Act II. Starring Eveli Claire.

We have a new addition to our home. She is a sweetie. Here are some pictures to prove it. 

She arrived safely into the world on July 3rd. There weren't any serious complications. The cord was wrapped around her shoulder, so with each contraction her heart rate would drop. You can't imagine how difficult it is to focus on breathing during contractions when you can hear the monitor drastically change pace with each one. Despite that she got here and everything was fine, for both her and me.

I'm not a big fan of frills and bow, but I think her yellow bow is adorable.

 Here I am with my two kiddos. I was a little hesitant to post a hospital picture, but since she was born in the afternoon and I was getting enough sleep by sending her to the nursery, this picture doesn't look too bad. Tommy was very excited about the baby. He still likes to adorn her with kisses as well as all of his favorite toys. :) 

 She is a long baby, and unlike Tommy her feet didn't look like frog feet. They have been proportional to her body since birth.

This is her first picture shoot. She has an expressive face and mobile hands.

I love this picture! Only recently has she started to do the social smile thing. My heart melts every time!

 We love our little girl and are excited to see what kind of woman she will become. 

The Planned Activities of Summer

This has been a fun summer. Here are some of the highlights.

Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument

We decided that we wanted to get one last camping trip in before Eveli was born. We wanted to go to a place that would allow us to hike and take Tommy. So in May we headed south to Escalante to enjoy some red rock and wind. That is exactly what we got. We stayed on BLM property which means no campground fees and first come first serve. The road was rather bumpy to get there and it took some time to find a decent place to set up. After getting our camp set up in the middle of a sandy field we headed down to the Escalante River. We hiked along the river for a while. Tommy did well but was constantly trying to get in the water.

The next day we hiked Calf Creek. It is a 6 mile hike round trip and I was 7 months pregnant. It's interesting how being pregnant initiates conversation with complete strangers. I don't know how many people stopped to ask questions or make comments to us along the trail. Tommy hiked about a fourth of the way, which was amazing! The rest of the time Ammon carried him. At the end of the trail is a waterfall and pool. We stopped to eat lunch before heading back down the trail. Most of the trail was sandy. I can't tell you how hard it is to walk on sand while pregnant. I instantly became a large waddling prego woman. I typically don't waddle while pregnant, so this is a significant point. 

Other highlights were the drive there (it is very scenic), roasted marshmallows, the moon through binoculars, being attacked by mosquitos, and the wind interacting with sand :(.The trip was a quick in and out ordeal. That area is beautiful and I hope to return some day to do some of the slot canyons, most likely without kiddos.

Orem SummerFest

Our next exciting adventure was Orem SummerFest. We wanted to take Tommy to the car show.He loves anything with wheels and is always bringing my attention to them as we drive down the street. Well, it turns out that cars sitting on the grass in a park aren't nearly as exciting as the ones that move. We enjoyed the cars more than he did. 

The highlight of the festival was the helicopter. It was supposed to be sitting on the lawn and people could walk up and take a look. After we finished the car show we walked over to where it was supposed to be only to find out that it wasn't there yet. Our luck was good and only a minute or so later we could see it flying over. It was super windy and dust was flying everywhere. I tried to cover Tommy's face so that he wouldn't get junk in his eyes, but he wanted to see the helicopter and adamantly pushed my hands away every time I tried to cover his face. It was pretty loud and I think that freaked Tommy out a bit. We stood in line so that Tommy could sit in the helicopter. Should you be surprised that when the time came to get back in the stroller and walk away he cried? No, you should not.

My Due Date: Air Show and Wedding Reception

Valerie invited us to the air show that they do each year at the airforce base. It was on my due date so we didn't let her know that we were coming until that morning. It was neat. There were a ton of different planes and jets set out. We got to walk through a cargo plane and, yet again, sit on a helicopter. Then there were cool stunt planes and para-gliders to watch. All in the hot, hot sun. 

These are some para gliders that trail smoke so that you can see them and where they are going. It looked a lot cooler in person.

Later that evening, we went to a wedding reception for one of Ammon's high school friends. This is noteworthy only because of the cute pictures of Tommy with one of his friends.

Tommy and Maddy are contemplating those strange creatures, known as adults, on the dance floor.

 We told them they could dance on the grass. So they promptly sat down on it?

They are crashing the couples first dance. I pulled out my camera about as quickly as a more responsible adult pulled out the kids.

 I think it's adorable how they hold hands. 

Beds, Tulips, and Easter

Around the middle of April it started being difficult to put Tommy down for a nap. Not because of him, but because my expanding belly didn't allow me to lay him down very comfortably. The solution? Turning Tommy's crib into a toddler bed. We removed the front part and replaced it with the shorter half gate you see below. The first week was an adventure. He loves his bed and frequently climbs into it so that he can jump or cuddle or whatnot. But he also loves his toys, which we keep in his room. The first few nights when we went in to check on him we found the door blocked by a mysterious something that wasn't there when we closed the door. He eventually learned that it was more comfortable to sleep in the bed, but I still have to go stop him from playing with toys sometimes when it is nap time. Night time he is pretty good. He will walk right up to his bed and get in it. All we have to do is put the blanket on him and all done. I was a little skeptical initially, but it has been great.

This is Tommy's first time trying it out. You can tell that he wasn't ready to sleep when we took the picture.

 In Utah there is a place called Thanksgiving Point. It has all sorts of venues for adults and children alike. During the spring, they have what they call a tulip festival in their garden area. They import millions of tulips from Holland and plant them each year. We went there with Ammon's parents and his sister's family. This first picture was an attempt at capturing Thomas do something cute. He has a tendency to try and get the camera whenever I pull it out, so the photo isn't very revealing as to what he was doing.

 Sophie is our niece. She is sitting on a post, but not interested in photo opportunities.

Tommy was a little better at posing.

 That's Ammon and Tommy across the stream. Thomas wasn't interested in walking on the path just then.

 Now for some attempts at some artsy-fartsy photos.

 I absolutely loved the orange tulips they had in this area.

 This is Ammon posing for the camera. He's better at it than Thomas.

 I tried to get some closeups of Tommy and the flowers, but as I mentioned before, if the camera's close he wants to be closer. So most of these are either far away, or blurred due to a running child.

 Look at Tommy stand still for Ammon's picture. I'm not jealous at all.

After this picture I gave up. Which is too bad. We saw some other beautiful areas. I guess it stopped being worth it to me. We did have a picnic dinner on the grass after a while. It was a beautiful day and place with wonderful people.

Okay. The last part of the title implies that we did something on Easter. Which we did. Sort of. We invited Ammon's family over the Saturday before for a barbeque. We had chicken and hot dogs with egg salad and chips. Before lunch we did an Easter egg hunt. The kiddos enjoyed it so much that we ended up hiding some of the eggs twice just so they could search for them. The day before Thomas helped me fill the eggs. He didn't know it was candy he was putting in them until later. Because of his insider knowledge when he was gathering the eggs all he wanted to do was open the eggs. He wasn't interested in finding more. It took some coaxing from Ammon and the older cousins.
We had lots of good food and conversation and they ended up staying for the whole day with Papa Murphy's for dinner. It was good to see everyone and catch up. I can't think of much else to say and I don't have pictures from then, so this will be the end. Until next time. Whenever that will be.

Tasty, Jackie-Made Treats

Recently (and by recently I mean the past year or so) I have been practicing the art of making tasty and beautiful treats. This post is to show off my accomplishments, because really why make something pretty and not take a picture of it.

We'll start with my birthday cake. The real challenge in making cakes is that Ammon doesn't like them very much. So this cake is no ordinary fluff cake. It is a layered pineapple upside-down cake. That means that the filling is the tasty pineapple, brown sugar mix typically found on the bottom of pineapple upside-down cake. mmmm... so good. I'm also rather proud of my decorations, though admittedly I'm showing the pretty side of the cake. :)

This next one I made for Easter. We had a bunch of Ammon's family over for a BBQ the Saturday before Easter. I asked Ammon what kind of dessert he wanted and he said trifle. Well, this was one tasty trifle. Fresh cut strawberries, real whipped cream, vanilla pudding with cream cheese mixed in, and delicious butter yellow cake. I also decorated some cupcakes (which I don't seem to have pictures of) so that such deliciousness wouldn't be wasted on unappreciative children. They didn't seem to mind too much. I think.

Have you started drooling yet? I have. 

Okay, the next item was made a while ago. I don't remember, maybe a year and a half ago. Ammon had recently gotten me a bundt cake pan and this was one of my creations. I couldn't tell you what kind it is anymore. It's been too long. Bundt cakes are often moister so Ammon approves of them more easily. Doesn't that chocolate look good?

And now for a less sweet thing. I like to tease Ammon about how he likes salty, greasy things. Whenever I ask him what kind of treat he wants at Christmas time it never fails that he requests a cheese ball. This one is from two years ago. I couldn't tell you what I put in the cream cheese mixture, but I found this neat design online and tried it out. It was pretty delicious. And just in case you can't tell, it's supposed to be a pine cone.

This last picture is not of a treat, but I wanted to put it somewhere. Mainly it is for Ann. Can you find a set? It is a 1 in 2500 chance that there isn't a set here. Still, we haven't found one yet.

That's all for the treat post. I hope you enjoyed it.