It's A Girl!!

I had my ultrasound today and found out that we are having a girl. After having three boys it came as a little bit of a shock to us, we were just planning on it being another boy. I have to say that I did have a feeling that this one was different. For one thing this baby is not as active as the boys were, I hardly ever feel her moving. Even during the ultrasound her movements were minimum, in fact she curled herself up into a ball at the end. I also got pregnant really fast this time. I heard the author of the "What to Expect" books say that it takes longer to get pregnant with boys than girls, something about the mothers body chemistry. It took me at the least 5 months to get pregnant before, so I was very surprised to find myself pregnant after only 6 weeks this time. I was really hoping that this one would be a girl. I really think that we are done after this, I have no desire to ever be pregnant again, and I was worried that if this one was a boy I would feel like I was missing out by not having any girls. I am excited about cute girl cloths and hair bows, and I think it will be good for my boys to have a girl around. Mixed in with the excitement, I am also feeling a little nervous. Girls are a whole new ball game for us.

Apricots

Randy's parents have an awesome apricot tree in their front yard. We love having fresh apricots every year. But, this year I have decided to take full advantage of it. I have been really focused on getting my food storage together, and this is a free source of food. So this week I made apricot jam, it is my favorite.Unfortunately, it didn't set up. But it is still delicious, and it thickened a little in the fridge. I might have to try it again with a different recipe. So, if anyone has a tried and true recipe for apricot jam, send it my way.

Today I took a whole bucket full of apricots and put them in the food dehydrator. Nathan was my little helper. I cut the fruit up and he put it in the bowl of fruit fresh to soak, then he helped me put the pieces on the trays. He was so cute, he said, "I am a good worker, right mom?" He was pretending all the pieces were boats as he put them in the water.

My little helper Nathan

I have never tried to dry apricots before, I really hope they turn out. Dried apricots are so yummy. On Monday I am going over to my mother in laws house to bottle apricot halves. I wonder if I am going to be really sick of apricots after that.

Summer Travels

We did it, we survived an extremely long car ride with our children. It actually wasn't too bad. Our drive up to Washington took us about 13 hours, so it was long. But, we did make a lot of stops. Our funnest stop was in Twin Falls where we watched some base jumpers jump off the huge bridge that is there. The height of that bridge is dizzying. It is an amazing sight, and just off the freeway.The older boys really were good the whole time, except that they had the uncanny ability to say they were sick or had to go potty just after we passed an exit. I bribed them with wrapped prizes, it was great. I brought so many, including some from my mother in law, thanks Darla, that I even had some left over when we got home. The DVD player was also a lifesaver. Adam was a little more difficult, but he was pretty good the whole way. He was done after 12 hours though, he started screaming and throwing everything we gave him. The way home wasn't as long and so he did a little better. The best part, no one threw up! This truly is amazing in our family.

We had a fun visit with my parents and brothers. Here are some of the highlights:

Floating down the Columbia River in our raft

And playing in the water after, we couldn't keep Adam out of the river, he loves water.
Driving to Portland (yes back in the car for a few more hours) with my parents and visiting waterfalls along the way. This is Horsetail Falls, we also went to Multnomah Falls. We had a fun time in Portland just walking around the city. But, the most memorable part of our trip was eating pizza in an old haunted hotel. Before we went there I asked Jacob if he wanted to eat pizza or Chinese. He chose pizza. So we went to Old Town Pizza. While were choosing a place to sit Randy found this tiny room in the back with a table and a couch. He wanted to eat in there, but I got the creepiest feeling in there, I chose a spot as far away from that room as possible. Then while we waiting for our pizza I read the story on the back of the menu. It turns out that room used to an elevator shaft and a woman who lived an worked in the hotel was thrown down it, and haunts the building today. When Jacob heard this he said, "I don't want pizza, I want Chinese." He was so freaked out he hardly ate.

Driving to the Oregon coast and eating ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, seriously some of the best ice cream I have ever had.

Playing at the beach, even if the water was cold. Unfortunately Adam had a reaction the new sunscreen I bought. I had to give him benedryl and he slept the whole time we were at the beach.
Fireworks at Grandpa and Grandma's house on the 4th of July. Areal fireworks are now legal where they live. I would say there were 10 to 15 people in my parents neighborhood who were doing them. It was so fun to just sit in their yard and watch them all.

Thanks mom and dad for the fun trip. We can't wait to see you again.

How do you keep a baby happy in the car for 10 hours?

We are leaving on the 27th to go and visit my parents for a week. I am really excited because we haven't seen them in a while. I am also really nervous because it is a 10 hour drive, not counting rest stops, which I am sure we will have a lot of with a pregnant mommy and 3 little kids. I have a plan for what to do with the two older kids, and I think they will be fine. My biggest concern is what to do with Adam. He is 14 months old. He doesn't color, he doesn't watch movies, he looses interest in books really fast, and he is an incredibly messy eater, so snacks in the car are hard. He runs, and explores. How am I going to keep him happy strapped in the car for 10 hours. Any suggestions? I could really use some. Benedryl, maybe? I could just knock him out the whole trip. But then he might not sleep when we get there, so that might not be a good idea.

Oquirrh Mounain Temple

We have the great privilege of living right next to a brand new temple, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, named for the mountains just to the west of us. The open house is currently underway. Randy and I had the opportunity to volunteer back in May, on the first day of the open house. Actually, there were not very many visitors that day and so most of the volunteers from our ward were sent home, including Randy, but my job was in first aid so I was able to stay. The first aid station is right inside the temple, and as part of my job I needed to know the layout of the temple and the grounds, so I was given a private tour. Because there were really no visitors I was able to walk through it a couple of times, and I was also able to take Randy through too. It is a beautiful building filled with gorgeous paintings of the Savior, giant chandeliers, beautiful etched glass, and hand painted murals. The Church really spared no expense, using the finest materials and the finest workmanship for the House of the Lord. I felt very grateful to have the opportunity to work there for my 5 hour shift. Last night we were able to take our kids to the open house. When we first walked in, past the recommend desk and saw the two grand staircases and beautiful chandelier Jacob's eyes lit up and he said, "Wow". My favorite room is, of course, the celestial room. Like all celestial rooms, it is the most beautiful place you can imagine. I was able to explain to Jacob that when we are in this room it is just like being in Heaven. When we got the sealing room we were able to sit down for a few minutes. There was a couple there to explain about sealings and eternal families. The man asked what peoples favorite rooms were and Jacob raised his hand, with is face all lit up and a huge smile he whispered "This one." It was so precious, I wanted to cry. After their presentation we were able to sit for a few minutes and I told Jacob, "Mommy and Daddy got married in room just like this one. That means that we can be married to each other for ever and ever, even after we die. It also means that you are our son forever and ever, no matter what. And some day when you find a girl you want to marry you can bring her here, maybe to this same room, and get married to her forever." We were also able to talk to our kids about what a special opportunity it is for them to be able to come inside the Temple right now because they won't get to come back until they are big. We told them that if they want to go back to the Temple when they are big they will have to keep all the commandments and do their best to do what Heavenly Father wants them to do. I am so grateful for this opportunity that we had for our children to enter the House of the Lord, I hope that they will remember what a special place it is and how lucky we are to have it.

Where did Adam get his looks? Not from me.

I have been asked several times, and have often wondered myself, "How did you get such a blond, fair, blue eyed child?" The first time I saw Adam I could not believe my eyes. If I hadn't just given birth to him, if there was any chance that he could have been switched with another baby, I don't know if I would have believed he was mine, well, except for the fact that he does looks a lot like my husband. He was just so blond and his skin was so white. My other kids had dark hair and more olive skin, more like babies who are a quarter Mexican should look. Well, the other day at my mother-in-laws house I discovered just where Adam got his looks. She found this picture of my father-in-law with his mother when she was cleaning out Grandma Wardle's things.



What do you think? Does Adam look exactly like Grandpa Wardle or what? He is all Wardle, there is no Vega in him at all.

Lost and Found

A week and a half ago we accidentally left the garage door open over night. We have done this a couple of times before without any consequences, but this time we had a theft. My bike was stolen. I was really sad. Randy bought it for me just after we got married. We thought it would be fun to go mountain biking together. We did a few times, but I had some bad crashes and haven't done much riding since I had kids. So, even though it is an old bike, it is still in good condition because it doesn't get used a ton. Randy actually rides it more than I do, and it had the clip to attach the bike trailer on it, so I was sad to loose that too. I keep everything, and I had all the paper work from when we bought the bike, including the serial number, so I decided to call the police and report is stolen. I didn't think that anything would come of it, but I thought just in case it wouldn't hurt. Well yesterday I got a call from one of our local police officers. He found my bike. Apparently a young woman took it, and she tried to pawn it. This officer found the serial number on a pawn list. So I was able to go down to our local station and picked it up. I was so happy. It does have a little bit of damage to the seat, but otherwise still looks good, and the trailer clip is still there too. I am really glad I had that serial number, I don't think we would have gotten it back without that.