Weekend Fun

This past weekend was fun-filled, to say the least. Or, at least just--- filled. We had an Elders' Quorum picnic at the park on Friday night to be at. Then Saturday we had to work in the morning and be at a family get together all afternoon (with relatives visiting from Ecuador). Then Freddy had to be BACK to meet with a client in the evening and off to a graduation party for a friend that night. Sunday came and Freddy had an early morning meeting at 7:30 to be at, church until noon, an impromptu picnic put together by my dad that afternoon, and a birthday party for a friend that evening. Boy, oh boy. It was enjoyable and fun to be with friends all weekend-- but I must admit, EXHAUSTING. And now we're back to Monday all over again.

Other things that have happened recently:

1. Riley became BFF with Ricky and Allana Rowley's dog, Milo. We went to Schabarum Park and let them run around together and then went for a hike. They have tons of fun together because neither one of them ever seem to get tired of playing!

2. We finally found a roofing company that would give us a few shingles from an open bag for FREE rather than having to buy a whole bundle of them. We wanted to roof Riley's dog house (which has turned out to be a bigger project than we originally intended) and were so excited to finally have the materials. We worked on the roof last week and it's turning out pretty well-- only a few set backs (ie the drill battery died after like, one screw-- we're still trying to find the time to put the roof back on the house..) Also, the shingles are like... blue. So we plan on spray painting them black ASAP.

3. The baby has been kicking a ton lately! Freddy and I frequently enjoy time together watching and feeling the baby kick... :) And my clothes are slowly being weeded out of my closet into a box in the garage-- all the things I totally don't fit into anymore. We went in for another doctor's appointment this past week. Everything looked good! The baby's heartbeat was great-- at 142 beats per minute (should be between 120-180). I'll be 25 weeks pregnant tomorrow; my next appointment isn't until the 19th? (or something like that).. But yeah, some things that Tracy doesn't like while being pregnant: the heat, the smell of seafood, and standing for more than like- a minute. Things that Tracy does like: swimming and cold showers, feeling the baby kick, drinking milk all the time, salads, and watermelon! Overall, things are going great!

That's pretty much the extent of things going on over here-- oh-- except that the CIRCUS IS IN TOWN!!! We're hoping to be able to go on Saturday!!!! :) I love the circus. But yeah- that's the update for now!

4th of July Fun, House Hunting, and Riley

Go me for finally taking the time to blog. I was waiting until I had pictures to post. Then I realized I still had some 4th of July ones that I never even blogged about! Silly me..

First, I wanted to tell about our fun Fourth of July--

We woke up early and went to the Boy Scouts Pancake Breakfast. It was pretty good-- we had pancakes (obviously), scrambled eggs, and sausage. Unfortunately eggs and sausage aren't really on the Tracy-likes-to-eat list, so I just had pancakes and Freddy got double the eggs and sausage. We're such a good team. :)

Then, we drove up to the high desert to look at some homes. It was two thumbs way down.. Not because there weren't good houses to see, but here's the thing: Monica, my mother-in-law, is our agent. And she has this COOL thing called a SupraKey. (I always thought they were calling it a SuperKey-- but whatever.) So the idea is that you have this little sensor remote thing and all the lock boxes on all the houses sense that you have the remote thing-- then they open up and give you the key-- and you look at the beautiful house. UNLESS. IT. DOESN'T. WORK. Unless the SupraKey is only for a certain area and it keeps telling you "Access Denied" every time you try to use it. And unless 99% of the houses don't even USE the SupraKey boxes, and instead use lock boxes with codes and you don't have ANY of the codes. Like I said-- two thumbs WAY down. We only got to see ONE house (well, at least beyond looking through the windows) and it was TRASHED. And it smelled like they were housing horses and pigs in there. Now, I'm the first person to understand the need to look past minor physical details that can easily be changed. Trust me, I've seen like, every episode of House Hunters on HGTV-- but seriously, this house had me against it right from the moment I found out that it was on Chippendale Circle. It really could have been gorgeous and I still wouldn't have wanted to live there because of the street name alone. But once I saw the inside too, oh man, that was like, strikes 2 through 20. So we drove an hour out there only to be SO frustrated that we couldn't even get into anything. Suuuuper frustrating. (Side note: We went again last weekend and we were (ahem- our agent was) WAYYY more prepared. We saw like 12-15 different houses and had a MUCH better experience.)

After that we went over to the Pardos' house and joined in on their 4th of July party! We had tons of food, lit pretty fireworks in the backyard, enjoyed sparklers, and watched the firework show (usually Walnut HS puts on the firework show, but this summer they're remodeling the whole track and field, so it was from Suzanne Park-- just a block away-- we still had great views from the Pardos' roof).

Riley is so funny!! So first of all, he usually eats just dry food, but occasionally we let him have a mix of wet and dry food. The only problem is that the wet food attracts flies-- LOTS of flies. And Riley gets SO DISTRACTED by them! He'll start eating... and then hear them by him... then he SNAPS and tries to catch them! He'll chase them ALL OVER the back yard until he loses them and comes back to eat his food. Funny!

And the FUNNIEST thing he does.... So Riley has to be an outside dog (lame) because my in laws don't want him in the house. Fine. But he also has to be a chained-up outside dog (super lame) because one time he found one of my step father-in-law's tools on the ground and chewed the cord (duh- pick it up off the ground). (But whatever-- I'm not bitter about it!) Anyway-- he's usually pretty good about having to be put back on his chain when we have to go back inside. Lately he's been playing this game where Freddy will call out, "Riley, chain!" and he'll start walking toward you--but stop about 2 feet past where the chain will reach. He'll sprawl out on the ground and then mayyybe start inching toward you (as long as you still can't reach him). Suuuuper funny!

The BIG Announcement!

(Side note: First day of July and I'm starting off strong with the blogging! Woo hoo!!)

Okay. So I know that I had my mind set on waiting to find out the baby's gender. And I really was determined to wait! But then.... it just seemed so unfair that the ultrasound tech knew and I didn't even know what it was going to be. So-- if you want to make a final guess as to what you think the baby is, now's your chance!





Oh and if you don't want to know-- you should just not read this post probably. :)








It's......




......a.......












....BOY!!!!!


Yay!!!! We're suuuuper excited!! You see, I kept having dreams (more like nightmares) that the baby would come and I didn't even have like a diaper or any clothes or anything. It was AWFUL! So finally I decided to start getting things-- you know, sticking to gender neutral things. But here's the thing: gender neutral things stink. And beyond that, I don't think they're THAT neutral. Green just seems more like a boy color-- and yellow seems more girly... I don't know.. But I wanted to get cooler clothes. So then I decided that since I thought I was having a boy, I would just start buying boy stuff (which is a fabulous idea, if you actually end up with a boy-- not so great if you really get a girl). I only bought one cute little dress that my mom made me buy because it was simply adorable. I'll save it for another kid, maybe. Anyway, when it came down to it my determination to wait was getting weaker and weaker. Finally, I just cracked! SO- now we know (although my mom really wants a girl still so she reminds us that ultrasounds CAN BE wrong!!)! Freddy's so proud already. He's like, I'm gonna teach him how to do _____ and show him how to shoot/pass/kick/dribble like this... etc. Cute.

And now, if we could just come up with a name we like... :/