Cindel and Sam's Wedding

 

On July 6th, my sister Cindel married Sam Bollard, a member of a family we knew in Irvine over 10 years ago. The wedding was beautiful, and Cindel and Sam could not be happier. It was so great to celebrate it with family and friends and the "almost" rain made it even more fun! We are so happy for them.

Sunday walks

 

Pretty much every Sunday we take a family walk after church. A few weeks ago I actually took my camera. Here's Nathan in the stroller for the first time without his carseat! He loved it. And what usually happens is the kids play with Joel while sit with the baby. Look at that gorgeous scenery!

Nathan is 6 months old! (June 5th)

 

I think it's no secret that we have the cutest little baby boy in the whole world. Everyone who sees Nathan falls in love with him! Even Julianna and Blake all the time are saying, Nathan is really cute, Mommy. He just has the cutest personality and is such a busy, active baby! He also cries a lot, as you can see in these pictures. So at his 6 mo. checkup, he weighed 15 lb 7 oz, still 10th percentile, which is really good for him! 27 in in length, 50th percentile. He is getting stronger by the day and is starting to almost get in the crawling position. He can sit up for short periods of time, and can lift himself to sitting from the boppy pillow. He loves to grab hair, especially Joel's and Blake's, and he'll try to grap pretty much anything that's nearby. Joel let him take a drink of juice out of a glass cup the other day, and he was so excited. After he only got a tiny sip, he was mad at us! He has the cutest laugh and biggest smiles, and is very social with everyone around him. His cleft palate repair was supposed to be on June 19th, but it was postponed to July 31st because his surgeon ended up having a family emergency. So we are praying it will happen for sure on the 31st! He has started some solids and so far doesn't like squash, but will tolerate sweet potatoes and carrots, and likes rice cereal/oatmeal the best. It is difficult to feed him with the cleft palate but I'll keep trying until his surgery! We just love Nathan so much. 

Blake's opening day of T-ball

 

Blake started his 2nd season of t-ball on Saturday. He is on the Reds and has had 2 practices so far--we like his team and coach. His banner actually won "best banner" for the t-ball division! So cool! They get a free pizza dinner as a prize. He's excited for another season. We noticed he wasn't throwing the ball very far during practice, so we asked why, and he said, well, I don't want to hit anyone with the ball! We're excited to see how he does this year.

 

A video of his team being announced and running the bases.

Nathan is 5 months old!

 

Here's our big boy Nathan at 5 months old! He weighs 14 lbs 8 oz and this time the doctors said his weight gain is just great! He is 26 inches long. He is getting close to sitting up now, he tries really hard to get up on his hands and knees, he is still very vocal, and he loves grabbing toys and putting them in his mouth. He is so much fun! Only 6 weeks until his cleft palate repair surgery. We love Nathan!

Cliff's BYU graduation trip

 

A few weeks ago I was able to get on a plane to see my brother graduate from BYU. Nathan came along for the trip--his first plane ride and he did great! I had so much fun spending time with my family and seeing all the changes on the BYU campus.

 

 

College of Engineering and Technology graduation ceremony in the Smith Fieldhouse.

 

Nathan in his cute new BYU hat!

NieNie's house (Stephanie Nielsen from NieNie dialogues) and she was actually OUTSIDE when we drove by. I wish I were brave enough to stop and talk to her.

 



My old boss Don Fossum from the BYU bookstore. He now has a huge collection of rubber ducks from all over the world and claims it's one of the most photographed things on campus. It was good to visit with him again--I can't believe it's been over 10 years since I worked there!

 



All in all it was a great trip and I'm so glad I went! So grateful to Joel for helping with the kids while I was gone, and to a friend from the ward for getting the kids to school in the morning and watching them Friday afternoon. And to Joel's mom for watching the kids while Joel picked me up from the airport. I couldn't have done it without everyone's help! I was SO exhausted when I got home but it was worth it!

Trip to El Paso, Texas, Easter 2013

 

We had such a fun trip to El Paso, Texas for our niece Lizzy's baby blessing! It was great to hang out with Briana and Eddy and see little Lizzy who is so adorable! We went swimming in the pool on the army base where they live, went to Texas Roadhouse, Krispy Kreme, church for the baby blessing, and just had lots of fun being together. We miss Briana and Eddy and look forward to seeing them again soon!