Fourth of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July, I hope you did too!

We played in the pool...

And we had a water balloon fight....

{August made this hilarious face}

Ate BBQ....

{Martha Steward Red White and Blueberry Trifle}

{Julie made these super awesome jellos!} 

We watched the neighbor's fireworks...

And we set off some of our own.....

{This is my 'be careful' face}

{Of course I get a good picture of Scarlett with her sparkler, but not of my kids}

And then it started to rain...

 {This is Scarlett saying, "You can go stand in the garage."  AKA: I don't want to share my umbrella with you.}

I hope you're all having a sunny, warm, wonderful summer!

*Thanks to Julie for some of these pictures*

Baseball Opening Day

Chandler started baseball. Opening day was massive, and a great time!

Spring Break: Part Two

Brandon's birthday was Saturday, and he gets a day off work for his birthday!  (yay, new company policy!) So we headed to Grandma's house on Thursday after work..

On Friday we drove up to LA to buy Brandon a suit for his birthday, since that's what he wanted.. doesn't it look great with that polo?  lol

 Saturday we hung around while Brandon played on my brother's ward basketball team and watched the first half of the Clipper's game, and then we were allowed to do fun stuff..

Like go to the beach, and swim in the pool at the beach Condo..

Adam took Chandler on his long board.  Supposedly he's pretty good.  Mostly, he just keeps telling me he did better than Grandma.

Also, we ate BBQ at Phill's in San Marcos, and it was awesome!

Then we were too tired for games and watched So I Married an Ax Murder instead.

Sunday was, of course, wonderful!

The boys hunted for eggs after church.

It's serious business..

And Grandpa dyed eggs with the boys.

We had a fabulous Easter dinner and sang happy birthday to Brandon, complete with this bunny cake grandma made for him!

I'm so excited for summer!! I can't believe how fast this year is going.  

Spring Break: Part One

By Tuesday of Spring break, I was wondering what we were going to do all week, but then things picked up and the week flew by!

We had pizza and slumber parties with friends..

Chandler wore a mustache

 We did a lot of general just hanging around...

The Wachs had us over to swim in their new pool!!!!  

We also had lots of friends over to play, planned an enrichment activity, went to the splash pad, the park, and the library.  Then on Thursday night, we packed up and headed to Grandma's house...

Conference Weekend

I missed March!  I've never skipped an entire month before.  The last post I wrote was about snow; which is weird because highs are reaching the 90s in the next couple of days... welcome, Vegas summer!  It's not that's there's been nothing going on, it's actually quite the opposite.  We've been crazy busy: baseball games, birthday parties, trips to my parents, magic mountain, enrichment activities, and conference.  And it's conference weekend that I'm going to blog (picture dump) about.

There was some necessary car switching and engagement picture taking that needed to happen over this past weekend.  As a result, my parents, Natalie, Miranda, Jared and Jen (Jared's new fabulous fiance) all came to stay with us for a fast and wonderful weekend.

We played lots of games, watched lots of conference, and ate lots of food.

{Mom, I washed my hands!!}

{Jen made these amazing/now my kids only eat octopus shaped pancakes for the boys.. She's incredible}

{Chandler and President Monson}

And finally, the explanation for why I just used my phone for all those above, not so wonderful pictures.... I was tired of my DSLR (sometimes we need a break, okay?) from taking pictures of my brother Jared and his beautiful finace..... at 6:00 am

SNOW!

It was supposed to be 75 degrees that Saturday, but we figured it was only going to get hotter, so we headed up the mountain in search of snow. We found a little.  Luckily it was a little colder up there...maybe, 60?  lol

We forgot our sleds, but we made the best of it, by sliding on our butts.....

....and backs...

generally, it was a blast

.... until Chandler got snow in his boots (which were rain boots)...

Good thing Mike came and he can build a fire anywhere...

 Oh, happy day!

 PS: Thanks to Julie for taking all the pictures, since my camera died before one shot. :-/

The Transformation of Hope

I have read many stories that go like this, "I miscarried and it was so hard, and then I got pregnant again and it was wonderful... and there's hope." After my miscarriage last February, I read them all. I scoured the internet, eating them up. I read them on blogs and pieced together stories from online messaging boards. I extracted hope from friends who had experienced miscarriage. I calculated hypothetical situations based on statistics and "Dr. Google" research...

"Most women who miscarry go on to have a healthy pregnancy after miscarriage. Less than 5 percent of women have two consecutive miscarriages, and only 1 percent have three or more consecutive miscarriages."

"85% of women will go on to conceive a healthy pregnancy with in one year of miscarriage."

"Surely," I told myself, "I will be largely pregnant by Christmas.... I will be throwing up by [that] trip."

I inhaled hope from all sources.  I was going to power through this thing.

.......................................................................................

Then there were two more miscarriages.... and then months of negative pregnancy test. Then I was no longer a text book case. I became something totally different.

"A frustrating case"

"Really strange"

"A heartbreaking patient"

"Just odd"

All this prefaced with "You have two live children and no problems before or between them?"

And in the process of losing that textbook status, I lost something else. That hope. That hope that had pushed me through the beginning. It is changing.

.......................................................................................

I want to share my happy ending. The birth announcement or ultrasound. But, my hope is changing. Changing from a hope for a baby to a hope for understanding. It's a hope to understand that God knows what my happy ending is. Sometimes I feel angry when people tell me not to "loose hope." I haven't lost hope, God is transforming it.

While the hope of a future pregnancy is still here, I keep it safe. It is fragile and sacred to me.