The Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was a blast! We had so much fun! You have to know that the fourth is one of my favorite holidays! We always had so much fun with my family. My family would always have a big barbecue and we would play volleyball and other games in the back yard. Then at night, we would do fireworks with our neighbors in the cul-de-sac. It was always a great time! Well, I have to say that my in-laws are great, but we have had to coach them a little about all the fun things you can do on the fourth! In their defense, they were gone last year, so this was our first shot at it all together.

Since my family always does a barbecue, I thought it would be fun to make my ribs. So I got all the fixings and brought them down to Russ and Diane's house. The ribs take about five hours to cook, so we had to get there in the morning. Scott and I got them all ready and put them in the oven. Then we just snacked on food and hung out for a little while.

The hardest part about getting my in-laws in the partying mood, was they had a bit of a tragedy occur on the fourth. There beloved cat, Hobbes, died. Russ and Diane were just about to leave for the airport to pick up Scott's brother, Daniel, when Diane realized she hadn't seen Hobbes in awhile. So we all went searching and Diane and Scott found Hobbes dead in the bushes. Sad times! So we gathered him up and made a burial spot for him. Then when Daniel got there, we finished burying him. It was sad, but for Scott's sake, I am going to include some of the pictures of Hobbes below:

Hobbes was a bit of a cranky cat, but we all loved him! He usually wasn't the cuddly type, he was more of the "if you touch me the wrong way I might take out your hand" type. But a few months ago, he really started to warm up to me. He would rub against my leg and even sit in my lap and let me pet him. We will all miss our Hobbsey-Bobs-Bob (my nickname for him)!

So after the mourning of Hobbes, I needed a little more fun! So Scott and I played Sequence while everyone picked up Daniel from the airport. Then we had the finishing of the burial, and shortly thereafter, we had our dinner. Dinner was so good (though the ribs didn't turn out quite as yummy as usual...which I think may be due to using a different oven...they still were yummy though)! We had ribs, corn-on-the-cob, rolls, barbecue baked beans, homemade mashed potatoes (made by me), and watermelon! It was super yummy! By the end, we were all stuffed.

Shortly after dinner, we all got ready to go to Stadium of Fire (a fireworks and music show put on at BYU). Before we left though, I managed to get a few fun pictures of us. You may notice Alexander's adorable new outfit that says "Mommy's little firecracker" with his matching sandals! I just loved the outfit so much that I had to get it for him. I also painted my toes cute for the holiday. Here are the pictures of us:

Well, we got all ready and headed out to the stadium. It was a pretty hot day (especially for a pregnant girl) but luckily our spots were in the shade! The show started off with an opening prayer where the person praying, prayed that we would get rain! That is when I thought, "Only in Utah, do you start a concert with a prayer and pray for rain!" But we did need the rain. It has been so hot this year that there have been lots of fires. Luckily, the man's prayer was answered and it rained the next day. It rained buckets and buckets from Orem to Bountiful (that is as far as we traveled the day after the fourth, so it may have rained other places too)! The concert was fun. We saw the Beach Boys and a former American Idol, Scotty McCreary, opened the show. I was surprised that on their 50th year tour, the Beach Boys still sounded so good! I was also surprised that they were still playing. It was a great show though! Anyway, we had been a little worried as to how Alexander would handle the fireworks, so I got him these cute protective earmuffs online. He did great overall. When the fireworks started, he was okay. He had even seen some off in the distance and liked it, until the show up close had huge fire pillars. That is when he got scared and clung to my neck so hard that I thought he might choke me. It is nice to know he feels safe in my arms :) Well, I got him to calm down and he really started to enjoy the show, but the loud bangs at the end, scared him again. This time he wasn't as scared though and was only scared for a few minutes. I was glad to see that overall, he did really well! He also did well at being up all night. It was the latest he had ever stayed up before. We didn't get him to bed until 12:30 am! The nice thing was that he slept in until 10:00 am so we all got some good sleep that night. Below are some pictures of us at the Stadium of Fire:

The fourth really was a blast overall...pun intended! It was great to have a yummy barbecue, play a few games, see an awesome fireworks show, and spend time with family! We loved it! Well, that is all for now. Tune in next time for fun in the park.

Jumping June!

Hey there guys! I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog! Let's just say the exhaustion and nausea from pregnancy has left me with very little time to think about many other things than caring for my home and family. But I am finally ready to talk about June! So many fun things happened in June. We had my birthday, Father's Day, I went to Girls Camp, and we attended Andy's wedding. It was a great month!

So, let's start with my birthday! We went for an early birthday dinner with Scott's family the Saturday before my birthday. I had really wanted to go to The Garden Restaurant atop the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It has a great view of the Salt Lake Temple, yummy food, and this special thing they do for birthdays! If it is your birthday, they will open the roof for you, give you a balloon and a piece of paper to write your birthday wish on, and then have you let go of the balloon and wish so the balloon will float up into the sky! It is really cool and so I had been planning on doing this for months before my birthday. Unfortunately, when we went there, their roof was having issues and they wouldn't let me do it :( Sad times! Dinner and dessert was still great though! We had a really fun time. One of the fun things we did for the dinner was all wear matching Angry Birds shirts! I had gotten Scott an Angry Birds shirt for Christmas, and a few weeks before my birthday, Diane got one for Alexander. So Scott got me a shirt for my birthday! It was fun having cute matching shirts for my birthday. Alexander had a ton of fun playing in the fountains at the restaurant and coloring. Below are some pictures of us at the dinner:

Well, of course, my husband is great and the birthday fun didn't end there! For my actual birthday, Scott spoiled me again! We went to try out a new BBQ restaurant for dinner, and then Scott got me an awesome rainbow cake, flowers, balloons, and some smelly stuff! But that isn't all! To make up for the fact that I couldn't make my balloon birthday wish, he bought a balloon that said, "Make a Wish" and had me write my wish on a piece of paper and let it go outside our apartment! It was really sweet and super thoughtful. I wished that Peanut would be born before the end of the year (that way we can get more back on our taxes to pay for the hospital bills and my family can be here for it, since they are coming for Christmas)! Below are some pictures of all our fun on my birthday:

  

Wow! That sure was a lot of birthday pictures! What can I say? I just love pictures! Okay, so on to the next fun June thing that happened....Father's Day! Unfortunately for Scott, I was feeling super sick on Father's Day. I was sick enough that Scott made me stay home from church. Don't worry....it is just the usual morning sickness due to pregnancy...and it was just particularly bad that day! Anyway, I had planned this awesome meal for him, but it just didn't happen. Luckily, my friend Leslie, noticed I wasn't at church and saved the day! She brought over some pasta and all we had to do was stick it in the oven. So we had a nice pasta meal anyway! Since I had planned to make lasagna, it was perfect! I already had the garlic bread and the sparkling cider to go with it. So we enjoyed the extra stuff with her meal. Then we finished off the meal with some apple pie (Scott just loves apple pie). So even though I was sick, it still turned out all right. A few days after Father's Day I made Scott his lasagna and he loved it. For Father's Day I got him a computer game he has been wanting, a new pair of shorts, a new white shirt for church and some socks. He loved his gifts :)

Well, apparently I WAS sick, because that is a lame amount of Father's Day pictures! Just know that Scott really is the best Dad ever! I feel so great to have him as my husband and as the father of my little boy! Okay, so another thing that happened in June was that Scott took a day off work so I could attend part of Girls Camp! I went from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday night. It kinda kicked my butt because I was still feeling nauseous and exhausted due to the pregnancy, but it was still fun. I even made cute campfire cupcakes for the girls and Scott helped me! They were a real hit. Girls Camp itself was great! We got there Wednesday night and my friend, Leslie, did a devotional where we had the girls write down something they wanted to change about themselves and let the balloons go so that heaven could help them. It was super cute! Unfortunately, I wasn't as prepared as I should have been for the staying over night. I forgot a mat and extra blankets. So I had to double up on clothes (it was much colder than I thought) and share a mat with Leslie (though the fact that we were sleeping on rocks seem to make the mat feel non-existent). Let's just say I got very little sleep! The next day was super HOT and so I drank tons of water and went to the bathroom like three hundred times. We also had great devotionals, great food and an amazing testimony meeting at the end of the day. Besides dealing with pregnancy, it was a really great time! There are a few pictures of the cupcakes and the girls below:

 Okay there was just one last fun thing that happened this month! We got to attend Scott's best friend, Andy's wedding! The funniest part about the day was that we left Alexander with my friend, Katie, and he walked across her living room floor! He took seven whole steps while we were in the temple! This is funny because we had been trying to get him to take just one step towards us and he hadn't yet! Anyway, he is now taking two or three steps at a time, but it was amusing to see that he walked so far for her. I am convinced that he doesn't want us to know he can walk because we often find him doing it when we aren't looking and he stops when he realizes we can see him. Silly boy! Anyway, the sealing was great and we also enjoyed the reception. One of Scott's other friends, McKenzie, caught the bouquet and we think she will be getting engaged soon :) Below are some pictures of the wedding:

Lastly, I would like to share just a few other things Alexander learned how to do this month! This month he started standing on his own, and of course walking, he shakes his head no, learned to climb the stairs, says "hi" while waving his hand, and got his eighth tooth (now he has four on the bottom and four on the top)! He is also eating lots of different solid foods. He loves watermelon and cantaloupe which explains why I craved watermelon so much while being pregnant with him! He also loves green beans and pretzels. Oh and he loves spaghetti and pasta of any kind! TO the left are pictures of him eating lasagna. He also loves playing the piano (we moved the keyboard in his room and it is a source of much entertainment)! He is getting so big! It is hard to believe that he will be a year old in August!


Well, this blog has gotten far too long! But that is all the fun we had in June! I will try to be better this month, so my post isn't so long next time. Tune in next time for Fourth of July fun!