That's a Wrap

I am now 38 weeks pregnant and hoping this baby decides to walk out of the womb at any moment. However, since she has not decided to start that  process yet I figure I might as well do a little catch up on this here blog. Maybe that's what's holding her back. She knows there are a few memories to document before they're totally dwarfed by her arrival.  So baby girl, here we go.

Peaches

Our peach tree had it's very first fruit-bearing season at our house. And it actually produced! They were small...

...but delectable (the birds especially thought so...sigh).

Seriously some of the best peaches we ever tasted.

We're eagerly anticipating NEXT year already - there should be more and they should be bigger. YAY!

Memorial Day Weekend

This year Memorial Day weekend was looking to be a bit ordinary for us as Ammon had to work all weekend - Friday, Saturday AND Monday. Bleh.

But then the rare and  unexpected happened and this not-so-exciting holiday weekend turned into a special treat.

Grandma AND Grandpa Breakall came into town to see us!

Do you know what happens when they BOTH come to town? TWICE the spoiling happens. 

Truly.

This is what happened less than an hour after they landed on Arizona soil.

Yup, that is a brand new stuffed lion for the Ammely girl from her Grandpa Breakall (lions just happen to be her very favorite animal).

She loves this lion.

What is his name? Well, after a few minutes of brainstorming Grandpa and Ammely decided on Whiskers. Whiskers is now part of the family.

As if that wasn't enough, the very next day Grandpa took Ammely on an adventure of her very own.

Note that Whiskers is nearby for this adventure.

Ice cream. Dates with Grandpa are the best.

Was Ammely the only spoiled girl? Nope. 

Look what a very wonderful Daddy saw on my wishlist and had sent right to my doorstep! 

Isn't it the most beautifulest bed set in all the whole wide world? I just need to paint our room and it will be on the verge of perfect. I love this bed set. More every day.

PLUS, he fixed some bizzare issue our car blinker was having AND hung up our retractable extension cord for us.

We all love it when Grandpa comes to town.

I wish I had been better about documenting this weekend but I wasn't. 

There were Spades tournaments for the men folk (I do believe that Ammon and Boyd took the "trophy" this time around).

There were days in Grandma and Grandpa's swimming pool.

There was shopping for the girls (in the which Grandma did MUCH spoiling for us too - especially for the little girl on the way).

There was a day at the cabin with Aunt Tammy and Uncle Patrick.

There was a BBQ at Mama and Daddy's (which fortunately other family members documented, thanks Belle!)

There were late night talks for me and my mom and Prisonbreak marathons for Ammon and Dad.

But the ONLY picture I took was this one (all the others were donated by Grandpa):

But I guess it pretty well shows how much we LOVE Grandma and Grandpa and how VERY glad we are that they came and spent some time with us.

Ammon's Weekend Off

Because Ammon worked the holiday, his office had the following Friday off instead. Not wanting to waste a long weekend, we decided to go exploring this state in search of an awesome camping/fishing destination.

So we headed to Greer.

The drive was long but enjoyable.

The destination was beautiful. Truly beautiful.

The fishing was terrible (Wrong bait? Bad luck? Bad spot? Who knows.)

The Ammely was...part angel, part devil. Perfect baby on the drive and at the campground. Little she-devil at the lakes.

This is my "What were we thinking? I'm 36 weeks pregnant and my first child is a terrible two year old" face.

She did have a few good moments at the water though.

Like when the shoreline was walking friendly and Daddy let her help with the fishing pole.

Or when she happened upon a pink dog leash someone else had lost.

The camping was...not so awesome.Even though our tent WAS awesome!

There was nowhere to pitch a tent without paying for it (Is that an Arizona thing? Or just that neck-of-the-woods?).

And we were in bear country. Which meant one sleepless night for the protector of the family.

In fact, it was about 3:30 a.m. and looked like this when we packed up camp for some peace of mind.

We waited by the lake for sunlight, ate some breakfast, tried some fishing, spotted some deer and then headed home. It was a long trip for such a short trip. Still, we were glad we did it even if we don't plan to return. 

We just want to explore other parts of this beautiful state. You know, when I'm not so hugely pregnant.

Fourth Anniversary

Yesterday marked FOUR whole years of wedded bliss for Ammon and me. As in love as we are and as happy as we are to be together (which is, you know, like an impossible amount of a lot)...our anniversary did not have a lot going for it.

It was a Wednesday.

And we didn't even attempt to find a babysitter.

And I'm a mere two weeks from evicting another human from my body - not the most energetic or attractive state of my life. 

So what did we do to conquer these challenges?

Well Ammon came home with delicious Mexican food from Casa de Mina for lunch.

And then we made reservations for home. (Thank you Dating Divas for this fabulous, last minute but perfect idea!)

One reserved couch, four lit candles in the living room, endless snacks and junk food, two delicious beverage options,several Netflix gems, one romantic letter from your husband plus three variants of ice cream treats equals a perfect, last minute, middle of the week, super pregnant anniversary.

We were made for each other. 

That's a Wrap

And that about wraps up our recent adventures. To the little girl growing inside my womb - you can now come out and into the world. Our family, our home and our blog is ready for you.

Baby Prep

We've got approximately six weeks left until the newest Baysinger girl makes her appearance. This mama is ready! Well, emotionally. And physically. I've got swelling and heartburn like mad. Sleeping comfortably? - barely remember what that is like. In fact, I've been waking up with leg crams and charlie horses lately - that's a new one to this pregnancy. Although, I haven't (yet at least) had the horrid, torturous stomach itching as I did last time. So I guess that's a good trade. I hardly fit into my maternity clothes. Just the other day I was at the library and a mother and her children were passing by to leave. After they passed by, but were clearly still in earshot, one of the little girls looks up at her mom and says "Did you see that lady with the really fat stomach?" Ha! Awesome.

Of course, some of the more practical things still need tending to - but I'm pretty sure I've hit the nesting stage which is taking care of that. In the moments when I'm not falling asleep from 3rd trimester exhaustion, I am running around tending to a hundred little chores and checklists I normally wouldn't think about. At least a portion of them are baby related.

Baby things I've done in the past two weeks:

Purchased large box of newborn diapers.

Bottles washed and organized.

Crib sheet and baby blankets washed.

Bassinet set up by our bed.

Diaper bag washed and ready to be re-stuffed with baby items.

Hospital bag packed - mostly.

Living room carpet has been shampooed (SO much better than before).

Double stroller purchased (and tested! - thanks Ephraim!)
Cleaned infant car seat - it's ready to go!

Checked out and reading books about breastfeeding.

Registered at the hospital

Baby things to do:

Organize baby clothes in dresser and closet.

Go through Ammely's current clothing so there is room in dresser and closet.

Wash pacifiers (though we never really got to use them last time around).

Investigate baby slings

Pack diaper bag
Pack overnight bag for Ammely
Put phone and camera chargers in hospital bag

Continually clean house so it's nice when we get home with baby

Making me even MORE ready for this baby to come out is the fact that I think Ammely is finally starting to comprehend that there is a baby in Mommy's stomach and that we will have a baby in our home.

For instance, she has started referring to the baby as "Am-me's Baby." Or on some occasions as "our baby." I'll say something like "Ammely, there's a baby in Mommy's belly." And she'll say "Our baby?"

And on Monday we had an appointment and Dr Layton let us take a little peek at the baby. Ammely actually sat and watched her on the screen instead of squirming around. She kept asking "What is it?" and I would tell her "That's the baby."

Then the whole way home Ammely insisted on holding the picture - she'd point at it and smile and say "Baby! Am-me's baby!"

It probably helped that it was a 3D picture - it actually looks like a baby! Isn't she adorable?

She looks quite a bit like Ammely did - remember?

Of course, there are other times I'm not so sure Ammely understands the baby in the belly concept. Case in point:

I am sitting in Ammely's room sorting through her recent clean laundry when she starts to walk through (and ruin) my neat, folded piles. I gently nudge her away from the clothing by pushing on her stomach.

Immediately, Ammely points to her belly and says "Hey, no touching baby! Baby! No touch!"

Hmmm.

Well, she'll figure it out someday. In six weeks give or take. 

Easter Fun

I feel like since I've entered adulthood most of the time the holidays sneak up on me. It's like I go to sleep on Valentine's Day and wake up the next day and it's already Christmas. Somehow, I miss my chance to do all the fun things I had in mind and it's come and gone before I really gave it a place to rest in my life.

This year, however, Easter seemed to be my exception!

We did LOTS of things to celebrate the fun, frivolous side of the Easter season.

Story Time at the Library
We had the great fortune of discovering toddler story time when Grandma Breakall was here for Ammely's birthday. They have a theme every week with music, and activities and stories and crafts - all in 30 minutes! We liked it so much that we've been back every week since!

The couple of weeks leading up to Easter, we learned about Bunny Rabbits and Chickens/Eggs.

Passport to Discovery in Queen Creek

Queen Creek hosted quite the event the weekend before Easter weekend: Passport to Discovery. They had egg hunts and the Easter bunny. They had music and talent shows. They had crafts. They had food vendors. They had train rides and bouncy houses. It seemed like too much fun to pass up. So we did not. 

This was Ammely's very first Easter egg hunt - and she did pretty well. 

However, she was not so fond of the Easter bunny. That's okay. I'm not really sure what the Easter bunny is all about anyhow. I'm also not sure that I'm not a little scared of him too.

She DID like coloring with Daddy.

In fact, I"m pretty sure she likes to do just about anything with her Daddy.

Egg Dying

This is one of my personal favorites when it comes to Easter traditions. Again, it was another first for Ammely and I think one of her favorites too (especially since she now drags me to the fridge daily and tries to pull out the egg carton and asks for "colors"...sigh). Have I mentioned before that this girl loves to color? She loves to color. This was no exception.

Speaking of things I've mentioned before - do you see how much this girl loves her Daddy? He's pretty fond of her too.

Look how hard they're working.

Ammely noticed that Ammon would blow on the eggs. She did not notice that he did it AFTER they came out of the dye to help with the drying process. Ha!

All that hard work paid off for the both of them. Do you see that look of surprise and joy on Ammely's face at finding that another egg came out pretty?

And Daddy's little girl could tell what he had made for her too...

Egg Hunt (and dinner) with the Cousins

This was yet another raving success. The only drawback was that we were missing one cousin. Rori was off having other fun, family adventures. Hopefully she'll join us next year.

Here we are, receiving very important instructions from Aunt Amber. 

We all get 12 eggs. Count that out. Twelve. 

We also do not run over Ammely and Samuel in our enthusiasm for hunting.

Now, go!

We LOVE Uncle Kent. He is always SO mindful of Ammely and helped her find many, many eggs - when she'd pay attention to him that is. We're so very glad that he has a little girl with a little finger to be wrapped around now too - and even more glad that he still gives us lots of loving attention even though he has a princess of his own!

And LOOK at all that LOOT! Whoa.

Speaking of loot - I somehow managed to not take a single picture of dinner. We had fajitas. And they were to die for. Seriously. They were SO good and there was more than enough to go around. Chicken. Shrimp. Steak. Oh my heaven. - yet another reason we love Uncle Kent.

Easter Day Surprises

Easter morning dawned on us and we got Ammely all spiffied up in her Easter dress. Then we set her loose. She had a trail of Easter eggs to find....from her bedroom door, down the hall, down the stairs and to the table.

This video shows her hunting eggs down the stairs. Feel free to watch it and hopefully it works. However, we had some music on Pandora during our egg hunt and YouTube apparently knows this. So they won't let me post the video for copyright reasons unless I take out the audio...which I did not want to do.

Her trail of eggs ended here:

Did she love it you ask? Meh. She loved her egg hunt. She loved her eggs. She loved her candy. When she finally realized the basket was there then she was happy. With the candy.

It wasn't until much later that she started to get into her basket and discover other things...like books and necklaces.

We let the morning pass and then freshened up for some Easter pictures before heading to church. She had to have her friends with her. Silly girl.

That night we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Lords for a wonderful Easter ham dinner. Again, I managed to take no pictures. Dinner was scrumptious. And Ammely got more Easter surprises from Grandma and Grandpa AND from Aunt Tammy. However, I started having some cramping-like pain which made me a bit nervous. And Ammely started to get a runny nose...and cranky...and a fever. So we went home earlier than normal to get everybody in bed and all healed up.Which thankfully only took a day or two.

Happy, Glorious Easter to you and yours
We had fun this Easter. We made a lot of good memories. I look forward to the coming years when we can more successfully teach Ammely about the real reason that this season is so beautiful. My attempts at that seemed to fall on squiggly, wiggly ears with a 30-second attention span.

But if you made it this far in the post then I know that you have the attention span necessary to reflect a moment on the supreme miracles our Savior worked on our behalf at the end of his mortal life. I hope you join me for a moment to do just that.

Little Helper

Ammely is a big helper. We love it. We love her.