California knows how to party

Couple weeks ago, Jace and I went and spent a week with my parents in California and we had so much fun!! His great grandparents came too and between everybody, Jace got plenty spoiled! We went to the beach, the park, the movies and saw Kung Fu Panda, an indoor play gym, watered the garden with Grandma, danced a jig with some outdoor music, got really dirty in the mud, ate yummy oranges and strawberries and so much more.

He certainly had an adventure with his cousin, Haylee with some paint. All I have to say is, when the cats away, the mice will play! The women left the men in charge for 30 minutes and came back to this beautiful piece of art in the backyard! The men had fun cleaning it all up!!!

We had such a great time and Heath drove up the last couple days to watch Jace so I could go to Huntington Beach for Girl's Weekend!!! Wahoo...more coming on that.

Little Monkey Achievement

Jace graduated from Miss Maren's Monkey Preschool! Wahoo! Two years of fun with a class full of boys. Jace had so much fun at preschool and made some great little crats. My favorite was his pinecone owl! He loved his teacher so much!! I only hope we can find someone that will be as wonderful and fun in Colorado. We will really miss it! Thanks Maren!

Starting to Show

I took this picture almost a month ago and I'm already showing so much more. So, I'll keep updating with size! :) I certainly have shown a lot earlier with this one. I feel the baby kick all the time. We are at a total loss for names. We think we like something but then it just doesn't seem to fit. I guess we still have 19 weeks to figure out a name! :)

Girls Camp "There's No Place Like Home"

I've been up to a lot this summer. One of which, was spending 5 days up at Girls Camp at Camp Lomia with my wonderful young women! We had a great time! Our theme was "There's No Place Like Home. And our ward specialty was under the sea. I wrote the skit for our ward and it was quite cute. We had all the OZ characters under the sea with Ariel lost on the yellow seaweed. It was so fun! Our girls did an amazing job. Girls Camp is more of a spiritual retreat these days and we come back with such a spiritual recharge and new perspective of the love the Savior has for you and all his children. The highlights of this camp was the reinactment of the "Tree of Life" The girls walked through the forest with mists of darkness, holding to the iron rod, temptations along the way to get off the path, one stop was watching a mother and father fight and then get divorced, they built a tower with people making fun of them as they walked with the rod, then at the end, they were met by the stake presidents and bishops. When the lit up the tree of life, you could literally hear audible gasps. The spirit was so strong and the girls were touched, as was I. The leaders waited for two hours in the darkness for the yw to arrive and it was a very reflective time under the stars of heaven. We had a great time. I hope I get to go again sometime. I've learned so much from this stake yw presidency. They truly love these girls and come up with amazing spiritual experiences that will hopefully stay with them through the difficult times in their lives. I LOVE YOU STEWAHONA and will MISS YOU!!! When I got home, Heath had the whole house spic and span, a welcome home sign from Jace and lunch on the table! WOW-- perhaps I should leave more often :) What a great hubby.

Surprise!!!

The morning of Jace's birthday, I surprised him with balloons in his crib (yes, he's still in crib) and all over his room! He was so excited. he said, "Wow, thanks mom!" with as much expression as he could muster. We had fun playing with them that morning and I know he knew it was a special day! :)

Never Ending Celebration

Well, Jace turned 3 yesterday!! I know I can't believe it. We've been celebrating for a while. I'm pretty sure Jace thinks he gets to open presents now every week! He first opened presents while my parents were in town--he got a drill (batteries already dead with him using so much), play snakes (He likes singing the "Trust in Me" song from Jungle Book with them) and other fun stuff. I think he would have been completely content with just that.

But....wait. We had a Splish Splash Bash for him and his friends last Friday and it was a great turnout and they had a blast getting wet and running around!! And the fun doesn't stop...last night on his actual birth day we took him out to dinner and they sang him Happy Birthday with free ice cream. I should have brought my camera to capture the grin on his face; he was so thrilled they were singing to him. I could just tell he felt VERY special.

That's not the end...we'll be having a party Memorial Day with Heath's family. Man, I wish my birthday would last a month. :) Needless to say, we've been extremely busy and it finally seems like things are settling down enough for me to think about anything else.

A new little bundle of joy....

and they think it's a boy!

The doctor said he usually can't tell this early, but this little baby was being quite cooperative. We are SO excited! I'm 13 weeks and due November 20th. I can't believe I'm going to have two boys on my hands! After I told Jace, I asked him if he was going to teach his little brother to play anything and he said, "Yes, tennis" Jace cracks me up! Where does he come up with this stuff? I was hoping maybe for a girl but now I can see how GREAT it will be to have a little buddy for Jace. He can teach him everything he knows about cooking, sports and music! I really couldn't be more excited! It will be so nice to have a sweet baby again in the house. I think Jace will be quite the little helper. I hope so, at least. Hooray!