Adelyn Esther

Adelyn: noble beauty

Esther: star

We have finally decided on a name for our sweet little girl coming this fall. Originally, we thought we'd keep it a surprise because, as many of you know, I can be a little bit indecisive when it comes to names. ;) However, we finally came up with a combination we loved and decided to share it with everyone.

Adelyn (pronounced like Madelyn without the "M") was a name we had decided on long before we were even expecting our little girl. It was a name I had heard one time over a year ago and I knew that if I had a little girl that'd be her name. I immediately looked up the meaning, and while there is some variation among sites and books, this seems to be the most consistent and I just thought it was very beautiful. We'll probably call her Addy occasionally as well. To Liam and Wes though, I fear she'll forever be Chester as that is what they continually refer to her as.

Esther was also a name we had been considering for a while. My grandma's name is

Rose Ann Esther, but the name Esther was never officially on her birth certificate. She also always knew that it was her mother's middle name, but I couldn't find anything official of that as well. I really wanted to honor my grandmother in some way, so I did a little research by e-mailing one of my mom's cousins and looking in genealogy books. It was confirmed Esther was indeed my great-grandmother's middle name. I also verified that my grandma considers it her middle name, so that sealed the deal that our little Adelyn's middle name would be Esther. I love the idea that she'll have the same middle name as my grandma, whose always been so special to me, and my great-grandmother, who I never knew as she died when my grandma was very young.

Here are photos of the two women who our little girl will be named after. My great-grandmother, so Adelyn's great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Esther Hooyman on her wedding day:

And my grandma, known as GG to the great-grandkids, with Izzy and Liam a couple of years ago.
We're very excited to meet our little Adelyn and hope she'll be able to appreciate her namesake and how special the grandmas are that she'll be named after.

Fourth of July

After Liam's birthday BBQ, we headed up to my grandma and grandpa's church to watch the fireworks (they are up on a hill and have a great view). We had a blast. The weather was perfect and it was nice to sit in the lawn chairs and let the kids run wild and eat candy. :) Wes's mom brought lots of fun glow sticks and we all got in on the fun making halos and hula hoops and whatnot. I'm horrible at taking dusk photos that capture the glow and didn't take the time to figure it out, but these show a little bit of our fun. I didn't even attempt firework photos, but they did put on a great show this year. We had a great evening and the kids were pooped!

FOUR!

We decided that this year we'd combine our fourth of July celebration with the celebration of our baby turning FOUR! Again, it baffles me how quickly four years flies by.

We had such a busy month and such coming up, that we decided to just have a small BBQ with family. The evening started off with a squirt gun fight with Papa.


I also went easy with the cake this year. I decided to attempt a red, white and blue Jell-O cake. I let Liam help me decorate and we went with a, surprise, surprise, Thomas combined with the Fourth of July theme. :)

It's impossible to get a decent photo of this kid. The minute the camera comes out he's making some sort of goofy face and giggling. Combine bunny ears from Papa and it's impossible to get a reasonable photo. Oh well, such is the life of a four-year-old. ;)

My Big FOUR year old!

Wes's parents brought his cousin Belle while they stayed with us. they had a great time playing "Pin the ONE on Thomas."

We had a wonderful BBQ with my parents, Wes's parents, Larry, GG and Grandpa-Great. The guys made delicious ribs and tri-tip. Yum!

The evening couldn't have been more perfect. It was one of those evenings where there was just a slight breeze, it wasn't too hot and we just had a wonderful time eating and enjoying each other's company. I am not sure if it was the pregnancy hormones or what, but it was just one of those moments where you look around and recognize how blessed you are. Sure, there is weeds and a dead hot tub in the backyard and maybe the carpet has a few spots, but being surrounded by such great family and being happy and healthy is all that matters.

Liam had so much fun opening gifts and reading the cards to everyone.

It definitely is the year of Thomas for us. He got trains, Tidmouth sheds, a train table, books, and many wonderful gifts. He couldn't have been more thrilled!

My attempt to make the inside of the cake red, white and blue. Turned out pretty well I think. :)

Probably the highlight of the evening was when we told Liam to make a wish before blowing out his candles. I could have guessed a million things that he'd wish for, but I'd never have guessed correctly. "I wish... I wish... I wish to be a scarecrow when I grow up!" I don't even think he knows what a scarecrow is... hahah

My parents got Liam this Thomas the train conductor hat for his birthday. He didn't take that thing off for two days and asked me if he "could maybe just wear it in the tub for a few minutes..." :) He and Belle had a lot of fun playing with the new parts to his train set as well.

What a blessed little boy he is! Thank you to everyone for making his day so special!

Minnie

Last October, in the midst of buying our first home, nursing school, preparing for graduation, etc, our poor little Ford Focus died. :( It was my first car that I had purchased so we were sad. However, it would have cost more than it was worth to fix it. At the time we didn't have time to find and buy a new car, so we borrowed my dad's old truck that Heather and I both drove in High School, fondly known as "Old Blue" until we purchased another vehicle. Somehow, 2 months became like 6 months, and we finally settled on purchasing a mini van.

We were able to find this nice red Kia Sedona. It's a 2005 with 50,000 miles on it and we're very happy with it. The first day we drove it home Liam said, "Hey Mom, there is room for 4 more friends in here!" He hit the nail on the head. It's so nice to have a vehicle that can fit everyone comfortably. We decided to name her Minnie because she's a mini van and red like Minnie Mouse's bow. ;) Yes, we're cheesy like that, but we wanted to give her a nice name so hopefully she'll last a nice long time for us. ;) Liam was very sad to see Old Blue go back to Nana and Papa's house, but I'm sure it'll last another 15 years or so, so he'll be able to learn to drive in Old Blue, too.

FIVE!

On July 2, Wes and I celebrated our fifth wedding annniversary! I can't believe it's been five years already. Time has flown by. We had a wonderful evening celebrating. We took Liam to the Island Buffet and he thought that was the greatest thing ever. It was really fun to do something as a family on our anniversary and spend time together. I got Wes a watch like the one I gave him for our wedding that disappeared a few years after our wedding. He got me a beautiful band to go with my wedding set as my mother's ring and sent me flowers to work. :)

As per tradition, here is our yearly temple photo. :) We had both just got done working really long days, so not our best, but still blissfully happy five years later. To see all of our yearly photos, click here
Thank you for the best five years and a wonderful eternity to go, Schatz!

Polar Bear II

Liam has been doing awesome at his swim school. His kicks are getting better and better and he's able to swim at least 10 feet and climb out of the pool himself. About 2 weeks ago, he passed his first level, Polar Bear I, and became a Polar Bear II. He was the first kid in his class to move up. When the kids go up a level, they get to ring a big cow bell for all to hear and they get a ribbon. Liam was so proud of himself! It was the cutest thing.

Now that he's a Polar Bear II, he's learning to do arm movements with his kicks and take front breaths. His teacher, Ron, has nothing but good things to say about his progress. The best part is that he loves going to swim school and he's becoming a good, safer swimmer. :)

22 weeks

This pregnancy is really flying by! Wes snapped this photo of me at 22 weeks. It was about 98*, so while this doesn't exactly showcase my baby belly, it was the best I could get in the heat. ;)
At my 21 week appointment everything measured perfectly, baby girl's heart rate was about 157, and my weight gain was right on track. We couldn't have asked for anything better!

My midwife is awesome. We spent a lot of time at that appointment talking about our plans for the birth, things we needed to think about and practice, etc. It may seem early to be doing all of this, but I feel really good knowing we're getting a head start. While we've known things we've wanted for our birth for a while, it's been overwhelming going through sample birth plans, doing our own research, figuring out our plans, etc. We're muddling our way through trying to create a short and sweet birth plan and doing things to help us accomplish the birth experience that we're hoping for this time. The good news is that everything we brought to the midwife were things that she does routinely anyway, so we don't have to worry about her philosophies conflicting with ours. That's a great feeling and it's great to have someone so supportive taking care of us during such an important time.

It feels like November is a long time away, but it's just around the corner. I have so much to do before this sweet little girl arrives that I wish time would slow down a bit. While I'm not loving the normal aches and such of pregnancy, they are a small price to pay to feel those sweet little kicks all day and to know there is a little girl waiting to come into our family.

First Completed Hat

I've been dying to knit a hat for quite some time, but it was very intimidating to me. Erica and I decided we needed to expand our knitting horizons and headed down to a knitting store here in Reno called "Jimmy Beans Wool." It was a very good decision on our part. They were so helpful and gave us great ideas. I saw these baby hats and decided that that was what I was going to make. I also decided to be daring and stripe the colors AND knit in the round, both things I had never done before. With Erica and the help of many youtube videos, I completed my very first hat! I'm very happy with how it turned out. It's not perfect and I still need to hand wash it to smooth the wrinkles, but I'm pleased. It's also very, very soft.

However, my first hat story is not without tragedy. ;) I was doing sooo well until the very end of the hat where I was down to four stitches. In the round, this is difficult. So difficult in fact, that I BROKE the knitting needle. I didn't even know that was possible!! Thankfully I could fudge it because I was at the very end, otherwise it could have been devastating. ;) But, who knew, that one could break a knitting needle.

Hopefully this baby girl appreciates her mommy's hard work into this hat. I'm SURE she will, and even if she doesn't, I think it's going to look mighty cute on her.

Two-of-a-Kind

For Father's Day, I decided I'd let Liam pick out exactly what he wanted to get his daddy. We went to Target and he had ALL sorts of ideas of things we should buy him. The list included: trains, a squirt gun, crackers, a movie, fruit snacks and some soda. We settled on a squirt gun that shoots colored water, a Diesel engine from Thomas (he's the villain ;)), and the movie August Rush. Liam was *so* excited to give the stuff to Wes. While we were checking out he told everyone that Sunday was Father's Day and asked them all what they got their daddies.

He was so excited to wrap his gifts. We carefully selected paper and he taped them up nice and good. :) He found the hiding spot for them as well. Sunday morning came and he was unbelievably excited to give them to Wes. It was the cutest thing. Fortunately, daddy LOVED the gifts and they had a blast with them. Here are a few photos of their fun:


You can see the colored water from Daddy's awesome squirt gun on his face:
These two really are two-of-a-kind. Liam loves his daddy and looks up to him so much. I think Wes has just as much fun playing with Liam as Liam does hanging out with his daddy. He truly is an awesome dad. Liam is one lucky little boy and I'm pretty sure he knows it. :)

Boy Talk

Liam loves Peyton. He loves to help with him and try to make him laugh. In return, I think Peyton finds Liam pretty fascinating as well. He really likes to watch him play with his trains and be entertained by him. A couple of weeks ago, Liam and I baby-sat Peyton while Heather took Izzy to swim lessons. Liam was such a big helper! He layed next to Peyton and told him stories, brought him toys, etc. When Peyton would start to fuss, Liam would dance around and make silly faces and do whatever it took to make him smile. If he wouldn't smile, he'd say, "Mom I think Peyton needs to be burped!" :)
Liam layed like this next to Peyton for quite a while. I like this picture because it looks like Liam is telling Peyton all the good secrets of being a little boy: things his big sister can't quite teach him. ;)