I Have a Secret!

Knowing there was an announcement coming...

 Blurry picture, but look at JD's face-he got it right away!

 Karianna started clapping because, of course, she has known for a long time and she got to actually see the ultrasound....

 And now everyone seems happy to know that Mommy has a baby in her tummy AND its a boy!  I had told JD and Jordan about the baby around 17 weeks, mid July.....they got it, but they forgot it pretty immediately.  I think adding a gender and a name makes the pregnancy more real to them, especially before they can really see a bulging belly!

Now that its out....

Now that we have informed the world that we are expecting baby #5 in December (did you know we are expecting baby #5 in December?  We are!), I can share some other news that has been pertinent throughout the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.  Just some milestones and memories that have trademarked pregnancy this time around:

• I found out I was pregnant the day after my birthday-April 20th-and I was shocked.  This is the first pregnancy that we have not planned to the tee.  It took a few days (for me, a week) to let the news sink in and to feel right.  After the shock wore off, we realized how right the situation was.  The Lord knows better than we do when our kids need to join our family!
• I had my first doctor appointment and my first ultrasound on May 29th-the day after school ended and right after JD's preschool graduation.  Though everything with the baby looked good, the tech/doctor found a 4 cm tear on my placenta.  I was told to do a modified bed rest for 2 weeks and to come back for a follow up ultrasound; if the tear got worse (to 7cm), then we had a problem.  I spent those 2 weeks terrified that I was going to miscarry, that the smallest cough would make the tear worse, that I would start bleeding at any moment.  I spent the first week in bed pretty much all the time.  The second week was harder since I had summer school, but I sat as much as possible and got in bed as soon as I got home. I stayed home from church for 3 weeks straight; I think everyone thought I was going inactive! My mother put my name on the prayer roll at the temple and we spent free time praying that everything would be okay.  We felt unbelievably blessed when the follow up ultrasound 2 weeks later showed the tear had clotted and cleared up; they could barely see where it was originally.  Although everything looks fine now, I had to be very careful to avoid major lifting, major exercise, etc. to make sure the tear does not open again. 
• This pregnancy so far has been very difficult from the sickness standpoint.  I have had extreme nausea since 6 weeks, as well as terrible heartburn.  It usually hit around 3pm every day, leading to some difficult nights, some of which necessitated a blessing from Jared.  Zofran doesn't do much for me, but phenegran works okay and has been a huge blessing.  At 18 weeks, I am still dealing with at least 4 nights a week that are pretty gross, but it is bearable most of the time and I am learning to get around it.
• I started feeling this baby move at 14 weeks.  It always felt like someone snapping their fingers in my belly-just muted.  Up until that moment I had no inclinations at all about what gender the baby was (I usually do).  But as soon as I felt those little snaps, I immediately started thinking boy.  We'll see if I'm right!
• When I was 17 weeks, Karianna felt the baby move!  Jared felt the baby about 3 days after her.  I usually feel the baby move every day now, which is such a relief after having a bit of a scare at the beginning.  I wish I could get an ultrasound every day to ensure that everything is still fine with the baby. 
• At 19 weeks, we found out the baby is a boy to be named James Gregory!  All of my measurements were right on target for the original due date:  December 21st.  Karianna went with me and Jared to the ultrasound and was somewhat sad when she saw it was a boy, even though she herself had guessed a boy!  She's okay with it now, but it was funny to see her reactions.  The boys were happy of course, though Jordan is sad he can't call the baby "Ree-becca" any more. 
• Sara loves this baby.  She knows exactly where to point when I ask her where the baby is, and if I ask her to give the baby hugs, she'll lean her cheek against my belly, bump her nose against it (her kiss) and pat with her hand.  It's adorable-now she's working on saying James.
• We officially leaked the news to the world via email and Facebook at 19 1/2 weeks (though I just said I was in my 20th week since that sounds so much nicer than 19).  I have never waited that long to share the news, and I probably will never do so again.  It's nice to have the pregnancy half over before everyone starts waiting for baby with you.  However, it was way too hard concealing the news when it was so obvious to me that I was pregnant, starting to show, not fitting into clothes, etc.  In some clothes, you still can't really tell I am pregnant, but in others, it is flat out obvious.  Regardless, I am working on transitioning my frame of mind from "Gotta-hide-growing-belly" to "It's-OK-to-look-pregnant-and-not-suck-in-anymore"!  Its actually kind of a tough switch....

And that's it for now!  We are excited, and even though it sounds nuts, I am already looking at Sara's room to determine the best place for the changing table, and I am going through the boy clothes boxes to determine what we might need for baby (yes, I have already started a list).  That feeling of needing to be super prepared for a baby that is arriving right after school gets out and right before Christmas is a nagging one!

Uh, Doesn't Make Sense!!!!

Karianna just came in our room and announced, "JD just spilled ketchup all over the floor!"  Before Jared and I had a chance to get frustrated, JD came running in to defend himself by yelling, "And I meant do it, I really meant to do that!" 

We cracked up and quickly ascertained JD MEANT to say "I didn't mean to to it, I really DIDN'T mean to do that!"  Ha ha, funny kid!

Kickin' it in Gear!

Guess what-school is starting.  SOON!!!  Arg, I'm not ready for it to start!  With summer school running through the end of June and all the professional development classes I've been taking, I barely feel like I've had summer break!!!  Starting it is though.  I go back to work officially in a week, though I will start back myself on Monday to get lesson plans started.  I spent today in my classroom and pretty much got it all set up and re-decorated; I actually got a ton accomplished and already have the first day of school all copied and mapped out.  My schedule is pretty much the same as last year, which is comforting-I can literally translate a lot of my plans from last year to this year without having to change too much in terms of time frames.  Its nice to know this year will be easier to plan than last year, for lots of reasons.  I probably won't have to get to school at 6 in the morning this year-heaven!

The kids are completely ready for school to start though.  They have not hit that bored-to-pieces stage yet.  Isn't that weird?  They've gotten a little bit more onery with doing chores and clearing, so we put ziplock money bags up on the fridge and we are rewarding them for certain chores/following certain rules with pennies, dimes, nickels, and the occasional quarter.  They love the idea, especially since it is so visual.  But other than that, they haven't gone stir crazy yet.  Regardless, Karianna and JD talk all the time about going to school.  Karianna already has her backpack packed and JD carries around his lunch box because he says he is practicing for school.  I found out today I can make their meet the teacher night, so that makes me feel a lot better since I can't send them off on the first day of school. 

All in all, we are in that mode:  getting ready to wrap up summer and dive into another school year!  Though I am feeling a bit antsy about committing to another school year (which means being away from the kids), I can comfort myself knowing it will be an easier year after all the effort I put into planning and creating last year.  I can also comfort myself knowing it will be a shorter year, and that I will have at least a few months with the kids after Christmas-driving them to school, going to parent teacher conferences, and handling the homework front right after school.  That's definitely excting and I'm encouraged to start the year off with a bang!  An early goodbye to summer-the official a mere 12 days away!

Tasty

JD keeps using the adjective "tasty".  "Can I have some more of that tasty brown chicken?"  (Chicken must be brown in our house because both boys know pink chicken makes you sick-they always recognize when it is brown, and thus, edible).  "Dad gave me some of his very tasty granola bar, it was so tastey and it tasted like tasty vanilla."  That last one is SERIOUSLY a direct quote from snacktime today!  Pears tonite:  "These pears are not very tasty."  I have zero idea where he got that word, but I love it!

It's Done! Kind of....

It's official:  Karianna has her own room.  And Sara has her own room. The boys-not so lucky, but the girls scored!  Sara has been keeping Karianna awake more often than not and waking her up way too early. We decided to move Karianna into the office to give them each their own space.  We started the process the 2nd week of July, but it was very slow going; we got the closets cleaned out and switched over, but we hit a stalemate and just left it for a while. 

Two days ago we got a bit kick in the pants: we had a potential buyer for the treadmill.  That gave us the motivation we needed to pull the treadmill out of the office, which naturally cleared a space for Karianna's bed.  We got that moved and got a surprise phone call from Jared's parents:  someone in their ward had a great bed frame they were giving away.  We accepted and it was delivered that night.  The bed frame is awesome-really solid wood with a headboard and footboard, and 2 storage drawers underneath for storage!  It will be perfect for Sara when we move her to a bed in the next month or so.  WE got that moved into Sara's room at 10pm last night-no mattress yet, but that shouldn't be too far down the road.  With all the moving that happened, Karianna slept in her new room on her own and so did Sara; the switch was complete.

We still have a ton to do. I need to clear all the office stuff out of Karianna's room and do some decorating.  Sara's room needs to be gutted a little bit from Karianna-damage, and she needs some decorating to.  The goal is to get all that done before school starts.  I am a bit sad that the girls don't get to have those bonding conversations in the morning.  Karianna tends to teach Sara how to say words before we get them up, and its cute to eavsdrop on the discussion.  Thankfully, Karianna is so devoted to watching and playing with Sara during the day, I am sure they will keep their friendship going strong. 

Milestone!

I told my sister I was going to blog this and I'm going to:  Jordan is a non-floatie swimmer!  YEAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!  I'm just warning you now, I am really proud of Jordan, so this is going to be the long, drawn out version of Jordan's current swimming success!

Jordan "started" swimming on his own at the very end of June.  He had one night where he was exhuberantly swimming to me and back with no floaties-I was so proud of him, as it was the first time that summer I had really taken off his floaties to see what he could do.  To see so much ability right off the bat was awesome!  His cousin Logan did the same thing that very night-it was just cool to see the light flip on! 

Over the next few days, I excitedly took Jordan back into the pool with the expectation that floaties were a thing of the past.  I was shocked when he began the sharp decline of a relapse.  All of the sudden, he was scared to death of drowning and being without his floaties.  I would try to ease him into it.  All I got in return was "I just want to go to time out!"  You know a kid really won't do it when he prefers time out to trying.  I admittedly got very frustrated and for a few days told him, if you can't try, you can't swim at all.  After the frustration wore off, I just opted to give up on it for a while and let him put his floaties back on.  Very contradictory to my normal philosophies of you-can't-go-back when it comes to child rearing.  But I honestly wasn't in the mood to push him, and when I really thought about it, I didn't want to push him if he was legitimately scared.  He had gotten so good at diving and flip-diving into the pool; I didn't want to squash his love of swimming.  So we gave up.

Fast forward to yesterday.  I decided to be very straightforward with Jordan and do swim lessons again.  This time I opted to do very short "sessions" and give him breaks every 3 minutes.  :)  The first time I pulled off his floaties, he cried and I almost gave up right then and there, but he calmed down to just a whimper and we started doing some assisted swimming.  After he got down the basics, I had him swim to the step.  He did it on his own 3 times before earning his break with a noodle.  10 minutes later, we were doing the same thing.  Break.  Swim Lesson.  Break.  And that was it.  By the end of it, he wasn't crying at all, though he still reminded me every 30 seconds that he wanted a break with his noodle.  It was a good first session.

Fast forward to today.  No crying at all, he agreed to swim lessons and we skipped the assisted swim stuff.  He swam right to the step on his own with no issues.  The next time, he swam longer back to me with no prompting.  I was encouraged big time!  After a few minutes of this, I had him jump in and swim to me.  No issues!  Yes!  I lightly suggested he jump in the deep end and swim to me, and was surprised that he agreed.  Sure enough, he did it a few times, culminating in a final jump and swimming to the steps on his own.  Huge progress from a little boy who wanted time out over floatie-less swimming!  I told him to take a break with a noodle for a bit and during his "break", he wasn't relying on that noodle-trying to dive down to the bottom, flip over, etc.  He was so proud of himself, telling Logan that he didn't have floaties, and asking him to watch him flip over.  Logan never hit relapse phase and is a pro-swimmer right now, so I think Jordan was overjoyed to be in the "club" with Logan! 

I wouldn't have written this blog post though if it weren't for Uncle Eric.  Ooh, shout out to Eric!  He started throwing the kids into the pool, which is huge fun in a 10 foot deep pool.  Jordan immediately ran to get in line and though I was watching cosely, he didn't need me when Eric threw him in-he swam straight back to the edge of the pool, and got back in line.  He did it a good 5 or 6 times, and instead of going to the edge of the pool, started swimming the longer distance to the step.  It was at that moment that I thought, okay-he's got it!  Yea!

I will still need to really watch him over the next week or so.  He's still a bit tentative, and I want to make sure he gets a ton of encouragement.  I think our next goal will be to have him dive into the pool and get to the edge on his own-that will be cool to see since he is fearless with diving!

Can you tell I am proud of Jordan today?  :)  I am!  I wish I didn't let myself get so frustrated so easily-its something I have to constantly work on, and I"m glad Jordan is so resilient to let me keep working with him on something he loves.  Good day!

Yes, I Understand

Sara is in a great stage of toddler-hood (notice I did not say baby-hood...she's just not a baby anymore!).  Just a few things I notice that she understands that I think are pretty cool:

1. The second she bumps something or hurts something, she put her hand on the sore spot, dons a very hurt expression and simply says, "ow!" 
2. Sara says "Thank You" of her own accord every now and then, which is a great start to good manners.
3. Sara loves to say "get out" or "get up" to indicate where she wants to go. 
4. Sara loves to helps load the dishwasher, particularly the cups and the silverware. She knows where to put the soap, how to shut the little soap door, and will immediately close the dishwasher drawer before trying desparately to push the button.
5. Sara is using a spoon now to eat food!  Happy day!  It is still painstakingly slow, so she usually resorts to her hand every now and then, but if you give her a meal without a spoon, she will attempt to get out of her seat shouting "Poon!" until you give her one. 
6. Sara completely knows how we handle fits.  As such, if she starts crying for any reason, she will cover her OWN mouth with her OWN hand.  If I have to do it because she is in a true tantrum, she will usually move her own face into my waiting hand-as if she is agreeing to the covered mouth strategy.  Whatever works!
7. Sara loves her cousin Tyler (or Ty Ty).  The second she sees him, she runs up, waves her hand (sometimes in his face) and yells with all the gusto she can muster, "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
8. Sara understands most everything I ask her (within reason).  If I ask her to shut the fridge door, she will.  If I ask her to get a diaper, she's on it.  In fact, I just asked her to get a diaper, and she ran out the door to her room to get one...she returned a minutes later with her hands held up in the "I don't know" sign and she said "its gone".  Meaning she didn't find one.  Understandable since we just moved her changing table/diaper stash, but cute nonetheless!  If you ask Sara what she needs, she'll generally tell you somehow.  Maybe with word, pointing, or just guiding you to what she wants, but I love that she is really trying to communicate.
9. Sara still throws fits, but they are very purposeful...not sure if that makes them better :)  But it is pretty easy to conclude that if she is crying, she needs something.  Sounds pretty basic, but if you really think about it, it solves a lot of the fit problems-ask her what she needs, and she'll calm down quick.  Suggest something she might need by assessing the situation, and she calms down even faster. 
10. Sara loves to say prayers.  :)  She'll immediately fold her arms and actually keep them folded through the whole prayer.  Lately, she has started saying her own prayers!  She'll speak baby gibberish in muted tones for about 10 seconds and then end her prayer.  Its so adorable!

Overall, I love seeing the cognitive wheels turning! 

What?

Anytime I call Sara's name, she immediately runs over or looks at me and says, "WHAAAAAAAAAT?"  It is pretty cute and full of personality!

Braids and Being a Grown Up

Karianna learned how to braid her barbies' hair a while ago.  She especially enjoyed putting 3 long braids in Rapunzel's hair!  She recently figured out how to braid her own hair, which really, is all-together harder given that you have to do it somewhat blindly.  The other day she put several braids in her hair under the assumption that it would come out curly in the morning.  Her hair is so straight is really didn't last the next day, but it was a great effort!

In other Karianna news, she has really enjoyed doing a lot more grown up things lately.  When we went to play at the mall play area last week, she was in charge, officially of Sara.  Sure enough, she held Sara's hand and walked around with her for 30 minutes straight.  When Sara strayed out of the play area, she hauled her back in, kicking and screaming, and then distracted her from her fit and redirected her.  When 2 kids started beating each other up (seriously beating each other up), Karianna took it upon herself to move Sara to a different area.  So responsible of her!  I was very proud of her, especialy since there were several kids her age in the play area who she could have played with. 

Karianna also enjoys making lunch and dinner lately.  I taught her how to use the microwave to make cheese crisps, so that's a favorite.  She loves to make sandwiches-for some reason spreading the mayo is an art to her.  She loves picking out sides, as creative as they get.  Last night she specifically called the boys to their bed and read a story to them for bedtime.  This isn't unusual or anything, but it was so adorable to see her initiate, and to see JD's little head resting on her shoulder as she read. 

She's growing up!

Just some funny quirks....

Last night I asked Sara to say good night to her brothers and sister.  She immediately walked up to JD, said "Bye!" and smacked him on his head 3 times.  She then headed over to Karianna, said another emphatic "Bye!" and smacked her on the head 3 times as well.  Wondering if she did the sane thing to Jordan? She did.  I am now working on teaching her that this manner of departure is only appropriate in our home, not at nursery. 

We were watching pinocchio last night as a family (complete with individual english muffin pizzas for an impromptu pizza party-yum!).  At one point in the movie, Jiminy Cricket (sp?) is warming his rear end on a piece of coal.  Jordan asked what he was doing.  I replied, "Well, he's getting his bottom warm."  Jordan's response to that was, "You mean his bottom crack."  I couldn't help but cracking up with laughter! 

Success for Karianna!

Remember back in November-ish when Karianna was supposed to sing a solo in the primary program and she got so nervous all she did was cry at the mic?  Well, she experienced success today in the realm of public singing!  Not a solo, but Karianna got to sing a pioneer song during sacrament meeting.  She was part of a quartet and she was put right in the middle as she has the strongest voice on key.  I didn't make a big deal of it this week, just helped her practice a bit.  She didn't seem nervous at all, and when it came time for her to walk up to the podium, she did so with her head held high. She was the youngest singer, and thus, you could barely see her eyes behind the podium, but I could hear her sweet little voice, and I was so proud of her bravery!  She was smiling as she came back down.  I am so excited that she experienced success with public singing.  As an adult, I still get nervous if I have to sing in front of an audience, and it has been years since I have done a solo....I don't blame her for the nerves on that one!  I Hope she continues to enjoy performing-I think it is a great confidence booster for her.  Great job Karianna!

Electrical Issues

A few weeks ago, a transformer went down in Mesa.  Our electricity was knocked out for about 4 hours, during which time, Jared and I realized we are ill-prepared for such a situation in the middle of an AZ summer.  Our house stayed cool enough for those four hours, and we did a good job keeping the fridge closed; we were just making contingency plans if it continued through the evening when electricity was restored.  I ran down to Walmart a few hours later to get some groceries (we really were out) and was shocked that Walmart's grocery aisles were completing empty and shut down.  I was annoyed, actually.  :)  We ran into Fry's 45 minutes later and they had everything back on their shelves, though they had a line 10 people deep for ice.  It just made us realize how weird things would get if our city was out of electricity for an extended period of time, much less our house. 

Wouldn't you know, not 2 weeks after this incident, the lights in our house started flickering again.  It was 7:00 on Wednesday evening; Jared and I were just finishing up dinner and the kids were watching a movie.  Jared said, "Well, we better get the flashlights out and dinner done if the transformer is going down again".  Sure enough, not 20 minutes later we were out of power.  I called my mom on the cell to see what was going on, and was somewhat surprised to learn she had her power....same with our next door neighbor.  We realized it was probably our breaker box, so we called Jared's dad-who has the key to it- to come check it out.  After flipping breakers off/on, we made several observations:  half the lights in the house would work at any given time; the front room never lost electricity, as well as the fridge and the stove; if you turned on the pool lights, everything in the house dimmed; and most fans would only work at half power.  Once the breaker box started smoking and sparking at David, we opted to call an electrician. 

It became apparent very quickly that something serious was going on with the breaker box.  Long story short, the electrician determined we needed to replace the main breaker, with the possibility of needing to replace the entire box.  Not good news.  As the next few days went by, we also learned the part was needed was nearly non-existent, and we were out of our house with no AC and half functioning electricity, topped of with a high potential for an electrical fire.  Obvoiusly we couldn't stay there, and my mom was generous about letting us bunk with her for nearly 3 days.  As Friday loomed, we were worried we would be stuck through the weekend.  Thankfully, our electrician finally found the part in Phoenix, drove down to pick it up, and had it installed by Friday afternoon.  He technically was supposed to contact SRP to shut down electricity to avoid major shocks...he didn't do that, which I'm not so sure about as that is technically not allowed, but hopefully it will go unnoticed at the next meter read.  We were very lucky in that the main breaker was the only part that needed repairs.  It could have been a lot worse, that's for sure!

Over the course of the 3 days we were stuck with no power, we felt very blessed that we had my mom's support.  STaying at her house made things so much easier, and we realized how difficult it would have been without supportive family nearby.  The kids had their own beds, as did Jared and I, and we just transferred food over to my mom's house so we didn't put her out as much. We tried to spend our days doing things with the kids, which was actually nice.  We went to the mall to play and traverse the stores; we went to my school and played in the gym as well as picked up my keys.  We did some swimming all together as well, which is not new, but always fun when Jared gets to come.  We did a good movie night at mom's house with popcorn-the kids loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1, and 2.  I must admit that I lived it up in HGTV land :)  I could watch that channel all day!  All in all, it was a good bonding experience, though one I only care to repeat with electricity.

What a Nice Kid!

JD is such a nice kid. He always goes out of his way to be kind and polite. Just the other day I was feeling pretty sick and JD knew it. I was sitting on the couch and he came over to me o his own volition. He sat down right beside me, put his little arm all the way around my shoulders, and said, "Are you feeling better yet Mom?" It was so sweet! Last week, I burped really loud (yes, it happens). Karianna started laughing with Jordan, and I was cracking up too, but JD was solemn faced. I asked him if he thought that was funny-I certainly did! But my kind little boy looked in my eyes and very seriously replied, "Mom, I would never laugh at you." My heart melted! Anytime JD accidently bumps into me, he will immediately say, "Oh, I am so sorry!" and he means it! You can tell because he'l put a hand on my cheek or give me a hug. I have always said that JD has a special spirit about him that always makes me feel so calm and safe....he's five now, and that just hasn't changed. I love you JD!

My Weird Blog

If you still check my blog for updates, it is going to look weird for a while. I have majorly slacked off the last severa months on the blog and just opted to take a hiatus from it for the summer. However, I am working on making blog books for the last two years, so I need to catch up on the topics I missed through the end of May. So if you are checking my blog, there won't be anything new until August when I start back up again. I will be adding weird posts though for March through May-posts with just a title, and I will end up adding the actual entries when I edit this year's blog book. I may add pictures-I'll probably do that, but that'lll be all, no details. :) So, um, enjoy the blog titles and occasional pictures, and see ya in August!

Camping 2011

Our family went camping for the 4th of July.  Not our normal type of camping; it was a brief overnighter and we spent our time at a campground...in the rain :)  At least part of it, but we've never done that, so it was an experience!  We couldn't disappoint the kids though-they love camping, and a sumer without it these days would be plain old sad.

The campout overall was a great success!  We loved the campsite Becca and Eric had found.  It was very spacious, which was our problem with a campground we almost used last year-it felt like everyone was on top of each other!  This area gave the kids plenty of room to run around and play without bugging anyone else, while till being nestled deep in the pine trees.  The only downside was the bathrooms....which reeked....unlike anything else I have ever smelled.  Once darkness fell, I had no problems just using a nearby patch of grass, but can't really do that at a campground during the day.  Serious grossness, but so goes camping sometimes!

The rain started about an hour after we got the tent up.  We worked to entertain the kids for about 2 hours: coloring, reading books, trapping Sara in her pack and play, taking umbrella walks through the dripping trees, visiting the stinky potty, and lamenting the fact that we opted not to bring the laptop.  Every sock we packed got soaked, and every poncho I thought to bring got used.  The kids actually looked really cute in them!  After the rain abated, we explored the surrounding area, exclaimed over all the weird bugs that popped out, and ate our fire-unnecessary-dinners (couldn't do campfires of any sort).  We found some great logs to climb and Karianna found a ton of "wheat" (didn't know what else to call it!). 

Once darkness started to fall, we gathered the kids around to eat regular old marshmallows and listen to silly stories/books. That was a fun part of the night, though we had to constantly watch Jordan, who kept trying to wander off with a lantern because apparently that would keep him completely safe!  I put the kids to bed around 10:00 if I remember correctly.  Sara stood in her bed talking for a good 15 minutes, super excited to be sleeping in the same bed as everyone else! Once she settled down though, I snuck out to play games with the adults.  I think Karianna and Jordan were still awake, but they were fine putting themselves to sleep!  The adults played scattegories and talked until 1:00 in the morning.  We had some good debates on what meritted points!  Everyone was a little colder than expected and some of our warmth factors had gotten wet in the rain, but the tarp that the boys erected worked wonderfully and the lanterns kept us warmer than we anticipated (though Eric burned his hand on one of them). 

I slept okay later that night although I had Jared get up at one point because I could have sworn I heard a huge animal walking around.  It ended up being someone going potty.  It rained off and on as well, making for a wet morning.  The kids woke up with the sun-around 5:30 am!!!!!  I made them stay quiet until about 6:15 and just resigned myself to getting up with them. We let Jared sleep while the rest of us made cereal for breakfast and hiked around for a while longer.  We had planned to stay through lunch and then maybe drive to a lake on the way back, but it was obvious pretty fast that the pregnant ladies were tired (although no one really knew I was pregnant) and too many things were soaked to really stay much longer.  I started packing our bags around 8 when Jared got up and we were pretty much packed up and ready to go by noon.  Of course, during that time the adults took turns taking the kids hiking around the area, and it was a lot of fun!  I like to be super organized while camping so nothing gets lost or broken.  Regardless, one of Karianna's shoes (her flippers) disappeared and as I am typing this up at the end of August-we still haven't found it. I think there is a very stylish bear tromping around the Tonto National Forest.

All in all, we really enjoyed our time in the mountains, although it was much shorter and more fire-less than we would have preferred!  This will probably be our only camping trip since I have summer school, a baby in my tummy, and a lot of morning sickness.  We can't have a summer though where we don't camp, so I'm glad we were able to at least get in an over nighter!

JD's Preschool Graduation!

End of the Year Reflections: Me as a Teacher

Karianna's Awards Ceremony

9 Years!