Camera Catch-Up

Another random collection of photos from the last little while...


A sweet hug between Preston and Great-Grandpa Curtis at the Reunion.

Daddy & Brekken hiding out from the rain at the Reunion.

Uncle Boy helping Haley fish.

Grandpa Schurz helping Preston fish.

Haley, Brekken, Preston and cousin Coby watching the giant elephant statue at the zoo (it plays music and squirts water from the trunk.)

Cousin Cameron was the only one brave enough to actually go close to the elephant statue.
Haley lost her first tooth while eating lunch at the zoo. (bottom middle tooth)

Quick Funny from Preston

Grandpa Shields was talking to Preston and called him a 'kid.' Preston responded:

"I'm not a kid! I'm a toddler!"

Family Time x 2

We got to have a double dose of family time this week, since we went to visit my family and then straight on to Aaron's family!

We went to Vernal first for a Schurz family reunion. This is my Dad's side of the family. This year we were in charge, so we've spent the last while planning meals and games and other entertainment. We had a picnic at the park with lots of water games for the kids. Technically, the water games were supposed to be for everyone, but the adults were mostly spoilsports and wouldn't come out to play in the water. Hooray for my Dad who was one of the few grown-ups to play in the water. He got soaked in the water fight that followed the more organized games. But hey, it was almost 100 degrees out - the water felt great! The other adults should have joined in.

We had crockpots full of pulled pork for the main meal. My sisters cooked that up and it was delicious. Sadly (for them!) quite a few people ended up leaving before the dinner, so we had a lot of meat left over. Enough that we decided we could freeze it and then feed it to the Fletcher reunion coming up next weekend! I'm all for conservation of effort... no need to cook again for the next reunion.

Even though it was only a short time since we saw my family for the Wardle reunion, it was so nice to see them again. And fun to see the extended family that I rarely get to visit with.

On Sunday we headed out to Roy to visit Aaron's parents. We spent Monday just relaxing around the house. That made a nice break after the busy time organizing the reunion! On Tuesday we went to the zoo. It was almost 100 degrees again, so I must admit that the zoo wasn't my first choice. I don't deal well with the heat when I'm pregnant and it made me feel pretty sick. But the kids had a great time with Grandpa & Grandma and their cousins.

While we were at the zoo, Haley lost her first tooth! She had only noticed it was loose the day before. While we were eating lunch, she said it was really hard to eat with her loose tooth. Then suddenly held her hand out to me with the loose tooth. It came out so quick and easy. The tooth fairy hasn't visited yet, since we've been away from home. But I believe tonight the tooth fairy will be stopping by our house.

On our way home yesterday, we detoured through Logan, UT. Aaron and I went to school there and it's where we met. It's been a long time since either of us has been back. We had a good time showing the kids some of the places where we had lived and gone to classes. They got a kick out of the Golden Toaster (nickname for the church building where we used to attend meetings). We stopped for some Aggie ice cream and we all really enjoyed that.

It was a long drive home from there. I don't know why it's always so much longer on the way home than on the way there... it doesn't just FEEL that way, it really is longer. We finally arrived home around 1 a.m. And once we got things hauled in from the car, kids to bed, etc. it was after 2 a.m. It made it awfully hard to get up when my alarm started going off a little after 5 a.m.! (Actually, I didn't manage to get up until 6, so I missed the bus. But I did enjoy that extra hour of sleep!)

It's Always Sunny In My Kitchen

Recently, our neighbors decided to repaint their house. The house was kind of an unattractive shade of tan and brown, so I can see why they wanted a change. However, I might not have chosen the color they selected.

It's an eye-searing, bright, bright yellow. If I could find the upload cord for my camera, I'd share a picture with you. Since I can't I'll just show you this:

Yeah, the house is the color of that sign. Attention getting when it's on a street sign. VERY attention getting when it's spread across an entire house. The oops message is fairly appropriate, too. I was talking to my neighbor the day after they finished the paint job and she said, "It's a little brighter than I thought it would be. I kind of thought it would be ... you know ... less. But it's cheerful, right?"

The only way I could respond was yes, it's definitely cheery.

For the most part, I don't really notice the bright house TOO much. We really just see it for a minute or two as we're going in or out of the house. Our yard is on the opposite side of our house, so even if we're out there with the kids, we don't see the neighbor's place because our house blocks it. But we do have a kitchen window that looks directly at the neighbor's house. The house is only about 10 feet from ours, so the yellow wall of their house fills the entire view from our kitchen window.

That bright yellow really just beams into the kitchen. On even the grayest, cloudiest day, that yellow wall makes it look like a bright sunny day outside the kitchen window. Sometimes it's a little startling, in fact, because it's so bright. But it's always cheerful. :)

Working with Nurses

At my office - and particularly in my department - I work with a lot of nurses. Many of them were labor and delivery nurses prior to coming to work here at NFP. And when we have education sessions (as we did last week) we have many more nurses from all over the country come to town for training.

In the last several months, I've discovered a few things about working with labor and delivery nurses while pregnant. They like to check up on you. Which is nice because it's a sign that they care! But sometimes it's a little much...

For example, for the last month or more, my feet have been enormously swollen. This is actually just normal for me during pregnancy. It's happened every time. I don't LIKE it, but I'm fairly used to it.

But I can't tell you how many times each week I am talking with one of the nurses or just passing in the hall and I see her eyes stray down to check out my feet. Before long, the conversation shifts to... So how are you feeling? Any headaches? Been seeing any spots? I'm constantly being evaluated for pre-eclampsia. :) For now, they're taking my assurances that I have feel fine and my blood pressure is nice and low. But I expect any day now that someone is going to haul out the blood pressure cuff and start checking that, too!

Of course, the flip side of this is that if I have a question or a problem, I'm surrounded by nurses. I can always track down someone to get an opinion. In previous pregnancies, I've hated the thought that I might go into labor at work. I dreaded that more than anything and was terribly relieved when it never happened. This time around, maybe going into labor at work wouldn't be so bad. At least I'd have plenty of people around who would know what to do. :D

And it's a...

BOY!

Yep. It will be three boys contributing to the chaos at our house. Haley will stay the lone princess of the group. She and Preston kept telling us they were hoping for a little sister, so we were afraid they'd be disappointed by the news yesterday after the ultrasound. But they were just excited to know one way or the other. Knowing that it's a little brother makes it a bit more real to them.

We asked them if they had any ideas for names. Preston suggested that we name this child Baby Brekken. We pointed out that it might cause some confusion, since we already have a Brekken in the family. Then he had no more ideas for us.

Haley suggested Brian. But since we already have my brother Brian, my brother-in-law Brian, and Aaron's friend Brian - it feels like we probably don't want to add yet another Brian to the list. She also suggested Spencer, Freddie (short for Fredward) and Gibby - characters from iCarly. I think we're going to pass on those - especially Fredward and Gibby!

Personally, I like the name Fletcher. I've been lobbying for Fletcher since the first time we were picking out a boy's name. However, I'm sure you've noticed that neither of my boys is named Fletcher. I have a feeling that this one won't be named Fletcher, either. Aaron feels very strongly that Fletcher is a last name, not a first name.

I've also always liked the name Jacob. But now with the Twilight craze, I think there will probably be a lot of Jacobs out there. So that one's probably out.

So we'll have to keep thinking and looking. Lucky thing we've got a few months left to decide!

Reunion Recap

I keep putting off writing a post about our 4th of July weekend and the reunion because I haven't gotten around to downloading any pictures from my camera yet. I finally decided that the pictures aren't that great anyway (partly because I kept forgetting to bring the camera with me anywhere) so I'll just talk about things and if I find a great picture later, I can share it then!

So on Thursday we headed out for our trip. That was July 1 - Aaron's birthday. So to do something fun for his birthday, we went to Leadville and rode the train there. It was a 2 1/2 hour round trip and we really enjoyed it. There was spectacular scenery. The weather was beautiful. The kids behaved themselves. It was just altogether a great time! Sadly, I forgot to bring any of Aaron's birthday presents along, so he didn't get to open anything on his birthday. Actually, he didn't get to open anything until about 2 days ago, when I finally remembered to give him his gifts!

Friday through Sunday were spent with my family on the mountain. It was fun to see everyone and visit. Happily, there were no big hailstorms or snow this year. There were a couple of big windstorms (enough that one tent got a big long rip in the side when a branch blew into it). And there was rain. But not torrential downpours, so it was manageable. While the adults tended to stay under canopies out of the rain, the kids really paid no attention to the rain. They were out playing any chance they got - wet or not!

We tried to take the kids fishing on Friday, but ran out of time. We tried again Sunday, but the weather was so cold, windy, and rainy that after a couple of hours (really!) of driving to different fishing spots hoping for better conditions, we gave up for the day. We made plans to go up the mountain bright and early on Monday morning so the kids could do a little fishing before we headed back to Colorado.

Sunday night is when the stomach flu hit our family. Brekken and Preston threw up all night long. I was feeling VERY grateful that we were staying in town instead of in a tent. At my mom's house we were able to wash laundry and wash children and keep up with the mess. I hate to think about trying to manage in a tent with no running water or electricity! The bug ran through a lot of our family - I don't even have a count of how many people ended up with it by the end of the week.

The kids were still sick on Monday morning, but very determined that they WOULD go fishing. So my dad and my brother were nice enough to take us all to a kids' fishing pond. It wasn't the lake, but at least they'd have the chance to throw the line in a few times and feel like they'd done some fishing! They actually perked up and tried fishing for a good hour or so and had a good time. Hopefully next year they can try some real fishing.

The ride home with 3 (Haley started in, too) sick kids and one Mom who was dealing with either the stomach bug or returning morning sickness (still unsure which) was not a lot of fun - the less said, the better, I'm sure! But happily everyone recovered pretty quickly and we have mostly a lot of good Reunion memories!