First play date

Our neighbors had a little girl, Presley, the 6th of July. So on Sunday we got the girls together for their first play date. We took several pictures but these are the only two where someone wasn't crying or squirming.
An update on the sleeping. We moved Esther out of our room on Monday night and put her in the guest bedroom, since the nursery is still not done, and she has been sleeping so much better. She now has no problem sleeping in her own bed.

Calling all mothers

So I am trying to adjust to motherhood. The first couple of nights were long but I am getting used to getting up at all hours for who knows how long. I really can't complain. Esther is a good baby. She hardly ever fusses and usually it gets resolved with a bottle. It has been a little bit harder adjusting to being home all the time. I am used to just going and going on my days off because I always had a list of things to get done. I have had to adjust to a slightly slower pace and it is OK that I am still in my PJ's at noon. I am sure many of you can relate to your first baby after working full time for years. So I have a question. Esther the last two nights won't sleep in her own bed. She sleeps great in the cradle during the day but at night after she is done eating and asleep in my arms I go to lie her down and she wakes up. She has spent the last two night sleeping in our bed. I don't want her to be 2 and still sleeping in our bed. Any suggestions?

Esther

I am going to try to update this blog along with Esther's blog as much as I can. Esther's blog will mostly be about her since we set it up for the birth mom. So check both blogs for all the info.
Michael's parents have been here for the last couple of days helping us get ready for Esther to come home. We have been finishing the dry wall plaster that was left from when we had insulation put in the walls back in February. The ceiling has been textured and a new ceiling fan will be installed. We are hoping to get the walls primed and the hardwood floors sanded tomorrow so that we can spend Tuesday putting the lacquer on the floors. Then all we need to do is paint and do touch up stuff. I think in another week we will be ready to move in Esther's clothes and bed. I think that it will still be a couple of weeks before she comes home. We are shooting for the first part of September. She just need to get stronger and take all her feedings with the bottle. Michael and I are hanging in there. It has been a lot to get used to but we can't wait till we can bring her home and feel like a real family.

Garden Update

So everyone keeps asking how the garden is doing, as you can see not bad. We have eaten several of the onions. We ate our first green pepper last night and I am waiting for this one to get a little bit bigger. We don't have any tomatoes yet. Only half on the spinach row can up but it grows fast and tastes so much better than the store. The beans are struggling so we shall see. Yes I know we need to weed.

Garage Sale

So our neighbor Debbi from across the street has been cleaning out her garage and going to have a garage sale. We asked if we could get in on the action. So last Saturday was the garage sale. We sold old camping stuff, pictures, old VHS tapes, our vacuum and our friend Jason's Forerunner. Yes we sold a car at a garage sale. Jason and his wife Amanda moved to Maryland and ask if we would sale the SUV for them. It has been sitting in our driveway for about three week now. There were a lot of people at the garage sale so we just stuck a piece of paper that said for sale on the window and waited. It was gone by that night. Other than the car we made about $80.00, which I used to buy a new vacuum. That night after the garage sale was the street block party. Everyone was supposed to bring their own meat to BBQ and either a side dish or a dessert. We just held it on our front lawn. It was great to get to know everyone better and the food was fabulous. As you can see the month of July has been busy for Michael and me.

Michael's parents stayed for a couple of days after the party. Michael and his parents attended one of Thomas lacrosse games; I had to go to staff meeting that night. The next day Michael had to work so his parents and I along with Jennifer and her family attended the Aquarium. My favorite part is always playing with the sting rays; of course they don’t have stingers. Then Michael's mom Judi and I went and got pedicures. She had never had a pedicure before but loved it. She also helped me put together invitations for a block party that our street was having. Thankfully Judi is creative. She has such great ideas when it comes to making cards. I think they turned out great.

Ethan's Birthday

After Michael and I got back from St. George his family came to visit us. Michael's brother in-law, Randall, parents live in Salt Lake County so Jennifer, Randall, Spencer, Connor, and Ethan came up north. After spending a week in St. George they were going to be spending the next week in Salt Lake. So Michael's parents decided to come too and stay with us. Since everyone was going to be in town Thomas planned a birthday part for Ethan and Parker. Parker is the son of Thomas's finance Sara. We had a blast as you can see from the picture. We went to the Kangaroo Zoo. It has a ton of those big blow-up slides. Michael volunteered to make the cakes. Parker loves Mickey Mouse and Ethan loves dinosaurs. The blue frosting did turn our tongues blue though.

McNeilis clan

Saint George

Michael and I went to Saint George the last of June trough the first part of July. Why you ask we choose to visit the hottest place in Utah in July, family. Michael's sister Jennifer and her family were visiting from Arizona. It was great. We read, played games, talked and just relaxed. Michael's parents build a new house and this was the first time that we were able to see it finished. It is awesome. I will I had pictures but I relaxed a little too much and forgot to take pictures.

Russon Family Campout

The annual Russon family campout this year was at Cherry Hill. For those who are not familiar with Cherry Hill it is not true camping but a good time was had by all. Cherry Hill is a campground/water park. This was a special family campout because Carrie, Matt and Roxie were able to come this year. They live in California. Most of the family arrived on Friday afternoon. After tents were set up dinner was started. We had Navaho tacos, which were delicious. Greg and Annettte were in charge of the food this year and they did a great job. We spent most of the evening catching up with everyone. The next day, Saturday, was started with a great breakfast by Kay-hop. This is what we call breakfast when my Dad cooks. It consists of pancakes, hash browns, eggs, sausage, and bacon. We then spent the whole day swimming. Sorry that I don't have a whole lot of pictures of us swimming. It was hard to take pictures and swim at the same time but I am sure that my family’s blog will have a lot more pictures. Everyone had a great time swimming. There were a few sunburned shoulders but not many. Saturday night we had lasagna. I did not know you could cook lasagna while camping. It was fun and relaxing as you can see.