A dose of reality

Lately Urban has been going through his "helper" phase. He loves to help clean and do things around the house. Addison has noticed this and like any good, older sister would do, she's taking full advantage. She'll usually just ask him to bring her stuff like her drink, kitty or blanket when she doesn't want to get up. Urban's so sweet he always runs and brings it back to her with a big smile.

Tonight Addison was sitting in her rocking chair singing one of her babies to sleep. She decided that she wanted her kitty and blanket so she asked Urban to get them for her. I explained to Addison that he didn't need to get them, if she wanted them then she needed to get up and get them herself. It was too late, Urban was already on his way to get them for her. He brought back her kitty, so then she asked him to get her blanket too.

Me: "No Addison, if you want your blanket you get up and get it." (again, too late, Urban was already on it)

Addison: "See, he can bring them to me, he likes it."

Me: "You need to realize that he's being very nice by doing things for you. You need to tell him thank you and give him loves. This is not something he has to do he's just being a good brother. He's not your servant."

Addison: (with a little giggle) "Oh, right, you're my servant."

Me: "Excuse me?! I'm not your servant either."

Addison: (with a very concerned look) "Well then who is my servant?"

Me: "You don't have a servant. You're not a queen, you have to do things for yourself."

Then we just started laughing.

Where have I gone wrong? Where does this attitude of entitlement come from? Apparently I enable my children by doing too much for them. She may not be a queen, but she certainly is a PRINCESS!!!

The Great Outdoors!

The weather has been perfect around here lately. We've decided to try to take full advantage of our beautiful surroundings by doing some sort of activity in nature every weekend.


The weekend before this last one we went to a local lake to swim around and have a picnic. The water was a bit chilly but the kids didn't seem to mind. We ate our lunch on the shore, taught the Brun Brun Bear how to swim and just enjoyed our surroundings. Okay, so we didn't really have to teach Bruno to swim, the doggy paddle came pretty naturally once we actually got him into the water. We had to coax him in inch by inch. He didn't seem to want to get more than his paws wet, silly pup! Of course I forgot my camera so unfortunately there are no pictures.


This last Saturday we went hiking on a trail alongside a creek we found in a gorgeous spot near the Bountiful Temple. The trail wasn't exactly meant for kids quite as young as ours but of course little Ms. & Mr. Independent wanted absolutely NO HELP! Sometimes they didn't have a choice in the matter because quite frankly I didn't feel like jumping off the cliff and fetching them out of the water. Boy, did Sir Urban throw a major fit when I helped him along. Although he also got pretty upset when he would fall down on his own. I'm not sure which temper tantrum was worse. Honestly I think both of the kids would have been perfectly happy just standing next to the stream throwing rocks into it the entire time. Urban's favorite thing in the whole world is throwing rocks. Jared tried to teach us how to skip rocks but none of us quite caught on.
Above is what Addison did when we asked her to pose for a picture...and below is what Urban did. Babies gone wild here we come! I'm not real sure what he was doing, but it makes me giggle.
This is the hill we had to climb to get back to the car. It's actually quite a bit steeper than it looks and is full of loose gravel and rocks, but of course the kids had to do it on their own.
Here's a picture of Urban yelling at me after one of the times he slid backwards and fell down. I haven't quite figured out why it's my fault!? I tried to hold his hand.
This picture cracks me up! He looks like Bruce Willis or some other tough dude from an action movie running away (in slow motion of course) from an explosion after a bomb went off.

Apparently our little hike didn't tucker the kids out because on our way home they saw a playground and asked if we could stop to play.

I love these little family outings, they're so much fun!

Apparently

I have no mother's intuition because I am always wrong. I thought Urban was a girl and well, we all know that's not right and I thought this one was a boy but IT'S A GIRL! Some how though, Addison always knows. She told us that Urban was going to be a boy and she told us that this baby was a girl. How does she do it? I think we may need to take that girl to Vegas.



I had my ultrasound today and everything looks great. I'm 21 weeks and the baby is healthy and developing right on track.

We got a really neat video of the ultrasound and lots of cute pics but I still have to scan them onto the computer.

So now that we know for sure I've got to start getting the nursery and everything else all ready. Luckily we still have all of Addison's baby clothes, but of course we'll still have to buy a few new things. I got her the cutest little outfit today (we've done that with every kid on the day we find out what they are) with the most adorable pair of pink, shimmery baby cowgirl boots. SO MUCH FUN!!!

We're all super excited for our sweet baby girl (especially Addison) but I can't help but feeling a wee bit sad. This is probably it for us, for various reasons. It's hard to say for sure, but those are our feelings as of now. Of course we'll put a lot of thought and prayer into it, but unless I get an overwhelming feeling that Heavenly Father has more sweet spirits ready to send my way then I think we're done. So it makes me a little sad to know that I won't have any more precious little boys. Urban is a HANDFUL, but he is the sweetest, most lovey little guy ever! Let me tell you, with him being the only boy, momma is going to SPOIL him. My goodness, I already see it happening. It is nearly impossible for me to tell that boy "no". He's too darn cute for my own good. Don't you worry though, Addison gets her fair share of being spoiled too (being the first born and all) and I have no doubts it will be the same for our newest addition (seeing as how she'll be the baby). We're doomed! Why can't our kids be ugly? It would be so much easier not to spoil them that way. =)

We also had a boy's name that we loved picked out already and we're having a hard time thinking of one for a girl. Of course you know that if it was a boy I'd be all sad about not having any more girls. Either way we're ecstatic and feel so blessed to be able to have happy, healthy, beautiful babies.

Plus, it's just an added bonus that I was able to prove my mother-in-law wrong. Sorry, you know I had to bring it up. =) She insisted that Estes' were only allowed one girl per family. Until now that's held up pretty well, this will be their 17th grandchild and only the 4th girl (two of which will be from our family). I'm usually not this big of a butthead, I just like to tease my MIL because she definitely let me hear it when we found out Urban was a boy. I love ya Dianna!!!

Now I just hope she has brown eyes. Both of the other kiddos ended up with blue, which I love, they have gorgeous eyes. I just think it would be fun for one of my kids to have my eyes. We'll see though. That's another thing Estes' apparently don't have is brown eyed babies. I think only 1 or 2 of the grandkids has brown eyes! Of course I think only 2 of the daughters-in-law have brown eyes so genetically odds are against us.

GIRL'S CAMP

June 29th thru July 2nd was our ward's girls camp. We had such a blast. Our girls and leaders are so much fun. We had some drama and a lot of mishaps along the way, but I think all in all lessons were learned and testimonies were strengthened.


We had a couple of situations when Priesthood blessings were given. Although I wish no one had to get hurt or sick, since none of it was too serious I'm grateful for the opportunities it lead to. We had several girls who come from inactive homes and didn't know what the Priesthood or a blessing was. It was really something special to see and hear their reactions after feeling the Spirit and experiencing the calm & comfort that came along with the blessings.


I'm so thankful for the opportunity I had to serve as camp director. There is so much that goes into it, but it is so worth it. We made some great memories that I think will last a lifetime for me and hopefully these sweet girls.


I'm also very thankful for my parents who came to stay with Addison & Urban while I was gone. It was so comforting to know they were in good hands. Of course Jared was around at night to take care of them but they watched them during the day while he was at work. I'm so glad they were able to come because I didn't have any cell phone service at camp so I was not able to call the entire time I was gone. This was VERY hard for me to not be able to check up on my family, but knowing my mom & dad were there made it much easier to relax.

All of these pictures were taken during our skit night. We were all laughing so hard it was tough to get through our skits.

We went to camp Aspen Ridge just outside of Preston, Idaho. It's actually a boy scout camp so there were lots of fun activities to do. There was swimming, boating, hiking, archery, shooting, horse back riding, crafts and of course certification courses. It really was a very nice camp.