On This Journey to the Past

I haven't done a real update on the happenings of our lives in....ummm...well, let's see here...hmmmm...two, three, four...mmm...seven months. Wait, what?! SEVEN MONTHS?! Can that be right? You better buckle your seat belts folks - we're in for quite a ride.

MAY

You know what they say, right? April showers bring May flowers. So in anticipation of that reality we spent good time outside with the garden. We even started Ammely's very own garden with some of her very special birthday presents from Aunt Tammy.

May was also the time we finally saw some big rewards for all of the time Ammon spent laboring in our yard. Just look at those peaches!

What else of May? Oh, you know, we may or may not have semi-impulsively bought a camper. More on that to come.

JUNE

June was kind of a big month for us. We did a lot.

5th Anniversary

Ammon and I celebrated our fifth anniversary! Ammon surprised me and took the whole day off of work! And he even arranged for Grandma Baysinger to watch our kiddos for a couple hours so we could go see a movie together (Avengers: Age of Ultron). It was a wonderful time - movie-going just doesn't seem to happen very often when you've got small children.

Plus, that evening we hired out our very own babysitter for the first time ever! A sweet young woman from the ward came over and spent a few hours watching Little Einsteins with our kiddos (bless her heart). We went to Red Robin (which was kind of a big deal because it was a *heavenly* cheat from a diet we were doing at the time). We also took a little stroll around the temple grounds and tried to take a picture together. 

Yup. We're soulmates.

Camper Time

We had big plans for taking our camper on vacation the next month in July - so we spent a lot of time and love cleaning it up, making some repairs and fixing a few things.

This is what we started with...which actually looks a lot better in the picture than in real life.

Even the girls had so much fun working on this with us - it just felt great to work as a family (even in the heat of summer). We all really enjoyed painting the interior especially.

Plus, it really forced me and Ammon to develop some new talents. 

Ammon repaired a wall in the camper that was basically disintegrating when we bought it. 

Plus, he removed the air conditioner from the camper (in an effort to make it a little shorter when sitting in our side yard...you know, darn HOAs). 

And I ordered/shopped around for the materials I needed to make the table cushions, curtains, etc.

Enjoying our new camper bedding.

Color Scheme

I made the cushions...this included cutting the foam to size and then getting them covered. I felt pretty awesome about all that. So did the girls.

Annnnnd...I sewed curtains! People, I know curtains are not hard but I have never sewn anything all by myself ever in my whole life. This was kind of a big deal to me. I love the curtains simply because I made them and I did it by myself...(well...and some fabric quantity guidance from my Grandma Breakall and Jenn and Youtube).

By the end we loved the whole thing. It's no Marriott, but it's ours. And assuming we'd pay at least $100 per night for a hotel, this thing pays itself off on road trips in no time. 

Salsa Box

We started calling our garden box our "salsa box" because our gardening goal was to grow most everything we would need to be able to make our own salsa.

And you know what? We (and by "we" I definitely mean "Ammon") totally did it!

Fresh salsa is the best. Seriously. Try it some time.

Quail's Nest

We weren't the only ones who thought our salsa box was awesome. We also discovered this little home hiding behind our tomato plants.

The Circus

You know what else we did that was totally awesome? We went to the circus with Grandma Breakall. It's always in town around Lynnden's birthday. Last year, Ammely went with Grandma while we stayed home with our newborn. She loved it and talked about it all year long. So this year, we all went to be a part of the fun! It was such a good time.

This next picture carries a bit of a story. Ammely calls everybody aged 0 to 12 a "friend" and really believes they are her friends...even if they've never met before. So when the kids were filing in on the seats to await the entertainment, initially Ammely had pretty much the whole bench to herself. Then this girl sat down a good foot away from her. Ammely smiled really big and scooted over closer to her. So the girl scooted a little further away...you know, the way normal people do to maintain some personal space. So Ammely scooted over closer again, trapping this girl right where she was. And THEN Ammely reached up and began patting the girl on the back - as if they were old buds from the beginning of time. Hahaha. It was so funny. Poor girl.

Ammely loved every bit of the entertainment. It was fun to watch her light up at everything.

Playing Around

The rest of the month we spent playing our summer hearts out.
We played around at home a bit.

We played at Grandma Baysinger's house!

We had a play date with Ephraim and made necklaces!

We had a play date with Cypher too!

Dinner with the Weaklands was such a wonderful evening. They made the most amazing burgers and hot dogs - seriously. Amazing. I would almost say the fact that Chris passed along the secret to the perfect, slow cooked, bubbling/sizzling/sweating hot dog was the most important part of the whole evening. Of course, they did also tell us the BIG news that Chris is joining (has joined by now) the Air Force. We are so excited for the good they anticipate this will do for their family and are really proud of them for deciding to take on such a meaningful sacrifice. So maybe that was more important than the hot dogs. Maybe. ;)

JULY

4th of July

We had planned on heading down to Wilcox for the holiday this year but ended up just having a really nice, really relaxed holiday at home. 

We went shopping that morning for a few things Daddy needed for the yard and Mommy needed for the camper. The kids came out of the trip pretty well though.

We spent the rest of the day playing in the yard (we just love that our grass is filling in!).
The quail eggs hatched!
Ammely was SO excited.

We had festive popsicles.

And water fun for the whole family!

We even continued our festive spirit into the next day, Sunday. We wore our patriotic dresses to Grandma and Grandpa Hatch's house and spent time playing and visiting with the grandparents!

After we got home, we took the chance to enjoy our sparklers before the kids fell asleep (which is what happened the day before).

And we needed another popsicle. Because, well, why not?

Rattler's Date Night

For Christmas last year, Mama and Daddy let us all sign up to use their POGO passes for an event or two of our choosing. Ammon and I signed up to go watch a Rattler's game (arena football) and come July it was time for us to go!

Tamzon and JT were so sweet to take our girls for the evening and we headed out for a fun night together. We decided to park and ride the metro into Phoenix and WOW was that much less stressful than driving in (and cheaper than parking downtown too!). It was definitely slower going and there were some...hmmm...shall we say "interesting" people to encounter. But overall it made for a memorable experience and we'd likely do it again.

From the metro we headed over to one of the few TGIFriday's left in business in the entire metro area. We just had to. They have one of our favorite burgers! Plus, this Friday's is completely unique because it is actually INSIDE the baseball stadium. Seriously. This was the view from our table. It was SO cool.

By that time (considering the loonnngg ride into Phoenix plus a sit-down dinner) we had already missed almost half the game - but we weren't too worried since neither of us are really big sports fans and we had low expectations.

We. Were. Wrong. I don't know if it was the way the stars aligned that night or if they pumped something into the air or if it was just the fact that we were kid-free, but we had SO. MUCH. FUN. We thought the crowd was fun without being crude or rude. We thought the game gimmicks (cannons and cheers and such) were engaging and we hooted and hollered along. Plus, Arizona kicked some arena football patooshie.

We enjoyed ourselves so much we even bought shirts. We're not sports people. Or unexpected souvenir buying people. But we were that night.

From there, we went to join the crazies on the metro ride home and get our girls from the Olmsteads.

It was some of the most fun we've had on a night out in a long, long time. Thank you Mama and Daddy for giving it to us!

Visiting Grandma Lords

In May, Grandma Lords managed to do what has never before been done - her leg was broken...both bones in her leg, actually...in the temple...by the elevator door. 

This poor sweet lady spent months recovering in various hospitals and rehabilitation centers. That was really hard on her. There is no place like home. And a hospital is no home. But she was a trooper anyways. We were always glad when we were able to make it across town to see her. She was always making some progress and seemed in good spirits despite her awful circumstances.

The girls were especially happy to visit Grandma. We just love our grandparents!

Ammely loves bells. This particular clock at grandma's rehabilitation center chimes every 15 minutes... and so we had to be next to the clock every 15 minutes. 

Grandma finally got to come home after months of work. She has been working hard for months still and is doing so well now! She walks about with just a cane (no casting or bracing or wheel chairs or walkers). And I think she is looking great! We are so proud of her!

Oh Baby

What else happened in July?
Well, after weeks of taking tests, this happened...


But it was such a faint line that came on so slowly...and we hadn't been getting that result for weeks (like we should have been) so we really didn't believe our eyes. But just a few days later this happened...


Two dark lines. That means three children for this Baysinger family!

Summer Vacation

The very day we got two dark lines was the very day we took off on our vacation for 2015. We headed up to Colorado for a great time with my family. But you shall have to read about that in another post at another time. It was too much fun to do any justice right here.

Camper Heart Break

Speaking of vacation...the one that we were taking our camper on (remember?)... well, we did! Buuuut...just before leaving we did receive a frustrating and heartbreaking letter from the HOA stating that the camper had to go away because it was visible from the street. I mean, they weren't wrong exactly...but c'mon...

I started brainstorming trees that we could plant to block the view that wouldn't be too big to still drive around...and I started drawing up plans on how to alter our gate so that the camper wouldn't be visible from the street (it wouldn't take much...plus we had already taken off that a/c unit on the top)...

But nothing really seemed to be practical or something we had the time/money for. So far, Mama and Daddy have been very patient letting us keep that camper at their place until we figure it out. But it has been months now and the days of selling it are upon us, I think. I just had such big dreams of all the wonderful places we would go in that camper (can anybody say California/Oregon coast this summer?!). Sigh. *tears*

AUGUST

You can tell that the pregnancy was starting to make me feel like death at this point because for the months of August and September I have not one single picture taken on our camera. Not one. I do have a few cell phone shots though so that is something.
(Does anybody else find it ironic that in the process of creating life you feel like dying? Yes? No? Okay, moving on.)

A couple of big things did happen in August though.

OSU

This is the really big one! Ammon became an Oregon State Beaver! After years of slowly taking courses while supporting a family - he finally moved past the bulk of his generals and grad school pre-reqs at the community college and started taking courses for his 4-year degree. He is majoring in horticulture through an online program at OSU and He. Loves. It. Can I tell you how much fun it has been to watch him actually enjoy his classes?! It is a WORLD of difference. This is how school should be. It should be exciting. It should make you want to share the information you're learning. It should feel like it is worth the work and sacrifice. Hallelujah! And we are just SO proud of him!

Olmstead Extravaganza

Also in August, we had agreed to welcome Rori and Robert into our home for about a week while Tamzon and JT took an awesome vacation to the east. Of course, I agreed to do this before becoming pregnant...and I just felt awful at the terrible timing of my sick days with the Olmstead vacation.

I had big plans of crafts and games and slumber party nights. I had intentions of taking pictures galore and providing Tamzon and JT with thorough picture/video updates each night. I planned on skyping Tamzon and JT so they could see their sweet little ones and not miss them so dreadfully.

Instead, I mostly laid around crying and being grumpy. They watched a lot of tv. A lot. 

So many people came to my aid though. Tamzon had sent her kids with plenty of preparation - including freezer meals for dinners that week and a whole box of activities to do. And Ammon was a lifesaver every single night. Mama and Belle both came over on different days to help me. And Holly (Rori and Robert's Grandma Olmstead) came to get them a day earlier than scheduled. 

Boy, overall I wish that had been a different experience for everybody. But through a series of tender mercies we all made it through the week! Plus, Tamzon was really great at updating me about their daily activities - that made every day worth it - to hear about the awesome adventures they were able to have. 

I would never do this again while in the early stages of pregnancy. I would totally do it again in any other stage of life though. 

We love Rori and Robert!

Who wouldn't? Look how cute they are!

SEPTEMBER

Sickies

I wasn't the only one feeling awful in September. Poor Lynnden was sick, it seemed, the entire month. One thing after another. She had vomits. She had fevers. She had mysterious bumps that would appear randomly throughout the month.

She had an eye infection.

Poor dear.

Haircut

On a day I was feeling capable of leaving the house, I actually went to get my hair cut. The last time I got my hair cut (or trimmed, or snipped...)...shortly after finding out I was pregnant with Lynnden. Years. It was definitely time to chop off the dead stuff.

Nothing drastic but boy, I felt better!

Ultrasound

We finally went in for a baby appointment at the end of September and got our first picture of the newest Baysinger munchkin. We also got a more accurate estimated due date (March 19th instead of March 8th).

OCTOBER

Hmmm....must have still not been feeling great because I don't have much in the way of picture documentation. A little more though.

Home School

Ammely started taking on a bigger interest in school and reading and writing and spelling. Randomly one day she informed that she needed a bus toy. She also informed Grandma Breakall.

Boy were we excited to receive this special gift in the mail one day!

Lynnden got a special surprise too!

Ammely also started working on tracing her letters. She does pretty well for her age, I think!

Lynnden was doing a lot of learning too!

She made big (messy) leaps in learning how to feed herself.

And this started happening (at last!)!

But it looks like most of what we did in October was in preparation for Halloween!

Halloween Prep

I finished the Halloween wreath I had started at the end of September at our girls' craft night. I just loved it and was so excited to hang it on my door!

I also spent my good moments working on costumes.

The Christmas bear made an excellent model for Ammely's Tigger costume.

We also spent a wonderful morning at the Olmsteads making cookies and other cute Halloween crafts.

Tamzon made the cutest little footprint ghosts and hand print spiders for the kids...I never got a picture of the final product though.

Halloween

Halloween time finally arrived and we got to don our costumes and enjoy the festivities!

We hit up the Queen Creek Halloween party for a bit and then headed to Oktoberfest at Belle and Kent's house. Our camera was dead, dead, dead by that point though so you'll just have to trust me when I say both events were great! We loooovvvee Oktoberfest - there was SO much food and SO much root beer and SO many wonderful people this year. I hope this tradition lasts forever. Which reminds me - we will be happy to have Boyd and Amber's party return to us next year too! We definitely missed that this year but it was totally understandable since they were in the process of moving (their big, beautiful, new home closed the following Monday!)

Grandma Breakall came in the following weekend for actual Halloween and was here while we donned costumes again and headed out for trick-or-treating.

The girls did GREAT. Even Lynnden, who just barely had mastered walking, insisted on carrying her own bucket and getting her own candy. We didn't think she'd really participate this year but she was very enthusiastic!

Gender Reveal

The biggest event of October though happened just before Halloween. We had our long-awaited appointment with the ultrasound technician to get our baby's measurements and find out the gender.

You would have thought Ammon was a five-year old waiting for Christmas...a five-year old who wasn't sure if he'd made the naughty or nice list. He was SO impatient for the day to arrive and SO anxious about what we would find out. He wanted to have a son so much. He made sure that many prayers and old-wives-tales-experiments went into trying to bring a boy into our family.

We got our sealed envelope.

We headed to the bakery (Sassy's Bakery).

They were very busy with cupcake orders so we ate some lunch (amazing lunch, by the way...if you're in the market for a crazy-delicious but slightly expensive sandwich, Sassy's is the place!)

We almost gave up on them and left and then they came through with the cupcakes at the last minute! Woohooo!

From there we headed to the family property to delve into the secret.

We took a bite.

Mine came out blue.

Ammon's came out blue too (I truly was relieved to see that his matched mine. I honestly expected pink.)

We had a sweet, tender moment as we realized we were going to have the son we had prayed for. 

Then we excitedly hurried off to share the news with our remaining cupcakes!

(This video has some interesting cinematography. Please forgive us).

We are just so, so excited to have a boy!

NOVEMBER

Surprisingly, I have even fewer pictures for November than I do for October. I'm going to guess that is because I was finally starting to feel like a normal pregnant person again and was spending my days recovering from months of misery (you know, like putting the laundry away for the first time since July).

There were a couple of fun things worth mentioning here though.

Time Out for Women

I absolutely love Time Out for Women. It is a wonderful event where mostly LDS women come without kids or spouses to be uplifted, entertained and just enjoy being part of such a wonderful army of sisters. It comes to Phoenix every November and last year Tamzon was kind enough to invite me along and make it happen. I loved it! I had seen it on DVDs that my mom had purchased in previous years that she has gone in Denver, but never went myself.

Well, due to a long chain of events, my mom was able to get some more or less "free" tickets this year. So I got to go with my mom! PLUS, we had a couple extra tickets. So, Friday Mama was able to come with us and on Saturday, Amber was!

I came away so grateful for the time I was able to spend with my mom, with Mama and with Amber. I was thrilled they were able to have that experience with me and I'd love to do it again some year with my mothers and  all of my sisters (and all of their moms! - how cool would that be?). I came away with so many wonderful things to think about. I came away feeling refreshed. I came away satisfied (not just spiritually either...we treated ourselves to some great food that weekend too!) I came away inspired. 

I didn't take any pictures but Amber sent a couple to me. :)

60th Anniversary

The same weekend as Time Out For Women was my grandparents' 60th Anniversary! Can you even comprehend that? I don't think I can. I'm working towards that. I'm planning on that. But wow, to actually achieve that. It really is a stand-out accomplishment in today's world. I'm so grateful for them. So grateful for their love for each other. For their commitment to the Lord and their family and in creating this beautiful legacy for me to look up to and live up to. I'm so blessed.

Aunt Tammy made a beautiful evening for us to celebrate with them. She always puts together the most stunning events. Again, I didn't take any pictures... so I stole some from my  Uncle David on Facebook. Shhhhhh. Don't tell. ;)

Daddy's Week

This was quite a celebration this year. But that's all I'm going to tell you for now. We had so much fun it's going to need a post all to itself.

Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was a memorable one for my family. Not for any especially good reason either. Mostly because I completely ruined it for them.

It started with Ammely throwing up, at which point I determined I likely would be staying home all day with our sick kid.

I leisurely spent the morning making rolls (my contribution to the second event we were expected at that day).

About 20 minutes before it is time for Ammon and Lynnden to leave (and also the time I'm putting the last batch of rolls in the oven), Ammely finishes a large plate of food, completely perks up and begs to go to Thanksgiving too.

So I rush us up the stairs to get both of us ready and in the mean time don't hear the buzzer going off on the rolls. 

After I put the finishing touches on Ammely I rush downstairs to some really burned dinner rolls (thirty of them - yes, half of what I'm supposed to bring).

At this point, in uncombed/unshowered glory, I start crying. Still trying to hold it together and not lose it unfairly on my family, I put everything in the car and get the kids strapped in. All the while tears stream down my face and Ammely keeps asking me if I'm hurt.

I go back inside the house and sit down and cry. Ammon comes downstairs and says it's time to go. I proceed to a new level of crying - a more hysterical, ugly cry and beg him to take the girls and leave me home. He thinks this is unwise given my unstable emotional and mental state and spends the next 30 minutes coercing me into the car (he had never seen me this way before...it was BAD). I cry the whole way to the first Thanksgiving (which we are now about an hour late to) and I just go inside Mama and Daddy's house and cry myself to sleep.

From there we do not go to the second event and just go home. I sleep some more.

That evening, all of us quite hungry, we decide we need food. And entertainment. So we go to Belle and Kent's house and they graciously let us crash their own Thanksgiving festivities so we can borrow a movie. Bless their souls though because the time we were there was far and away the highlight of our day. We felt like we had some semblance of normal family Thanksgiving socializing.

We left with our movie and ordered drive-through Jack-in-the-Box on the way home.

Happy Thanksgiving to us. 

Stinkin' unreasonable pregnant hormones.

Family Pictures

On a happier note, the crazy hormones left my body for the most part and we were able to enjoy the rest of our weekend...which included getting some family pictures taken so we'd have something to work with on a Christmas card.

Amber was so sweet to agree to take them for us. She really is amazing and I have no idea how we'll ever repay her for all she does for our family.

Plus, this was maybe the best family picture taking experience I've ever had. Getting ready for it was a calm and catastrophe-free event. We left not just on time, but a little early. There was no wind. The weather was not too hot or too cold. Both my children were happy and cooperative. I felt pretty despite being huge from pregnancy. The location was literally down the road from our house. And of course, Amber was there making everything beautiful. 

Here are just a few samples of her work. Thank you again Amber. Thank you a hundred times over!

You May Now Unfasten Your Seat Belt

Whew. Is your rear end numb from that long sojourn? I think mine is. I told you that would be quite a ride. Thank you for taking this journey with me anyways. 

Please come back soon. There are a few other adventures I'd like to take you on - Fear not though, none quite so lengthy..