Tot School - the Letter Z

With Baby Boy only being 20 days a way, I am trying to focus more on getting Tot School underway with Lily and getting ourselves in a routine. Mainly so she isn't bored silly when the baby comes! This week is the first week where we almost did an activity every day that actually had to do with the same theme. Tot School was a little unorthodox - we started with the Letter Z instead of A, but that's because I knew I had all the supplies that I wanted for the week. Overall, we had lots of fun and I am excited to come up with activities for next week. Nesting has definitely kicked in! Now if only I can get it all done by the 30th!

Lily traced the letter Z with her fingers and put sticker animals in her letter Z Zoo.

We've already been to the Hogle Zoo this year so we decided to check out the Living Planet Aquarium instead. It was actually a lot better than I thought it was. Lily loved it! She was fascinated by the sharks and eels.

Lily became a bit possessive of the fish at this tank. When they swam near her, she would put her hands over the glass and shout "mine" at whoever was standing near her. She met her match because the little girl standing next to her did the same thing. And she just happened to be named Lily, too!

Lily and the sting ray. She did not want to touch them!

Lily found Nemo.

I also set up a mini-zoo in her bedroom. She had fun for a little while looking for all the animals and taking pictures of them. Her favorites were the mommy and baby animals that I put together.

We read books about Zebras and Lily put Zebra stripes on her letter Z's.

More from the aquarium - sorry they are out of order. She loved the stuffed snakes in the gift shop!

Lily driving the boat in the Utah section of the aquarium. She liked to use the handheld radio to give out orders.

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a fantastic 4th of July with family this year! We started the day early and checked out the Hot Air Balloon Launch. It was awesome! Lily loved the hot air balloons and also got to see a helicopter take off at the hospital next door.

oWe spent the evening hanging out with my family. We had a yummy BBQ and then headed out to see the fireworks. As you can tell from this picture - Lily was most interested in running!

Luckily we had Aunt Ada the human jungle gym!

Happy Fourth of July! I can't believe we'll have an almost one year old by this time next year!

Lily and Baby Update

Grandpa Scotty gave Lily sidewalk chalk for her birthday. Lily and Daddy created this cute masterpiece for me today. So sweet!

In other news, we had Lily's 2 year old appointment and my 35 week
doctor's appointment today. Lily is doing great and is a tall little girl! She is in the 87th percentile for height and 42nd percentile for weight. She must have inherited her Daddy's height!

We had an ultrasound at my appointment and got to see our little guy. You could already
see his hair! That was our favorite part. He is weighing in at about 5 lbs right now so they are estimating that he will be about 7 lbs when he is born. Sounds good to me! I've been having some Braxton Hicks so the doctor checked and I am dilated to 3 cm. I was dilated with Lily for awhile so I think we still have plenty of time left.

I am holding out anyway because I still have one more maternity massage left on July 13th. It is an hour and a half massage and I am not missing out on that!

Everything else looked good on the ultrasound. My blood pressure is starting to climb a little bit so we are hoping that it stays down in these last five weeks. We are getting excited for this little boy!

Lunch dates and Babies :)

Tara Bonnie Jen Aubrey
Baby Boy Ella Sophie Kennady

I am very lucky to have life long friends from Ricks College! I worked/played/lived with these lovely ladies on the Scroll ten years ago .... can't believe it has been that long! This week we had a lunch date and I got to meet their darling little girls - all three under three months old. I am so ready to hold my own newborn now. It was fabulous to catch up and share in this fun time! Lily loved playing in the back yard with Bonnie's dog Jovi and Jen's older kids - Ally and Jonah. I wish I had got some pictures. After lunch we went to a Splash Park that was a lot of fun!

What We've Been Up To :)

Getting ready for baby! That about sums it up. I've finally hit that nesting phase and, now that I know how hectic it can be after the baby arrives, I am getting as much done as possible before he arrives. Luckily, I have two fantastic helpers. Lily has become quite the good cleaner as you can see in the picture above. She actually vacuumed most of her own room pretty well. I was impressed. Now that bending over is not the most comfortable thing for me to do, it is great that Lily thinks helping me switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer is fun, too! We can only hope that she thinks cleaning is just as fun when she gets older!

In baby news, it is fun to say that he will be here next month! (unless he is late and is a August baby ... ). Poor little guy does not have a name yet. We are anticipating another active and feisty little soul like Lily - this boy is quite the kicker! So far the names on our list are: Cortland, Kyler, Lincoln, Cohen, Tate, and Trace or Trey. Any favorites or others that anyone likes? We are open to suggestions!

Tot School

Between Johnny finishing up school and me being 29 weeks pregnant, we have had a few mornings like the pictures above and below :).

So I decided to try something new and have found great ideas from Tot School and other preschool web-sites. Today Lily and I played lots of games with cheerios (when she wasn't eating them :) ). We put them in pairs on dots on the paper, we tossed them into a box, transferred them from place to place, and put them into small holes.

Overall it was a success and Lily had fun!

The latest and greatest UVU graduate!

Johnny graduated on Friday from UVU with a bachelor's in Digital Media. HOORAY!

Where's Johnny? Can you find him?

Johnny getting his degree!

Good job, hon! Lily and I are so proud of you! You did awesome as a full-time student, full-time employee, and full-time dad/husband!