My Baby Shower

My great friend Tia threw me a baby shower with the help from other friends. It turned out sooo cute and I got a lot of great gifts that are such a blessing. Up until now I thought our little girl would have to wear blue. She is all set with her pink outfits and my Russ brother and family came to stay with us. My sister-in-law taught me how to make bows and so she has one for just about every outfit. I feel a lot more prepared for this baby now.


Connie, Alexis, my Mom and mother in law all came for the shower. It was a lot of fun to see them. This is a picture of Connie and William just before she left. We caught William just before or after a kiss, isn't that an awesome face?

Trip to the Valley

A couple of weekends ago Russ was done with his internship and it was the last week that I could travel becasue of the pregnancy, so we decided to go down to the valley to spend time with family. We spent the first couple of days at my parents. I was able to hang out with friends, swim a lot at my parents, we also helped my parents spread the rubber chips in their back yard.

William was jumping on the tramp and all of a sudden he yelled, "oh no, my pants." I looked up to see this...

And we got to see family. Look at this little cutie. She kept sitcking her tounge up and she was getting a red spot above her lip.
After a few days we spent some time at Russ' parents house. William loved the kitty and would spend a lot of time looking for her. Here he is under the table looking for her.
We also went to the park and fed the ducks and fish and birds. Russ caught a bird and William loved it. I think he loved the birds the most.

We also celebrated Russ' dads birthday and that was fun for William. My camera was dead so all the pictures are on my in laws camera but I may have to add them later because they are cute. I also got the chance to see my cousin Jacie who is about one week less pregnant than me. I have never really seen her big and pregnant before so that was fun. But technically I don't think I will ever see her "big" and anything. She makes me look like a giant.
This picture is funny because Russ was taking pictures of us and wanted us to touch tummies. Jacie was not sure about that and we had a lot of laughs trying to do it, or just thinking about it. It never really happend. All in all it was a very fun week.

Oh-My-Gosh! Look at that dog!

So last night we went over to some play games with some friends, I couldn't stay very long because I had my book club. I had forgotten until we got there that Russ told me they had a huge dog. I was so amazed ny the size of this dog. I have never seen one this big before, or this well behaved. This was by far the best dog I have ever met. No jumping (thank heavens) licking, or barking. He could have walked right up to me and licked my face off without even lifting up, but he didn't. He would sit when he was told and get away from William when he was told. William liked him a lot. He did get scared once though because he took off running in the back yard and naturally the dog ran after him. It only lasted for a few moments, but it scared him. Russ pointed out that it would be like a horse with sharp teeth chasing us. Anyway, I loved this dog. They had two others that were a little more hyper that I did not see. I don't think I have ever been so impressed by an animal before.

My funny little boy

I love the picture of him with Elmo because it is something he does that reminds me of, ME! Everything he does reminds me of Russ but this is all me. I sleep with a body pillow and the way I see him snuggle with Elmo is so much like I snuggle with my body pillow. Poor Russ:(

Utah Trip

William and I got back from our Utah trip yesterday. It was only for the weekend and was a long drive for a pregnant woman and a two year old, but it was fun. We went with my mom and dad and sister. I didn't take a lot of pictures but oh well. We were able to go to a cousins wedding reception and see my other cousins little girl play Cosette in Les Miserable in Salt Lake. She did a wonderful job and the whole cast was great. I really love Les Mis so I was glad I was able to do that. We also just got to chill and see a lot of family we don't normally get to see. This is William hanging out with my aunt and uncles kitty. He really likes cats, especially ones that will let him pet them (which he says "pep um").
As soon as we got to our hotel he started bouncing on the bed and then looked at me and said, "it's too hard." I agree with him, it was too hard. William was also pretty excited because he got to sleep in the bed with me. He has only slept by me when we went camping. I was not sure it would work and I was pretty restless waking up every now and then to make sure he wasn't going to fall off the bed, but he slept just fine.
Here is William waiting for the light rail to come. He was sooo excited to ride the train. I wish we had one were we live.

William has learned to count objects up to 10. When he would do it we would clap for him and he would clap for himself. His excitement was so intense that he could not keep his mouth closed. Anyway, it was a fun trip and I am glad we got to go.

Enrichment BBQ!

Enrichment is Done! - for now

We just had our Enrichment last night. Man, am I glad to have that over with. Don't get me wrong, I love my calling, maybe a little too much. I just don't have a committee yet and there is a lot to do, so by the time it is over I am glad. This was a BBQ were we invited all adults so guys could come too. The tables and seats were numbered so that different people would have to rotate while we played a get to know you question game. It was fun. A little too windy for my taste (I had to spend time taping down table cloths and I hadn't been planning on that.) I also learned that Chinese lanterns are great, but not when they are in reach of children, probably best if not in throwing distance either. Kids can't seem to resist them. Kids were not invited, but by the end the nursery was outside with us. My was out there from beginning to end. My theory on that is that all the kids saw the party before they went into nursery and they were not going to stay. All in all it was a success and I am already planning the next one. You can never be too prepared right?

4 Eyes!

After the funeral was over and we stuffed ourselves full at the luncheon we were sitting lazily in the foyer when William discovered a bag of somthing in the corner. Someone said, "what is that?" and I look up to see this.
He had found a bag of glasses that was going to be donated somewhere. I was laughing sooo hard that is was difficult for me to take the pictures, but we had a nice little fashon show put on my the one and only, William! I hope we didn't hurt his eyes. (his teeth are nasty because he had just had chocolate cake.)

Grandma's Funeral

William lovin on his cousin


On May 31st my Grandmother passed away. She is my dads mom and the last living grandparent for both my husband and I. I did not see her very often towards the end of her life, but when I did I knew that she wasn't feeling well at all. I am glad that her body is at rest and that she is with my Grandpa. Going to her funeral made me wish that I could have known her better. She was such a funny lady, whenever I think about her it makes me smile. She was the kind of person who said what was on her mind and didn't think too hard about it before hand. A funny story that I always think of is when I was younger and we were watching Forest Gump and an embarassing part was coming up so I got up to leave. My mom pointed out what I was doing and then my Grandma yells, "whats the matter, Debbie? They're only making love." Thanks grandma, I didn't realize that.
The Funeral was nice. She did not even want one so we kept it short and sweet. It was nice to see family, as it always is at fuerals. One of the best parts was that my sister Connie came up to stay with us for the weekend. I was sooo glad. I'm not sure who was more glad, me or William. Russ was pretty excited too. It has been nice to have my sister be my best friend my whole life, but even better that my husband and son love her as much as I do. What a blessing. I didn't take any pictures except the one of William waiting outside for her, even though she wasn't coming for awhile. When she did get there we were on our way home from picking Russ up so she was standing outside our door and William went running to her. The whole time she was here he wanted to know where she was. He would wait outside the bathroom for her and when we were eating dinner the first night he said, "Connie came home." Thats how I felt too.

Popcorn Popping

I don't know what it is, but I freakin' LOVE to hear William sing!

Day to Day

Here is some pictures of Russ and I making Sunday dinner. I like it when Russ cooks with me. He makes everything more fun.


William has been eyeing his first Halloween costume for a long time, but whenever I ask him if he wants to put it on he says, "no". Then I showed him a picture of him wearing it a few years ago and he decided he wanted it on. It is kind of snug and kind of warm, but isn't he adorable?




Flashback - William for Halloween 2005 (almost 1 year old)

Train Boy

Boy, does our boy love trains! This is him playing with the tracks at his Grandmas house. The other night we went to the mall to let him play on the playground. When we were walking through the mall I noticed William wasn't with us anymore and I look back to see him following a boy that had a Thomas shirt on. Later we went to get ice cream and some spilled on his shorts. When Russ wiped it off William shouted "Thomas" and the wet spot did remarkably look like Thomas. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera. The next day we went to Williams first birthday party. When we got there he just started walking around saying, "where's Thomas cake?" I'm trying to teach him that not everyone will want or have a Thomas cake. He seems to think that is all there is. And anytime someone says they have a present for him he says, "Thomas present." I think he is a little obsessed.

Road Trippin'

These are pictures from a few weeks back when we went to visit our parents. Don't worry, the blue berries clean up with just a wipe. The pool or the "cool" as W calls it, is so fun.

Watch me grow

It just keeps growing and growing and growing...



Isn't he sweet?

Straight A's

R finished another semester and we were both pleased to find out he got straight A's. He works very hard, but I am so happy that he has not been stressing when it isn't necessary and spending a lot of time with us too. He is so great. Just to give some of you of the kind of guy Russ is, at school he had the opportunity to apply to be a TA next semester which would give him a significant discount on tuition. At the beginning of the year he was excited about it and planning on doing it. As the year went on and he realized that some of his fellow classmates pay out of state tuition and that is a lot more. He decided not to apply because he didn't want to get it if someone from out of state could. I was really impressed by that. Most people just seem to think of the ways it could benefit them, but he thinks of others and I think that's great!

Thank Heaven for good books

So starting Wednesday (the day we left to go camping) I had what felt like a UTI or bladder infection. For those of you who don't know what that feels like, it feels like you have to pee really bad all the time and kinda burns when you do. I stopped by the lab on our way out of town to leave a sample so the Doc. could figure out what it was and get me some medicine. I must say I handled camping pretty well. Mainly because I would ignore the urge to go. Friday came and we went to see Thomas a still I did pretty dang good. The doctor called and said that my results were normal. What? Then what was I feeling like this for? Oh well. But then we got home Friday night and it started to hurt, a lot worse. I spent a lot of time laying down and reading the book I am re-reading right now. I was able to sleep that night but woke up Saturday feeling pretty crappy. Russ had a lot of homework he had to get done so he took off to the library and I called the after hours doc. When she said that she had no idea what it could be and that it might just be pregnancy pain, I called Russ in tears and he came home. I knew this wasn't just pregnancy pain, because I have that all the time. I drove myself to the E.R. and they sent me up to labor and delivery and I left a sample and continued to read. It helped me because even though I was very uncomfortable and in a lot of pain it gave me something else to think about. When the lab came back they said there was a lot of blood in my urine even though I could not see it. They gave me a prescription for bladder infection and told me to come back if the pain got worse, because it might be stones!I knew that it most likely was because I was already feeling worse, but I went home anyway. There I just laid on the bed and rolled around unsuccessfully trying to get comfortable and rid myself of the pain. Then Russ took me back to the E.R. and of course and soon as I was at the check out counter my pain was almost completely gone. I was confused but I was staying, because I knew once I got home it would come back. So again I lay in bed waiting to have an ultrasound to see if there were any stones and Russ needed to take W home and feed him so there I was with my book and a huge glass of cranberry juice.Mmmmmm. So there I read until I had to go to the bathroom and when I went, sure enough there was a little stone in the toilet. I told the nurse and she said it looked like it. So then I just had to wait and wait to go home and again luckily I had my book. So everything is fine now and I have passed a kidney stone. The pain was bad, but not worse than labor. The baby is fine and I feel mostly okay, except the medicine I have to take makes me kinda sick, oh well.
So anyway this fabulous, wonderful, and mesmerizing book that saved me from boredom was none other than Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. I suggest it to everyone. I have already read it and its sequel, New Moon, and decided that I blew through them too fast to really enjoy them. So now I am reading them again and suggesting them to anyone else who reads this blog. You won't be disappointed.

Do you have hair?

This is W's new thing he started yesterday. Isn't he so cute?

A Day out with Thomas!

This last Friday we had such a fun time at A Day Out with Thomas. I was so excited for this day to come because I knew how much W would love it, and he did! He was a little shy when meeting Sir Topham hat, but he was soooo excited to ride the big Thomas. When we were in the gift shop he loved watching the trains go and nearly grabbed a Thomas place mat out of a woman hands. Since it was most likely the cheapest thing there we decided to get it for him and he loves it. The sun was pretty bright, but other than that it was a good and fun day that we will remember for a long time.

Camping!

On Wednesday R was finally done with his last final. Yea! So we packed up and went camping. Good thing we went with great friends who were totally prepared, or we might not have had so much fun. They just happened to have an extra tent, two seeping bags, and a blow up mattress for us. Plus they provided the guns, which was a lot of fun for R. W did really well. Right before he went to sleep he lifted up his head and said, "this is awesome". He did wake up a couple times in the night because it was cold, but he just wanted a couple of songs and then he would lay back down by me and go to sleep. He was pretty excited that he slept in the trees. It is something we will have to do again sometime.

Who is the boy that I love

I just can't believe how fast my little boy is growing. There are sooo many things that I love about him that it would be impossible to put them all on my blog, but I am going to try and name a few. He is so smart, he learns a dozen new things everyday and remembers them all. I love when he looks at something and says, "look at all the colors!" The other day we were driving past a tractor and he said, "I can't pick up dat tractor, dats too big". I had never said that before to him, so it made me laugh. He has also expressed his desire to walk in the sky a few times, though now I think he knows it is not going to happen.

He is so loving. I love when he is watching a video and he asks me to come sit with him and he snuggles on my lap or we just lay on the couch together. Sometimes he still requests me to hold him by saying, "ho-chee", and even though that does not oten seem appealing to me, it still melts my heart when he says it.


He has started to sing more and can say so many of the words. I try to get him to sing all the time. Sometimes he is on key and other times he's not, and I love it both ways. He can sing pretty much all the words to I Am A Child of God (or gone, as he would say). I saw on the program in Stake Conference that we would be singing that and I told William. When it was time he sang all the words he could and when it was over he kept asking to sing it again. I don't think there is anything sweeter than hearing him sing church songs and listening to him pray. Both get me pretty choked up inside.



He loves Thomas the train and any train for that matter. He is starting to use his imagination and I love that. He will ask to go outside and take his Thomas and another toy like his airplane and roll them around in the grass. I hear him say things like, "want to go park?, Okay, let's go." Or somethimes he gets stern and says, "I said right now!" I have no idea where he learned that.
I just can't believe how fast the time flies and how rewarding it has been to be a part of his life. No one could have prepared me for this.

Faith in Action

This past weekend we had a Faith in Action day where a lot of faiths came together to do service projects to help clean up our town. I was excited for this opportunity to serve and that W was big enough to help. He would walk around and pick up trash, but spent a lot of time looking at worms. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot, and we had a lot of fun.