BEST OF... SUMMER 2016

This summer was relatively low key. We went on few vacations and outings. We spent almost all summer at the beach or at my parent's house swimming. I spent most nights falling asleep at 8:30 and trying to survive nausea. It was nice to stay around here in Cardiff and get to know the area where we live better. I feel like it's taken a long time since I've been sick and pregnant or in the newborn/ a baby's first year of life stage. 

Here it goes... a few of the "best of" for Summer 2016:

The first beach day of the summer with a few of my besties. 

There were more people who came but we didn't think to take a picture until it was almost too late... very typical for us. We never take pictures together and the last picture of us is realizing that "Hey! We actually got our act together and are taking a picture!" I was so proud of us.

Attending the Padre's opening game. Daron and I had big plans to attend a lot of these games. I'm not really sure what happened because this was the only one... ha!

^ I almost forgot about the days Naomi would rip out her clip the second I put it in her hair! So glad she's over that... for the most part.

A dear friend from college, Shelby, who lives in Arizona now came to visit me. 

This was so, so fun! I loved it. She came and stayed during the week which was awesome because I had a perma-friend for a week while Daron worked. It was really low key but since she was visiting, we of course used it as an excuse to go out to breakfast a lot and do new things, like strawberry picking! We hadn't done that. We also took lots of pictures for each other of our kids. A few that she captured are some of my new favorites!

After 6 years of trying, my sister and her husband were finally able to welcome their first baby into the world, Jack Cannon Rich. Below is his blessing day... Once Ellery and I have our babies, that will make 4 cousins within one year! Mine is the only girl... anxious to see how that goes!

^On a totally random side note, I'm laughing at this picture. I remember thinking I looked really cute this day. But I look at my hair now and realize I was having a total bad hair day. 

Running through the sprinklers! We didn't do this enough! 

Telling Daron that I was pregnant after hiding it from him for 10 WHOLE WEEKS!!!!!!!!! And pretty much putting him in a shock-coma once I did...

I kind of forgot about this whole ordeal. I'll have to write more on it later. It really was epic.

Glorious nights where we were able to get the kids down early. 

This is so hard to do in the summer! But it was awesome when it happened because Daron and I got to enjoy time together when it was still light. Our excitement usually lead to us taking "funny face" snaps that still crack me up.

Cooking while pregnant for most women is not a pleasant experience. Some mornings, I would take the kids out to breakfast and we would take it to the beach... these were great mornings.

These sweet hugs...

They always end up being more of a tackle haha

Daron's sister and her boyfriend came to visit. 

I absolutely love having visitors! I just wished Daron could have spent more time with us... Carter & Naomi were in heaven. 

^And how much does Naomi look like she could be Becca's child more than mine!? She is such a Young... 

Swimming at my parent's house.

Swimming with the kids was rather difficult this summer. (And I'm afraid next summer won't be much better!) Naomi isn't quite big enough for the puddle jumper yet and crawls out of any other pool contraption there is and also thinks she can swim... Carter is doing great at swimming but I still worry and am always trying to keep a nervous eye on him. Soooooo, summer of 2018... we are already looking forward to you!


This day (pictured below) was recent. I told the kids they could not swim! Then found them 20 minutes later in the spa with my mom... naked. It's taken me a while to get used to Grandparent rules. Or I guess I should say, the lack thereof!

Watching Naomi develop the cutest personality! 

This girl was so sweet and calm as a baby. I couldn't picture what she was going to be like as she got older. It's been such a treat to watch her grow. This stage is so fun but also exhausting. She understands everything but can't speak (which leads to lots and lots of screaming) and is so mobile yet doesn't understand the world around her (like 10 ft drop offs at the park). It's always shocking once your kid gets an opinion... it's like "ope, bye bye baby! here comes my toddler!" She is incredibly funny though which I didn't expect. She's at the age where I wish I could tape her entire life because it's all just too good!

^ "Mama, coooooold!" she says at the supermarket. 

Enjoying mornings with this gorgeous summer light...

I'm going to miss soft summer light waking me up in the mornings. I honestly would roll over with a huge smile on my face. It was always so peaceful and beautiful!

Labor Day in Colorado!

We spent the weekend hanging out with Daron's family and attending his sister's bridal shower. Wedding Bells are coming in October and we can't wait. Weddings are so fun. I mentioned before how my camera is broke so I took very few pictures but we went to the Fort Collins Temple Open House where Anna and Dan will get married,  ate yummy food, enjoyed a day at the lake, and I basically didn't see carter for 5 days straight because he was with his cousin the entire time. I remember having weeks like this when I was kid and was around my cousins. They were the best! 

Not pictured were the summer peaches! Ah! They were to die for this year! I thought I had a picture of Naomi devouring one but it was actually a video. A hilarious video. They were so good this year. The watermelon struggled I thought... but I'll be dreaming of the peaches until next summer. 

A big wave goodbye to Summer and hellllooooo to Fall!

BECAUSE I COUDLN'T STOP TAKING PICTURES OF HER

There is so much I want to catch up on this blog. Summer is not technically over just yet but it's feeling long gone since the weather has cooled down so much here in Cardiff. It's bitter sweet. I'm sad to see summer go but these cool days feel amazing!

At some point, I'll maybe get around to catching up on all that happened over the summer but today I'm posting random pictures I took yesterday of Naomi. She just looked so cute I couldn't stop taking pictures of her all day. Yesterday was sort of a boring normal day but good at the same time. The kids and I got out of the house early and went on a walk which I think helped all of us get off to a good start. Then we ran random errands like home depot, target and the post office. I was really productive which always feels good. I also prayed specifically that the kids and I could have a good day because the day before was a total doozy. Daron and I were barely hanging on until bedtime on Sunday... it was all we could do! 

Here's to answered prayers, cute jumpers, adorable tiny sneakers and fresh new weeks!

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!

WORTHWHILE

My two favorite little people in their Sunday best...

Exciting things around here... Carter is finally learning to grab/hug his sister without choke holding her. This is a very welcomed skill! As these two interact more, life definitely gets more fun (crazier but fun!). They are already conspiring against me though which I am not ready for.  Carter's latest stunt is locking the bathroom door on me so Naomi can have a free for all with the toilet. I can hear Carter giggling while she goes to town... stinkers!

Being a mom has been harder than I ever anticipated. I think I hesitate to write this because sometimes I feel this point is exaggerated and as hard as the job is it's equally as rewarding. But in the end, it's definitely what I have thought and therefore part of my story, so I'm writing it down. When I look back, I remember little things people said that should have given me a clue but I really had no idea. I had Carter and was like, "Woah! What the heck!?" I honestly was disturbed that my mom had 5 children! haha! I was so, so blown away. (Postpartum depression had a part in this). But still, I was in awe of women/mothers everywhere for so many reasons. With how hard the job can be at times, I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have that every effort, every sacrifice I make to do the best job I can is worth it! In a recent general conference, I remember very clearly Elder Russell M. Nelson saying, "No other work transcends that of righteous, intentional parenting!" He said it so emphatically. It really struck me. Sometimes, I worry about how I am doing or the challenges I will go through raising my kids as they grow up but I find so much comfort in the fact that this work is not only important but incredibly worthwhile. 

And I already can't wait for next Sunday when we get to go to church and I get to hangout with Carter and Naomi in their church attire. Seeing Carter in suspenders and a tie never gets old and dressing a girl, well that has been so much better!!!