July

On this, the last day of July, I will attempt to re-cap the whole month.  It felt like the longest month to me but looking back it does seem like it went by relatively fast I guess. :)

We ventured out into the heat and went to a firework show on the 3rd of July. Besides the intense rib pain I was experiencing, it was fun. The boys enjoyed it and Brent and I got to spend time together.  

I took the boys swimming on the 10th of July which is always fun for us.  We have tended our 14 year old neighbor boy most Fridays this summer, it's always fun to have his sweet spirit in our home. We love him and we also love when his little sister comes along too. 

Next we celebrated Chico's Birthday!!!  We took him on a drive a few days before his birthday so he could choose which park he wanted his party at. Brent showed us one in Farmington we had never been to and Chico chose that one. It was so much fun counting down the days until the birthday, he was so excited.  The night before his birthday he said.  "So when I wake up I am going to be 5??? Wow! It's like magic!"  Yes, birthdays are a magical thing for little kids.  I decorated the door outside of their room with balloons. Chico got up during the night and saw it and was surprised (I don't normally do that kind of stuff). He loved it and so sweetly thanked me for doing it.

I hadn't been feeling great pregnancy-wise those last few days and so I asked Christa if she'd make the cake for his party (that was hard for me to ask someone else to do such a big thing for me but I just knew I couldn't handle it). She so kindly said she would and I was SO grateful because it made for a lot less stressed out mommy for Chico on his birthday. I think that is the best present you can give a kid honestly!  We took him to City Creek Mall to play on the dinosaurs. He loves that place so I think that made for a fun activity for him during the day.  Then that night we had the party... now time for pictures!

The awesome Iron Man cake made by Christa... So cool!

Chico while we were singing to him. E kept grabbing him and hugging him from behind.

Keeping myself hydrated...

Iron Man was a very popular gift of the evening. It has been great having more than one iron man at the house, helps with the fighting. As you can see Griz was very interested in his gifts. :)

Chico LOVES his almost one year old cousin. He is so cute with him, I can't wait until our baby is here for him to dote on.

Grandpa Hatch gave Chico an Iron Man and a Captain America. Griz pretty much hasn't let that Captain America out of his sight since that party! Chico is so good at sharing. The moment he opened the present of Captain America, I think he knew Griz would take it over. It was so funny to see the look on Chico's face when he opened that present, it seemed to say 'uh oh, Griz is not going to be happy about this'. He has been so sweet to share, he really cares about Griz. They are best friends, I love watching them play together and I am so grateful they have each other.

Griz keeps saying that it was his party too. His birthday too. Therefore all of the presents were his.  It has caused a little frustration for Chico, but he has really been good about it for the most part. :)

About a week later I got out the camera to photograph Griz's fascination with the drill. He hasn't had as much exposure to it lately as Chico did when he was younger. We don't do as much construction anymore. But the drill was out for some reason and he was having a blast with it...

Then we just started having fun taking pictures.... 

They love taking pictures with me in them too... I love the way they smile for these types of pictures!

Chico is becoming a little artist! I just had to photograph his spider man drawing. It is so amazing!

After I took the spiderman pic, he went and drew this and asked me to photograph it too. It's a castle battle scene. Dragons... men with bows and arrows. It's awesome!

While I was at it I photographed a few more pictures he has done. (I have probably around a hundred more as well in a drawer. Should go through those and photograph a few of them too, he is just always drawing) This one was a couple months ago. He made this flag for us to put outside our tent for the next time we went camping (which we forgot) but it is so cute, my favorite part is the cows.  Those cows at the campsite in Moab sure made an impression on his mind! 

These pictures are a group of pictures he did back before mother's day. He had taped them all up on the kitchen wall as a mother's day gift for me. I don't know why I didn't photograph them at the time, I tucked them away instead to photograph later. So here it is later. I just remember how sweet and caring Chico was to make all of those paintings for me as a gift, he is such a thoughtful boy.

 He made up his own super hero just recently, named "lightning thunder". So he has been wearing this "lightning bolt" on his wrist with the rubber band.  It's a pretty powerful super hero. Can even beat Iron Man!

My boys are constantly ripping off their shirts this summer. I hope I can remember to capture on video them doing it when they are turning into the Hulk. It is the funniest thing to watch, they get SO into character as they transform.  And of course the transformation isn't complete unless they are only wearing shorts. :)

I was helping Brent with a photography project for work. I was posing my eyes and face for pictures for a pamphlet for a doctor's office he has been helping out at. We didn't have to include the big belly for any of the poses thankfully. :) Anyway, as we were taking pictures Chico ran in and wanted his picture taken with me. 

Sure do love that boy! I sure do love my husband too. Why is he missing from all of the pictures from this month!?  I need to grab that camera away from him more often and get him in the pictures. Which I actually got to do while we were doing the poses for the pamphlet. I caught him being a goofball and his cute smile laughing afterwords about it... I love my funny hubby!

The rest of this month was filled with him studying for the GRE. We are so glad to have that over with! We're glad it went well too! :)  Brent finished up his employment at one hospital and has been shadowing PAs at different clinics throughout this month. It has been a really neat experience for him.  

I have been going to the doctor every couple weeks this month as well. I am now 36 weeks pregnant.  Pretty much right at the 36 week mark I have started having strong Braxton Hicks throughout the day. I think they started coming because I swam laps at the pool two mornings in a row. (Nothing too strenuous, no worries). I went to my check up on Monday and found out I am dilated 1 cm and 70% effaced!  Since that appointment I have continued to have a lot of those pre-labor contractions, so we'll see if that is causing more dilation as well.  I would really love to have the baby a couple weeks early if she is ready to come. Of course I want what is best for her though. The reason I started exercising on Monday is because I haven't been sleeping well. I hoped exercising would help.  Last night's rest was about 5 hours! So hopefully it is doing the trick. I have had my mind constantly running too, that is probably contributing to the insomnia.  I just lay there and think about everything to come, the labor and delivery.  Wondering about getting an epidural, wondering about how fast my labor will be since I am not getting induced this time, wondering about what it will be like going into labor without being induced.  Just laying there wondering. That and my arms go numb at night now too, which is super annoying and painful.

The joys of being pregnant! Soon to be followed by the real joys, a cute baby girl! I can't wait!