thing was.  Plus, mom's aren't allowed to get hurt or sick!!  Thankfully it was a Saturday morning, and I have had Brandon home all weekend taking care of everything so that I can be diligent with the icing/rest/elevating. Hopefully I can be fully functioning hobbling on my own by Monday.  

Rachel was very sweet when she found out, and was a very good nurse making sure everything was ok with my "stained ankle".  And Andrew was copying my hobbling/hopping around, which made me laugh.  Brandon took the kids to clean the church, then to Lowe's for the Saturday building project but since they were all out, he ended up at the dollar store to get them a toy.  After Andrew's nap, he took them to Walmart and Ikea to get a birthday present for me (a new dresser for our room!), then fed the kids dinner and THEN built the whole dresser and put it in our room.  WOW!  I had to give him props, because I would never attempt that many errands in the same day with the kiddos, and he was a total rockstar.  Meanwhile, I relaxed and did a lot of church stuff on the laptop, and truthfully it was a pretty darn good break.  

p.s. I enjoyed from Redbox both "The Vow" and "We Bought A Zoo" in case you were looking for a descent movie recommendation.  

Almost 4

My little girl is almost 4!  And I usually don't post about the daily little things, but I wanted to today.  It's simple, really.  We were at the library, and she went and asked another mom if she could touch her babies toes (she wanted to go touch the baby, and I encouraged her to ask to touch her toes since it was the furthest thing away from the baby's face).  The mom obliged, and told me that Rachel was very cute.  Then later without prompting, she went to check on a little toddler who had gotten hurt, and she just wanted to make sure she was ok.  She gave her a little hug, and said she hoped she was feeling better.  The same grouping of moms commented on what a sweetheart she was, and I appreciated the compliment.  I don't hear these kinds of things about my children everyday while out and about, but today it was nice to hear.  Then I started thinking about our morning - I thought about all the little helpful things she had done for me, she had been quick to obey, and didn't throw any fits when I asked her to go potty, turn the movie off, etc., and she had sat quietly at the library and read books with me.  It was a good morning, just saying'.