In florida

So its 6am and I'm sitting in bed wide awake because I'm so hungry. Too bad continental breakfast doesn't open for an hour, I guess peanut butter crackers will just have to tie Rachel over. I'm excited to say we safely reached Florida around 2:30pm yesterday. We had fun just being together and checking out the beautiful ocean an beach along with yummy dinner at Malayan Grill! Traveling without Dayton is a different experience, we don't always have to worry about if he is too tired, hungry, or gonna throw a tantrum if he isn't entertained. :) I feel so grateful for loving parents who are taking him for 9 days! Love you mom and dad. I do need to add that flying 5 months pregnant does give you a whole "new" take off/landing feeling. Honestly it kinda hurt my belly, the pressure maybe? Anyway, I know our little girl is safe in my belly just wanted to document that it is different. Also, it seems people are very nice to traveling pregnant women. :) We will spend one more day in Florida before we get on the cruise ship tomorrow morning. Hopefully they let me on as we had a bit of a problem getting a "special" pregnant lady form filled out yesterday. We worked on it between flights before the doctors office closed for the weekend. I have a written doctor note saying I can travel safely with my due date etc but apparently the Carnival cruise line called and needs a specific form. Dr. Noorda wasn't in the office so they used his stamp signature and we are hoping the cruise line does not give us any trouble when boarding. I will update all about our trip in a week with lots of pictures.

Priceless

I caught these beautiful pictures of Adam and Dayton this weekend while working in the yard this weekend. The pictures are not anything fancy because I did not have time to adjust my settings but I just had to grab the moment.

Body Parts

Dayton knows many body parts and can point to them when asked, well most of the time. Sometimes he isn't a great performer. These are just a few I caught on camera the other night.

Belly Button


Teeth


Eye


Head (He is saying, "head" or "had")


"Smile Dayton!"


"Smile nice Dayton!"



I love this kid!

How does your garden grow?

We are getting produce! So exciting! We have been working hard on the garden this year and have been weeding the whole thing every other week, which seems to be a good system for us. It takes Adam and I about an hour to do the whole thing together. We water about twice a week although we may water more in August due to the heat. Watering also takes about an hour since our garden is so large. It is fun to see thing actually growing we can't wait to eat our produce.


32 Tomato Plants


1 Zucchini Plant (for me, Adam hates them)


16 Pumpkin Plants


5 half rows of Corn

Half Way

I am 20 weeks! Yeah!I have only gained 5 lbs from my starting weight but just to note I did start 5 lbs. heavier than I did with Dayton. I am feeling pretty good minus my belly button stretching. It was a bigger problem with Dayton cause I had a hernia as a child and it tore inside as I got bigger so as far as I can remember it is more mild pain than the first pregnancy but it is still starting to hurt pretty much daily. Bummer! The leg cramps have started during the day and at night. I had these BAD with Dayton at night and I think it was farther along when the leg cramps got really strong to the point where they would wake me up. So I think the big ones are yet to come but I'm crossing my fingers that they will stay mild. I get hot easily outside, within about 10 minutes it seems I can't stand the heat. I have been wishing that I could wear my swimsuit around all day so the cruise will be good for that. :) Rachel is wiggly, mostly at night when I lay down and I am ready for bed. She usually keeps me up for a good 20-30 minutes. It is fun to feel her!

Anxious

I am feeling anxious about a few things in life lately.

1. Our family cruise in one week from today to the Western Carribean. I am so excited to get away and spend time just with Adam.

2. Leaving Dayton for 9 days. It makes me feel anxious just because I have never left him this long and although I know he is in good hands with my parents I worry he will miss me and I will miss him terribly.

3. The birth of our baby girl. I can't wait to meet her in 4 months. It seems like a long time away but I know it will go by so fast. Also the labor, feeling anxious, wondering if it'll go smoother.

4.To start teaching 3-year old preschool this September. I currently have 3 kids registered and am hoping for 6-8. YW in the ward are handing out fliers in the 24th parade since I will be on a cruise. I think this will be fun for me but as with anything new I feel anxious about how it will go.

5. My brother Joseph to go on his mission. He got his call this week to Argentina South mission, Spanish speaking. He leaves November 30th which means Joe and Jared will miss each other by two weeks. Crazy!


6. Getting our garage foundation and cement poured. We have been trying to do this all summer. We have finally decided that we can't afford to do the whole garage or a bonus room above it so we just finished drawing new plans with just a garage. Hopefully we can get a building permit in August when we get back and have the cement done before the snow falls in October. This will be so nice to have during the winter, shoveling gravel and mud is impossible. To tell the truth we just don't shovel the neighbors bring their 4-wheeler over to dig us out. So nice of them!

7. To make some financial changes. We are trying to simplify life and get our student loans paid off MUCH faster than the normal 10 years. I'm anxious for this to happen and us to have more money each month to use instead of pay toward debt. Our goal is to get them all paid in 4 years. I think we can do it!

Anxious....

What a big boy!!!

Dayton is getting so big so fast, it blows my mind! He is constantly smiling and can smile on cue. He is such a smarty pants! Every day he does something that surprises me like today he found Uncle Nate's ear phones and put one in each ear and walked around. I don't know where he learned that because Adam and I rarely (if at all) use ear phones.




He is really good at climbing things, he climbed the rock wall pictured below all by himself. After he reached the top he turned around with a big grin on his face as if to say, "Look what I can do Mom!"


He also loves playing on his own now. He will entertain himself with toys for a good 30 minutes. Check out the picture of him with the barn below. It is one of his favorite toys because it has animals (favorites are pig, chicken, cow) and it makes animal noises. Grandma Sue bought him this at a yard sale a couple months ago and it's been a hit.


He also loves slides! The big metal one at Grandma Day's, the fast ones at the park, and even this little one that we had gifted to us this week. Just look at his face!



I love you more and more each day buddy! I look forward to you being a big brother!


PS I don't know why but blogger doesn't show the pictures on the screen when I am creating a post it only shows the text for the picture and has done this for awhile. That is why in my posts the words aren't directly under each picture. Any ideas anyone?

Ultrasound Pictures

Here are my ultrasound pictures at 19 weeks with our little girl. The ultrasound tech said she looks healthy and all her organs look good. She is measuring right on for her due date, December 2nd. We are excited to meet her. The last two pictures are of her face and the other one is of her foot, knee, and leg. I couldn't get the pictures to rotate and they are also side ways, sorry. We have a lot of pictures of her face because she was in a good position. Now I need to get to making her baby book. I made one for Dayton that contains his ultrasound pictures, me pregnant with him, and the pictures of him when he was barely born at the hospital. I want to do this for all of our kids so I better get hopping. Anyway, it was so fun to see our little baby girl wiggle, what a miracle.

Boys will be boys

Wednesday Dayton came downstairs to help me switch the laundry, which he always does, and he got this shiner! Ya, it looks even worse in real life too! We have a wood platform that does not have carpet since our laundry room is not finished. The only thing I can think of that would have happened is he went to step up and missed the step and fell on his face. It was bleeding, not terribly bad, but there was blood and tears! Poor kid! I watched him the rest of the day closely, he didn't act like himself and was super whiny. He got a big goose egg in between the two cuts. I finally gave him some ibuprofen to help with the swelling and ease the pain. I do wonder how boys make it through childhood alive.





Also Thursday night Dad and Nate came over to weed the row of 14 pumpkins that my Dad planted at our house. Nate entertained Dayton while the rest of us weeded the garden. Check out his choice of activity...







Yup, making mud!!! Like I said, boys will be boys! I am not complaining in fact it kept Dayton perfectly happy for about an hour. Nate filled the bucket with water and Dayton threw the dirt clods in. Look at his surprised face in the second picture, PRICELESS! Thanks Nate, D does love you!


Here is a picture of all the boys working in the garden. Good memories!

It's a...

GIRL!!!!

Adam's response, "Oh, I get my little girl!"
My response, "Really? Yeah!!!"

We are so so so happy and can't wait to meet our little Rachel! Ultrasound pictures later.

4th of July

In the morning we went to the pancake breakfast in the 29th ward. When we lived there Adam always had to help with it and it was an all day event with clean up, now we just get to go and eat. :) So much better! After breakfast we headed out to Lewiston with my parents to see Uncle Nate in the parade on the Exec. float. Long story short, teenage boys are very clueless and don't plan, we missed the parade. Nate told us it started an hour later than it really did. It'd ok though we got a nice long, about 1.5 mile speed walk in, and saw lots of horses which Dayton loved! My Dad let Dayton wear his hat and D thought it was funny to walk around with it covering his eyes. He honestly could not see anything and he would just keep walking. It was so funny to watch!





Later that night we went to Jan and Steve's house for a BBQ. The food was yummy as always and the kids even got to throw poppers and got light up toys. Thanks Jan and Steve you are always so so nice! We love you and had a great time! Dayton especially liked helping Adam throw the poppers and he still loved playing with his light up toy. It is always good to see Grandma Sue and cousins too!







We had a good 4th of July together! We are glad we could celebrate it with family and friends. We are grateful for our country and all we have been blessed with.

A Day in our Life

I just thought that I would post a typical day at our house. Just for fun and so when we are empty nester's we can look back and remember the "crazy days" with a toddler and one on the way.

Between 7 and 7:30 Dayton wakes, rarely even if he stays up late does he sleep past this time. We put him in bed with us every morning to snuggle and give him time to wake up since he is slow to do so. Plus, we try to sneak in a few extra minutes of sleep and sometimes if we are lucky D will doze back to sleep for another 30 min.

7:30-9:00 D sits in is highchair and eats breakfast while watching cartoons. They play in this order, Curious George, Cat in the Hat, Super Why (reading show) and Dinosaur Train. He normally only watches for an hour so I can get ready. Typical breakfast options dry cold cereal, yogurt, pancakes, fresh fruit like strawberries or grapes, and scrambled eggs. Of course he doesn't eat all of this usually just one or two items like today he had strawberries and eggs.

8:45am Dad goes to work and always gets a big hug and kiss from both of us. Lately D is sad when his Dad leaves.

9:00-9:30 Dayton gets dressed, brushes his teeth (loves this), has his vitamin, bum change, and I chase him around the house to get it all done.

9:30-11:00 House time. This is usually when I like to get a few chores done for the day. Dayton usually tries to "help" which I encourage even though it means it might take twice as long. If he doesn't want to help he looks at books all by himself or gets out toys. For example today I vacuumed, cleaned both bathrooms minus the floors and tubs and folded one load of laundry; pretty good if I say so myself.

11:00-12:00 Outside time usually. D loves being outside! Usually we go on a walk, head to James Garbe's house to play, watch the chickens, play in the sand or have playgroup.

12-12:30 Lunch is pretty much always at this time because I am so hungry growing baby #2 I can't wait. D is a pretty good eater and feeds himself. Typical lunch is easy stuff like Mac and Cheese or PBJ with fruit or applesauce. I am pretty lame when it comes to fun lunches.

12:30-2:30 Nap (This past week he has switched to one nap a day.)

12:30-1:00 This is MY MOM time. I clean up lunch, check my email, blog some days, and nap others. Sometimes I have enough energy to do another chore but usually it is something small like loading the dishwasher.

1:00-3:00 I teach a 4 year old preschool. This keeps me busy during Dayton's nap time. I enjoy teaching her but I think I am going to ask her Mom if she can start coming in the morning so I can have more MOM time. :)

2:30-5:00 Play and errands. This speaks for itself. If we aren't playing at home (inside during the hottest part of the day) we are running to the grocery store, bank (D LOVES the suckers!), to get gas, DI for new books to read, or to visit Grandma Day.

5:00-5:30 Pick up the house and start dinner.

5:30-6:00 Dad comes home somewhere in between here. Dayton is always SO SO SO happy to see him. Dad and D feed the dogs and the chickens which Dayton loves. He always gets his shoes and runs to the door.

6:00-7:00 Dinner and lounging time. Recently Dayton will sit on the couch with us and watch the TV just like a big kid after dinner. So cute because when we laugh, he laughs! :)

7:00-8:00 Family time. Right now it is usually spent working in the yard, garden, fruit patch or just being outside.

8:00-8:30 Bath for Dayton because of his bad allergies he gets one EVERY night and I change his sheets weekly. I also have been giving him children's Triaminic cold and allergy which is really helping him sleep better at night. Yeah! We read stories, say family prayer (D fold his arms too), and he still gets rocked and a bottle before bed.

8:30-10:00 Time for Adam and I to get stuff done. Typically I am too tired to do much by now and I lay down and feel the baby kick.

It is crazy how I feel so busy during the day hauling kids here and there. I do love how things have worked out for us though and that I can stay home. I try to get lots done around the house but most days I get one or two jobs done and then I spend the rest of the time focusing on Dayton. Also I have the preschool girl daily 1-3, Taysia every Tuesday all day 9am-5pm, a 2 month old baby Kamden all day Wednesday and some Friday's or Monday's, and in August I will have Liya (age 6) again 10-3pm.

Life is good and I feel so blessed! I love being a Mom and can't wait to have two beautiful children although I sure the busy feeling will only get worse and the laundry will only get higher and higher. :)

D's favorite things to eat...

You guessed it, they are popsicles, popcorn and oranges! Dayton is so so so big and getting so independent. He feeds himself now and has for about a month. He actually does pretty well and gets almost all of the food in his mouth. It is so fun to see him grow and learn.
Lately another cute trait is that he will fold his arms and close his eyes when it gets really quiet, someone says amen, and occasionally when we really are praying. It is funny that he observes all the people around him and thinks they are praying even if they aren't. It is darling! Also he says, "uck, uck" when he is stuck which is actually pretty smart. Oh and he also signs more and says "mow mow". We love our little guy!

We find out what gender baby number 2 is on Thursday! Keep checking!

Cruise In

Every year there is a Cache Valley cruise in. People from all over bring their old, cool, fixed up cars and drag main street. People line the street to watch and even set out chairs the night before to mark their spot. It is such a fun event! This year we took Dayton and he LOVED all the "vroom vroom's". I have to admit there were some really sweet cars!!! We found a nice spot in the shade and enjoyed our $5 Little Caesar's Pizza and D loved the bread sticks. Adam and I can't believe this kids attention span. He sat on Adam's lap and watched the cars for a good ten minutes straight and the night before he sat and watched the fireworks outside the USU stadium for a good 10 minutes too. That is crazy good for a 16 month old! Enjoy the cruise in pictures below. Happy 4th of July everyone! How grateful we are to live in this country and for all of those who have and who currently fight for our freedom.