Ten Years.... a little early

It was a couple months early, but with the baby on her way in one month, Jeremy and I decided to get away for a night and head to Park City to celebrate our anniversary.  As much as we adore our girls, it was so nice to have a good 20 hours just for the two of us.  It was a somewhat sad celebration for the TENTH anniversary, but I was pregnant for our first anniversary and our fifth anniversary, so why not the tenth?  We are thinking we will have to do some traveling and serious celebrating for our twelfth anniversary instead... 

I can't believe it's almost been TEN YEARS, though.  I can honestly say it has been the best ten years of my life so far.  :)  Can't wait to see what the next ten bring!

Ally's Graduation

Ally Graduated from Preschool last week!  She was soooo cute!  I think Preschool has done wonders for her this year.  She has really opened up and overcome some of her shyness.  She is such a smart little gal.  It's nice to see more of her talents emerge.  Above is Ally with her teacher, Miss Angela, receiving her Preschool Diploma.  :)  Below, a few videos of the little program they put on to show what they learned.  They learned a new letter every week and a color every month.  They learned little songs to spell each color name.  It was pretty cute.  Also below are a couple pics of Ally with her buds, Mac and Scarlett.

Meeting Gracie Sue

We finally got a chance to meet our new niece/cousin, Gracie Sue!  Mindy, Glenn, Ammon, and Gracie joined Grandpa and Grandma when they came up for a BBQ at our home on Memorial Day.  Gracie was just three weeks old and such a little cutie!  All the girls fell in love with her
(even Emmy!) and they can't wait for our own baby girl to show up now.

CAMPING!!

We decided to go camping before the crazy summer hit!  We went with our friends, Mary, Curtis, and kiddos, a couple weekends ago.  Curtis' brother and his family also joined us.  It was the first time I had been camping since Sami was little.  It was the first time I'd been camping pregnant since I was about 7 months pregnant with Sami.  I had never taken Ally or Emmy camping.  Ally had gone once before with her dad, right after Emmy was born.  But Emmy had never been camping before.  How we managed to go all those summers without a single camping trip, I don't know.  Anyway, we had fun!  We camped in a really beautiful canyon!  The girls loved playing and exploring the wilderness around them and I enjoyed just getting out of the house for a night.  Emmy had so much fun getting filthy with Tommy!  She took to camping like she'd been doing it her whole life.  :)

The only draw back was that it was freezing cold!!  We didn't have rain or snow like those lucky ones who went camping over Memorial Day weekend.  But the temperature did get down to about 35 degrees!  Brrr!  I think that from now on, we will plan on camping trips around warmer evenings.  The girls all did okay, each snuggled down in their sleeping bags.  But I froze!  Mostly because I had to kept changing positions to get comfortable and then I had to start all over with warming my spot again. 

Yes, we all came back dirty and smelling like smoke, but it was still a positive experience.  I think, though, that camping trips need to extend over more than one night.  It seems silly to go through all the trouble of setting up camp, just to take it all down about 17 hours later.  Two WARM nights of wilderness fun would be a much better option.

Emmy insisted that the hotdogs needed to be in the picture with her...

What is camping without

MARSHMALLOWS!!!!!

Oops...

Just Kickin' Back!

Sami's Spring Piano Recital

Sami had her Spring Piano Recital last week!  She did beautifully!  She is very precise, crisp, and distinct in her playing.  She is also really sensitive to dynamics.

Here she is with Mrs. Jones, her piano teacher. 

Below, I included a video or her second song she played.  I wish I had gotten the first song, because she put more feeling into that one.  But it still gives you a taste for her progress!

34 weeks and counting...

 2.5 more weeks and I'm term!  I've already had several inconsistent but substantial contractions, which I hear is perfectly normal for the fourth pregnancy.  I got my blood test back and my bile acid levels are normal, so I guess having my gall bladder removed did the trick at getting rid of the cholestasis.  So no inductions planned.  We're just going to take this a day at a time through June and plan for a baby the first part of July.  I am getting very uncomfortable, though.  Night time sleeping is getting harder on my hips and belly.  And I think this little girl is starting to feel crowded because she likes to stretch a lot--sticking her bum straight forward, her feet up under my ribs, her fists or arms into my bladder, and her head onto (or is it through?) my tailbone.  I will be just walking along and then suddenly have to stop in pain because she decided to stretch.  Oh the joys... 

 I feel huge!  I honestly think I am as big as I ever got with any of my others.  Feeling nine months pregnant at only eight months here.....

Although, because she likes to stick her bum straight out, I look much bigger from the side than from the front.  Below is a top view of my tummy being kissed by Emmy.

Speaking of Emmy...

This kid is going to be interesting when her little sister arrives.  She is showing no interest at all in Potty Training and the other day she announced that "Ally is the Big Sister and I the Baby Sister."  For most of the pregnancy, she has refused to admit that there is a baby in my tummy.  Just recently she has started to acknowledge the baby and give her kisses but when asked if she wants the baby to come out, she says "NO!"  Yesterday morning, she was giving my tummy loves and I asked her if she wanted to hold the baby soon so she could give her real kisses.  Much to my surprise, she said, "Yeah!"  Then she sat looking at my tummy and thinking for a minute and said, "Actually, NO."  "Actually???  Really?," I thought, "Did that word just actually come out of your mouth??"

She's getting so big.  But I think that when this little gal arrives, she will not be allowed to be left alone with a certain big sister.  At least not at first... You never know what Emmy might do, being the little bully that she is at times.