Oquirrh Mouhtain Temple

On Saturday, my parents, Alisha, Adam, the 3 kids, and I had the opportunity to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was a very different, but beautiful temple. It had more earthy tones; even the exterior was more of a brownish color rather than the white/gray color that most of the other temples are. The Celestial room of the temple was beautiful, of course. One thing that I really liked was the chandelier's in both the Celestial and Sealing rooms. They had more of a geometric shape to them, very beautiful. Mikkele was especially excited about the baptisimal font. She is looking forward to the time (3 more years) that she will be able to go do baptisms for the dead. It has been a neat experience to go with her to this temple as well as the new Draper Temple and see her excitement and desire to one day be able to go to the temple. Here are a few pictures we took after the tour....

Grant, Me, Mikkele, Alisha, Hallie, Adam, and Dad

Alisha, Hallie, Me, Mikkele, Dad, Grant, and Mom

Papa and Granty walking around to keep Grant happy. Or is it the other way around???

My cute Mikkele

My Laundry Room

Call me crazy, but I am so excited about the changes we have made to our laundry room. First just a little info about our house and the laundry room. Our house was built in 1959. There have been a lot of upgrades done, but there are also a lot of things that could still be upgraded. There are also things that I LOVE about it being older and there are things that I absolutely HATE about it being older. One of those things is the "laundry room". It's really not a room at all. It's a little space at the end of my kitchen. There is no shelf or cabinets for me to store our laundry supplies, so therefore it is all stacked on our dryer. No so attractive, especially when it is in full view when you're sitting at the kitchen table. So it has been a dream of mine (one of the many) since we bought the house (2 years ago) to install some sort of shelf or cabinets to hide all of my crap. And yes crap...let's face it...more than just the laundry supplies end up getting piled on the dryer. So anyway the other day we were talking with our neighbor that is a carpenter, and he told us that he has some cabinets that are just sitting in his shop that needed a home. So he and Jeremy worked out a trade for some mechanic work and WALAH I have cabinets in my laundry room. I am beyond exstatic about how great they turned out. Now I just wish I could redo my kitchen right now. :( But here are some of the before, during, and after pictures. I'm sure you won't be as excited about it as I am, so just be excited that I'm excited. :)

BEFORE

Some of the crap has already been cleaned out, mind you. Like the bra's that were hanging on the rod drying when he came over to measure. Can you say EMBARRASSING?

DURING

AFTER

Stocked full with my crap, with even some room to spare for more crap.

Softball

We finished up Mikkele's softball season yesterday. This was her first year of girls pitch. Her team ended up doing really well in regular season play and finished 3rd overall. Since they did so well they got to go to the tournament. It was double elimination tournament that went Monday-Wednesday of this week. Teams were from all over, even as far away as Manti. We won our game Monday, but lost 2 games yesterday. Mikkele and I were both ok with that though. It was hot, and the kids were getting tired. If they kept winning they could have played up to 4 games yesterday. So we're ok being done.
Mikkele is still figuring out the game a little, and trying to decide which position she likes the best. She decided she doesn't like playing catcher. She tried pitching a little and wants to pitch more, but needs to get a litle stronger and more accurate. She mostly played outfield and 1st and 2nd base. She is pretty aggressive when she is up to bat. She really wants to smack the ball. Because of that she struck out a bit, but when she hit the ball she did great. She even sacrificed her body a couple times and took a couple hits. But hey...it gets her on base and moves runners. No problem with taking one for the team every now and then. And of course since it's girls pitch and the girls are still learning how to pitch there are a lot of balls pitched and there is a lot of walking. Which makes for some REALLY long innings.
So overall it was a good season, she learned a lot, got a lot of good experience, and I'm glad it's finally over. :)

Up to bat waiting for that perfect pitch.

Good eye. Way to watch it.

Playing center field. The outfileders play really far up since the girls don't typically hit the ball past the dirt of the infield.

Hitting the ball during tournament.

Scoring a run during tournament. This is the game that they won.

Team picture after the last game yesterday.

Happy 4th of July

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July. Here's a couple pictures of Hallie in her red, white, and blue. Hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th.

Small smile. Love it!

1 Month Old

Hallie turned 1 month old yesterday. I've been thinking that I've been a horrible mother, cause I've hardly taken any pictures of her since her birth. So I turned the front room into a studio and have taken picture overload the last couple days. But before we get to the overload of pictures, here are a few things about Hallie at 1 month. She has been a pretty good little baby so far. She is still sleeping really well. (Knock on wood.) She is usually down for the night between 10 and 11, up sometime in the 4 o'clock hour and then not again until sometime between 6 and 8. She has more and more awake times during the day, and is starting to develop a better routine to her sleeping patterns. Hallie's weight was finally up at our last weight check. She was 8 lbs. 4 oz. Still not quite back up to birth weight, but at least she's gaining. We have to continue the supplementing so that she keeps gaining weight and not maintaining. My milk supply isn't very much right now either. They want me to breastfeed, then bottle feed, and then pump. It's just gotten to be too much, especially with Grant's needs and Mikkele's busy schedule. So I am breastfeeding a few times a day, and bottle feeding the other times, and no pumping. Maybe if life slows down a bit I can try pumping to get my milk supply up again, but for right now I'm ok with what we are doing. She hasn't really loved car rides and bath time so much yet, but she is starting to come around a bit. It helps if she has a full belly before both. Jeremy was holding her yesterday and got a smile out of her. Maybe it was just gas, but it made him pretty happy. It was a pretty good Father's Day present for him from his baby girl. She hasn't done it again yet, but I'm sure it's not too far off that she'll be doing it all the time. Now on to the overload of pictures. ENJOY!

A little mischevious pose

She looks thoughful in this one.

Sorry Aunt Lisha...I peed on the cute blanket you made for me.

These last two were taken before church yesterday. I think she looks like she's winking in the last one.

Cristi's Creations

I came across this website today. It has a bunch of FREE cute backgrounds. Thought I'd pass on the info for those that are interested. You can just click on the above image and you'll be taken to her site.

Cheer Clinic

Mikkele has been participating in a cheer leading clinic the last couple weeks. They put on a performance last night to showcase what they have been learning. She learned a few cheers and a dance. She did a good job and looked really cute. She's kinda hard to see in the pics/video because she's on the back row. She's the cute one in the blue shorts. :)

2 Weeks Old

Hallie turned 2 weeks yesterday. I can't believe that it's been 2 weeks already. She had her 2 week appointment yesterday. She weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and is 21 inches long. She has grown one inch and is down exactly one pound. The doctor isn't too worried right now about the weight loss, but he does want to see her back next week for a weight check to make sure she is gaining and not losing more or staying the same. He said that she should gain an ounce per day, so we are shooting for low 8 lbs next week. As long as she is gaining we won't have to worry about it, if she's not then I'll have to start supplementing. Hopefully everything will go well and she will gain some weight. She is staying awake more during the day and sleeping pretty good at night. She usually goes to bed around 9 or 10 and sleeps until 1 or 2, eats and then goes back down until sometime between 6 and 8. Not too bad. Hopefully a sign of a good sleeper in the future. My mom left to go back home this morning, so now starts the real test of how to manage this on my own while Jeremy is at work. It's not going to be easy filling the big shoes that my mom has left. She was such a HUGE help! We miss you mom, thanks for all your help. We couldn't have done it without you these first 2 weeks!

One Busy Week

The week of May 18-24 was a busy week for our family. We had school ending, softball, doctor appointments for me and Grant, Little Entertainers rehersals, swim therapy, birthday parties, and then baby Hallie decided to make her debut. There are a few new posts that I've done today to try to catch up on our busy week. So make sure you scroll down to see all of them.

End Of The Year Programs

Mikkele had her end of the year program Tuesday evening, May 19th. We had heard that the 3rd grade always puts on the best program and the kids had been learning songs for months, so we were excited to see what they were going to present. They didn't disappoint. The title of the program was "We Make A Rainbow". Each class represented a different culture. They sang a lot of different songs from a lot of different countries/continents/cultures. Mikkele's class did a few Polynesian type songs. They did the Hawaiian Stick Dance, the girls did the Hukilau, the boys did the Huka. Mikkele was also chosen as one of four girls out of the entire 3rd grade to do a duet to a song called "Up Up With People". The whole 3rd grade sang the 1st verse, then the 4 girls sang the 2nd verse. She did a great job, and the program was a huge success. 1st Verse of "Up Up With People"Gigi and Mikkele singing the 2nd Verse of "Up Up With People"

The Hawaiian Stick Dance

Mikkele, Gigi, and Rietta doing the Hukilau.

Grant had his preschool program on Wednesday May 20th. The theme for the program was everything bugs. They sang some songs that they have learned this year about bugs and then we watched a little DVD that showed pictures of things the kids had done over the year. It was really cute. Lucky for him (and me) he gets to have a small break and then go back for 6 weeks of summer school. It's only 2 days a week instead of 4, but anything is better than nothing. He is a kid that really relys on a good schedule, and school helps to provide that consistency. He has an amazing teacher, Miss Rachael and amazing one-on-one aid, Miss Britt. They are so good to our little Granty. Now we just have to wait 2 more weeks and he gets to go back. :)

Miss Rachael

Miss Britt