All righty everyone. After much speculation (and a doctor's appointment this afternoon) I can finally announce if our baby is a boy or a girl. What do you think? I'll tell you what I thought. I thought that this cute little baby was a boy. As it turns out....
This cuddling sweetheart is a GIRL! I was completely flabbergasted and had the nurse check three times before I believed her. Cambrie is going to have a little sister and seems to be excited about it; although we'll see what happens in January when it becomes reality. Yea for another little sweetheart!
All right, since I haven't posted any pregnancy pictures here is one of me at 20 weeks. Just think, I'm half way there!
Cambrie's hair is super fine and fluffy. When she wakes up in the morning her hair really looks like it belongs to Einstein or Doc from "Back to the Future." I decided that maybe if we cut off the baby fluff then the rest wouldn't look so bad, maybe even cute. I told her that she was going to Kristen's house so that Kristen could make her hair pretty. She's seen me over there plenty of times getting my hair cut and was super excited to wear the cape. I told her to be super good and that she couldn't wiggle at all. Cambrie followed that so well, I was shocked. She sat in the chair, looked forward, and didn't move a muscle. Hailey and Ashlyn came out to watch and made it their personal mission to make Cambrie look at them and wiggle with them. Cambrie tried so hard to resist, just moving her eyes at times to look at the girls, but she's only two and gave into the fun a couple of times. She was so proud of herself when she was all done. She patted her hair, smiled at me, and told me she looked so pretty. I had to agree. I couldn't have asked for a better first hair cut experience.I tried to get a super cute one of her smiling, but she refused to look at the camera long enough. You can tell she's still saying, "Cheese!" What do you think?
We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and went for a mini-hike in forest behind Henry. Jeremy and I used to take walks back there a lot when we first moved out here, and even took Cambrie a few time in her Baby Bjorn. But this was the first time that Cambrie did the hiking all by herself, and she was a real trooper. She seemed to really enjoy it and I was surprised that she only asked me to carry her twice (which I didn't). She liked finding sticks and rocks and telling the mosquito's to go away.
There are quite a few fallen logs near the trail which was probably Cambrie's favorite part. She loved walking along the tops of them and sitting on them to swing her legs. This is where we stopped to eat our snack.
I have a daughter who just loves being outside. She asks to go camping ALL THE TIME, so this satisfied a little bit of that constant request. We really need to spend more time back there, it was great.
Here is the broken dishes tally for this pregnancy:Small cups- 1Tall cups- 2Bowls- 1Salad plates- 4Dinner plates- 1Yea, I'm really on a roll. Just call me Butterfingers.
Cambrie has finally reached that milestone where she is afraid of the dark. It came out of nowhere and as soon as I close the door each night she starts screaming that she's scared. We've tried a couple different tactics and found some that work. First step: Make sure that her princess night light is on. Second step: Tell the monsters, "No swiping!" Third step: Say a prayer asking Heavenly Father for help. Well tonight as I was putting Cambrie to bed, I thought that it would be a good night for her as she seemed pretty happy. I wasn't out the door for two seconds when I hear her crying, "Heavenly Father help me! Heavenly Father help me!" I go back in and tell her not to worry because Heavenly Father will keep her safe. It was just too cute not to remember.
On a whim, Jeremy and I decided to take a little vacation to New York City for the weekend. We pawned Cambrie off on my sister and some super nice friends (THANK YOU!) and left for two days. We didn't have a plan, we just took it as it came, and that was perfect.
Our first stop was our hotel. I love hotels in New York, they are all so unique and the rooms are absolutely tiny. The hotel didn't even have a name on the front. There was one small door that you walked into to find a neon green escalator. We weren't sure we were in the right place at all, but we followed the neon green escalator up through the neon green glowing walls and were greeted at the top by a hotel welcome desk and lounge that were decorated to look like a lodge. I was a little surprised by that. (I wish I had taken a picture). Anyway, when we got into our room, this is how "big" it was. Jeremy could almost touch both walls. Hey, it had a lot of character.
Our next stop that evening was the Manhattan Temple. I've heard people say before that when you step into this temple it's absolutely silent. I had a hard time believing it since there are taxis, sirens, and a whole lot of New York traffic outside on the street, but it was true. It was so quiet that I forgot I was in New York City. It was strange coming to this temple after spending all that time in DC because this is so much smaller, just one ordinance room compared to six. The size didn't matter though, it was nice to be able to be at the temple with Jeremy.
The next day we went to MoMa, The Museum of Modern Art. I've never really understood modern art, but I thought I'd give it a chance. We saw works from Picasso, Van Gough's "Starry Night," and some Andy Warhol. I liked a lot of the paintings, but I wasn't a fan of most of the sculptures. Too "modern" for me I guess. Jeremy thought it would be funny to get a "pondering pose" in front of this Picasso. I never really understood it.
One of the special exhibits was "Waste Not." Apparently this Chinese woman (and a lot of other women from her generation) collect absolutely everything just in case it's rationed again. Her son finally convinced her to get it out of her house (shown here), and use it for art. That way it was being used and not just thrown away. She had piles of bottle caps, string, shoes, bags, pop bottles, pear sleeves, hammers, mops, chairs, record players, books, crayons, soap, fabric scraps, and even take-out containers. This display room was probably about 50' x 50' and there was barely room to walk through it all. I couldn't believe it all fit in this small frame house. Insane!
After the museum we went for a walk in Central Park. I've actually never walked through it or explored the park before. It was really nice, except that it rained and we had forgotten an umbrella. We found a fountain, playground, sand volleyball court, bridges, lakes, carousel, and beautiful arches. I was gorgeous. One day we're going to have to take our bikes into the park and do a tour that way. There is just too much to see.
We look a little soggy don't we? Happy, but soggy.
One thing I did have in mind was getting a tasty cupcake in NYC. I didn't have time to see which bakery was "the" bakery for cupcakes, but we stumbled passed Crumbs Bake Shop and it looked like it fit the bill. Here is half of their display case. Are you drooling yet?
I ended up getting the Elvis. It is a white cake cupcake filled with banana frosting, topped with banana frosting that has peanut butter swirled in it, and finished off with peanut butter chips on the sides. Ohh...so tasty. I only made it through half of it before my pregnant head was screaming at me to stop from all the sugar.
Jeremy on the other hand surprised us both and completely finished off his Red Velvet cupcake. 
Our last activity in New York was going to see a Broadway show. We ended up with tickets to Phantom of the Opera. Jeremy had never seen it live so it was a fun experience for him. The actors and actresses did a great job, but we just kept comparing them to the movie. It was slightly disappointing in that aspect because we thought the movie was spectacular. We still enjoyed it though and it was a great way to finish off our trip. I really think we should do these weekend dates more often. It was awesome.
The Strasburg railroad.
The more I leaned out of the window to get a good picture of Cambrie, the more she would lean out. I just had to take what I could get with this one.
The girls actually have genuine smiles on their faces. They were excited to ride the train.
One of the characters came around taking pictures of everyone. She let the girls wear these hats. Morgan wasn't sure what to think of her.
Here is a picture of Cambrie on the crank car. I was shocked she could generate enough power with her arms to move it. she was so proud.
And one of the girls' favorite parts of the day was running on all of the boardwalks. Here they were dancing, but they spend a lot of their time chasing each other and running into each other.
During:
After:
There are quite a few fallen logs near the trail which was probably Cambrie's favorite part. She loved walking along the tops of them and sitting on them to swing her legs. This is where we stopped to eat our snack. 
I have a daughter who just loves being outside. She asks to go camping ALL THE TIME, so this satisfied a little bit of that constant request. We really need to spend more time back there, it was great.
We hopped on the tractor and started the long ride out into the orchards. Cambrie thought the tractor was too "tippy" at first and didn't like it until we told her it was a bumpy ride instead, then she thought it was fun. We hopped off in the peach orchards and started picking peaches. 
Cambrie really wanted to help. Jeremy and I would find some that were "squishy" then she would pull them from the tree. We didn't expect Cambrie to squeeze the peaches so hard when pulling them off that she would leave little finger holes in the ripe ones. Oops. There were a couple times she just picked the closest peach near her and we ended up buying a few yellow rocks of peaches. They'll ripen right? 
After we were done with the peaches the tractor continued to the apple orchard, then the blueberry and blackberry patches, the grape vines, and the vegetable patch. Each fruit brought back a memory of my childhood. The peaches reminded me of the peach tree we had in our backyard and the barrels of delicious peaches we got each year. The apples reminded my of my Grandma Stratford's house. Her neighbor had an apple tree that had some limbs that grew over the fence. As kids we decided these were fair game and loved eating them. I love that slightly grainy tart taste of home grown apples! The grape vines reminded me of taking care of the ward farm in Layton. We were in charge of the grapes and I remember eating as many as I picked when I went with my parents. Mmm..those were good. 
The last time they were standing up straight they were six feet tall, but every time there is a thunder storm they bow to the pressure and bend over even more. The result is this thick wall of tomato plants. They are taking over our garden and not giving our little pea and pepper plants any sun. 
Our cucumber plant has a little better defense, or should I say offense. It has decided to grow out of our garden and is currently climbing up the neighboring tree. Yes, we are actually growing cucumbers in a tree. 
Now if they would only stop growing up and start producing food!
