Staycation

 At my last Drs. app my OB told me my pregnancy was to high risk to travel. She told me my pregnancy was at a point where we could save our baby if born early, and traveling with a Complete Placenta Previa was putting both our lives in danger. So we cancelled our Yellowstone Vacation, and opted for a staycation to Park City. It was really last minute but we had a really fun time.

 We started off at the Zoo. We were super excited to see the new Polar Bear exhibit! This was my kids and Dan waiting for the Elephant show.

 I have no idea why Lukas is pretending to be a Monkey in front of a Tiger!

 We stayed at the Zermatt in Midway. Honestly, I don't think we will stay there again. We didn't have the best experience. We didn't let it get us down though and we still had a great time.

 The pool was freezing! I couldn't even stand to be in it. Luckily, Dan is awesome and stuck it out and he and the kids had a fun time!

 The pastry place at the Zermatt is the best thing there! We ate breakfast there on both days. It was super yummy. My kids were awesome eaters this whole vacation. They ate pretty much everything on their plates, everywhere we went.

 My kids loved the goats at the Zermatt!

 I think this is Blair's new favorite dress. She had to have it while we were shopping at the outlets.

 Standing in line at the Alpine Slides. Lukas and Dan had so much fun. Blair didn't want to go.

 We went on a few rides while we waited.

Lukas LOVED it! Dan said he giggled the whole way down.
Even though this wasn't the vacation we had in mind this summer I am glad we got to go somewhere. We ended up having lots of fun, and enjoyed spending time together.

Barbies

My mom saved a LOT of my toys from my child hood. I love it! My kids have enjoyed playing with my Rainbow Brite doll, Fisher Price farm, legos, and now Blair has been enjoying my Barbies! She pulls them out and enjoys changing their clothes and making them "pretty". I also have a ton of Barbie furniture from when I was little. We haven't gotten that out to play with yet, but I am looking forward to it!

4th of July

 Oh how we love the 4th of July! Yummy food, fun clothes, fire works, and great company. We had a super fun but busy 4th this year. We started out around 11:30 and got home around 10!

 My kids looked super cute in their 4th out fits!

 We started out with the Wilkinson fam! The kids did awesome pop its Uncle Jake bought. Blair and Gracie are so cute! They really are best cousins. They get a long and have so much fun together. I am glad that Blair will have a girl friend for life! Especially now that our baby is a boy and not a girl. ;)

 I stole these two pics of the pop it fun from my Sister in Law. She is a much better picture taker then I am. Thanks Karen!

 Lukas had to take his rock collection and show it to everyone. This kid loves his rock collection!

 Just eating yummy food that Grandma made! We are lucky to always have scrumptious food over there.

 Next we went over to my Aunt and Uncles house for a bbq. It was so fun to see family we hadn't seen for a bit. My grandma isn't doing to well and isn't expected to be around much longer. She made it to this party in her wheel chair. This is probably the last party she will attend. We are lucky we were able to see and spend time with her here!

 Cade and Blair were best buds! Cade is my cousin Chad's son. He is on deployment in Afghanistan. I am grateful for his service! This picture reminds me so much of Chad and I when we were young. We always hung out. Cade looks so much like Chad! Blair looks a lot like me so this takes me back a bit.

 Playing so well together!

 Dan and Lukas playing water balloon volleyball!

 Blair in front of the bird cages at their house! They have an assortment of birds. My kids think it is so neat! Blair is entranced by them. Poor Blair ended up in her swim suit since she peed her pants. She just gets so busy playing she forgets to go.

 We ended our night with sparklers! We didn't buy in fire works since there is so many fires around here. We thought we wouldn't contribute. However, we pretty much got a free fire work show from our back patio from all the neighbors lighting them off. My kids thought it was great!

Fires

 View from my front porch! Sleepy Hallow fire!

Utah has had the worst fires this year! (I know most of you are aware this is for my own record. At one time there was up to 11 wild fires in the state of UT. It was so sad too see. There were also fires in WY, ID, MT and CO. It has just been so dry. There was a few days where my kids couldn't even play outside because the fires were dropping ash all over our yard, and making it horribly hard to breath. My heart aches for those in all these states who lost their homes, property or vacation homes. I am so thankful for the fire fighters, helicopter pilots, national guard, etc. who helped fight these fires. They did such a great service. They prevented a lot more homes from burning down. In Alpine fire fighters stood guard with their trucks and hoses, and saved one house as it circled their whole home without touching it! What a miracle! I really pray that the fire season has come to a close and we don't see anymore fires!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Backyard fun

 We are loving our back yard this summer! We have added a few things that have made it more of a hang out.

 We got a patio! We have been longing and waiting for this baby, for over a year! Finally it is in. Our kids put their hand prints in it making it officially ours. The only problem is, is our brilliant idea to put Lettie in the concrete. Who would have thought after 3 ultrasounds our Lettie is now a Case. Sort of funny and will make a great story one day.

 We have swings!!!! Lukas and Blair have been wanting swings for a really long time. Lukas kept begging Grandpa to build him a swing set. Grandpa loves Lukas and said he would do it. Well they went to the "Man store" Which is what they call Home Depot in pursuit of lumber or something that would catch their eye to build one with. After coming home empty handed Jim's niece told them they could help. Her grandma had just passed away, and this steel swing set was in her back yard! Best part, FREE!!!! So the next day Dan, Jim, and Lukas went and dug it out. We put it in our yard, and grandpa made the swings. All we had to do to finish it was paint it. Lukas wanted silver for his side and Blair wanted purple for hers. DONE!!! Now they just are enjoying swinging. We love that the swings are wooden cause they don't get hot.

This patio set was our very first buy for our new patio! Kids come first right?

Ummmm, SURPRISE!!!

A few weeks ago we went in for our 20 week ultra sound. It ended up being a very surprising app. I lay down and she asked us if we wanted to know what sex we were having. I said we already knew because this was my 4th ultra sound due to Placenta Previa, and I was told a girl. She checks and says you still have a complete Placenta Previa. This was a little sad to me. I was really hoping that it was starting too move! Then she says it is a girl! She goes on and is measuring everything. Baby was being a little uncooperative. She couldn't get a good abdomen shot, and was wiggling the wand when she said "SHUT UP, I think you are having a boy!" She then shows us a little piece of boy hood! Dan and I were pretty shocked. We said "Are you sure?" She said "99.9 percent!" I was so shocked I asked her if it could be the umbilical cord. She was pretty sure it wasn't, and showed us his boy hood in a different angle. I then just made sure the baby looked healthy in every way. She said he did! She also told us she had never heard of that happening before. She said she had never heard of 3 different ultra sound techs saying girl then all of a sudden it being a boy! She couldn't believe it. Either could we! I took all my girl stuff back for boy stuff. However, I have been keeping it in the sacks with the recipts. I figure it can't hurt. I will be having another ultrasound since I still have Placenta Previa. I am looking forward to it. I am hoping by then my placenta will have moved and that we will know for 100 percent the sex of our baby! I honestly could care less if it is a boy or a girl, we are just grateful for our little one. If you know me though you know I am a huge planner! I need to feel like I have things in control, and everything ready for the little person to join our family. Plus I gave all my boy stuff away so I am starting from scratch! So I need some preparation time. We have been on a few shopping sprees for boy things. The name we chose for our little guy is Case. This is my grandmas maiden name. It is pretty fitting that we ended up with a boy baby at this time. My grandma isn't doing so well. So it would be great to have a baby to name after her at this time.

This isn't the best picture since it is a picture of a picture. I should scan it in for a better look!

Swimming lessons

 We just finished up 2 weeks of swimming lessons! I am so glad they are over! Two weeks of being in Springville at 8:45 in the morning was a little challenging. We made it and they were successful. Blair did NOT like swimming lessons. She cried and refused to put her head in the water. Every once in a while we would get her face in and she would blow her bubbles. She also hated the black float. I think she just doesn't like water in her ears. Her poor ears have been through so much with ear infections and tubes I think she is still a little weary of anything by her ears. The last 3 days however she went out with a bang! She started putting her head under and holding her breath up to 8 seconds! She also did her back float without crying. She also went down the slide half way. I was so proud of her! Maggie our swim teacher was so sweet and patient, and so proud of Blair at the end.

Lukas did fabulous! He is getting to be such a great swimmer. The last few days of swim lessons he swam the length of the pool. He was really nervous about it, but he did it. He was proud of himself and so am I. He does get a little panicky when he is swimming in between breaths. I am vowing on getting him to practice in the deep end some more.

Today we went to the Payson pool with daddy. Every day while getting ready for swim lessons Blair would cry and say she wanted to go to the fun pool with her floaties and daddy. So I promised her the Sat after swim lessons we would go there. We kept true to our promise and had a great time for 3 whole hours!