Father's Day

Always a little behind, I am just now posting about Father's Day. It ended up being a pretty busy day. The kids and I made breakfast for Dave while he slept in. We served waffles with fresh berries, scrambled eggs with cheese, and juice. We spent the rest of the morning making rolls to take to dinner that night, and getting ready for church. After church, Dave's dad Ralph and Ralph's wife Ida came over for a bit. They are in town visiting for a couple of weeks, and its been so fun to see them. After they headed off for their evening plans, we were off to my parents' house to celebrate Father's Day (as well as the June birthdays for my side of the family).

Hopefully Dave had a good Father's Day and knows how much we love and appreciate him. He is such a good dad, and I feel very fortunate to be married to someone who is so involved in his kids' lives. They love him so much, and get excited for the time he spends with them. Brynn loves when he takes her on little dates to see a movie, or when she gets to go to work with him (usually looking at houses or meeting up with potential renters at a property). Collin loves that Dave will get down on the ground with him and let him play rough. Whenever Dave lays down on the floor, Collin immediately stops what he is doing and runs over to sit on Dave's back and play. He's definitely a fun dad!

I am also so grateful for my dad, and the amazing person he is. He has shown me time and time again that he is always there for me when I or my family really need him. He has been such a source of strength to me through some difficult times. I don't know what I would do without him. As well as being my dad, he has become a good friend. I have so much love and respect for him!

I also have some wonderful grandpas and an incredible father-in-law. They are great sources of support, and I appreciate the example they all are to me. Each of them are always so good about putting others before themselves and being very down-to-earth. I feel so blessed to have so many good men in our family to show my son how he should be.

Soooo...

Now that swimming lessons, preschool, dance, and playgroup are over for a few more months, we've been getting pretty lazy around here. When people have been asking us "what's new?", we've been responding with something like "a whole lot of nothing." That's not entirely true, however. I am just over 3 months pregnant. It came as a pretty huge shock, but we are so excited. The shock part of it is due to the fact that we did IVF two times this past year to try to get pregnant, and they were both unsuccessful (yes, we are now 5 for 5 on failed IVFs). In fact the last IVF we did was in February (on Friday the 13th to be exact--we thought with all of our bad luck that day might turn out to be lucky for us). Then, almost a month after finding out the sad results of that IVF, I discovered I was pregnant. Since this is our 3rd pregnancy and each one was a surprise despite all the fertility treatments we have done, I sometimes wonder if Heavenly Father has a big sense of humor, or if there is some lesson He is still trying to teach me. Probably the second theory. Any way, I am excited, happy, surprised, scared, nauseous, tired, and every other emotion that most pregnant women experience.

Despite our decision to wait until after the 1st trimester to share our news, we did tell Brynn. She is so excited. Every single day she asks me how big the baby is. And every day she has been praying for the baby. Her prayers went from asking that the baby could come out of my tummy now, to just "bless the baby". She insists that it has to be a girl, and has even suggested a few names (her own, her best friend's name, etc). We are still having to explain to her that there will only be one baby. This made her angry at first, since she insisted she wants 3 and a few days later upped it to 7. I had to explain that Heavenly Father gets to decide how many babies people get, and He usually only gives people one at a time. That was hard to convince her of, since her friend has twin sisters and I attended two baby showers just last week for twin babies. She has been so helpful while I've been sick and is very careful around my tummy. She is always patting it and giving kisses "to the baby". Its fun to see how much she gets it than when I was pregnant with Collin.

So, that's our big news. And if you come over and I'm still in pajamas or there's a sink full of dishes, please consider this to be my apology.

My Funny Girl

Brynn continues to make us laugh on a regular basis with all the funny little things she comes up with. Here are a couple of things she's said lately that I want to remember:

The other day she was drawing (again) and asked me if I liked the guy she drew. Yes, I did. Then she asked me if I wanted to know his name. OK. Her response, "His name is Sonic Ryan Ellen TeeterTotter Wiper". So I'm thinking maybe I should cut back on our summertime Sonic runs. Maybe.

One day, I was getting some bread crumbs out to go in a recipe I was making. She had never seen them before and asked to look inside the container. "That's disgusting! It smells normal. That's so frustrating!" Isn't that everyone's reaction to bread crumbs?

And an oldie, but goodie from a couple of months ago...Brynn came running into my bedroom one Sunday morning, and was very excited about something. As she was jumping around, she yelled "Daddy has a movie on for you! Its your favorite one! It's got that guy on it! And the temple! So come watch it! It's where alot of the people is!" (Translation: LDS General Conference had started, and Dave had it on the TV. "That guy" would be our prophet, President Monson. The conference center is next to the Salt Lake City Temple. And there are alot of people that attend.)

Another milestone for the Big Boy

My little man is growing up. I have been seriously dreading the whole potty training thing with Collin, since it was a 14 month NIGHTMARE with Brynn. Last night and then again this morning, we have been rushing Collin to the toilet when it is obvious he is going to the bathroom. This morning, he had success. He wasn't even freaked out about it like I expected. As soon as I set him on the toilet, he requested "no help", and proceeded to go about his business. He almost fell in the toilet a couple of times, but he was OK. I can't believe it. He is definitely moving out of the baby stage, and I am not sure how to feel about that. I mentioned in a previous post that we moved him to the "big boy bed" recently. We actually had to remove the crib from his room, because he and Big Sis decided it was fun to climb in and out of during his "nap time", and use it as a trampoline. His vocabulary has also skyrocketed lately. He copies almost everything we say, and can communicate pretty well. Of course, I act as his translator quite a bit, since he likes to add extra pauses and syllables to his words. Its so fun to see the explosion of learning that is taking place in him. Of course, he still has those challenging, stereotypical 2 year old moments (throughout much of the day, as a matter of fact), but I am so grateful for the sweet little guy that he is, and the extra love he has brought into our home.

Here he is showing off the reward of success on the potty:
And this one is blurry, but I had to include it anyway, since it shows how proud he is. That is the face he makes when you ask him to smile.
And the proud sister...She did a little dance and told him what a good job he did. I think she's also extra happy, because she got a lollipop too.