Backyard Campout

With Lucy's arrival, we didn't quite feel up to taking a camping trip this summer. So instead, we planned a camping day at home. Porter absolutely LOVED it! Brian and I pretty much loved it too!

Brian set up the tent in the backyard. Porter was thrilled. He played in that tent and didn't want to come out!

We made tin foil dinners on the grill and ate outside.

Then we roasted s'mores (also on the grill). Miraculously, Porter didn't injure anyone with his roasting stick. Seriously a miracle.

Finally, Brian and Porter settled in for bed. After putting Lucy down, I joined them for some bedtime stories and to snap a few pics. Then I headed back in the house to sleep in a soft, cozy bed (this was definitely my kind of camping).

Around 1:30 am, I was up feeding Lucy when I heard Brian and Porter coming into the house. Apparently, the excitement was too much for Porter and he didn't ever go to sleep. And here he was, 5 hours past his bedtime! Crazy kid.

We put him to bed and we all had a nice sleep-in morning the next day!

Attached

The bracelet finally broke on Thursday. Now he's just wrapped around her little finger instead of his wrist.

July 4

We had a great Independence Day!

Parade in the morning. Sweltering heat. Porter loved the horses best. Lucy slept through the whole thing.

Midday naps. I love having a scheduled nap time in the middle of the day. I think I need the nap/break as much as the kids do.

BBQ with Aunt Dawnia and Grandma & Grandpa Sudweeks. With a cute little Jell-o dessert I found on Pinterest. Our holidays are so much cuter now with Pinterest.

Fireworks in the cul-de-sac to end the day. With a nice view of bigger firework shows nearby.

Happy Independence Day!

Two Weeks

Lucy is two weeks old today!

Her daily schedule consists of sleeping and eating.  She currently sleeps for 2-3 hours at a time.

She makes so many different faces while she sleeps. It's endlessly entertaining just to watch her and imagine what she must be dreaming about.

She looks a little different every day.

We think she's a very pretty baby. We may be biased, but we really think she's one of the most beautiful babies we've seen.

Porter was scared of her for the first week. Now he loves her.

We are so in love with little Lucy Grace.

Lucy's Here!

 We are now the proud parents of a healthy, beautiful baby girl!

Lucy Grace was born Monday, June 18th at 12:31 pm.

10 pounds, 3 ounces

20.5 inches long

More pictures to come soon!

Backyard Summer

I love summertime! Now that we have a yard, my favorite moments are sitting in the shade while Brian does yard work and Porter helps him or plays around him. It's so nice and peaceful!

Even though we're renting, Brian's put a lot of work into our yard since we plan to be here for another year. It seriously looked so awful when we moved in. But we've since put in a garden and planted lots of different bushes and shrubs. Brian took out a jungle of weeds on one side of the yard and put in beauty bark and pavers and everything just looks so nice now. I told him he was crazy when he started doing all these projects . . . because we are renting. But I can admit now that it was totally worth it!

Five Days

My delivery for Baby Lucy is scheduled for this coming Monday, June 18th.  At last!

Which means that . . .

in five days, our little family will be grown from 3 to 4.

in five days, I'll be holding a sweet, little baby girl in my arms. So curious to see what she looks like!

in five days, Porter's going to see that the baby we're always talking about is more than a giant bump in my tummy. Won't he be surprised!

We are SO excited and can't wait to meet our baby girl!

Anyone recognize this location? We took a Sunday walk around campus- I love it when it's empty!

In the meantime, there's much to get done:

1. Pack a hospital bag (probably should've done that sooner, I know!)

2. Stock up on groceries and diapers (it's bad enough leaving the house with one kid- NO way I want to try running errands with two anytime soon!)

3. (related to number 2) Find out how people possibly get by with 2 kids. My day is FULL keeping up with Porter. How on Earth does that work out??! I know it must because I see several people with more than one kid. But HOW?!

4. Get a manicure.

5. Get crafty- I have fabric to sew some burp cloths that I haven't gotten around to yet.

6. Sleep- seriously all I want to do these days. Wish Porter took 3 naps a day.

7. Clean/organize classroom: my original plan was to have everything set for next year before the baby came. But I haven't had time till this week . . . and somehow I've lost my motivation (see #6). But that's still on the list because I'm not sure how I'll get it done when I have 2 kids instead of 1 (see #3).

Summer Break!

Last Friday was my last day of school which means I am officially on summer break. And I love it! We got in a ton of family time over the weekend and now I'm getting to spend my days with Porter-- which is just how I like it!

Here are some highlights from my summer break so far . . .

We took Porter to a local fun center place- he rode the rides all by himself. SUCH a big boy! I thought he'd cry, but he didn't. He's growing up SO fast.

Went mini-golfing. Porter's a natural!

Had a Memorial Day bbq with my mom & little sister. Brian & I spent the day trying out new pie recipes for the occasion- Brian made a raspberry pie & I made a chocolate cream. They were both very delicious and worth all the effort. The night before, my little sis and I had seen a picture on Pinterest about cutting a watermelon this way. So when we got a watermelon for dinner, we just had to try it. Isn't that funny?!

Porter spends lots of time outside now that it's warmer (don't know what we'd do without a fenced backyard!). Since he loves it so much, I like to put him to work watering the flowers & plants. He does a great job!

I just had to include a picture of this. On the last day of school, this little boy brought me a hand-carved knife with my name burnt into it. It really is SO cool. The other side is gorgeous too- it has more designs and says "I love you, Mrs. Nye." How thoughtful! And the thing is, I feel so hard-core now that I have this . . . like I could hold my own in a room full of scouts or something! Weird, I know!

The Windy City

A couple weeks ago, I went to Chicago to attend the IRA (International Reading Association) Conference. Because of some work I'm doing with my school district, they sent me there. It was busy, busy, busy, and wonderful! I had hoped I'd get to see more of the city, but the conference kept my schedule pretty packed. Instead, I just got to enjoy the views from my hotel room on the 45th floor. And I got to know the restaurants surrounding the hotel pretty well too. So as far as that block of Chicago goes, I think it's a pretty nice place!

 I also got to know some lovely ladies from my school district while I was there. I think there were 9 of us from our district that went. They definitely took me under their wing and watched out for me in my super-pregnant state while I was there.

Traveling while pregnant isn't so bad . . . I sleep as poorly as I would at home and lifting my suitcase around is no worse than carrying Porter. But because I get SO stinkin' huge while I'm pregnant, the hard part is hearing all the whispers behind me as I walk to my seat on the plane and the captain coming out of the cockpit with huge eyes telling the rest of my group that we better not be delivering a baby on this flight. I know I'm huge. I just sometimes get tired of explaining to everyone that I'm not really that close to delivery.

The conference was amazing. It was pretty exciting to see so many "big" people in the education field all in one place. If I were to list names, you probably would've never heard of them. But I have, and it was exciting to see them and actually listen to presentations given by them! Another highlight was the authors. I'm a little obsessed with children's books. At this conference, they brought in several authors to do book signings. I've never been big into things like that. But while I was there, I got this great idea to build up a library of books for Porter and Lucy signed by these authors. I didn't get many though, since I chose to go to the classes more often than I chose to wait in line for an hour to meet an author.

Finally, after 4 days, I boarded the plane to go back home. As much fun as I had, I could not wait to get back. I was miserable being away from Porter and Brian. I didn't think it would affect me so badly, but it did. We had the fortune of flying out of and into the Provo Airport. Instead of driving an hour to Salt Lake, this airport is just down the street. I can't tell you how nice it is to get off the plane and be home in less than 10 minutes. So wonderful!

 Porter and Brian were right there on the tarmac to meet me when I got off my flight. I was SO happy to see them! I don't plan on leaving like that again for a long while. I missed them too much!

By the way, please excuse the crummy photos-- I used my phone camera for the whole trip!

L is for Lucy

That's her name. I've known that would be her name for years. But Brian's only been able to say it with certainty for a couple months. He took a bit longer to come around to it. I know most people wait to announce the baby's name until he/she arrives, but we know it's her name and we already call her Lucy, so it's not a very big secret for us. The jury's still out on her middle name- we're having a much more difficult time deciding.

Originally, I planned to do the nursery in pink. I even bought all the pink buttons for the monogram wall art seen above. But all of Porter's nursery decorations were green-- and we purposely bought them unisex. So to save time, stress, and money, I recently gave up my dreams of a pink nursery and bought green buttons instead. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end- better than having a half-finished nursery and a stressed-out mommy! Because let's face it, when would I really have time to sew the pink, ruffled crib skirt I imagined (when I don't sew very well and won't be out of school for another month)? And how can I justify spending over $150 on the curtains I just had to have to match the crib skirt? I'm sure she'll be just as happy and beautiful in her green nursery as in a pink one.