Oregon Coast!

Nathan’s Grandma rents a big beach house right on the Oregon coast every other year (although this was our second year in a row... lucky us!) and the whole family gets together for a week of fun. We had a blast this year! I made the mistake of telling Conner about the beach two weeks before we actually went and he talked nonstop about the “big waters” … aka the ocean, the “big sandbox”… aka the beach, and the “fun tub”… aka the hot tub. Every morning and after every nap he would ask “we go beach today?” Every time either Nathan or I would leave the house without Conner he would cry and say “Conner go beach too!” The two weeks finally passed and we loaded our car up... did I mention we need a bigger car... and took off! It was a 12 hour drive to the coast so we decided to break our trip up and stay half way in a hotel. We took Jayden swimming for the first time and he looked very studly in his swimming trunks…

Whenever we go anywhere in town Jayden usually ends up screaming because he hates his car seat so we were really worried about the drive but both kids were little angels and did so good! We did lots of fun stuff so be warned… there are loads of pictures! As usual the beach house had a deck with a spectacular view of the beach! We spent a lot of time down at the beach… chasing waves, building sand castles, and enjoying the view! Last year Conner was fearless... on numerous occasions we had to grab him so he wouldn't be swept out to sea. This year he was a little more cautious of the water. Maybe it was because Nathan watched too many shows with him during "Shark Week"... which happened to be the week before we left... and told him that there were sharks in the water at the beach...

The kids loved the hot tub and requested to swim daily.

One of the bedrooms had a tub almost as big as the hot tub! We started putting kids in to see how many would fit… we didn’t even have enough to fill it! We also hit the outlet malls and shopped until we dropped… or until we no longer could carry all of our bags… We all got matching sweatshirts and had a photo shoot! Of course we did our customary “smore roast” down on the beach.
We went to the aquarium again this year and Conner thought that it was great! Last year he mostly enjoyed running around like crazy... this year he still enjoyed running around... I don't know when that will change... but he at least would stop to look in each tank for longer than two seconds. At each tank he kept asking “where the sharks?”
As the only baby in the house, Jayden got lots of attention. The kids kept asking to hold him, loved making him laugh, and enjoyed “petting” his head.

After the week was over… it went way too fast!… we all headed to Washington for another five days. (Once again the kids were perfect little angels during the drive…well 90% of the time anyways!) Nathan had training in Spokane so we were able to stay at his parents’ house because they only live a couple of hours away. I'm all blogged out but next up: an update about our adventures in Othello!

Fun with the Fam

While Nathan was away on a business trip the kids and I took off to hang out in in Idaho Falls. We were there almost a week and we had tons of fun! Almost every night Grandpa would take Conner to the gas station to get a pop and a treat. It didn't take Conner long to catch on... he would walk straight to the candy, pick one out, and put it on the counter for Grandpa to get it for him. We made a fire and cooked smores one night. Here is Grandma helping Jayden cook his first mallow.

Conner loves playing in the backyard and would jump on the tramp with anyone that he could convince to join him.

One night we went to the drive-in to watch Cars 2 and Transformers 3. We made a bed in the back of the Tahoe and brought tons of treats. Conner loved it and after eating way too much sugar he passed out about midnight. I was able to go out to eat with a couple of my best friends from High School... I wish we lived closer to each other! I also went up to Rexburg and hung out with Nathan's sister Whitney and her daughter Naomi. Conner was in heaven playing with all of her fun toys!

My cute sister Teresa still lives at home so we were able to do lots of fun stuff together... such as shopping! Jayden thought that Aunt Teresa was pretty funny... here is a video of her making him giggle!

Conner had a blast and still asks everytime we get into the car "Go Grandma's house?" Thanks guys for letting us stay so long and for entertaining us so well!

4th of July!

Since the 4th fell on a weekday this year we decided to stay in town instead of driving up to Idaho Falls because Nathan had to work the next morning. I was bummed that we wouldn’t be spending it with my family but we ended up having a fun weekend anyway! On Saturday we went to check out the 4th of July furniture sales and ended up with new couches… that’s the problem with “looking!” It was time to replace the old ones because Conner wasn’t too gentle with them. So this time around we went with leather … it is much easier to clean up after a leaky sippy cup! On Sunday our neighbors invited us over to celebrate their little boy’s birthday. He is Conner’s age and they are little buddies. They were also nice enough to invite us over for a BBQ on Monday. After we ate some yummy food we headed over to the fireworks together. I was curious to see if the fireworks would scare Jayden but he just stared with a surprised look on his face.Conner watched for a little while and then was more interested in throwing his pop-its and watching what everyone else was doing. Afterwards we lit off a few fireworks at our house and then we finally got the kids to bed... way past their bedtime!

Since we didn’t come up for the 4th my Mom and sisters decided to come to Twin Falls the day after for a visit. We let the kids play in the sprinklers. Well Conner did while Kynzee ran away from the water.

We walked to the park... I think that we had as much fun as the kids did!
Then we reinacted 4th of July with another firework show... the sparklers were a big hit!

We love it every time family comes to visit... Conner especially loves the attention!

Jayden's Newborn Pictures

I'm so excited to finally have Jayden's newborn pictures! Now I can display pictures of BOTH kids around the house ... and they'll know that they are equally loved! These were taken when he was only 10 days old by Nathan's sister Whitney. They turned out so cute... I love that he is smiling in this one... that takes talent to capture that!

It's not easy taking pictures of a naked newborn. Jayden peed and even pooped during the session... but it was so worth it because look how cute the pictures turned out! Thanks Whit we love them!

Circus

A few weeks ago the circus came into town and since Nathan’s boss gave us tickets we decided to take Conner and Jayden. Conner thought that the tigers and elephants were great and he kept asking to see lions too.

Before the show started and also during intermission they had a few activities that you could pay to do. You could ride an elephant, ride a pony, get your picture taken with a bear, or go through a blow up bouncy house. The bouncy house had a big frog on top and Conner could not talk about anything else and wanted to go in SO bad. It was 6 bucks to run through four times… We kept trying to convince him that he would rather ride a pony but he was dead set on the “big frog.” We finally gave in and it was so worth it because he had the biggest grin on his face the entire time.

Jayden was pretty indifferent to the whole experience until the motorcycles came out and he decided that he in fact did NOT like the circus… The motorcycles were really loud and everyone was cheering and it freaked him out so I had to take him out until it was over. Afterwards it of course took forever to get out of the parking lot! We kept having to stop and Conner was more impatient than we were.

Conner: “Go Daddy!”
Nathan: “Conner, I can’t go until the car in front of us moves.”
Conner: “Move car! 123… MOVE! Move now!”

It is a good thing that he won’t be getting his driver’s license anytime soon… I have a feeling he will have a problem with road rage!

Jayden's Blessing Day

We blessed Jayden the last Sunday in June. He looked so cute wearing the same blessing outfit that Conner wore when he was blessed! (I figured that girls want to have their own blessing dress but as boys Conner and Jayden wouldn't mind...)

Nathan gave Jayden a wonderful blessing and I'm so thankful that I have a husband who is a worthy priesthood holder and loves his kids so much.

As great as it was to bless our sweet little boy, the rest of the day wasn't that much fun! (a bit of an understatement!) Shortly after the blessing I started feeling really nauseous... I hadn't had time to eat breakfast and I thought that maybe that was the reason... but then I started having pain in my lower abdomen and in my right kidney (I knew EXACTLY where my kidney was from when I last had kidney stones!) The pain kept getting worse so I finally left sacrament meeting and Nathan took me to the hospital. We were REALLY bummed because we had a bunch of family in town for the blessing and we wouldn't even be able to eat with them! But the pain was SO bad... I would much rather give birth to ten kids then go through that again! I got some much needed drugs and after verifying that I was NOT pregnant (whew!) I had a CAT scan. They found that I had a 5 mm stone in the right ureter tube. They said that there was a 75% chance that it would pass on its own and that if it didn't they would blast it. They gave me the option of either staying in the hospital until it passed or going home with some strong pain killers and nausea medication. We were anxious to get out of the hospital because A) it was FREEZING in there! B) I was STARVING... I hadn't eating anything all day! They wouldn't let me because they were worried that I might need surgery. and C) we were bored out of our minds! When we finally got home everyone except for my Mom had already left... we were sad that we didn't get to see everyone for very long. I thought "Why couldn't this have happened ANY other day!" I didn't get hardly any pictures of Jayden because we were going to take them after church. But I do have to say that we were lucky that it happened AFTER the blessing instead of the night before or the morning of... thank you Heavenly Father! But the stone has since passed and I will have another follow -up appointment with the urologist to find out why in the heck I am getting these kidney stones... this is the second time in 3 months! They also saw on the CAT scan that there were 3 more small stones in my kidney but they said they are small enough that they shouldn't even hurt. The urologist said that I may be a "stone maker" and will continue to have them the rest of my life... NOT cool! He also thought that it’s possible that these stones were pregnancy related... so I may get them every pregnancy?! Either way the news is not too good... for me OR the pocketbook!

On a happier note... isn't this the cutest kid you ever did see?

Sorry your blessing day didn't get to be all about you Jayden! We love you so much!