Pioneer Day Celebration

Our stake had a fun Pioneer Day celebration. Tink had volunteered to help run our ward's booth, which was butter making. So we arrived a little before it started to help get everything ready. Baby Girl was a week old by this point, and I was feeling pretty good. PC got called away right before we left, so he met us there. It was my first time out with all six kids by myself. They are all such great helpers though. Shortcake was the one I was worried about because she normally doesn't like to hold anyone's hand, but she did great. We had lots of fun too. There was a watermelon seed spitting booth. I beat Minnie and Goofy by spitting my seed completely off the tarp they were measuring the distance on! Then they had fun at the stick pull and sack races.

While we were there, PC found out they needed more men at Girls Camp the next week, so I told him to go ahead and plan on going. I knew he would have a blast and Tink would love having her dad there with her since I wouldn't be able to go.

Grandma and Grandpa

My parents were able to visit for a few days on their way out to Utah to help watch my sister's children while they go on trek. It was so nice to have them here. We went to the park one day and had a lot of fun.

It was just so nice to be with them and relax. It was fun to see them with their newest grandchild too!

Oh, Baby!

The morning of July 10, we went to the hospital for my induction. I took the above "bumpie" right before we left that morning. My blood pressure had been high for a couple weeks, so he decided to go ahead with the induction on July 10, which was only 10 days before my due date. Everything went really well. The epidural was working, the pitocin was working, but the baby's head wasn't quite in the right position, so they gave me this peanut shaped yoga ball to put between my legs while I lay on my side. I went from 5 cm dilated to delivering in less than 25 minutes! That ball worked wonders. And our little one entered the world as perfect as ever. She weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and was born on 7/10, so I should be able to remember her birth weight! She was my smallest baby and was only 19 inches long. But she is perfect in every way and we are all madly in love with her. Here are some of her first pictures:

The kids all came to see her and everyone wanted to hold her. Here is our first family picture:

We were all cleared to come home the next day. Thank goodness, because Baby Girl did not sleep much that first night in the hospital. I got an hour of sleep that night. I was worn out! She slept so well once we got home and has been doing great ever since. So far she usually does a nice long 5 hour stretch of sleep first and then a couple 2-3 hour stretches for the rest of the night. What a great baby!

July

 The fields here have been covered with these gorgeous yellow flowers for the past several weeks. We have had so much rain that even those who have lived here for years said they have never seen it like this. It is so pretty!

 Shortcake is still the sweetest little girl. I was folding laundry one afternoon and she was watching YouTube videos on my phone. I realized I hadn't heard anything from where she was in a while so I looked over and she had fallen asleep right next to my bed.

 July 3 is when our neighborhood does their Independence Day celebrations. Around 4:00 pm, we realized a storm was blowing through and we hadn't tied down our trampoline after we had mowed the lawn. So PC ran out in the rain to tie it down because the wind was so strong, it was starting to lift it a little bit. (You can see it had already blown the chair over.) He was our hero getting it tied down, because not only was it extremely windy and rainy, it even hailed on him! He was soaked everywhere his rain jacket didn't cover.

 Shortcake LOVED the fireworks! Tink had told her they were fairy princess fireworks, so she was really looking forward to seeing them. Nana and Johnny came with us and we popped some popcorn to snack on while we watched.

On the 4th, we did just a cookout with Nana and Johnny for lunch. Nana brought soda cans and these two looked so cute drinking their sodas in their matching outfits!

Youth Conference and a Campout

 I was able to go to the second day of Youth Conference this year. They played "Olympic Games" which included Human Foosball. It was a lot of fun to watch. It was a really hot weekend, though. Everyone had a good time. The closing speaker was really good and talked about decision making, which was perfect for that age group (14-18 years old). He shared a cute poem that went like this:
Choices, choices, good and bad.
The good ones make me happy and the bad ones make me sad.
If I make a mistake, I'll fix it, I will.
Cause choices are connected to the way I feel.

 The next week for mutual, we had a camp out at my Laurel Adviser's house. One of the young women planned and executed the whole thing for one of her Personal Progress projects. We did a service project by helping them build a fire pit (see picture below). It went pretty quickly and turned out well. (I want one!) They also played water balloon volleyball and had a good activity about loving yourself and realizing your potential. While we were preparing dinner, we had some huge wind gusts which broke my friend's tent! It bent three poles completely in half and ripped the rain fly! I felt so bad, but luckily they were okay with it. That's just what happens in this crazy place. But because we were down a tent, the girls all ended up sleeping in the basement. PC and the boys still slept outside in the tent, but they forgot to turn the water sprinklers off so they didn't get much sleep that night. I slept with Minnie and Shortcake in the guest bed. :) It was a fun activity. I love my calling and being able to spend time with these amazing girls.

Louie's Pizza

 I love our library system here and they always have a great summer reading program for the kids. The first prize is always a coupon sheet and we love using them.  One of the coupons is for Louie's Pizza which is a local chain. We went there last year when they got their coupon, so we knew how great the pizza tastes! These were the first coupons we redeemed. It's always nice to have a lunch outing with your family.  And look at those sweet smiles!

Love those girls!

 I have mentioned how much I love serving the young women in my church calling, right? They are the best! I learn so much from them with their sincerity and love. They know what is truth and stand for it every day. One of their favorite nighttime activities is doing sidewalk chalk. I love waking up to things like this! It makes me and my family feel so loved.  It's another example of how simple things can make such a huge impact.