Pregnancy

My sister-in-law, Rebecca, at 38 weeks and me at 26 weeks. She looks great! Me...I'm almost her size and I am 12 weeks behind her. Lousy :( 

This pregnancy in general has been lousy. Yes, I only threw up once which was a pro but the nausea has yet to leave me alone for good. And now I've been getting migraines- spots, light sensitivity, sickness, intense pain- the whole shebang! These are something that I usually get a handful of times in a whole year. I've already had a handful of them within the last few weeks. And when I'm not getting migraines, I'm getting run of the mill head aches. The Dr. believes all this head pain is originating from my poor achy back and that a massage would do the trick. If only I had the fundage for frequent massages!

Anyways, this has been a tough pregnancy and maybe that's the price of having a girl. It will be worth it to have my little princess but I will be super happy when the day that I get her is here and I am done with this pregnancy. Super happy! And until then I will try to be a good mommy to my boys and I will try to be a good tutor and I will just try to be more positive! 

And hopefully by the time it's my little girl's birthday, I will have a name figured out too so please no more asking. I just don't feel completely sold with any name at this point but don't worry, she will have a name and it will be a cute one :)

And a couple pictures of my cute boys at Grandma & Grandpa Brady's house...

"New" Toys

Steven & Ben were in need of something new to play with so we went where any cheapskate mom goes to, we went to Goodwill! And Goodwill did not let us down! For $5 we got a Lite-Brite & an excellent tank. Both have provided hours of entertainment for my boys this week and were SO worth all that hard earned money I spent on them ;)

I have to say the Lite-Brite is not only entertaining but educational. Steven has to put the right color pegs on the right alphabet letter and he's doing great! And then after he makes the cool picture we get to go into the messy laundry room, turn of the lights and check it out!

Ben and Steven like to play with their "new" army truck and their old, garbage truck (because that combo makes more sense than say....their old, hummer with the army truck, right?). And they love to have rubber duckies drive the truck and even Spiderman gets involved. When they're not fighting, it's pretty fun to watch.

My Longest Friend is Married!

This Saturday Rebekka got married! We have been friends since high school and I love this girl to death. I was so happy for her and so grateful to get to be a part of her special day. I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid and I had fun with all that entitled. 

The night before her wedding I went out with her and her sisters to Someburros for a girl's night out. Of course my clumsy self started out the night by spilling a cup of water all over the table as I set down my tray. It was a very smooth move but everyone was very nice and didn't mock me and I had a fun the rest of the time. It was nice to get away from the boys and just hang out with the girls. I need to do that more often. 

Saturday morning Rebekka and Danny got sealed at the Mesa Temple. Unfortunately I have been having some major migraine problems this last week and all I can take is Extra Strength Tylenol which is SO not effective so the bright chandelier, which I normally find beautiful, was killer. I felt pretty funky through out the ceremony but  Heavenly Father kept me stable and I was still able to focus on the sealing. The sealer gave some great advice, one in the form of a humorous story about how he took his wife to Disneyland because she said she wanted to be 6 again but what she had actually meant is that she wanted to be a size 6 again. His point was to listen carefully to what your wife says because after 50 years, he still doesn't always understand her.

After the sealing I got to socialize with her friends and family while we waited for the bride and groom to get ready. I finally met an old mission companion of Rebekka's, Perla, who she speaks of often. Sweet girl and I enjoyed talking with her throughout the day.

Unfortunately I wasn't close enough to get a great shot of Rebekka when they came out but you can see my sister-in-law, Tara, was close enough. It was fun having her do all their pictures. I got to give her a hard time and now I'm going to try to bribe her to photo shop out my sweaty face. It was humid but thankfully the clouds kept the bright sun away which was great for my migraine and did help us sweat just a little less. 

After the sealing and pictures I headed home (Tyler had already left to pick up the boys, there was no way he was sticking around for pictures he didn't have to be in). We hung out at home for a bit and then it was off to the luncheon for chicken salad sandwiches, yummy! We got to eat at the table with Perla and a couple more old mission companions and then (they were a little late) Rebekka and Danny joined us. Steven and Ben got to eat at the kid table and they had fun hanging out with all of Rebekka and Danny's nieces and nephews.

Then it was home again until the reception. We got there a little early to help set up and then we ate food, socialized, danced, and decorated their getaway vehicle. I didn't get to see Rebekka much then but that's to be expected. It was an excellent day and I am so excited to have a new couple to hang out with!

Steven got a bit fresh with one of Rebekka's nieces- he kissed her twice! This boy is trouble!

After decorating Danny's truck with balloons, Steven insisted on hanging on to this one. He also insisted that he needed a picture of it so here ya go:

Hatch Camp Out

It took us forever to get ready to leave for the Hatch Camp Out up in Hutch Mountain but by 2pm Thursday we were finally ready. I was frustrated with Tyler and all his last minute preparations but I have to say that was really the only bad part of my camping experience. After that everything was fantastic and it was one of the best camp outs thus far. The boys were in heaven surrounded by dirt, sticks, trucks and lots of little friends to play with and for once being a mommy was one of the easiest jobs ever. 

About 2 minutes after arriving at the camp site Ben fell head first into the dirt & basically stayed that dirty for the rest of our 4 day trip.

Tyler holding his cousin's baby girl, Breckyn. There were 2 other girl babies at the camp out and Tyler got told numerous times, "You're going to have one of those soon!"

The boys seemed to have the most fun playing in the most dustiest dirt pit ever!

Tyler had fun playing ping pong & horse shoes, throwing knives into trees & shooting his potato gun.

And even I shot his potato gun! Tyler was so proud of how much I participated this year. I threw knives, and played water balloon volleyball (and for once made some points) and even played "signs" with everyone. Usually I opt of all games because the Hatch's competitiveness scares me- not this year! This year I was the brave pregnant lady :)

On Saturday we celebrated Tyler's 29th birthday. I "made" him the best Twinkie Cake EVER! 

Tyler's favorite gift was the Nerf Gun that I got him. He, of course, had to to chase after all the kids with it and, of course, hit one of the kids. Oh my child.

Sunday was clean up day, my least favorite day, but it went quickly & smoothly which was nice. We sadly didn't do our normal Sunday Service due to some family drama but that mostly resolved itself. Despite that drama like I said, best camp out thus far. It was tough to say goodbye to Tyler's extended family, to the beautiful weather (for once we didn't get rained on) and to easy motherhood. But I was grateful to come home to a much needed shower.

The 4th of July

This fourth of July we spent some of the day running errands for our impending camping trip & some of the day just lazing around but at the end of the day we got to do some celebrating. My parent's were out of town so we decided to have a party at their house- we're such teenagers :) 

We invited Tyler's family over for a bring your own food and then watch fireworks party. We had a nice time hanging out with his family, eating chili cheese dogs and eating 4th of July themed desert that his sister had brought. Then Mike & Rebecca came with her brother and family to join us in watching fireworks at the park by my parent's house. It was a spectacular time & a perfect fourth of July.

The End of June

Do you ever feel like this?:

To be honest, I didn't feel like that very much this month. June has been SO nice and I am sad to see it go. Tutoring just 2 mornings a week was the perfect fit for me. It gave me a nice break from mommyhood while still giving me plenty of time to get mommy things done with time to spare. I spent many afternoons napping, rotting my brain on the scandalous show "Grey's Anatomy" (cursed Instant Netflix getting me addicted to it), painting, & reading. I'm going to miss June because July is looking like it will bring on a more busy tutoring schedule which is good as far as money goes...and bad as far as my desire to be lazy goes.

Below is the result of my nice afternoons. This will go in my baby girl's room once I finish touching it up. I got this great pink frame for it which has a crack in that I hadn't noticed so I also have to exchange that before it can hang up. 

And while we're on the topic of my baby girl, my mom, who is the ever doting grandma, also got this adorable mirror for her room: 

I'm also wanting to paint a tree on the wall in her room but am a little chicken. You can't just throw that away if it turns out badly. I may just end up getting a wall decal when I get some extra money but we'll see. And still on the subject of baby, here is a shot of my tummy at 23 weeks. I feel huge but people are being nice & saying I barely look pregnant. Probably because I wear shirts that hide it well when I'm out in public...

And on a new note. This week I did a lot of babysitting. I had my sister-in-law Tara's kids for a bit while they were in Utah and Steven was super happy about getting to have a sleepover with Bryson. I also had my friend Karen's kids for 1 afternoon & an evening. This made Ben happy because he got to hang out with his friend Jaylee. He even gave her a few hugs and a kiss on the cheek. I sadly was unable to document any of those. But I did document the crew watching Tyler play video games. So entertaining ;)