The Baker's

So this past week we were super lucky to have our good friends the Baker's come down for a visit. We've been friends for 3 years now I think and I couldn't ask for a better friend. Her kids are adorable and get along great with mine so its a perfect combination really. We were too busy having so much fun that I didn't get a lot of pictures taken during their visit but these ones of our squirt gun time are priceless.

(Poor Olivia was not a fan of how cold the water was when we first started.)

(Oren was content to stay on the porch with Olivia, also that nice scratch on his face happened the second day they were here. Poor thing ran into the corner of a door.)

(This picture cracks me up and is perfect for Donaven, he is hilarious!)

(So Savannah.)

(All done and time to dry off.)

Savannah cried on and off all day yesterday saying how much she missed Donaven, JaNeil, and baby Oren. I don't know when we'll get to see them again but I hope it isn't too long before our next visit cause we sure do love this family!

Family Time

So the first weekend of the month we made a quick trip down to Jacob's brothers. We always have a blast when we go visit and we've really enjoyed getting to know Jeff and Anne and their kids better. I also love watching all the kids play together, they typically play really well together which just makes me so happy.When we were visiting the temperature was around 108 so we definitely had some outdoor time of playing in the kid pool and making sand castles.

(Savannah and Kellan taking a time out to play in the shade.)

(My adorable niece.)

(Mia trying to be patient with Savannah as they built a sand city.)

Family Night

So I forgot to post these pictures from when my brother Jordan came to visit. We decided to go on an outing on Family Night and the lake seemed like the perfect choice.The girls had been asking to go since we moved here and it was such a beautiful evening that it was just perfect.

(I love that the lake is only like 10 minutes from our house)

(Both the girls wanted to look over the dock so bad so we had to make sure we had a good hold on both girls.)

The girls loved looking into the water, throwing rocks, and of course watching all the ducks. They tried so hard to stand still to see how close the ducks would come to them. Overall it was just a fun time being together and hanging out.

Our Day

Today was a great day. We let the girls pick what they wanted to do pretty much all day long and it was so fun. We of course had a few errands we had to run but other then that we did whatever the girls wanted. We had to rain Savannah in a bit because some of her ideas were a big grand, she like her mom in more ways then one. We started off by running a few needed errands followed by visiting the dollar store. The girls each got to pick out one toy that they wanted and they each got to pick out a balloon! They were so excited it was beyond adorable. We came home and had lunch and then we played a few rounds of hide and seek followed up by a fun game of Candyland. The girls played together for a bit and then Savannah asked if we could go to the park near our house. The girls had a blast and I was shocked at how dirty Olivia managed to get, seriously check her out in the pictures she's filthy.

Whenever we go to the park with Jacob, Savannah always asks to ride on his shoulders while going across the monkey bars.

Its a good thing I brought my water with me because between the girls and Jacob we finished off the whole thing.

Olivia wanted a turn with the monkey bars too, she didn't quite get the hang of it.

One of Olivia's favorite park activity is sitting under the playground and digging holes and building towers out of the dirt or wood chips. Jacob said that's exactly what he used to love doing at the playground when he was a kid.

I think the girls have had a great day and so have Jacob and I, I love days like this when we get to just hang out and be together as a family.

Visitor

So after our amazingly wonderful two weeks in Maryland it was time to head home but the girls and I didn't travel alone. My brother Jordan came with us! He came out for a week visit and we LOVED having here. The last time Jordan stayed with us was when we lived in Idaho and he was going to BYU-I which was like 3 years ago. The girls were so excited to have someone else around the house and they loved all the attention Uncle Jordan gave them. Our days were pretty routine just because Savannah was back in Preschool and Olivia had therapy appointments but we packed our Friday and Saturday with two super fun day trips.

Since Jacob has Friday's off over summer break we decided to head to Phoenix and go to the zoo, I love the Phoenix zoo! Its ranked as one of the top 5 zoos in the nation for children and I can see why because my girls have a total blast when we're there.

The girls wanted to get their pictures taken on this statue of some animal which I cannot remember the name of. When we went to the zoo with their cousins over Thanksgiving we piled all of them on it so it was a fun tradition of sorts to get a picture again.

Both the girls did a great job at spotting the animals and loved looking at everything!

The two highlights of our trip were first the girls got to ride a camel! Savannah was in love and was beyond excited. Olivia soon became jealous and also wanted a ride so Jordan volunteered to go with her since he kind of wanted to ride too. The sad part is I totally deleted the picture of them riding, boo!

Their second favorite thing was the petting zoo area. I was shocked at how brave both girls were to brush the goats and go right up to them, especially Savannah. They loved seeing all the different farm animals and they even milked a cow! They had this awesome fake cow that you could try and milk, the utters totally felt real but instead of milk water would come out. Savannah did a really good job and Olivia needed a little help which she made clear she didn't want. We made it threw the whole zoo in 3 hours and we were booking it the whole time, needless to say I was exhausted by the end of the day.
On Saturday we headed in the opposite direction and made our way to the Grand Canyon! It was beautiful.

None of us had ever been, although Jacob said he may have gone as a little kid but he doesn't remember. It was really fun and the girls loved it! We were boring and just hiked around the rim but that was plenty for us since our girls are 2 and 4 and I'm 6 months pregnant. I'd love to do something a bit more adventurous when our family is a little older but for now we had a perfect experience. Jordan was thrilled that we went and Jacob liked it a lot more once we realized the drive up wouldn't take as long as we originally thought.

We didn't' take the stroller at all for our trip so both girls walked all day, it really ended up being a good choice because they both wanted to walk out of the rocks and the places where you could look out over the canyon would have been a bit tricky to get to with a stroller. Savannah surprised me with how brave she was and she wanted to get right on the edge of most lookout spots. She pretty much gave us a heart attack the whole time but she was usually pretty good at holding hands on the rocks. Olivia loved the freedom of walking around like her big sister and loved pointing out different things. On the way back to the car both the girls were pooped and at one point Jacob was carrying both girls, they were pretty much fighting over him all day and he was usually the one holding their hands because both girls wanted their daddy.

We had such a great time having Jordan visit and we couldn't believe how fast the week went by, hopefully we didn't scare him off and he'll come visit again.

Call Us the Busybodies

Oh my good gracious it feel like forever since I've written on our blog and we've been so busy I'm going to have to write a couple of posts because I have way too many pictures to post. Life has been good and we have been busy to say the least. I really do love it, it makes the time go faster and I'm happy with what we've been occupying out time with. To get back into blogging I'll start where we left off, the girls and I went to Maryland for 2 weeks the end of April thru the beginning of May. It was glorious and wonderful just like it always is.The girls were just as excited as they always get when they hear we're getting ready to go on an airplane and Olivia had quite the fun time trying to help me pack.

 I was pretty proud of myself for packing so lite for this trip because I am known to over pack.

 We had some beautiful days and some not so nice weather days so when it was nice outside we took full advantage of it. The girls love playing outside in my parents yard, Savannah and Olivia loved picking all the dandelions for my dad.

 Sidewalk chalk was another must do activity and the girls loved drawing pictures for my dad and brothers to see when they would come home.

 Also what trip would be complete if we didn't go to the park, we go to the same one every visit since its right down the street from my parents house. The girls always have so much fun, on this particular visit Olivia pretty much wanted to stay in the swings the entire time we were there, silly kid.

 One of Savannah's favorite things to do when we go to the park is walking along the wall surrounding the playground, she pretends she's on the balance beam.

 Something new we tried this trip was paining pottery with the girls. They loved it! Its just one of those local places where you can pick out the piece of pottery you'd like to paint and the colors you want to use and then you get to work. I helped Savannah while my mom helped Olivia, my mom had to use much more patience then I did. Savannah did so good at not mixing colors and making a design while Olivia was very abstract with her paining.

One the not so nice weather days we had fun hanging out at the house watching shows and playing with toys. The girls had fun playing with my brothers and dad when they were home and would always get so excited to see them after they'd been gone.

 

Having fun lying on Mark.

Having a yummy lunch after so much fun playing.

Something I always miss is seeing all the green, while we were there everything started blooming and it just got greener every day we were there.

While we were visiting I hit the 25 week mark, its crazy to see how fast time is flying by.

The morning we left my mom had minor knee surgery so while she and my dad were gone we made her a get well soon sign and the girls made her some pictures. They were able to make it back before we had to leave for the airport so we could say goodbye one last time.

We always have such a great time when we visit my family and I love that the girls are able to make so many fun memories each time we go back. Its always bitter-sweet going home for a visit because I love my time there but I'm always ready to come back to my own home. Maryland will always hold a special place in my heart and I hope it always will for my little family too.

The Third Time

Have I mentioned how excited I am that we're expecting our third in August?! Well I am, don't get me wrong I am a bit nervous to soon be outnumbered and with Jacob still being in school I'll be alone the majority of the time but none of that matters. I am still so excited and so are Jacob and the girls, we had planned on trying to have another baby once we moved here to Arizona and Jacob and I were really looking forward to expanding our little family. We found out we were expecting a few weeks before Christmas and since we don't live too close to any family we decided to keep it a secret for a lot longer then we normally do. We didn't end up telling our families till February/March which is a long time for us. Everyone who lives around us knew because I show pretty early and I was sicker then a dog this time around, maybe even worse then when I was pregnant with Savannah. I started getting sick at 4 weeks and it finally ended around 17 1/2 weeks, thank goodness for medication to help me get through the day or I don't know what we would have done. Now that I'm in my second trimester I'm feeling more like myself which I'm so grateful for because that first trimester really kicked my butt and that was a new experience for me. You'd think I would get it by now that each pregnancy is different, I remind friends of this when their expecting but for some reason I don't apply this knowledge to myself. This time around being pregnant is similar but oh so different then the other two. It makes sense that its kicking my butt, I'm older then I was with the girls obviously and I am busier then I have been before because I'm starting the chauffeur phase of motherhood. Between taking Savannah to preschool, Olivia to therapy, and running all the other errands we have to during the week the car and I are becoming fast friends. We found out we're having our third girl, I'll be honest and say we were hoping we might get a little boy but as soon as I found out she was a girl I fell in love and we're both really excited to have another spunky adorable little girl in our house.

( Little Miss at 19 weeks)

(20 weeks)

Today I am 21 weeks and I honestly cannot believe how fast time is flying by, I really can't believe I'm already halfway done and before we know it our little girl will be here. I'm finally feeling her kick and move more. She's positioned a bit further back then the girls had been so it was a tad harder to feel her move but now that she's a bit bigger then a softball she's making her presence known. During her ultrasound she moved around so much it was hard to get pictures taken of her, it reminded me of when we had Savannah's ultrasound because she did the exact same thing! Since its our third girl we don't have to do too much to get ready for her which feels a bit weird to me so I might have to come up with some projects for myself because I'm crazy. Now that we're having our third we'll most likely have to find a new place to rent and luckily we figured out how to fit 3 car seats in the back of our car so we don't have to get a new car, but we'd really like to so we'll have more storage room. So many changes coming in such a short time but I honestly love it and am so excited to see what our lives will look like in just 4 short months.