A Reminder From Derek

Take time to smell the roses.

Derek had his 18 month check-up yesterday and it just reminded me that these kids grow up WAY too fast. Before Olivia was born, I felt like he was still a baby and now he is expected to be the big brother. Truthfully, he is still a baby, and a harder one than Olivia. He is in that frustrating stage of knowing what he wants and not being able to tell me. He is in to everything and would much rather open cupboards full of "no-no's" than play with a toy. He is cutting 4 molars and cries more than my other three kids combined. However, I feel compelled to enjoy and eat up all of his moments because I know they will be gone so quickly. I want to remember him as a little boy and not have a void of Derek memories because I was so busy with the baby. I'm not sure how to do it, but I want so badly to live in the moment and enjoy each of my kids.

Mother Nature is cruel

I went to the doctor yesterday for my 6 week check-up and got the official go-ahead for starting to do things again. The thing I was most looking forward to was waterskiing so naturally the weather for the past two days has been unusually cool with thunder, lightning and rain. So this morning I decided to go to the gym (the #2 thing I have missed) and it was closed due to a broken water pipe or something. Bummer.

One Month

Well, we have made it a whole month. We are actually doing really well. . .not too sleep deprived, no major jealousy issues, healthy and happy.
Olivia is a very good baby. In the first two weeks of her life, she slept through the night more often than she didn't. Unfortunately, she also wasn't gaining weight and was still below her birth weight. So when she started waking up to eat in the middle of the night, I felt obligated to indulge her. Luckily she only gets up once and goes right back to sleep.

Olivia had her first boat ride when she was just 8 days old. She was clearly not entertained by the whole experience. She has since been on almost a dozen rides and spends most of the time doing this (and occasionally eats).We had a big boating/BBQ get-together at our park for 4th of July. We ended up with over 50 people ranging in age from 9 days (Olivia) to 80-something (Garth's grandparents). The girls sported 4th of July dresses and this is the only picture I got. Yes, I realize Sydney looks a bit like a street-walker, but doing make-up was one of her favorite activities to do with cousin Kenzie.
We blessed Olivia this month as well. We decided kind of last minute to do it this soon because both my brother's were here for Jordan's wedding open house. Garth did a wonderful job as usual and it was really nice to have my dad and brothers get to participate. Olivia wore a beautiful dress that Grandma Sharon had bought for Sydney when she was born. Again, no good pictures. Garth's mom took this one real quick outside the church. Maybe I'll put her in it again and take some more.

I won the Lottery!

For July book club, we read "Lottery." I thought it was a really good book. Kind of Forest Gump-ish about a "slow" guy who wins the lottery.

The hostess thought it would be fun to buy lottery tickets for everyone to scratch after our discussion. Being a good little mormon girl, I have never played the lottery. I picked a ticket out of the pile of tickets, read carefully, asked the lady next to me for clarification, then scratched away. The instructions said "match 3 like amounts and win that amount." Imagine my surprise when I my scratched ticket looked like this!

I was hesitant and showed the lady next to me again and asked if I did it right. Did I really just win $10,000?! Nope, it was a fake! Of all the people there, I was the perfect one to get the fake. It really had me going for a second!

Riverfront Park

While Kenzie was here, we got to be tourists in our own city. We took her downtown to Riverfront park and had a lovely time.

We went for a run with the Bloomsday runners,

Fed the ducks,

and rode the Looff Carrousel. We also tried to play on the big Red Wagon but the slide was WAY too hot so we went over to the fountain to get a little wet.
We sure miss our McKenzie!!

36 hours of Seattle

While McKenzie was here, we wanted to show her as much as we could of Washington. At my two week post-op appointment, I got the "go ahead" to do some walking, so we took off for a couple of days to Seattle. We were on a real time crunch though because we had to be back for Jordan's wedding open house at my mom's. We took off really early Friday morning and headed straight for the Seattle center. It was an unusually beautiful day in Seattle that day. We saw the Space needle then went on to the Pacific Science Center.

We all loved the butterfly room. They had some of the most beautiful butterflies. They flew all around you and occasionally landed on you!

Next we headed down to Pike Place Market where we got some amazing Rainier cherries, Snowqualmie falls honey, fresh squeezed lemonade and a souvenir shirt. We sat by the water and watched the boats come in for a while until we got too hot and decided to cool down with some indoor shopping. The kids were troopers while we went to the Mariner's store, Nike town, etc.

Sydney and Garth posed for a picture while they waited for Kenzie and I to finish shopping at H&M. I love that store!

We went to dinner at Todai, an all-you-can-eat Japanese Seafood buffet. Carter is a huge sea food fan and loves him some shrimp. He ate so much shrimp, I lost count. I also think they lost money on Garth. He said it was the best sushi he has ever eaten! As you can see, Sydney was a big fan of the dessert bar and loved the chocolate fountain.

Saturday morning we went to the Woodland Park Zoo. Kenzie had never been to a zoo before so I think she really enjoyed herself.

Carter was anxious to see the flamingos but didn't want to hang around long after we found them. They are especially stinky animals.

Garth and I love the monkeys they are so entertaining and never disappoint.

McKenzie lives on a dairy farm in southern Utah. Her dad owns 700 or so head of cattle. So you can imagine her surprise when we got to this part of the zoo that had cows and goats. She said it smelled like home and we made her pose with this fake cow to send to her dad!

Heaven Sent

Of course this girl is. . .

But also this girl.
My 16 year old cousin McKenzie came to stay with me and help me with the kids after I had Olivia. She was such an angel. She drove me around post-surgery, picked up Derek for the 2 weeks I wasn't allowed, and played CONSTANTLY with my older kids while I nursed and slept or whatever. I was so lucky to have her and I am going through some serious withdrawal now that she has left.