Things to Remember 6-28-15

MONDAY MONDAY
Today was not my favorite day.  I feel like I am sinking into that dumb mental hole again.  I just got done saying, just the other day, at Girls Camp, that I don't feel like this pregnancy has effected me as much emotionally and then I have a day like today.  Felt a little like an emotional roller coaster.  I feel so distant.  Like my head is stuck in a cloud or something.  I feel like I haven't connected with my kids for days.  Like I'm just trying to get by every second!  It's hard.  I had my Dr. Appointment today, that was okay.  The dumb glucose test went well.  Got to spend a lot of time chatting with Nate at the appointment and then some more over sushi, so that was nice.  But on the way home I started to kind of lose it a little in the crazy traffic.  It's really starting to worry me that I can't get myself to think about this baby girl and imagine what it will be like when she's here.  Anytime I try to visualize she and I bonding in our hospital room (which is something that has always carried me through these pregnancies), I get this sick feeling like I shouldn't.  I wish I knew why.  I hope it's just my crazy brain.  I have had so many friends and people close to me losing their babies that it has been a major fear for me.  There's no way I could handle that.  I talked to Nate about it a little on the phone (we had to drive separate) and he reassured me that our little girl wants me to be excited for her to come.  He said, "You're not a robot."  I hope he's right.  I found a quiet spot this evening and closed my eyes and tried to take myself to those moments following her delivery, the recovery room, the sleepless nights of putting her in and out of her little bed (it's inevitable :) ) and for a split second I was there.  Unfortunately it didn't last long, though.  It's so weird.  Even planning her Halloween costume feels like I'm jumping to a conclusion that I shouldn't.  So hopefully my brain is just being cautious.  Hopefully I get to keep her and this is just to make me feel even more blessed and more grateful for the miracle that a new baby is.  Not to take her for granted.  I hope.  I love that all I have to do is think about her and I can feel her bouncing around in there.  She seems perfectly healthy.  I hope she is.
The evening was not a whole lot better than the rest of the day.  I'm going to have to get my emotions under check here before we leave for Nauvoo, so I guess I know what I should be praying for now.  6-29-15

FHE
During dinner, Luke informed me that he hadn't quite planned his lesson yet.  I told him to hurry and think of something, but I had no idea he could pull off such an amazing lesson in that amount of time!  He taught us about tithing!  He asked lots of questions, stood up in front of everyone, even had a few demos of how to calculate 10%!  I was so proud of him!  This is a first for Lukey.  I'm really glad I didn't cave and try to help him like I usually do!  He totally stepped it up.  What a cool guy.  I think our kids really needed the refresher course on tithing too!  Based on the answers and such.  But way to go Luke!  Nate had activity and Jack had treat so they combined forces so that Nate could demonstrate the soda can analogy with our root beer for root beer floats :).  I got to show the kids how Brent and I used to smash cans (standing on them and flicking in the side just enough for the whole can to collapse), good times.  Everyone was happy.  6-29-15

SOFTBALL
It was softball night for YW this week.  I had been planning on being on our trip so I never really planned on going, but since we rescheduled our trip to start Thursday instead, it was then an option.  I really had too much to do that evening with packing and all, but then I kept getting texts and calls from other leaders that nobody was going to be able to make it.  Needless to say, it was good that I went.  I wish I could feel good about going to things before and not just after.  I was really dragging my feet emotionally, but felt like it had been a good time at the end.  I need to fix this.  It was back to packing when we got home.  7-1-15

31 WEEKS
I hit 31 weeks while we were on our trip.  I was pleasantly surprised with how well things were going pregnancy wise.  I wish I'd been able to stay hydrated without filling my bladder, but that's really not possible.  I get that.  Baby Lullow (that's what Jack wants to name her :) ) moves nonstop which as I've said a million other times has been such a blessing.  I am enjoying it a lot.  That's one of the only things I like about being pregnant, so I'm happy I get to experience it often.  She didn't seem too uncomfortable with all the driving which was a definite plus.  There was plenty of cramping and hip dysplasia every night which made getting up a million times to pee unpleasant.  But I'm SO grateful that it didn't bother me during the day too much.  There were only a few days where it became too much to handle and brought me to tears.  I'm not ready for that symptom to come out in full force.  So far it's a little late (according to the Jack pregnancy scale) so I'm hopeful that it won't, but we'll see.  I'm still not getting the "I need to pee" sensation, I have to go off how much pain and pressure I am feeling in my pelvic and pubic bones, which is frustrating and confusing sometimes.  There have been occasional kicks from Lullow directly to my bladder those definitely send me to the restroom.  Those are almost good because it feels normal instead of painful.  Very interesting new symptom that I think I caused at Girls Camp that night that I needed to pee.  Should have just toughed it out and walked the quarter of a mile to the bathroom.  I learned my lesson.  Not that that matters now.  So anyway.  8 more weeks!!  7-4-15

BUILD UPON THE ROCK- GIRLS CAMP 2015!

Girls camp was a HUGE success this year!!  I was SO relieved!  After fighting for it so hard, I couldn't bear the thought of it going bad somehow.  It was really awesome.  Some of the cool things that happened:
I had volunteered to pull the trailer with all the gear with my car.

 It seemed like an okay idea, and I was confident things would go well up until the night before when I started really thinking about what it entailed.  I finally decided I needed to just turn it over to Heavenly Father.  I kept thinking- I know that he CAN help me, I just don't know if it is His WILL to help me.  So I just prayed tor help to get there safely and not have it ruin my car.  I decided that if anything then went wrong, I would know that it was His will that something go wrong and we would be able to work through it.  It was a cool little boost to my testimony.  I love the power of prayer and how much answer I've seen to my prayers lately.  I was able to pull the trailer without any real trouble.  I hung on to Nate's encouraging words he'd given me before we left when I asked him if he thought I should have Lane drive our car.  He was so nice to me and had so much faith in me.  Made me feel good.  Helped me get through it.  It was stressful and I'll admit I was shaking while I was driving it up to camp.  It was a long 2 1/2 hours.  Once we got up there, I got to show of my newly found natural talent of backing up a trailer.  I don't know if a 15 point turn counts as a good back up job, but everyone was really nice and made me feel good about it :).  Kinda funny.  Although I will admit that when I was backing it up, TWICE, Lane and then Jacox had offered advice about which way to turn the wheel and I knew they were wrong, so I said no, and then I was able to do it the right way :).  Tooting my own horn?  Yes.  Feels good.  It was cool.  They were very complimentary afterwards.  Made a great end to a very stressful experience.
We unloaded the trailer, set up tents and camp, and then had our lunch.  Our campsite was SO AMAZING!!!  I was so impressed with the scenery!  I still can't believe Jacox called it a "barren wasteland".

Just right up over the edge of this rock is where the Laurels ended up sleeping the first night.  

If you look just above the orange water jugs, up on the rocks, are the ledges that a few of the other Laurels slept on~ Kinda freaky.  I feel all better about my mean decision to not let the Beehives sleep out there the second night.

Everyone decorated their bandanas

This is my good friend "Good Side".  And this just happens to be her good side.  

Good side and Gill #1- not to be confused with her "Mini me" that I'm carrying in my uterus.  She wants me to name her Jill as well :)

Look at Annie's cool shirt!  How does she think of this stuff!  She traced the dye on her tie dye shirt.  Looks like a giant map.

Jami and Abbi giving rock climbing demo

Everyone is crowded into the tiny bit of shade we had, it was too windy that first day to put up any canopies.

The weird things: the toilet was about 300 yards away and no running water.  That seemed really weird at first, but ended up not being too bad.  I actually drove myself to the bathroom a few times... couldn't get myself to walk and risk not getting there in time.  Plus it was tiring to hike up the hill to get back.  Yes, I am a wuss.
We all had a lot of fun exploring the area, climbing on the rocks, scouting out perfect places to sleep.  I still can't believe the ledges some of them chose to sleep on!  I was so scared for their lives.  We didn't let the Beehives.  I think they were bugged at us.
We had dinner, and then went and did some rock climbing on a rock wall just around the corner from our campsite, walking distance.  This was really cool!  I LOVED watching the girls help each other, encouraging each other to get up, cheering for them, and enjoying their success as they reached the top.  It was incredible!  I loved the bonding.  Everyone stayed there together talking, and bonding.  So cool.
That was something I really enjoyed about this camp.  Everyone bonded SO MUCH.  There were so many opportunities to sit around and enjoy each other's company and just talk.  We played the question game with a big beach ball which was really cool.  Fun idea.  The YCLs really outdid themselves this year.  They planned and carried out an amazing camp.

I think Kelly was one of the first ones to try it, she did so great!  All the way up to the top, first try!

Charity did great too!  I was so glad that ALL the girls gave it a try on this first wall!  

That first night we had a really cool devotional from Annie and Abbi.  I loved hearing about Annie's experience in the temple with being aware of the blessings she had received from choosing not to play soccer on Sunday.  Cool girl.  Good example.  We all talked and sat around just having a good time together for the rest of the evening.  We went to bed so late both nights.
That first night was pretty okay sleep.  I managed to cut off my water supply at the right time- never had to get up to go in the night!  Very awesome!  The slant that we were sleeping on was not ideal, and my skinny air mattress was... super skinny, so it wasn't the most comfortable night sleep, but I wasn't on the ground!  That helped.  And sleeping in til 7:00 felt good.
The next day we had breakfast and then hurried off to "Practice Rock".  I will have to steal some of Jami's pictures of this, This was was way more spectacular than the one the night before. This was our big rock climbing day.  Every single girl took a turn climbing- it was so cool.  I loved watching them struggle and then succeed.  Most of them made it up and felt really good about it.  I loved watching Kelly and Charity.  Kelly struggled on her first time up, but then was able to get up to the top the second time without too much trouble.  Charity got to the top both times.  Pretty awesome experience!  I was really wishing I could do it with them! We were there for a good four hours, until the sun had crowded out our shade.  We came back to camp, ate lunch, and then headed out for some swimming.  The "hot springs" ended up being a swimming pool that had really REALLY warm water (almost hot).  Not the most refreshing thing.  Not how we'd expected anyway.  Kind of a bummer.  Would have been really cool in the winter though.  We played there for a good two hours though, amazingly.  That was a lot of fun.  Annika and I had it out- dunking each other.  She got me about five times, I got her twice with the help of about 10 other girls!  Annie is one strong little chick!!  HOLY MOLY!!  I was seriously impressed.  I wish I still had it.  I lost big time.  I have several bruises to prove it.  I was in a lot of pain for the last half hour or so of the pool.  Kind of stressed about what I might have done to my baby while I was wrestling Annie.  Felt like one big long contraction but I think it might have just been scar tissue.  Not sure.  It wasn't til an hour later that I felt her move again.  That was a huge relief though.
We got back, started on dinner which ended up taking WAY TOO LONG because the scout stove was broken.  Ended up being a really great time to sit and talk though- we had some pretty fun discussions about first kisses and stuff.  Lots of fun :).  We ate our spaghetti, had another devotional by some of the girls.  I missed a couple- they did them every morning and every night.  Then we listened to some beautiful music to get in the mood for testimony meeting.  Testimony meeting was AWESOME.  I LOVE Girls Camp testimonies.  I was so impressed with so many of them and the way they've been overcoming their trials and struggles.  They are all such strong girls.  I loved it.  I loved hearing Kelly and Charity especially.  They are such good girls.
Time for bed, everyone was so happy and getting along so well, it was sad we had to tell them to go to sleep.  It was SO late though.
I didn't sleep as well that second night.  I think I needed to go to the bathroom but I so didn't want to.  Took me like 2 hours to fall asleep.  Finally did though and only woke up about half a million times during the night.  I just kept imagining sleeping in my own bed!!!  That was kind of hard, but whatever.
In the morning we raced the clock, trying to take down camp and load the trailer.  I was so annoyed that Jami, Lane, Jacox and three of the Laurels were off climbing while the rest of us were left to clean everything up ourselves.  Seemed REALLY unfair.  I don't think it could have happened any other way though.  They hadn't had much chance to climb any of the other days.  It was a struggle to get anyone to help though, so I got grumpy.  We finally left camp around noon.  It was another slow, long ride home from camp, pulling the trailer.  Nothing exciting happened though.  So very cool.  We unloaded at our house, everyone got their stuff, and camp was officially over!  Kind of sad, but also very relieving.  I couldn't believe how well everything went!!  Anyone who had not wanted to rock climb ended up loving it.  There was so much bonding time, and VERY FEW tiffs and drama.  It was amazing!  Words really can't describe how perfectly it went!  I was so glad.  Jami and I had prayed so hard for this camp!  It was so nice that it was a success and with very few issues.  Made me happy.

Things to Remember 6-21-15

TOOTH FAIRY
She came on time!!!  This is the first time in a VERY LONG TIME that the tooth fairy has come the night of the teeth pulling!  She left Bradley with a dollar and Noah with a FIVE DOLLAR BILL!  Seemed kind of unfair, but I guess we all realized how cool it was that Noah had been tough enough to let me yank those out of there.  He was very happy :).  6-21-15

FHE
Kelly had a Personal Progress requirement she wanted filled so she talked Noah into letting her teach the lesson.  She taught us all about prayer.  It was such a good reminder of how and why we pray.  Our A/C had gone out earlier in the day so we were all cooking, so it was nice when Nate suggested that we GO get the treat together.  The car has very good a/c.  We didn't have any luck getting the part Nate needed to fix the a/c, but we did manage to pick up 8 mini blizzards and an Arctic Rush at DQ :).  So all was well.  It was a late night as we watched American Ninja Warrior together for the "activity" (my idea ;) mainly because I love hearing all the kids' comments and stuff and haven't been able to watch any of them with them yet).  Our house was still 84 degrees when we went to bed.  Not my favorite.  Hopefully Nate can fix it soon!  6-22-15

STILL GOT IT!
I wasn't sure I even wanted to attempt it, but finally just gave in and moved the boys' bunk bed myself!!  It took a little bit of finagling, but was mostly pretty simple.  Just had me sweating bullets by the time I was done (still no a/c).  Then I got brave and did the last dresser and lizard tank too!  So now all the big stuff is finally down there and their room is starting to look like a bedroom!  I'm proud of myself :).  6-23-15

30 WEEKS
I'm pretty sure I've missed a few weeks.  Things are pretty much the same lately- this is a good thing- not a lot of change.  I'm getting anxious to get her here!  It was fun to change our countdown from double digit 10 to single digit- nine! when I got home from Girls Camp today.  Pretty crazy to think that it's only 2 more months!  I hope we can get some more of our "nesting" done before then :).  We've been planning and preparing for our trip to Nauvoo the last week or so.  I'm nervous for how this baby is going to do with all the driving.  I hope she and I can do it!  She's such a wiggle worm!  It's been such a blessing really.  I can't remember a time where I worried about whether she was okay or not and then didn't feel her move more than a few minutes later (except maybe after the hot pool during camp).  It's been such a relief and constant reminder of Heavenly Father's love and tender mercy for me.  He knows me so well.  It's so cool.  We had fun talking about names at Girls Camp.  I am still stuck on the one we've chosen though.  It must be her name.  I can't wait to meet her.  6-27-15

Funny Stuff

Jack calls my laptop my "Doplop" it sounds SO CUTE!!! 5-24-15

Jack also does impersonations of Noah with his two fingers in his mouth and patting his nose with the corner of his blanket.  I probably shouldn't support this kind of behavior, but it's just funny that he's noticed it and acknowledges that it's something Noah, only Noah, does.  Kind of insightful if you ask me.  5-24-15

Jack is obsessed with everyone's furry arms.  He laid down on my arm the other day and had to quit right away because my arm was "furfy".  Dad has "BIG furfy".  Jack has "Baby Furfy".  He's such a funny kid.  6-8-15

Jack (after itching his "chichie" eyes and nose came out with a little surprise): "Baby Boogoo!"  6-9-15

Luke to Noah: I'll tell you how to pull your tooth.  Just wrap some floss around your tooth and then go up to mom and tell her to see how loose it is.  Then she'll just yank it out!  6-21-15

Luke: when the new baby is in school then we can have six donuts each when we use our report cards

Happy Father's Day to the Best Dad Ever!

Father's Day was a big success this year!  We did our usual last minute shopping trip the night before since we were camping most of the week.  Most of the kids knew just what they wanted and it was a pretty smooth trip.  It's tradition for each kid to choose a gift and then a shirt as well.  The last couple of years I've convinced one or more of them to get pants or shorts instead, since Nate has LOTS of shirts now :).  Everyone loves this tradition so much I cannot get them to budge on it very easily :).  Here they all are, decked out in Nate's new clothes :).  

I had wanted to let Jack sleep in, but they everyone insisted that we get him up.  They took this picture of Jack in the shirt he picked out, minus his head.  He actually did pick it out and knew it was from himself when Nate was wearing it later that day- kinda cute if you ask me :).

Something new happened this year- Bradley grabbed the camera and snapped pictures of each gift, and the whole process of Nate opening presents and hugs and such... kinda fun!  I guess we missed Jack's gift.  He got him a four square ball :).  

Erika picked out the "spicy nuts" that she and Nate enjoy together.  As well as some chex mix.  She knows her Daddy.  

I saw this Avengers shirt that was the silky smooth fabric that Nate likes so much and when Erika heard how much he liked it, she just had to give it to him :).  

Noah was very set on doing something homemade this year.  He knew that Nate would appreciate something made by him more than something that the store made.  He was right :).  He worked very hard on this wall hanging with all the things he loves about his dad.  Very sweet.  Along with the Superman shirt to replace his torn one.

Luke struggled a little with what to get Nate.  He had wanted to do the traditional watch thing, but the last one he got him was a very nice one so replacing it with a junky one seemed like a bad idea.  So I talked him out of that.  I told him to think of things that he likes to do with Nate and get him something he could use while doing that.  He immediately thought of catch!  I thought that was cool.  And it just so happens Nate really needed a new mitt.  Perfect!

The shirt Luke gave him was funny.  It says, "I'm just like you, only smarter and better looking".  Made me laugh and it was also on clearance for $3.00 so it was a must have :).

No pictures of the camera guy's gift I guess.  Bradley gave him a water bottle with some fishing lures inside.  Along with the cargo shorts.  

Kelly is the master of homemade gifts.  She made Nate a quote wallet :).  A cute paper wallet with a bunch of quotes on the backs of fake money- cute idea!  I loved the one on the back "If at first you don't succeed, call Dad!"  She had picked out her shirt while shopping with Grandpa Hatch the night before so she was really excited for everyone to see it- it said, "Metaphors be with you" pretty clever :).

Charity got him a new box for his fishing lures since his is totally falling apart, and filled it with yummy candies that look like fish bait and such :).  Fun idea!  She got very creative this year!

She was also especially proud of the Ninja Turtle shirt.  Nate pointed out that they were the old school Ninja Turtles!  The ones he used to draw when he was little!  Very cool.

The unborn child gave him some Junior Mints, for obvious reasons :).  Then we all raced the clock to get ready for church.  So much for having a peaceful morning getting ready and being prepared to take the sacrament.  I mean the intentions were there... we just failed miserably.  Better luck next week I'm hoping.  

I had been racing to make Nate's breakfast, bacon and pancakes (apparently I was supposed to do eggs too, but I dropped that ball... sorry Luke), and cinnamon rolls for the Dads at church.  The YW organization was in charge of Father's Day gifts this year and we wanted to make up for the NOTHING that they got last year.  So we decided they needed a few minutes to sit and chat like the women get on Mother's Day.  We all made homemade cinnamon rolls and bought some grapes and juice.  It was a big hit!  I think it went really well and I think the men appreciated it!  I was glad Jami had the idea.  We also gave them soda pop as they left the chapel to go home.  Fun stuff.  

We only had four kids up front singing the Father's Day songs this year!  So crazy to think that that's the most we'll probably have up there at once ever again!  My little family is growing up!  Nate loved it I'm sure, the kids sounded great and looked adorable.  Even Erika got up there!  Brave girl.  

When we got home we hurried to have lunch and then Steve, Jauslin and Grandpa Hatch came over for the Kiss Song.  This is a tradition my mom started and Steve and I are set on carrying it out!  Regardless of how much our group seems to be diminishing.  It wasn't the same without the Hatches.  

I had to get a picture of Steve singing.  No matter how much he tries to be an adult, he still can't help but sing the song to my dad :).  And messing up on the words too. :) HA!

And one with Jack.

I'm starting to wonder the motive behind this tradition my mom started :). jk.  Just seems pretty painful.  We opted out of the squirt bottles and silly string this year... maybe next year.

Nate had to leave shortly after the song for work. BIG frowny face.  So sad.  We were bummed.  The kids were all so grumpy and whiny for most of the afternoon.  I'm not sure how my Dad was able to stand it, he stayed for quite a while!  Not too many people would stay around that kind of chaos by choice.  We enjoyed his company though.  I have a great dad.  

Bradley and Noah worked on some loose teeth, Bradley pulled one, Noah kind of let me pull one of his and then a couple hours later, and after the naps, he let me pull on the other one he'd loosened... so two teeth out for him!  I need to post the pictures of his gaping hole :).  Cool stuff!

A little later though, we all ended up taking a gigantic nap!!  I woke up about two hours after falling asleep with Jack in my arms and the entire house was completely silent!!  Kelly was the only one awake and she had ear buds in and was watching mormon messages on my phone.  Everyone had fallen asleep!!!  Some of them didn't wake up until 8:00 pm.  So kind of a bummer for the whole bedtime thing.  But we managed.  Nate got to hang out with everyone a little when he got home at 10:00 and then we rushed everyone off to bed.  

It had been a big day!