IT'S A...

GIRL!!!!!!

While at the beach house with my family, I ran over one night to a nearby ultrasound place to "confirm" that the little baby growing inside me is a boy. I wasn't planning on doing a gender reveal this time around because I felt like there was no surprise or wondering. I knew this baby was a boy. 

But last minute, Daron mentioned that with Carter being old enough to understand what's going on, it might be fun to do a little something that involved him. I agreed and decided to go get the gender checked early. I had them put the gender in an envelope and then hid it in the closet of our room at the beach house. (Knowing my ridiculously sneaky and noise family, one of them would have opened it up before we had the reveal!) I had lots of cute ideas rolling around in my head but in the end, my pregnant self didn't care enough to put in the time or energy to execute them. 

My family was getting anxious to know so I finally made Daron go find a blue sand toy and a pink sand toy and then my mom and I wandered over to a "neighbor's" house and asked them to look inside the envelope and put the matching toy in the brown paper bag and bring it back over to us. We felt a little silly but the neighbor was thrilled and so sweet about it. 

Then we all gathered outside and had Carter open the bag and announce to everyone what was inside!

AND THE TOY WAS PINK!!!!!!

I truly was so, so floored. I had an experience before I was even pregnant that made me think the next baby coming to our family would be a little boy. I was so confident, while visiting London with Daron, I bought "him" clothes(!!!) and told everyone it was a boy. I even had a name picked out. I say "I" instead of "we" because Daron wasn't on board with the name... yet. ;) 

Oh, I was so sure. I really thought I knew. When Carter pulled out that pink toy I couldn't believe my eyes. In the video (posted below) you can hear the beginning part of me yelling, "Nooooooooo." haha I feel bad I screamed that but I was so shocked! Eventually, I just kept yelling, "What!? Wait, are you sure!?" in an extremely high pitched voice and I immediately ran inside to grab the ultrasounds to see for myself. 

Even a week later, when we all went into the normal 20 week ultrasound appointment, I still thought there was a chance they were going to tell me it was wrong and it was a boy... but it was indeed, a girl. A sweet, adorable girl with the most perfect profile you have ever seen.

Once I was over my initial shock (which took about a week, ha!) we could move on to the fun stuff of trying to pick a name, etc... That's actually really hard and kind of stressful but also exciting. 

A link to the whole ordeal <and my very shocked reaction> here. 

Can't wait to meet you, baby GIRL!

NEWPORT, CA

A few pictures from our time in Newport...

What you do when your 3-year-old boy thinks it's funny to spit water on you...

Carter also comments on my belly all. the. time! This night, when we were in the spa was the first time he said, "Mom... your belly is SO big!" And proceeded to start poking it. I died laughing but since then he has said it over and over because he knows I thought it was funny. I've been trying to teach him to say "beautiful" instead of "big" but it hasn't quite caught on yet...

Carter & Lorenzo spent almost every single waking second together. 99% of the time, they love each other. Then there is that 1%... at one my point, my brother-in-law Trevor caught them punching each other and grabbed both their hands and marched them up to us. I couldn't help but laugh! Boys are so funny. 

They thought they were boogie boarding while doing this...

(ha!^ they thought they were sooo cool too) 

Naomi playing peek-a-boo with Daron. She never sits still these days and has started to get that inevitable opinion but watching her personality develop is the best.

On Sunday, we attended church and then walked over to the Newport Beach Temple. My mom huddled the grandkids together and told them why the temple was so special to her. All of their little eyes were glued on her. The grandkids are so lucky to have their "Sweetheart."

(^and we all laughed at these two hugging while we snapped pictures - unfortunately, my camera is broken and almost every picture I take is blurry -besides the ones posted- but I had to still post this one!)

The last morning we were there, we took a walk with our little family. Daron and Carter played frisbee while Naomi and I played in the sand. Every morning was really misty which felt so good. After our walk, Daron had to go back to work while I finished up the trip with the kids.

The trip was a dream. A beach house was a great choice for all the little kids. I actually felt like I got a break which is rare on a "vacation" with kids! The kids played all day together riding their bikes, building in the sand, and "boogie-boarding." The adults got to swim in the water, chat, take naps, and soak in the olympics once all the kids were in bed. I had been anticipating the week at the beach house all summer... it was so nice to finally be there! One night, I prayed that time would go by so slow so I could really take it all in. I was scared it was all going to go by too fast. 

A big thanks to my mom and dad for providing us the opportunity to go. Now we will just be soaking up the beach through the fall.  Since I don' have kids in school, I really feel like we can have an "endless summer" (!!!)

"I LOVE YOU BIG AS A..."

There's a little game that Carter loves to play that I am pretty sure he learned from his grandpa & grandma. 

He says, "Mom, I love you big as a giraffe."
And I say, "Really? I love you Carter big as an elephant!"

And we go back and forth naming the biggest animals we can think of. Sometimes we play the game with the biggest cars and tractors or the biggest things we can think of in nature. I'll never forget when I told him for the first time that "I loved him as big as the sky." His eyes were so big and he said, "Mom! The sky is huge!" haha 

It's a quick, simple part of our day but one of those moments that makes me feel so grateful for the opportunity to be a Mom.

Carter, you may forget that we ever played this game on a daily basis but I'll never let you forget how much I love you! 

A MINI DATE WITH CARTER

Two weekends ago, I took Carter on our first little date together. I'm calling it a "mini date" because we just went to Golden Spoon for our favorite froyo. I hurried and showered after our day at the beach while Daron got Carter ready. After Carter got out of the shower, he told Daron, "Dad I need underwear! I can't go on my date naked!" haha Life lessons from Carter are good ones!

The whole "date" thing totally fascinated Carter. He double checked with me about a thousand times that Naomi really wasn't coming and sang the entire car ride over, "We're goin' on a date!" I was so surprised because Carter generally never stops talking. Truly. But on our date, he was unusually quiet. He just wanted to sit and eat his ice cream and then occasionally he would ask me a question or be silly for me. 

I took a picture of my cone because for the first time in I think two decades, I changed up my order! I never get a cone but this one hit the spot. Carter got his usual... vanilla with gummy bears. (Sometimes he will switch up gummy bears for m&ms). 

Then of course I had to take a few pictures of him...

It made me a little sad how wierd it felt to be out with only one of my children. I've definitely made a mental note to set aside alone time with this kid outside the house! I don't think it will be hard either since Carter has asked almost every day since when our next date is... 3-year-olds, they have no problem holding you accountable! 

Can't wait for our next outing, Carter!