The State Fair

We went to the Utah State Fair with the
Rocque's and had a really great time. Adelyn thought
it was the funnest thing in the whole world. She
completely wore herself out having fun.

Adelyn got the chance to play farm girl on this darling little miniature farm for kids. She planted, picked and harvested vegetables; drove a tracker; milked a cow; groomed a sheep; and bought food at the country store. It was so fun to see her experiencing farm life. She loves trying new things and being industrious! She's at such an incredibly fun age and insists upon doing everything herself. She no longer lets me push her in the stroller. She wants to push it and often bumps into people. At the fair, someone thought our stroller was blowing away, when in fact, it was just being navigated by a silly precocious toddler that couldn't see over the top. Oh, the joys of parenthood!

These baby goats were so precious. Their ears were so
long and flappy and they were still unsteady on their little
legs. Adelyn pet them, even though she's afraid to touch most
animals. She also pet a sleeping baby cow and a huge steer.

This is how Preston and I experienced most of the fair. He
does really well in this carrier; he just slept most of the time we
were there, which is far more than I could have hoped for.

Grandma Rocque helped Adelyn ride a pony for the second time.
This time there was no hesitating and she was very
frustrated when she had to get off. Maybe she'll be a cowgirl?

Our boy is definitely growing. Here you can see his double chin
and wrist rolls! He loves being held by his Grandma, and is quite
content to be in the sun as long as he has a hat shielding his eyes.

Crazy Campers!

After some deliberation on my part (Ryan was

always up for the idea), we decided to be brave and
take Adelyn and Preston (1 month old) camping
with Ryan's family. It was quite an adventure!

Adelyn, showing her enthusiasm for camping.
She absolutely loved it!

Proudly, Addie showed off her very dirty hands.

Ryan and Adelyn sharing a s'more.

The precious face of Preston, who is growing fast
and is now over 12 pounds at only 5 weeks old.

Adelyn and her cousin Savanna.

Andria and Atreyu.

Brent and Maria.

Heather and her three girls.

My boys in their matching clothes
all dressed up for church. Obviously,
this pic wasn't taken while camping.

Juggling Kids

It has been an interesting experience trying to
adjust to two kids--humbling. The last couple of
weeks seem like a whirlwind of crying, poopey diapers,
and spit up. It's crazy how your hands are always full,
with one child or the other (sometimes both). But
what a blessing they each are. And looking at these
pictures helps me remember what it's all about.

Preston, just two days old.

Male bonding time.

Preston had newborn jaundice and we had to undergo
the miserable experience of putting him in bili-lights for
six days, starting when he was just 2 days old. Needless to
say, we all hated it, but were happy when he eventually
got better and we could hold him more.

Another angle in the lights.

Our beautiful girl with "her George" all ready for church.

Two naked kids in the process of getting ready for bed,
which always takes much longer than it should because of
all of Adelyn's shenanigans. Her latest stalling tactic when
we ask her to do something is, "No, I kiss baby brother
first," and who could say no to that request?

Here's a little wave from the boy.

Farm Country

We spent a Saturday morning with the Rocque
family at the Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.
Adelyn loved "seeing" all of the animals, but had a
harder time warming up to the idea of touching them.

Here is Kiley, Adelyn's cousin with a nice Jersey cow.

Adelyn and Kiley enjoyed "riding" the sheep statue.
We thought this was a good warm-up exercise for
riding the pony later.

Me with my smiley girl.

After being too scared to try the first time, Adelyn
successfully rode a pony. After she was done, she
thought it was so much fun, she insisted we do it again.

Here is Savanna, who makes pony riding look so easy.

Our New Arrival!

After having very irregular contractions all day long starting at

2:00am on July 30th, we finally decided to check into American
Fork Hospital that night at 8:00pm. We took this picture when
we were still in the triage room. Fortunately, they let me stay
because after only 4 hours of intense labor, our little son was
born. I went unmedicated, which is what I intended to do, but
found to be much more painful than I had anticipated. But
the delivery was fast and it all turned out perfectly in the end.

This is Ryan and I with our new son just after he was born. (Please
excuse the indecent exposure.) We named him Preston Marshall.
He was born at 12:16am on July 31, was 7 pounds 13 ounces, and
18 1/2 inches long. Isn't he darling! He has light fuzzy hair and
perfect little ears and makes the sweetest little sounds. We think
he looks like the male version of newborn Adelyn.

The happy parents again after we got a little cleaned up and
tried to sleep. The picture below is so cute of Preston. Is it
me, or is he totally smiling?! He looks quite content to be here.

We gave Adelyn a gift from Preston when she came
to the hospital. Here she is with Play Doh stuck to her nose.
She is so silly and loves her baby brother so much.

The proud Dad and Big Sister. Adelyn loves to
kiss his soft skin and touch his tiny feet and hands.
She laughs at every noise he makes.

What Preston wore home. Although it was one of
the smallest outfits we had, it still drowned him.

His first ride in a car. Fortunately, he took to the car seat
better than Adelyn did and he slept the whole way home.

Still Waiting!

Today is my official due date, but so far nothing is
happening. So, I thought it best to do a final update on
some of the things we've been doing as a family while we're
waiting for our little addition to arrive. We've found that
Adelyn makes every activity we do so much more fun, and
we're excited to have another child to enjoy things with.

We took Adelyn to the Freedom Festival Parade here in

Provo. She loved seeing the horses and motorcycles and
floats. Her favorite things were seeing "Shrek" on one of
the floats and seeing the HUGE "Care Bear" balloon.

These pictures are just evidence that her hair is
actually growing. Sometimes I wonder because as
it has gotten longer, it has also gotten curlier and
it is hard to notice if it has grown at all. But we
can now put it up in piggy tails and it will stay--
that is until Adelyn remembers to pull it out.

This is Adelyn's little Leap Frog alphabet that she
loves. She still struggles with the first part of the alphabet
song, but does a perfect job after P. "Q, R, S, T, U, V, W,
X, Y, and Z. Know my A, B, C, F, G. Next time you a sing
with me!" Okay, not exactly perfect, but pretty close.
She sings this at the top of her lungs over and over.

All dressed up and ready to swim! Adelyn has always
enjoyed wearing her swimming suit, but would get
"cold feet" when it came time to actually getting in the
water. She is still not too keen on cold water, but since
it's been over 100 degrees for so many days, she's
finally "warmed" up to the idea of swimming.

Playing at the park is still one of her favorite
things. She calls the park near our house "Addie's
Park" because we go there so often.

Our little Rodeo Princess! We took Adelyn to the "Lehi
Round-up Rodeo" and she had a great time. If you ask her
what she saw there, she'll tell you "Horses, cows, cowboys, a
clown, and bulls." We even taught her how to say "Ye hah!"

Family Update

Well, I thought it would be nice to give an update on our busy lives. Since the last family update, Ryan has finished both his second semester of graduate school and a fast and furious Spring term where he somehow managed to get a 4.0 taking 7 graduate credits. Amazing! He also got his old job back at Lakeridge Junior High teaching French this coming school year, and the school was good enough to accommodate his need to be available in the afternoon to take his last required graduate class this Fall. What a blessing!

Ryan has continued to work part-time as a research assistant for the teaching department at BYU, and has devoted as much time as possible these past few weeks to working on his thesis. He also has been Adelyn's primary caregiver on the days that I work, so he doesn't ever get much of a break. But we just attended his 10-year high school reunion last month and fortunately he got a chance to play 18 holes of golf with his old buddies.

In his "spare time," Ryan has helped me get the house ready for our little boy's arrival. We painted the kids' room and redecorated to make it a boy/girl scheme. I made a quilt for our boy and some coordinating throw pillows for Adelyn's bed (some of my first sewing projects), and we moved the desk and bookshelf to our room to make room for a crib. I am pretty proud of how well we have managed to use our meager 830 square feet. I've found that it requires a little bit of creativity to fit four people comfortably into such a small place. But we've had so much fun making it work. Ryan and his dad also just put in laminate wood flooring throughout the whole front room and hall. It was a bit of a headache, but worth it. It looks really nice and having carpet in our dining room just wasn't working for us.

I officially have 11 days left until me due date (but who's counting?), and the plan is to continue working at the hospital until I go into labor. :) I am actually scheduled to work 4 days past my due date, but I have a feeling I'll go late, so it's fine. I am still in the Primary presidency and loving it. I think the Primary is the best calling in the world; the kids are so cute and full of light. Ryan was just recently released from Young Men's. It was a bitter/sweet change, but Adelyn and I are grateful to see more of him.

Well, we are feeling more and more ready to welcome another little member into our family and can't wait to meet him. Personally, I am so grateful that I will be able to stay at home with my two kids and just be a mom for awhile. I have this crazy fantasy that it is actually going to be easier than my life this past year juggling work, motherhood, and everything else. I'm probably in for a rude awakening. But we'll just have to see, I guess.

Daddy's Girl

Ryan is big on wearing sun glasses, and guess what, so is Adelyn.
She wants to be just like her dad and copies everything he does.

Bet you can't guess what else she likes, thanks to her dad.
You got it--golf. Ryan has started to teach her how to putt
and plans to make her his golfing buddy when she turns five.
She also shares Ryan's love for soccer. In fact, she calls every
ball a soccer ball and she's become very good at dribbling and is
really coordinated and quick on her feet. Some of her favorite
moments are playing soccer outside with Dad and "the Holas"
(Adelyn's name for the Hispanic kids who live downstairs).

There's nothing better than kisses from Dad!

Father's Day was so much fun because Adelyn is now old
enough to help make it a special day for Ryan. She helped
me pick out his gift and card, helped me make him breakfast,
and most importantly, posed for a darling picture to make a
memory of it. We also celebrated that night with her two
special "papas" (Grandpas Ostler and Rocque).

This was just a cute picture, so I threw it in. Adelyn's hair is
finally long enough to do two full piggy tails! She's still not too
enthusiastic about having her hair done though, so I was
fortunate to quickly snap a picture before she took her hair out.

We Love Cousins!

Meet Adelyn's cousin Brigham. He's usually a pretty mellow
kid, but Adelyn knows just what to do to get his goat. She
thinks one of her callings in life is to tease this little guy, so she
steals his hat and has him chase her all around the house whining
the whole way before she'll find it in her heart to give it back.
Then she steals it again when he least expects it. What a pill!

Other than the above scenario, these two manage to get along
quite well. Just two months difference in age, they serve as
perfect partners in crime to one another. You know you're in for
a mess when they are gone together for any more than 2 or 3
minutes at a time. Their most recent crimes involve hand soap
all over the bathroom and finger nail polish painting.

This is Kiley. You can definitely tell she is related; they look
really alike in this picture. Kiley is the oldest cousin on Ryan's
side and she is so good to help teach Adelyn how to play
nicely and she is such a good example to her. Adelyn loves
Kiley and talks about on a daily basis.

Here are Kiley and Savanna at Kiley's bike and swim birthday
party. Adelyn hopes she can get cool bikes like them soon.

Adelyn actually really loves her push bike. She can go
so fast on it and too often I have a hard time keeping
up with her. My only means of catching up is that Adelyn
loves stopping at every flowery weed in sight and test to see
if it's a "blow flower" (a seeding dandelion). She gets really
excited when she finds one I'm sure all my neighbors
appreciate her enthusiasm for spreading weeds as well.