First Birthday Party!

Today the theme at Kelly's Korner is childrens birthday parties. I can't believe we are just weeks away from having another birthday! It seems like yesterday that we had Savannah's first birthday party. It was quite impromptu, and not exactly planned out, but it was a blast! My favorite pictures are above. I will never forget Savannah diving face first into her birthday cake. She thoroughly enjoyed it!

Also...in case anyone was wondering...I DON'T have gestational diabetes. Everything came back normal with my second glucose screen, so yay! That's a relief.

Not your average Potter fans!

Steve and I went to see The Half Blood Prince this afternoon. I loved it! I've heard some people say they also really liked it and some say they hated it. I do have to say that I was a little disappointed with the ending, but I never expect movies to be just like books, so I prepare myself for differences. It was good though, you should definitely check it out!

Day at the doctors...

So apparently I failed my glucose tolerance test last week. I had to go in today to take the 3-hour test, which by the way lasts more than 4 hours. Basically I sat in the waiting room from 9:45 until 1:45 and drank a nasty drink, which is twice as strong as the drink from the first test, and got my blood taken every 4 hours. Plus, I had to fast the whole time. Not a good idea to make a pregnant woman fast. Whoever came up with this test is insane! Honestly, there has to be a better way. It was brutal. Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have gestational diabetes. They say that about 25% of women fail the first test and most of them don't have gestational diabetes. Apparently there are just a lot of false positives, so I guess we'll see.

Purple Bloomers

We were sitting on the front porch enjoying the summer evening, with the sprinklers on, when Savannah decided she wanted to get wet. So...off went her dress and into the sprinklers she went with nothing but bloomers on. It was a blast watching her play and I took about a million pictures. Summer time is the greatest!

Family Reunion Day

We spent the day hitting up a few family reunions. We had the Bingham (Steve's mom's family) reunion first and then we headed down the road to the Pickett reunion a few hours later. Both were really fun and it was great to catch up with family. Savannah had a blast playing with all of her cousins. At the Pickett reunion there were water toys set up for the kids and Savannah was very occupied. I don't think I've ever seen her stand in one place for as long as she stood at the water table. I definitely see one in our future. Anything that keeps Savannah occupied for that long is worth any amount of money in my mind. Anyway, it was a great day full of family and yummy picnic food.

Savannah and Elizabeth...such cute girls. Both shoeless and both little daredevils! Savannah was such a mess after the first reunion that she required a full outfit change, wipie bath and hair redo! She also required another outfit change after the second reunion because she was soaked from head to toe. A sure sign that she had a blast. I am so thankful for all of Savannah's older cousins who are always so willing to chase her and play with her. She loves them all so much!

Fireworks

We got a little crazy tonight and busted out some fireworks... monster snaps that is. You know the kind you throw and they make a little snapping noise. Wild, I know. Savannah was thrilled by them though. I know I have a lot of pictures of her making the same face, but it was such a cute face that she was making, covering her mouth like she just couldn't believe it. We had fun. We decided we'll have to break down and do some real fireworks for the 24th.

Caribbean Bound!

Kevin got his mission call today! He is going to the Santo Domingo West mission in the Dominican Republic. He will be leaving on November 4. He is SO EXCITED and we are thrilled for him. He will be spending 3 weeks in the Provo MTC and then 5 weeks in the MTC there. He only has to bring 1 suit and mostly short-sleeved shirts, so it sounds like he's going to be enjoying some pretty amazing weather! We love you Kevin! (And I'm hoping to see a killer farmers tan when you get home!)As a side note, I'm excited because Kevin will probably get to meet Sophie before he goes. I had pretty much been planning on him not meeting her until she was 2. My due date is November 2 and Savannah was 12 days early, so I'm guessing I'll be having Sophie before November 4 (although you can never really plan these things!). I'm also excited because I was the only one who guessed that he would be going to the Dominican Republic in the guessing game we played a few weeks ago. A total shot in the dark, but still feels good! Haha!

Happy Birthday Karleigh!

Happy Birthday Karleigh Girl! We spent the afternoon at the park celebrating Karleigh! Brad's family is on their way to Yellowstone and stopped in Logan for lunch and a little celebration. It was fun to watch Karleigh open her presents and eat her cake. We miss her already. We love you Karleigh!

As a side note, obviously these pictures are terrible. My flash and the sun weren't agreeing today.

I also had a prenatal appointment today. Everything looks great with baby Sophie! I had to do my glucose test today and it was terrible! I hate that nasty orange drink, plus it makes me sick to my stomach. Yuck! I'm glad it's over with. Let's hope I don't fail it and have to take the test again!

Life with 2...

Spending my time with 2 little girls all day has made me realize how much my life is about to change. And not because of Karleigh...she has been a perfect angel since she's been here. If anything, she's made me realize how wild and crazy Savannah is. She's also made me very excited to have a 3-year-old. Three seems much more managable than 2! Savannah has picked up the nickname wild child this week and she's definitely living up to it. I love taking Savannah places and doing fun things with her. And although I'm getting bigger, hotter and more uncomfortable, we've still managed to do a lot of fun things this summer. Today I had an experience that made me want to lock myself in the house, turn on the TV and never take Savannah out again.

We went to storytime at the library. Savannah was "that" child. She couldn't sit still, couldn't be quiet and wanted nothing to do with any of my direction...typical 2-year-old behavior, I'm sure, but still....it's frustrating. Plus, anytime I tried to contain her she would throw a tantrum. Head flung back, high pitched screams, the whole nine yards. Any other day I would have picked her up and left, but Karleigh was being so good and she had been so excited to go to the library and listen to stories and I just couldn't make her leave. So I was trying desperately to keep Savannah contained and quiet. When she was standing about 6 inches from my face, I handed her my cell phone and she chucked it back at my face...hard. I literally got tears in my eyes and not just because it hurt. I was SO FRUSTRATED.

Finally, finally storytime was over and we started heading out of the library, Karleigh holding one hand and Savannah holding the other. Well the library has automatic doors to the outside, and Savannah suddenly let go of my hand and started running...and she runs FAST. Imagine me, big fat pregnant lady, trying to catch up with her while dragging Karleigh along with me. Karleigh fell before we made it outside and started crying, but Savannah was already outside and almost to the street. I had to leave Karleigh crying in the middle of the library hallway while I sprinted (as fast as big fat pregnant lady can sprint) out to get Savannah who immediately started tantruming as soon as I picked her up. Meanwhile, Karleigh is lying on the library floor, bawling and I'm trying to run back to her, holding a kicking and screaming Savannah. Can we say nightmare. Add my own hormonal hysteria to the mix and the fact that I am finally starting to feel this pregnancy and have become pretty uncomfortable, and I was just about to give up. I literally made them watch a movie when we got home, and I had to lay down on the couch to recover. Moral of the story....what the crap am I going to do when I have a newborn plus the wild child?!? We aren't going to be able to leave the house...ever.

Okay, enough with the mommy vent. It's life with a toddler, right? Besides the nightmare that was storytime at the library, we still had a fun day. I love having Karleigh around because she just talks to me all day long. Today she told me that when she turns 3 (tomorrow), she can start driving. She is so observant and is constantly letting me in on her observations. It makes me sad when I think about her leaving tomorrow.

These two pictures make me laugh. Savannah has a bit of a thumb sucking problem. I keep telling myself that I have to start working with her on it, but so far we haven't done much in the way of eliminating the habit. Karleigh "pretends" to suck her thumb, which Savannah thinks is hilarious.

And here is a post-fight makeup hug. I think Savannah had tried to steal Karleigh's toy and they had a bit of a scuffle. No worries, they are always quick to make up. I love that Steve is in the background of this picture. Realizing how outnumbered he is about to be (as if he weren't already completely outnumbered!).

Little Princess!

Karleigh has pretty much been wearing this princess dress since she got here. I even let her wear it to Walmart the other day.

I just wanted to share some more cute pictures of Karleigh. The top picture is her riding the lion. Right before I took the picture she was pretending it was a mow-lawner (lawnmower, haha), and mowing the grass (except she was calling it "moving the grass"). Then I told her to stand by the flowers and smile like a pretty princess, and this is the smile she gave me. What a crack up! We had another fun day playing with friends at the park and going swimming. We're going to miss Karleigh Sue when she has to go home on Thursday.

Silly Girls!

We are having so much fun with Karleigh. She is one imaginative child. One minute she's got us playing Shrek and Fiona and the next minute we're babies, then we're witches. I definitely see a future in acting for this child. When we're not acting out elaborate scenes, we're singing and dancing. It's been great. We miss Gray though. I bet he's glad to get a break from the girls!

This picture makes me laugh. Savannah was being a wild child and wouldn't cooperate with the picture. Karleigh has been bugged all day by Savannah's hair. She keeps telling me to fix it. It starts out cute, but Savannah always pulls it out pretty quick. And Shera...I really did try with Karleigh's hair this morning! I'm pretty sure there are pictures of Shera and I sitting on this same chair when we were around the same age. It's so fun that these two get to spend so much time together this summer.

Fun Fourth!

We had a great 4th of July weekend. Steve and I dropped Savannah off in Richfield on Thursday to play with Karleigh and Gray and we headed down to St. George. We've never left Savannah longer than a night and I was a bit stressed about it, but after a few tears, I really enjoyed the break! Steve and I had so much fun in St. George. We ate, slept, relaxed and hung out with Heather and Jason a ton. It was fun to be able to stay up as late as we wanted and sleep in as late as we wanted and go to restaurants and play games....just like old times!

I was SO EXCITED to see Savannah today though. She had a blast in Richfield. You will have to check out pictures from Shera and Brad's blog. They did tons of fun things. It was fun to hear stories about Savannah from a different perspective. Thank you so much for watching her Shera Brad!

Most exciting...we brought home a stowaway! Karleigh is going to stay at our house this week. We can't wait for all of the fun we are going to have with cute Karleigh girl!

Here are some pictures of us at the fireworks. We had such a blast!

Summer Fun!

A cute picture of Savannah from the park today. She is such a girly girl and gets really frustrated when the bark gets in her shoes. She kept taking off her shoes and trying to play with no shoes on, but it was SO HOT and her little feet kept getting burned. I finally convinced her to wear her shoes, and then she couldn't get enough of the park. She especially loved dumping the bark all over her head...hmmm...can't stand the bark in her shoes but loves to have it stuck in her hair...don't ask!?!? Ryan's Park is so cute and has a lot of fun things for the kids to do. We will definitely be going back...perhaps on a cooler day!

Savannah has been cracking me up lately with the things she comes up with. We are always telling her that baby Sophie is in my tummy. Tonight while we were cuddling before bed she started pointing everyone out, "Mommy, Daddy, Savannah, Baby (and she would point to my tummy). Then she started rubbing my stomach and singing the made up song that she always sings (pretty much she just repeats mommy and daddy over and over again in the sweetest little voice). Then she got off my lap and went to get an animal cracker, came back and started trying to feed it to my stomach. It was seriously so cute. I can't wait to see what she does when the baby actually gets here!

More swim pictures...

We went swimming today in the big pool. Savannah and Little A. both loved it! I saw Savannah watching the bigger kids jumping off the side of the pool and I knew what she was thinking. Sure enough, pretty soon she wanted out of her floaty, and once I let her out, she started climbing out of the pool. We were only in the 2 ft. section of the pool, but still, when you're under three feet tall, 2 ft. is really deep and she just kept pulling herself out the side of the pool and then jumping in (with me catching her). She did it about 20 times. I just can't believe how brave and strong she is! I even had a mom stop me and ask me if I've done something to help her be so comfortable in the water. Nope, she just came to me as a little fishy baby! She really does love to be in the pool (and you should hear her say pool-by far one of her cutest words).

Bumps to dinner

The only kid I know who eats her whole meal standing up, which is actually better than running around in between bites. I'm thinking we might have to bring the high chair back out so that we can have a peaceful meal. Tonight she kept giving Steve and I bumps over and over and then she started giving her food bumps. Silly girl!

Diet Coke and Ponytails!

The other day Rich, Emily, their girls and grandma stopped by our house and set this up in our backyard. Can you see how excited Savannah is? It has brought hours of entertainment. I didn't take a picture of the whole thing but there is a tunnel leading to another section with another slide. Thanks for thinking of us guys!Yup, this is my child, standing on the table drinking MY Diet Coke. She has become such a little daredevil and jumps off just about anything. She scares me.And this is her too. Pretending that her pool floaty is a pool (at least that's what she kept telling me) and wearing her hat backwards. What a nut!And look, SHE HAS HAIR!!! Now I don't think we'll be getting a haircut anytime soon, but look how long her pony is! Awesome.I get this look quite often...."Oh mom!"

We spent the morning at Willow Park playing and looking at the animals. Andrea brought her kids and Allyssa over and we had fun playing and looking at the animals. I was surprised and impressed that Savannah wanted to go down the big slide and did it quite a few times without any help from me. Allyssa was AWESOME, as usual, and carried Savannah all over the zoo so that she could see the animals. Savannah sure does love Allyssa and stuck by her all morning. This afternoon, Jill and I left the babies at home and went to the Parade of Homes. The homes were beautiful and it was fun to dream! Don't think I'll be buying an 850,000$ house any time soon. Ha!

Happy Fathers Day!

I married a great man who also happens to be an incredible dad. I get so much support from Steve in parenting Savannah. There is nothing that he doesn't do. From diapers, to bathtime, to getting down on the floor and playing all sorts of silly games with her, he is involved in it all. I couldn't do it without him. And Savannah, oh how she loves her daddy! Her newest phrase is "I wanna see daddy," and let me tell you, I hear it all day. We love you Steve! Happy Fathers Day!

I also have a wonderful dad and want to wish him a Happy Fathers Day too. Thanks for your love and guidance, your example and thanks for being such a great Grandpa. We love you! We also love and miss Gary so very much, especially on days like today.

In celebration of Steve, we enjoyed our most favorite meal. Crab legs, shrimp, cheesy biscuits and banana bread for desert. Savannah, the pickiest eater in the world, LOVED the crab legs. Can we say expensive habit?

For some reason I always have to take a picture of the remnants of our seafood dinners. It always makes me a little sad.

Look what I made...

I've been in a crafty mood and I made something. I like it but can't decide if I overdid it on the flowers. If so, oh well! There is no way I'm redoing it. Crafting itch is officially gone and probably won't be back for a few months. It was fun while it lasted!

The nesting begins...

A little early perhaps, but definitely nesting. Now that we have a gender and a name, everything is starting to feel very real to me. I spent the day going through baby clothes and working on a few projects for the baby. I swear the tag on this coat says 3 months, and Savannah wore it when she was a newborn. It is the cutest thing ever. I am having so much fun going through baby clothes and getting ready for this new little girl. And, oh my, I forgot how many cute little girl things we have, this coat being one of them. Savannah is as excited as I am to be going through the baby clothes. She keeps wanting to put all of them on, especially the shoes. As you can see, she was excited about being able to wear the coat. And don't be surprised if all of my posts for the next little while have to do with baby stuff. I'm excited and love to share!

Stuff about our trip...

We got home from Washington earlier this evening. It is always SO hard to leave, and this time was especially hard for me. Chalk it up to pregnancy hormones I guess. We left Utah on Thursday around 3:30. Savannah was horrible on the trip there. She didn't sleep AT ALL and screamed most of the 12 hour car ride. We got to Washington at like 3:00 in the morning, but didn't go to bed until around 5:00. The screaming combined with the lack of sleep left me with a migraine that lasted almost 3 days. It was awful and such a relief when it finally disappeared.

Highlights of the trip included:

*Kevin's court of honor for earning his Eagle Scout. I enjoyed what I got to hear of the court of honor. It was nice to hear all of the wonderful things that were said about Kevin. I have an awesome brother!

*Kevin was made an elder. It was great to be able to be there while he was ordained.

*Shopping with my mom, sisters and grandma. I got a few baby things, including an outfit and blanket for coming home from the hospital. We also picked out fabric for a quilt that my mom will be making. It is going to be so cute. I am so excited, this pregnancy is finally starting to feel real to me. For the last 4 months, it's just felt like a really long sickness.

*Spending a night on the back porch going through boxes of childhood memories and laughing my head off with my sisters. Oh how I love them! My mom even found the outfit that I came home from the hospital in, and I brought it home for Sophie.

*Going to Kevin's graduation. It was so much fun to get to be there for the festivities. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Our trip home was sooooo much better. We left really early this morning and Savannah was an angel. She hardly cried at all and even slept some of the time. I was so relieved that things went so smoothly.

Grandpa took the kids to buy new fishies for the pond. They were a big hit, although I wouldn't be surprised if they don't last long...they got a lot of rocks thrown at them by these two crazy kids!

Somehow this is the only picture I ended up with of Karleigh. I love this girl. She has Taylor Swift and Kelly Pickler songs memorized, and serenades everyone who will sit still long enough to hear her. Cute Karleigh story-One day my grandma fell asleep in the backyard on a lawn chair. Karleigh brought out a blanket and teddy bear, covered grandma and gave her the bear, gave her a kiss and then sat on the step and softly sang her a song. Then she came inside and told me that she covered grandma and gave her a kiss. What a sweetheart. She tells everyone that she and I are sisters. And don't try to argue with her on that one...she insists!

My lovely family at graduation. Yay Kevin!See that big grin on his face? He got a certificate to go sky diving!

The girls with Kevin's cute girlfriend Lindsey. She is so awesome, it was great to get to know her.

Yay!

It's a.....................

GIRL!!!!

Sophia Delores Stacey

We are thrilled. What a wonderful blessing for Savannah to be able to have a little sister. I can't help but tear up when I think about it-as you know I LOVE my little sisters and count them as some of my greatest blessings.

Steve was so certain it was a boy, he even had me convinced. I could not stop laughing when the ultrasound tech told us it was a girl, and Steve was pretty stunned too. He even asked, "Are you sure?" But really, this is just so perfect. We LOVE having a girl and now we get to have two.

This would be the part where I would normally post some cute pictures of the baby, but this is one stubborn little girl. We got one shot of her nose and mouth, but she wouldn't move her hand from her face the whole time...another thumbsucker perhaps? Plus it took forver to be able to find out if she was a boy or girl because she was being being a stinker and had her legs crossed and her little feet tucked into that area the whole time. I even had to stand up and jump around, trying to get her to move her legs! I think she was asleep because last night she was kicking me like crazy, and today she was just content to lay there with her feet crossed. The utlrasound tech was awesome though, and he was bound and determined to get her to uncross her legs so that we could find out. Plus I wasn't leaving without finding out. Ha!

Most importantly though, everything looks great and healthy. Even though she wouldn't show us her face or private areas, we got tons, and tons of measurments and pictures of all of her important organs and everything looks wonderful. Right now she is breech, but the doctor said it doesn't really matter because she will be doing so much flipping and turning in the next couple of months that she will most likely end up head down.

Now the real waiting begins. I can't wait to add more dresses, bows and pink, pink, pink to this already pink life!

Thankful for grandparents...

Savannah is so lucky to have amazing grandparents who love her and are always thinking of her. My parents are always buying Savannah cute outfits and toys and sending her gifts in the mail. Savannah never leaves Steve's mom's house without some new toy or treasure! Yesterday we got a surprise visit from Grandma Stacey and Aunt Annette and look what they brought. Savannah is just thrilled to have her own little kitchen complete with food and dishes and pots and pans! Then today we got a letter in the mail from when Steve's mom went to New Mexico. She sent Savannah a letter with tons of stickers in it. Savannah was so excited and has been playing stickers all night. It just melts my heart to see how much Savannah loves her grandparents. Even though she doesn't get to see my parents as much as we would like, she is sooo excited about going to Washington to see them this week. Every time I bring it up, she gasps with excitement.

And look...Savannah has a curl! I can't wait to see what that hair looks like when it grows in.

At least until my feet swell to twice their size...

I went shopping tonight looking for some new clothes and came home with 3 new pairs of shoes, 1 for Savannah and 2 for me. The hazards of going shopping while pregnant I guess. Shoes always look cute...maternity clothes, not so much. A few weeks ago the Relief Society lesson was about not coveting, and the whole lesson I was looking at the girl sitting next to me and coveting her shoes! Ha! So if you see me with some hideous outfit paired with some cute shoes, now you know why! And if you by some miracle see some really cute maternity clothes (does such a thing even exist?!), be sure to let me know.

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!