I'll Follow the Sun

August 12
On Friday the 12th Helen had her third birthday. We went to Peter Pipper Pizza with Nana and Papa and Grandma Lo and Grandpa Gene. Helen had a great time playing and having pizza and cake. I made a pretty cheesy Strawberry Shortcake cake for her, but she really liked it. She got a new doll house from Jeff and I and lots of other nice things. We can't believe she's gotten so old, she's such a joy in our lives and we love her so much!

Yellow Submarine

August 15-21
School continues to go well for the girls this week, they still look forward to going every morning, so I'm a happy mama. Felicity brought home her first week of school work this week and I was very impressed. She's really taking her time and doing an excellent job, again, I must sing my praises for the Early Childhood Center, together we did a great job of preparing Felicity for Kindergarten.

So the obvious highlight of the week was our long awaited family vacation. Late last week my mom called and asked if she could go with us. We had mentioned to my parents several months ago that we were planning to go and they were welcome to join us. My mom decided since my dad had a trip planned later in the year with my brother she would take me up on my offer and go with us. We had a great time and the weather was beautiful.

I worked and the girls went to school on Wednesday, during the day Jeff packed all our things and got us ready to leave Wednesday night. Around 10 PM we packed up my mom's car and headed to Anaheim. I drove the first six hours, and around 4 AM Jeff and I switched and he finished up the trip. We arrived at the IHOP just outside of the Disneyland gates around 7:00 AM. The girls did great and slept the whole drive. We had breakfast and then parked and waited for the shuttle to take us to the park.

The first day at Disney was hot, and seeing as we were tired we were ready to head to the hotel to check in and take a nap in the afternoon. Jeff fell asleep on the It's a Small World ride and I knew it was time for a break! The girls had so much fun on the rides and had a great time! We came back in the evening to enjoy the shows and fireworks. The girls' loved the Fantasmic show and really wanted to stay to see it again, but by then they could hardly keep their eyes open and Jeff looked like the walking dead.

On day two at the Magic Kingdom we really got lucky. We headed toward Adventure land as we had spent most of day one in Fantasy land. We enjoyed the Jungle cruise without any waiting, waited for Pirates of the Caribbean for only five minutes. Next we were able to get right into the Haunted Mansion and both girls were really brave, and by the end were raving about how much fun it had been. We got them some cotton candy which Helen didn't really care for, but Felicity was crazy about it. We rode on the Winnie the Pooh ride and then Felicity surprised us by asking to go on Splash Mountain. Helen and I couldn't go on the ride and Nana wasn't interested in going so Felicity and Daddy waited about 30 minutes to go on it. Helen and Mom and I went and took a break in the Tiki room and met up with Jeff and Felicity later. They had a great time and Felicity loved the ride! Again in the afternoon we went back to the hotel for some rest. We had lunch and swam in the pool and then Jeff and I had a nap, the girls were suppose to nap, but they didn't. We then went to California Adventure and enjoyed the Bugs Life show which was really cute. Jeff, Mom, and Felicity rode the Soarin' over California while a sleeping Helen and I tried to get Jeff a Fast Pass for the roller coaster. He missed it since they close it for their evening show. We watched the World of Colors show and the girls fell asleep. Mom and I did the last of our souvenir shopping at Disneyland while Jeff went to ride Space Mountain. We had a great time!

Saturday Morning we drove to Sea World and unfortunately found out the Helen gets car sick. Mom brought a portable DVD player and about half way through Horton Hears a Who Helen lost her breakfast all over herself and down in the car seat. We had a quick stop at a gas station for a "bath" and then Target for a new outfit. Sea World was SO crowded. I was disappointed that they have taken the focus off of animal exhibits and have a lot more rides and carnival type things. The kids enjoyed themselves for the most part and the highlight of the evening for Helen was getting in a photo booth with Nana...she had everyone around the booth laughing with her antics inside the booth. Felicity had waited all day to ride the big roller coaster. She loved it and Helen was extremely upset that she wasn't big enough to ride. We put Helen's rain coat on her and gave her the umbrella to wait at the bottom of the ride to get splashed.

Probably the most enjoyable part of the trip for the girls was the day at the beach. Neither had been to the beach before and they LOVED it. They went in the water with Daddy, played in the sand and had the best time. We had lunch on the beach and then headed home. We were pretty tired when we got home Sunday night, but it was a great trip. I can't believe I walked so much...my back and feet were pretty sore by the last day.

I learned the following and plan to use my learning's to better plan for next years trip:
1. Felicity loves roller coasters
2. Helen can't watch a movie and drive in the car at the same time
3. While I can keep going and going and going, others can't
4. Felicity loves cotton candy
5. Driving over night means saving a day and avoiding traffic
6. Little kids can only handle so much fun...they need some down time
7. Schedule potty breaks when you can, there's nothing worse than leaving a line you've been in for 30 minutes to go to the bathroom
8. Pack an extra pair of clothes for everyone to take to the park
9. When you take your kids its a trip, when you leave them at home...that's a vacation!

**I posted all the trip photos on Facebook if you're interested!**

You Really Got a Hold on Me

August 8-14
Wow! This week really sneaked up on me. Felicity had her first day of kindergarten on Monday, where did the time go. She was up and dressed well before we got up and was very excited. We all walked to the bus together. She wanted to ride the bus, but we promised we would meet her at the school to help her find her classroom. It was very busy at the primary school and Jan had already taken Felicity to her classroom; so we went in to say goodbye. She was perfectly happy to see us go...I knew she'd do great. Helen had her first day of "preschool" and was equally excited to go. They both had a great time and Felicity had so much fun she fell asleep on the bus on the way home. When she didn't get off the bus right away, Jeff had to get on the bus to get her off.

I'm enjoying the schedule and structure that the school year has brought to our house again. Jeff doesn't start school for another couple of weeks, so he has some time to work on some projects.

Felicity started piano lessons on Wednesday after school. She enjoyed her lesson and was eager to practice after homework each day this week. I'm proud of her enthusiasm for school. She and I and Helen as well talk about what they did, who they played with, and what the best part of their day was. They're growing up fast and I'm hopeful that Arlo and I have done a good enough job of laying the foundations for them to really excel while they are in school.

We're doing well and loving life.

Baby It's You

August 1-7
We had a wonderful week, the last week of summer before the start of the new

school year. I think that Jeff is glad to see summer come to a close I believe
he was beginning to get a little cabin fever. It seemed like this week at work
was a long one. I came down with a bit of a summer cold on Thursday so I stayed
at home and worked remotely; for whatever reason, I seem to be able to get more
done at home. I worked a half day on Friday as we had a lot going on in the
afternoon.

As many now know, Arlo and I are expecting! I’m sorry that we didn’t announce
it earlier, but I didn’t want it to jeopardize the probability that I would be
hired full time. I thought the hiring process would move along more quickly,
but as I know now, it didn’t and we had to keep things on the down low longer
than we would have liked to. It’s one of the only times in my life I’ve been
grateful to be chubby! Jeff told me back in November that he felt strongly that
we would be blessed by having another baby. I must say I was not crazy about
the idea seeing as he’s still in school and my job was still only a temporary
assignment at the time. We decided to pray about it and he again said he felt
that it was time. I felt that it was time to trust his judgment. Things could
not have worked out better. The baby is due on December 27th while both Jeff
and the girls will be off for the Christmas holiday.

I have been feeling well throughout and the only downside so far has been that I
think I donated my maternity clothes reasoning that I would lose weight between
Helen and the next baby, so I haven’t had anything to wear. Lots of skirts with
elastic waistbands and the old rubber band through the button hole trick. I
plan to get some things this weekend when I have some down time.
I thought that because of my birthing history I would have to go to an
obstetrician. I was not happy about this as I had such a poor experience with
the OB I had with Felicity and the wonderful pre-natal experience I had with a
midwife with Helen. I thought it would be worth the chance and called the birth
center to see if they would be willing to accept me as a patient. I was
delighted to hear that they would be happy to take me. It seems, however, that
my desire to have a VBAC after two sections will probably not come to fruition.
The midwife said I can confer with the consulting physician, but that they were
not likely to allow a trial of labor and that quite frankly, the chances were
exceedingly good that this baby would be too large just like the others. She
did reassure me that it had nothing to do with my weight and there was nothing I
could do to mitigate having a large baby, it’s just a genetic complication that
can’t really be helped. I find it quite discouraging, especially since I’m the
type to try to avoid medical intervention if I can. I did, after all, go
through 14 hours of induced labor with a 10 lb 2 oz baby who was upside down
with no pain medication. A natural delivery just doesn’t seem to be in the
cards for me but what I really want is a happy healthy baby.

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday. It was as exciting as it ever is. The
baby is very healthy looking and very wiggly. I just love to see their little
feet and hands. The sonagrapher asked us if we would like to know the gender of
the baby and we were of course interested. It took her about five seconds to
get an underside view of our baby and point out his rather obvious boy parts.
We are just tickled. I had decided the baby was another girl, so we were quite
elated to find that the baby is a healthy little boy. Although I quickly
realized through my elation that we don’t have anything boyish in our house,
only totes and totes of pink and purple and flowers and butterflies! I’m sure
we’ll collect the things we’ll need over the next few months.
Felicity had her meet and greet at school on Friday as well, so Nana took her.
She was excited to meet her new teacher and visit the school. I felt much
better about sending her off to school afterward, I know that there are at least
two members in her class and her teacher is a member of another ward as well.
For whatever reason, that just makes me feel better. We took Helen to the
preschool meet and greet Friday evening and she too is excited to start
“school”. I have no illusions that it is really preschool as Helen is only just
turning three, but I’m glad that she’ll be somewhere that she’ll have structure
and learning activities.

Arlo worked at the estate sale on Saturday and I had a bit of energy and decided
to get the house really clean for the coming week. Jeff’s been doing a great at
home, but the house has really been missing my personal touch. I cleaned the
house from top to bottom and felt great, tired, but great when it was done.
Jeff received a calling to serve as a nine-year old primary teacher with another
brother in the ward on Sunday; he is excited to serve and gave me a full report
on everyone in his class when we got home. Sunday night he gave the girls all
school blessings and they were very excited to get a father’s blessing.
Gabrielle was over for the night and she wanted a blessing too so he gave her
one as well. There has been a lot of love and happiness in our house lately and
I am so grateful for all the wonderful changes happening.