Blog Flood

Well, I just posted 10 blog posts. Yep 10!!!
Our blog is all caught up now on our entire Summer and it feels like a monkey off my back as I was debating for weeks on whether or not I should just give up on blogging, or let my posterity believe we did nothing the Summer of 2010; or if I should try and spend a couple of hours and get it all caught up. The guilt got the better of me, and there it is.
Poor quality it is. Lacking in creativity too. I am sure there are a million grammatical errors as well. But making those posts great would have been too much to expect.

Well, I am officially in my 2nd Trimester of this pregnancy. It's been hard. But I have to say it's been by far my easiest pregnancy ever. Which I am so thankful for. I still throw up daily. But not too many times. I still feel nauseated ALL the waking hours of the day, which is the most difficult part I think. But I keep hoping that it will ease off really soon as it did with Charity's pregnancy when I was feeling 100 times better in my 2nd trimester. I feel pretty tired all the time. I need naps every day or I totally crash at some point in the evening. I have occasional cramping/false contractions but so far things seem fine.

I've been able to do a lot this Summer despite all that in regards to the kids, trips, and working in Young Womens. But my job as "Homemaker" has gone totally to the dogs. I rarely make meals and my house has been a perpetual pig-sty for weeks on end. I've come to hate it when people drop in on me. I don't even answer the door most the time now. But yesterday we got the house cleaned and somewhat orderly and I hope I can keep it that way better now.

Well, now that I got all that done, I'm gonna go to sleep!

Charity walking August 24, 2010

My 32nd Bday

It was a really great day. Actually 3 days. Saturday before my bday my sweet friend Jen took me out to breakfast. Then Anna took me out to lunch, then Steve took me out to dinner and to buy my present. Anna and Emily pitched in for this too. I love it! Steve stayed up late putting it all together. All the baskets carefully hold all of our "junk" piles people were leaving (including me) around our kitchen and living room. Sunday which was my actual birthday, was a normal Sunday with a few meetings and church. But Anna had us all over for dinner which was nice. And Monday Steve actually took the day off. That was a huge deal! We went out to lunch together and he spent the day with me trying to get our house back in order too. It was awesome. I got some other nice gifts and attention and it made me feel thankful to all the kind people around me who took the time to make my day good.

School Starts

Well, it happened. The Summer flew by like crazy! We had a great time. I was excited for school to start though. The kids were having mixed feelings about it. Their first day went off without any issues or major excitements. I went home and took at least an hour nap while Charity napped. It was heavenly. They go to a Charter school now. The decision on what to do with them and their education this school year was a tough one. But on the first day of school, I was feeling pretty darn good about it. On the second day, a bit of a sadness hit me. Enough to make me feel a bit guilty, question my decision, but then ultimately say after my hour nap again, "This is totally what I needed to do!"
So far they are doing well and happy with their teachers and situations. I have been impressed with the school so far too.
Becca is joining the cheerleading club which has got to be the cutest thing ever. Jonah is joining the robotics club and Celeste is joining the Spanish club. Eden has no desire to do any.

Our Summer Part 7. The Water Park and Charity's First Bday

We took the kids to the local water park. Charity was the star of the show for me.
She LOVED being in the water. It was adorable.

The kids had a great time with their Dad. Celeste took off her boot cast and hopped all over the park one footed in order to slide down the slides and play wherever she wanted. I was impressed.

Charity turned 1. Everyone says this, but it's true. How do they grow up so fast?! I hate it.
I spent a couple of hours trying to get some cute candid shots of her. But she was so wiggly and busy, it was hard. She played "Peek a Boo" with me using her curtains.



Here are a couple of videos of her on her special day.

Summer 2010 Part 6 Girls Camp

Girls Camp of course rocked! We had 10 of our girls come. They were all so well behaved and so fun the entire week. Never did they fight with each other and never did they act like total brats.
The leaders were great to be with too.
We had a lot of laughs. We had a lot of tears. We felt the Spirit and grew closer to God and to each other.

And if you want to know what our camp was like, it was the best ever! We had cabins like these:
Wait, there's more. Check out the inside. There was even carpet in our cabin.
We ate really well. We had showers and flushing toilets. It was totally posh camping. After my last nightmare camping experience, it was PERFECT. (That's if I ignore the fact that I vomited multiple times a day.)

Summer 2010 Part 5

Another exciting part of the Summer was a whirlwind 24 hour trip to California. I wanted to fly down to Bakersfield to see Mom and Andy filming their movie. I was also to play a little (embarrassing) part in the movie. I played the part of the fat, bad, ballerina in a Talent Show scene. I protested a little at the idea when my mom asked me to do it. I told her how fat and how bad I am at dancing lately. I reminded her that I am pregnant. She assured me it would be ok because I would not be playing the winner of the talent show in the movie, she just needed a dancing act. So with that, I did it. But to make it even more fun, my dear friend Jen came along with me. And boy did I love this trip with her. We talked and talked for hours as we traveled and were together. She is amazing and I loved every minute with her. When we got home, I was more tired than I have ever been in years. We got lost on our way home from the airport. A drive I've done a million times. I had no idea where I was and which direction I was going, I was so tired.

I got an Iphone on that trip too! My Dad totally gave me the hookup. Getting on his plan left me with paying less than I was currently paying for my monthly cell phone bill before and with a much much better phone and service. It has changed my life. I am seriously in love with it.

A little after the trip to California, our family got this adorable adorable puppy. We named him Ranger. Isn't he so cute?!!
Well, we were very naive getting into this. We knew it would be hard, but didn't know how hard. He crapped all over the place a bunch of times. He cried and whined. He kept us up at night. He bit Charity. He gave Eden a bad rash. A little over a week after getting him, we were here doing this:

Don't know what I'm doing here?

Ok, here's another view of the scene:
We didn't sell him that night. The next day Eden's rash was so horrible, she couldn't go to church and she just laid around scratching herself in a delirium. Blood was being drawn as she couldn't keep her nails off her skin. She was afraid to go near him. Our home teachers came over and one of them actually wanted the little guy. He made our day when he took him home with him!

Our Summer Part 4 Celeste meets the ER

The day after we got back from Tennessee, we headed to Delta Utah for a Mahonri Moriancumer Bishop Family Reunion. So this was a very very extended family reunion on Steve's Dad's side. It was a quick one, but they did a fantastic job of it and we enjoyed ourselves...Well, except for the fact that we spent a few hours in the ER there in Delta.

Celeste was climbing up this rolling ladder/staircase in the gym there with her cousin. It's one of those things they use to put up volleyball nets or have refs stand on during volleyball games. Anyhow, when they were on the top and both standing on the same side of it, it fell. Celeste took the brunt of it. There was a decent amount of blood. Enough to make me feel scared. It was coming from her mouth. She also complained of her foot hurting.

It looked pretty scary of a scene, but I tried to stay cool and calm so she didn't totally panic, which she pretty much did anyhow. She was given a priesthood blessing by Steve and his brothers. Then we took her to the hospital where she got cleaned up and well cared for.
They were concerned with the blood and facial swelling, that maybe she had broken a bone/s in her face or head. So they had her get a CAT scan.
Which checked out ok thankfully!!! The blood was just from a very bad cut in her mouth.
But they did an Xray on her foot and found 2 broken bones. It was a heck of a night. She's still in a cast today. But we're hoping she'll be out of it in about a week. We were grateful that the damage was only a broken foot.

Summer 2010 Part 3 Tennessee Trip

So this was probably my favorite part of the this Summer. Going to see Emily and her family in Tennessee! We flew to Alabama stayed there overnight, then drove to Georgia, and stayed there overnight. Then we drove to Tennessee and stayed there several days till we had to make the sad trip home.
Emily and her family were perfect hostesses. I felt bad because I was feeling pretty sick with being pregnant and struggled wanting to do much more than getting my butt off the couch, but she was an awesome sport and let me keep my butt on the couch most of the time. Mostly it was great being with her and getting to see her new life there which I found to be quite charming.

A really exciting part of the trip was meeting the great folks at our adoption agency in Georgia and getting our referral! I'm not really sure if I'm allowed to post this, but, well, here you go...
Celeste and Kennedy were inseparable.
The rest of the kids had a great time together too.
I totally enjoyed the "Talent Show" which was a big build up for days. Celeste and Kennedy took it quite seriously and were MC's that night. They had even prepared a Power Point presentation to introduce the show's various acts.
Becca's act.
Now I clearly did not get enough photos of this trip. But I did get this gem of a video of Kennedy and Eden's talent show act. Enjoy. Thanks Emily for the awesome time!

Summer 2010 Part 2

This one is a bit random. Here's a cute photo of the girls as we arrived early for church and I was admiring their cuteness while waiting.
Celeste got a perm.
Eden got a cute hair cut.
We went on Trek, which I've already blogged about.

Our Summer Part 1

Our Summer 2010 started off with a great trip to California. We got to go to Disneyland with a lot of family. Unfortunately all I had was my old cell phone there to take photos the entire trip.
Here are our kids with the Butlers just getting in Disneyland.
The Jungle Cruise.
We rode Space Mountain a few times. Fun ride! We got quite a few rides in that day.
We left as the fireworks show was going and were pretty impressed from the parking lot.
We went to the beach I think it was the next day. Charity was sick and I remember not enjoying this day too much, but the kids did.
Becca in the sand.
Eden