OUTDOOR MOVIE

Last night we went to an outdoor movie at Rock Canyon Park! Apparently they have been doing these movies for a few weeks, but we just heard about it from our cousins and decided to go with them. They were playing The Greatest Showman, so we were excited to go and watch! We popped popcorn, filled up our water bottles, got an outdoor blanket and headed out.

Utah at night is so amazing... It's crazy how it can go form being blazing hot to so cool and breezy at night, but I guess that's just how deserts work! When we first got there (after what felt like a HIKE), the sun was setting behind the mountains and the view was so beautiful. The colors in the sky were such good shades of orange and yellow and they made the mountains look almost pink. I will for sure miss the sunrise and sunset over the mountains when we eventually move away from here.

June is such a great tagalong. She's calm and just likes to watch things as they're happening. Her little eyes are always moving back and forth as people and dogs walk by, and she especially loves watching the trees as their leaves move in the wind. It's so fun watching her eye movement and trying to figure out what she's thinking!

When the movie started, we swaddled her and she nursed to sleep. It was so loud and even with white noise she woke up about 15 minutes later. Jake just held her for a little bit still swaddled and then put her close to his body (like in the picture above, but swaddled) and she was out like a light. She slept the rest of the movie like a stinkin' angel! We are so lucky to have her! She may not always be an angel baby, but when she is... Oh my gosh I just wanna squeeze her and kiss her face.

WEEKEND HAPPENINGS - THE RODEO

This weekend was so fun! Friday night we went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo! We went last year and it was a BLAST, so we were super excited to go this year and bring June! Amazingly, she stayed awake for the WHOLE THING. She probably slept for like 5 minutes. There were just so many noises and people clapping and yelling and men being bucked off broncos and bulls... I'm sure she was too excited to sleep.

The Strawberry Days rodeo is extra exciting because all the men are competing for serious money. How they perform at this rodeo helps them move up in the rankings and perform at higher level rodeos (I think), so they're giving it their ALL. It's all so entertaining - especially the bull riding. Although it is kind of scary... One guy, who had just gotten off the injured reserved list, got his hand stuck in the tape and was being bucked around by the bull until they could get him out. I don't even understand how that still happens but it was terrible to watch!

And the strawberries and cream... Y U M. It's seriously delicious!! It's worth going to the rodeo just for the strawberries and cream... Oh and the people watching.

On Saturday, we (and by we I mean Jake) helped the Mauldin's start demolition on their house! They are moving along with their renovation project and I'm super excited for them. Jake was excited to knock down some walls and do some serious damage... and they did. They worked for about 4 or 5 hours and June slept the whole time in the carrier with me. It was awesome, they got a TON of work done. That night we just relaxed and watched 27 Dresses. Haha, I love my husband.

Sunday we went to church and then in the evening we met some of Jake's aunts and uncles and their kids at a park up in Provo Canyon. It was SO nice out. We passed the volleyball, ate some tacos, and enjoyed the weather. It's always nice to catch up with cousins we don't see that often! In one of the pictures above, June is with one of her little cousins and they are SO cute together! Emma was trying to latch onto her arm and it was so freaking cute haha. I love babies, but I especially love babies when they're together! They are only a week apart, so it's fun seeing the differences in them.

Summer is what Jake and I are living for right now. I'm not really looking forward to the fall semester because of all the credits I'll be taking with June as my little class buddy, so we're soaking up our "free" time right now!

Stressful days but happy babies

June was so happy and good today, which I am so grateful for because today was such a stressful day for me and Jake. Trying to figure out time, money, and scheduling is so much more difficult when you throw a baby into the mix. Of course we knew that it would be like this when we decided we wanted a baby, but now that we're actually dealing with all of it, life is crazy!

Luckily we make a good team and problems are solved pretty quickly with us. But it looks like my time at my job that I've had for two years is ending this summer, and Jake's time will be 100% dedicated to the MCAT. I'm looking forward to going a little bit crazy being a full time stay at home mom with June, and then trying to play student and mom when we both start school this fall.

Having a baby when you and your husband are both students is tricky - his grades are more important than mine (sorry, it's true) so I want to make sure he can do all the studying he needs to be successful in his classes. I'm really hoping these next 6 months fly by and that June stays a happy, sweet baby who likes to snuggle her mom and sleep in class ;)

PS. This jumper is sized 6 months... Nooooooooooooooo. My baby is growing up! Today I collected a whole trash bag full of the clothes she's already grown out of and it makes me so sad. She's still so tiny to me, but I know she's SO much bigger than she was before. Time is weird - I wanted it to speed up and get me out of the newborn stage, but I also want it to slow down!

Jake's 24th Birthday!

It's Jake's 24th birthday!! I'm really grateful neither of us are big on birthdays and birthday gifts, but it's still a big deal that he's taken 24 trips around the sun! A little fun fact that Tracey told me was Jake came on his due date, just like June! I thought that was awesome.

This week, we're being extremely low key, although I'm really tempted to stop at Magelby's and grab some of their amazing chocolate cake. I won't make him blow out candles, but at least we can have some yummy dessert to celebrate his birthday!

This past year with Jake has been the funnest year of my life! His birthday was on Father's Day last year, and even though I was pregnant, I didn't know it yet so we couldn't celebrate. I'm SO grateful this year we have our little girl with us. While our family doesn't feel complete, right now we feel whole and happy.

Jake helps me see the brighter side of things. He helps me stay positive and lively. He consistently has me try new things. He keeps our family active and reminds us of the importance of playing. He works hard and is diligent. He's so loving and sweet with our baby; watching them together is such a joy! He helps me to be more kind. He reminds me of the importance of the little things - like taking 5 minutes to sit on the couch together rather than clean the house after we've been go-go-go all day.

Jake makes everything fun and I'm so glad I'm his wife, and that we get to spend the rest of our years together - cheesiness necessary. :) :) :) 

Love you honey!

Father's Day

Jake's first Father's Day!

We didn't do anything crazy special, but we had a lot of fun this weekend. On Friday, we started the night off with some snow cones!! June tried her first one and wasn't a huge fan but it was cute to watch. After, we went to the drive in movie and saw Incredibles 2 and Solo and didn't get home until 3:15 AM. That, for some reason, is Jake's ideal date but it was so fun. We brought popcorn and carrots, but ended up buying a hot dog and fires to share. June slept the entire time which was glorious!! We haven't been to a movie theatre in a while because June likes to be up and moving around so that was a really fun date.

Saturday morning we got up and met up with some friends to play sand volleyball. Anna and Ruth tagged along of course and then Olivia, Evan, and his friend Joseph also came. It was fun, even though I'm definitely losing some skill haha

Saturday afternoon we hung out at the Mauldin's. We ate street tacos, swam, and played Bohnanza an the best part was that Jake didn't study at all! When we got home, we took a shower, and then put June down for a nap and she slept nearly 4 hours! She never does that, so during that time we made dinner and started a movie. We watched Kubo and the two strings. It was weird, but good. We took a pause on the movie when June woke up to eat and drove to Scera Park. We pushed her around in the stroller (front facing) - the weather was so nice. Fortunately for me the snow cone place is right at scera park so we got some yummy, cheap snow cones.

When we got home we finished the movie we started earlier and got in bed, falling asleep around 10:15 and that felt SO NICE because we were still so tired from not getting home until 3 in the morning the previous night.

When we woke up, it was FATHER'S DAY! I made some german pancakes for breakfast... The chickens luckily gave me one more egg before 8:30 am because I only had 5 and the recipe calls for 6. We ate and then of course snuggled in bed. When we woke up, it was somehow NOON. We have church at 1, so we were quickly trying to get ready and eat lunch all at the same time.

As we walked into church, I stopped Jake to get a couple pictures of him and June together. Oh how freaking cute they are. An older lady at church stopped us just to tell us how much of a daddy's girl she is. I hope she knows how much he loves her, and I'm completely fine with him being her favorite person (eventually). They are the sweetest duo.

Watching Jake become a dad has been my favorite thing to date. He's good at everything he tries, but he's especially good at being June's dad. He reads her stories, sings her songs, does skin to skin every day, makes her smile, kisses her 1,000 times a day. . . I married Jake for a lot of reasons, but the way he is with babies is definitely at the top of the list.

Happy Father's Day, Jake! June and I love you forever!

3 MONTHS!

My June baby is 3 months old and I can hardly believe it. Technically she's not a newborn anymore, right?! Oh how sad but HOW GLAD I am to be out of that stage. It was good while it lasted, but now we're on to better days of a better schedule, more sleep, more snuggle, bigger smiles, and hoping to a giggle and rolling over here in the next few weeks.

She weighs 13 lbs 9 oz and it feels like she's taller every day!

She's got the cutest little grin, and sometimes she raises her shoulders up when she smiles. We feel like its her cute way of flirting with us.

She loves to snuggle, and sleeps great when she's in bed with us but thankfully sleeps great when she's in her rock n play too. She's even gotten better this last week of taking good naps in the rock n play!

She still likes to be worn in wraps and carriers, and usually falls asleep instantly when we put her in one.

She nurses to sleep, which is something I really enjoy and am so grateful we get to do.

In the mornings, she and I both love to lay on the outdoor blanket and play with the play mat, read books, or I just try to make her smile.

She doesn't *love* the stroller, but I'm going to keep trying with it so I can go on good walks (and maybe even runs one day lol) with her.

The sun really wears her out. When we're out in the sun in the mornings for a while, she loves to sleep the rest of the day.

Everyone says she's a TALL baby, and she is! I'm curious to see if she will continue to grow at such a a fast rate.

She's still easy to soothe, but has moments of rage like most babies do. When she does that, Jake and I like to call her the monster or say that she's the other person's baby, haha. But mostly we love her and are always taking her away from one another to get more snuggles.

Sometimes I think to myself, "Wow! I'm really a mom and Jake's really a dad and we're doing this thing!" Even though our baby has been here for 3 months, it still doesn't feel real sometimes (until it's 4 in the morning and I hear her making some noises because she's ready to eat again). We are blessed with such a mellow, happy bay and we are trying real hard to appreciate every second with her and never take her for granted. We love and adore you, June! We'll always be on your side!

Sundays with June

This Sunday was so productive which was AMAZING! In the morning, we woke up early and headed to our cousin Chito's farewell in West Jordan. He's going to El Salvador for two years. He's the sweetest, most genuine boy ever.

We went to brunch afterwards at the Bastidas' and hung out with all the family there. In the first picture is June's second cousin (we think), Emma. She's a little less than two weeks younger than June and looking at two of them, June looks like a monster! Haha she is so tall in comparison to Emma. But it's so fun to look at two babies side by side. I'm excited that June will always have little friends and cousins her age. It's also great being in the same stage of motherhood as Jessica. It takes a village not only to raise babies but to be a mom - you need someone to talk to, you need someone to cope with you!!

When we got home, we cleaned the whole house while June took a 3 hour nap (we're spoiled!). We collected eggs together and just sat next to each other on the couch chit-chatting . . . 3 hours of no baby talk from the both of us was pretty special! Jake and I have both been feeling SO happy lately! People will ask how we've been doing and we both say, "We're doing great!" We're out of the newborn funk, we've settled into a routine (that's about to get mixed up pretty soon when Jake's out of school but oh well), and our marriage is genuinely amazing.

At night, we've been getting alone time and Jake says, "No phones, let's just chit chat!" Haha and the best part about it is we're usually in bed by 8:30 or 9:00 snuggling June, getting her in the rock n play, and then just hanging out.

We finally found time to sort out our spring/summer and fall/winter clothes and try to get our closet and dresser a little better organized. We found homes for things in our room that have just been sitting on top of the dresser or laying on the floor for FOREVER, which feels so amazing! De-cluttering makes me feel like a whole new person, and I know Jake feels the same way! I also put a few things up for sale on Facebook Marketplace that I've been needing to get rid of so clearing up shelf space with our limited storage is so freeing!

We decided we wanted to make burgers for dinner on the fire pit outside and that decision was a GOOD one because the burgers turned out amazing! I don't know what it is about food over fire, but I ate two burgers and probably could've eaten three. June slept in this wrap while I cut up tomatoes and onions, sliced cheese, and cooked bacon for the burgers (we went all out)! When she falls asleep on me, I seriously melt inside. She is the sweetest girl, and having a baby in the house really makes you change the way you look at life.

Swimming with Monica and Ammon

I have been trying to get together with Monica and Celeste for a few weeks now, and we all finally made it happen! Ammon's parents are headed on a mission so Monica and Ammon are able to live at their house which means SWIMMING! Monica and I set a date for all of us to go swimming together and it was so fun to see June and Celeste interact with each other and be all cute in swimsuits. I can't wait until June can move around a little more and start to play with us like Celeste!

Monica and I get along really well because we agree on pretty much everything regarding parenting and birth. Usually we only see each other at big family functions when we're trying to converse with each other AND everyone else so it was nice to spend some one on one time together hahaha. It was also fun for Ammon and Jake to get to know each other a little better.

June fell asleep as I stood in the shade of the umbrella. She hasn't fallen asleep without nursing with me in a few weeks so it was really sweet to just rock back and forth with her and then get to sit down and cuddle her on the pool chair. She slept for about an hour while Celeste watched a show, Monica and I chatted in the sun, and Jake and Ammon did some tricks into the pool.

We all eventually got hungry and decided to go to Cubby's for lunch. Every time I go there, it's mainly for the fries so I got chicken poblano soup and then two types of fries. I should probably branch out and get a sandwich or burger from there, but the fries are too good to pass up! Especially with the fry sauce. We sat outside for probably another hour and a half. Celeste had her parents take her to the bathroom 4 times which was hilarious, while June had a dirty diaper and we changed her right there on the table.

Saturdays are nice when we all get to spend the day together. I know one day soon, Saturdays will be filled with just me and June while Jake studies so I'm really soaking it up!

In the evening, we went to Babies R Us to check if they had anything really good on sale (they didn't except sunscreen and Honest diapers). Then we picked up a to go order of skillet queso and flatbread pizza from Chili's and watched Miracle together while June was an angel baby and went right to sleep.

I love our life together!

YUBA LAKE

This weekend was Jake's cousin Nica's wedding so a bunch of family was in town which was super fun (and also a little stressful). Most of the family hadn't met baby June yet, so that was fun for them... but on the other hand, it was stressful because so many babies wanted to hold her and kiss her and my mama bear was like full rage. Haha it stresses me out when she gets over stimulated but I'm working on it!

The wedding and the reception was super fun! Anna and Ruth's dad Thomas was there to hold June which was great, because no one's gonna take the baby from him! He was great with her too, of course. Near the end of the night on Friday we were all playing cards downstairs and she finally fell asleep in his arms and they laid on the couch for about 2 hours! It was THE BEST!

On Saturday, Jake and I went to go play volleyball with the Bruces. That was really fun for the both of us to play with Thomas, and everyone at least won one game. We all got a lot of sun, though... We need to invest in some sunscreen! After we played, we went to this street taco place Ruth told us about and it was seriously so good and CHEAP! We'll for sure be going back there.

Later, everyone wanted to get together again and we all decided to go to Yuba lake which is about an hour and 15 minutes south of Provo. The drive was super boring, but we were excited to get there and hang out with everyone. The shallow water was cold but manageable, and all the little girls were having fun while the men were playing spike ball. June got to wear her swimsuit from Jennifer Overland for the first time and her cute hat I just got her from Amazon! She did pretty great, actually. She nursed a couple times, but she was super happy with Jordan and then in the backpack with me. :)

Jake took her in the water for the first time too!!! At first, he took her in the deep water where it was colder and she screamed hahaha. But then when he took her closer to the shore and just got her little legs in, she didn't seem to mind too much!

Another funny thing from Saturday was June was LOVING the green grapes we had. I don't know how we even found that out, but Heidi was holding her and biting the grape and then just letting her suck the juice out. It was sooo stinking cute how much she was loving it! I don't think she's teething or anything, but she's been sucking on her hands so much recently and our fingers if we put them in her mouth so I'm sure she was loving getting some sweet tasting juice from the grape!

And spending time with her great grandpa!!! He would always try to hold her when she was crying and finally later in the day, she wasn't crying and got to play with him a little bit. He was doing his "Shopping" bit and then "bus driver". It's basically where she is trying to catch the bus but she misses it, and so he makes her do the cute little walk. It was so cute and everyone was giggling. It was fun spending time with them and taking videos that I hope June will cherish!!!