My Trip Home-Part 2...Family

I didn't want to miss anything while I was home...especially my siblings!  There are 10 of us and it is too rare that we are ALL in one place at the same time.  At Christmas last year we almost had everyone, but we could all tell that part of our family was missing.  We still had fun and enjoyed our time at the cabin, but it would have been so perfect to have the entire gang there.  We were missing Tracie and her crew and we could all tell!

When Matt announced he was getting married, Tracie announced that her family was going to be there too!  (They live in Germany, so it isn't cheap or simple to get stateside)  I knew that I wanted to be there when she was there and she was going for a whole month!  I got really excited and started planning decided to fly home before the wedding so that our trips overlapped by three weeks and I am so glad I did!

I love these pictures despite the early morning look...just us moms doing our thing!

It was so nice to be home with her and see her in her element as a mom.  My other sister, Brooks, came for a quick visit one weekend and we had plenty of nights up way too late chatting about things that put the boys to sleep.  Tracie and I went out shopping for wedding clothes and clothes for our family pictures as well.  I pushed her to try out different outfits that she wasn't so sure about and I think sometimes she was pleasantly surprised.  It was great to browse the mall and stores with no kids in tow!

Her four kids are growing up so much and it was fun to see their quirks and personalities.  Katelyn loved baby Jake and would go check on him while he was napping...sometimes waking him up, but then they would entertain each other and jabber at each other...and she loved any chance she would get to feed him his bottle because he would snuggle up and let her hold him.  We had to be careful because Jake would eat any food he could get his hands on and Katelyn sometimes wanted to share her food and sometimes it was too big or too dangerous for him (mostly chips) but we all survived!  

Katelyn and Morgan had a love/hate relationship and sometimes they couldn't stand each other and knew exactly how to push each other's buttons.  Other times they were singing their hearts out and playing with babies and acting like puppies.  It was always a toss up with those two!  We had plenty of time at the pool with my cousin's kids and Sammy was the sweetest to Katelyn anytime she was around.  These girls had lots of fun playing and running around together.

McKay and Easton are both quite a bit older than Katelyn but they were good with her.  They jumped on the trampoline and taught her how to bounce so big and looked out for her when they were playing on some toys with lots of other big kids we didn't know.  The boys liked to do their own thing most of the time, but didn't mind Katelyn running along most of the time either.  The boys had a blast at the pool with their strong uncles that could throw them around...this boring pregnant aunt of their's wasn't nearly as much fun :)

 Katelyn wasn't a fan of the throwing big kid stuff and she has been all about strollers lately.  If she can push one around and not be the one that has to ride in it she is a happy camper.  She loves swimming, but strollers and any "baby stuff" is a dream come true for her.

The baby pool whirl pools are classic and I am sure that I have been in hundreds of these since I was Katelyn's age.  

It was busy and we were making plans for when the entire crew would be coming for the wedding weekend, but I am so glad that I was able to be home while she was there.  Skype calls just aren't enough and it was nice to spend some time with her and her family.  Playing mom with her was fun and we were able to laugh at the "glamorous" side of motherhood together.

I wish we could spend the whole month at home with all the siblings and have a month long party!  It isn't ever enough to just see each other for a short time and then have to go home. It was so awesome and a miracle that we were all able to be home for the wedding weekend.  There's about 30 of us now and a lot of us are young in our careers and don't get much time off when we want or don't have money to casually pass around.  I am so glad that everyone wanted to be there bad enough to make the arrangements needed to be there.  I know my parents had plenty of times during the chaos of having us all home where they were just so happy and so grateful for what they started and wished we all didn't live so far away!  

My dad won grandpa of the year as he planned out an awesome treasure hunt for his grandkids.  He planned out an FHE lesson on what we should treasure in life which was really sweet and the kids were into it.  They were discussing what a treasure is and the kids were talking about how money is like treasure and then McKay piped up and let everyone know the truth and said, "If you don't have any money, then you can't buy anything...unless you have a credit card!"  We all got a good laugh out of him and his smarty pants!

The next morning my dad woke us all up bright and early with his pirate talk and the kids were ready for the adventure that they had been anticipating for a couple weeks.

 They each took turns to search for their treasure following the map and finding the hidden pieces of the map along the way.

 Then they got to dig up their treasure!

 Some parts were very dangerous!  Swords in the mouth and all!

 My dad built a monkey bridge that streatched across the trees in the backyard...so cool!  If I wasn't pregnant I would have tried it out.

 My dad even put some obstacles in the ground like this piece of "drift wood" that made them think they found a treasure, but it just told them that they were "close" and needed to keep digging!

 Papa was one scary pirate!

 He was just a good actor :)

My dad did a second round of the treasure hunt for Chad's kids and  it was good too.  These kids are some fierce pirates out for their treasure!

 Katelyn was too little to understand the whole thing, but she had her sword tied around her waist and was ready to follow along to watch the action.

 Each treasure hunter had a big little helper just in case they needed it.  David helped fearless Emme find her treasure.  I think David needs an eye patch or something!

 Part of the fun was trying to beat McKay in the games.  He is the UNO king and seriously is tough to beat at that game.  Battleship and Chutes & Ladders were some favorites of his too.

Since we were ALL there, we had a long time family friend take some much needed family pictures. 

 Here we all are with our spouses and individual family's from oldest to youngest...

Tracie and Ryan:

 Chad and his wife Amber:

 Brooks and John:

 Chris and his wife Tricia:

 Liam wasn't too thrilled with the pictures and let us all know :)

 Ben and Elizabeth:

 Nick and Christine:

 David and I:

 Matt and his last day with his fiance Chelsea who is now his wife:

 And the last two unmarried kids, Abby and Luke:

 This photo is awkward but funny because it is a remake of a picture when Abby was about 4 and Luke was 3 and it looked about the same.  Luke hasn't really ever been on the small side and with his football player build it looks way too similar as it did 15 years ago.  Abby do you have that picture?

 And the best for last!  Here's the amazing parents who are recently empty-nesters and couldn't be more thrilled...or maybe bored...to have us all grown up!

 Oh these puppies were so perfect!  And maybe a little racist with the dark one with Katelyn, but they are still so cute!  These kids couldn't get enough of the puppies while we were all home.

These puppies loved the attention, but sometimes I think they feared their lives were in danger and quickly learned about sleeping and hiding under the deck when they wanted their peace and quiet...that is if they were fast enough to get under there before the kids snatched them up!  

 Here's all of the grandkids...10 here and three on the way!

 And the whole crew!

 Showing a little love here...

The happy grandparents:

 Here are all the original Bare kids and my parents:

 And we have a hard time being normal and presentable all the time...

 It was so fun having EVERYBODY home.  I loved spending some much needed time with each of my siblings and especially our "long lost sister" who lives way too far away ;)  We all are jealous of her travels and that they get to see so much of Europe, but we all want to see more of her and her family so we tease her every chance we get so we get to see her in real life sometimes too...Maybe we could all move to Germany?

My Trip Home-Part 1...The Arrival

Alright....For the second half of the summer (mid-July to end of August) I was in Washington. I have a lot to share about that trip and I want to get it all down before it gets too far away!

First things first, I had to get there.  I was really excited about this but I had my doubts too.  I was nervous how Katelyn would do on the flights.  I had three different flights and a couple layovers and it was going to be a very, very long day if she didn't feel like cooperating.  I was so relieved because she was heavenly!  After check-in and security we ran...well she ran, I walked and followed her bouncy excited run...all over the airport.  By the time it was time to board, she was excited about the plane and checked out my seatbelt and the airplane magazines and the fold down tray and then was ready for a nap!  She did this with each layover and I hardly needed the bag of quiet toys I brought.  The flight home was very similar.  We needed the bag of toys a little more, but she did so well!  Hooray!!

The part I was excited about was my arrival at the airport!  Little did my family know, I was 6 1/2 months pregnant!  I had a stranger get a video of my Dad and sister Tracie's reaction when they realized my growing belly.

It was such a fun surprise!  My dad's first thought was that I wasn't going to be able to play tennis with him!  I did bring my racket and we played three different times!  I was holding Katelyn in front of me and then I pulled her to the side when I said, "We're here!" which generated the squeal from my sister...perfect!  My brother got engaged in January, we found out we were pregnant in February and we were trying to decide how to announce it to our families and thought it would be so awesome to wait until I went home for the wedding!  We survived and had to tell a lot of lies because we kept getting questions about when we were having more kids...especially from Mom and Dad!

Our flight arrived at midnight so there was a crew at home that were kind of sleepy eyed but came to say hello.  My youngest brother Luke (18) gave me a hug and wasn't sure if I had gotten chunky or if it was a baby.  He was staring at my belly and looked so concerned and as I gave Matt a hug (he didn't notice/have any idea) Luke even leaned over to be able to see my belly around Matt and my hug.  I made eye contact with him and smiled and that must have been the trigger for him because he smiled back and asked, "Are you having a baby?!"  Matt probably thought he should smack Luke for going against the man-code and asking, but then realized my belly and wondered how he didn't notice too!

My mom heard that I was home and came to say hello before she really went to bed.  She was "waiting up for me" or took a little nap so she came down with sleepy eyes.  She didn't even have her glasses on and noticed my belly and after she hugged me then she asked about the big belly saying, "So what is this belly all about?"  She couldn't believe I had kept it a secret for that long!  My parents thought I might come home and announce a baby, but not that much of a baby!

I mailed out pictures of us with the balloons and our announcement to the family members that weren't at home...little did I know, the pen I used to write a note on a card with the picture was not a good choice.  It is a "Pilot Frixion" pen, so it is erasable with friction or with the eraser on the end of it.  The science behind it is that the heat of the friction is what makes it erase.  I wrote all of these notes on the cards, put the cards and the pictures in the envelopes, stamped and addressed them.  Nothing fancy.  I had them sitting in the car one day while I ran around town and with it being the middle of July, it was hot in the car and the heat caused all of the addresses and return addresses to disappear by the time I got to the post office!  I traced over the indents to rewrite the addresses, but I wasn't willing to open them all up to check my notes on the cards.  I heard that most of them were fine and could still be read or they could hold them at the right angle to read the indentations where the ink had disappeared!  The pictures are what had the announcement on them so it was fine.  Silly pens tried to get the best of me!

My brother's family that lives in Virginia, Chris and Tricia, had a fun time finding out.  We were about 5 months along and they were over visiting just because.  I was wearing a shirt that seemed as if I was trying to hide something and they were both trying to figure out if I was pregnant without actually asking.  We had pizza and smoothies for lunch and were getting ready to head out to a nearby park and Katelyn was taking off out the door without me.  I was talking to Chis and he asked, "What is in that belly?" as he poked it.  I was pretty smooth and instantly responded with, "Just that extra slice of pizza." and then I headed out the door to get Katelyn before she got into trouble.  Chris felt terrible and like a jerk of a brother for just calling his sister out on gaining a little weight!  We told them later on in the evening and he felt VERY relieved!

So everyone found out one way or another, but it was fun and hard to keep it a secret for so long!

Katelyn Figuring It Out

This was written up about 4 months ago, and I meant to add to it but never did.  She just had a birthday so I will just post this and then update more with her birthday post coming up hopefully soon!

I am amused with Katelyn and the little things she does.  Sometimes she may drive me crazy, but at the end of the day when all she wants to do is snuggle, I can't find much to complain about.

Here's some of her fun little things she does that make us smile.

Her talking.  She picks up on so much and we say and it is so fun to hear her try and say the words with her pronunciation.  She can't form the sounds that come from the back of her throat like the C/K, G, X, and Qu and substitutes other sounds for them....She has

Her name has progressed over the past few months.  It used to be "tay tay" and then "tay tuh" then "tay nuh" then "tay nen" and now it is "tay tin".  She is getting close!

She narrates a lot of what she does as she plays.  She likes zippers and key holes with her keys (tees) we gave her and will say "opet in toes" as she opens and closes them and she does this for at least 30 minutes each day...one of her favorites.  If she comes across any keys, she gets excited and heads off to find a key hole to put the key in. 

She also loves her stuffed puppy and bear right along with her baby dolls.  She takes care of them and sometimes when we ask Katelyn to help or do something, she assists her "friends" and has them do it for her...eating, going to bed, picking things up, giving good bye hugs and kisses and waves, and diaper changes.

She can't get enough of peek-a-boo and being chased.  She loves the thrill of it.  The pitter patter as I pound my hands on the floor behind her makes her giddy and excited.  We have to be careful as we chase her and when she plays with others because she likes to try and get to a room and then close the door quick!

She loves wrestling and tickling like any kid.

She doesn't have a favorite between David or I.  She just wants the other if one of us told her no or doesn't have enough sympathy.  She likes me to put her to bed, but she won't go until she gives Daddy a "hud in tiss".  When I try to drop her off at nursery, she wants Daddy.  As she wakes up, she sits up in bed and calls for both of us until we come say good morning or until she gets tired of calling for us and comes to find us.  When one of us gives her a high 5, she goes off to find the other to give them one too.

She loves to "tuh-ler" and to play with stickers.  She likes to color a little bit with each color. Possibly more than coloring, she likes to put the crayons in the box and then dump them out and put them in over and over again.

Summer Camping

We have been busy and having fun and I finally have a second to sit and write down all of our adventures over the last two months!  I have caught up with the laundry and I am taking a break from cleaning and unpacking to write everything down.

I am starting with camping.  This summer we went twice.  The first time was at the end of June with my brother Chris and his family and some friends of theirs.  David doesn't get excited about camping.  The work, effort, and planning that goes into camping doesn't make sense to him when we pay rent to live in a nice place that is better.  Now if I was willing to move our family out into the woods permanently, then he would be fine with that because it is so much cheaper than paying rent, but when we already have a nice place we are paying for he doesn't get very excited.  

So I try to make it as painless as possible and pack and plan everything  so we can just get in the car and go.  This first camping trip went well with not really any issues.  We enjoyed the company and the setting. We all worked together on meals and starting fires and the kids had fun running around together.  I like that men feel like the outdoors is their territory and they build the fires and put up the tents and they even do some of the cooking if we women let them!  I don't know why David would have any reason to dislike camping :)  

Katelyn loves anytime we let her play in the car and "drive" and sometimes we let her sit with us and actually drive short little errands that don't require us to get on real roads.  She loves to do big people things.

 These three had a good time!  Liam is a good cousin and friend and bridges the age gap and plays with both his older friend and younger cousin.  Marco didn't seem to get bored playing with the little kids either.

 Chris and Tricia brought a hotel tent that had three rooms so we shared that with them and we all had plenty of space.

 I love this cute girl!

And she loves her cute boy!

 We enjoyed the good company and snuggles with our kiddos.

 Chris had a helper that wanted to take over his fire making job...well only the parts he shouldn't help with :)  Marco is just a curious boy who was trying so hard to be patient while he waited to cook his hot dog.

 These kids always want to be such good helpers!

 We went on a hike and Katelyn was so slow so we carried her most of the way.  Tricia and Chris wouldn't let my pregnant body carry her the whole time so we passed her around and Liam wanted to be carried too we all got more than we wanted out of this short hike.

 Katelyn's cute little chubby toes are so good at collecting all sorts of treasures and she loves to pull off her shoes and look for "yuckies" and proclaim her toes clean when she finishes looking between each toe as she pries them apart.  This is a task she takes seriously!

 We needed some ice cream at the end of our "rough camping" and we discovered Bruster's that reminds us of Tillamook Ice cream with all their yummy flavors.

 Hugs all around to say goodbye as we finished with our yummy ice cream!

Then we camped with about 8 families from our ward this last weekend for Labor Day.  The place we were going took about 4 hours to get to from our place and with a stop for dinner it took about 5 hours.  We weren't too thrilled about this because it was raining almost the whole time we were driving and sometimes it was raining so hard we had to slow way down to even see the road and other cars around us safely.  This wasn't very encouraging and even I had a hard time being excited for our camping weekend.  We finally got to our campsite and we had friends help us get our tent up really fast in the dark and in the rain.  We decided to call it a night and hang out in our tent and hope that we  were going to wake up to clear skies.  It was very humid and wet and our little tent snugly fit the three of us with our queen air mattress...and I am about 5 weeks away from my due date.  So we play a few little games in our tent and chat to stay out of the down pour and hope that our tent really is waterproof.  We managed to get to sleep and hoped we somehow wouldn't have to try and roll over each other and go out in the rain to go potty!  Me and my pregnant self didn't get so lucky and it rained pretty much all night we think.

The next morning it was mostly not raining and just a few sprinkles here and there.  We went to church looking and feeling so wonderful after the great sleep, but the skies cleared up once we were out of church!  Oh the blessing of going to church!  And Katelyn was so adorable that someone gave her a brand new baby doll in the box and everything.  She loved it and it was a random simple thing and they said her daughter had too many dolls and Katelyn looked like a perfect mom for that doll.

We got back to camp and took a nap  and just enjoyed a peaceful Sunday in the woods.  We made shish-ka-bobs for dinner with chicken, tomato, onion, potato and peppers and  they were so good!  Such good flavor since I marinated them over night and then the smoky flavor from the camp fire added a special bonus.   

We enjoyed the night chatting with friends and making ice cream in bags and  making campfire cones (ice cream cones filled with nuts and chocolate and marshmallow and anything you want that might taste good all melted together when they get warmed up by the fire.)  We loved the evening!  The terrible start to our camping trip luckily was the worst of it. 

I love this picture of Katelyn because it shows her curly hair.  Her hair is pretty flat and straight on top, but she has some curl in the back  that is adorable.  The humidity and sweat gives it an extra amount of curl too!  She also loved having all these glow stick bracelets and necklaces, but I like the curls!

These tire swings were a little dangerous but all the kids love them.  Katelyn would swing forever if she could and David can't ever say no to anyone that wants to swing!

The kids gave him a few pushes too and let him have a turn.

We came up camping on Saturday and didn't get there until dark, so we missed out on the adventures that they all went on during the day.  We stopped by to see what we missed on our way home.  There was this waterfall that was a short hike in and really pretty, but once we got down to the stream it was really rocky and wet and me being pregnant and David carrying Katelyn didn't seem like an ideal place for us.  There was also a guy who had fallen and hit his head on the rocks and was bleeding and getting medical attention near the falls so we decided we were close enough and headed back out.  

 Here I am at 35 weeks!

 Our next pit stop was at the natural water slides.  These weren't as impressive as we thought they would be.  David tried it out and felt like he had to scoot a lot of the way.  Some sections of it were fun and would carry him, but others just didn't have enough water or maybe he had the wrong technique.

We walked around and at the bottom of the water slide were some areas of calm water so we thought we would go swim around in those to cool off.  It was nice and we just people watched as we enjoyed the water.

As we were heading out, David and Katelyn were walking out and it was so cute watching them walk hand in hand being careful on the rocks.  I had to go back and grab my shoes and slipped a fell on my side.  I fell on my hip, elbow, and shoulder and they have been super sore ever since.  It scared me and everyone around being so pregnant.  Everything is fine with me and the baby and other than the bruises on me, but he has been moving around like normal and I haven't had any contractions or bleeding.  Definitely scary though and I am glad I fell to the side and not forward.

I was frustrated with myself because I knew I needed to be careful and I had been the whole time and I made sure every step was well thought out, but that one moment where I turned around quick and was thinking about how I almost forgot my shoes was when I slipped.  I was so bummed and worried about our little guy.  He always moves like crazy when I start eating anything so we thought it would be perfect to get some ice cream from Bruster's.  It did the trick and our little baby was moving and tossing and turning taking in all three scoops of ice cream with me.  I got an almond coconut ice cream that was heavenly and cheered me right up!

These scoops are not small scoops by any means and so having three of them made for a ton of ice cream.  These pictures show both of our cones with about 5 minutes worth of licking already done.  They were melting faster than we could eat them and I could barely get David to look at the camera because he was trying to keep up with the drips.  We ended up getting out of the car so we didn't have to inhale the ice cream and then I was able to enjoy it and let the drips fall in the grass.  We were laughing at ourselves for thinking we needed three scoops and decided next time we are only getting two...maybe even one....or maybe three to share would be just right!  I couldn't eat mine very fast because I was laughing most of the time at David trying to keep up with his.  He was so determined to not let it drip away and he was going to town licking frantically to save the drips.

Katelyn enjoyed hers too and wasn't sure what was so funny.  I needed the ice cream and the laughs to get the baby moving and cheer me up and it worked great.  Now I just need to be more careful and be more cautious!  

This camping trip had a lot of ups and downs and we are done camping the year for sure.  The rain wasn't too fun and falling was scary, but most of all I was so glad to be back in my own bed when we got home.  I love having space to move my watermelon belly and not having to wake up and walk in the rain to go to the bathroom at night.  I don't miss trying to roll over and get comfortable on that air mattress...it is hard enough when you aren't pregnant!  I will enjoy my friends inside and we can all be a little be less stinky.  I love nature and it's beauty and smells and sounds, but I am too pregnant to enjoy it all like I am used to.  I won't make David go camping again until next summer.  For now we have plenty to get ready for for this little guy to make his arrival and my bed is way to nice to give up for an air mattress in a little tent anytime soon!

Telling the Father

Oh this whole pregnancy has been fun for us.  I can't complain one bit about this pregnancy!  Yay!

David was out of town and I was home and was making plans and getting ready for David's Valentine's Day countdown gifts.  I wanted to give him a little gift each day in February leading up to Valentine's Day.  I had some planned gifts that I would send with him when he went out of town and we were also moving in February.  I think we moved on the 11th...Happy birthday to Julia :)  So I wanted to be prepared and just be able to enjoy the excitement of each gift each day but I had a feeling that I would find out yes or no before Valentine's day so I was trying to figure out how to break the news to David if I found out we were expecting. 

I had been paying close attention to my body anxiously anticipating how quick/slow I would get pregnant, but not getting my hopes up just in case we were supposed to hang tight for a bit.  I took a test one morning while David was out of town and the positive result was so exciting.  Katelyn didn't understand that my tears were happy tears and she was on the verge of crying herself because she often cries when others do.  She gets sad when they do, and it made me laugh a bit and I just gave her a big hug.

I still had over a week before Valentine's Day when I would tell David and was wondering if I would be able to keep it a secret until then.  Maybe David was paying attention to my cycle or something (seriously?!), but the day after I found out I was pregnant, he asked me over the phone if I knew if we were pregnant or not.  It caught me off guard, but I guess I convincingly responded with, "Still waiting.  We'll see in the next week or so." and he said later that I hid it well.

On Valentine's Day I put together a booklet of cards that had date night ideas for each month.  I was excited for the dates, but they were all things that I wanted to do and not so much what David wanted on most of them, so he wasn't as excited...I should have thought that through more :)  (We have been having date nights, but have almost always done different things than I brainstormed, but I will take it because we are still getting our dates in and we both like them!)  David flipped through each month and his tiredness from the long work hours...like 70 hour work weeks...and the dates that weren't quite up his ally didn't bring out the excited David that matched the giddy and excited me. Katelyn wanted to have the booklet for herself so she wasn't really helping either.  I made him look at each month because for the month of October (a good guess at the time) I broke the news to him.

Here's his response and reaction. 

Like I said...he was not thrilled by almost all the dates and probably was thinking that this was the worst gift ever and wondered why I saved if for last.  He thought this 14 days of gifts was pretty good until he got a homemade booklet of dates that I wanted to take him out on...until he got to the cute picture of Katelyn saying she was going to be a big sister.  Then he perked up a little!  He really is excited, we promise!

But seriously....Amazing Race date...he loved it.  Roller skating is always fun, David loves Chinese anything because he loves their food and ping pong,  recreating our first date sounds cheesy, but it was really a game night and ice cream cones...what's so bad about that?  Tennis and a picnic, bowling, or frisbee golf  at home would be fun but he was just tired I think :) And Katelyn was mad she couldn't have the booklet at the time and then when David was done looking through it, she didn't want it then.

She doesn't really understand what's going on with my belly and doesn't seem to know or care about the baby in there.  She can't see him and it just looks like I am getting a big belly.  She does LOVE and adore anyone her age or younger and will probably be more of a helper than I am ready for.  With her cousins Jake (11 months) and Mikilah (4 months) she loved to hold them and feed them if she could.  She got sick  while they were here so we had to keep her away from Mikilah and she had a tough time with that. I am going to have to be patient and let her help in her own special way as I see that we will have a constant battle between who is going to be this little guy's mom. She has been trying to nurse her stuffed animals and baby dolls lately.  Between watching Maggie, my parent's golden retriever, nurse her puppies and paying way too close of attention to the moms in the mother's lounge at church who come in to feed their babies while I fail to rock her to sleep during church she knows that something in her shirt feeds those toys and likes to pretend to be big like the other moms.

We are in for a good time...right?!