Fourth of July

The 4th was a fun day. We started it off right with the good ol' parade or should I say "candy fest". They throw out SO much candy. Hallie was our little collector. She ran around trying to get as much as she could. Next, we had a little bbq with some pools and slippin slidin! My belly flop was the best! ha ha. I was so gelous that I couldn't do it. Last we topped it off with some fireworks at night.

Do you think she's exited? Look at that tongue!

"Floods of 2008"

What an eventful year of weather we've had here. We've been having major flooding right now in Coralville/Iowa City. It is so crazy. So sad to see our city being destroyed. The water crested yesterday so hopefully it won't get any worse. We are lucky to be safe where we live. We've lost phone service and internet for a few days but are so blessed to have a home to still live in. Aaron's been out sandbagging everyday along with the entire community to try and save as much as possible. Basically everything is cancelled right now. Church, the entire University of Iowa (15 buildings were flooded) and medical school are cancelled this whole week due to flooding. Aaron has been working in Cedar Rapids for the past 3 weeks at a clinic there. They had even worse flooding there. What used to take only 25 miles to get there, would now take him 275 miles to get there with detours! Pretty crazy! So lucky us that we get Aaron all week! Here's some pics of the flooding that are not far at all from where we live.

These are all pics of the strip that we drive on to get everywhere (school, hospital, church, etc.)

Baseball field where Aaron plays every Wednesday.
This picture makes me cry. This is our most favorite pizza place here. It is divine!
Sonic. I guess no more Strawberry Cream Slushes for a while. How sad that they didn't finish building this not too long ago.
This is the park where we always go to take Hallie to see the ducks. These are the top of the Ferris wheels.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

The dating days...


Aaron and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary on June 12th. Crazy to think we've been married that long already. What a lucky girl I am to be married to such a wonderful husband. My life seems to only get better with him. Aaron was supposed to have a long day working in Cedar Rapids but because of the flooding he didn't have to go in. We were able to go out to dinner and have a good day. I'll be honest though, we spent alot of our time getting our 72 hour kits together just in case and watching the news. We got a little nervous! he he.

A little update..

I'm a little behind on the blogging. Here's some pics of a few things we've been up to.

Aaron's been sandbagging for the past 3 days because we're having flooding here. Last night after I had gotten Hallie all ready for bed, she just stared out the window waiting for "daddy" to come home. When he got home they couldn't resist going and having some fun in the rain. Hallie had a blast. She did not want to come inside.

Hallie and Aaron at the Father/Toddler Campout. Our ward has this every year and Aaron was so excited to finally take Hallie this year. I was just trying to imagine this sight of all these toddlers and their dad's camping. ha ha. Aaron said she had a blast.

We went to the Niabi Zoo in Davenport with a few friends on Memorial Day. It's a pretty small zoo but they have all the animals you need. Despite the humidity and all the bugs, we had a fun day.

I know I look like a beached whale in all of these photos, but hey, it's memories. This was such a fun night. My friend Amie had a "Going out with a Bang" sleepover before she moved away. SO FUN. We stayed up till at least 4 in the morning, eating as much as we could, singing our guts out with Sarah's kareoke machine and just chattin it up. We've all got some mad singing skills (and dancing (Sarah :))! ha ha. We sure miss Amie. Hallie still yells "Abby" everytime we go down our stairs, hoping that she will peek her cute little face out her window.

Just some pics I caught of Hallie while going to see the ducks. She LOVES to see ducks. All day long we hear, "quack, quack" until we finally go see them. She gets so mad though that they don't want to get out of the water and just come chill right next to her. She constantly yells, "out!" at them as loud as she can hoping they will listen to her. Maybe if she yells loud enough, they will obey her.

Birthday, Friends and More..

Here's some pics from my birthday. What a fun day we had. I was spoiled rotten. I have such sweet family and great friends. I can't believe I'm 25! I remember when I met Aaron in class and he was turning 25. I thought that was SOOO old (I was 19). And now here I am at that same age. And I finally got some pictures of some of my friends. All the law students that are leaving had a little party and so I had my camera. It's sad that I've lived here for over 3 years and have like no pictures of my friends. Just Hallie and their kids. (Pictured is Tricia, Amie, Andrea, and Sarah and then Candice and Amie in the other.)
Hallie's been so lucky to get to play with lots of her friends lately. She LOVES to play with Rocco and Drew. When they came over she insisted on holding them. Still doesn't realize that they're a little too big but we humored her. As you can tell, she loves to give them kisses too. I should also mention too that Hallie wants to wear her "Rocco Roll" shirt from the March of Dimes every night (it has his picture on it). Abby lives below us and will be moving soon. We will be so sad. She loves to ride her bike with her and yell her name everyday as we walk up to our house.

We've just been hangin out lately. Enjoying the nice spring weather. I am just about 30 weeks now. Getting closer and can't wait! Here's a few more fun pictures:

Having a tea party with Aaron

Hallie sportin some more of my shoes while trying to call Grandma.

Hallie loves to get her potty seat and sit on the toilet. Well, she got a little impatient waiting for me to come help her and tried to do it herself. This is what I found when I came into the bathroom. ooppps...! She had gotten the stool, forgotten to put her seat on top and forgot to take her pants and diaper off. Poor thing. It was pretty funny. I felt bad I was laughing so hard while she was crying and trying to figure out how to get out of the toilet.

Utah Trip

I seem to have gotten a little lazy in the blogging world. Life has just seemed to be so busy lately that I feel like I haven't had a second to myself. So...I've been home for awhile now, but here's some pics from our trip to Utah. It was so fun to just hung out with family and friends. Always so much fun. As usual, I took way too many pictures. It's super late and I'm tired but have to check this off my "to-do list". So I just sorta slapped them all on here. Nothing fancy! oh well.

~ Hallie and my mom cooking dinner~ hanging out with sisters~my adorable Grandpa~Hallie caught with licorice.

If ever I couldn't find Hallie, I knew right where she was. She would sneak downstairs to my Grandps (he lives in the basement apartment), find the stool and manage to reach the tub of Red Vines on the counter and help herself. A few times she'd pull my grandpa's finger to come help her with the lid, and if he saw me he'd say, "oh a little licorice never hurt anybody".

~Gayla (Aaron's mom) and Hallie out to lunch~Nate (Aaron's brother) and Hallie~Bill and Gayla with Hallie's fun new toy~Hallie holding new cousin Katherine.

It was so fun to see all the in-laws. It seems that I never whip out my camera though! And when I try, miss Audrey won't ever let me take a picture of her :0 You turd!

This was the first time that Hallie seemed old enough to enjoy playing and remember her cousins (my sister's kids). And oh my is she ever obsessed with them now! Avery is a year older than Hallie and they play so cute together. Hallie discovered Avery's "big girl" bed one day and we found them in it reading stories together. My personal favorite is that Avery has taught Hallie how to pretend to be a cat, a dog, and a duck. Hallie followed her and Carston around everywhere. Macy is a year younger than Hallie and the bottom picture says it all! She always insisted on holding her and didn't quite realize that she's not so much a little "baby" anymore. Poor Macy. Hallie is literally obsessed with babies. We hear "Maymee" (Macy) quite a bit at our house.

Hallie's other obsession besides babies...SHOES! She's quite talented to walk around in those suckers! She loves to try on everyone's shoes. Lately when I'm getting ready in the morning, she will go in my closet and try on just about every pair of shoes I own and walk around the house in them. It keeps her quite entertained!

My parents took the kids to the Children's Museum one day and they had a blast. Not to dis the museum here, but after going to this one well...it's pretty nice! Hallie had a blast. They had a huge water table that she could've spent all day playing at. She loved it.

Poor Hallie was so spoiled in Utah, it was hard for her to adjust back to only me all day. She was sure excited to see her daddy though. Cute Aaron made her a toy while we were gone though and she loves to play with it everyday! We also finally got rid of the binky when we got home (after some coaxing from my sister Natalie)! Hooray! I did it. And it was so much better than I thought it'd be. I had her throw it away in the big garbage can outside and explained that binkies were for babies and she's a big girl now. I took her to the store and let her pick out a toy and stuff. It's been really good. Everytime we walk past the garbage can though, she points to it and says "binky, baby". It's pretty funny.

Anyways..there's a lot of random post! I can check it off the list of things done!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN

Happy Birthday to my cute brother Jordan! I love him to death. I always loved his birthday because then we could tell everyone that we were the same age. We're only 11 months apart so when we were little, I would love to tell people we were twins. I was always secretly a little sad when my birthday came and we had to wait a whole other year to say it again. A funny memory that we joke about was when we were in high school. We had a class together and one day we were sitting on opposite sides of the room trying to talk to each other. The teacher interrupts his lesson, thinks he's going to crack this great joke and says, "Excuse me Jordan. You can get her number after class. I'm trying to teach a lesson." We both laughed so hard. Jordan's response back was, "Well that's alright, I already have her number. It's the same as mine!" Good times. I could go on with memories but I will spare everyone else.
Here's just a few things I love about him. And I found some sweet pictures Jord! Gotta love em. We look homeless in all of them!

He is an AMAZING baseball player! I love to go to his games and watch him play. I don't know anyone that loves this game more than him.

He has such a sweet heart. Has always had a soft side to him that I just adore.

(Except when he steals my Diet Coke! ha ha. Looks like I was an addict back then. j/k. My mom would justify herself by saying this can was NOT open. We were only playing. Sure mom :))

He has a great sense of humor. Can always make me laugh.

(We were awesome dressers!)

He has always watched out for me and been a great protective brother!

I'm loving the outfits! Thanks mom. Jelly shoes and socks for me. Different laces and socks for Jord. Sweet!

He is so cute to Hallie and all kids.

Love you Jord! Hope you had a good birthday!

Stay tuned for Utah pics...I'm a slacker!

Spur of the Moment...

Well...Hallie and I are in Utah! Surprise! We are quite spontaneous! My mom called me the other day at about 12 and said, could you come today at 4? She had found a super good deal. So we left the mall, ran home and threw stuff in our bags and CAME!!! With everything going on, it was such a great time for us to come. So we are glad to be here. I was getting so homesick. I've only been here a few days and haven't taken many pics, but here's a few for you Aaron so you can see your cute babe! She's lovin it with all the attention. Miss you lots.

Hallie loved the plane. She was entertained the majority of the first ride with her seat belt buckle.

I always have the BEST luck with flying. Our flight got SUPER delayed and we were stuck in Cincinnati for 6 hours. We didn't leave until midnight! Yeah for us. Good thing I have the best little girl ever. Then we finally get into UT and they lost all my luggage. But don't worry! They gave me a free t-shirt and toothbrush. So we were looking pretty for a day and a half. ha ha.

This is at about 11:30 at night. Still happy, wired and loving the little water bottle and crackers they gave her.

Today we had a fun day. My little sis Chelsey just got engaged and we went to a Bridal Fair, lunch and did some dress shopping. It was a long day of fun. The highlights of my day were hearing that my little niece Avery is "allergic to people", having someone at the fair ask when my wedding date was and offer me a bridal planner (with Hallie and my belly in tow), and having a boy (who couldn't have been older than 25) pick up on my mom! Good times.

Do you think Hallie's pooped? She found this big couch while Chelsey was trying on dresses and plopped down. Then she asked me to scratch her back and she kept saying, "more". What a cutie.

Hallie and Grandpa hangin out. I love being able to see my Gramps. He is so darn cute. I took a picture before this and he said, "should I put my hat on and we could take it again?" We went to the good ol' Dillards sale yesterday and he was so cute finding some shirts. He loves to find a good deal. I just love spending time with him. What a cutie. Hallie likes to go downstairs because she knows right where his stool is to get to the counter and reach his big tub of Red Vines.

We miss you Aaron!! Thanks for letting us come play for a bit! I'll try to keep the pictures coming for ya.

Bikes, Bellies and The Claw

Nothing too overly exciting going on around here. Here's some pics to keep the fam happy. And I can't believe I suckered into posting my ugly self and belly, but there you go! You crazy people! Hallie LOVES to be outside and push her bike around and blow bubbles. Everyday the first words out of her mouth are, "bike, bubbles, dada". She cries every time we come inside and anytime we go down our stairs to get in the car, she makes sure to tell the bubbles and the bike, "bye-bye". As soon as Aaron gets home she gets her shoes on and heads to the door with him. Lucky Hallie that her dad is so nice to take her everyday.

23 weeks. (can you tell by my fake smile how thrilled I am to take a pic of my body? Please pardon the roots, I finally got them done after this.)
Who doesn't love pudding?
Notice anything a little odd?
how about now?

So, if you can't tell by the pictures Aaron had a little injury. He thought it'd be fun to fracture his finger in five different spots. Poor guy. He was trying to catch his gym bag off a balcony and his finger got stuck in the strap on the way down. Ouch! I have to giggle at his brace. Just call him the claw!