And it's a.....!

The week we were all waiting for finally arrived!  The girls have been dying to know whether little "banana" now is a boy or a girl.  I can't blame them, I've been going a little crazy myself.  The girls wanted to come to the ultrasound with Jeremy and I so they didn't have to wait a second longer than was necessary.  They were patient in the waiting room.  They were patient in the tech room for the anatomy checks.  But as soon as I saw this little baby's legs pop up on the screen I started getting antsy!  The girls caught the mood and were literally jumping up and down in their seat while the tech kept looking.  And suddenly, it was there, proof that this little baby is...

A boy!  Wow, I was so excited!  Who am I kidding?  We were all excited.  I could not wipe my silly grin off my face all the way through the appointment and even the rest of the night.  Jeremy and I couldn't have planned things more perfectly had we tried.  Two boys and two girls is just right.  Yea! 

 Here's his cute little profile.  

And here is a goofy picture of him playing with his toes.  His hands were all over the place during the ultrasound, by his face, over his head, by his toes.  He is definitely wiggly!  

And here is an official 21 week belly picture.  

As far as pregnancy symptoms are going now, I feel pretty good.  I'm not as tired as I was in the first trimester which is a nice change.  I finally had to bite the bullet and get out my larger clothes, not necessarily maternity yet but definitely bigger.  I'm still craving a lot of fruit, and plain grains like potatoes and granola.  I don't get morning sickness, I never have, but I do get evening sickness.  I get random belly aches at night and need to lie down for a few minutes until they're gone.  Really I can't complain.  It's been a pretty  good pregnancy so far and now it's time to start thinking of names for the newest little baby brother.

New stages...new pictures

Kelton surprises me almost daily with new little bits of his personality emerging.  Two of the more recent, and I think more humorous quirks of late are: his desire to be naked.  More than once Jeremy and I have gone in to check on him before bed, only to find that he has striped down to nothing and is curled up in a little naked ball on top of his sheets.  Luckily there has been no collateral damage.  He has also started striping when I'm not around, like when I'm showering.  I just had to take a picture to share because it made me laugh so hard.  

(These are new pictures since I posted this last.  Just more proof that this stage is here to stay!)  Kelton loves stripping down when he's standing still, so movie time is the perfect time.  I caught him in the act here.  

And bedtime?  Oh yes please because I love naked babies in my bed going to the bathroom on my sheets.  Okay, not really.  Jeremy and I have to check on this kid before we go to bed each night just to make sure he has a diaper on.   

 He has also fallen in love with Nerf guns.  Right now his new favorite game is "Shoot Mom."  I need to load the gun and cock the gun, but he is perfectly capable to aiming the gun even though it's bigger than he is.  He loves to shoot me, which wouldn't be that bad except he shoots me at point blank.  There is a lot of power behind those little foam bullets!  I'm trying to convince him to shoot other things, but then again, do I really want him taking aim at pictures and statues in the house?

He is also growing defiant of nap time.  Since he has learned how to unlock and open doors he thinks that nap time is more of a suggestion instead of an actual rule.  But because he's missing nap time (and because he's up all night taking off his diaper) he crashes during the day in the most random spots, like the banana chairs behind the desk, 

...and the trampoline.  Poor little guy!

First day of school for two!

The girls have been counting down the days until school starts for about a month.  We found a pencil box under Cambrie's bed the night before and she opened it, sniffed, and said, "It smells like school!  I love the smell of school!"  That's always a good sign.  I didn't have to push either one of them out of bed at 6:40, they did it all by themselves.  They didn't complain about getting dressed.  They didn't complain about brushing their hair.  They didn't complain about making their beds.  They didn't even complain when I asked to take pictures.  They just wanted to get to school. 

 

It makes me smile to see my girls side by side.  They are growing up in the same house with basically the same wardrobe because of hand-me-downs, but their styles are so completely different.  

I had to run to keep up with them on the walk to school.  

We arrived at school a few minutes early so we could get some pictures.  We were lucky to find so many of our friends waiting too.  These 3rd grade girls all have siblings in kindergarten together.  I love that we have so many buddy friends.  

We had to say good-bye to McKenzie in the hug and kiss zone.  She bravely stood in line by her teacher but told me that she was feeling shy and didn't really want to talk in class.  That didn't surprise me and I told her she didn't have to if she didn't want to, but that she would probably have so much fun she'd change her mind.  Cambrie gave a quick wave before heading off to her classroom which is in a pod this year. 

 McKenzie is doing morning kindergarten so Kelton and I walked up to get her before lunch.  When I picked her up she had a huge smile on her face.  "What was your favorite part?"  I asked her.  "Everything!"  She said.  She told me they read stories, sang songs, colored, played games, and had recess.  I think this picture of her walking home paints a pretty good picture of how she was feeling after her first day of kindergarten.  

Later that day I returned to pick up Cambrie and I had a very similar experience.  "Mom, I love, love, love, love my teacher!"  That is definitely what a mom wants to hear.  

Snowbird

Even with all of our partying in Utah, we managed to squeeze in one more trip of fun up at Snowbird.  We arrived a little before our rooms were ready to we spent some time wandering around the Snowbird Center and found ice-cream!  Grandpa treated his grandkids to ice-cream all around.  Kelton asked for pink, McKenzie requested Play-Dough, and Cambrie chose blue bubblegum.  Those were three happy kids!  

After ice-cream the kids explored the hotel.  They found all sorts of fun hiding places and secret hide-outs that they couldn't wait to show Grandpa.  Grandpa even had some surprises of his own for them.  You may notice there are no pictures of the secret hide-outs.  Well that's on purpose!  I can't spoil the fun now can I?  We also went swimming that night.  McKenzie went wild in the water.  She swam all the way across the pool by herself and kept pushing of a ledge in the pool and doing flips.  Kelton was having a blast until he discovered the hot tub.  Man that kid just wanted "hot."  I had to bribe him with gummies and a movie to get him out of the tub.  Cambrie was the same way.  There was a hot tub on our balcony and she was so relaxed up there that she could have hung out there all night.  

The next day we took the tram up to the top of the mountain.  I snapped this picture about two seconds too late.  My dad and McKenzie were both just relaxed and looking at the view.  

Then we decided to spoil the tranquility and everyone sat down on the bench.  (Geesh I'm looking pregnant).  

Snowbird is doing a lot of construction up at the top building a new lodge.  That meant there were gravel piles to conquer.  The kids ran up, ran down, ran up, slide down, time after time.  I was wearing out just watching them!  

Eventually we convinced them it was time to go back down.  The girls were tall enough that they rode down on the Peruvian lift with my parents.  

Kelton was still too short so we took the tram down.  We were a lot faster than they were, so we rode Chickadee three times while we waited for them.  Kelton was very chill sitting next to me, but on our last ride when he realized I was on a different chair he kept wanting to climb out and grab me.  My poor dad was a little nervous that whole ride.  So was I!  

We really wished we could have stayed and played longer, but the girls had to get back to Colorado for the first day of school!  As much fun as they were having, they were even more excited for school to start.  I can't say I'm complaining about their enthusiasm!  

Quick day with Nana

We had one short day to spend with Nana in South Jordan, so we went exploring and found a new park.  The zipline was awesome.  Kelton went up and down that as many times as Nana was willing to push him.  

The girls loved the river.  Yes the water was cold, but it was a hot day so it all worked out really well.  

The slushies definitely didn't hurt either!

Hmm...which color?

It's almost as tall as he is!

  

Bear Lake

My family just keeps growing, which is great but it's making it harder and harder to get together.  We decided to try something new this year and set aside three days up at Bear Lake.  Because the guys had to work they were up and back, but at least we had a decent showing and were able to spend some time together.  After we settled into the home we were renting, which the kids loved because of the presence of bunk beds, we took to the lake.  

Can you tell my kids were having a great time?

We blew up the Delta double tube and hoped the water wasn't freezing.  The adults were all wimps and wore whatever wetsuits we could find.  The kids didn't seem to mind and hopped right in.  In fact, we couldn't keep McKenzie out of the water.  Her favorite game was jumping in and simply drifting away while we got our tubers settled.  

Favorite tubing pics:

Jeremy and Cambrie after a vicious bump

Jeremy and Ryan after an exhausting ride 

Kelton isn't afraid of much so we tightened his life jacket and put him in the tube too.  He was able to stand up in the Delta Double and didn't want to stop.  During later rides he was so confident that he'd let go of the handles completely, turn around, and ride backwards.  I'll have to tell him that isn't going to work when he's older and we take him on bumpy rides.  

My mom and dad picked up a new water skiing training tube for us to try.  The kids have a water ski robe to hang onto, little pockets to put their feet, and a seat to sit on while they wait for the boat to pick up speed.  The girls were rocking it.  

You can tell how excited McKenzie was after she was done.  

Kelton giving it a whirl...we never actually turned the boat on for him.

When it was too dark to play any longer at the lake we headed back to the house to await some exciting news.  Jake and Camille had their ultrasound earlier that day and we couldn't wait to hear if their baby was going to be a boy or a girl.  They made cupcakes for us with secret filling, either pink or blue, and we had to eat our way to an answer.  It's a girl!  And this girl already has a name, Emma Deseret Thurston.  

Thank you Emma for a delicious reason to eat cupcakes!  

Mom and Dad looking at the ultrasound pictures.

The next morning the girls found the Bocce ball set and played out in the yard while we packed for our day at the beach.  Kelton wanted to play too, but just couldn't throw the balls as far as his sisters.  

Tuesday was dedicated the the lake.  We launched the boat, set up camp and enjoyed the day.  Ah, the beach.

 

 My kids love, the sand and they were in heaven!  They splashed in the shallow water near the shore.  

They covered themselves in sand and attacked us as sand monsters.  

Kelton lined up all of his toys like a "chugga-choo-choo" and would straddle them as he walked down the line.  

Here's a picture of the boys just socializing. 

 And here is a picture of the boys rising out of the depths of the sea as reincarnated sea monsters. 

 When we weren't on the sand we were in the boat teaching everyone to ski.  The girls both tried with real water skiis...once.  Jeremy and I forgot to include the important detail of "if you fall, let go of the rope."  Well, needless to say they didn't enjoy being dragged behind the boat submarine style and called it quits.  

Jake and Ryan however lasted a lot longer.  Jake got up on two for his first time.  Yea! 

 And Ryan was up long enough for us to celebrate before he fell.  Yea!  

Jeremy killed it out there on a slalom.  

And I slalomed as gently as I could not so I wouldn't crash and rock our baby's world.  When ski time was over we pulled out the flat tube.  Jeremy went first with the girls and had one awesome ride.  

Kelton had decided to take the steering wheel and he is a killer tube driver.  Those girls we bumped, and thrown, and pulled all over the place.  I actually had to help Kelton tune it down a bit.  He didn't like that at all and threw a royal fit when I tried to steer for him.

Kelton and I on a gentle ride.

 When it was Jake and Ryan's turn for a while ride the boat wouldn't go!  We tried everything we could think of to get it moving again but nothing worked.  Jeremy needed to get back to Salt Lake to catch his flight to Colorado and we were running out of time.  We hailed a boat to pull us to shore then Jeremy dashed off down the canyon while my mom and I drove all over Garden City trying to find a way to fix the boat.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, as soon as we had everything squared away we returned to the beach and saw that the boys had fixed it.  The kill switch was jammed and they were able to pull it out.  By that time a storm was rolling in and we had to call it quits on the lake. 

 The night wasn't a complete disaster though because we feasted on a Big Ephraim pizza for dinner.  I didn't think we'd be able to finish it but I underestimated the strength of Jake, Ryan, and Cambrie's stomachs.  Before we knew it, the pizza was gone!  We were hoping to have our picture hung on the wall but they don't make Polaroid film anymore and we were out of luck. 

Our last day up at Bear Lake was women and children only.  All of the men had to go back to work so Hannah, my mom and I took the five grandkids to Minnetonka Cave.  

My girls had really been looking forward to walking through a cave and seeing live bats.  They were not disappointed.  The rock formation were fascinating.  The three sisters. 

 The trophy room (Sorry Ms. Faye, I couldn't see the screen in the dark cave!) 

The ice castle.  

And the end of the line, but I don't remember the name of that room.  

Even though the girls had been complaining about the cold during the last half of the cave tour, they weren't cold enough to reject the offer of a raspberry shake.  I made sure to get each of them their own so I could help finish off the leftovers.  Yummy!