May & June!

Since finding out about my second pregnancy I have been sick sick sick! I do, however, feel like I have been able to manage it better this time around! I am now 17 weeks pregnant, due November 27th! And I am finally feeling good!!! I started feeling better around 15-16 weeks (YAY!) and it has been awesome!

In the beginning I was so exhausted. I'd fall asleep so fast when I sat down and although I am still incredibly tired all the time, it's doable.

I (tried to) control the nausea in the very beginning by eating a handful of almonds every night before bed. Now I can't stand to eat almonds, darn it!! But the small bit of protein definitely did help. As did protein/breakfast drinks, peanut butter, and lunch meat rolled up + pickles!

I have loved all sour things! The more sour the better!!! Lemons, limes, sour gummies, etc. I've also absolutely loved protein-- such as steak or hamburgers! ha!!

My beginning pregnancy weight was the exact same weight as right before I delivered Lila. UGH!! And I don't even have an almost 9 lb baby in my belly yet!! haha man!!! Drew insisted it is just the "muscle weight" I've gained since having Lila. (Thanks Drew ha!) We'll just say that I guess.

May flew by. Drew's buddy Dallas got married over Mother's Day weekend so we attended those festivities. It was a lot of fun but I was so tired by the end of the day! We spent Mother's Day in Cedar that Sunday. Drew got me some fun things to treat myself such as lotion, and face masks. It was sweet!

I went to Richfield for a week with Lila during the week of my mom's birthday. That was so fun!!! We had a blast celebrating her birthday! We had donuts for brunch, enjoyed dinner at South China, and spoiled her with some presents. It was a blast! The week was so good. I just can't get enough of Richfield or of my family! It was the best week! But Lila and I definitely missed Drew and it was nice to be back with him again over the weekend :)

June came faster than I realized. Before we knew it Drew and I were sitting at dinner celebrating our 4th year anniversary! Bill and Linda came down to tend Lila for us so we could go see a movie (Wonder Woman), and then we had dinner at Anasazi Steakhouse! We cooked our steak on the hot rock and enjoyed chocolate fondue for dessert and it was awesome! Delicious food and a great time spending some one on one time together. We reminisced over  the last 4 years and couldn't believe how fast time has flown by and that now we have a beautiful little girl and another one on the way!!

Girls camp was next. It was absolutely incredible! But getting there was definitely stressful. Monday and Tuesday before camp I had to go into the museum to cover for the Makers Gonna Make class. And although I had done that class for the past two years and was confident in my ability to teach and connect with the students, the curriculum was not my own this time and the teacher did not leave anything prepped for me! I didn't know where any materials were and the lesson plans were very vague. Luckily I pulled it together and the class turned out great. But man the stress was real! ha. I was glad to have that responsibility over because then I had to worry about packing not only for myself for girls camp, but also for Lila to stay at Gma Linda's for the week! Needless to say, it was all a LOT of work.

Wednesday morning came and I was very emotional. It was so hard to leave my little Lila!!! I knew I wouldn't have any service or any way of communication with her or Drew so I think that is what was the hardest for me. But I survived and they survived!!! Camp was absolutely beautiful. The weather was great and at this point I was 16 weeks pregnant and feeling good!! (YAY!) So that was a major blessing. It was also nice to unplug from the world for 4 days. No service, no phone, no distractions. The spirit was so strong and I literally loved every minute up there! I am so happy I went! Even though I got scared to death from a skunk that walked right behind me during testimony meeting and I was the only one to jump up and run away -- made for a good story-- I am glad it happened! The bishop ended up saying some closing remarks/bearing his testimony and he used the skunk experience as a way to relate it to temptation. How we should run away from temptation but if we get too close sometimes we get stinky. So it was funny experience and a memorable lesson! :) Going back home to Drew and Lila was priceless though. I cried and cried tears of joy and happiness! I missed them both so much!

Fathers Day was that next day (Sunday after coming back from camp). However we mainly celebrated it on Saturday with Drew's entire family. We ate yummy food all day long and enjoyed each others company. Later that evening we got snow cones with Drew's buddies and then came back to the house and had a spikeball tournament with everyone! It was soooo fun! And Drew and I ended up winning everybody ha! I got a kick out of that because for one, I'm PREGNANT and had to take it easy, and for two, all his buddies are super competitive!! Ha I guess we just make a good team ;) ha.. it was a blast though!

The next weekend was Gpa June's 93rd Birthday weekend. We were planning on going up but we had problems with our Saturn Vue :( It was CRAZY because I met up with my friend Suzanna for brunch on Thursday. On my drive home I noticed the gears didn't seem right. I felt like I was driving at the top of a gear that wouldn't shift. I was so nervous I drove slow the entire way home and called Drew. He told me to pull over and turn the car off and turn it back on again so I did just that. It seemed fine, but once I began accelarating again it did the same thing with the gears shifting. Also, when I'd go down hill it would bump me into a lower gear and it would slow me down a ton! Something definitely wasn't right. (Also side note-- we had just paid about $800 towards our little geo prizm car for new tires and a tune up so we were already stressing over that...) Well I made it home, Lila fell asleep on the way, and it was blazing hot outside. We're talking like 110. Bleh! I took her in and laid her down and Drew went out to see what was going on. The car wouldn't even budge! He put it into reverse and it wouldn't move! It was a miracle we got home that day. Such a blessing! Because now after getting the car to a transmission service place, we just found out that it is going to be an almost $5,000 fix :( So we are pretty upset. We chose not to go home for the weekend and we missed out on Gpa June's birthday and I was really sad about it, but it will be okay because we will see everyone next weekend for the 4th of July. Car problems just stink. Period. And we swear that whenever our prizm has a problem the Vue does too!? It's ridiculous. But that is our latest news and now we are going to see if we can find anything a little cheaper than $5,000 to fix it. Then we're going to sell it. Wish us luck!

*Kambry had emergency surgery just a few days before girls camp and that was also nerve racking for me because I couldn't hear how she was recovering. Turns out she did just fine and has recovered well! She had appendicitis! Glad that is over with :)

Love,

Kate

April April April

The month of April flew by so fast! I don't even know where to start. Well, I guess I'll just start from the beginning of the month.

April Fools Day: Kambry was over so Lila and I went into her room first thing in the morning and woke her up. I told her Lila has fallen and broke her arm so we were going to take her to the ER. Kam's face was PRICELESS. She was so worried! (She was still half asleep and her eyes flew wide open!) It was so funny!

Dad's Birthday Weekend: We surprised my dad by going up to Richfield the weekend of his birthday! We went straight to his work, snuck into the building, and sent Lila in to his office with a balloon tied to her wrist! It was perfect and so cute!! He was happy and surprised and we were all so happy to be there! We enjoyed the rest of the weekend with good food, good company, and some easter fun! We celebrated Easter there because we wouldn't make it up the next week for the actual holiday so we had fun having a little Easter egg hunt around the house with everyone. I actually didn't feel the best over the entire weekend (felt pretty nauseous all weekend) but nevertheless it was a great weekend with family!

*When we got back from the weekend with my family, I couldn't wait any longer. Monday morning I took a pregnancy test while Drew was away at work. POSITIVE!!! I quickly threw together a cute little way to surprise him and was able to video him as he opened up Easter eggs that said "We're so excited we just can't wait... December is going to be great! I'm going to be a big sister!!" He thought I was kidding but no! Best surprise ever and we are so happy and excited! I had known I was pregnant for maybe 5 or 6 days before I finally took a test. I felt so sick and every time I brushed my teeth (tongue) I would gag! Which I hardly ever gag when I brush. So I had a very strong feeling and sure enough I was right!!! YAY!!

Easter Weekend: We stayed in St. George for the weekend but it turned out nicely. We went out to Sand Hollow one evening to eat dinner and visit with some of my extended relatives. The Jones family always camps out at Sand Hollow every Easter weekend so it was fun to go out for a couple hours and see some of them! Sunday morning before church we woke up to see what the Easter bunny brought. Lila was so excited to see all the fun new little toys! It made my momma heart so happy to see her so happy. It was fun! Later that evening we went to the Peterson's for Easter dinner. It was fun to be with them on this special day! 

*We made a onesie for Lila to wear under her clothes that said "BIG SISTER." Then we would ask her to show us her belly button -- she would lift her shirt up so you could read her onesie! That is how we told my family, Drew's family, and the Peterson's! It was so fun and cute!

***NOTE: I was never able to fully finish this post because life got in the way! Hoping to do a better update in a future post.

Loves!

Love,

Kate

March in a Nutshell & (Snapshots)

March seemed to be a longggg month. However, I must say it did go by fast because it's already over! Honestly I am glad it's over. It's not my favorite month of the year, but it always turns out to be good weather for sunny St. George so I guess that's a plus. There just isn't much to look forward to in March, ya know? So we made our own fun this month!! We went to a movie, we had some play dates, we went to a neighborhood BBQ, we went mini golfing, we made yummy treats, and we simply made it through this month, ha! Here are some snapshots from the past couple weeks:

^Lila found a book at Barnes & Noble with her name as the title! Also pictured is Lila and Winston at the movies together.

^Last hair bun photo before I chopped my hair| Winston & Lila at the movies| Gpa Bill reading Lila a book about dogs and Max getting jealous

^Mini golfing with Kam & Tyler| Non stop snacking on popcorn| Yummy breakfasts| Seeing the baby ducks.

^Random snaps from every day life| Fun night out at Sand Hollow with Kam & Tyler!

^All I can say is Lila is such a funny girl!! We get a kick out of her!

^I made those personalized rocks for my young women for a lesson I taught about forgiveness.

^Picture perfect moments that I never want to forget!

^Pictured is the dirtiest Lila has ever been!! She had been crawling and climbing all over the cement sidewalks and asphalt behind Menchies one evening| Also pictured is her being adorable and loving her bellybutton. 

^More pics from the lake| Feeding the ducks one evening| Drew surprising me that he cut all his hair off too!!

^Church snaps| Yummy treats| Mom photobombing Lila while Tyler held her there, haha.

I chopped off 17+ inches!! It feels amazing! 

As for updates let's start with Lila. She is cruising these days!!! Still a bit wobbly sometimes (but mostly just when she wakes up), and falls down hundreds of times every day, but it doesn't stop her from getting up over and over again. It's quite inspirational to be honest! It doesn't get her down and she always keeps trying! (Think about it. We should be more like her!) She is still not a very good sleeper but is starting to only wake on average once a night. So that is doable! She definitely sleeps better when she has a full tummy... so typically if she doesn't eat very much dinner I will be sure to feed her rice cereal made with whole milk while she's in the tub- right before bed. Ha! She's great at napping though! She LOVES her "baba." She has tons of fun spending time with her buddy Winston. We tend him Tuesday-Friday every week, but I usually end up actually tending him every single day. It's amazing how well they get along though! It's been a wonderful experience and they are the cutest pals. It make my momma heart so happy! (She and Winston are 5 months apart.) She has recently started to express negative emotion lately :( When she gets frustrated or sad she will hit herself in the face! UGH!! I hate it, and I try to stop her but I really don't know why she does it!? I hope it will pass! Crossing our fingers. She is the sweetest thing though. She is smart, funny, witty, and adorable and we just can't get enough of her!

As for Drew and I, nothing too different around here. We are just busy working; me tending Winston and doing projects and commissions when I can find the time, and Drew busy at the museum. I helped out during spring break at the museum this month and did not enjoy it. I am definitely happier being home and doing my own chosen work. ;)

^Tyler brought his little brother Parker and little sister Megan along with us to the lake. It was tons of fun!

^And adorable woodland animal order I received this month for a baby boy's nursery!

^Having fun at walmart

^Perfect night. Cotton candy skies!!!

^Spotted my work on this lady's instagram feed. I did this for Petal Lane and it is being sold at the Baby Cubby up north.

It's a good life. We are learning and recognizing more and more each day that we MAKE the happy life. Love the life you live, live the life you love. It is doable!

Love,

Kate

February Snapshots

Walking around the St. George Children's Museum on a nice February day!

  

^Screen shot of my aunt Katie's collage wall. She printed Lila's drawing! So cute!^

  

   

  

^Best Valentines Day Treat EVER!

^And of course our traditional Chinese food for Valentines Day!^

Lila is a happy girl on Valentines Day!

Life update:

Drew- He is very happy working at the Children's Museum. They are so good to him and he loves the people he works with. 

Katelin- I am enjoying being in the YW presidency in my ward as the YW Secretary. I have become really good friends with the ladies I work with. Lila and I have actually started walking with the president (Megan) and her son Winston at the church a couple times a week. It's a lot of fun! We take our strollers and try to walk around the gym a couple times but the kids have short attention spans and want to get out and play. So we typically park the strollers in the middle of the gym and set out snacks, drinks, and lots of toys and watch them play as we continue to walk around the gym. I love it!

I also opened up my etsy shop this month. YAY! I keep busy doing lots of projects for people, but it makes me happy and I love doing it. I've also started tending Winston a couple times a week too! It works out great because he and Lila play so well together. Megan brought over his pack'n'play so it is set up in the extra bedroom upstairs for him to nap in. We have dance parties, play with all the toys, read books, color, watch movies, have naps, eat snacks, and have so much fun! I love it!

Lila- She is so close to walking on her own! She'll walk along any type of furniture and with any helping hand, but not quite by her self yet. She continues to practice standing up on her own and she is so proud of herself! So are we! It's awesome. She's the cutest thing ever. She is a master at asking for "more" in sign language, as well as telling us she is "all done." She has switched over to whole milk now and takes it like a champ! She is on a huge popcorn kick and eats it like her dad does-- handfuls at a time! It's hilarious! She's smart and happy and perfect. She is seriously a dream!

It's been an awesome year already marking off new years resolutions (opening up my etsy shop), and doing a spontaneous Disneyland trip! Plus throwing Lila's big birthday party and the awesome cabin trip too. What a life we live!! We are so blessed!

Love,

Kate

Snowboarding with Shay & Drew

My cousin Shay drove me and Lila down to Cedar on Friday after being in Richfield for a week. We met up with Drew at his parents' house. We dropped Lila off and headed up to Brianhead to spend the day snowboarding! It was Shay's first time and Drew and I hadn't been snowboarding for 2 or 3 years so we were all pretty excited!

It was a beautiful sunny day but the temperature was below freezing! Especially the higher we got up the mountain... it was so cold!!! Luckily we warmed up as we snowboarded down the mountain, but after falling a couple times my gloves weren't very "water proof" and I was FREEZING! 

We enjoyed some yummy cheeseburgers for lunch and by the time we were done boarding, all of us were exhausted! We got back to Cedar with good time to spare. Shay drove back to Richfield and Drew and I were happy to be with Lila again.

It was a fun day! Drew is so good at snowboarding. I may need to look into snowboard gear for him for next year so he can go more often! And I was impressed with Shay too. He is a natural and picked it up so quickly!

Love,

Kate

A week in Richfield (in February)

We came back from the cabin trip on Sunday afternoon. My mom made dinner for all of us! We had hawaiian haystacks and they were delicious. Eventually Lyss and Barry left and Drew did too. Lila and I stayed in Richfield! I was asked to do a few projects for people so I figured it would be a perfect time to stay a few days, plus my cousin Shay could easily take us down to Cedar on Friday to meet up with Drew. (We would go snowboarding that day as well, because the party never stops ya know?!)

Monday through Thursday went by in a blink of an eye I swear! I loved being home but my time there always goes too quickly. I love being able to see and visit all of my extended family and I miss them when we are back in St. George. But we made the best of the few days we had!

We got to visit with Grandpa Perry, Grandma Micki and Grandpa Doug, Grandma Carol and Grandpa June, the Morrison's, and Lisa, Shayla, and Ryklin! 

I spent a couple days over at my cousin Chelsea's new home sketching and painting a mural for her son Bridger who is undiagnosed with a rare disease. It was a really special opportunity for me to be in their home and to do this special mural for them. Bridger is a fighter and continues to beat the odds every single day. He is a living miracle and an inspiration to all. Check out what my Chelsea posted about him and my mural:

#fact: 30 million people in the United States are living with rare diseases. This equates to 1 in 10 Americans or 10% of the U.S. population.

#fact: Approximately 50% of the people affected by rare diseases are children

#fact: 30% of children with rare disease will not live to see their 5th birthday

Today is #rarediseaseday. We are more than blessed to have this #rarechild in our home and continually pray for a diagnosis and cure. In the end, we have faith a cure will come, it just may not take place during his earthly life. So for now, we wake up each morning ready to face whatever mountain may stand in our way and continually pray to the mountain mover for strength and assistance during the climb.

For the longest time we thought we had enough faith and prayed for these giant mountains to move. We now realize that sometimes those mountains aren't supposed to be moved, instead, they were put there for a reason and we are to climb them. ⛰

In Bridger's bedroom/therapy room we just had this mural completed on his wall by the most talented @madebykate_ It stands as a constant daily reminder to be brave, have courage, and face our mountains head on!#nationalrarediseaseday2017#everymountaintopiswithinreachifyoujustkeepclimbing ⛰

My cousin also shared these other photos (seen below) with me and said this, "I can't help but share thse gems! When you were washing the paint brushes out yesterday, I was showing Bridger the wall. Little did I know- my sister Kenzie was behind me taking pics! So precious!!! Then tonight while we were at the temple, Cami (the babysitter) said she took Bridger in to show him the wall. She said he just kept staring at it in awe! You have completed this space and made his room show us a constant reminder that even though we face a mountain climb each day, it's okay. Each day is a new day to try harder to be better. What a beautiful masterpiece you have created. Thank you for sharing your talents with us. There are so many masterpieces in our home from you that we treasure."

And THAT is exactly why I love what I get to do for people. I am so grateful for the talents I have and that I get to share them and touch other people's lives. It's truly the best thing in the world!

So besides that being a big highlight of the week, we also went to one of Konner's basketball games and Lila was hilarious the entire time! She just wanted Konner so badly she kept trying to go over to him. We sat right behind the team's bench and then my dad and Shay took turns walking around with her on the floor and she kept trying to get away and go over to Konner when he wasn't on the court playing. It was so funny but SO CUTE :)

Lila had a playdate with Tycie one of the days and had a blast! Tycie is just a couple weeks younger than Lila. It has been so fun watching them grow up together! We went over to her house and she had so many fun toys. Lila was in heaven! Although she and Lila are completely different, they are so stinkin adorable together! Tycie has a slide that she can easily climb up and slide down without a problem. Lila wanted to do everything she could do so badly but she just isn't quite as strong as Tycie and can't balance as good as she can so she struggled and got really frustrated haha! It was sad but cute. I helped her though and she was happy to slide down! Tycie is walking all over the place! Lila isn't quite there yet but I'm sure she will be soon. It was such a fun little play date! I really wish we lived closer so we could have more play dates!

Lila and I also enjoyed visiting Miss Polly's preschool mulitple times almost every day. Lila loved the kids and all the kids loved her too. It was fun!


Thursday night before we left Richfield we got to spend some time up at Grandma Carol's house. She made a delicious poppyseed chicken dinner. She is AMAZING! She continually amazes me. She is beautiful and happy and so kind and loving. I love her so much and I wish we could have spent more time together! But it is always neat to see her and Lila interact. She loves Lila so much, it makes me so happy!

Family is everything to me. I really hope we can find a way to live back in Richfield someday because I miss them so!!

But I have to give a big thank you to my mom for taking care of us over the week. She is wonder woman I really don't know how she does everything, but she does!! She's incredible! I am just the luckiest to come from the best of the best. 

Love,

Kate