Julia's preschool and Nathan's baby blessing

I was happy to get Julia in one of the neighborhood preschools a month after Nathan was born. 3 of the 5 other kids were in my primary class for the first year after we moved here. This is such a funny age. Half of the time I don't know what anyone's talking about, between the nonsensical things they say and all the speech impediments, but they are so perfect and sweet. It was fun to see Julia acclimate into this group. She is so at home and happy! 

Nathan was 4 1/2 weeks old when we had his baby blessing. We would have waited but since his cousin David was born 2 weeks after him I thought we might end up with both on one Sunday. As it turned out I scheduled it for Sept 30 because Oct 6 was General Conference and I assumed we would have Fast Sunday early. We didn't. I'm still glad we went early since the acid reflux got bad immediately after the blessing day (it was right around 4-5 weeks).

Nathan was very good and the blessing was beautiful as always. My awesome friend Kelly Varga jotted down notes of the blessing which was nice because I missed some of it sitting next to a noisy Julia.


We had lunch at the park afterward. My grandparents on both sides, Erik's Nana, his dad, and then my parents, and my siblings that could make it were all there. Nana wanted to sit in the sun which is why the families are segregated! Nathan slept and we ate a great meal with some great company.

Let the CRAZINESS begin

#1 The Baby - So I have to admit I had high hopes this would be an easy baby. With Erik in his first year of law school I knew I would be pretty much on my own. Easy he was not. At about 1 month the acid reflux started up. Luckily, we've done that before when Allison was a baby. He was mostly hard during the day and he slept all right at night, aside from waking every 2 hrs to eat. Life was intense there for a while but we got through it. Poor guy, I guess he had it rough too. It must be so uncomfortable.



Kissy little lips




Look at this little fuzzball!



Lots and lots of screaming

 
#2 Kindergarten - Allison is loving school. There is one other girl in her class in our ward so we started a carpool with her. Her name is Emily and she is loads of fun!

Chocolate and Vanilla

 

I appreciate Emily for how she treats Julia too. When we pick them up from the school Emily is always the first out and she runs down the hill yelling, "Julia!", picks her up and gives her a huge hug.

#3 Law School - Erik is surviving his first year of law school. Our bishop met with us before it started and very gently reminded us to do the right things first even through this intense busy time we were headed into. It seems like Erik has really taken that to heart. He seems calm, but diligent. He works hard, but when he sees a need he will often stop and take a few moments to help us out. I appreciate him so much.

Nathan is finally here!

Nathan was born August 28, 2012. Erik came from school in Provo to the hospital in Orem which worked out really nice. He did have to miss a few classes though. My mom brought A and J to come meet him and Nathan gave them the lollipops he brought all the way from heaven for them. We have a little tradition that when siblings come to meet the new baby they find a little treat wrapped inside baby's blanket.

 

Nathan Joseph Hamblin

 

We are ecstatic to have this little guy join our family. He is named after the great prophet of the restoration, Joseph Smith. I love Joseph Smith for so many reasons but most of all for doing all things the Lord required of him (even giving his life) to restore the Church and truth to the earth again. His obedience and example has blessed my life immensely. It is my hope that Nathan Joseph will join in this great cause and be an instrument in God's hands to do much good throughout his life. I know he will be a great influence in our family.

Off to School

I wanted a special mommy/daughter date with Allison before she started kindergarten. We went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, to lunch at Ikea, and to the hairdresser for a haircut. I forgot how fun it is to be just with Allison. Gotta do this more often. She is a riot, so cute, so excited, and so fun.



 Chillin' with the penguins

 

 

Holding a jellyfish in her palm like it's no big deal.

 

Hangin' with my homegirl, uh huh. Oh, and my ginormous belly was there too (39 weeks pregnant, I was so done)

 

The haircut. She was such a good sport although she's trying to grow it out. It was time.

 

Kindergarten started one week after law school and the same day that Nathan was born. I dropped her off at school and then my mom drove me straight to Timpanogos hospital for my scheduled induction.

First day of Kindergarten

 

Pretty pretty girl. Love her so much.

 

 

 

And I finally got a sideshot of the belly, just in the nick of time. Here I am at the hospital ready to go in and have this baby! 

Julia's 3rd Birthday

This adorable little creature turned 3. I love it when my kids have birthdays. It is so fun to spoil them, especially because they get excited about everything. Wishin' that would never change.

 

Here she is after waking up on the big day. Isn't she a sweetie? 

 

 

 Here she is getting sung to by Aunt Jenni and Uncle Burkley. Boy did she feel like a million bucks!

 

Here she is eating the weirdest-looking cake this world has known. It's cut in the shape of a 3. It has chocolate malt balls and gummy bears on it. Um, okay?

And here she is at her friend birthday party with Claire, Keira, McKenna, and Sam.

Can't imagine life without a Julia. We are so happy you are in our family girlie!!

One BIG party

So this was our last summer before Allison started school, and Erik too. It was packed with swim lessons, house projects, mommy becoming greater and greater (with child), Jenni and Burke's wedding, and the reunion. One BIG  party!

 

On the house- Erik's parents helped us finish a room, a bathroom (almost finished), tile, and paint. We also recarpeted. Phew! We did a lot of work on the yard too but have NOTHING to show for it. Just a lot of time and money to make it, well, exactly the same. We are open for suggestions - actually just come do it for us, we've had a lot of suggestions. Thinking of ripping it all out and replacing it with rocks like they do in Arizona.

Every summer Fasha (Steve's infamous nickname) comes to work on the family cabin up Provo canyon. That's how we got him to work on our basement too over the summer. He is always a party, especially when he brings these huge pumpkins, er ... grapefruit from their tree. (Julia still thinks they were "yucky pumpkins").

And this is a little out of order, but Graham also came after Nathan was born and for Erik's birthday. While she was here we worked on a little project of our own. We textured/sanded/painted/got carpeted one of the basement rooms as a surprise birthday present for Erik. He was using the noisy toy room (so-named only because it's where we have thrown all the toys) as an office.

Here she is reading with the big kindergarten reader Alli.

We sent Erik on a scavenger hunt through the house which ended him right ...

. . . here! His new home for the next 8 months.

And I can't end without a little blurb about this lovely place here. I've always thought it was so attractive driving down the freeway, just like so many other sights from the I-15. We now live minutes away and so it was one of the first things Allison and Julia noticed. They soon learned of all the fun that awaited them on the other side of this amazing structure (please tell me you sense my sarcasm).

Trafalga, where the fun never ends. Or, as Julia calls it, "The 4 heads".

 

Jenni's Wedding

Presenting Burkley and Jenni Jensen!! married June 8, 2012 in the Salt Lake Temple!


Here is my beautiful sister Jenni and her tall, dark, and handsome husband Burkley (aka Uncle Steve's little brother - haha!) What a happy day!

We are so happy for them both. They are so much fun to be around. We've enjoyed being able to witness their dating/courtship somewhat since we live close. We will miss them so much in NY!

(I may or may not have stolen the next few pics off of sister's blogs, hehe.)

 

Siblings are thee best!



The Wedding Reception

There was dancing after the reception and we all loved watching Allison and cousin Jeffrey hold hands and dance the night away. It was so cute, Jeffrey kept spinning her and was actually really good. Julia tried with Sammy but he wasn't too interested.

Here's the reunion which we started immediately following Jen and Burke's wedding WITHOUT them while they went on their honeymoon- kinda sad.

 

 

Here they are reenacting their "dance moment" all dressed up for church.

 

 

For my 31st birthday the only thing I wanted was to take KFC up the mountain and go hiking! We definitely don't eat enough Kentucky Fried Chicken in our family. And spring just makes me want to camp and hike. All things I grew up doing.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and so did our little girlies.

 

 

 

   

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

A Post about Alli

Allison is growing up, now 5 years old. I think it's safe to say we are now done with the terrible 2s, and 3s, and 4s. I love 5-year olds! Allison has become such a fun little big girl. It delights me to see her becoming Allison. I teach a class in the junior primary so each Sunday I also get a peak at her interacting with friends in her primary class. They all seem pretty comfortable with each other. Allison always acts exactly the way she feels. If she's happy, everybody knows it. If she's sad, everybody knows it. I've been telling her for a while that when she is happy her face literally shines and lights up the whole room. It's true. She loves knowing that about herself. Here are some pics from her little party.

 

Face paints. I probably wouldn't recommend using blues and purples, Julia looked bruised and abused the whole day. I think it concerned a few strangers.

 

 

Here's the bday cake (after the fact - oops, forgot to snap a pic til that night).

Her birthday was a busy day. As soon as we finished the party we drove to an appointment with a pediatric surgeon to have him look at a mysterious bump she had. He determined it was another hernia (she's had an umbilical hernia and I too have a hernia that comes and goes). We scheduled the surgery for April 5th, two days later to have it removed. She was a good sport. As it turned out, the lump was actually just fatty scar tissue from a fall she had.