Dutch oven night

We were invited to a dutch oven cook-off last weekend with some cousins and friends. This was our first year, but they have been doing it for a few years now and it was quite the competition. We each had to bring a main dish, side dish or dessert and it had to be cooked and ready to eat within a certain amount of time. Then we judged all the dishes and each category had a winner. We love to dutch oven so we weren't overly worried about our dish, but we were not prepared for some of the things others brought. The winner was a pork loin with this yummy sauce on it and the runner up was a stuffed beef tenderloin. We made enchiladas and I think we came in third. Regardless - we had a great time and the food was outstanding! We are already thinking of our dish for next year.
Rease had no problem keeping herself busy while we cooked. She found this little wagon and filled it up with whatever she could find...

Shoes first.

Then grass.

That's quite a load.

This ball also kept her entertained - even though it's almost as big as she is.

Let me take a minute and tell you about this hair of hers. Yes it's straggly and makes her look homeless when her clip comes out or when she takes it out herself - which is usually within 5 minutes of me putting it in. So I'm torn. Her hair is at that awful in-between stage where it's not short enough to stay out of her eyes but not long enough to tuck behind her ear. I'm not sure that I want to cut it and make bangs because I would rather it all grow out and be one length. But I don't know how long I can handle this look...

The boys had a quick but tough game of soccer while we waited for dessert to finish cooking. I wish I had an after picture because Josh was seriously beat - sweat running down his face and breathing harder than I've seen in a long time. Now this wasn't a long game - maybe like 10 or 15 minutes, but it sure took it out of these guys. I can't decide if it's because they were playing hard or if they are all just out of shape and old. Hmmmm...

Relaxing after stuffing ourselves with dessert and everything else.

We had a great night with everyone and can't wait until next year! And yes, we just came straight from the BYU game (which they won 44-0 against Wyoming) and that's why we have our BYU blue on. Go Cougs!

Update on the babe

I don't have any pictures today but I do have just a quick update on our little one. I went to my 15 week appointment this week at Dr. Smith's (love our doctor by the way) and everything looks great. I was actually 14 weeks and 2 days when I saw him and he measured me and said I am measuring just over 15 weeks - which is great and just means that Josh and I have big kids (remember Rease was 8 lbs. 2 oz. - 2 weeks early.) Heartbeat is 145 and Dr. Smith says it sounds nice and strong. Yeah for healthy babies!

As for the sex of the baby - we find out in a month, but I am fairly sure it is a boy. I don't know why, because with Rease I really had no idea. But this one I'm thinking boy. We'll see. Anyway, all is well and I am still feeling good. Next time I'll have a picture of the little guy (or girl) since my ultrasound is coming up. We'll see if I'm right.

Fun at the cabin

I forgot to post these pics from the cabin a few weeks ago. Chad, Britt and Nolan left for Italy for 3 weeks and as soon as they get home, they are heading to Dallas for work. We had one last weekend together before they left.

Rease and Nolan found the piano and played a duet - it was lovely!

They didn't want grandma and grandpa to sleep in too long, so they dragged their books in and read them stories in bed.

They spent a lot of time down at the park and loved swinging, playing in the sand and sliding on the slide. Such good friends and cousins!

Moving in for the kiss...

Who's child is this anyway? Messy hair, clothes too big, no shoes - she looks like a ragamuffin!

Later, Rease helped plant some moss in the yard with grandma and grandpa - such a good helper!

15 months

New stats from Dr. Erickson on our girl...

Weight - 25.79 pounds-87%

Height - 32.05 inches-91%

Head - 19.4 inches-99+%

Yes, she is a big girl but oh how we love her. Dr. Erickson said she is about the height and weight of a 2 year old. We go back in next month for another VCUG which is to check her kidney reflux again. Hopefully she grew out of it, but this is our yearly check. If it doesn't look like it's gone then we will keep her on her antibiotics for another year and check again. Worst case scenario - surgery to repair it. I'm not too worried about the surgery thing because she was only a level II and usually they repair themselves. So it's back up to Primary Children's we go. Rease saw a lot of that place in her early months but hasn't been there for a while now. We'll see how it all checks out. As for now, she is a normal, healthy 15 month old and so so fun to have around - we love this age!

Flower girl

I woke Rease up from her nap this afternoon and she wasn't the happiest camper (she takes after her dad and hates it when someone wakes her up - cranky!)

But I thought this was so cute - a perfect imprint of the flower on her quilt. I guess she was sleeping sound enough to stay in one place long enough to get a mark.

Hawaiian hottie

Since we don't have a camera still, I have to rely on other people to get pictures of us. I just found these pictures on my mom's camera from the day we got home from Hawaii. We got Rease a hula skirt and a coconut purse. She is such a girly girl - she carried her purse around all day.

I love her chubby belly - she is losing her baby fat other places, but the belly stays.

A few things we've been up to...

Rease loves Grandpa and Grandma. She gets to spend every Wednesday with Grandma while I work, so she knows her way around their house.

As soon as we walk in the door, she heads down the hall to Grandpa's office where she usually finds him at the computer. She's even picked up some computer skills of her own. I've finally figured out how to get Rease to hold still long enough to do pigtails. I set her on my bathroom counter with her feet in the sink, turn the water on so she can get her feet wet and hand her the toothbrush - so many things to distract her enough that I can do what I want with her hair.
Her newest trick is the fishface. She can do it on demand but has to be in the right mood for it. It is my favorite and we give fish kisses to each other all day long!
You might not be able to tell, but Rease has makeup on. She watches when grandma puts her makeup on and then grandma always shares with her. She feels so special and beautiful! The lipstick gets a little out of the lines because Rease thinks she has to try and lick it while putting it on - she'll learn someday.

Island Adventures

There is one thing I need to remind everyone about before I start the story about our trip to Hawaii: I am pregnant - Don't judge me for things that I did that, under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't have done. I have a good excuse.
Okay, here we go.
We left for Kauai on August 30 and because of the kindness of a friend, we were able to get there on buddy passes, therefore costing us very little. The flight over was great and we got there with a few hours of daylight to spare. We were staying on the north shore of Kauai in a town called Hanalei. We had decided earlier not to rent a car and instead took the bus for the hour long trip north. Other than getting a little carsick and making a lot of stops on the very roundabout way to get there, the bus was great and we only had a short walk to the Hanalei Inn that we stayed at. This is the view on our 10 minute walk to and from town - beautiful! We got so we didn't mind the walk since everything was so green and there was lots to look at.

Josh said that Kauai is one of the places on earth that gets the most rain. The mountains are covered with waterfalls almost everywhere you look. It was breathtaking. (Notice the storm clouds. It rained a couple of times during our stay, but most of the rain stayed in the mountains.)
Hanalei is right on a bay that Josh took his morning runs on. We walked there a couple of times just to relax and take in the scenery.
One night, the sun was setting right in front of us and couldn't help snapping a couple of pictures.
Just a sidenote: Later on in the trip I asked one of the locals about how often they see sharks around the islands. He told us that a few weeks ago there was a hammerhead in this bay and they closed the bay for a few days. Scary!!
Just goofing off - we found out that we could take some fun pictures with just our silhouettes.

We took a lot of walks on the beach, mostly because we didn't have a car and our friends were still a couple of days away from meeting us. We shopped, ate at all the local spots, relaxed and just enjoyed the great weather!

We met up with our friends, Sam and Misha and some of their family a couple of days later and they took us to the great places they knew about. This was one of my favorites. It was a little place just down from their condo where we snorkeled and swam with Sea Turtles!! Seriously, it was amazing. And the best part is that no one else was around and they happened to just find the place one day on a walk. I was a little nervous about actually touching the turtles but once we got into it, it was so relaxing to watch them and swim with them. So fun!We loved these huge leaves on the trees. We were also taking a break from the sun - we got a little sunburned this day and didn't want to overdo it.
Josh adventuring into the forest of big leaves.

You can see the people behind us snorkeling. Amazing.

A fun waterfall on the hike down. We stopped at a farmers market the next morning and got some fresh fruit and other things. You would not believe how big the mangos were! All the fruit was so so delicious!
Us girls.
Josh and I aren't scuba certified but most of the rest of the group was. Here they are heading off on a dive at a place called the Tunnels. Josh and I were happy to stay and snorkel - there were millions of different fish just right there.



Misha in her scuba gear.

Sam gave Josh and quick scuba lesson later and they went off on another dive. Josh loved it and assured me that he is getting certified as soon as possible after we got home.


This is one of our favorite treats we got while in Hawaii. It's shave ice but not only that - it has ice cream on the bottom and sweetened condensed milk on top. Talk about sugar overload! We loved it and had our fair share! Our favorite kind was mango/passionfruit - delicious.

We also liked this place - Shaka Tacos. Good food and live music.

Onto the second part of our trip.
The main reason we came to Kauai was for a 4 day kayaking trip along the Na Pali coastline. The trip was planned before I got pregnant but still I figured I would be able to do it. We all had tandem kayaks and I knew Josh would be able to help out when I couldn't. I wasn't worried at all.

This is one of the new fruits we tried in Hawaii called Starfruit. It was actually really good and we bought a bunch of them from the farmers market. There were 18 people in our group so all 9 of the kayaks were lined up, packed and ready to go. We left early and had about a 8 mile trip that day.
Notice again the storm clouds behind us. Luckily the storm was north of us and we had great weather on the ocean.
So a few stories about our kayaking part of the trip.

First of all - notice that we have no pictures of us actually on the water or any of the 4 days we were gone. That's because we crashed and burned the first time tried to beach our kayak and the camera (yes our nice, expensive camera) including our video camera got wet and no longer work. So for the rest of the trip along the gorgeous Na Pali coast, we have no proof that we were actually there. That's pregnant bad attitude situation #1 (yes, there are more.)

Second - I didn't even think of this for some reason, even though I get very motion sick in the car, at amusement parks, etc - I should have thought about seasickness. But I didn't until we were actually too far from the shore to go back, and by then it was too late. I had about 5 "episodes," as we called them, along the 8 mile trip. The first episode came on very suddenly and before I knew it, my breakfast was gone along with anything else that happened to be in my stomach. I thought to myself afterward - Okay everything's out of me, I can't throw up anymore. But I found out that it is possible to throw up even if there is nothing in your stomach. Poor Josh was in the back and had to watch every time I leaned over the side and hunched over time after time. Like I said - 5 episodes. Pregnant bad attitude situation #2.

Third - Kayaks are not the easiest things to keep steady. Especially with us being very new to the sport and also with all the throwing up, I'm afraid I was rocking the boat. We tipped over in the middle of the ocean about 4 times. Let me just say that out of the nine kayaks in our group, only one other kayak tipped over and they only did it one time. So we were the idiots of the group and for some reason could not keep ourselves steady. Plus to try and get back in without tipping ourselves over again - now that was a trick. Pregnant bad attitude situation #3.

Fourth - I don't know why I don't remember my first pregnancy very well, but I was reminded quickly on this trip what kind of person I become when pregnant. I don't think I helped much with the rowing and since Josh was in the backseat, he had control of the rudder. You would think I had control with all the bossing I was doing - "Go more to the right" "Let's go left" "We're too far from our group" - that kind of thing. I could tell Josh was more than frustrated but my pregnant self continued to take control and I couldn't help being more and more bossy. Another thing, I forget how tired I get and being on a kayak for 4 hours didn't cure that. With only about a mile to go to our camping spot, I started to cry and told Josh that I did not want to do this anymore. I told him that as soon as we got to shore, we were somehow getting back to where we started and ending this horrible part of our trip. Josh, being the ever patient and loving husband, said that he would do as much as possible to get us back. Pregnant bad attitude situation #4.

We landed on the beach (luckily with no tipping over this time) and I immediately started to pack up for the way back. Let me say this - the only way to get to this part of the island is by kayak, boat or hiking. There are no roads and not many people are around. But in my stubborn little head I knew we would be able to find a boat to take us back. Everyone else was busily setting up camp but I wouldn't have it. I was not sleeping here that was for sure. Well, it ended up that even with all my great excuses for having a bad attitude and wanting to go home, there was no boat that was going back and we ended up having to stay the night - and then another night. Meanwhile there was lots to see on this part of the island and lots of cool hikes. Everyone really enjoyed it while I continued with my bad attitude and stayed in camp most of the time reading. Josh will have to fill you in on all the fun things they did, but he did tell me that they went to a beautiful beach called Hanapoo and on a great hike and found tons of fresh fruit. He had a blast! There was a great waterfall that was close to camp that we were able to get drinking water and also take a semi-shower. It really did feel great to get cleaned up.
This is one of the few pictures we have from the beach we camped at. Isn't it beautiful?

On the third day, the rest of the group continued on south kayaking and Josh and I and two girls from the group found a ride back. I can't say how relieved I was that I did not have to get back in the kayak and that I could actually sleep in a bed again. Once again, the pregnancy controlled me and I was finally happy to get my way.
I have to think that under normal circumstances, I would have loved the trip. I love camping and the outdoors normally. I am keeping up hope that one day we will go back (when I am not pregnant) and we will have a great time!


So since we came back a day earlier than we had planned, we had to quickly come up with a place to stay our last night on the island. I called our good friend Gayle who magically came up with a great room and the Marriott and we had a fabulous day at the hotel! We bought a disposable camera so we could remember how beautiful the hotel was.

Josh with a cool bird.



I know this is a dorky picture - but this shows how happy I was to be here. I could have stayed at the hotel for days!! There was lots of shopping...


And the pool was awesome! They said it is the biggest pool on the island. It was a nice change from the salt water we were used to.
Our group out to dinner the nightbefore we left.

It was a very memorable trip! I did love it even though there were times I wished I was home again. We'll go back though and this time we'll take better care of our camera, so we can actually have some pictures. Thanks Josh for being patient with me!

Rease was in good hands while we were gone and we were so glad to see her once we got home!