Baby Update...

For those of you who are wondering, here's a quick baby update...

Things are going...well, big! This baby is already well on his way to 8+ pounds, and I've got 5 weeks left. He's currently breech, which is always exciting, and I just about failed my blood-glucose test so I'm off simple sugars for the time being. Anything to stop this boy from getting bigger! I'm well into that totally-uncomfortable-almost-always-in-some-sort-of-pain-somewhere stage, but I keep reminding myself that it's much hotter in Texas, I found a great doctor and hospital, and I look a lot better this pregnancy than the last. I'm liking Mike's new work schedule which is getting us to bed earlier, but I didn't realize how lucky I was to have him around all day to help out. Just this morning Katelyn spilled a gallon of milk, dumped a box of cereal on the floor, and dropped Mike's wedding ring down the central vac shoot...She wears me out! What would I do without Grandma and Uncle Kyron around?

Things are good though...with any luck he'll have an August birthday instead of a September one, and he'll flip himself around so I won't have to worry about the recuperation from a c-section! :)

Sorry, no profile picture to post...I'm home alone with my sleeping Katelyn and I don't have a new one. I'll have to put that on my list!

Happy Birthday Katelyn and Mike!

She's TWO!

July 27th was a BIG day this year. It was Katelyn's birthday, Katelyn and Mike's birthday party (at least the first one), and Mike started his new job! Whew! What a day!

First things first...

Mike started his work at L-3 on Monday, the 27th. He liked his first day (yeah!) and already feels like they appreciate their employees more than Schlumberger. He'll be working 9 hour days, (plus some overtime) which is going to take some adjusting after being off of work for 3 months, but he gets every other Friday off, and he's really excited about the project he's been assigned to. He feels like the people there are really approachable and helpful and good team members, and it's still crazy for him to hear some of his colleagues talk about ward PEC meetings and church activities. We think that this is going to be a great fit. Thank you to everyone who had us in their prayers and on their networking lists. We feel really, really blessed!

When he got home, we had a steak dinner for the birthday party. In future years I'm going to make sure that Katelyn and Mike both get their own birthday-day, but we're planning to have another birthday party this weekend with Mike's family so I figured we could combine them this year.

Katelyn had a baby themed party, with a totally amazing Elmo cake that Uncle Kyron and Aunt Jillisa made her. She loved her baby dolls, and the stroller from Grandma. Now she's all decked out to take care of her own babies when I have my baby!

Katelyn LOVES corn on the cob...it's one of the few things she'll eat. Yeah!

Katelyn with one of her new babies...

Mike had previously seen all his birthday presents by accident, so it wasn't that fun of surprise...but he did enjoy the BYU theme. Too bad I couldn't have thrown in some season tickets as well! The best gift was probably the feeling of being employed! :)

"Oh look, yet another surprise BYU something!" :)

Check out that cake! And...if I do say so myself, I've mastered pie!

Blowing out the candles

Happy 24th of July

We've had a busy, busy summer thus far! Here's the recap...

We enjoyed the 24th of July! So fun to be in Utah this year to celebrate this fun holiday. Last year I think we had some sort of pioneerish dinner, but that was about it. This year it was an all day event!

We started by going to the Ogden City parade to watch our Stake's Float drive by. It was hot, and slow, and boring at times, but it was Katelyn's first parade and she seemed to like it. She kept wanting to take a turn riding all the horses, and kept asking all the men in military garb to 'come back!' It was good.

Mom and Katelyn at the Parade...

We hung out for the rest of the day and then had a fun neighborhood BBQ in Mom and Dad's front yard. I am still so surprised how pleasant the weather is outside in the shade, and we hardly are ever wearing shoes--yeah for no red ants!! Yummy food and all the neighbors that I grew up with--it was great!

Katelyn waiting for the fireworks...

Cheese!

Day 1!

Today was Day 1 at Mike's new job. Check back for details! Yeah!!

Drum Roll Please...

Announcing...MIKE IS EMPLOYED!

Or at least, will be starting on July 27th. After 3 months, almost to the day, we accepted a job with L3 in Salt Lake. We feel very blessed that we only had 3 months of unemployment; we've heard the average is 4-6 months. Mike will be designing equipment to house fancy communications electronics, so it's pretty exciting. L3 has, for the last several years, been rated as one of the top companies to work for if you are looking for employee satisfaction, so we are excited to feel important to a company. Our benefits start on day one (hallelujah!), and Mike gets every other Friday off (sweet!).

As for our housing plans, we're now looking for a home to buy, probably somewhere in Davis County. With the opening of the new Legacy highway, we'll probably still be able to keep Mike's commute to 20 minutes or so! We'll most likely be staying with my parents until the baby comes (September 5th), but things could potentially move quicker than that.

It feels so good to have a plan and a direction again...living in limbo is not for us! We've learned a lot, and had our faith grown a lot, and have come to appreciate family and support and help so much more than we ever did before! One more week of vacation, and then on to the next fun chapter...wahoo!

Fun in Pleasant Grove...

We've had some great quality time with Becky and Chris and the girls in Pleasant Grove...and I realized that I haven't taken very many pictures.

Here is a snippet of our fun time last week when we went up the canyon for a cookout!

Check out my new glasses! I haven't had new glasses in probably 10 years...once my old ones got scratched beyond recognition, it was time to upgrade! I love them!

Don't you love my clean child?! Contrast Aly and Katelyn: Aly--wearing a pretty dress, running from bugs...Katelyn--playing in the soot, ripping off her shoes and chug-a-lugging from the pop can. I think we may have a tom boy on our hands! I'm really interested to see what she's like in contrast to a boy...

Aunt Linda was in town and Katelyn loved her! She cried when we left Becky's house..."Linda come too?!"

That morning we headed over to Becky's neighbor to pick Cherries. We ended up with almost 20 pounds of cherries...fun to pick, yummy to eat, not so great to pit! :) Once again, check out the mess!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day!

Katelyn's new outfit...

Katelyn has started this new thing--she likes to hug us both at once! So cute!

A friend of mine calls the 4th of July Independence Day, as opposed to just 4th of July...I like that. I think I'll adopt it! It is a good reminder of what the day is really about.

We had a great day this year...we headed to Pleasant Grove to spend the day with the Woods. Mike's 2 other sisters also came into town, so although we had a houseful, it was full of laughter and fun!

We mostly just hung out for the day, and then enjoyed a yummy BBQ and fun fireworks show for the evening. My mom made Katelyn a super cute new outfit to wear for the day, and we were all decked out in our traditional attire. Katelyn liked the fireworks a lot--the loudness of them made her a bit nervous, but she was fine if she had me or Mike.

All the girls...our little dude is going to be outnumbered on this side of the fam!

Watching the show with Daddy...

Hope your day was as good as ours!

P.S. There might be good news on the job front...stay tuned! I don't want to jinx anything, but I'll let you know when I know! :)

Rain Delay

We've decided to have a 'stay-cation' for our vacation this year with the Craven family. We can't commit to taking time off if Mike were to start a job, and lots of the family is pressed for time off, so we decided to do things around town.

Attempt #1: Camping at Northfork for an evening.

The beginning of the rain...we're still thinking it was going to blow over!

After about an hour of rain, the tent began to implode on itself...

It got smaller, and smaller, and smaller! Finally we ran for cover in our cars!

Kasey's attempt at staying dry...

Notice Katelyn's inappropriate footwear...didn't plan for rain!

Eating our Dutch oven dinner under the cover of the car trunk...yum!

Result: Rained out and coming home to sleep in our dry clothes and bed!

Guess we'll have to try again! :)