Summer 2010

I'm back for my monthly blog update! And it's a doozy :)

So I figured with the baby coming soon I should probably clear off the months and months worth of pictures I have on my camera. As I was looking at all the pictures I just kept thinking "I can't believe summer is already over!" Seriously though, HOW is that even possible? Did it fly by for anybody else? Looking back though, we had a great summer and lots of fun, maybe that's why it went by so fast? Anyway, here are some of the photo-documented things we did this summer--

Started out with lots of water fun in the backyard...

Lots of play time at the park...

Discovered these awesome curlers! (exciting, I know--but it was to me) ;) ....

Great 4th of July...
Then the monsoons came, and wow, they sure CAME this year, we had SO much rain! So we took a few hikes through the "jungle" (aka-overgrown wash behind our house) Found baby frogs in our yard and tortured, I mean, played with them... Played in the mud (not Mom's favorite activity)...

And when it was too rainy outside, there was LOTS of make-believe and dress up...And even a "princess tea party" here and there...
We also made a couple trips up to the family cabin.


The first was with our family, Ryan's family (Garrick's brother) and Uncle Ron. We went the first weekend in June and it was so much fun and a much needed solace from our traumatic memorial day weekend. We just hung out, played in the stream and road quads. What could be better? Oh, probably the fact that when the boys went on a quad ride at night, and took Rylee and Bryson, they saw a bear and followed it on the quads. That was quite a highlight for them all. :)



Then our other trip to the cabin was for the annual Haymore Family Reunion. It was a blast (as always!) It's so much fun to get everyone together and especially now it's so much fun to watch our little ones play and have SO much fun with and get to know all their cousins (and 2nd, 3rd cousins or whatever they are! haha)



(and just a few comments/explanations on those bottom 2 pics-- The beautiful girl with her fingers up her nose is Megan. Her and Casey had my camera and were taking classy pics of themselves so I threatened to publish them on the internet. Casey was smart and deleted all the ones of her. Meg- sorry but you forgot one... hehe. And then the one of Rylee hitting the pinata--i just wanted to point out that aggression on her face. I guess she was really into it!)

Also this summer both Garrick and I got to take a trip for ourselves, but naturally we have no pictures... In July, Garrick went with his brothers, Dad and some friends to the white mountains to go camping and fishing. They all had such a fun time and claim they are going to make it a tradition. Then a couple weeks later I went on a girls getaway to Scottsdale with Camille, Laurel and Emily. We stayed at a sweet hotel, shopped, shopped and shopped, ate ALL the great food we possibly could, and stayed up WAY too late being WAY too crazy! haha! :) We had a great time!


So basically, we had a great, fun-filled summer! And while I kept thinking to myself as I looked over the pictures about how I couldn't believe the summer is already over, I then found this picture...
(taken May 20th at 15 weeks)



And I realize summer is over because I now look like this...(taken October 27th at 38 weeks)

Yup, summer is over because things sure have changed!!!

Go Gators!!!!

Rylee is officially old enough to play soccer now!

*tear*

Ok, I might shed a tear because she's old enough to play, except for the fact that she's just too stinkin cute of a little soccer player for me to be sad that she's old enough to be one! (confusing enough???) Anyways, her team name is the Gators and it's just the funniest thing to watch their games. They run around in a little pack each trying to get the ball (even if it's from someone on their own team) and while Rylee actually attempted to kick the ball a few times this last game, she mainly prances around the field watching everyone. Also in her last game, her team played against her BFF's team. While Rylee was on the sideline, her cousin scored a goal and Garrick told Rylee "Hey, you guys are winning!" and what was Rylee's response? "Well I'm still best friends with Emma!" Haha, I hope she keeps the good attitude! :)

Anyways, they are pretty much the cutest soccer team ever and I'm so proud of our lil Gators!

I really do hate that I've gotten so terrible at blogging. I love looking back at old posts and reading them and being reminded of all those fun times. Maybe I'll get back into it, if for nothing else, at least for the sake of having it journaled! (which is actually what it's mostly always been about) Anyways, I guess I just want to publicly declare that I still enjoy blogging (and reading your blogs---even all you other blog slackers out there)! So hopefully I'll change my ways.... :)

Anyway, on to the real reason for the post....DISNEYLAND! Yes, I'm finally blogging about our trip to Disneyland back in May.

The planning started months before and it was supposed to be the whole Haymore family, but slowly we kept having families drop out and so it ended up just being, Garrick's parents who brought our nephew Hunter, Ryan and Camille and their kids and then us. It was still so much fun, even though all the other slackers bailed on us. ;)

We spent 2 days at Disneyland and it was such a blast. We made it to all the rides at least once, but spent the majority of the time in the kiddie areas, which probably doesn't sound all that enthralling, but seeing the looks on the kids' faces...definitely PRICELESS. After the first day, we asked Rylee what her favorite part was and she tells us "the merry-go-round". Go figure, haha. We thought we had figured out a good time to go to Disneyland when it hopefully wouldn't be crazy busy (we thought it would be after spring breaks/before summer) but it was still pretty crowded. Thankfully though, we really didn't have to wait in any lines for TOO long. Well, except for the princess village. That was by far the longest line I waited in, but oh my, it was SOOOO worth it. We had been telling Rylee for the weeks leading up to the trip that she was going to get to meet the princesses and that would get her so excited. Little did we know that Disneyland has quite the racket going on with the princesses though....but that's a different story. Anyway, the only way we could meet or even see the princesses was by waiting in a crazy long line to go through the princess village or whatever it was called. So anyway, after a long wait in line, Rylee and Jadyn got to meet Ariel, Cinderella and Mulan. The look on Rylee's face when she met them was just so precious. She turned to me and got all excited and said "Mom! They're real!". So stinkin' cute! Despite the long wait to meet them, it was soooo worth it to see the look on Rylee's face. She was in heaven! At bedtime after the 2nd night, I again asked Rylee what her favorite part was about Disneyland. And this time, it was a sure "meeting the princesses!"

The next day we headed to the beach for the morning. It was a pretty cold day so nobody really wanted to go swimming (except for Hunter), but that sure didn't keep the kids from having a BLAST in the sand and splashing around. After hitting the beach and eating lunch, we settled back into our car and made the long drive home. The girls actually did really great on both the drive up and back (phew!). We had such a fun trip to California and I can't wait to go again!

My own little fishy

We finally put Rylee in swim lessons this summer, and let me tell ya, the girl is a natural! ;) All motherly-biased aside, she really is doing amazing for the short amount of time she's been in swim lessons. I'm so proud of her, and she's quite proud of herself as well! She had a great teacher, Mr. Brisden, who was absolutely fabulous with her. We're soooo grateful that she has these skills now, it quite a relief. (and NO, that doesn't mean she won't be watched like a freakin' hawk still around a pool, but at least I know that if she falls in she can make it to the side--ahh, a TINY bit of peace of mind).

We had our ultrasound, and it's a....

BOY!!!!

We're loving having our princesses, but now it's time to add a prince to the brood! We're all very excited to switch things up (although I'm a mix of excited and nervous...I don't know what to do with a boy!)
After we were told it was a boy I looked over at Garrick and Rylee, and I'm not sure which smile was bigger. It's been funny because whenever anybody would ask Rylee what she wanted, she would tell them "A baby brother, because I already have a baby sister" (stated very matter-of-factly).

It was fun having Rylee come to the ultrasound with us, she had to tell everybody afterwards about how she got to see her baby brother opening his mouth and sticking his tongue out. She's already a very good big sister and ever since I told her that the baby can hear her when she talks, she spends a little time each day talking to him. Jadyn on the other hand...well, that poor kid has no idea what's coming! Let's just all cross our fingers that she'll adjust ok. Haha!

Anyway, here are the ultrasound pictures for those that can see them. ;)

(this one's a face shot, you can see him looking straight at us with his arm bent under his head and above his fat little tummy)

(top left is another face shot, similar to the one above. Top right is his precious little profile and little hand right above his face. Bottom left is his adorable little foot. Bottom right is another profile shot with his hand tucked under his chin...so sweet!)

I can't wait to meet the little guy!

Although I guess I should figure out a name for him before he comes...

Happy Birthday Jadyn!!!!

Our funny, sweet, happy, smart, pesty, silly, smiley, adorable little Jadyn turned 2!

I know it's so cliche to say, but I truly can't believe how fast time goes by! We are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives, she brings us so much joy and laughter and just plain happiness!

She totally adores her big sister, even though she likes to pester her a lot (it's always with a big smile on her face) and her big sister loves her so much and is really great to her (most of the time, of course). She is also such a happy little girl, I guess you could say she just loves life! And while she loves her Mommy, she is usually a pretty big Daddy's girl-- and of course Daddy just eats that up. She is also quite the talker. I love this age when they figure out how to talk, it's just hilarious and also so darn cute! (and it also really helps with knowing what they want/don't want/what happened/etc...)

To celebrate Jadyn's 2nd birthday, we had Garrick's family over for cake and ice cream and we just let the cousins all play. It was a beautiful evening and it's always so fun to have them together, they have so much fun playing with eachother! Jadyn's favorite present has been her rocking horse. And while I was the one who went to 3 different stores to find it, Garrick takes complete credit for it. Although I've got to admit, it actually was all his idea and he was the one who really wanted to get it for Jadyn. So fine...good job Daddy, you sure know what your daughter likes! All the kids, of course, wanted a turn on the rocking horse. And when it was Rylee's turn, she first gets on the horse normally but then goes "Oh wait, I need to ride it side saddle" and then proceeds to sit side saddle on the rocking horse and rock. Everybody was cracking up, that girl is such a ham! I really don't even know where she even got the knowledge or idea of riding side saddle, but she knew what to do! Anyway, it was a fun night and a great way to celebrate our little Jadyn's birthday!

Back in February, we went out to eat and across from where we ate there was one of those mini-carnivals set up. Rylee had been totally obsessed with riding a ferris wheel whenever she would see one, but we always told her she wasn't old enough yet. And so, this time was no different and she got totally excited when she saw it and begged to go for a ride. Garrick was on his way to work, but we figured we would go real fast and see if they would let us ride it. We asked if they would let Rylee ride and the carni told us we all could, even little Jadyn. Sweet! So Garrick rode with Jadyn and I was with Rylee. Let me just tell you that to say Rylee was excited would be a total understatement. She was squealing and laughing and pointing at things the entire ride! Jadyn on the other hand wasn't too sure about the whole ferris wheel thing, but still pretty much enjoyed it. All I had was my crummy cellphone camera, but I had to try to capture the girl's first ferris wheel ride. It was just a very short little excursion, but Rylee talked about it for weeks!

Catch up time! (and an announcement!)

Tap, tap, tap...anybody still there? Oh, hi guys. It's me, I'm back. Sorry about the (almost, but not quite) 2 month hiatus.

Things have been pretty busy around here. I could give you a few excuses, but lets start with the most exciting one (to me at least).

That's right folks, baby Haymore #3 is on it's way!

I'm due November 10th (ish). So I'll be 18 weeks along on Tuesday. We're so completely overjoyed to be having another little one join our family. In fact, Rylee is so excited she announced that "My Mommy has a baby in her tummy" in the middle of primary days after we told her. Thankfully only a couple people heard her though (I wasn't very far along when she did that). Anyway, I probably won't be finding out the sex of the baby until July (although I plan on sweet-talking my doctor into letting me have an earlier ultrasound on Tuesday--I'm impatient).

So yes, that's my most exciting excuse for not blogging for almost 2 months. My other excuse is that we've just had a lot going on.

Some things we've up to the last few months are:

***We decided to have our kitchen, front living room, hallway, bathrooms and laundry room tiled (and we opted to do the demo-work ourselves, which was actually kinda fun. But also a lot of work!) And these are my only real "before and after" pictures. (which is totally pathetic because the pictures don't do it justice at all. It really has made such a huge difference in the house)

***And then we decided since we have beautiful new tile, why not replace all the old carpet with new carpet!

And again, sorry about this picture. I have no before and after, this is just an after. So if you didn't know what it looked like before, this picture means nothing. Just believe me when I say it's a HUGE difference! :)

***We took a FANTASTIC trip to Disneyland (post to follow--sometime or another...)

***My precious little Jadyn turned 2! (also a separate post to follow)

***I was a "captain of 10" (however we renamed ourselves "ninjas" because we had to wear all black for the performance) for the Temple Cultural Event for The Gila Valley Temple dedication. It was a pretty big time commitment for the months leading up to it, and then a huge time commitment for the weekend of the performance, but, it was all worth it! The youth did AMAZING and it was such an incredibly memorable and spiritual experience for them (and for me as well).

Here's some of my laurels lined up at one of the many practices. I love those girls!

And then these are from the evening dress rehearsal. (that's nearly 1,600 youth in the group shots!)

And then this is when President Monson, President Eyring and Elder Holland entered the stadium. (my dang camera's zoom is broken so I couldn't zoom in at all!)

I think that's most of the exciting things that have happened the last couple months anyway... It's been busy, but a whole lot of fun too!

And then, my last excuse for not blogging for so long is simply that I've been lazy. Sorry, no pictures to prove that. But perhaps the lack of posts is proof enough! :)

Welp, I really am sorry this post is so long. Congratulations to you if you actually read or even looked at the whole thing!

The best day of my life

4 years ago was the best day of my life.

And yes, I say that fully aware that some of you may be gasping and thinking "oh ouch, poor Garrick, what about her wedding day???" My wedding day was the best day of my life (up until 4 years ago), it was the first piece to my dream come true.

However, on April 13th, 2006 my little Rylee came into my life and made me a mother. It was the start to my new and full dream come true.

I've been a little emotional today. It's probably lack of sleep and other stuff going on as well, but I can't help but think back to the moment when they placed Rylee on my chest and I gazed at my perfect and beautiful little baby. The feelings and emotions I felt where beyond anything I imagined. And then, seeing the overwhelming love Garrick had for this new baby of ours only made me love him more as well.

Rylee, thank you for coming into my life 4 years ago. Happy Birthday my little sweetie, I love you so much!!!

(these pictures are almost a year old now, but I don't think I ever posted them and I just had to...isn't she just a doll???)

And here she is on her actual birthday on her way to school (homemade crown and all). And yes, this is the best I could get from her. She was feeling pretty silly. :)

And then for her birthday party, we had it at The Cove, which is a huge indoor swimming pool/park area. All the kids seemed to have a great time and after lots of swimming and fun we had pizza, cupcakes and opened presents. Rylee had been talking about her birthday party for weeks and I think it lived it up to expectations, she sure seemed to have a fun time. :)

Take me out to the ball game

The other day Grandpa Gary, Garrick and Rylee went up to Tucson and cheered on the Diamondbacks. Rylee was SO excited to get to go! And according to Garrick and Gary, she was really good the whole time too. (She's been a baseball fan since she was born though, so it's no surprise! hehe)

Go D-backs!

(i kinda miss how Rylee used to cheer, "go b-dacks!" But I guess she is growing up....*tear*)