All kinds of summer fun!

Finally catching up!!! This post is just a collection of some of our summer adventures. I also did a post about Syd's wedding day, which you can find right below this one :)

About a week after the wedding, Wes and I took Jake to the Spanish Fork Fair. He loved watching all the carnival rides, went down a giant slide with daddy, and generally had a blast.

Jake's favorite thing was the duck game. He got to choose a duck and trade it in for a prize!!

He chose this blue ball as his duck prize. The rest of the fair we sat down in the park and let him run around til he passed out.

At the end of July we had a ton of thunderstorms--Very unusual for a utah summer. Jake and I spent a lot of time cooped up in the house. He found lots of ways to stay entertained :)

Yep-he put on the headband himself--and wore it all afternoon. yikes.

We weren't able to use Jake's swim diapers for the pool with all the rain, but he found other uses for them :)

A few weeks ago I went to my good friend Cheronne's baby shower. Wesley watched Jake so I could go and enjoy the afternoon. I made some yummy yummy cupcakes to contribute to the fun!

Bellies! I was at 20 weeks in this picture--Cheronne had 3 weeks left :)

About a month ago Jake starting climbing in and out of his crib, so we decided it was finally time to get him ready for a big boy bed. We did it in phases, starting with just taking off the bar of his crib. Eventually we converted the crib into a toddler bed, and then this weekend we introduced him to his new twin bed! The transition has been smoother than we could have hoped, and I'm so happy to see him enjoying his new bed!

These were taken on the day we took off the crib bar. He was thrilled to see his crib could do something that cool!

A couple weeks ago we took Jake to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. I don't know why we never did that with him before now, because he loved it!!!! His favorite things were feeding the goats and riding the ponies!

He was amazed to see a cow indoors!

Jake loved feeding the baby goat :)

The animals were completely forgotten every time an airplane or helicopter flew by.

He wasn't so sure about the lamas at first, but he warmed up after awhile!

After the wagon ride

After one round with daddy holding his leg, Jake decided he wanted to ride all by himself! Jake isn't much of a daredevil, so the bravery was a nice surprise.

So my main reason for going this long without posting is that we moved up to Pleasant Grove this month! It's been an exhausting experience, but we are slowly getting unpacked and settled. Jake is doing wonderfully in his new room and new bed, and we couldn't be happier about our new apartment! It's less than a mile from Wesley's office (main selling point for renting here) and I have a grocery store about 30 seconds away. Life is good, my pregnancy is going great, and I'm feeling joyful about this new chapter in our lives. I will take some pictures once things get a little less hectic. Until then, I will be unpacking, organizing, and diving into another spectacular utah fall season. In fact, I think I'll go make some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies right now :) Thanks for reading!

Wedding Day!

I'm finally putting up a few pictures from Syd's wedding day--Things have been pretty hectic the last few weeks, but I'm going to do a few quick catch up posts today and hopefully I won't get so behind in the future.

The day was both wonderful and exhausting. It started around 5:45 in the morning with a quick shower before I did Sydney's hair. The timeline of the day went something like this:

6:00 -- Beautifying the bride

8:00 -- Head up to Salt Lake with the Jake in tow

9:30 go into the temple and wait for the sealing to begin (thanks again to the Phelps for watching the kiddos during the ceremony!)

around noon--we all sweated it out on the temple grounds, snapping photos, and trying to keep jake from completely losing it in his long sleeve shirt, black pants, and tie. (it was seriously boiling out there)

1:00 Luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial building (Thanks AGAIN to the Phelps for watching my child in the afternoon. They took him and Sawyer and walked around Salt Lake with our strollers for a couple hours..during naptime...but with children who wouldn't sleep..in the heat blaze... you guys saved us.)

Then we killed about an hour driving around so Jake could get in a small nap, and headed to the reception center. The reception was beautiful, the food was scrumptious, and I can't believe we survived with a child who is frightened of large crowds, and normally goes to bed at around 7:30. But we did! The reception center had a brides room, and when Jake got tired and anxious, he retreated to that room and watched movies on his dvd player until the party was over. Thank goodness for that room! Here are a few pictures of the day.

I haven't seen the photographers stuff yet, but if there are any extra cute ones of my little family, I will probably post those later on :)

pre-wedding madness

Last month was one of the busiest and most fun that I've had in quite awhile. That's because it was wedding month!!! Yes, for those who didn't know, my little sister sydney has abandoned her maiden name of "schindler" and is now an official "sherwood". In some ways it's strange to think that she is married now, but mostly I'm just happy that she is settled and entering this next exciting phase of her life! Of course, we all know that getting married young isn't something thats very shocking to me.. Syd is already 21-- I was 19 when I tied the knot ;).

Now that the wedding is over and life has gone back to normal, I figured it was about time I start updating my blog on all of our adventures! This post will be all about the pre-wedding acticities of those couple weeks. I'll get to the actual wedding day next time.

Around 4 pm on July 10th, my parents rolled into town with their van packed to the gills. They had hauled out all of Syd's virginia wedding shower gifts, presents for the little boys, and all the decor and trimmings to make the wedding go off in true Schindler fashion. Syd had arrived the week before to get a head start on her own last minute errands, and so she drove up to the Salt Lake Airport that day the get Jessica and Sawyer (Nate came a few days before the wedding--Dental School doesn't allow for weeks and weeks of free days ;) ). So by 7 pm that night, the schindlers were under one roof, and project wedding was underway! The week was consumed with running errands, assembling party favors and sewing endless table runners--to name a few things. But we were all together and felt so joyful preparing for the big day! We managed to squeeze in a few non wedding activities, and just had a blast being in each others company. Unfortunately, I left the picture taking mostly to everyone else, so I've had a time of it tracking down pictures. Here are the ones I do have, and I may end up posting up more as I get them.

We had a fun filled bachelorette party one night at PF Changs. The food was delish, and the conversation was fabulous. It was a great way to send off Sydney into married life!

Ok, so my last post I announced that we are going to be having a girl, but I never took the time to write about my experience in finding out. I actually found out at 17 weeks instead of the more traditional 20 weeks. My parents were in town and we decided it was worth paying for an extra ultrasound so that they could be there for the big reveal! So one afternoon, my parents and Jake and I piled into the van and drove up to the ultrasound facility. We met up with Wesley who had just gotten off work.

With my heart beating right out of my chest, we marched into that office. I pulled up my shirt, let the man put some goo on my tummy, and we were off! For those who didn't know, Wesley and I were really hoping for a girl. Although it would've been so nice for Jake to have a brother, I've just felt so strongly that he would do really well with a sister! (Plus, if I'm being completely honest, I've also been daydreaming a lot about bows, and pink, and flower headbands, and frilly bum underwear.) After a few minutes of prodding my tummy with his ultrasound wand thing, the doctor announced that he could identify the gender. And then he typed three wonderful words across my baby's ultrasound picture--"it's a girl".

I sat frozen for just a second, and then began badgering him. "are you sure?? is it because you can't see a thingy?? or is it for sure a girl?? show me the part!" It was probably a bit rude of me, but he patiently showed me his findings until I was satisfied. At this point I said something so ridiculous. With tears in my eyes, I looked at that man and said "OH!!! BLESS YOU!!!!"

It was such a wonderful experience, and I'm so happy that my parents were able to be there with us. Thanks mom and dad, for coming! (and for paying for that ultrasound;) ).

After the appointment, we stayed at the mall for awhile and let Jake run around the playground, and Oma and Opa even took him for a train ride! It was an awesome day.

Jake loved having so many people in his house. Everywhere he looked, someone was willing to play with him!

One afternoon we left the kids with the men and took off for a relaxing pedicure. We actually went to the Acaydia school under the Wells Fargo building in Provo, and it was a wonderful experience. I'll never go anywhere else again for a pedicure, as long as I'm living in utah :)

The day before the wedding we got together for a casual lunch at the Pizza Factory with the Thelins. It was so much fun getting together with our side of the family in a more relaxed setting. I loved having the chance to catch up with all my cousins, and it was awesome to see the little kids run around together a bit. I didn't get any decent pictures, and I can't believe we didn't take a group shot!!! But I do have a couple with the 4 kids that were able to come to the lunch.

Boyd wasn't too excited about posing for those particular pictures. But still, what cute kids huh!?

Last thing I want to write about is actually from the day after the wedding. We met up with Jerai and her little boy and my aunt and uncle at the Scera pool. After the whirlwind wedding day, it was so nice to chill out at the poolside for an afternoon! Here are just a couple photos from that.

Next post, I will write all about the wedding day. til then, cheers!!!

IT'S.............

A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PINK PINK PINK

ABSOLUTELY

CAN'T

WAIT!!!!!!

I am so overjoyed. Baby Girl Hurst--We can't wait to meet you!

A couple summer snapshots!!

Hi everyone! This isn't a real post, I just have a few pictures I want to share, and thought I would quickly put them up on here :) I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of july! I know we did!

This photo was taken at just over 14 weeks along. There's a baby in there!!! yayayay!!!!

Some cute pics of Jake--Syd took these on the 4th of july

Wesley and I went out for a day date on monday. Thanks for watching Jake Syd! (also, I'm just under 16 weeks, so thats my current belly size)

By the way, Jake had his first dentist check up yesterday. No cavities and no tears!! a very successful appointment :)

start of summer

I feel like I've fallen off the face of the blog world for the last couple months. Other than my epic "announcement post", I haven't written a decent update in at least 2 months. yikes. I don't really like to let it pile up that way, so I'm going to attempt a little bit of catching up.

The past couple months of life (also known as the first trimester) have been relatively consistent, and not too interesting. We've done some fun stuff here and there, but most days have been made up of searching for healthy and yummy foods to satisfy my cravings, trying to keep up with housework, and playing with Jake. Thanks to a much easier trimester this time around (and not working out of my house) I've been able to continue exercising most days. Since I was lucky enough to start my pregnancy in the springtime, I start or end most days with a good size walk, pushing Jake in my trusty stroller. I hardly exercised at all last time around, and I've gotta say, the daily endorphin kick has really helped balance out my raging hormones, and I have a good hunch that it even helped calm my nausea! So yay for that :)

Jake has been such a fun little friend to hang out with through my weeks of adjusting to pregnancy. He is so full of joy and life and yet he always seems to know when mom really needs to chill out (and will even bring me his favorite blanket, and tuck me in on the couch with it!) He is talking more and more all the time, and it's been really fun tapping into his hilarious personality. He still calls me "Monni" instead of "mommy", and I'm not sure if he'll ever correct it. And I don't really mind either ;). We tend to have a running dialogue where he will tell me about some fantastic discovery, and will endlessly repeat what he found until I let him know that I am totally onboard and understand what he is saying. "Monni!! Monni!! Look!!!! a bug, a bug, a BUG, a BUG!" This will pretty much go on forever until I say "Yes, Jake, you are right that is definitely a BUG."

Life is so much fun with a toddler.

Other than my daily adventures with the kid, we have had a few exciting days in between. On June 4th, we celebrated my 24th birthday. It landed on a Friday this year, and I decided to plan all kinds of fun stuff for myself for the whole weekend. On Friday and Saturday morning I just celebrated with Wesley and Jake. Wesley had one of his best friends come into town that weekend, and he stayed with us for a few days. It was so nice to have company, and it made me so happy to see Wesley enjoying himself with his old mission buddy. Also during that weekend, I went up to Ikea and bought new bedding, and had a girls night with Cheronne!! the boys watched the kids, and we were able to go see a movie. I love my girls nights, and am so grateful to have a husband that is not only willing to give me those, but volunteers himself if I don't ask to go out for more than a few weeks! Thanks honey!

The following Monday I had an extra special treat. My cousin Jerai was in town and she and her little boy came and stayed with us for a couple days. Monday afternoon we met up with Cheronne and took the boys swimming. All 3 of our boys have birthdays within a year of each other, so it was really fun to see them all play together at the pool!

I have been a horrible picture taker lately, but I do have a few I can share. I hope you like them!

Although Wesley works hard enough during the day, he's been so helpful in taking Jake off of my hands on lots of nights too. (I've been the most sick in the evening time) Thanks for helping me survive the dreaded first trimester honey!

no, we are not potty training. I mean, we bought the potty, and I think he gets idea, but at this point, he just likes to sit on it and pretend to go. so no, we are not even close to out of diapers.

Random picture of Jake and Jerai's little guy Boyd on a visit from Idaho! Jake loves having friends come to stay :)

Wesley and I took Jake up to the "Strawberry Days festival" in Pleasant Grove last week. We didn't end up taking him on any rides, but it was sure fun to be there and do some serious people watching :)

They say you pop faster with your second pregnancy. Well it's been true for me so far. This photo was taken at 11 weeks (my birthday!) I'm now at 14 weeks, but I haven't taken a good belly shot since this one. I will update that soon though :)

I have a few more Jake updates before I wrap up this post. You know how I always say that Jake is incredibly independent? How I wish he would cuddle with me more? Well, the past few weeks I have gotten my wish. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just a phase, but Jake has been so darling and cuddly! He asks for hugs and kisses fairly often, and is happy to sit in my lap and read books every evening. I don't know what triggered the change, but I'm not complaining, and I just hope he keeps it up! (Maybe he is just sensing that a little competition is on the way with the new baby ;) )

Jake is also usually a little nervous around strangers and new kids, and tends to cry when he feels cornered. I'm happy to say that he seems to finally be toughening up a bit. The other day we were at the pool and it was extremely crowded. Jake was paddling around in his little water ring, and some bigger kids ran into him, splashing and kicking. I thought for sure I would have a crying mess on my hands in about 2 seconds. But Jake just looked at me with these wide eyes, wrapped his little legs around my tummy, and shouted "OOOOH MONNI!!! OOOOOOH MONNI!!!" Not only was I relieved that a crisis was averted, but I thought that was just about the funniest reaction I've ever seen.

I hope all of you are having a fun filled start to your summer, and are finding things every day to be joyful about. As for me, I am now just counting down the days until my family comes to stay for Sydney's wedding! Cheers!