Mutti

Today is my mom's mom's birthday. We always called her "Mutti," which is German for "mother." I think she thought "Grandma" sounded too old. After all, she never aged a day over 27, much to the confusion of all the grandchildren.

I just wanted to tell her Happy Birthday and thank-you. She is always watching out for us, and we were shown again how close she really is just this past weekend. My ward gave me a baby shower on Saturday and my mom was able to come out for it. I have been pestering her for months about my blessing dress, as I have always wanted my first girl to also be blessed in it. My parents have been dying that they haven't been able to find it. Finally, on Friday night, my dad found a little treasure box of mine that had just what we were looking for. The only problem was that there were two blessing dresses inside--one made by a friend and one by Mutti, and my mom couldn't remember which was which. Then we had a true tender mercy from this wonderful woman. My mom noticed a small letter in the all-too-familiar type that Mutti always used. She had written me a letter for my blessing day, describing in detail the dress that she had made for the occasion. She told me how much she loved me and how wonderful it was for her to get to be the first in our family to hold me. What a blessing! Not only did Mutti tell us exactly which dress she had lovingly made for me, but she also reached out to my mother and me with a huge reminder of her love for us and our special relationship with her. I love Mutti so much, and I know she is working hard on the other side, helping to teach people about the true gospel and how they can be with their families forever, just as we are working on this side to be worthy of that wonderful promise.

Mommy's Little Helper

So, I tell people all the time that Steven is such a sweet boy and loves to help me with things, and now I finally have proof! I was baking rolls last Sunday and Steven got so excited. He climbed right up onto the kitchen chair to help me roll out the dough, and he stuck with it the whole time I was working. (We popped the pacifier in because he kept trying to eat the dough, haha.) He is so amazing! He knows to put trash in the trash can, helps me wipe up the floor, comes to push the bean bag if he sees us moving it, and is even learning the clean-up song as we have a family project of putting his toys away each night. I can't wait to see what he does when we have a new, tiny baby who needs lots of love and care!
I wanted to put up some other cute pictures of what Steven has been up to, lately. We have loved going to a stake play group this summer. Every Wednesday we meet at the beach, and then go each Friday to the pool. Steven loves seeing all the kids!
Normally he goes for older kids as playmates, but this last week Steven has really started to love toddlers his own age, too. This is Adam's cousin's cute little boy Curtis. They made the long drive for Jason's farewell last weekend, and it was so much fun to see them! These boys were so cute and stuck together the whole time. :)
We finally have a picture of our friends the Hulmes! Jen and Chris are some of our best friends down here, and we absolutely love getting together with them. Jen bought this awesome coat for Steven, and he did not want to take it off! He loved it so much! We are so blessed to have such amazing, fun people in our lives!!!

LA County Fair!

Thanks so much to our Mom Hall for taking us to the LA County Fair yesterday!!! Adam and I have each only been once or twice, but it's been forever! There were so many fun things to see and do. Adam, Doug, and their mom all got their teeth whitened--it was pretty neat. We all found plenty of amazing things to eat, and a few of us were even impressed enough with what was being sold to buy a thing or two. In fact, Adam found some awesome tools for his new tree care side business. He got such a great deal, and we were so excited!!!
We all loved seeing the different farm animals, and so many of them had tiny babies! There was a goat with the most precious, tiny kid who had just been born on Monday. There were also three pigs, each with her own huge group of piglets. Steven especially loved seeing all the animals.
We also watched some pig and duck races. It was pretty hilarious to watch the ducks--the announcer had to turn them around and get them moving in the right direction more than once.
Jason was so awesome and helpful all day. He kept running to refill our drinks, finding the most delectable treats (like SUPER moist red velvet cupcakes with thick chocolate frosting), and being to cute and fun with Steven. We are all really going to miss him when he leaves for his mission next month. Steven also got to have some special bonding time with his Uncle Doug, who could not get over how funny it was that Steven's favorite thing at the fair was probably the brightly colored foot massage chairs. We probably could have just sat him in one for an hour and he would have been happy.










I am so glad we were all able to go to the fair together yesterday. Despite the massive tiredness and sore feet we had when we got home, we were all so glad we went! I can't wait for it to come again next year!!!

Labor Day

We were so excited because yesterday was Adam's first paid holiday at his new job--woohoo! And to celebrate, the poor, sweet guy got up with Steven before 7am and let me sleep in until 10:30. Embarrassing, I know, but we had been up really late the night before with friends. After that Adam cleaned out our car and did a lot of organizing in our apartment. I wasn't a total slacker, though. I did some dishes, and then I decided to get some stuff ready for our soon-to-come new arrival. Thanks to some wonderful gifts from family and friends and my awesome sister for saving her last girl's clothes for us, we already have a pretty nice stash. My mom was also a HUGE help--she washed up everything to be as good as new. Check out what was once Steven's blue and green closet. Now it's half pink! :)
Steven was getting really excited to see all the new baby things.
Daddy gave Steven rides in the clothes boxes and made it even more fun.
Later in the day we decided to go out and have some fun. We went to one of our favorite places, California Pizza Kitchen, with our friends Chris and Jen Hulme. After dinner they were sooo nice and treated us to dessert at Yogurt Land. We had never been there before, but we will definitely go there again! It was so yummy. Basically you can choose whatever frozen yogurt flavors you want, then any toppings, and then it's 30 cents an ounce. The best part is that you make it yourself, so you know it'll be good!
Steven really got into giving big, yummy bites to Daddy.
I think it got a little cold for him, haha.