The Month of October

October is going to be one busy month! But, most of everything that's happening is very exciting!

This week isn't too bad. I'm just very busy with scouting. I wish I could love this calling. Our ward finally got a cub master, and holy smokes he wants us to do a lot. I almost feel that we have to use all our den meetings to get ready for pack meeting. Yeah. So this morning, I have been throwing out email after email getting ready for tonight (den meeting) so we can get ready for pack meeting in two weeks. So, I am stressed to say the least. Oh. Have I mentioned I know NOTHING about scouts? Yeah. My brother is almost 10 years older than me, so he was almost out of cub scouts when I was born!

Then a week from Friday (the 9th), Craig has a half day and we're going over to California for my niece Sophia's baptism. She is my brother's second (and middle) child and I can't believe she's turning 8 on Friday. I am so excited for that! I love going over there!

Then, two days (the 13th) after we get back from CA, Craig has a whole day off and we will be finding out whether the baby is a boy or girl. I'll be happy with either, but is it bad that I really want another girl so I can use Ella's old clothes again? We got so many from others and they are all very cute. Besides that, it will save us a lot of money and since Ella and this baby will only be 21 months apart, it would be nice for her to have a little sister close to her. Obviously I can't do anything about it, but I can hope. Knowing my family and Craig's family, our chances for a girl are pretty high. Between our parents, they have about 13 grand kids plus two on the way (mine and my sister's), and only about four are boys. We still don't know what my sister's baby is either. She's a few weeks behind me. But, if it's a boy, we will still be very happy.

Anyway, now that you know our family genetics, the next weekend (the 16th), we're going camping with Craig's family! I'm always excited about camping, but I can't help but worry about the temperature. We're going up north, in the middle of October. To me, that screams COLD! I hate being cold. that's why I could never live anywhere else. 50 degrees is freezing for me. I will just have to bundle myself up and hope it's nice during the day. And not rainy. It rained the last two out of three times Craig and I have gone camping.

So that's about it. Busy, but exciting!

Ella's New/Old PJ's

Ella got some new pajamas yesterday. They are special pajamas, and not so new. I used to wear them when I was a little girl, so my mom gave them to her! She is so cute in them, and a bonus is that she loves Sesame Street! I let her watch about 15 or so minutes of it sometimes, and it makes her very happy. Thanks Mom!

Oh! I have some good news! First of all, it's officially been one week since I have had morning sickness! Yay! I was miserable for about 9 weeks. Yuck. The second piece of good news is that in three weeks (Oct. 13th), we get to have the "big" ultrasound to find out if Ella will have a little brother or little sister! Then, if the baby cooperates, I must start thinking about names. I hate doing that because I'm way too picky. Ella is very lucky she has a name!

Labor Day

This year for Labor Day, we decided at the last minute to go on a day trip up north somewhere. We haven't really gone anywhere for a while by ourselves, so we thought it would be perfect. At first, Craig wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but I really didn't feel like driving that far in one day. So we decided to go to the Petrified Forest instead. It's a bit closer, and I have never been there. Well, I have never been to the Grand Canyon either, but I did not want to drive that far. Anyway, the trip up was pretty quick once we got out of town, and it was pleasant. Ella even fell asleep for a little bit.

When we got there, I didn't except it to be as beautiful and awesome as it is! We drove through the park and stopped at almost all of the points of interest and was were just awestruck at how beautiful it was. A little over half way through the park, Ella had a meltdown because she was so exhausted and would not fall asleep, so we were not able to take too many stops. We decided that maybe it would help to let her out and walk around. We stopped at an outlook in the Painted Desert where nobody else was, and let her go free. She was as happy as a clam.

It was getting late by that time, so we decided to head home. And guess what? Ella went right to sleep and slept for almost two hours until she got hungry. At this point, we were stuck in terrible traffic (as in it took an hour to go about three miles). We put our GPS, Flo (yes, we named it), to work and found ourselves a detour and probably saved ourselves 30 minutes. The traffic put us an hour behind as is was, and it took almost five hours to get home. But, it was worth it!

Here are some pictures.