All about Allstar

Here is some of what Allstar has been up to, for the months of May, June & July...There were so many picts to choose from, here is just a little bit to show you how he's growing.

He loves to swing.  We got this little swing set from KSL, and it has been so awesome to have!

 He climbs into his stroller; loves to take walks.

 Still loves to "clean"!

 Mr. Self Sufficient.  I opened the Honey Greek Yogurt [the best!] and let him go to town for a bit.  It was so cute I just let him at it for a while.  He was so excited to kept going and going!

 He loves playgrounds.  We are lucky to have this toddler-friendly one at the Elementary school in our backyard.  He now always climbs until he is at the biggest slide and goes down himself.

 This is obviously him letting us know he wants out.  He never successfully learned how to climb out, thankfully.

 at the Sandy Library, which we frequent a couple times a week!  He LOVES books.

 He learned how to give kisses around 15 months old.  SOooo Cute!

 and I made the mistake of letting him climb up on the table a couple times, an action I had to quickly stop! But he's just so cute isn't he!

 He learned how to open the caps on pens and markers. Here he got a highlighter to his face before I really noticed!  Let the drawing games begin.

 We haven't given Allstar many sugary foods yet, we want to establish a good eating habit, which we are very proud of!  We have started giving him more sweets though, so he's not the only one left out.  I gave him 2 scoops of ice cream, while his cousins got a cone full.  Well, lucky for Allstar his cousin was done with hers and offered it to him, which he glady accepted and thoroughly enjoyed!  I let him savor the moment and happily took pictures of him.  Who could with that face!

 The 3 Glade cousins. 13 mo, 16 mo, 20 mo.  It's already getting fun for them.

 Monkey see monkey do...

 Since 14-15 months he won't let us feed him anymore.  He loves to use his fork and spoon and help himself. The messes have begun.  Full wipe downs after every meal.  I don't complain, because he is a super eater.

 Bath time!  His favorite game is to throw everything out of the bathtub,as I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

 He's no longer my little boy, he has really grown up.  It is so sad for me to watch, but so fun at the same time to see him exploring and enjoying life.  Aren't his little Nike shoes darling, thanks to our friends for their hand-me-downs.

 Blankets...he sleeps with these, but we have not let him get attached to have to take them everywhere with us. However, he has started dragging them around the house quite often, usually with his binky.  He will usually listen when we tell him to leave them all, or go put them back in his room before we go somewhere, so it's not a battle.

We love this little boy SO much!  I tell him that a hundred times a day and kiss and give him loves a thousand times a day.  If he wasn't so stinkin' cute.  We are so glad to have this little guy in our family.

Pregnancy Update

So I am now 35 weeks along, that means about 5 weeks left!  Oct. 21 is the official "due" date.  This pregnancy has gone by mostly quickly.  Having a toddler makes you think less about being pregnant, except for when I bend over, which is quite frequently!  I have had a really great pregnancy again, feeling healthy and being able to be as active as I choose to.  This pregnancy has been almost the same as with Allstar.  I do feel a bit looser, like my body doesn't keep things in as well, and feel a bit more weight on my pelvis at times, but otherwise, it's been the same.  Oh, 1 difference, this baby moves!  Allstar was very calm, and I did not feel him move very much.  This baby is all over the place, several times a day.  Spencer has been able to feel it way more, which is great for him.  When it started moving so much it kind of made me nauseas because I wasn't used to it, but now I am, and it is so fun to feel it so much!  We have stuck to our decision of not finding out the gender of this baby, and it hasn't even been a temptation to me at all.  It is fun hearing what everyone thinks...which is surprisingly one way more than the other.  I will take a poll soon to see what more people want to guess!  My mom has a friend who she says is 'gifted', and she said from the moment she knew I was pregnant that it is a BOY, then my mom saw a psychic while out of town last week, and that woman said I was having a GIRL...so this makes it even MORE exciting for me.  [I do believe to an extent that some people just have a special gift here and there.  Spencer doesn't agree.  He just read this and told me to let you all know!  Silly boy.]

So, I decided to let my hair grow out for now.  I figured during pregnancy is when your hair is supposed to be it's healthiest with taking the extra vitamins and such, this would be the best time.  It is ok, I still love short hair better, and will likely cut it sooner than later, but for now, I will keep on growing it.  I have kinda been in a funk though, just dealing with it, not liking it much.  My sister-in-law, who does my hair, told me that she tells people trying to grow their hair out to change their hair color since they aren't cutting it.  I took that advice.  So here I am now, a real Brunette!  I Love It.  Not sure if I will slowly put highlights back in just yet.  The color change has totally helped my confidence, and I now like my hair again.  I am a firm believer in changing or updating your hairstyle and make-up when you are not loving the way you look, it really does SO much for you!  This isn't a great pic, you'll see more of the normal picts as the time goes on.  It's only been 1 week.

And here I am just 2 weeks prior, so like 33 weeks?  I am the same size round right now that I was when I delivered Allstar...oops, and heavier, but I started a little heavier too, dang.  I just say it's because this is my second, and my body just isn't able to hold it in as tight as before, like I explained above.  I have definitely not been good with taking my weekly belly picts, like I did with the first, it's more like monthly.  Life is just busy, and the first pregnancy is just different than any other, unfortunately.  Anyway, I think that's all for now.  I am excited and scared for this second birth, hoping to do it natural again.  I thought I'd be better for the second one since I've done it once, but I now know how it is, and it kinda makes it more scary, wondering if I can do it again.  It is hard work!  Thinking of having 2 kids is also exciting and a little nerve racking.  The latter mostly because I still want Allstar to get lots of attention and love that he should get.  This time in our lives is definitely the time of Sacrifice, in all aspects of life.  To have a family beyond husband and wife is a lot of work, but these little kids are something special.  My next post will be about Allstar, he is just so dang Cute...seriously, I can't even explain the love we have for our little boy.

Grand Teton's

This is our favorite National Park.  It is beautiful every time we have visited and the campgrounds are always great.  Obviously as you have seen a couple outings, we have had quite the summer of camping!  It has been awesome.  This Teton's trip was our big one of the summer, we took it over July 24th.  We were gone 5 nights 5 days, 2 at family's house to start and end the trip, 3 nights & 3 days at the campground/park.  Plus, it's like a 2.5 hour drive to family's house, then another 3 to the Tetons, total of 5.5 hrs in the car...yuck.  Allstar hates being in the car for longer than 30 min.  He just wants to be out moving, we think he gets bored in the car, like his mom.  So anyway, because the Teton's is so far away it's the drive that was the scariest part.  In the end, he did Awesome!  He slept a good part of most of the drives, and played with toys the other little parts, and only fussed a little.  Wow, we were so thankful for that.  We had a wonderful time, of course.  We ended up taking Spencer's parents tent trailer since it was a longer trip, as well as our friend's canoe.  Both ended up being fun to have.  I'll let the pictures tell you the summary of our days!

This is actually the very last picture of the vacation, as we were leaving Idaho Falls.  If you look close at our faces and hair you can see they look 4 days old!  I still think this pic is really cute; dirty and all.

 This is my latest invention...the car tray.  We looked at the ones to buy, and decided we didn't want to pay $15 for something that may or may not work.  So, this is what I thought of!  Genius if I say so.  I bungee'd it to the sides of his carseat to keep it in place.  It worked for the way up, then he started to figure out to throw things out, then to kick it with his legs.  It's ok, it worked for moments here and there!

 We stopped here to eat on our way to Pocatello, where Spencer's sisters live, who we stay with in ID.  It's just down the street on the Exit for Malad.  Highly recommend this little bbq joint.  Prices are great, food is awesome.  Only open like March-Oct.

 We canoed a couple times.  Jackson Lake was first, pictured below.  It was a bit rough since there are boats, but it was nice to get out.  String Lake we liked better.  It was so calm and smooth.  Allstar didn't sit for long.  He was usually in between my legs while Spencer rowed us around.

 We learned after our first camping trip to take plenty of toys for Allstar.  We filled a canister and little backpack full, which worked out great.  This was our dirtiest camping of the season, nice brown dirt covered us most of the time, caked on with bug spray!

 My friend gave us this little stroller a couple days before this trip.  It is missing part of a wheel and the handlebars are bent a little.  Out of all the toys to choose from in her garage, this is what Allstar wanted!!!  She said it'd be great for him to have, with the new baby on the way.  I don't mind the pink, and neither does he, it was his dad who had to be convinced!  After Allstar wanting to push this thing around for blocks of time throughout the day, Spencer was convinced pretty quickly that this stroller rocks and is now taken on any trip we go on!

 This is the hike to Hidden Falls.  It's our special hike that we will forever remember.  It is actually where Spencer proposed to me!  Awww...which that moment we caught on camera, you may be lucky enough to see it if I ever remember to scan and post!  Anyway, we took the other hike route and ended up not liking that way.  Between the backpack with a 21 lb toddler on Spencer's back and a big 7 month belly on me, squishing my bladder, we made it.  There were tons of people, way too many, but you wouldn't know from our great pics!  We managed a quick, not so great, family pic and headed out, the easy way...

 We took the ferry boat back to the trail head!  The hike proved too much for Spencer's back and my hips that we decided to take this out, this one time.

 the Beautiful Teton Mountains.  We have managed to have blue skies every time we come.

 Sunday we went into Jackson for an hour of church, then spent the afternoon at the park for lunch and delicious ice cream.  It was a nice, relaxing day for us.  Much hotter than at the Tetons!

 We always take a pic in front of the N.P. signs.  It proves a little more difficult with a kid now, but we still take the effort to get one!  Maybe sometime I'll show you a post w/all the N.P.s we've been too...it is quite the impressive list I must say!

 Eating w/Allstar was much easier with this chair we borrowed.  Though we were not great parents for a moment and he wiggled his way to the edge of the table [b/c of course we had him on top of the table] and tumbled off.  Whoops!  He was fine, just got scared.  He loves to eat corn ON the cob. btw.

 Sleeping arrangements inside the tent trailer.  Allstar get's one side in the pack 'n play, we get the other.  He actually sleept really well, throughout most of the nights.  It was CUTE to wake up to this though, don't you think!

Camping is over, we are now on our way back to Pocatello, where our sweet boy starts to get creative!  I of course find this highly amusing and totally laugh and watch him for 10 minutes, only encouraging this behavior!  I stopped after a while, and he actually hasn't done this since.

 Idaho Falls.  Spencer hadn't ever been here, and it had been like 10 yrs for me, so we finally rerouted over to it.  The temple is beautiful, of course.  The falls were interesting to read about.

 Allstar LOVED all the ducks and geese.  He chased them around, and got a little too close to the water for a good half hour or so.  We restrained from feeding them all, since it is not healthy for them anyway.  It was pretty gross with all the bird droppings everywhere, but definitely worth that little boy's excitement!

 I stuck with the stroller and the shady spots and let Spencer chase after the curious boy.  Too hot for this mama!

I guess that is the end!  A shower was so nice to have, but we instantly miss the campfires and being outdoors 24/7 in the beautiful nature that we can find.