10 year reunion!

This has been the busiest, craziest summer of my life (including the two political campaigns I ran). One of the main reasons was because I was the co-chair of my ten-year-reunion and the other chair, our class president, moved to Portland at the beginning of the summer. We moved into our new house August 6th, the reunion was August 13th and I was nearly 37 weeks pregnant. Just a little crazy.

I had such great help from a dedicated committee made up almost entirely of pregnant moms or moms with young (infants!) children. Let's hear if for the ladies, we can get stuff done! I really could not have done it without Brynn, Liz, Katie (fearless president), Ashley and Courtney.

The night of the reunion Catherine (best sister ever) came to help and Johnny was his always incredible, hands-on help. I didn't get to talk much with either of them but I appreciated their help so much! I had so much fun greeting people at the door and chatting for a short while as they were checking in- I wish I could have talked with some people more!!

Here's a few pictures (thanks to Catherine- that was one of her main duties that night).

Our class president, Katie, and my faithful helper, Johnny, adjusting the speaker. This is the only pic I got of him that night!

Whitey and Amy

Brent and Susie

Sarah and Sam

Ashley, Romney, Jeff and Heather

Greg, Annalisa and me

me, Liz, Brynn, and Lindsey

Baby Sofie, Ryan and Ashley

Ashley, Anya, Krystal, and Roxanne (and some of their dates)

Nate, Abby and Abby

Mike and Catherine

A letter to my firstborn before the second born arrives

Dear Charlie-

Right now we are sitting on my bed watching Yo Gabba Gabba together. You have a sippy of lemonade and a cup of goldfish crackers. I shared my drink with you and in return you are sharing your snack with me. You aren't satisfied just sitting next to me, you want to lean on my shoulder, lay on my leg, and sit on my lap and I am eating it up. We're laughing at the funny songs together.

Yesterday as we were driving in the car with Dad, you were telling us all the things you saw out the window, including a "big truck green garbage." Yes, my dear, that was indeed a big, green, garbage truck. I love hearing your little thoughts come out more and more as you acquire the language necessary to communicate them with me.

When you are all done with your food and you want to get down, you say, "All done, hold you, all done, hold you," over and over again. Requests for "hold you" and "help you" are common throughout the day and I will be sad when you learn to use the proper pronoun.

You are suddenly much more interested in whether or not we are watching you play. You'll call for me (MamaMamaMama) or Dad (Da-ee, Da-ee, Da-ee) incessantly until we respond. Often the only thing you want to tell us is "watch!" or "wooghk" (look). You have a very German-sounding "k".

You love shaking hands with people and saying, "Nice to meet you!" or "I'm Charlie."

You are busy, interested, and strong which keeps me on my toes all the time. Now that I'm in the final two weeks of this pregnancy, it is really hard to keep up with you. Lifting you, my big boy, (or bending over, or sitting on the floor to play) gives me quite the bout with sciatica that never really goes away. But avoiding lifting you altogether is almost impossible.

You've adjusted pretty well to the new house although many days you still don't take a nap. This worries your mom quite a lot because we both still need it.

I worry about bringing a new little baby into our balanced life- some days it feels perfect. Will you feel displaced? I just have to trust that you will still feel secure and loved and that all our efforts to help you feel that way will be successful.

We're talking a lot about the new baby and helping and big boys vs. little babies, and I just don't know how much of it is sinking in. I hope it clicks for you once there is a little brother around.

Charlie, my darling, you taught me how to be a mother, thank you for letting me be your Mama. I love you.

Summer in iPhone photos

We've had the craziest summer of our lives! Being pregnant and keeping up with our active little guy is enough, but we've been spending time with family, packing, moving and planning my ten-year reunion as well! But we've had a lot of fun despite all the craziness!

We went to John's cabin with my family and it was gorgeous! The the wildflowers were so abundant!


My parents are some of the most hardworking people I know. They will have an idea and just make it happen. They drastically changed the yard in the short time that my dad was here- I'm talking taking out a big, dying maple tree on their own, moving large rocks, taking out a huge row of overgrown hedges (thanks to our neighbor, Dan Perkins for helping with that one!), tearing out an old fence and planting three new trees. Whew! Charlie wanted to "help" Grandpa dig a stump out of the dirt one day.

It's so darling to see the special relationship that Elizabeth has with my parents. She knows them so well because she sees them all the time in Abu Dhabi. Here's my mom and Elizabeth cuddling up together after Elizabeth's bath.


We took Charlie to his first movie in a theatre- Cars 2. It was a little over his head and he got bored halfway through. He spent a little time walking up and down the stairs with Johnny and we ended up taking off early. He was also terrified of the Smurfs movie preview and gigantic cardboard cutout in the hall. My cute family joined us to be part of the memorable day!


Charlie spent a lot of time playing in the backyard with Grandma and Grandpa

John and I went to the Sheryl Crow concert at Red Butte Garden. It was so much fun and a great show! The highlight was seeing our friend, Paul Jacobsen, open for her. What a great opportunity for him- he did a great job!

John and James reading books for one last time before James, Chelsea, Emma and Mark moved to Boise. We miss them so much!

Playing in Grandma T's pool for a little 4th of July party



Sitting in the backyard with Uncle Mark and cousin James (Charlie wanted to hold Mark's hand)

Our friend, Scott, (age 28) had a superhero water fight party. Charlie loved it and caught on to the idea of shooting a water gun right away.

It's been so fun to have Catherine, Richard and Elizabeth in town. Elizabeth is just the littlest sprite of a thing! It's so fun to see her toddling around. She saw this stuffed hippo of Charlie's and instantly got attached to it. She calls it, "Baby" and carries it around then flops herself down on it on the floor and sucks her thumb. Hilarious.

Charlie continues to be very attached to his matchbox cars. He can't hold them all in his hands, even though he tries, so we started giving him tote bags to carry them around in. One day, I got him to wear his little clear backpack (a gift all the way from London from our friend Amy) with the cars inside and he loved being able to see them and wear them around.

Richard and Johnny geeking out over their laptops

We went to Discovery Gateway with Sam, Lily, and Kerry. Lily and Charlie loved the helicopter and had it to themselves for about 15 minutes. We've spent a lot of time with our fun cousins this summer- going on outings to the pool, This is the Place park, and the children's museum- and Kerry and Steve have been so willing and helpful to help watch Charlie so I could pack!

We spoke in our former ward and John and his dad were polishing his talk up until the last minute. Luckily, it all came together and he got a lot of compliments on it! (Three weeks later, we used the same talks in our new ward.)

We rented a giant truck to move all of our stuff to our new house. We had great help from family and friends and moved everything in about 3.5 hours! We're still unpacking, organizing and trying out different configurations but we're here!

How's your summer been?