May 2014

 May is Camille's birthday month and this was the birthday book she choose to donate to her school library.  It remains one of our favorites. 

Cecil is quite the active little guy and has learned to sleep when he can, where he can.  He practically lives in the car seat on someday's.  Makes me feel sad, but I think it makes him more easy going. He has found his thumb a few times and I absolutely love it, although I won't let this take the place of his paci.

Here is Jillian's butterfly that will be displayed all of next school year. She was pretty excited about it. 

Here is Coco looking fly.  He has gotten use to being dragged around to the girls stuff too. Poor guy gets pretty upset when we pull up to the soccer fields or the gym, but as long as I have a stash of snacks he does alright. 

Mother's Day this year was super laid back.  We had church and Jeff made dinner. Perfect day. 

Our chicks entered their adolescenes.  They are looking a little dinasourish. 

Swim season started and Jillian has been working on her dives. 

Coco has been carrying around a doll carrier and taking it everywhere.  I guess we need more boy toys around the house. 

This May marks our 10 year wedding anniversary.  We'd like to go on a trip but with me still nursing Cecil it's been postponed.  Jeff has been my very best friend and this picture really says a lot to me.  It was taken while I was in labor with Cecil. He just looks like he'd take all the pain away if he could and so much more.  I love him. 

Camille turned 6.  She is such a sweet sweet girl. She's still as sensitive as she was the day she was born.  She has worked hard to correct her speech.  She's always had a little lisp and would say her "r"'s like "ah" (instead of "car" she'd say "caah").  It actually sounded so cute and she'd get multiple comments on it everyday but she'd also get teased at school and sometimes by adults.  She tries very hard to please everyone and is a bit of a class clown.  She mostly always has a great attitude and is very optimistic.  Her love of animals has continued to grow and now is very selective of when she'll eat meat.  She's always willing to help out and really loves to hold the baby. 

I see so many of my own attributes and my physical features in her.  It's a really surreal and special feeling when I study her.  

We are so proud and feel very blessed to have this little one in our family.      

I've been a little overwhelmed with the four so I copped out and did a party at Chuck E. Cheeses.  I never thought I would, but it was surprisingly great!  All the kids had a wonderful time.  I was able to visit with parents.  And my house didn't have to be cleaned before and then cleaned after.  It was wonderful. 

We did the traditional balloon launch right outside. 

Cecil has rolled over a few times now.  Problem is that he gets stuck like this.  He doesn't seem to mind.

I love to see new places and enjoy where I live.  I heard about Bull Creek and we decided to go check it out.  It's pretty close to us and right off the road.  We loved it.  It's a natural spring fed creek.  There are a lot of kid friendly spots as well as some deeper areas to swim.  It has a hiking trail that runs along side it. 

While there is started dumping rain on us.  We all had a fun time playing in the rain.  It didn't last long, so we continued our exploration. 

We will definitely be back. 

Jillian has been taking piano for two months now and had her first recital.  Jillian did a wonderful job and didn't mess up once. 

The end of the school year brings on awards.  Both girls got the Citizenship award and we're thrilled. 

The last day of school is such a wonderful day for me.  I love having the girls with me all day and I love not having to wake-up early and get lunches ready.  That being said I am so grateful these two have the opportunity to go to a good school and that they have each other. 

Soccer ended too.  Jillian was with Coach Lee and Coach Andy again. Camille lucked out and got a great coach too. 

May 2013

The girls came home from their respective school's one day with a animal hat. Camille was a butterfly and Jill a frog. It made for a really fun afternoon with these two.

Jeff's sales have been improving each month. Last month they broke a company record so Jeff took them all out on a rented boat. The kids and I met up with them for a ride and cook-out. We went to a really pretty little place called Emma Long Park. The girls even braved the water after the boat ride.

Jillian had a Mother's Day music show with all the other kinder classes. It was fun to see her up on the stage singing.

Camille had her Kinder Buddy Day and was lucky enough to be assigned to Jillian's class. We love Mrs. Estes and CRE.

Coco is finally getting more comfortable with walking. He still will do his Jungle Book walk often but he's getting much better.

My ward does such an amazing job on Mother's Day. They cover all the classes and feed all the women lunch during third hour. Look at this spread and the chocolate fountain. We didn't even have a lesson either, it was basically social hour. It was awesome.

Mother's Day is easily in my top 3 for holiday's. I'm just so proud to be a mother. I feel like it's made me a better person and brought me closer to Jeff and closer to Heavenly Father.

After church we ventured out to a near-by park and had fun exploring. It was a perfect day.

Well, I've been wanting to get pregnant for about 5-6 months and it finally worked! With us trying, and with the home tests being so good now-a-days, I knew I was pregnant at 3 wks along. It's going to be a long pregnancy but we are so happy about it.  

Camille turned 5 this month! She is such a sweet, tender soul. She had her friends come celebrate in fairy fashion.

Balloon launch.

Painting butterfly and fairy sun catchers.

Fairy pinata

I feel a special connection with Camille. I think she's most like me in looks and personality. Sometimes I just love to watch her interact with others because I feel like I'm watching myself. It's crazy.

I'm so lucky to have her in my life.

Camille graduated from preschool.  It was a fun ceremony with laughter and singing. We had a great year with Laughing Hearts preschool. 

Camille has a hypersensitivity to mosquito bites. She got bite the night before right by her eye. By morning it was swollen shut. Camille was devastated. We ran to the drug store and got an eye patch. We bought some duct tape and glitter glue to make it a little cuter. She was still really nervous until the first little boy that saw her said, "Cool eye-patch. You look like a pirate princess".  I'm so thankful for the sweet kids in her class.

The weekend before Jillian's last day and the day of our move-out was my first triathlon. I convinced Nettie to do it with me. I felt like I was in pretty good shape and the distances were short so I wasn't too worried. The problem came on Friday. I started throwing-up. It lasted all day and through the night. I wasn't sure if it was pregnancy or a bug. With the Peterson's coming to stay with us on Saturday I knew I had to tell them. We hadn't told anyone about the new baby but had to warn them. They decided to still stay with us and we were all hoping that it was the pregnancy.  

On Saturday we took them the the Twin Lakes YMCA to explore and play.  I was feeling a little bit better and hadn't thrown up. I also hadn't eaten though. I knew the tri wouldn't be easy at this point.

On Sunday after church, Nettie and I had to got pick up our packets downtown. We took the whole family with us and tried to get a feel for the course.  As luck would have it Jillian puked in the car on the way home. Once we made it home we found out that Elsie also puked on the way home. It was AWFUL!! Nettie and Jeff had many different thoughts of just leaving, or staying.  They ended up staying. No one else puked all weekend, but I think it's fair to say we were all a little queasy.

We rented wet-suits and Nettie was smart enough to rent a road bike.

The hype of the race was contagious. I really love environments like this even though we weren't feeling 100%. I felt weak from two days of no food and Nettie was feeling sick. It wasn't a good combo before a big race with nerves going too.

As we were jumping off the dock into the water to prepare for the start I lost all my competitive drive. Nettie went ahead and waited until everyone else jumped in. I was literally one of the last to jump in. (In retrospect I wish I had stayed by Nettie. I think I would have been more motivated to do better in the swim.) Anyway, I was in the very back of the pack when the race started. Right off the bat two or three ladies next to me started panicking and shouting for a kayak. One was carted out of the water right in front of me. Another one of the screaming ladies didnt' get a kayak right away. I reached out and grabbed her arm to help buoy her up. I shouted for a kayak for her but the one closest to us was already helping another swimmer. We had to wait for a kayak from the middle of the course to paddle over and help, all the while the race was going and I was helping her bob along. Finally she got rescued and I could start my swim (I hadn't even passed the start marker yet!) I was feeling pretty good after the first turn but my wet suit was a little too tight on my neck. I decided to unzip the neck part. Bad idea. I was on my back to unzip it and it instantly blew up like a balloon.  I tried to tuck in the flaps and push the water out. It didn't work. Then I decided to zip it back up. It wasn't the easiest thing to find the zipper behind me and pull it up while treading water. I finally got it up and was on my way again.  By the time I was almost to the last turn the male heat started. When I made my last turn they were on top of me. Literally. I had a least on of the fast male swimmers swim over the top of me and several passing me on the sides.  It was comical. 

Next was the bike. I had my mountain bike to ride on a road bike course. The route was really pretty and took us around the capital building.  I thought the bike would be the easiest leg. It was, by far, the hardest for me. I don't really know the proper gears for up and down all the hills. Also, there were many older, less in shape, women passing me that were on road bikes. I didn't know what a huge difference having a road bike would be. Nettie said having a road bike was amazing. Next time I'll defiantly be renting one. 

During transition from bike to run I saw Jeff and the kids.  It was really uplifting, but after the killer bike I was about done. Jeff said that I didn't look like I was having fun when they saw me. I was asking myself, "why am I doing this again?"  After the first mile of the run I finally found my stride and starting feeling really good. I picked up the pace and was having a good time. I felt as though I could almost sprint the last mile. Right as I was about it hit the last mile I caught up to Nettie. It was a good boost of moral to meet up with each other for both of us. Right as we were about to finish we saw the boys and all the kids. It was really fun to finish together. I'm so happy she did it with me. We talked of making this a tradition, minus the 6 wk pregnancy and stomach bug.   

Here's our times. Not that I'm particularly impressed but with all the special circumstances, I'm happy I did it and survived.

Open water 800 meter swim, transition, 10k bike, transition, 5k run, total time

Jillian had a fun field day on the last day of school and we were all so excited for summer time.

That same day we moved out of our beloved Quail Run home. That was the home I brought sweet Coco home to. We have made so many good memories and made such great friends in the ward and school and neighborhood. It was a sad thing. We will only be about 4 miles away, but it's a new ward and a new school. I really really loved that backyard. Our new home is nice and we have been welcomed by nice new neighbors. Hopefully in the coming years we can make it to some land and set down some firm roots.