Relaxing at the beach

We're still at the beach and loving every minute of it. Minus a few things that we are dealing with back home which has given us several headaches and led to long phone calls. Every afternoon my Mom puts Sarah Grace down for a nap and I get to relax by the pool and read while the ocean breeze hits me. I haven't been able to get through my books as quickly as I thought due to me falling asleep and of course talking to my family that I'm only able to see once a year. But I'm very excited about the books I'm planning on reading while here. I'm currently reading Eat, Pray, Love and I'm really enjoying it. Next on the list is Charlie St. Cloud. Can't wait, my sister is currently reading that one and said she wanted to cry her eyes out after 20 pages.  The second thing that has been occupying my evenings is family history. My uncle Paul brought down several old photo albums and a family tree for us to look at. I think the pedigree went as far back as 1620. We knew that we were German/Dutch and Scottish/Irish, but my sister and I did some digging and discovered that we are French. Who knew?! We stayed up Sunday night doing research and were able to go as far back as 990. Tonight my uncle and I did some digging and got back to 410. It wasn't too difficult to find all of this, I guess it helps when everyone in the family is french royalty. I can't even remember how many Kings, Counts, Barons and Duchesses we found. Oh we're even related to Charlamagne (which I hear a ton of people are.) Anyway, its been so much fun learning all of this and I now realize that I have a ton of temple work to do and I need to get my butt in gear. Not to mention all the super cute names I have found. 

Water Fountain

I just wrote a pretty long post and when I went to publish it, it all disappeared. I'm not very happy at all right now. Anyway, we have a little fountain not too far from us and Sarah Grace loves going there. Its been a nice way for us to cool off in this awful heat. She's hilarious to watch when we're there, she usually runs around the perimeter of the fountain before sprinting down the middle of it. I must admit, its not as cool as the water park in Utah, but it will have to do and Sarah Grace doesn't know any different right?!

Tuesday Night Movie

Last nights movie of choice, Letters to Juliet. Oh and I absolutely loved it. It was such a cute movie, slightly predictable, but I don't care. I also think Amanda Seyfried is gorgeous, although I've never met a guy that thought that. I mean come on, long blonde hair, big blue eyes, large you know whats, what more can I guy ask for? Anyway, I will definitely be purchasing this one, I guess I'm a sucker for the easy going happy endings, so take that Nicholas Sparks and your depressing movies!

Tuesday Nights

Every Tuesday evening the local "dollar" theater has specials and my Mom always takes my sister and I to see a movie. I get off work around 7 and usually just meet them over there, the theater sells popcorn and drinks for $1.00! I know, its perfect! Well this past tuesday we let Eric & Sarah Grace come too! This was only Sarah Grace's second time going to the movies, so we weren't really sure how she would do this time. But she was great and absolutely loved the movie! At some parts she was the only one laughing and it was seriously the cutest thing ever. She had the biggest grin on her face the whole time. So if you are looking for a night out and want cheap entertainment, I highly recommend this movie, we loved it!

Recents

I know my posting has been very minimal this summer. That has not been the game plan, but that's just how life has been recently. We've had a lot going on lately and I just can't seem to find the time to write about it, even though I need too. We have several big changes coming up and I suppose I should probably talk about at least one of them. This past sunday Eric was released from the Elders Quorum presidency and called to be the Young Men's President. He is so excited and slightly intimidated by this new calling. Eric has always been very good at balancing out his time so this will be nothing new to him. He will have a lot on his plate between work, school, and now ym president, but I know he'll be great at it!  Sarah Grace is in an interesting stage right now. I'm finding that she is either being absolutely precious or she is trying my patience. On Sunday we had to pull her out twice during Sacrament meeting for being a bit wild and then she was also pulled out of nursery twice for not listening and going crazy. I'm not sure when she drank pure sugar, but thats what I'm blaming yesterdays episodes on. I have no idea what her deal was, but I was not enjoying myself! Like I said though, she is also having super cute moments too! She really likes cuddling right now and is obsessed with My Little Ponys and the Care Bears. Almost to the point of annoyance! Her recent demands have been Chocolate Milk, Cheese and Eggs. That's pretty much all she wants to eat right now. I had a whole list of cute things that she has done recently, but I've already forgotten a few. I guess thats why we are supposed to be journaling. I do however remember one thing that melted my heart/made me laugh. The other day Eric & I were downstairs watching Modern Family (my newest obsession, if you haven't seen it, you seriously need to, its hilarious,) anyway, Sarah Grace was upstairs in her bedroom "reading" her books. Every few minutes I would run up the stairs to check on her and make sure she was ok. After doing that about 10 times I decided to just mute the tv, when I did we heard the cutest thing. Sarah Grace was upstairs singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." Too dang cute! I love that kid! After about another 10 minutes I went in to check on her and she had dumped all of her books on the floor. I asked her who made the mess and she told me that Scout did it. I got a good laugh out of that one! Her prayers have also been adorable lately and she refuses to have any help. I think she really enjoys being as independent as possible. 


 We are leaving for the beach on Sunday and I can hardly wait. Sarah Grace keeps asking us to take her to the ocean, so I'm assuming I'm rubbing off on her. I know these post that are just words aren't as much fun as pics of the girl, but they will have to do for now!

The last of the trip

Isn't she just beautiful? I adore this girl!

So I just have to say that Gabe and Sarah Grace had a blast at the reception, I have soooo many pictures of them running around and playing!

I did it! (As Sarah Grace would say.) I finally finished posting all of our Utah pictures ( minus Laurel's bridals) and it only took me a month! Phew! These last stragglers are from a campfire we had the night before La's wedding, her receptions, and the baby shower! The campfire the night before the wedding seemed like a good idea at the time, but actually led to more stress. Oops! We were happy to at least get a few more hours with our friends. The day of Laurel's wedding I woke up feeling absolutely horrible. I'm pretty sure that whatever Sarah Grace had (I can't remember if I mentioned in previous posts that she had been vomiting at night,) she gave to me. I had to get up pretty early to help Laurel with her makeup and was debating the entire time if I would be able to make through the wedding. Lo and behold I did fine. I felt miserable the whole day and to be honest I wasn't even sure where Sarah Grace was half of the time at the reception, but I made it. Laurel and Travis had a beautiful sealing and of course she looked gorgeous. I was able to take a quick nap before the luncheon and I think I even took one before the reception?! I can't really remember now. All I know is that I missed helping everyone for the set up, which I do apologize for, I promise I wasn't faking it! The reception was quite lovely and they served Cold Stone Style ice cream. It was pretty yummy, but the best part was the waffle bowls. By the way, can I get the recipe for those bad boys? They were absolutely delicious and even better the day after! Saturday was our last day in town and we ended up have a Hulet family reunion, it was so nice to be able to visit with all of Eric's family and just sit around and talk. We also had a baby shower for Mandy and Katrina.  Over all I think we managed to squeeze in a little bit of everything during our visit, but next time...we may do more relaxing! Thanks for the awesome vacation everyone and especially to those of you who helped watch Sarah Grace so Eric and I could play!

Stats

I was looking through our file cabinets the other day when I came across Sarah Grace's vaccine records. I gave them a quick scan and realized that she was was supposed to get a set of immunizations back in January. Oops! So typical of me, I'm very forgetful these days. I'm blaming it on old age, I'm scared to see what my brain function will be like at 50. Anyway, I called that same day and made her an appointment for this past thursday. She was pretty wiggly in the waiting room at the doctors office, she is not the biggest fan of him, I however absolutely love him! The appointment went well and I had a nice chat with the doctor. Sarah Grace's heart murmur is now gone, but we found out that she has "generous" tonsils. I'm guessing those will be coming out sooner than later. I was told once she starts snoring every night then it would be time to take them out. I also found out that our cute girl is perfectly average. She was in the 76th percentile for her weight and 48th for her height. Well we think anyway, she refused to stand on the scale any longer and we had to measure her by marking the table the same way they do with babies. Except Sarah Grace refused to hold still. She was scared I think. She did pretty well for her vaccines, she screamed out a couple of times, but within a couple of seconds she was calm. I think it was the cool bandaid that she got to wear! Her doctor was very positive and gave us some great pointers. He also told us to make sure that Eric & I are going out twice a month on dates without Sarah Grace. He also suggested that I go out once a week alone, even if its just to run to the grocery store or to somewhere like Target. He said my sanity was very important and that as a mom you need to just get away for a little bit and do something for yourself. His last tip, was not so much advice, but more so words of encouragement. He asked if I was at home with Sarah Grace, to which I replied yes. Granted I do work about 15 hours a week, Sarah Grace is either with Eric or my mom. For that reason I feel like me being away for such a short period still lets me consider myself a stay at home mom. (If you disagree don't post anything because I don't want to read it.) I was told that whatever sacrifices we had to make to make me be able to mostly be at home was so worth it. He said the best thing I can do for Sarah Grace at this time was just be at home with her. So for those of you out there who are moms and have frustrating days at home with your kids, remember you are giving your children exactly what they need. You!   The appointment ended well and Sarah Grace got to try out some new chewable tylenol tablets. She loves them so much that she refuses to sleep without the bottle in her hands. (probably not a good sign...j/k) She also was terribly upset when I took her bandaid off, a day and a half later! I'm just grateful that we don't have to vaccinate again until she's four! Well minus the flu shot I guess!

Happy 21st Nie Nie!

After a few unsuccessful tries, Sarah Grace took matters into her own hands and walked on the game!

On Wednesday my favorite sister turned 21. How did we celebrate you ask...well the same way every 21 year old celebrates...we went to Chuck-e-Cheeses! Let me just say that it was totally Stephanie's idea! We had so much fun dancing to Chuck E's awesome singing and playing games. Sarah Grace was running around everywhere, she loved "driving" the cars and playing skee ball. She also climbed around the jungle gym a time or two. Stephanie was very lucky this year and got tons of awesome gifts. I'm very jealous, but I'm sure she'll let me borrow some of her loot. By the end of the night we were stuffed from all the pizza, wings, and cake! Oh the cake was a buttercream dream! So good! Sarah Grace also got very lucky, she had over 550 tickets. She walked away with a ring, some candy, and a makeup kit. Have I mentioned how obsessed she is with makeup right now?! I guess I can save that for another post! Anyway, it was such a fun night and we all had a blast! Happy Birthday Stephanie! You're getting old now!

Holiday Weekend

We had a wonderful holiday weekend, in fact it seemed like we were doing something fun everyday. Friday afternoon we took Sarah Grace to see Toy Story 3. It was her first time going to a movie theater. We were a little nervous about how she would do, but there was no need to be. She did great! The last 10 minutes or so she started to get a little restless, so we just let her stand in front of her chair and that seemed to help. For any of yall that haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It was hilarious and by far my favorite of the three! Saturday evening we met up with a couple of friends that I work with for Red, White, & Boom. It's a big fireworks show in our town. We brought our camping chairs and ate fair food while we listened to patriotic songs played by a jazz band. Sarah Grace loved running around with all of the kids and waving her flag. When it came time for the fireworks I was worried that she would freak it, but she did great. I would have her name the colors as they burst in the air. She seemed to be in awe of them, but who isn't right?! On the walk back to the car I found a baby bird in the parking garage, long story short we've been taking care of it along with the clinic I work at for the past few days. Yesterday the wildlife rescue came and picked it up. Hallelujah, boy was that a lot of work! I never want to be a mother bird again! Sunday was pretty low key with the family and monday we grilled out. Amazing steak and chicken, the hotdogs weren't half bad either. Today is my sisters birthday, so the festivities just keep going! Happy late 4th everyone!




*Just as a side note, saturday night after Red, White, & Boom we came home and bathed Sarah Grace. She was covered in grass and ice cream. Afterwards I chopped her hair off! It was driving me crazy, she had these beautiful curls, but her top layer of hair is straightish. So, I cut her hair into a darling little bob! Its precious, I suppose I need to get some pics up of it!