Sycamore Grove Park

We took a hike through Sycamore Grove Park here in Livermore yesterday morning.  The weather was beautiful and it was a pretty area.  We're definitely planning on coming back with bikes next time so we can see the whole park.  Lucas had a great time finding all the fun trees to climb on.

We also found a nice stream to throw rocks and sticks into.

I wasn't fast enough to get the stick in the air, but you can see the splash.

We stopped to have a little picnic by the stream.

Lucas showing daddy an airplane.  I just love these guys!

And throwing one last stick into the stream before we left.  He is definitely a boy.

While we were there I convinced Ryan to take some belly pictures for me.  I took a few maternity pictures when I was pregnant with Lucas, but I did it like a week before I had him and it's hard to tell the different between those pictures and the ones we took of Shamu at Seaworld.  I figured I look so much better this time around and I wanted to get some cute pictures to document it.

Another week down, 6 more to go.

33 Weeks

I'm 33 weeks along now.  Time is just flying by.  I've been seeing people pinning fall craft ideas and fall outfit ideas on pinterest.  At first I was like, what is wrong with you people, why are you pinning fall stuff already?  And then I realized it was because we are getting closer to the end of the summer.  Holy Crap!  When did that happen?  Since I'm due in the summer, thinking about anything that will happen in the fall is really weird for me.  We've been thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas plans lately and we have to keep reminding ourselves that we're going to have two kids by then.  Sometimes I feel like I'm so close to being done, and then I remember that I still have 7 weeks to go.  That may not sound like a lot, but when we have really hot temperatures like we did today, September can't come soon enough.  We've been pretty lucky so far this summer, most weeks have been in the 70's, so I can't complain too much, but today was a scorcher.  I've definitely been having more aches and pains this time around, too, and with Lucas to keep up with and run around with I feel really huge most of the time.  But then I look at pictures of me pregnant with Lucas and it makes me feel better.

I'm definitely smaller and weighing less this time around.  I've only gained 25 lbs so far, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself.  We'll have to see how these last few weeks go, though.  I don't have a whole lot of cravings during the first trimester, mostly food aversions.  But the third trimester is a whole other story.  I've been craving baked goods like crazy lately, and I make cookies, or some other sweet treat almost every week.  This weekend I had a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips in it at a friends house and I had to make a whole batch the very next day because I was craving them so much.  I maybe ate like half the dough before I even got all the cookies baked, and then had like 3 cookies, and then I decided maybe I should make dinner for people that hadn't just eaten 5 lbs of cookie dough.  Normally I prefer fruity desserts over chocolate ones, and most of my family is the same way, so I'm pretty sure this little girl has some George genes in her.


This little girl is definitely a little more laid back than Lucas was as far as kicking goes.  I'm hoping that continues after she's born and we have a mellow, well behaved, angel baby.  She doesn't kick as often or as strongly as I remember Lucas kicking.  Although she does like to just stretch her feet out and leave them there for a long time, so that can get annoying.  Sometimes I have to push her back in, or Lucas will come along and do it for me.  He really likes to come and "squash" baby sister, basically he comes over and pushes his hand in and says, "I'm squashing baby sister."  Yes, yes you are.  This poor girl is already being picked on by her older brother.


I think Lucas really is excited to have a little sister, though.  I'm sure he'll have a bit of a rough time not getting to be the baby of the house anymore, but he asks about baby sister all the time and he talks about what he's going to to when she gets here.  He's really excited to push the buttons while she's in the swing, and bring her a blankey and pacifier when she cries.  I told him the other day that soon we were going to go to the doctor and the doctor was going to take baby sister out - if only it were that simple.  :)  Now he asks me all the time if we can go to the doctor and take baby sister out.  He's so cute.  


I'm getting really close to being done with the baby room.  I have the curtains all done, I just have to finish some of the other odds and ends and then I can take pictures and post them to the blog.  We've also gotten a few really cute, tiny baby girl clothes this week.  It makes me so excited for this little baby to come.  Hopefully these next few weeks fly by as quickly as the last few.  And hopefully it cools down again so I don't have to sit in front of the fan all day long.

Camping

We haven't been camping in a while, and Lucas has been asking to go ever since he saw a cartoon where they went camping.  We figured we better go now because it's going to be a while before we will want to go camping again.  We went to a campground about 20 minutes away from our house.  It was really pretty and it was nice to not have to drive too far away from home.  We went with the Coopers, and Lucas and Zach were in heaven!

We set up the tents and the kids just went crazy running around and playing inside of them.

Then of course the boys had to gather around to play with fire.

Then we roasted marshmallows.

Neither of the boys was very interested in eating the marshmallows, but they sat there and roasted a bunch of them for quite a while.  At first they tried to make them good so other people could eat them, but then they just decided it was more fun for them to catch on fire.

Neither of the boys went to bed very early, but at least they slept in till around 6.  I thought for sure they'd be up by 4 wanting to play again.  Here's Lucas looking all sleepy.  He thought it was pretty fun waking up in the tent.

Then the boys played some more while we got breakfast going.

I made some really yummy breakfast burritos.  Every time we go camping it's usually with our ward or with my family and we're not in charge of making the food, so I wasn't exactly sure what to make.  I found an idea for making breakfast burritos at home and then wrapping them in foil and roasting over the fire.  It worked like a charm!

They were so tasty and delicious! And no pots or pans to clean up at the campsite - even better.  I will definitely be making these every time we camp from now on.

After breakfast we cleaned up and took down the tents.  It always seems like way too much work to put up our tent for only one night.  We probably need to get a smaller tent.  It sure is nice when it's up, though.

Then we headed to the beach.

Lucas was not a huge fan of this inner tube, I don't know why but he has always been hesitant of flotation devices.

He got used to it after a while, and then decided he was done a few minutes later.  Oh well.

Despite the inner tube fiasco, we had a lot of fun and Lucas has decided we need to go camping every night. Ryan and I love camping, but it makes us even more grateful for our bed when we get to come home and sleep in it.

Happy 4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July last week. We didn't go visit any family so it was pretty laid back, but we still had fun.  We went to a pancake breakfast at church in the morning.  They had some pioneer games to play.  Lucas really liked this one where you used sticks to toss rings back and forth.

Later on we went to the pool with some friends.  I forgot to take pictures of this, though, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  It was really hot out, and the pool felt nice and refreshing.  There was also a hot tub there that Lucas kept trying to get us to go into.  He loves hot tubs and apparently he didn't mind the fact that it was already hot outside.  He has some temperature issues cause later on as we were leaving for dinner, he decided he needed his coat, even though it was still pretty warm outside.

 It ended up being a good thing that he brought his coat cause it got really cold that evening.  I was planning on light jackets, but it was definitely cold enough for the coat.  We met up with some friends to light sparklers.

 Lucas was a little hesitant at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly.

 There were some other people on the street lighting off fireworks so we sat in the grass after we finished with our sparklers and watched their fireworks.  It wasn't quite as exciting as some of the fireworks displays my family would put on in our backyard in St. Louis, but Lucas thought it was awesome.  He and his friend Zach had fun watching the fireworks and running around way past their bedtimes.