FIVE YEARS!

So I know I'm a little late reporting this, but we had our five year anniversary last weekend (Aug. 16) and I just want to say that it's been the most wonderful five years of my life! I can't believe how fast it's flown by and everything we have done and where we are at now! It has been great and I love my husband more and more all the time!

Our anniversary was awesome because we actually got to go on a date!! Yay!! As you can tell, it doesn't happen for us out here in Bagdad. Thanks to our wonderful friends, the Stewarts, we were able to leave Sam for a few hours and chill. We went to Phoenix for the weekend and stayed with them and Saturday afternoon they took Sam with them to run their errands and we went and saw Dark Knight...finally! It was great and it helps so much that Sam is so comfortable with them...they are practically family!



And I have to comment on Dark Knight of course, while I'm on the subject....BEST MOVIE!!! I loved it so much and didn't want it to end! It was great and there couldn't have been a better Joker than Heath Ledger! He was amazing!

Anyway...this week we have Dave's family from Utah visiting us - mom, Stewart, John, and Jordan. Since we couldn't come down to see them when Stewart got back from his mission last month, they came up here! This is the first time he has met Sam and Sam just loves his uncles! I will post some pics and stuff when the week is over.

Nothing really new with the pregnancy...just getting really big...really fast, unfortunately. Today I finally just gave in and decided not to try and hide my belly anymore and I wore a dress to church that showed it all too well...I am still surprised every time I see my silhouette at how big I am getting so fast! Yes, I know...I should have taken a picture. :)

Sam not only knows his numbers and counting but he also knows most of the letters of the alphabet and some colors as well! He is so smart and surprises me every day!

Lastly, I just wanted to shout out that I have finally accomplished one of my long time goals of writing a book! I am done! It is finished! Not that I will actually go through the trouble to publish it or anything (it's not that good), but it was just an awesome thing for me to do!

That's it on us for now!

Introducing our new addition!

And now...finally the post I've been waiting for forever to post! I know many of you already know this news, and we have been so busy and had a hard time getting it around, but we figured now it was time to announce it to the world! We are pregnant again! I am almost 14 weeks, so I am now into my second trimester...sorry, to those of you who are just hearing this, that it has taken so long for us to announce. We just wanted to be sure everything was fine before we did and I couldn't get into my first appointment until I was 11 weeks along. We did an ultrasound and everything and he/she is doing great! All the limbs and everything! It was rolling around in my belly and kicking its legs and stretching its arms. Very cute. :) We are very excited!
However, next time we need to plan a little bit better because the due date is February 14th...not only V-day, but Dave's birthday and three days after Sam's birthday! February will be a busy month...just like how December was always a busy month in my family growing up!
Unfortunately, with this pregnancy I was a lot more sick than I was with Sam, so I'm glad that besides watching Sam (which I feel I have failed at miserably these last 3 months), I have no job. Luckily though, now that I am in the beginning of my second trimester I have started to feel much better! I still have bad days, but they aren't as often! The main bummer for me this time is how fast I have started to show. I started showing at 8 weeks! And now I look like I am already 4 or 5 months along! I have already gained 4 lbs...ugh. My pants are tight too, and I already have to do the whole rubber-band thing with my top button on some of my pants. But aparently, from what I hear, it is somewhat normal to start showing a lot sooner with your second one than with your first. That gives me some comfort, no matter how small. :)
Here is the ultrasound picture of our little one! Unfortunately, we left the pictures in the car and the heat/sun did soemthing to them and the picture dulled and faded a ton so they aren't as clear as they were when we got them. But there he/she is!

More Reviews...

I finished two books since the last time I posted, and as always, I feel for some reason to give my little opinions... :)


The first one is Breaking Dawn, of course! And I don't have anything bad to say about it! I was really worried I'd be disappointed, but I wouldn't have wanted it to go any better! I loved the way Stephenie Meyer ended the saga! It was perfect and everything was wrapped up perfectly. I'd have to say that though Twilight is a classic favorite, this one is probably my favorite in the series! Love it! Did I already say that?...


Next one I finished was the Peacegiver, by James Ferrell. "How Christ offers to heal our hearts and homes." It's a short one that would serve as an excellent self-help book, but luckily for people like me who have a hard time getting into anything that isn't in fictional or novel format, it was layed out like a story so it was easy to follow. It was so good and opened my eyes to such amazing things about the Atonement that I had never ever thought about before! It helps you so much to look at your life and your sins and forgiveness in a different way, not to mention helps immensely with relationships! Even if you aren't having any problems in any relationships, it's good to know and helps a ton! I would recommend this to anyone!


And lastly, a quick movie review. We are behind on the movies we see because we have to wait until they come out on video, but I rented Penelope from Netflix and I would recommend it to everyone - kids, adults, male, female! I loved it and thought it was such a cute story and taught a good lesson! Even Dave liked it, believe it ot not! And another little perk, if it even matters, is that James MacAvoy is in it... :)

Sam's 18 Month Check-up

So now I will post about Sam...again. :) He had his 18 month check-up yesterday and got more shots, of course. He absolutely hates the doctor's office! And he hates his doctor! It's too bad too, because he is such a nice man! It was funny because when he was finally done and we went back out to wait for our ride in the waiting room he was totally fine and playing again, and then when Dr. Green came out to call in the next patient Sam started crying really loud and ran to me and clutched my leg really tight! Dr. Green had to say, "Sam, I'm not here for you!" It was so funny! Anyway, he is growing, but he is still small! He is in the 90% for height and only the 20% for weight! So as always, he is really tall and skinny! But he is healthy and good and he is learning and growing at an excellent rate!

Camping Camping Camping!

I had to make a separate post about our camping trip we took a couple weekends ago with the Bolingers and the Stewarts. It was so much fun! I hadn't been camping since we went with the Holidays two years ago and went huckleberry picking, so I was craving it!! We went to a place kind of by Flagstaff called Mormon Lake. Sam did really well...better than expected. He's finally getting to the age where he enjoys stuff like that! Unfortunately though, on top of teething, he had a cold too, so night times were a little bit rough. He didn't want to sleep in the trailer unless I was laying right next to him, but thanks to Benedryl he was knocked out pretty fast and I was able to trick him by leaving a bunched up blanket next to him so that he felt something there and thought it was me. :) He also slept through the whole night! He was also a little cranky in the mornings but once everyone was up and he saw Colter playing, he was fine. Something that was a little hard for me was seeing him so dirty! I have never seen him so dirty before! I don't even like him having a booger on his face, but he was just COVERED in dirt and there was nothing I could do about it! I had to just keep reminding myself that it's okay because we are camping, he's a boy, and I would be able to go home the next day and shower him. I think as we do stuff like this more it will become easier for me to accept. :)

The second day we were there Brand, Tiff, and Nick took Dave paint-balling in the forest for his first time and he absolutely loved it! They all got some good hits in and now Dave wants to go all the time! Destiny and I had to stay back with the kids... I didn't mind though... :)

That night Destiny made the BEST dutch oven dinner! A wonderful pork roast with potato slices and bacon, etc....it was so delicious! The last day we were there we drove up to Sedona and went to Slide Rock. Now that was fun! And Sam loved it! We jumped off of some cliffs, slid down some waterfall slides...and then the normal summer monsoon came and we had to leave. But the hour we had there was so much fun, regardless of how packed it was with people! Sam loved sliding down the waterfall slides with Daddy and mommy and loved watching all the people jump of the cliffs and slide. Every time he would see someone doing it he was get all excited and yell "Yay!!!" And then when mommy jumped off the cliff he said "Bye bye mommy!"

It was good to get away from normal life for a weekend and hopefully we are going to go again Labor Day weekend! Here are some pictures...

Dave all geared-up before paint-balling...

All four of them ready to go...Tiff, Brand, Nick, and Dave:

Cas and Sam playing

Sam and Colter playing...I love how Colter's face is painted in dirt... :)

Our dirty boy loves the dirt...

haha...this one is funny...he is so dirty and because of his cold his nose was constantly running! Sorry to those of you without children who will think it's gross!

Sam getting excited and saying "Yay!" when he would throw the ball and Zorro would chase it (Zorro is the Bolingers' little dog):

Just a very cute one...his hair was really crazy when he woke up that morning...

Sedona...isn't it beautiful?? It kind of reminds me of Red Rocks in CO...

All the people...this was where people would climb up to jump on the cliffs.

Brand, Helen, and Dave getting ready...

Dave jumping! So these cliffs are obviously not very high, but I swear when you are there and abput to jump they seem a lot higher!!

The storm coming to chase away our fun...

Dave getting ready to slide through one of the little waterfall slides...

Sam and Colter...

Us!!!

Another Scorpian...

I just wanted to post a picture of what I found when I went to my bedroom the other day. It was on the floor waiting for me next to my bed and I almost stepped on it. So far, this has been the biggest one we've seen in our house yet! Ew!!!

We're alive!

It seems to have been a really long time since I have posted anything and a lot has been going on so I might have a few more posts following this one... We are doing good! We have had a busy and eventful past few weeks! Grandpa Jim had a business trip in the area a few weeks ago and it was during Grandma Julie and the girl's YW camp, so he brought Jeana with him and she stayed with us for a few days. It was great having her! She was such a big help and Sam had so much fun playing with her! They colored, read, learned colors and numbers, and built tracks with his train set. Here are a couple pics from when she was here:



I also wanted to post a couple pictures from when Sam hit his head the other day. I know the pictures don't do it justice and they don't give the full effect of how bad it was, but I have never seen a bump to the head stick out so much! Maybe it's just that it was the first time he has done something like that and I overreacted. I'm sure there will be many more accidents as he gets older... Anyway he fell and hit his head on the sharp edge of the end table and immediately it started to stick out like this...


Luckily it went down the next day and now it's just a scratch with a nasty bruise. And the reason he was crying in the picture wasn't even because of the injury...he was crying because I was holding him still to take a picture. :) He's tough.

Lastly, Sunday was very exciting for us! It was Sam's first day in nursery at church! Yay! The feeling of freedom during our classes was...exhilarating! :) He has been teething really bad the last couple weeks (all four of his 2-year molars are coming in) and he was so cranky so we were worried he would be brought to us like half-way through, but he made it the whole time! When we dropped him off, as soon as he saw his little friends and all the toys he ran away from us and didn't look back! So we left immediately and we heard he did great! He loved it! He even sat in his own little chair and ate a snack and he even colored a picture for us! I was such a proud mommy that day! Our baby isn't a baby anymore!