Fun Filled Summer!

Bear with me, this will be a LONG post:

Wow life has been incredibly busy for us the past few months. We have hardly been home this summer with all of our traveling, but its been great to see both of our families so often! First..here is a current picture of cami:


Ryans birthday was June 5th and we did 7 days of birthdays. For those who dont know what this is, ill explain quickly. A week before the big day, you start doing fun activities/gifts each day leading up to it. The fabulous idea came from my creative crafty friend Makana who always makes up and/or finds the cutest ideas to make people feel special. I thought it would be fun to do this every year for each other and for each of our kiddos. The theme was baseball.. i know, youre surprised.

The cutest picture that I have ever seen:


Day 1: Stuffed animal baseball. (hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!) Now that im done laughing ill explain. There are 9 players, or should i say stuffed animals, on a team. Imagine them in place on a baseball field, and a person is in charge of moving each of these players as the ball comes to them. Another person is up to bat, but must use a stuffed animal AS a bat. As the ball enters the field, the person moving the "players" must HOP each stuffed animal around the field to get the ball and throw it to 1st base quickly before the person hopping the batter to first base can get there. Its pretty much impossible and has gotta be the funniest thing EVER to watch. Now... im sure many of you are lost. Those who understand are laughing so hard they are about to pee their pants. Those who dont understand are thinking this has got to be possibly the dumbest game ever. So those who wont understand... youre missing out. OH THIS IS HILARIOUS. I hadnt laughed so hard in my life. Ryan and his brothers used to play this game as kids and if you know ryan well, you know that the possibilities with stuffed animals are endless. Day 1 was a happy success!

Day 2: I ordered pizza, got their favorite candies, and invited his good friend Robert to come over and they got to have a few hours of video games while the wives took the kiddos to the park.

Day 3: Took him to Carls Jr for dinner and made chocolate covered cookie dough balls decorated as baseballs for dessert! I forgot to take a finished picture, but they were awesome! you freeze the cookie dough balls, dip them in melted white chocolate. let them cool and then add the red stripes with wilton candy melts. SO FUN!


Day 4: We had his birthday party on this day since his brother was in town for the evening. It was so fun. Ryans parents went in with me on buying a Wii for ryans birthday present.


Uncle Andy was in town for a couple days, and he helped Cami make this cute sign!


And of corse we had cake.




Day 5: I made a fake movie ticket for us to see his favorite baseball movie at home. Field of Dreams.

Day 6: Cami got him a Padres shirt and took him to a baseball game :)


Day 7: the big day! It was sunday so we didnt do much, but I made him breakfast in bed and a delicious dinner and of course birthday dessert!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEETHEART!!

The end of June was fun and eventful! Ryans brother, David, got married to a great girl from Murietta, just 45 minutes north of us. They were married in the San Diego Temple on June 25th. It was fun to be able to share this day with them and the week with the family.


July 2nd..... was it really 3 years ago this day that Cami was born? I cant believe its gone by so fast. It literally feels like it was just yesterday. We had a princess themed party and didnt do 7 days of birthdays cus we had family in town... but thats ok cus cami got to have some family at her party this year, where as last year it was just the 3 of us. Cami got lots of fun toys and clothes for her birthday and Ryan and I decided she needed a bike. Hehehe! She is in love with it!

Some fun pictures from her party:

This cake was fun to make but way too time consuming... she loved it though!






3 year pictures:






August brought a last minute trip to the family. Gran (ryans mom's mom) passed away. She was such an incredible person. So full of love! She was one of those people that was just so sweet, and you couldnt help but love her. She is and will be missed, but we are all happy for her being able to return to her Heavenly Father. She was in a lot of pain for a long time. Rest in Peace gran, we love you!

Also in August was the wedding reception in South Carolina for David and Brittnye. His parents were so sweet to fly us out for all of the fun and we are so grateful for all that they do for us!

September was an exciting month because CURTIS RETURNED FROM HIS MISSION!! He was away for 2 years in Santiago Chile, giving 100% of his time to the Lord. He was sick for most of his mission... really sick. Yet he pushed through it and continued to work hard. Now that he is home, hes been able to get the medical help he needs and is doing much better! He has changed SO much. Is so independent, social, and has some real goals for his future. He has turned into quite the young man and I couldnt be more proud of him! Spending 2 weeks with him was the best thing I could have asked for!


Now..... now we are home.... and it feels SOOOOOO good. Ive never been so happy to NOT have any vacations planned. Traveling constantly all summer has been fun, but exhausting.

Cami is growing and learning new things every day. Shes a full time, understood talker now and lets her opinions be known. She says the funniest things and keeps us on our toes. She started gymnastics a few weeks ago and is IN LOVE with it. Shes quite the swimmer now and we have been practicing often without our floaty. She is getting better and better at swimming without it... YAY! We see lots of this:


She loves to play dressup (dress-up clothes that are all glittery/princessy or kids jewelery, crowns, etc would make EXCELLENT christmas gifts for cami btw!!! and theyre pretty inexpensive :))


Ryan was called to be a sunday school teacher for the 12 year olds at church. He has a great group of kids and really loves his calling. His job is going well and has been enjoying his job a little more recently.. getting a new, non-arrogent self absorbed boss will do that for you :). He was on crutches a few months ago because he couldnt walk. He played baseball for our church team and 3 weeks in a row he pulled the muscle in his leg. Third times the charm I guess. He couldnt walk, or even bend his leg to the ground to stand on it. He is fully recovered now though and is doing great!

Ive been doing lots of crafts and sewing, and already have some orders for the holidays! I am a nursery leader in our nursery and its loads of fun! ~sarcasm intended. Cami has the worst behavior in nursery. Too many kids, not enough adults, and absolutely no structure will do that to an easily bored and overstimulated child. It is tough to say the least. Ive been on a weightloss journey and have lost a total of 27 lbs since May. GO ME! I dont see a whole lot of difference but the scale says so... I just gotta keep going. Im glad to say that my feet problems have gotten lots better since the weightloss. Im also on a medication thats supposed to help with my female problems, so hopefully soon we will be able to get pregnant!!! We want another baby so bad!!

We had some family pictures taken last month, thanks to Tambra and her photography skills. Thanks tam for taking these!



Life is good!!! We couldnt be happier!!