Happy Birthday to Robert!!

Around the time of Robert's past 2 birthdays (July 10th) we've been... what's the best way to put this... broke! Robert's always been a super awesome sport about this, and grateful for the little no-money-spent celebrations we've pulled off for him. Then it would seem like we not only would be financially stable by the time my birthday would come around (August 29th) but we would have extra money so Robert would go all out on my special day. (Ex. My Birthday 2009 Post 1 and 2) This year we have been blessed in that several of Robert's professors hired him on for the summer, so we are doing better financially than we have our whole marriage. (Although we call it fake rich because most if not all that we have managed to save will be going to moving expenses. So goes life.) So this year I decided we were going all out for Robert's birthday! His birthday was on a Sunday, so the festivities began Friday evening. I cleaned up the house, wrapped his presents, and had these decorations up for him when he got home from work.

When he got home, I told him that he could open his presents whenever he wanted to that weekend. So of course he chose right away :) This first present is a new battery for his laptop since the old one wouldn't hold a charge anymore. I laugh because this picture is totally staged. He had already opened the new one and put it in the laptop to charge before I remembered to get the camera out, so I had him do a reenactment of when he opened it so I could take a picture. That's not even the new battery in the picture, it's the old one because the new one was already in the lap top. We're so sneaky ;)

Lydia helped Robert open his presents.

A set of ping pong paddles and balls since the ones in the complex rec room are always broken or lost. (This was the one thing he asked for)


An electronic dart board. Robert has had a little too much fun with this since he got it. Let's just say that there is too much a statistics/numbers man can do with a dart board ;)

Before it goes unmentioned he also got a portable DVD player and car power adapter from his parents along with some money for us to go out someplace nice for his birthday dinner and to buy Lydia a couple of new outfits. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

I let Robert know that we'd be going to Tucano's the following night, and then listed our favorite cheaper food places and a bunch of different activities we could do that night. Robert chose J Dawgs and then wanted to go to the church house to play piano and hit baseballs in the cultural hall. He's a simple man with simple pleasures :) Lydia looks puzzled at how much stuff is on Daddy's J Dawg.




On the way home we stopped at Hokulia. It's our favorite shaved ice place in Provo. We have to give credit to our friends, the Clovers, for finding it during their "Quest for the Best" last year. We usually get a small and share it which is plenty and they'll put as many flavors as you want at no extra charge so I choose a flavor and Robert chooses a flavor. It's wonderful. Basically heaven in a thing of shaved ice. Since it was Robert's birthday he wanted a medium. His wish was my command. It's about half gone in this picture, so if you can imagine it was GINORMOUS!!

Saturday we relaxed, played darts, and relaxed some more. You have to rest up before going to Tucano's Brazilian Grill! :) Robert was so excited. What man wouldn't be - it's all you can eat! He was like a little boy on Christmas morning.

Lydia and I love it too. My mouth is starting to water as I think about their grilled pineapple and their buffalo wings. YUM!!

In all the times that we've been to Tucano's we haven't ever really explored what other shops are there at The Riverwoods so we went exploring. They just put in a new place called Provo Beach Resort. We probably would have passed right by it except that we saw a carousel in the window and thought it would be fun for Lydia to go on it. So we went in and loaded $5 on one of the re-loadable cards they use instead of tokens and tickets (very convenient) and used $1 of it for Lydia to ride the carousel. She HATED it. At first she didn't want to hold on to the pole. Maybe she thought she'd fly away or something. Once she finally grabbed on to it, she held on for dear life and wouldn't stop screaming. We'll try again in a year or 2 when she can understand it a little better.


After the carousel we browsed around to see what else this beach resort had to offer. Miniature croquet caught our eye. It was a little overpriced in my opinion ($16 a person) but it was Robert's birthday so it was worth it :) Robert kicked my trash!! Every section had an optional Bonus challenge where you could get anywhere from 5-10 or more bonus points and Robert got almost every one.

My one shining although partially spiteful and evil moment was when I became poison by hitting the poison stick. Once poison, you can hit the other players ball and throw them in the poison pot so that they don't get to finish that section.

I got Robert and straight to the poison pot he went. I'm so evil!

But I can be a cute little croquet player too :)

Robert found his surfboard.

We're a cute couple of croquet masters :)

Lydia enjoyed giving the ball a couple of whacks too :)

After the exciting round of croquet, we still had $4 left on our card so we hit up the arcade games. We played a couple rounds of Hot Shot Basketball, each winning a few tickets, then went to the Wheel of Fortune. We had enough money left to play it twice. You would spin to see how many tickets you would get per letter you guessed and then if you were able to solve the puzzle you got an extra 5 tickets. Our first game we spun a 5 and solved the puzzle making our total ticket win including the Hot Shot tickets about 50 tickets, which we thought with how few games we played was pretty impressive. Then it was my turn to spin for our last game. As you can see in the picture there are 4 little silver slivers on the wheel that are sandwiched by "1" slots. 2 of the silver slots are 20 points, 1 is 50 points, and 1 is 200 points. Lo and behold, I spun the 200 point slot! We then guessed 5 letters and solved the puzzle, winning more than 1000 tickets in our last game! It was AWESOME!!! This is us holding our prize loot - A squeaky duck puppet for Lydia which she loves, a blow up super bat, 6 giant foam dice, a dart ball, and a bunch of candy. We were pretty pleased with ourselves. Lydia was about to fall asleep at this point if you can't tell :)

The next morning was Robert's actual birthday. As is tradition in his family, he received breakfast in bed. One of Robert's favorite breakfasts is One-Eyed Jacks (Toast with eggs cooked into the middle of them) topped with Spam.

Robert has this unexplainable love of Spam. I think it's absolutely disgusting. You know your wife loves you if she's willing to prepare Spam for you just because it's your favorite ;)

After a full day of church meetings we had Robert's birthday dinner. Crockpot Chicken Cordon Bleu, mashed potatoes, and salad.

Then it was time for cake and to sing and blow out candles. Lydia was thoroughly mesmerized by all the fire. We were one candle short, note the reason why there are only 23 in the picture. If you watch the video (to be posted later) closely you can see that I sneakily light a match and stick it in the cake just in time for him to blow it out. We made it work :)




Happy 24th Birthday Robert!!! I hope you enjoyed your special weekend. Thank you for everything you do for us!!

4th of July Celebrations

As is common in the Provo area, the city celebrations went on all weekend long. We didn't participate in as many this year as we had planned (Freedom Festival on Center Street, watching the hot air balloons take off), but we still had a marvelous weekend.

It started off Saturday night with watching the Stadium of Fire fireworks show. We parked on top of a parking garage in our old neighborhood and watched them from the back of our Blazer. Lydia had a blast being able to crawl around in the back of the car. It was like a whole new world for her that she never knew existed.


This young man got more anxious for the fireworks to start then I think anyone else that was there on the garage. I found myself saying the same things that I could overhear people saying to their 5-year-olds. "It'll just be a few more minutes. You just need to be a little more patient." Etc.


Monday morning, the actual 4th, we walked down the street and watched the parade. I felt like there weren't quite as many floats this year, but the ones that they had were great.




Cute Daddy and Lydia. She was a little more into the parade this year than last year.

And our traditional red, white, and blue pancakes. Usually I do the colors separate, but this year I decided to attempt to swirl them. I think they turned out great, except next year I'll use less blue dough cuz that sort of overpowered the others, and I'll make the red dough darker cuz it turned out too pink :)


Lydia loves pancakes.

And so does Daddy.

This pic is to show off Lydia's shirt. I got it at Kohl's for cheap. It says "Red, White, and Cute" which I think is rather fitting ;)

That evening we went up to Katie and Mike's for grilled homemade pizzas, swimming, and fireworks. It was a blast. Here's Mommy and Lydia watching the fireworks. I would have cropped it down to make it a little more centered, but I love Katie's face in the background ;)

This was the finale of our homemade show. Not too spectacular, but it was hilarious watching Mike almost catch himself on fire when he and Robert were trying to get all 3 lit at the same time.

After our homemade show we watched all of the firework shows that were happening across the Salt Lake Valley. Mike and Katie's apartment is up higher on a hill so we just picked a patch of grass and had a view of all the professional shows but also some pretty spectacular at home shows people were doing. They legalized the purchase of aerial fireworks here this year, so some of the home made shows were pretty great.

So that was our 4th. It will be fun to start new traditions in Santa Cruz next year, or with Robert's school schedule it might work out that we'll celebrate the 4th with our family in Mesa. We'll see.

I am so thankful for this country and the freedoms that I am blessed with because I am a part of it. I am forever indebted to all those who have fought and continue to fight to give us all the freedoms we take for granted so often. God Bless the USA!!!

My Life Is But A Weaving

My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride,
Forget that He seeth the upper,
And I the under side.

Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

-Anonymous
(In Sourcebook of Poetry, comp. Al Bryant, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1968, p. 664.)

I just came across this poem and it really touched me. I felt I needed to share it.

Camping at Strawberry Reservoir

Last week some friends invited us to go camping. It was perfect timing because I had been thinking that it was high time we attempted camping with a kid. We only went one of the 2 nights that the rest of the group went because I had no idea how Lydia would respond. It was WONDERFUL!! The weather was great, the surroundings were gorgeous, the company was pleasant, and Lydia did AMAZING!!! I could not have been happier with her mood through the whole trip. Here's some pictures of our adventures.

The late snows and all the spring rain might be ruining all the farming crop here this year, but it has made everything greener than I've ever seen it. These pictures are from our drive up the canyon to the camp



Our camping buddies, Ashley & Ben Campbell and Kaci & Aaron Cardon. As we pulled in they were gutting and cleaning their morning haul. They caught 11 fish in just a few hours that morning WITHOUT BAIT!! We were trolling/troll fishing (whatever is the grammatically correct way to say that) with lead lines and only a lure and a hook. Ashley's dad is a master at it and had told Ben all of his tricks and pointers.



Lydia after 5 minutes at the campsite with dirt and ash already all over her face. Getting dirty is part of the experience right? :)

She actually ended up spending most of the time either in the stroller or the play pen to avoid further messiness. I thought that that would never work because she likes to be free to roam wherever she pleases, but she was as happy as a clam just watching us do whatever we were doing. Just being outside and near us she must have felt like she was enough a part of what was going on.

On the fishing boat out on the Reservoir. We didn't have a life jacket small enough for Lydia so we resourcefully strapped her to the outside of a bigger one. I actually felt like she was more secure in it that way than wearing one the normal way.


Lydia obviously found the rocking of the boat and the sound or the water very soothing because she fell right asleep and took a good nap for the first hour and a half we were out.

Aaron and Ben thought it would be cool to torpedo behind the boat for a little bit. The water was ICE COLD! They both tried it once and then were too cold to want to try again.


I caught a fish!!! I was skeptical about the whole trolling thing, but my line was out for only a minute if that before I hooked this beauty! I was so pleased :) We didn't have quite as much success as the group had had that morning. Who knows why - time of day, choppier waters, Robert's stench scaring away the fish ;), etc. But both Robert and I successfully caught one and had a great time.

Kaci and Aaron entertained Lydia while Robert and I took our turn fishing.

Look what cute master Anglers we are ;)

Lydia helped drive us back into the dock :)

How Lydia would do sleeping through the night in a tent was what I was most concerned about. Needless to say I was very pleasantly surprised. She fell asleep when she was sitting with me around the campfire while we ate S'mores, monkey bread, and visited and she stayed asleep til we were ready to go to bed and just brought her in with us. It still gets chilly at night, especially in the mountains so we had her sleep between us so that we were sure she'd stay warm enough. The next thing we knew it was morning and she was waking us up with a pat in the face and a happy "Hi!" just being as cute as can be.



Our campsite the next morning. BEAUTIFUL!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE ASPEN TREES!!!!

I owe a lot of the successful-ness of the trip to this man of mine. He loaded and unloaded, set up and took down, and did everything he could to make sure that I wouldn't over work my pregnant self and could have an enjoyable time. :) He's pretty much the bomb.

We probably won't be doing another camping trip until Mary's a few months old or so, but with how well this one went, and how many great camping spots there are around the Santa Cruz area, I'm hoping next year and the years after will be filled with them!

28 weeks - Start of 3rd Trimester

I feel like I've been seriously lacking in the "updating on my pregnancy" department. Hopefully Mary won't get jealous of how many more pregnancy posts there were for Lydia. Anyway, this post is almost 3 and a half weeks late, and I hope to take another pic this Wednesday and do a 32 week update, so this will be short and sweet.

Baby Bump Pic:

Weight: 191lbs (+21 to my pre-pregnancy weight of 170lbs (No fun that my pre-pregnancy weight worked out timing wise that it was also my post-holiday weight. Boo! I had been doing so much better weight wise)) I made a goal at the beginning of this pregnancy to stay under 200 lbs. My thought process was that I could have easily done that with Lydia had I stayed a little more active and not gone on my Salt and Vinegar chip binge right at the end that made me gain so much in the last month. My pre-pregnancy weight with her was 184. That's 14 more than it was with Mary, but my end of 1st trimester weight was the same for both - 162 lbs. I topped out at 212 lbs with Lydia (15 of those pounds were gained in the last 6 weeks). However, this pregnancy even with me doing my best to eat healthier, stay more active, give in to unhealthy cravings only when it is making me nauseous not to and even then only eating them in strict moderation my weight just keeps creeping up there. Obviously I'm not going to do some crazy diet or weight loss program while I am pregnant cause that's not safe for me or Mary. Instead I just shrug and say "Oh well." Honestly, I still feel like I look a lot better at this point than I did with Lydia, so don't worry that I am getting down on myself about this at all. I'll just keep trying to be healthy and active, and then after Mary comes I'll worry about losing the weight, whatever it ends up being, in the most efficient nursing-friendly way possible :)

Cravings: Nothing huge. There was one night that Robert went at 11:30pm to get me a Sonic breakfast burrito. Other than that it's more of moods I get into, like "I want something (sweet/salty/fruity/spicy/fill-in-the-blank) right now." which is nice because then I can make healthier choices to satisfy the craving.

I guess that's enough of an update for now since I'll be doing another one so soon. More details in a week about how we are doing at 32 weeks! :)

Lydia's New Face

This is Lydia's new face. We think she might do it simply to make us laugh or to watch us do it in return. She does it all the time but never on command unless she is already in a spurt of doing it. I was very lucky to get a picture of it. We think it's hilarious :)


P.S. As of today I'm officially in my 3rd trimester!!! Mary will be here before we know it, along with all of our other exciting life changes. It'll be a fun 3 months!