Baby girl & other happenings...

I feel like I'm never going to get caught up on the things we've been doing, despite our almost non-existent summer with Dar working. (I SO appreciate everything you do, Bunches! YOU'RE THE BEST!!) So this is kind of a long post so I can feel more caught up on my blogging.

First things first--of course it's Rori :) She has 2 teeth now! Both came in this last week. Her little grin has gotten even cuter (didn't know that was possible). Although I still have yet to catch those pearly whites on the camera.

She's working really hard on trying to crawl..she gets a rug-burn on her forehead because she digs it into the ground. Silly.

So proud of herself for her effort :)

My cousin loaned us her exersaucer...Rori likes it as long as she doesn't have to be in it too long. I think her legs get tired.

She wanted to help me fold laundry the other day by holding onto the basket, so Dar just stuck her in it while it was full of clothes. She thought it was pretty cool.

Since she learned to roll over in her sleep she almost never sleeps on her back anymore.

And she usually wiggles out of her blanket by the time we check on her in the morning.

She's not sucking her thumb...just likes it in her mouth.

2nd: Camping [again]--This last weekend we took Rori on her 3rd campout this month! Our ward (a.k.a. church congregation) had a BBQ and campout on Friday, and we had a great time. Everyone was surprised we were staying overnight with such a young baby, and then even more surprised when we told them it was her 3rd time camping. Woot! Woot! We don't let having a new baby stop us from doing fun stuff! :)

My honeys

Snuggling my sleeping munchkin

The sunset was beautiful! We had an amazing view of the valley from the pavilion.

So pretty!

We had a really pretty sunrise the next morning too, and we got sprinkled on a little bit.

I bust up laughing every time I look at this picture. She's trying to feed herself rice cereal. You go, girl!

And last but not least: Food stuff!

Using my kitchen aid mixer (this was shortly after I got it, but I'm a little slow on the posting)

First thing made in the mixer...chocolate chip cookies! YUM!

We got our first crop of green beans from our garden. Super tasty! I just can't resist posting a picture.

And the other night I made these Stuffed Pizza Rolls I found on this website. Their rolls look tons better, and I actually got a bit frustrated because I couldn't get mine to roll up like they were supposed to--I made Dar take over. They still tasted great though and I'll have to give them another shot.

Still to come...Catching up on my #1 man and the cool stuff he's done this summer!

P.S. Can you believe tomorrow is August 1st?!?!

Family Camp-out 2011

Dar's sister, Georgiana, was in town this last week from Pittsburgh, and while she was here we thought it would be fun to do a family camp-out. I know we had a great time, and the kids are all stoked for next year's camp-out and want to do it for a whole week next time! I think we're pretty safe to say it was a success...let's do it again!

The hammock's were a big hit with the kids
(Sean swinging Emma)

Rori loved chewing on Grandma's chain for her glasses

Allison showing me she could fit in Rori's bumbo

Rori munching on Anna Janna's finger with her newly surfaced 1st tooth!

Sharing a spoon with Aunt Dre

We made scrumptious tin foil dinners!

Dar made really yummy cherry cobbler and peach cobbler! (Not to mention we had smores later on too!) Delish!

Cool shot Dar took of the fire

Uncle Ryan chilling by the fire drinking his DP

I was trying to get a shot of Dar & Rori together...classic that Andrea jumped in the shot. Rori thought it was funny :)

My two blue-eyed babes

Me and my princess! Love this girl!

Dar serenading us with his hidden harmonica talent

After Rori & I went to bed, the adults and older kiddos stayed up and had some fun with the glow sticks

Cool shot of the stars--You can see them if you enlarge the picture

Aurora slept AWESOME! She took over my sleeping bag in the morning when I left the tent for a minute. Cutie pie.

Out and about and ready for breakfast!

Grandma & Grandpa D spoiled us with a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes (which Dar actually cooked), and all you could eat bacon, sausage, and eggs! Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!

Fried eggs and sausage cooked in bacon grease...Need I say more? Yum!

We went through 4 pounds of bacon, but I think Allie ate about a pound all by herself ;)

Me and my baby enjoying breakfast

Rori hung out with Grandpa (lovingly known as "The Loud Thing") during cleanup. She liked wearing his hat :)

And to close up the trip, Dar & Geo played a long game of horse shoes

Dar finally won by ringing his shoe around Geo's pole. :)

Thanks for a fun camping trip! And it was great to have you for a few days, George. We love you all!!

the Y

On Wednesday, Dar & I had the opportunity to brave hiking the Y here in good ol' Provo, UT. It's a BIG concrete Y up on the mountain that thousands of people visit each year. Someone said it's the biggest concrete letter in the world...but I didn't check the facts on that. We went with the youth from church and several leaders. I was invited to go because they needed more female adult leaders to hike, and since Dar is one of the adult male leaders I was happy to join them and hang out with him a bit more. It's been 5 years since we last hiked the Y and it was a good reminder as to how steep that hike is! We had a great time though. We considered taking Rori up the mountain with us, but I was glad that my friend, Jenn, volunteered to stay behind with her. Working our way up the steep trail was hard enough as it is...but totally worth it! I definitely recommend hiking the Y yourself if you're in the area and have never hiked the it before.

Just getting started!
Heather, Jenn, Aurora & me

Happy to be at the top together

Our group
(You can kind-of see the big white Y on the mountain in the background if you enlarge the picture)

Totally fun, and a great work out! I told Dar we should hike the Y once a month :)

First Camping Trip!

We took Aurora on her first camping trip a week ago...the first of 4 we'll be doing in the next little while. She did awesome! Last Thursday we went up the canyon with our Aussie friends to do an over-nighter, and it was a blast! We ended up with 4 adults, 5 kids and 2 babies. No joke. A handful, but so much fun! I'm sure people kept driving past our campsite thinking, "Those crazy Mormon families!" Just kidding. Although, I guess they really could have been thinking that. But Jared & Tracee invited 3 nieces and a nephew to join us and help keep their little girl, R, entertained. It worked! The kids all did great.

This was actually the night before we went camping--we had hotdogs & smores up the canyon for practice :)

Look how good our little girl is sitting!

P picks on Aurora a little bit, but it's just because he's bigger, can crawl already, and he thinks she's pretty cute!

The campground we were at had this little park and while we were there the kids decided they wanted to play hide-and-seek. This was Dar's hiding spot :)

After eating hotdogs for dinner, Dar & Jared left Tracee & I with the kids for an hour or so while they came back down the canyon to get some stuff done. When they got back we had smores and some other goodies, but I didn't get any pictures.

Fast forward to the next morning...I left our tent to get the camera so we could take a family picture of our first camping trip with Rori and this is what I found when I got back:

We bundled her up so she'd be nice and warm, but she still woke up (not sure what time) early in the morning with a chilly nose and cheeks so I stuck her in my sleeping bag with me and warmed her up with some morning snuggle time. But for most of the night she slept on her own mattress which is actually the pad from her changing table :)

Classic for Rori right now...tongue always out!
Full body shot so you can see her cute little sleep-sack

Documentation of our first (of many, many more to come, I'm sure) camping trips with our kid(s)