Summer Camping Trip 2012

Olivia was so excited to camp!

Last weekend we went camping with our awesome friends, David & Jamie. We love spending time with them and don't get to be together nearly enough so when they asked early last week if we wanted to go, we were all over that! We love camping but weren't terribly inclined to do so on our own with me very pregnant earlier this summer and with a toddler and newborn on our own now. We did take Sophie camping several times last summer at a nice campground close to our house (about 15 minutes up the canyon) but she was so young that this time might as well have been her first. It was our first time at Strawberry reservoir- beautiful! As soon as we got there, everything was "wow!!" to Sophie. New things to see, new treats she's never tried before- thanks for the sour patch kids, guys!- and getting to spend undivided attention time with several adults. Oh, and there was also the fun climbing in and out of the tent over and over again. :)

Other than it getting a bit colder than we planned, it was a great trip. Sophie had a blast, Olivia did well and we thoroughly enjoyed our little weekend vacation with friends. I'm hoping we can get one more camping trip in before it cools off too much. Maybe we'll be able to get some friends to join us at Whiting soon!

Rock Canyon fire we saw about 4:00 when
we were heading out after picking up
Craig from work. 

Snuggles & marshmallows

Our campsite- very pretty view!

As soon as the fire was lit, we told Sophie it was an "ow"
and she needed to stay away from it. She also saw us roasting
marshmallows, among other things, and wanted to join in.
Her solution? She put one on a fork and roasted it on her own.
It was probably the cutest/funniest thing she did all evening. 

Roasted marshmallows, starbursts &
reeses cups/s'mores. 

Waiting for dinner to finish. We had ribs,
cooler corn, biscuits & baked potatoes. 

Sophie loved the screen on the tent- it's funny to push your
face on-it feels funny. 

Trying out Olivia's bed- the bed Sophie slept on last summer

Deciding our bed was actually more comfortable.

Crawdad hunting by the reservoir after dinner.
Sophie kept gasping and saying "wow" whenever
she heard a frog or splash or just about anything.

Anyone remember this camping trick?
Put your headlamp facing IN on a gallon of water
and you have a great tent light. 

It gives off more (and less blindingly harsh)
light than the LED headlamp alone. 

Happy 11 Weeks, Olivia!

In honor of Olivia being 11 weeks old- holy cow- I am FINALLY going to share some pictures from her blessing day. It was absolutely fabulous to have so much family with us: almost Craig's entire immediate family and their families were able to join us, my mom & little brother were here from Connecticut, Erin & her family, great grandma & grandpa Peterson, Great grandpa Merrill and a bunch of our friends, too. We counted and at one point or another, we had 40 people in our house. I'm surprised our little town house didn't pop at the seams! It was a really wonderful day and we are so glad to have our newest little baby girl/baby sister!

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Blessed in the Mapleton 19th Ward

Blessed by: Craig, Uncles Brent Peterson, Mark Lyon, 

& Grant Robinson, Great Grandpa's Peterson & Merrill and Grandpa Peterson.

Olivia's new bracelet made from one of my necklaces

Tiny hands! 

The dress she was blessed in was my blessing dress and Sophie's.
My mom made it for me using fabric, lace & ribbon from her dad
and grandfather's blessing outfits. At this point, that is 4 generations
of use. Mom also crocheted the booties. 

Lunch.
We had lunch after church since people had come from
various distances. Sandwiches, fruit, vegetables, pasta salad,
"nuts about berries" salad, chips, lemonade, chocolate chip cookies
and a deelicious raspberry bread pudding. 

We even got David & Jamie to come!
 (It took sooo much bribing ;) ) 

Cousin Matthew, Aunts Becky, Jen & Jenny

What a Friday

I've been gone all day (7-5:30) every day this week teaching/working at SFHS' band camp. After long, tiring days, I've been somewhat disinclined to come home, make dinner, play with my girls and THEN clean bathrooms, do laundry etc. I've been looking forward to getting the house cleaned up, laundry done and grocery shopping for the rest of the month taken care of today (Friday) all week. Why? A couple reasons. The first being that my friend is getting married today and I really want to go to her reception this evening. And second, because I enjoy treating weekends like mini vacations and having fun with Craig and the girls and I don't really relax much until things like that are done.

Poor girl!

Sophie woke up this morning just after 7:00- a least an hour before she normally does- and was fussy/grumpy/clingy right away. Olivia was a little sick yesterday evening and I didn't sleep very well/much last night because every little sound woke me up and then she, too, want to be snuggled & fed about 7:15. Sign #1 I should have put everyone back in their beds. We finally made it down stairs about 9:00. Sophie ate some yogurt and then wanted to play. Olivia wanted to eat so we settled in the front room to take care of both. Sophie was happily dancing to the music on the baby play mat and I was chatting with my mom when Sign #2 came about. Sophie lost control of herself mid-twirl and ended up going face first into the bench by the stairs. She was obviously and justifiably upset. She hit right under her eye - thank goodness she didn't hit her eye!!- , across her nose and then hit her mouth on the wall. I was expecting to see blood when I got her up, a busted lip and hurt teeth. Her lip was swollen, under her eye is purple and swollen but no blood and all of her teeth are where they belong. One silly video chat with daddy, a sippy of milk and some raisins later, she was much happier.

Matching bruise on the left.
No, I didn't even take Olivia's
 paci from her while she
was upset.

She might be on to something-
that yogurt made her hair
even softer than normal.

Being the optimist I am, I decided this would be a good time to get Sophie dressed and let her pick out an outfit for Olivia to wear to the store. (Remember one of my goals for the day was a little grocery shopping?) We got the clothes and went back downstairs to get both girls ready to go. Olivia informed us she was still hungry and needed to eat now. Sophie had her shirt on and was happily running her riding toy around the room so I sat down, again, to try to feed the baby. She hadn't been eating very long when I heard a crash and scream from the kitchen. Sign #3. Sophie had attempted to climb back in her high chair to finish the yogurt she hadn't finished at breakfast and knocked the whole thing over. She was on the floor on her side, covered in yogurt & milk and again, justifiably, upset. This time, however, Olivia was NOT going to politely wait for me to take care of her sister. No. She wanted attention, too. While I was snuggling Sophie and getting her ready to get in the tub (did I mention she was covered from head to toe in peach yogurt?), Olivia screamed louder than I've ever heard before, upset herself a LOT, had a complete blowout which she then kindly managed to get on the carpet (lots of flailing and rolling from side to side) and the blanket she was laying on.

Thanks for being a team player and
cleaning the yogurt up, Herkimer. Please
don't give it back later. 

After Sophie was clean, I just put her in pjs in our bed with a sippy and turned on "Cars". Olivia has been cleaned up, changed and fed. I'm no longer wearing pants because if the day is going to keep going like this, really, what is the point? I'm sure after the next feeding my shirt is going to be covered in spit up- Olivia is a champion spitter- and Craig is going to find all of us in a heap in our bed when he gets home. Honestly, if I hadn't been in the middle of all of this, didn't smell like peachy-poop and have the fresh pile of laundry and photographic evidence, I wouldn't believe a word of this. Thank goodness it's Friday. : /

Happy Birthday, Daddy/Craig!

Since I have high school band camp all week from 7:00 am - 5:00 pm (I HATE being out that early when the post-midnight feeding is around 4:30) and Craig works all day on his birthday, Sophie thought it would be a good idea to spoil daddy and celebrate is birthday a little bit all day Saturday. After breakfast and getting things tidied around the house, we headed out to get parts for his birthday present: a work bench & organizational things for his little workshop in our garage! 

Sophie enjoyed helping daddy transport the boxes at IKEA.
Craig even made her a little bench. 

Our little diva girl. All loaded up and heading
to share a special little lunch treat before naps.

Ta Da! Craig's new work area in the garage
complete with saw horses, an adjustable height
work table, storage containers, a new power strip
and a spot for the table saw (not pictured) he got for
Fathers Day. 

David and Jamie saved the day by coming over to play-Sophie loves playing with them!- so I could take Craig out for a nice dinner. We didn't even have to go far from home to get it. I took him to the Grotto at Magleby's in Springville. It was nice getting dressed up and enjoying a nice dinner together.

Wood bin to the left. There will be peg board on each side
of the window for other tools eventually.

Prime rib, yummy whipped potatoes and
steamed summer vegetables. 

Rice pilaf, summer vegetables and a king
salmon filet. 

 It was a fun Saturday together and a great little pre-birthday birthday celebration.

July Activity Picture Post

Remember how I mentioned a week or so ago that I couldn't really remember a whole lot of specifics about July? Well, it's still true. The following is a post of pictures of some of the things we did while my mom and brother were in town. I don't have pictures (maybe a video or three somewhere- I'll need to find it) yet of the time we spent with Craig's family but I imagine those will be worth their own post. All of the cousins together- it was ... loud.

Some things we did that aren't pictured: 

• Went on lots of walks
• Had a deeeelicious night of really good sushi
• Sewed
• Finished organizing the nursery
• Bought and built a bench that is now by the front door
• Went to the play ground several times
• Baked chocolate chip cookies

July is a great time for light summer dresses

My sister, Erin, had her little studio set up
to get baby pictures of Olivia. While we
were taking a break to feed the babies, Sophie and
David decided they would pose for us instead! 

Sophie shared a delicious lunch of frozen yogurt with
uncle Andrew

Andrew de-furred our cats with an awesome new
comb so much that it looked like we had a full grown
cat sleeping on the porch where the pile of fur was.
This is NOT all of the fur... 

Sophie picked out some sparkly headbands
on a grocery trip with grandma and mommy.
They're better if you wear ALL of them at once.

Sophie is a true water baby. She loves playing in the pool
with daddy.

Uncle Andrew and his kitty, Skippy John Jones,
makes car rides lots of fun, especially when
you're extra tired. 

Blowing bubbles is the best!

Water balloons are pretty sweet, too!

Craig got Andrew a giant sugar cookie
when we had dinner with Grandpa Merrill

Introduced Andrew & mom to Thai food.
You could say Sophie is mildly obsessed with
the chicken dumplings. She can eat almost
2 full orders by herself. 

Built and played in forts at Erins house

Played peek-a-boo with our baby sister

Saw bears at the zoo with Uncle Andrew

Saw giraffes on our very first zoo trip

Went to a RS activity in Erin's ward to
hear an LDS artist speak about Nauvoo & such.
She had a beautiful home and we loved her garden.

We went to Ikea. I still love the glass and lighting in
those white cabinets. 

Visited great grandpa Peterson

And snuggled with great grandma Peterson

And Uncle Andrew, too! 

We went to Poppyseed Projects and saw some fun things
and got ideas for holiday decor and Christmas
present projects

Went to City Creek. Andrew found a cool tin
at the Deseret Book that had a spot for tithing,
fun money and mission money. I forgot to tell
him I was taking the picture- he was looking at
an iPad they had set up. Oops! 

Went to 7 Peaks with the cousins & grandma
a couple times. Grandma even went down water
slides!! And played in the wave pool and the lazy
river. It was awesome! Notice the matching outfits?

My SFHS girls got their brand new uniforms and flags.
Don't they look great? (The answer is YES!) :) 

Snuggled with grandma lots and lots in
many cute matching outfits.

In our next post, I'll share pictures and such from Olivia's blessing day.