Sweet Moments

There are few things sweeter than being a part of a life changing experience, whether that be in your own life or that of others. In July I got to meet my newborn nephew, Liam!

 He was so tiny and cute!

 Proud mommy!

Aunt Karyn and Liam! 

It was so great getting to finally meet him.  I forgot how tiny newborns are.  It seems like ages since Grant was that little.  Time really does fly and you hardly seem to notice how much they've grown and changed until you get to take a look back.  Grant and I went over to help Pat and Mel home from the hospital and settle in.  I was so glad we could be there.  It felt so special to hold such a brand new little angel.

We also had the chance to attend the wedding for some family friends of the Gardiners.  It was a beautiful ceremony.  The reception was held in downtown San Antonio in the St. Anthony hotel.  I really loved that part, because that is where my Nana and Grandpa had their wedding reception around  60 years ago!  It was kind of like part of me could go back in time and imagine what it might have been like for them.

 Congrats to Amy and Elias!

The beautiful San Antonio temple

The whole hotel was beautiful and had so much history. We took a little tour around and took a few pictures while we let Grant explore a little.
 

What a great couple of fun filled weekends in San Antonio.  Memories to treasure.

4th of July

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
~The United States Declaration of Independence

We had a really awesome 4th of July! That morning we went to a pancake breakfast at Church and ate yummy food with friends, sang patriotic songs, and said the Pledge of Allegiance. I love the 4th of July. It is one of my favorite holidays. I love celebrating America and all of the freedoms we are blessed with. It is a pleasure to recognize our country's independence.

That evening my sister came into town to visit and we all went downtown to the Texas State Aquarium to watch the fireworks over Corpus Christi Bay. We just became members of the Aquarium so we were able to attend the event for free! We ended up getting great seats, thanks to some friends that we ran into who happened to be there too. We were right near the edge of the water with a perfect view of the USS Lexington (where the fireworks were being shot from). We ate snacks and had fun laughing and talking while waiting for the fireworks to start.

It was so beautiful! It looked like the fireworks were coming right at us and they were huge! Of course pictures could never do it justice. Real life stuff just can't compare to any kind of TV or movies! It felt so nice to be enjoying the outdoors.

Grant stared at the fireworks for about 10 seconds and then started crying. We were trying to clap and say "yay" to make him realize it was a happy and good thing instead of scary...haha. I'm sure we looked way cool while we were doing that. I think the loudness scared him.

So we passed him around until he felt comforted and then he sat in daddy's lap and quietly watched the rest of the fireworks in amazement.

I loved seeing his expressions. He started getting this cute little grin and gleam in his eyes during the show. I probably watched Grant more than the fireworks! His reaction made me so happy. I love experiencing life through his eyes, it makes everything so much more beautiful and special.

Of course he did not let go of his car the entire time! I love his little quirks. :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more." 
~John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail

Our Water Baby!

We've had the opportunity to go to the beach twice this week. We went on Saturday when my mom was visiting and also Tuesday while my sister was visiting. I wanted each of them to see Grant's reaction to the water. He hadn't gone swimming in the ocean since last year, and he didn't really love it last year. But now that he is a little older, he really enjoys water and swimming now (and playing in the sand!) so I was hoping for a really fun experience at the beach.

We had a great time!

Here is Grant hanging with Nana!  He loved all the attention that she gave him during her visit.

Here is the cute new hat I found for Grant for only $3!  Of course he kept taking it off and wouldn't wear it, but we tried!

Grant's cute little belly is poking out because his swimsuit is just a tad too small.  He wore the same one last year!  It was pretty big on him last year (even though it was the smallest one we could find).  So hey, at least we save a little money, lol.

Grant was mesmerized by the sand.  You could tell he loved the texture.  I love that sweet little grin on his face.

The Vance's were also there!  Benson wasn't sure if he liked the water or not but you can tell from his cute smile that he still had fun.

When Karyn and I took Grant to the beach yesterday, he got to try out the new beach toys that Nana bought for him before she left.  Wow, they were a BIG hit!  He loved moving the sand around and filling the buckets up and then dumping them out.  I think he could have done that for HOURS!

Grant was so engrossed with his buckets that he didn't notice that he got buried in the sand!  No worries, it only took him 2 seconds to get out.

Fun in the sun!  Grant was braver in the water this time than when we went over the weekend.

Grant and Aunt Karyn!

And here is a cute little video of Grant playing in the water.  He got so happy when the waves would come up and hit him.  It really is the best feeling to watch your child enjoy life and be happy...and everything just seems so much better experiencing it through their eyes.

The rest of June

The rest of June we had a chance to glimpse into the past, present, and future...and we had a fun time doing it! 

I had a blast from the past when I got to reconnect with a few old friends and softball teammates via Facebook.  It started with someone posting a picture from our "Cinderella season."  Everyone started tagging and looking for everyone in the picture, and we got to talking about having a mini-reunion. 

Not everyone was able to come, but a group of 5 of us met at a restuarant in San Antonio and reminisced, laughed, and talked for hours!  It was great catching up and seeing where everyone is in life.  We realized that it was difficult to sort out our memories because we all had played SO much softball (year round...fall ball, high school spring season, and summer tournament teams, not to mention hours and hours of practices, hitting lessons, pitching lessons, and batting cage trips, lol).  We had played on so many teams that we couldn't keep our stories straight, haha.

It was so weird to realize that it had been over 10 YEARS since we had seen each other.  I found some old pictures from our "glory days," lol, as well as an article that was in the San Antoni Express-News about our team that year.  You can find the article text here.

Here is the team that went to the National tournament in 2000.  I was 16 years old and my teammates ranged from 13-18 years old!  We had recently placed 1st in the Regional tournament a month or so prior in McAllen, TX and returned to compete in nationals, where we placed 3rd.  It was incredibly hot!  I remember it being hard to grip the ball because our hands were so sweaty, haha.

Here are a few pictures of me with some friends, but these were actually taken during the next year's season in 2001.  Here is me and Katie...we got into a lot of fun trouble together that year!  :)

Me and Ashley...awesome catcher.

Me and Leanna...AWESOME player!!!  We had a lot of great laughs together.

And here are some of us...about 10 YEARS LATER!  Thanks for the great times, girls!

Ashley, Sam, Me, Leslie, and Katie.

That same weekend we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Melanie, who is due with my nephew Liam ANY DAY NOW!  We had a blast celebrating his anticipated arrival at the shower in San Antonio.  He has got a lot of love from family and friends...what a lucky baby! 

I LOVE this diaper cake that my sister Karyn made for the shower.  It is ADORABLE!

Melanie opening up some awesome gifts.

Here is the taggie blanket that I made for baby Liam. :)

The cutest cake EVER that my mom got for the shower.

Picutre of the group after the shower...some people had left so we didn't get everyone, but we still got a great pic!

Me and Mel.  Congratulations to my brother and Mel!  We are overjoyed to be meeting Liam soon, and to introduce Grant to a new cousin.  Ya'll will be wonderful parents. :)

A few weeks ago we had another FUN summer experience.  We took Grant to the Aquarium.  He LOVED it.  He kept pointing to all of the animals and jabbering at them.  He was interested in the very big fish and the dolphins.  We watched the dolphins swim underwater and they were very fast!  We also learned an interesting fact about dolphins--that they don't really sleep!  Part of their brain is awake all the time to keep them swimming and going up to the surface for air.  We saw a "sleeping" dolphin while we were there and it was pretty funny.

For some reason the sea turtles weren't a big hit.  Right after this picture, Grant started bawling!  He didn't like them.

We had a nice view of the Lexington on this beautiful breezy day.  We are having a great summer so far and hope that we continue to make more wonderful memories. :)

Update: 101 Goals in 1001 Days---with pictures

Once again, I am updating some of my progress on my 101 Goals in 1001 days (a list of goals that I want to accomplish, some big, some small).  I will highlight a few things here, but the full updates & notes have been made on the original post.

Completed Goals:

2. Run a 5K  

4. Lose 15 more pounds 


I DID IT!!!  31 pounds lost and a 5K completed!  I completed these two goals that I thought I NEVER could do.  These are very significant to me because of all the physical and mental effort that were required.  It feels awesome.  I've included some details in this post.  But for your viewing pleasure I have included some before and after pics of the weight loss.

Other completed goals:

51. Learn to sew a new project twice per year  (This month I learned to make a pillowcase)

72. Help build a Habitat for Humanity house 

This was really fun.  Some of my coworkers and I saw a Campus announcement that volunteers were needed so we decided so sign up.  We ended up helping build the two main walls to the house.  So the boards were marked and we aligned the studs, and then helped nail everything together.  It looks and seems very easy but it's really not!  It was a LOT of work and the particular way we had to bend over made all of us very sore for about a week.  Also, the nails kept bending so it seemed to take forever to get all the nails properly in place.  It felt good to help others and we had a good time doing it.  We might sign up to do it again, too! 

Goals in Progress:
26. Personal scripture study every day for 1 month
80. Family prayer daily for 1 month
95. Hold a real family home evening at least twice per month


I used to be so diligent about having meaningful prayer and scripture study literally every single day, but becoming a mommy makes finding a quiet moment a lot more difficult.  Many nights I just fall asleep at a moment's notice and I am usually running late every morning.  So James and I have been making a significant effort into being more consistent and I love it.  I love having family home evening ("family night") together where we just focus on having good quality time.  You can really feel the Spirit more in our home and we are able to focus more on what truly matters and less on the petty things.  We're still FAR from perfect, but working on these goals adds so much to our lives.  Here is a picture from our most recent family night, where we took a nice long walk up and down the bay.

46. Build a year’s supply of emergency storage (in progress)

I updated our 72 hour kit in June.  This is basically a kit you can pick up and take with you in the case of an emergency (food, water, change of clothes, and a few other necessities) or evacuation.  We had a lesson in Church about being prepared for Emergencies and this is especially important since we are in a hurricane area.  The government also recommends having one.  The link to the list we used is found on this page (of course I don't have everything on the list, but it is a great guideline).  It's a really simple concept but I feel great that we did it---we are prepared!  Here are some other websites that talk about emergency preparedness:

http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/hurricanes.html

http://providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,8034-1,00.html

Well, that's all, folks.  More to come about other family activities later!