Introducing our newest member :)

I know this post is... 19 days late but I'm happy to introduce our newest little guy!  Daniel is the sweetest little baby ever and we are so happy he joined our family!  The big birth-day went more smoothly than I could have hoped (though I had a little PTSD, downside to having your second baby in the same hospital as your first:  the rooms look exactly the same.  The nurses probably thought I was crazy when I burst into tears and started hyperventilating before they even induced me - haha!)  Daniel has some minor health problems we are dealing with but nothing serious (we hope).  But he is a happy baby and is growing the way he should.  

 

I think he looks so much like Miles as a baby, but then he is completely different at the same time!  His skin color is a little redder, so he probably will have a darker complexion than Miles.  He has more hair and none of it has fallen out yet - so cute!  He has a teeny little mouth (bad for nursing) and his ears kinda poke out at the top.  He is adorable and I love all his little features and individual quirks (like laughing in his sleep!)  We are so lucky to have him!!

I will post more pictures soon, I just need to collect them off everyone's cameras and get organized :)  Hope you all had a merry Christmas and have a wonderful New Year!  Love you all!!

37 Weeks...Round 2!

Can you believe I only have three weeks left until my due date!!??  Whoo hoo!  Meanwhile we have had tons of fun speculating gender as we decorate for the holidays and gear up for Thanksgiving next week.  I am way more comfortable since it is cooling down here in AZ - we've been in the 50-70 degree range these last weeks so life is really good right now!

36 weeks

The highlight of the last couple weeks was definitely going to the Arizona State Fair where we didn't ride any rides (sad) or eat any food (whoa $$), but we went for the petting zoo and none of us were disappointed!  We had a blast, especially Miles.  He had never seen most of these animals in real life but just silly board book renditions of them.  So actually, his was more of a nervous-conservative reaction to the animals... But Andrew and I had a blast :)  The little video at the end isn't very good, it was just taken spur of the moment, but Miles has been acting like a dinosaur ever since the Fair.  He has incorporated it into his and Andrew's games in which they chase each other around.  He also does this dinosaur/zombie walk that I'll have to catch on camera sometime.

Miles had surprisingly little fear of the sheep - go figure

We were thinking of Grandpa Bird with this one

Grinned every time the dinosaur roared!

Miles absolutely loved the dinosaur exhibit (see smiling picture)

We also went to the Phoenix Arizona Temple open house and it was really beautiful!  Miles did really well during the walk through and pointed out every picture of Christ saying loudly "Jesus!"  It made me so happy!

This is Miles' newest smile...  He hasn't figured out how to tone it down yet :)

Also, Miles has decided that Halloween is his new favorite holiday.  Just wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas, kiddo!

Cutest black widow on the block!  And yes, he is holding a lighter...

And if you haven't had enough cuteness for one blog post...  I LOVE having a toddler who LOVES doing dishes with me (or Andrew, but usually it's me and Miles doing them).  We even set aside special time in the morning when Lucy is asleep and we get out our aprons and the sponges and the chair and do the dishes.  It's kinda hard for me to not do them the night before with my little nightly tidy routine so I can have a decently clean house the next morning but it is totally worth waiting for him.  He LOVES it!  Oh the little things I will always treasure about his childhood :)

28 Weeks and Counting - Round 2!

So, I decided today that I really need to post on my blog.  Then I was all excited cause I saw that there was a draft in my lists of posts and I thought, "hey, this will be much easier since I already have a draft started!"  But upon opening it, I saw that the draft was empty.  Boo.  Guess it will be from scratch then!

For those who didn't hear, we are going to have another baby!  The due date is December 10th and we are so so excited!  We decided to not find out the gender just to add some excitement to our obviously dull and boring lives - ha ha!  I am already 28 weeks and this pregnancy is flying by.  I can't believe I am so far along already; I think taking care of Miles I haven't been so focused on the pregnancy so it is going much faster.  Things are going smoothly - much like my first pregnancy, I really haven't been very sick.  The most I dealt with was some evening nausea and now I just have some slight food aversions.  Not bad at all!  Dr said all is progressing well and I am going to do my glucose test next week so wish me luck! 

27 weeks

Things have been cooling off lately, we have been getting a lot of rain which makes for some fun times!  We had a really big rainstorm and the retention basins all filled up with water, so we took Miles to go play at the park and in the (probably disgusting) water.  The water was pretty deep...you can see that Andrew is out to his shoulders and isn't even in the middle.  Kids had set up a rope swing, there were lots of rafts and canoes, and one group was even slack-lining over the water.

My sister Sabrina also had her baby - Lucy Evelyn Hellewell!  I loved being able to be at the hospital with her for the birth.  It went smoothly and everyone is healthy healthy!  

My brother got his mission call last week to the Hungary, Budapest mission!!  Whoo hoo!  What a surprise!  He will report to the Provo MTC on January 28th (after he finishes his semester at BYU) and will be learning Hungarian.  We are so happy and proud of him for making such a wonderful decision to serve a mission!

And now for some random photos of Miles...Thanks for reading!

Playing at the library Toddler Time group

Eating at Firehouse Subs on free sub day!  Whoo hoo!

Reading scriptures as a family - Miles just likes the pictures for now :)

Yummy Watermelon!

Need a haircut?

Mooooom!

And, first selfie (I stumbled on this taken from my phone - he is too smart!)

Playing at the Phoenix Children's Museum on Free Friday night

Having TOO much fun in the noodle forest at the Phoenix Children's Museum

See ya next time!

1st Camping Trip

Andrew and I are really enthusiastic about camping and being outdoors and we thought it would be fun to take Miles on a camping trip with us while was still summer!  We found a really great place to camp and listened to coyotes howling as we fell asleep in our tent.  We woke up to the gobbling of wild turkeys and elk walking around, had a really yummy breakfast, and packed up to hike the Tonto Natural Bridge.  It would have been perfectly idyllic except Miles threw up on the way and we froze to death in our tent...but that's camping!  It wouldn't be roughing it if it was too perfect :)

The Natural Bridge was a wonder and we so enjoyed hiking part-way through it (Miles was in a baby carrier and it was slippery so we didn't go all the way through).  It was the baby carrier's maiden trip and it was soo useful!  Overall, we had a great time!!

Best buddies!

Miles got a little dirty...

Miles has a creepy little smile...

That we all think is funny!

Miles loved seeing the trees on our nature walk

The Bridge was so cool!

The hike went under the bridge

Summer days!

Woah - Miles is 17 months this week!  This summer is flying by and I can't believe we are half way through July!  Andrew has been staying busy getting ready for his next semester and all the new and exciting adventures it will bring.  Hopefully it will lead to even bigger changes come the end of the year ;)

This last month has especially been crazy with all of us getting sick on our way up to Utah...

We had a sad, sick baby on our way up.  Let's just say we quickly ran out of blankets and towels - YUCK!

...The excitement of the summer vacation to Utah to see family... (sorry, we did NOT get many pics but the ones we got are cute)

Getting dirty at a family cook-out up the canyon

Grandpa accomplishes the impossible - this kid never sleeps at church anymore!

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Bird in Springville UT

 

 ...My Grandma Ruth's injury and passing away...

Miles hanging out with Great-Grandma Ruth - we all love her and will miss her terribly!!

...And lots of fun silly family time with Andrew being home for the summer :)

More random silliness...

Blurry picture learning to play attacktics with daddy - the Legacy continues!