Swim Lessons

This summer the kids took swim lessons with Mrs. Stacie throughout the months of June and July. We had an unusually mild June, so the first few lessons the kids had to endure some chilly water and overcast days. Not cool when mom had to get in the water with them...


Allie learned so much this summer. By the end of the summer, she was swimming by herself across the pool, diving down to the bottom of the pool to get the pool toys, diving in the pool from the side and swimming back to the edge, and practicing her freestyle stroke. It was impressive how much she progressed. She LOVED to swim, and loved to do it all by herself.


Drew HATED swim lessons at first. He'd cry each time I put his swim suit on him, and say "no swim mom, no swim". I felt so bad handing him over crying to Mrs. Stacie but she would give him a big hug after every couple swims. I wasn't sure I wanted to torture him for the second session, but went ahead and did it anyways. I was SOOO glad I did. He did a complete 180 - I'm not sure if it was the warm weather and warm water that made the difference, but he did great and now he's a fish. He liked to spend more time under the water than above it and he LOVED to practice his bubbles with me. By the end of the summer, he could jump in from the side and swim to the edge. He could almost climb out of the pool by himself too. He would swim across the pool with help from mom or Mrs. Stacie reminding him to come up for a breath.


It was a lot of fun to see both kids learn and see their confidence grow.

Pictures of our unborn fetus...

First Ultrasound - 4/8/09
Here is the first ultrasound we had done around 13 weeks. Everything looked good, and he was already measuring a little big for his due date. We had hoped to catch a glimpse of what the gender was, but no such luck. With Drew, the ultrasound tech gave us a 70% confidence that it was a boy, and it was confirmed at the 19 week appt that it was a boy. But the lady that did our ultrasound was strictly business, and wouldn't even humor us - Dan called her "Cruella DeVille" and even hummed the song as she performed the ultrasound.

2nd Ultrasound at 20 1/2 weeks (6/1/09 & 6/11/09)

We had 2 ultrasounds done around 20 weeks. One was just to get basic measurements in the Doctors office, and then we did a detailed one at a place that specializes in ultrasounds. The babies kidney's were slightly enlarged and they just wanted to check them out. Luckily, everything turned out good, and this enlargement of the kidneys is more common in boys than girls.

The following 2 pictures are in 3-D. It was pretty cool to see his face and profile, but the baby looks a little bit like Gumby.

AND ITS ANOTHER BOY!!!!

His foot

A profile of his face, with his arm and hand above his head.

3-D picture of his two little legs. They look very long and skinny...

Mother's Day Pics

May 5, 2009: So this year Sarah and I attempted to get a grandkids picture for Grammy Scarbrough for Mother's Day, because we had a new addition to the clan (little Emery Smith) and it had been a couple years since a grandkids picture. But, it turned out to be a little more difficult than we thought... It was a SUPER hot day, and the kids were melting as soon as we got there. Their cheeks were flushed and they all were a bit cranky and didn't want to be photographed...


Here are a couple of our attemps... (Thanks Gavin for being our photographer).

One Year Down, Only 14 to Go...

May 19, 2009:

Allie completed her first year at preschool. It was a wonderful year, she learned and grew so much over the past school year. She truly loved every minute of it and loved her teacher, Mrs. Kerri Robinson. By the end of the year, Allie's penmenship had drastically improved. She was doing basic math, and could count to 39 all by herself. She could count to 100, if we helped her with each of the tens. She would count 37, 38, 39, 30-10 (instead of 40).


Allie loves to color and draw pictures, and write down our orders in a notebook. She has also drastically improved her coloring skills and stays in the lines pretty darn well. At the beginning of the year, she didn't really care, and would basically quickly scribble. But now, she takes her time and choses each color carefully to make each picture an masterpiece.


The graduation was super cute and sweet. The kids did a couple of songs and showed the things they had learned all year.

Like Father Like Son

What else can I say - I love these two boys to pieces!!! At first Dan just thought it would be funny but they both got such a kick out of it they went to my parents house for dinner in these stunning outfits. They both make me laugh and smile... Luv U!

Allie's First Dance Recital

May 4, 2009:

Allie took dance lessons from Diana Hakes (in our ward) for the past 4 months. She would go once a week for 45 minutes. She LOVED every minute of it. It was a wonderful introduction to dance and a fun thing to do with her friends Lauren and Breckon. Their dance recital was about the Ugly Duckling. The preschooler dancers were the ducklings. Ali Zollinger (our next door neighbor) was the mother duck, and the helper in the preschool dance class. Our Allie absolutely adores her and loved having her there. It was cute to see them so excited to perform for the parents, most of them forgot a lot of their dance moves b/c they were too busy waving at their moms and dads...

Ali Z and Allie - Momma duck and a little duckling

Breckon and Allie - little ducklings

Drew thought he was big stuff too - smiling extra big for the camera.

The ducklings behind their eggs.

The ducklings performing. Allie is the last one on the right - she is the oldest one in the class, but the shortest one too :-)
So excited...

Our sweet pea.... We love this little peanut so much, and are so proud of the sweet girl that she is. She brings us so much joy and we truly love her spunk, her humor, and how her brain works. She is so smart and witty - she is a hoot. Love you tons girly!

My "Mommom"

April 2009:


My grandmother passed away after a year long battle with cancer. She was such an incredible woman and a tremendous example for me. She loved her family dearly, and always made sure they knew it. She lived a full life serving the Lord, and fulfilling her callings to the best of her ability - even when they were extremely hard or physically challenging. Her love for cooking and making delicious food has been felt by everyone who knew her. She served and loved others through her cooking.


What a blessing she was in my life and my children's lives to have known her and to have been touched by her spirit. She is missed dearly - but I know that we will see her again someday...

The Never Ending Candy Weekend

For Easter this year we had 3 Easter egg hunts. Our kids were in candy heaven! Our ward did their egg hunt on Friday. Drew couldn't wait to get started once he found out there was candy in the eggs!!! Allie only chose the pink colored eggs to go in her pink easter basket. Drew didn't care what color the eggs were, but he'd pick up the egg and shake it - if it didn't make a noise, he'd put it back. At first I wasn't sure why, but then as other kids were opening their eggs, the ones that didn't make noise - had stickers in them instead of candy. I guess he knew he wanted the good stuff, none of this sticker business.

Then we did our little family hunt on Saturday morning. As luck would have it, the easter bunny got up early and hid all the eggs in our backyard. Right before the kids woke up, it started to sprinkle and then rain, so the easter bunny had to collect all the eggs in the rain and hide them inside our house this year :-) Allie and Drew didn't seem to mind. Again, Drew was anxious to get into his goodie stash. Allie enjoyed the play-doh inside some of the eggs.

Later on Saturday, we went up to Grammy and Papa Scarbrough's house for our 3rd egg hunt with the cousins. Our kids were pros at finding eggs by this point, and still enjoyed it as much as the first one.

It was nice to get all our egg hunts done before Sunday, so we could focus on the real reason why we celebrate Easter. I'm so greatful for the tremendous sacrifice of our Savior, and I know that he died for us, and was resurrected - and that he lives! It brings great peace to have that knowledge and to know that I can return to live with him again.

Easter Egg hunt at home

Our Ward Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Egg hunt at Scarbrough's

Family Pictures on Sunday. The kids did not want to take any pictures, so I was lucky to even get these few... but they looked so cute in their church clothes.

Disneyland on Ice - Cooler Than You Think...

April 10, 2009: Dan scored 4 Disneyland on Ice tickets from work - and became an instant hero at our home. The kids were SOOO excited to go, even though they weren't exactly sure what they were going to. They did great! Our seats were incredible... we were in the front row (right on the ice) right in the middle. We could touch the ice - we were so close.

It was a super cute performance about the Incredibles going to Disneyland and saving Minnie and Mickey from Syndrome. There were tons of characters, lights, music, props, and fog. Allie intently watched it from her seat, not missing a beat on anything that was going on. Drew was also glued to the performers, but he was a little more vocal about it than Allie was. He'd clap and yell with enthusiasm when something cool happened.

During one of the songs, the Pirates of the Caribbean were singing "Yo ho" and dancing, and one of the pirates skated right up to our seats, and took Allie's hand and kissed it. It was super cute! She was a little shy and wasn't sure what he was doing at first, but she liked it. Then 2 more characters, a monkey from Jungle book, and Baloo, came right up to us and gave both kids "high-fives". I love the video of Drew at the bottom of the post... he keeps us smiling!

We had tons of treats - a princess snowcone, popcorn, caramel apples, what more could you want? It was a super fun night that we'll remember for a while...

2 Extra Feet

At the beginning of April, we sent out this announcement to our family members. We thought it'd be a fun way to announce our pregnancy since Dan always teases both of our mom's that we are expecting (when we're not). So it was a fun surprise for them to get in the mailbox!