Scout trip to the Tucson Botanical Gardens

Today was the pack activity. We went to the botanical gardens in Tucson. I went with the kids we had 2 extra scouts ride with us. The boys laughed all the way up and all the back. I didn't think they had that much energy! I know after walking around in the heat and humidity (all you east coast people-shhh, i don't want to hear it!) i thought they'd be dead, but nope. It was a fun time and I think the boys really had a good time. Paige even seemed to enjoy herself!

Paige and E waiting for the rest to show up.

wandering around the visitor's center

throwing pennies into the fountain

we come to look at plants and i take a picture of the fountain.....

trying to identify various herbs by smell alone. the sage was especially strong.

trying to find the butterfly lady

found her! she is telling the boys about the life cycle of butterflies and showing them all the varieties that they have at the garden. they were also able to see a butterfly that just laid an egg and many, many chrysalises.

at the kids discovery area. the little ones like it more than the big boys.

i thought this fountain was really pretty. with as hot as it was i was tempted to get into to it, too bad it wasn't that big!

bamboo

giant bee made out of recycled stuff

taking a quick break before finishing the tour.

my little butterfly!

random cactus

this ones only thought was to kill you. the spines on it were like 2 inches long.

pods of some sort. they were all over this particular plant!

almost finished. at this point we were all pretty sweaty and thirsty and tired of being outside.

very large saguaro cactus

prickly pear cactus

no clue what this one was, but it smelled really good!

thanks for coming and see you at pack meeting next week!!
today's activity fulfilled a bunch of stuff for all the boys. even though it was miserably hot, i think everyone had a good time.

Teacher Meet and Greet

We got to meet the new teachers for the year tonight. When I say new I really mean it, both the boys' teachers are new this year. Both seems very nice and the boys are very excited!! It looks like it will be a great year for both of them!! Only 5 more days to go until the first day!! Both are beside themselves with excitement. I think they may change that when they get up for the first time to make sure they catch the bus!!!

A friend of ours is getting promoted to CW4 (Chief Warrant Officer level 4) and was in charge of goodies after his promotion ceremony. He asked me to do a cake for it. So I said sure. He wanted the rank on it for sure and if I could the Rising Eagle. I got pictures and decided I really needed to include the eagle. It's an important part of the warrant officers group (I guess). So I printed off a picture and made a stencil out of it. Then I got some gold with edible glitter pipping gel and made a "gold" looking buttercream to outline it. I think it turned out well. Better than I expected it would anyway. So congrats Jon on a job well done and thanks for letting participate even if only in a very small way!

half way

i have hit my half way point. week 19 as of today (and for me that's half way). So excited because i've been worried that we wouldn't make it. So happy that everything is progressing normally and she's growing at the rate she's supposed to.

Not really a surprise.....

Paige was right! I guess you just can't doubt a child who says "Heavenly Father told me so!"

Back story...

When we found out we were pregnant I had mixed emotions on what we would have. A boy would be awesome, but then again a girl would be perfect for our family, 2 boys and 2 girls. My pregnancy started off the same as all the others and then it hit like a mack truck. My first clue that I might be carrying a girl. Lactose Intolerance. Joy here we go again. Oh well. That really was my own clue. I had the same thing with Paige but not with the boys.

So because of my age (whatever) and my prior problems my doctor advised me to see a perinatologist. i was able to get an ultrasound and we got the results from the quad screen. It came out negative so that caused me to breathe a serious sigh of relief. I've lost sleep since the test about that. The doctor was great and she told me that everything looked good. A couple things that she really couldn't get a good look because baby kept moving but what she could see looked great. So we are thrilled. We almost didn't get to find out. The tech asked at the last minute and she made no bones about it.

She said yep, those are the girl parts so yeah, it's a girl! Then the doctor double checked and she also pointed out all the girl parts and was like, yeah I'm pretty sure it's a girl. Like 99% sure it's a girl! So HOORAY!!!! Paige was thrilled and I think the boys were too! We had asked the kids what they thought the baby was and they all said girl. I was thrilled!!! I had so many ideas of what I could do with a baby girl. In fact Dan and I had only been throwing around girl names (still nothing by the way) and not even bothering with boy names. Guess deep down I really wanted another girl. Since this is probably our last one, deep down we really wanted a girl. Now everyone will have the chance to know what it's like to have a brother and a sister!

So there you have it. We are having another girl. Now if I can just persuade my doctor to move my c-section date up another week so i'm not out of it for Christmas. (yeah right).

Baby boy goodies

I forgot to post these the other night. Me and a couple other gals threw a baby shower for a friend of ours Gina. I was asked to make the cake so I obliged. I also decided to make her some goodies instead of going to the store and buying something that she may receive doubles of. I still ended up duplicating ribbon but at least it wasn't an outfit. I found a cute site that showed you how to make bibs and I thought that would be perfect!! Wish I had found that site earlier!!! So I found some appropriate boy fabric in my stash and went to work. I'm not a great sewer so it took me longer than it would have most people. But I was terribly pleased with how they came out. My favorite is the dinosaur bib. It's just so soft and cute!! I also had some cloth diapers that i've been embellishing for burp cloths and I tried to coordinate them with the bibs as best I could. I only did 2 burp cloths so the dino bib didn't have a partner. But I think it was ok. She loved them which made me feel good about them. I have to say I really was worried that she wouldn't like them. They were super fun and now that I know how to make them, more people may be getting homemade bibs and burp cloths from me!!! Plus I'll be making some for our baby too!! Can't wait to do those!!

as of the baby shower, mom and dad hadn't decided on a first name, so I used the first initial of their last name.

the frayed edges give the bibs a rustic feel

a little out of the ordinary

We did something a little different tonight. Instead of a traditional dinner I made munchies and we sat around the coffee table and played games. It was a lot of fun. I made a bbq spread that we had with wheat thins and mema and papa sent us (well more for dan but we all shared) peach salsa and we ate that with chips. Finished the whole jar! It's been really hot lately and so I didn't want to have to cook anything and heat up the kitchen. We started off the night playing Sorry sliders and then moved on to a sea life puzzle that mema and papa sent us from their trip to the beach. All the kids really enjoyed it and it was a fun way to spend the evening. It beats our usual Saturday night of watching cartoons on tv or everyone off doing their own thing. I may have to do this again.....soon!!



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Surprise!

Dan left for the field this morning so I thought it would be a good idea to take the kids to the park to run off some energy before the rain hits and they become bored out of their minds. So we left and it was nice outside so I planned on staying for a while. Can't beat the breeze and the cloudy sky for playing at the park.

They were enjoying themselves and after about an hour Seth comes up and tells me that he found a big, hairy spider. I didn't think much of it because to the kids all spiders are big. So I was figuring a wolf spider or garden spider of some sort. He asks if I want to see it (well not really, i'd rather run and get some spray but I can't tell him that) so I walk over to where he saw it under the rock climbing wall. Guess what I saw??????

pictures are blurry because they were taken with my phone and yes I'll admit, I was shaking when i took them.

Yeah, that's not a wolf or garden spider. A tarantula. Great. Now they are gonna want to keep it......
So we sat there and watched it for a few minutes (this is the first one they've ever seen in real life-i've run over a few but that's as close as I want to come) and then went about our business. Another family came over to where it was so I let them know and of course they all gathered around it and watched so then my kids had to go back over there. One of the other guys got it to walk so all the kids followed it. After about 15 minutes of all this "fun" I decided it was time to go and leave the poor thing alone.
First thing Paige said when we got home was that she was glad it didn't try to follow us home. I guarantee if it had, it would be with its maker right now. I don't do spiders all at. Even ones that don't really bother you. No. thank. you.

Independence Day 2010

Today was another full day of fun! We started our day off with church and came home and relaxed for a bit before heading over to some friends' house to play games and eat burgers and dogs. YUM! Something about summer means that you never get sick of burgers and dogs on the grill. I love this time of year (would like it even better if a/c were involved but that's another story for another day). So after having good food and good fun we headed over to the park for the fireworks. We met up with another family and enjoyed each others company while watching the pyrotechnics brought to us by the city. Next year though I hope they get rid of the goofy comments between shots. That was unnecessary!! But it was a great show and I think the kids had a great time watching. No one fell asleep or got scared this year!

we hiked about a mile from our truck to our final fireworks watching spot.

we walked through a thorny patch and ended up having to de-thorn our sandals once we got settled.

seth makes new friends wherever he goes. some folks were playing volley ball near where we were sitting and he walked right up, introduced himself and started playing! I don't think there is a shy bone in his body!

our little group

me and the 15 week belly