My Dearest Friends

I'm afraid you won't hear from me until next week at least. This week I feel like more and more things keep having to be done and I have to try and fit them into my already busy busy day.
This weekend, I am SOOOO excited to do Miss Claire's wedding flowers (find her blog, HERE).
I can't wait to see how her pictures turn out too because she's got the most darling wedding planned.

So until next week, I shall say adieu.

It's The Only Way.

It's no secret anymore.

Everyone knows that when the time comes for a second baby, I want the whole thing to be natural. Yes.. Natural. With a midwife and everything. Like, at home in a big tub of warm water. Say what you want.. I've gotten more than one weird look at my thoughts on home birth and midwifery. But truly, I am extremely excited to conquer the pain and all of those things that come with pregnancy and labor. I think that as much as it was nice the first time, in the hospital and all, that it wasn't exactly what I'd pictured. Even though we'd taken all of those prenatal classes to let us know all of what was going to happen when the time came to deliver a baby. Even though I only wanted the doctor, the nurse, and David and I in the room, there were like 10 doctors in training who came in to peek at a birth in process and people walking in and out! Not only that, but I felt like some of the nurses were so unfriendly and uncaring, almost. Like, "You're just another woman in labor.. you'll be out of here in 3 days." Which, if you think about it, I suppose is true, but I think if I'd been a nurse who'd seen that many births and labors, that I'd be more sensitive- after all, that time in a woman's life is really emotional and delicate! I mean, it's HUGE.. becoming a mother and all...

Anyway- after learning a bit about home birth, I was ecstatic to learn that it's super safe, and super successful! Actually, the U.S. has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world because of what they call "unnecessary intervention".

And when people think of home birth, they think of dirty, decrepit houses. And that a midwife is some old lady off the street with a scarf on her head and a dirty rag to catch the baby in. Anyway, I'm not going to try and convince any of you. I'm sure there will still be those people who I tell about my decision who will roll their eyes at me and think, "Granola". But I don't care.

I am determined to do it.


Take the birth of LEO HART at Pacing The Panic Room


Here's a video of one. I totally cried. (Don't worry! There is nothing grizzly or gross you'll see in this particular video. No crotch shots or any nastiness) This video is so beautiful. There is one part during the video where Peter, the dad, cries and kisses his wife, Trish. Like she's working SO hard and she's SO tired (she was in labor for approx. 57 hours) and after all that, baby Leo was born. No complications, totally healthy little boy. I am extremely excited for an experience like this one.

Whenever that happens...

(The song in the video is "Long Haired Child" by Devendra Banhart)

It's that time of year.

David had the wonderful idea of going on a little lunch date and he introduced me to some reeeaalllly delicious fries at Smash Burger. No, seriously. These fries were pretty dang amazing. They're called Smash Fries. Although, as delicious as they were.. I ended up eating way too much.

After lunch, David and I thought it would be super fun to take Calvin to the park for a little fun. 

We just went to the park closest to us and I for one, vividly remember playing in the fountains and bringing bubbles to make the water all foamy when friends and I didn't feel like we wanted to be in class expanding our minds (This was in high school. So it's not like this happened ages ago).

And we thought to put Calvin's feet and hands in the water. 

Calvin LOVED it. 

(not surprising to us.. he's always really enjoyed the water.)

Soon after getting his chubby hands and feet all wet, we thought it might be fun for him to walk around in the fountain a little bit. The minute we got him in the water he started walking straight for the fountain.. and as soon as the water started hitting his face and splashing on him, he would turn right around and head the other direction. I wish we would have planned this a little better because we didn't think to have a little swimmers diaper with us! So we pulled Calvin out of the water and his diaper was extremely swollen from being in the fountain. Like he looked like he had some serious bulge down there.

Oh well.. we had a very fun afternoon yesterday. :) 

ALSO

Calvin has been pretty quick walking along the furniture and he's been taking steps from one thing to the other. From couch to couch, or table to couch, or from David's arms to mine. He's getting pretty good at it! Though the real difficulty is getting him to do it when I want him to. I was really lucky to get him to try it out for the video. 

New Laptop!

David sold the desktop a few days ago and found a refurbished Macbook for a good price. So we shipped the desktop today and the Macbook showed up just in time for when I got home. :)  

I've finally got a moment to sit down and enjoy this thing. I like the shiny white-ness. I like the tic tic sound of the keyboard as I type. The one thing I don't like, is this stupid track pad. Can't a girl just have a normal little mouse? 

In 2 weeks or so we are leaving to Indiana to visit David's family and I am rather excited to just go somewhere and be able to relax and NOT use my brain. I feel like from the moment I wake up I'm running around at a million miles an hour, barely a moment to think, barely a moment to pee, barely a moment to stop and breathe. And by the time I lay down in my bed to go to sleep, I'm a complete zombie. I feel so fried. I just can't wait til' I can sit down and enjoy the summer. :) 

No pictures of Calvin today, I need to figure out

how to get all my pictures back on here so I can 

keep posting as usual. But for right now, here's 

a picture from Photo Booth of me looking very 

content at my new laptop. *BIG SMILE!*

Been Slackin'

I finally have a moment to post! This week my family is all in Vernal area for Youth Conference and that leaves my littlest sister with no where to stay except here in my humble abode. It's a little odd having someone other than Calvin and myself here but I welcome it totally. In fact, it's kind of nice. We are also taking care of the family dog while everyone's out of town and I can tell he's going nuts just being inside all day. Obviously I can't just let him out or else he'd be smashed in the traffic that unfortunately surrounds us.

Here are some new videos of Calvin (some of you may have already seen these.. sorry.)

The first is of Calvin eating a banana all by himself. Before this, I would have fed him smaller pieces of banana with a spoon so he wouldn't choke. But just before I started feeding him this particular time, Calvin snatched the banana out of my hand and decided he wanted to be in control. 

The second video is of Calvin "talking on the phone". We only realized he started doing this shortly after David would say "Hello" after answering his phone and Calvin would immediately put his hand up to his ear. And most recently, he's not only been putting his hand up to his ear, but babbling like he's having a conversation with someone. It is so hilarious! In this vid, he's saying something like "A-doh" which, as we understand it, means Hello. 

(David has been teaching him something he calls "Home Alone". Where Calvin puts both hands on his cheeks like Macaulay Culkin when he puts Aftershave on his face in the movie. I don't love to go along with David when he teaches this one... I feel a little stupid doing it.)

Stewart Falls. :)

Until Monday, I hadn't been on a hike for SO long. I get in these moods where I CRAVE the mountains and nature and sunshine. Having a baby has made it much harder for me to go out and enjoy the mountains and going on hikes. 

On Sunday I was looking out at the mountains at this gorgeous sunset just before a thunderstorm and the light was hitting the mountains so beautifully. Right then I thought, I neeeed to get to those mountains. I have got to just do it and not keep thinking, I'll do it when I have time. 

So the next day, I got a hold of my very lovely friend, Erika and decided to hike to Stewart falls which we'd hiked to before I knew I was prego with Calvin (pictures from that hike, HERE). 

It was SO sunny and rather hot when we were going uphill. But the way back down from the falls was divine. Everything was so beautiful. 

Also joining us was Erika's friend, Tucker, who I'd never met before this trip. But was glad he joined us. Between the three of us, the conversation was hilarious ('that's what she said' jokes, celebrity crushes, bears and snakes, and beards). 

We drove up to Sundance and were originally going to take the ski lift to the trail head but after learning that it cost $10 a person, we bailed and decided to just walk up a different trail to find our way. I'm just going to say that I was a little bummed that I was lacking the funds to take the ski lift.. because I would have probably got some awesome pictures. Alas. 

↑ Erika on our stop by the gift shop to find Tucker some sunscreen. Gingers burn easily, you know.. (Not a problem for me, thanks to my Mexican heritage. Heh heh.) ↑ 

↑Me crossing this tiny bridge crossing this tiny stream. (You can't see it very well in the bright sun, but I AM wearing my Britney Spears Circus tour shirt. Yee!)↑

↓ Erika and Tucker crossing the bridge just before me↓

↑ Crossing this river was a little intimidating seeing as most of these logs were pretty wobbly ↑

And as you can see, we were all super happy to have reached our destination and enjoy the outdoors.

My shins are still in serious pain after that hike. Shows me how long it's been since I've been on a good hike. But it was so worth it. 

A Swimming Calvin!

Last month the pool was going under much work (repainting, cleaning, and minor repairs) in order for them to finally open it this month! And David and I usually go hit the hot tub once and a great while. But we decided to brave the new cold pool water with Calvin. We even got him a sit-in floaty! He looks so cute in his little swim shorts and tank (*gushing* EEP, he's SO CUTE). And after covering pretty much his whole body in sunscreen and attempting to put a hat on him, we took our first steps into the pool. We were surprised to find that the water was actually not as cold as we expected and we think Calvin really liked it (after the initial shock of having half his body dunked into cold water). And of course, he was flirting with all the girls at the pool; showin' them all the tricks. 

(I'm just gonna come out and say sorry about the crazy looking pictures. Some of them were terribly over exposed and others had this crazy blue hue that I had to try fixing before posting them. I probably didn't do a very good job thanks to my minimal knowledge of picture editing.. Sorry... )

ZUMBA!! :)

My dear sister, Andrea, who is also a Zumba instructor finally found a job at a local Taekwondo studio in Lindon and she is officially now teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays there at 8 o'clock. Last Thursday was Andrea's first day teaching at her new studio and I'm pretty sure at least 40 people were there, Zumba-ing and having a good time. I was a little new to some of the choreography haha as I'm sure most of us were, but we all picked it up pretty easily. Andrea is such a great instructor. :)

There are a few more pictures that I'm sure Andrea will post on her blog. Anyway I have been missing out on my Gold's Zumba classes for like two weeks and I feel like I haven't lived in that period of time! Okay, maybe that was a stretch. But I certainly do miss it. I am finally MAKING the time to go this week. In fact, I intend on going everyday this week (except Sunday, of course). How could you blame me? I just LOVE MY ZUMBA!

Falling Behind

Tons of pictures and things to post about! Be ready for an explosion of new posts!


Also, It's super hard to keep up TWO blogs instead of just one. I'm thinking of just cutting it down to one. Thoughts?

Memorial Day

My weekend was wonderful. I am glad to be feeling better. On Friday I felt SO sick. I had no idea what was wrong with me! Tunnel vision, dizziness, the shakes, I felt like I was going to freeze even though it was 80 something degrees outside! After trying to deal with it for a while by myself, David came to my rescue and took care of Calvin and I. I am so grateful for David having come home. I had to go to my Instructor Certification all the way in Clearfield the next day so I don't know what I would have done if I wouldn't have had that time to get better. Ah. I have the best husband ever.

That was the other part of my weekend! I will have you know that I am now an OFFICIAL Zumba Instructor. That whole day was such a blast. I tried so hard to keep my energy up all day and hit every move as enthusiastically as Lindsey (the Zumba Education Specialist certifying us that day) was. There was so much to learn and I tried my best to absorb all that Lindsey was teaching. And at the end of the day, I felt like my limbs were going to fall off. I will be doing small substitution jobs for a studio in Springville called Sweaty Chix until their new studio opens in Lindon where I'll be on as a full time Instructor. It's super cheesy to say it this way, but since losing all of my pregnancy weight and becoming so addicted to Zumba, I thought I would love to be an instructor to pass on everything I love about it! I'll keep you all posted on further Zumba details. :)

And finally- Memorial Day was so awesome. I felt like it was the Saturday I kind of missed out on since I was in Clearfield the whole day for Zumba. I read, I cleaned, I even sat out and got a little tan. And later in the afternoon, David, Calvin and I went over to my parent's house for dinner. It was an all out Argentinean Asado. My sister's boyfriend, Scott, who went on a mission to Argentina assisted in the cooking of the meat outside over hot coals! It tasted amazing!! And the weather was so perfect we all ate outside and got to sit on the soft grass. :) And after coming home at about 9:30, Calvin was SO tired after a long day of playing that he fell right to sleep and gave David and I an opportunity to sit out at the hot tub and go for a swim out at the pool. The water was JUST cold enough to cool us off after sitting in the hot tub for a while. I would have to say a PERFECT holiday. I'm just bummed that it's all over! :(

(Click on the pictures to enlarge!!)

Calvin LOVES Dozer (the dog) and tries to call him. Although it comes out sounding more like "Doo!" More than Dozer. We're lucky to have such a patient puppy.

 R2 (Arthur Saraiva), a good family friend entertaining Calvin.

My dad telling a really cool story! (He gets really animated)

R2 managed to make it over to the trees.

Scott's yummy Strawberry Cake thing and my mom's BIG Cookie Cake! YUM! :D 

It's a miracle! Calvin will actually sit and play on the grass now!!!

Isn't he the cutest?? 

I hope everyone's holiday was as wonderful as mine was! :)