It's A.....

GIRL! Our ultrasound tech said she is 99% certain our little fetus is female. HOORAY! Grant and Katelee had requested a baby sister, so I am thrilled I could fulfill their wishes. Everybody needs a sister right?! We are really excited and I am happy to be half way through. Maybe this will be a little red head girl, who knows? YEA!! When I told Grant it is a little girl after all, he said, "Oh YES!." It was really cute. Katelee responded with, "Oh, that'll be fun." Silly girl.



Other news on the homefront: Grant has successfully completed his first year of T-ball. Is Grant a natural? Well...maybe not so much. Considering his first game he stood in the field as the balls came to him and would yell to me everytime, "I'll try for the next one, mom." or "Maybe I will run for the next ball." But, he had a great time and enjoyed being on TEAM SHARKS!



Grant enjoyed using the bat like a hammer and slicing down the T toward the ball. But, hey, he had fun (most of the time...see above photo!) . There's always next year...or a different sport :).

Back in the Swing of Things...

Dave and I had a great time in New York a couple of weeks ago. Wicked was amazing! Loved every minute of it. Here we are on the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls. It was so fun and wet, I will hold the after photo of me looking like a drowned rat for another day...
Here we are in Palmyra with the Palmyra temple in the background, right on the property of the Joseph Smith family farm. We really enjoyed our time there as well. We went to the Sacred Grove and a lot of our church history sites. It was a hot and peaceful day!
Grandpa and Grandma McArthur kindly took care of the children for us while we were away. They were also able to see Grant at his last swimming lessons of the summer. He made great strides this year-going from not wanting to put his face in the water to jumping off the diving board! Grant is now on year two of preschool and started up T-ball, that will be a whole other post another day. He manages to get in a lot of trouble mostly everyday. A few days ago, the kid had been in time out and priveleges lost and all sorts of altercations occurred. Towards dinner time, he said to me, "Mom, you hurt my feelings so much today...I don't think I have any left!"

So now that I am over 16 weeks along, I am having a few days here and there without tossing my cookies! I am hoping we are turning the corner. My poor kids play house something like this: Grant: Katelee, you be the mommy, you have to do this BLEHHHH" (insert dry heaving and vomit noises here). Or, when Katelee was sick, after throwing up she says, "Mommy, I think I have a baby stuck in my tummy!" But, with a few good mornings instead of feeling sick all day, I have even started cleaning my house again:
Does bleach bubble? Who knew...maybe it was left over bubble bath in the jets. We find out what we are having in a few weeks. So far we have these suggestions for names from Grant: Dingis, Dingay, Josie or Numberspell. I guess they sound like unisex names, so maybe they would work no matter what we discover it is!

Sights of Summer

I know the masses out there have been waiting for all the pics of our summer fun. I hate to disappoint....so, here are a few glimpses of our recent activities:

Fireworks on the Fourth of July...Katelee claimed to love them, but kept asking when they would be over. She enjoyed the light display much more at her cousin's house on a different night when they were far away.

Baseball games... Here are Dave and Grant at a Bee's game. Dave and I also went to Atlanta to celebrate his big 30th!!! We went to a Braves vs Red Sox game, where there were more sox fans dominating the stands. I forgot my camera, so just imagine us in our baseball fan apparel and sweating our guts out because Atlanta was on fire and humid!
Sleepovers with your best buddy (who sometimes doubles as your worst nightmare if you are Katelee. Poor girl is tortured daily)
Camping and Fishing with my familiy:
Grant caught 6 fish! Everyone who tried their hand with a pole reeled something in, with the exception of me. Ah well, Dave and I are not naturals with the fishing routine. As you can guess from this picture, when my sister Paige tried to retrieve the line Dave cast into the dead tree.
Not so sure the life vest fit Katelee very well, but she really enjoyed long-boarding! Her cousin Haley would take the little cousins on rides around the campground loop and I am pretty sure it was the highlight of the trip for them.

Wild Animals

Last week at the zoo, some of the animals were wandering about. I found a mighty cute tiger and a ferocious alligator. I thought some of you might want to take a peek:
I have learned that even wild animals can display some sort of manners. The other day, Katelee finished her food, wanted some of Grant's and he graciously submitted to her screams. After he shared I told him how nice that was and he replied with, "Ah, well I just love her SO much...and it's happy sister's day!" Here's Katelee all tuckered out after a full day.

We were happy to have Grandma and Grandpa with us this week. In one of our conversations, Grant asked Grandpa how old he is and after Grandpa told him. Grant's jaw hit the floor, his eyebrows lifted and he exclaimed, " I can't believe my eyes!" It must be because of how wonderful granpa looks, Grant wasn't guessing a day over 6!

Oliver and His Company...

So, the other day Grant told me he wished his name was Oliver. Do you know an Oliver? Grant doesn't.Here are some pics of little Oli feeding the ducks on Memorial Day and at his preschool graduation. He did a great job singing and performing in the little play, but my favorite part was the continuous winking towards me with the finger click and accompanying sound! We are so proud of his completion of such rigorous studies. Here he is with his friend Andrew whom we carpooled with, gotta love the 4 year old conversations in the back seat. He is still the garbage loving boy he was a year ago...but he can write his name now. The other night I asked him to clean up all the bits of toliet paper he had scattered around the house cuz it was time for bed ( this is the tp he puts in blocks and then his garabage truck picks them up). Oliver (aka Grant) refused, saying he needed the trash. I told him, "hey dont' worry about it, I will get you more toliet paper tomorrow." I bet no one else can say they have ever said that...Anyway, I repeated the request to throw the shredded tp away and he said, "Mo-om, garbage is of God." Welcome to our days of holy waste dispensing!