4th of July Weekend

This year we had a little bit different weekend than usual. My mom and I finished up E's room the day before so Ry was off the hook for painting (I think he was really happy about that). But as for me, I feel really good right now and I'm really wanting to get some things done around here. Ry's weekends are very limited with YMs since high adventure and youth conference are taking up his next 2 weekends so I knew I had to utilize my resources the best I could while I had him available. And let's be honest, I wanted to spend time with my husband and my son and have some of our own family time. So the 4th was really great, Ry helped me get so much done off my list!!! The garage is clean and organized, the closets have been gone through and organized, all the baby stuff has been found and washed, E's room is done, and my house is getting to be in order. While E took his nap, I finished up my lesson for Sunday and afterwards we took E to go see Wall E. We liked it, some slow parts, but for the most part it was good. So our 4th was really good, low key.

Saturday we went and spent time with our families. We went over and saw Amy and baby Chloe at the hospital for awhile. After that we headed over to my parents and put E down for his nap and we hung out. Of course, the first thing on E's agenda when we woke up was to go swimming. It was really fun since Ry has never seen him swim this year and E's quite the little fish these days. I think if we'd let E swim as long as he wanted he would honestly swim all day long. After some great grilling, we headed over to see Ry's family. Ry's dad took E out for an evening of his dreams. Golfing, fishing, running outside, and drinking gatorade...what more could a little boy ask for? Seriously!

28 weeks

These pictures are for Liz, she asked so here you go. I feel like this pregnancy has gone by really fast, but right now I feel like it's going to be a long time until it's over. I noticed that I haven't posted any preggo pictures so here is probably the only one I'll post since I'm at the point that I'm not huge, but I'm pregnant. I feel the hugeness is coming, ahhh! I can at least wear my wedding ring still and my pre pregnancy jeans are still wearable under the belly so that's really good. I feel pretty well for the most part, a little bit of heartburn here and there but nothing a little TUMS can't fix. I'm enjoying the good times because I know how uncomfortable I got with E. I was miserable towards the end with E. I got soooo swollen, I had carpel tunnel in both arms, my heartburn was constant, and my back killed. I'm really not looking forward to that and I'm hoping that it won't be that bad again. I guess time will tell.

Baby Chloe!

My siser-in-law, Amy, had her baby on July 2nd! Chloe Lynn came in at 5 lbs 6 oz and 18 inches long, not bad for being a tad bit early (at 35 weeks). We went to see her on Saturday and I was even able to go in the Nicu to take a little peek. She's on CPAP (Continous Positive Airway Pressure) and then under the bilirubin lights so that's why you can only see her cute little lips. She has quite a bit of hair and she is super cute! I can't wait until I can hold her! Congrats Nicol family!

Big Boy Room Project

Having a baby makes you all crazy about getting projects done so I have list of things to do. One of those things is redoing E's room. When we moved in we decorated his room with all the nursery stuff so now all the nursery stuff has been moved to the baby's room and E only has his new big boy bedding and not much else going on. So I got it in my head that I wanted to do something new. I decided I wanted to paint 2 horizontal stripes on his wall to start out and then pick out all his wall decor.
I called up my mom since she is really good with painting projects and she offered to come up today and measure everything and tape. Then the plan was to have Ry paint it tomorrow. My mom and I work pretty well together so things went remarkably fast. I measured and marked while she leveled and taped. It only took us one time around the room and everything matched up really well. To be honest, my mom only thought we'd only get the taping done today, but needless to say she was wrong. After about 2 hours of taping (and E interruptions) we were done.

We took a break to go to Home Depot and pick up the paint. I ended up taking E's pillow sham with us and they had the camera there to match the two stripe colors that I wanted, navy blue and khaki. I think the colors turned out matching really well. When we got home, I got E lunch and down for a nap while my mom started rocking it out on the painting. By the time I got in there she had already sealed the tape with the original wall color and started on the navy. So we worked on painting the stripes and ended up doing 3 coats of Navy and 2 coats of Khaki.

My mom took a look at me at one point while we were painting and said, "do you realize that these are totally BYU colors?" And then I looked down and I was even wearing my BYU t-shirt! Ironic, I guess. I guess we're a BYU family through and through. (I know I look so lovely on painting days!)

Anyway...we pulled the tape while it was still drying and started to touch up as E was waking up (perfect timing). So we tried to work around a riled up E since he was so excited that something fun was happening in his room. So here is the finished product. I am so proud! The colors turned out perfect, the size of the stripe is exactly what I wanted, and the lines came out totally straight. Hooray! We got it all done and cleaned up before Ry even got home. Needless to say, he is very excited about the room and the fact that he doesn't have to paint it.

Now if you guys have any good ideas for wall decor, send them my way.

Words Cannot Express...

I really don't have much to say about these pictures since they basically speak for themselves. They just really make me laugh. Ry sent E into the kitchen a couple of nights ago looking like this...
I just started busting out laughing and of course E loved that. Ry also had to get in on the action. I love the "mullet hair flick."
We're all about "business in the front and party in the back" in this family!

Golfing

This post is for Trav and Tanya since their son will be E's future golf partner. As many of you know, E has been in love with golfing since he was 16 months old, not even joking. He's gone through a few sets of plastic clubs in the process, but his dad went out the other day and got him a real set. You know, in order for him to get the feel of a real club (that's according to the husband). Well, the day they went out to get his clubs, E had such a blast! Ry put him in the simulator at the golf store and let him hit a few balls and by the time he got swinging, he had a small crowd of people around him watching this 2 1/2 year old hitting the ball 60 yards. It's pretty funny. Everyday when Ry comes home from work, E asks to go to the golf store. He just loves it there. So here are some picks from our backyard excursions. I think Ry will have a little golfing buddy for a long time (and maybe someday E will beat the pants off his dad!).

How Did This Happen?

E is one of those kids that has to be put to bed in order for him to understand that it's time to sleep. Some of you guys have kids that when they're tired they'll crash somewhere or will fall asleep to a movie, not my child. When he's tired he just seems to catch a "second wind" and never settles down. It's like you have to make him stop long enough for him to realize that he's tired and it's time for him to go to sleep. Well, on Saturday I had to take a defensive driving class because I got pulled over the other day so I was gone pretty much all day. Ry was taking care of him that day and E decided to make a big pillow pit and ended up falling asleep while Ry was organizing our office. The only other time this has happened was when he was sick and on medicine that made him really drowsy so this was a pretty big event. I didn't know that this could ever happen. In order to get proof, Ry took some pictures so here is the evidence.

Peruvian Gifts

A bunch of our family, including my in-laws, went to Peru to go visit our Aunt and Uncle that are serving in Lima as mission president. Well, my mother-in-law came up last Sunday to bring E some special Peruvian souvenirs from their trip. Unfortunately our A/C went out that day so my poor mother-in-law ended up having to swelter along with us. One of the gifts that she brought E was a really cute Peruvian hat that E immediately loved. He put it right on his head and then ran into his room and was gone for awhile. So we went about visiting and all of a sudden E comes back out of his room with his coat and he wanted help to put it on. Keep in mind that it is probably about 86 degrees in our house and he wants to put on his coat and his new hat. How can a mom say no? So we helped him put on his stuff and he went outside to play. Isn't he so cute? Plus, the hat matches his coat perfectly...grandmas just know these things I guess.

Disguise

My sister-in-law came over the other day to pick up something that she had left at my house and my niece had a new stuffed Kung Fu Panda that she wanted to show to E. Well, E totally thought it was the coolest thing AND he thought she brought it for him so when they packed up in the car to leave with the Kung Fu Panda...let's just say E wasn't too happy. He actually had an utter meltdown which is kind of strange for him, but I think he was just tired from the plane ride and excitement from earlier that day.


Ry came up with something funny to do for him to get him distracted. He printed off a picture of Kung Fu Panda's face and then made a mask for his teddy bear out of it. E was a little bit confused about the whole thing, but did stop freaking out. Then he thought it was pretty funny for him to wear the mask instead of his bear. I swear the guys in this household are full of it!

Orlando Trip: Thursday and Friday

Thursday the boys went golfing and my mom took E to the pool since my body was not feeling so hot after all day at Disney World. After E had his nap that day we took him to go see the new Kung Fu Panda movie. We ended up going to go see it at the theaters in Downtown Disney which made it a really fun experience. They had a huge inflated Wall E blown up and that just made E's day. He is so excited to go see Wall E when it comes out.

Anyway...the Kung Fu Panda movie so really funny and E does all sorts of Kung Fu moves now. I think it's hilarious when he does his little bow before he springs into action.

After the movie we walked around Downtown Disney and I had to get E a t-shirt at the World of Disney store, the biggest Disney store I have ever seen! There was all sorts of loud music playing outside and it was so funny to see E dance in his stroller, he seriously looked like Ghandi because he was moving back and forth in his stroller with his hands up in the air. Go figure!

Friday was our wrap up day since it was the last full day in Orlando. Ry took me to breakfast at my favorite breakfast place, Bob Evans. They don't have them out here in Texas so it was a funny little treat for me. We got all our wash done and I finished up some chapters in Eclipse and then Ry dropped me off at the mall for some maternity clothes shopping. I really need some stuff for church and it's so hard to find cute maternity church clothes! I spent a good 2 hours and came up with a cute dress and a top, but that's about it. Sorry everyone at church, I will be wearing the same stuff week after week until I have the baby. Too bad. Well, we came home and I did a little Iron Chef back at the condo since we had to use up all the stuff in the refrigerator before we left so I made a little dinner for everyone. Ethan went down and I finished my book and vacation was basically over from there. We left early on Saturday and got home that afternoon. And that was that, then I got to come home to the real world. At least we had a wonderful time on vacation!

Orlando Trip: Wednesday-DisneyWorld!

Wednesday was the day that E had been waiting for! He seriously asked me about going to see Mickey Mouse for 2 weeks so it was so nice to be able to tell him that we were on our way. E just loved the entire day! The lines on most of the rides were only 10-20 minutes long which was awesome and E wanted to ride all of them. I was wondering if he'd be scared of anything or how he'd react to the characters so I sat back to see what would happen. E loved every ride and when it was over he'd want to go again. He especially love the Buzz Lightyear ride since he had a laser gun to shoot aliens, right up his alley.

He also go to meet Stitch and he immediately when up to him and gave him a huge hug and a thumbs up. It was hilarious!
Luckily I could ride on a lot of the rides, but there were a few that I wasn't going to attempt like the tea cups. I left that to Ry.


We ate lunch at Pinnochio's place and we lucked out in getting a seat overlooking the inside of the Small World ride. E was able to sit and wave to all the people about to go on the ride. It was also nice to take a little break in the air conditioning. We went on some more rides and then happened to get a good spot for the afternoon parade. It was so cute to see E's reaction when he saw Mickey and all the other characters. He sat on Ry's shoulders and waved to everyone and thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Well, we ended up riding on just about every ride that we could go on by about 5:30 and as we were winding up our day this was what happened. He was totally konked out. We didn't have anything soft to lay his head on except for a clean diaper so we had to be resourceful.
E had such a wonderful time and will tell you all about it if you ever ask.

Something Fun

Here is a giveaway at one of my favorite blogs, Tip Junkie. I love Laurie's tips and all the great ideas that I can get from her blog. She's having a 20 day giveaway so go check it out.

Orlando Trip: Tuesday

Before we left for Orlando, I did a little research for some fun things to do with 2 year olds in Orlando. I came across this website for Green Meadows Farm and decided that I would put it on our list of possibilities. It looked like a pretty fun place to take E to since it had a train ride and everything. So Tuesday morning we drove out to Kissimmee to go out to the farm. The whole time I was wondering if this was going to be totally a waste of time or if it would be any good. I had no idea. Well, we show up right when it opened and we were totally the only people there. I was like, oh great...this should be interesting.
Do you like the completely empty park? Well, come to find out, their high time is during the school year because they usually have tons of schools, preschools, and day cares come for field trips to the farm.

So we started the tour of the farm and our guide, Tammy, was super nice and she was great to help E get comfortable with the animals. We started out with a cow that we could milk and E was really scared so he was NOT wanting to get near her, but as we got further into the tour he started to warm up.

E loved feeding and petting the sheep so he kept wanting more food for them. You can tell in the picture that he's trying to call the sheep with his finger to come get their food.

It was so cute! A bunch of people came after that to join our tour so E could interact with some of the other kids which was really nice. After that they all got to hold and pet a baby chick and a baby duckling. E was very good to be gentle and not poke them in the eye...we're practicing for the baby. Then we went on to see some pigs and new born piglets, turkeys, llamas, a zorse (mix of zebra and horse), peacocks, water buffulo, ostriches, chickens, goats, and then we all got to try to catch a duck. That was pretty funny. The hayride was next and Ethan loved being pulled by the tractor. He kept saying to everyone "All aboard!" We drove around the farm and got to see all the cows in the pasture.

The last half of the farm tour had to be E's favorite. He had the chance to ride on a pony and that just made his day. I felt so bad when his ride was over because he would have gone all day on that pony if he could.


Then we boarded the train for a train ride and E was totally into it! The look on his face was priceless! He loved going through the tunnel and seeing all the animals from his seat. We were done after that and they had a play place for him to play on so we took a break while he played on the slide for awhile.

I have to give a huge shout out to my husband for being such a great sport about the whole thing. If you know my husband at all, you know that he isn't too fond of animals. But despite all that, he was so good about getting in there and helping E have a great time. He was the one in there trying to catch a duck, holding E's hand to help him feed the animals, he lead the pony for E, he did it all. So thanks honey for making our day. It was great! So the trip ended up being totally worth it and we had a great time so if you're ever in Orlando and have small kids, you should really try Green Meadows.

Orlando Trip: Monday

On Monday Ry, Randall, and my Dad hit the golf course for some serious golfing. They had been watching the Tiger Woods match all day the day before so I think all of them were a little bit excited to play. While they were out playing golf, my mom and I took E down to the pool. Our hotel had a great pool for kids so E was in heaven! And once he gets in, he's never coming out...unless it's for a quick snack. We played with the spraying water cannons, ran through the sprinkler things, and then swam by the waterfalls. Quite a fun time! Once we got him home and fed, the boys rolled in and had some lunch too. Then it was time for outlet shopping! My favorite! My dad took us out while the boys stayed behind to watch more golf and stay with Ethan for his nap. Thank you, "me time!!!" The deal of the day were my 3 pairs of $0.99 PJs at The Children's Place for the baby, score! We met up with Randall and Ry later to go to some more outlets so Ry could get some shoes from one of his favorite outlets. I love outlet day!

Orlando Trip: Sunday

Sunday was Father's Day so we did a little Father's Day tribute to Ry and my dad. Ethan made them both some cards that he was so proud to deliver. Ethan and my dad also took some time to look through some brochures to see what they wanted to do. Acutally, Ethan was just trying to be like my dad so I had to get a cute picture.

We went to church at one of the wards down in Orlando and got some pictures by the temple.


The rest of the afternoon we rested and took it easy. We ended up taking Ethan down to play in the sand until it started to rain on us and then we took him inside to play in the play place.

Of course he found the popcorn man and got himself some free popcorn to munch on while he took a break.Once Ethan was down for bed I began my readind experience with Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse. It took me long enough to get to it, but I finally got my hands on a copy and read the whole thing throughout the whole week. What a fun read!

Orlando Trip

Since my brother just got off his mission, my parents planned a fun trip to Orlando at their time share at the Mariott's Grande Vista. This is probably one of the last big trips that we'll take with #2 on the way so we wanted to take every advantage that we could. Our flight left on Saturday evening and Ethan did so well on the plane. I packed him a backpack with a few toys and books that I wrapped for him so every so often he'd get to open a "present" and play. Worked like a charm! We didn't get to the time share until around midnight so the party didn't really start until Sunday. So let the travel log being!

Welcome Back From Vacation

I'm not a big fan of the first few days back from vacation. In fact, I dread them the last day of a trip. I just hate coming back to life and all the things that you put on hold for a week so you can have fun and not worry about them. We just got back from Orlando so I'm in the process of those loathsome first few days. My house needs groceries, it needs to be cleaned, thankfully everything is washed and put away, but the worst part of all is OUR A/C IS OUT...again! I've got a guy coming to fix it between 12-5 today, but of course he won't be here until 4:30 and it will be 90 degrees in our house by then. We've got all our fans going and I think E and I will be out at the store for most of the morning. It's just not fun being 6 months pregnant and in the Texas heat without A/C. I hope they can get it all fixed soon! Anyway...on to the travel log. Get ready for a ton of posts about our trip. I know travel logs can be boring to some of you, but this is mostly for the blog book so just hang with me until it's over.

Annual Blackberry Picking

Yesterday my grandma, my mom, me, and E all went out to the local blackberry patch for our "Annual Blackberry Picking Day." I found this place when our town magazine printed an article about it last year and it is just so much fun! I put E in the stroller and gave him a little picking cup and we went up and down the rows picking our berries.

It was so cute to watch E look for the best ones and put them in his little cup and then end up eating them all before they could end up in my bucket. As you can tell from his stained mouth, he loved them. All I could here from him was, "mmmmm, delicious, Mom" throughout our time there.

There is nothing better than being outside picking blackberries and eating some straight off the bush, yum!!! After our picking adventure I took my grandma to a cute old fashioned ice cream parlor for some ice cream. This place is so cute and has some of the best homemade ice cream ever!

Unfortunately, my mom and grandma had to hurry back home to get their berries washed and in the freezer so they missed out on my "creation." I decided to go all out and make a homemade double crust blackberry pie. All I have to say is it was the best pie I have ever made in my life, hands down!
Some of my berries went in the pie, some went in the freezer, and some went in a big bowl for me to enjoy for the next few days. Ahhhhh! I love summer!

"Hold On Mom, Be Patient"

I told E to hurry up today and he told me, "Hold On Mom, Be Patient!" I guess he is listening to me after all.