Happenings in June

June started with flat tires on Allan's car. They have been bald for a while, and we were just waiting for them to go flat. He only drives it to work and back (about a five minute drive) so we weren't too worried about them.

It was also super busy getting ready for K5's wedding. I did the bridal shower invitations for her, and K6 and I planned the shower. K6 came up with the plan and I just helped with a few things. K5 and her fiance C2 stopped by one day to help me with some addresses for the shower invites. C2 commented that he liked what I had chosen for the invitations and then said about he and K5's wedding invites "Our invitations are gonna be pretty bad, eh!" When he said that I thought, "oh my goodness! I don't want K5 to think that her invites are ugly or something!" So I said, "No! I'm sure they will be great!" K5 laughed and said, "Kami, by bad he means they're going to be awesome!"  ...Oh...oh ya.  He speaks skater. We all got a good laugh out of that one. (As a side note their invites were really beautiful!)

We celebrated Allan's birthday! By working on the house. We also were able to go on a date. Some of our friends watched little A for us! We had planned on going Frisbee golfing, but when we got to the course it was covered in weeds that were almost as high as my hips! Since we were in shorts and sandals we decided to just throw the Frisbee in the ball field that had just been mowed. We had a lot of fun chatting as we threw the Frisbee. Afterward we went and got ice cream.

We planned a camping trip with Allan's brother A1 and A1's wife F and their children. We started with a tour through Minnetonka Cave. There are over 800 steps in the cave and A was very determined to climb them all! She was very excited about the whole experience. She ended up climbing about half of them and was in tears about half the time as well. Poor girl.

There are a lot of chipmunks at the cave. They are super friendly and will eat food out of your hand. A and all of the other kids loved chasing them. We saw a mama squirrel carrying one of her babies in her mouth!

We then headed to Tony's Grove, a lake up in the canyon we were camping in. A fell asleep on the way up, and I sat in the car with her for a while. She was a very unhappy girl. She woke up that morning with a runny nose. We didn't really think anything of it and assumed she was just teething. She cried on and off pretty much the whole day and wouldn't sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time. She was one exhausted mess. We walked around Tony's Grove for a while to let the kids play and then headed to the campsite.

A and her little cousin H had a blast together. H just wanted to hug her and go where ever she went. It was pretty funny! They climbed rocks (A with my assistance of course) and played in the tall grass. A was completely exhausted so we tried to put her to bed, but she wouldn't have it. She stayed up with everyone else and had smores. I tried to offer her a smore a few times, but she never wanted to try it so she just had a couple pieces of chocolate.

When we finally went to bed A slept for about 15 minutes in her pack-n-play and then freaked out and wouldn't go back to sleep. We tried several different arrangements, including Allan trying to sleep with her while sitting up in the car, but nothing worked. At 1 o'clock in the morning we decided to just go home. We took her to the ER (where we live there are no medical services open on the weekends except for the ER) and she had an ear infection. Poor little A. No wonder she was so upset.

So, our first camping trip as a family was a bust. Hopefully next time will go better. On the plus side we got to try out our new sleeping bags and camping pads. The sleeping bags were plenty warm and very comfortable. The pads were still a bit on the hard side, but at least I couldn't feel any rocks sticking into my hip bones or the cold ground seeping through.

That week we had a lot of snuggles and read a lot of books, and watched a lot of movies. (In the picture below Allan and A are reading books together after we had dinner. So precious!)

Every now and then little A gets in this really sweet mood where she wants to give me kisses. She'll sit and kiss my cheek over and over or give me a little kiss on the lips and then nuzzle in for a snuggle. It is so sweet! Those are some of my favorite times with her. It's doubly cute when she does it with her Daddy.

A and I had quite the silly play one day this month. I decorated her hair with all of the bows that she'd carried into the living room, and we played with her sponge alphabet, putting letters on our noses and ears. She got the biggest kick out of it and kept giggling over and over!

When Daddy got home that day we went to the park to play. She had a blast running around all of the equipment.

She still hates slides so we only took her down twice.

Her favorite thing at the park is the swings. They are so relaxing to her. She loves to lean back and feel the wind in her hair. In the picture Allan was making faces at her whenever she would swing close to him. She got the biggest kick out of it!

We bought her a little chair so that she can practice getting in and out of them without falling off. She LOVES it! For the first few days I could sit her in the chair and give her a toy, and she would just sit and play for a while. It was nice because I could get some housework done. Then she figured out how to get out.

We didn't do much for Father's day as our present was to go to Wicked in a couple of months.

We went to the Temple and decided to just take A with us. She'd been having a hard time so we felt like it'd be better to just take her with us. We had a fun time walking around looking at all of the flowers (she tore a head off of one when I wasn't looking, eesh), going up and down the steps, and waving to all of the people. It is always such a blessing to go to the Temple.

For family home evening one week we worked on the flower bed in the front of our house. I forgot to take a before picture. At some point a ground cover had been planted in the flower bed and it had completely taken over. So, we pulled all of it out. There was also a beautiful bleeding heart, some lilies, and a couple other leafy plants, we kept all of those. We do need to separate the lilies for next year.

A had a blast digging in the dirt and tasting the occasional rock and dirt clod when Momma and Daddy weren't looking. She got a cut on her hand trying to get off of those cinder blocks. :(

When we got everything cleaned up we planted a few flowers that we bought earlier that day. We didn't buy nearly enough to fill the flower bed, but at least it was a start, and it looks a lot better!

We also put a few flowers in a flower box in the back yard.

We have a pretty big back yard, and I wanted to be able to play in it more, so we bought little A a kiddie pool and a slide. She LOVES the pool. She would play in it all day if I would let her. She has had a blast trying to figure out how to pour that watering can without getting it all over her, ha!

The slide came at the beginning of a really rainy week, and she was still getting over her ear infection. So, we kept it inside at first so she could play on it. It took us forever to find one of these slides that had steps instead of a climbing wall. It also has a little ball maze with 10 balls. She has had so much fun throwing and chasing those balls.

She was absolutely delighted with the slide, well really with the steps and the balls. She still doesn't like slides, ha! For the next few days all we did was go up and down the steps and chase the balls around the house. I tried to get her to climb the stairs by herself every day, but she is too scared to do it.

One day she decided that she needed to eat her food like this. Maybe she could see her food better?

We had a couple over who have also adopted. It was fun to hear their adoption story and get to know them a little. Their children are super cute and A loved playing with them. It is always nice to be around other people who are familiar with the adoption world. It gives us a sense of camaraderie.

A LOVES food and gets especially anxious to eat around dinner time. I think it's because she watches me make it, and it takes so much longer to make than our other meals. This day I turned on the oven light and she went over and watched dinner cook. :)

I went to the bridal luncheon that K5's future mother-in-law threw for her. It was beautiful, and the food was delicious! Love seeing her so happy!

We all had the flu at the end of June. The 27th little A threw up for the first time. She had been acting really uncomfortable the whole evening and wouldn't sleep. The only way she was appeased at all is if I held her. So we snuggled up and turned on a movie in the hopes to distract her. She threw up all over her, me, and the couch. After the first one we were able to catch it in a bowl for the most part. She threw up three different times and then was fine other than some diarrhea over the next few days.

The 29th right after dinner Allan started feeling really sick to his stomach. Not too long afterward he threw up. And kept throwing up for hours! I got sick around 11 that night and just couldn't stop. My mom came at about midnight to take care of little A because Allan and I were so sick and she had thrown up again. At about 1:30 my mom called for an ambulance. Allan was doing better, but couldn't walk without gettting super light-headed and dizzy, and I had been throwing up/dry heaving for 2 1/2 hours without any breaks and no sign of stopping. It was really bad. My mom was able to get me into the living room. The police showed up to see what was going on and found Allan laid out on the couch and me in the middle of the living room floor. The ambulance never came so they helped mom get me into her car and take me to the ER. They gave me some morphine that knocked me out almost immediately. Mom told me the next day that the nurse gave me the morphine and then said "Wow, she really went fast didn't she." They were a little worried because of how fast it knocked me out. They gave me an IV, and I slept through the night. Allan was doing better by the morning, but still not well enough to take care of Ava, so our ward pulled together and got people to watch little A until Allan's mom could get here (my mom had to go into work). They also provided a meal. What a blessing they all were! Unfortunately, Allan's mom and our brother in law C also got it. We scrubbed our house from top to bottom with Clorox as soon as we could be up and about long enough.

I pulled several of my abdominal muscles and it took another week to feel completely better. Worst flu EVER! Hopefully we will never have to experience that again. Eesh.

Allan had 5 days in a row off the week we had the flu, so he didn't have to take any time off, which was nice. However, we had planned on finishing up the work on our house. :(  Also, Allan had to go back to work after being so sick and work 8 days in a row, which means he had an 80 hour work week. He was completely exhausted.

Happenings in May

Allan had to work 8 days on the 2nd and 3rd weeks of May, but that meant that he also had some extra time off. We used that extra time to pack and finish up a few things on the house so we could move in. Allan's brother and sister-in-law D and J came down to help us with the house, moving, and Little A. We could not have done it without them!

We worked on the house and packed the apartment on the 22nd and 23rd, then moved on the 24th. Allan's family came up to help us and it went really quick! Sunday we all conked out though. 

On Memorial day we unpacked for a while and then went to visit the graves of my family members. I haven't been able to do this for over 10 years so it was really nice to go. Little A had a blast running around and trying to pick the petals off of the flowers.

When we moved in we didn't have door knobs on any of the doors (and we only had four doors hung, lol!). To keep little A's door shut the first week we used socks and a weight. It worked well but we were relieved to have door knobs!

J helped me clean most of our apartment the day we moved. It was such a HUGE blessing to have her help with that! The Tuesday after Memorial day I went over and finished up. One of our friends watched little A for us. She had a lot of fun playing with our friend's children.

A rediscovered her infant car seat and loved climbing in and out of it. It was a lifesaver for a couple of days because it entertained her long enough for me to get a little work done.

My sister, K1, got remarried towards the end of May. The went to Vegas with their boys and partied it up as a new family. Their ceremony was beautiful! I am so happy for her!

This cute outfit is courtesy of Daddy! Little A was super excited to play outside on the porch. Her favorite thing is to walk up and down the steps.

Little A is still not walking on her own. She thinks it's my job to loan her a finger so she can go discover all the things she's interested in, ha! So, this is how I do all my housework, with a cute girl attached to my leg, arm, shirt, whatever she can get her hands on. 

She moans and groans until I am done and she gets to have a turn doing what she wants to do. She does get more and more confident every day though!

Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken a while ago. The woman who took them was great and her price was also fantastic! Here are a few of them:

The photographer brought an assistant that was great with Little A. We really enjoyed the shoot.  A few weeks later we got this package in the mail along with our CD of pictures. 

Inside was this enormous print. It's gorgeous! I love it and can't wait to get it in a frame!

If you are in the Cache Valley area and want a good photographer I recommend her. Her name is Aimee Campbell and her website is www.aimeecampbellphotography.com.

Anniversary/Mother's Day Trip

We went to visit Allan's side of the family over Mother's Day weekend, which is also our anniversary weekend. We wanted to be there to talk to Allan's siblings who are serving missions, and I also had a Sister Missionary reunion. It was a really busy weekend.

We started by going on a date. Allan's sweet Mom watched little A for us for most of the day so that we could celebrate our 6th anniversary. It kind of started out horribly. First we went to the Temple to do sealings. We do this every year. It's nice to be reminded of our marriage covenants and remember the wonderful day we were married. Once we got to the Temple we discovered that our Temple recommends had expired a few days previously. Epic fail #1.

We decided to just head to our favorite Thai restaurant for an early lunch. We got there only to discover that it was closed for the month of May! Epic fail #2. Awesome.

Thankfully we remembered another Thai restaurant and went for lunch there instead. It was really good. About 5 minutes after we entered the restaurant it started raining. Not just a little, a huge down pour! We'd left the umbrella in the trunk (Epic fail #3) so we just hoped that it would let up when it came time for us to leave. Unfortunately it didn't. Allan ran through the rain to get the umbrella while I waited inside. He was completely drenched! It looked like he'd taken a shower in his suit. Poor guy. 

After that we went looked for a place to change our clothes so Allan wouldn't be sopping wet the rest of the day. We found a random church building that was open and crashed some sort of missionary district meeting or zone meeting. We made a quick change of clothes and headed back out. The wind had picked up while we were inside and covered our car with tree droppings. It was pretty thick, Allan had to pull out the snow scraper to get them off. 

Then we walked around Temple Square and some of the area surrounding it. When we were dating I lived a block away from Temple Square, and we spent a lot of time there and the surrounding area and parks. It was fun to reminisce.  We are so blessed to have such a happy, loving marriage. We've had an eventful six years of marriage and have grown closer and more in love for it. I feel so blessed to have Allan as a husband, and he says that he is still trying to figure out how he ever got a lady as wonderful as me.

Even though our date didn't go as planned, it was still very nice to have the day to just be together.

The next day I went to the sister missionary reunion. I served in the Illinois Chicago North Mission. It was such a wonderful experience and I worked with so many great women. It was really good to see them again, catch up on their lives, and talk about the people we'd worked with. Sadly I don't have any pictures yet.

Mother's day was a nice relaxing day. We spent a lot of time with our family and got to talk to Allan's brother and sister who are serving missions.

Our New House

We moved in over Memorial Day weekend. (I know, I am WAY behind.) Before we moved in we replaced the carpet with laminate flooring and painted. Here are a few pictures of that.

Little A came and helped sometimes. She didn't really like it though. It was too noisy for her. Occasionally we could appease her by giving her something to help us, such as a ziplock bag of screws or an outlet cover. She was very proud to hold them for us and give them to us when we needed them.

We still aren't finished painting the molding and doors, we need to put the baseboards in and we haven't started on the basement yet. But, we sold the hot tub, installed central air conditioning, replaced two toilets, put rain gutters on, and did some work on the yard.

It is a 6 bed 3 1/2 bath home, about 3200 square feet.

The back yard is pretty big, we've loved playing in it.

The living room before:

And after:

Master Bedroom before:

And after:

more of the master bed:

Little A's room before:

And after: (we are planning to still add a chair rail and pink stripes. It will look like her original nursery)

Kitchen:

Pantry and laundry room: (There is a laundry room on the main floor as well as the basement)

Little A's bathroom:

Food Storage room:

Garage: (The garage has it's own heater, it's quite large and heats up the garage in about 5 min. Allan loves that!)

We love our house! It really turned out so beautiful. We've really been enjoying the extra room too! A BIG BIG thank you to all of our family and friends who helped us work on the house and take care of little A. We couldn't have done it without you!