Hallie's 2nd B-day Party

Hallie had a great party. The weather this time of year is perfect to do something outside. We enjoyed pizza, fruit, cookies, and cupcakes with our family and friends. Hallie had a great time playing with all the kids in the sandbox and on the swing set. This kitty wandered in from somewhere and Hallie was in love with it. The kitty was very patient with her and let her pack it around but stopped long enough to pose with grandma

Enjoying her b-day cupcake that her awesome daddy made so I could go to the temple that morning with my mom and sister

Kim was able to come up with my mom for the weekend Hallie loves having more friends to play with

Opening presents, she loved opening them and got very spoiled

Enjoying the swing with Issac

Someone got caught eating frosting off of the cookies!

We had a great time and are so blessed to have wonderful friends and family to share our special occasions with. Happy Birthday Hallie!!

Hallie...2 yrs Old?!?!?

So today is our sweet Hallie's 2nd birthday. It has been 2 awesome years and its hard to think back to life before her. Stat wise she is 22lbs(3rd percentile) and 34 in (55th percentile).She is so much fun and is learning more and more everyday. She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and would watch it all day if we would let her. She loves to play outside and the swing is still a favorite. She has gotten really fun with pretending and its fun to see what she comes up with on a daily basis. She has also become very into babies, for her birthday she got 2 babies, bottles, and a stroller that seems to be a constant companion. We tried potty training and did great on day 1 only having 5 accidents all day as well as going both pee & poo in the toilet more than once but on day 2 she wouldn't even sit on the potty so we will wait a little longer and try again(I think potty training is possibly the hardest thing about being a parent thus far). She still has her binki but only gets it for nap and bedtime. She is very smart sometimes to much for her own good. She knows her ABCs, she can recognize and knows all the sounds they make. She knows her colors as well as being able to count to 10 consistently and sometimes 20 as well as backwards from 5, we are still working on number recognition. She is great to play on her own but also loves to be a big helper. She is very loving and has a fun bedtime routine that includes hugs and kisses for everyone including babies. She loves to talk on the phone and regularly asks to talk to grandma "my mom", Kim, Nic, and Maddi. While on the phone she has to ask about each person in their family and what they are doing. Still is not a fan of veggies but will eat fruit at just about anytime of the day. She continues to love music and can now sing parts of "a spoon full of sugar"(from one of her favorites Mary Poppins) and pretty much all of Jesus wants me for a sunbeam as well as other random parts of various other songs. She loves to sing and lead the music at church. She is very good at listening which is nice because I can't even remember the last time she had to sit in time out. Although she does have her moments if you feed her or lay her down it remedies the situation. She is great at putting herself down for a nap or letting you know when she is tired which is usually once if not twice a day. She is getting very into girly things loves dress up clothes and jewelry(its funny how they pick up on things you never taught them).

I am so excited to see what the future will bring with our sweet girl we couldn't ask for a better kid.

25 Weeks

The weeks are slowly passing and our little girls arrival is getting closer and closer. Here we are at 25 weeks still staying with our original due date and same appearance wise seems to be the same size as with Hallie. I have been feeling pretty good just mostly tired but I will take that over nausea any day. After our visit in just under 2 weeks we go to every 2 week visits I think it seems like that snuck up on us a lot faster than it did with Hallie.

Hallie's Week in Vegas

Hallie got to go to my Mom's for the week while Matt and I were in Cancun. I was very nervous about leaving her more for me than for her she loves to be at grandmas and there is always someone to play with or something to do. We left Saturday morning in the wee hours so luckily she was still asleep as I kissed her multiple times and promised to come back soon. Saturday after getting up and ready she went with papa and grandma to the stake baptisms that my dad was conducting and Nate was playing the piano at. I guess she thought it was pretty cool that papa was conducting and Nate playing the piano and kept pointing them out and saying their names not so reverently. Later they packed up and headed for St. George to stay with Kim and Ez for the day. They went to Fiesta fun and played games as well as rode rides. Hallie was to short but wanted her picture taken by the alligator while everyone else rode the ride.

Grandma, of coarse, spoiled her by letting her ride all the ride and play all the games that she could play. Kim was so good to climb through the play area with her although she was less than enthused.



Sunday morning everyone headed to Rigden's(Nic & Kyle) baby blessing in Cedar City. We were so sad that we missed it but glad that Hallie got to go and be part of Rigden's special day.



Monday was spent hanging out and doing some shopping of coarse Sportsman's Warehouse has to be included in every St. George trip.



The rest of her week was spent swimming in the pool, at the park, or playing in the play room with whom ever she could convince to play. Once we got back we decided to stay for a couple more days. We did some shopping and swimming which are musts in Vegas.


Saturday before heading for home we stopped to eat at In N Out(Nate has been working there for about a month now) and to the aquarium.




The hightlight may have been the escalator rides or the four wheeler ride with Maddi and her friend.


We took our time getting home stopping Saturday night to stay with Kim and Ez and after a lazy morning headed to Nic & Ky's for lunchand some more hanging out before heading for Northern Utah. I had to get in some cuddle time that I had missed the previous week.

I was a long time to be away but it only made it that much better to come home. I guess the entire week she told whom ever would ask that her mommy was at work taking care of the "sick babies." Then would remember we went on a airplane I guess at least she didn't say she had been abandoned. My mom and Kim were so good to take pics and keep me updated on how Hallie was doing. I really appreciated that she asked for a schedule of what Hallie's normal day is like and did her best to keep her on that. I am so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family to help us raise Hallie, could you ever ask for more?

Our Week in Cancun

We were lucky enough the 1st week of September to get away and head to Cancun for some fun in the sun before our new little one arrives and to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. My mom was wonderful enough to watch Hallie because I was very worried about leaving her. We flew out Saturday morning(really early)after a long drive to Las Vegas the day before. Our flight funny enough went from Vegas to Salt Lake and then straight to Cancun. The flight was long but uneventful they ended up not having our seats together so that was no fun. We got to Cancun about 3PM and found our ride to our resort. My 1st thought was how hot and humid it was. Everything was very green and beautiful though. We did learn a few things from our last trip that we corrected this time to be able to enjoy our trip more. 1-we took a private transport to and from the airport(worth every penny) and 2- we stayed in the outside of Cancun about 45 minutes in a beautiful and huge hotel. By the time we got to our hotel we were both tired and starving. After checking in we went to find one of the 8 restaurants we had to choose from or of coarse the buffet. These are pics of the outside lobby and just inside.


After finding some really good Chinese we returned to our room to find our bags there and got everything organized. We changed and then headed out to explore our resort. Everything was lit up so pretty at night. The next morning we headed to the buffet, they had so much food we really didn't know where to start.

Then off to the beach for some relaxation. The view from the beach was breath taking and there were plenty of animals to watch out for. We did make one mistake we decided we would put on sunscreen once we felt we were getting to much sun(stupid)I particularly ended up fried and Matt was red.


But luckily we came prepared with plenty of aloe vera and after a quick shower and change from the day at the beach we headed out once again to find some dinner. We went to a BBQ place it was funny to see the waiters act like cowboys but the food was very good and fancier looking than I'm used to for sure.


Monday was set to be our excursion day so we got up early grabbed some breakfast and headed off to the Mayan ruins.

Matt had been looking forward to this for awhile. We visited Tulum which to call it breath taking would be an understatement this particular ruin is on the water front of the ocean and has a constant ocean breeze. From the top of the main building you can see for miles which was used for protection not the view back then. After a quick tour we wandered around around and through the ruins.








Then we did some quick souvenir shopping and off to a natural waterpark. Xel-ha is a waterpark of 208 acres created when a fresh water river meets the ocean there are tons of tropical fish and fun natural made sites.


We snorkeled this particular place had the biggest and most variety of fish

This is where the river actually meets the ocean there is a bridge to cross from one side to the other we called it the "beer goggle" bridge because the waves made it pretty funny to watch people cross.

We also did some cliff jumping and zip lining(this was my favorite)



We fed some of the parks animals mainly fish, dolphins, and some native cat like animal before heading back to the resort for the day....it was a long day but a ton of fun!
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We got changed and headed to dinner at a Japanese(Tepanyaki like) restaurant. On the way Matt snapped a couple of these pics of our resort at night, they don't do it justice.


One thing we had to be careful of the entire trip was to make sure that our drinks were virgins, especially mine. When you would order one they looked at you a little strange and Matt would explain to then why then all was well. Oh did I mention how wonderful it was that Matt speaks Spanish fluently?.?.well it was awesome I just sat back and let him handle everything. But anyways we had to make sure at the restaurant that we only got the sushi that was actually cooked, once again we got funny looks until Matt explained. We really enjoyed watching them cook entrees table side which was a show all in its own.





Tuesday we spent the morning relaxing at the spa








After some lunch we headed to the private cabanas on the ocean front to have a nap and read our books.




By our last night we were both pretty sick of food and had lost most of our appetite but there was still so much good food so for the last night we visited a Brazilian BBQ place much like Rodizios in the states the food was great but we only had a few bites of each because we were so full on the way back to our room we stopped to take a few pics and let our food settle.

The next morning I slept in late and my crazy husband got up for one more run on the beach.
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We grabbed some breakfast and enjoyed just hanging out until it was time to catch our ride to the airport. I was so anxious to get home to our Hallie I could hardly stand the waiting in the airport. Luckily the rest of the trip went fairly quickly and we flew into Las Vegas late that night. My mom and dad had brought Hallie although she was way ready for bed she was beyond happy to see us. When they pulled up to the curb I could see her smile from ear to ear and trying to climb out saying "mommy, mommy!" I couldn't have/wouldn't have done with trip with anyone but Matt I had several breakdowns throughout the week missing Hallie and wanting to be home with her as well as having lots of naps because I was so tired. Matt was great(as usual) and made it nothing but a wonderful experience. We had a great time it was so nice to spend a lot of uninterrupted time with Matt but also so nice to come home to what I know and love as our "normal" life.