All the Way to the Top

I've been trying to figure out exactly what made the difference between how many pictures I took of Adam as a toddler verses how many I seem to take of Alex. Maybe it's that I have a nicer camera now. Maybe I'm more of a picture taker. Or, maybe Alex just presents more opportunities. If I took more frequent pictures of Adam, I'd end up with a lot of pictures of a cautious kid making relatively good choices. Alex, on the other hand, is constantly coming up with picture-worthy moments. For example, climbing to the top of the fence at Adam's t-ball game. Also interesting to note is that instead of making him get down, I sent Kirk to spot him. I wanted to know if he could make it all the way to the top!

Looks Like October

For those of you who have been anxiously waiting on pins and needles for my doctor's appointment today {okay... maybe that was just me...} here's the fairly uneventful update:

• I didn't gain any more centimeters and actually lost half a pound, so I'm thinking baby may have just had a growth spurt before my last appointment.
• Dr. Terry says if we go any earlier than 1 week early, it probably wouldn't do us any good. Yes, the baby would be smaller, but my body would also be less ready, so the delivery would probably be equally difficult (or easy) either way. So 1 week early it is.
• Dr. Terry says we'll try to let Adam keep his record as my biggest baby. He says he doesn't intend for this baby to get any bigger than 9lb 5oz. I'm not sure that's all that comforting, though.
• Basically, the philosophy is that since I've done it before, I can do it again, so wish me luck on what I doubt will be a small baby.

I don't have a for-sure induction date yet, and I probably won't until mid-September. But I'm pretty sure it will be October 2nd, which means I only have 5 1/2 weeks left. May they go quickly.

A Great Deal and a Bit of Cheating

When we were in SeaWorld over the summer, the vehicle we'd taken (belonging to Kirk's sister) was broken into, and her GPS system was stolen. At first we thought the thief didn't bother with anything else (Kirk's 4 year old iPod was left untouched), but then realized that Adam's Leapster was missing. I doubt they'd have taken it, except for his birthday last year, I bought him a really nice PSP backpack case that worked great to store his Leapster, headphones, extra batteries, and game cartridges. Imagine the thief's surprise when the PSP he thought he had stolen turned out to be a Leapster. HAHA!

Still, it wasn't funny at all that one of Adam's most prized possessions got stolen. So we did what any parent would do... we didn't tell him. With all the summer fun, we've managed to go almost 2 months without him realizing it was missing. Until today.

After Adams tears and our promises to replace the stolen toy, I decided to check out eBay for a replacement. I'm pretty pleased with the deal I found: 1 Leapster, 1 case, 1 battery charger, and 7 games, most of which are right on his level, the rest of which he can grow into. All for $110, with free shipping. For those who may not know, a Leapster costs $50 new, and games run at $20 if you can get them on sale. This was a GREAT deal.

And now for the bit of cheating...

When the package arrives in the mail, Adam will get the Leapster. He will get the case. He will get the battery charger, and 2 or 3 of the games. What, you ask, will I do with the rest? Save them for Christmas and his January birthday. Yay for being a cheap mom.

All the Fifes

This weekend, we got to go camping with every member of the Fife clan except for Tony. It was a short trip, but we had a great time. Here's the highlights:

On the first evening, I couldn't find Alex for dinner. It turned out he was under this bucket. He ended up spending much of the weekend there.

Adam was so excited when he found this "dinosaur" bone. Here I am at 32 weeks pregnant, getting ready to ride the 4 wheeler. I had to ride standing up so I could absorb the bumps with my legs instead of my belly, but I had a great time!

The boys had just as much fun with the 4 wheelers when they were turned off as when they were turned on. They liked just sitting up there and pretending to race each other.

Mike and Marie's Razr was tons of fun, especially for the pregnant lady {me} and the younger kids. It was fun for me and the boys to spend some time out on the road together.

Apparently, I didn't really take any pics of Kirk this time, but he was there, too. :) He actually took this picture as we were leaving on Sunday morning. We had to get up at 7:00 to pack up camp and head home because I had to be back for choir practice. When we passed this lake on the quiet Sunday morning, it made getting up early all worth it.

Thanks to Mom Fife for putting this trip together. Thanks to Mark and Rachel for getting us a camping spot. HUGE THANKS to Mike and Marie for bringing their toys. They made the trip! Thanks to Heather for braving the trip sans Tony so we could enjoy having all the kids there. Let's definately make this a yearly tradition!

Earlier Than Expected?

I went to my last 1-month dr. appointment yesterday with one major question in mind. I've been feeling like this baby is really big, and I wanted to know if there is anything we can do to know how big (preferably prior to weighing him after he's born). He just feels huge to me, like he consumes more space than the other boys did at this stage, and it's been causing me to worry about things like emergency c-sections. Kirk - I think in an attempt to help me not worry - has been assuring me that it's probably all in my head. But I figured it didn't hurt to ask, right?

I saw my nurse because Dr. Terry was off delivering 2 babies. She's really awesome, though, and I trust her as much as the doctor, so I still asked my question. She let me know that we can do an ultrasound at 36 weeks (4 weeks away) to try to gauge the fetal weight. She did warn me that it isn't very accurate, but it might give us a guess.

Then she measured me. For those of you not up to date on how it all works, you are supposed to measure 1 cm for every week of pregnancy. So 32 weeks should equal 32 cm. She measured once, then (unseen by me) mouthed to Kirk, "He's big." She took a step back, stepped forward again, and measured again. She laughed.

"Sorry," she said, "I really shouldn't laugh. But you're measuring 2 weeks ahead."

Really?!

"I double checked, just to be sure, and you're definately 34 cm. So, we might be looking at taking this baby even earlier." (We were already planning on taking him a week early due to my history of large babies.)

I don't know for sure yet, and I'm not sure when I will know for sure. But here's what I do know:

1. It's not in my head. This baby is big.
2. They are going to use the due date from my ultrasound (Oct. 9th) when scheduling the induction. So I can pretty much count on Oct. 2nd to be Dylan's birthday, unless they do decide to take him earlier.
3. I'll get to see the baby via ultrasound at 36 weeks, which I've never done before. I'm excited.
4. Both the baby and I are totally healthy, and none of this really poses a threat to either of us, as long as we don't let him get too big.

My hope: that they let me have the baby on Sept 28th. I can't think of a better present for my 28th birthday. :)

Scarlet Pimpernel

We've already seen this show twice at Hale Theater, and we absolutely loved it both times. So last year when we heard Hale was doing it again, we decided we'd better get our tickets early. We bought our tickets nearly a year ago, and the show was practically sold out already! We decided this time we'd share it, so we're taking Kirk's mom as a birthday gift, and we're taking his dad along for the ride.

Kirk's mom really wanted to make a nice evening of it, so we're going to go out to dinner beforehand. I think this actually qualifies as a date! I can't remember Kirk and I going on one of those in quite awhile.

So whatever the day has in store for me, BRING IT ON! I get to go out tonight.

On the Same Page

Kirk and I like to argue about little, unimportant stuff. Well, sometimes we like it. Sometimes, I'm pretty sure we frustrate each other with our equally matched amounts of desire to win. Take Saturday, for example: We got into it with each other in the baking aisle at Walmart while trying to decide how many cups of baking soda are in each box. The box is conveniently labeled 16oz, and he and I both know that there are 8oz in a cup. But, I pointed out, what if it means 16oz as in a pound? I tried arguing that you can't convert between fluid ounces and weight measurements, but somehow he was stuck thinking I was saying that you can't measure liquids and solids with the same measurement. We finally had to drop it in the store, because we weren't getting anywhere but angry. Finally, in the car about a half hour later, we realized where the confusion was and agreed that you can't convert the kind of ounces that measure volume to the kind of ounces that measure weight.

You're now wondering why this matters, right? Well, today is our 8th anniversary, and I've been thinking about our silly little debates. The thing is, that's really the worst it gets at our house. We so rarely argue about anything more important than volume to weight ounce conversions. Why is that? I think its because despite all our differences, when it comes to the stuff that matters, we're on the same page.

I guess I can handle an eternity of debating whether the place where you watch a movie is called a "movie house" or a "theater" and whether its a waste of an word for me to call a non-musical a "straight play." I can deal with knowing we will always have to have the internet in order to solve our little debates about who was in what movie or what a certain word means or the countless other things we find to disagree about. I can continue to try to take the high road and offer Kirk an out when I know I said something a certain way and he knows I said something else. (I'm sorry... I really thought I said it that way, but we must have had some sort of miscommunication...) Because I know at the end of the day, we agree when it comes to religion, education, finances, family, and so much more.

Thanks, honey, for the past 8 years, and I'm looking forward to arguing with you for the rest of our lives. I wonder if the Lord allows arguing in Heaven. I'm not sure you and I could live without it!

Mega Summer Trip - Part C

After hanging out in Garden Valley, my brother Jack and I decided to take a detour out to Lava Hot Springs and camp for a couple days with my kids. We took my tent trailer, which I was concerned about setting up by ourselves. (Jack and I are both only 5' 3", and although Jack is definately stronger than me, he is barely 16 and not exactly rippling with muscles.) We handled the trailer with no problems, though, and had a great time.

We stayed at a sportsman's access about 10 minutes away from the pools. Most people would consider the train to be a negative, but my boys thought it was the coolest thing ever. When one would hear the train's whistle, he'd have to call out to his brother, and they'd both go watch the train together. Every time. A little dirt never hurt, right? I think this was our dirtiest camping trip ever.

Adam was a fish at the hot springs (thanks in part to his recent swimming lessons). He handled the slide with no help, even swimming himself back to the ladder to climb out and do it again.

Alex loved the water as long as he stayed on the stairs. Not exactly fish material yet.

After about 4 hours and lots of phone calls, my sister Lisa was successful in getting a permission form forged and sent to the pool so Jack could do the platforms. That's him on the top, ready to jump.

There was only one exception to our fun:

A group of campers showed up the last night and asked if they could camp pretty close to us because the campsite was getting quite full. We said they could, and they were really nice people as they were setting up camp. Unfortunately, several beers later, one of the girls turned out to be not-so-nice. She talked loudly around the campfire until nearly 3 am. I finally got to sleep, only to be woken up again by the same loud- (and foul-) mouthed drunk girl. She was apparently not having a good time and was determined to go home. Her friend was determined to not let her drive drunk. They exchanged several loud and profane words around 5 am, and I was worried she was going to wake up the kids. I went out to try to talk some sense into her (at least enough to get her to stop yelling so loudly) but only accomplished getting yelled and sworn at myself. It only took her about 20 minutes to clean up her stuff and leave (drunk, I assume). I really hope she and her 6 year old son made it wherever they were going safely.

I finally returned home, dirty and tired, on Saturday night. With all parts of my summer mega trip, I was gone for 8 straight days, most of which involved a campfire. Amazingly, I think I could have still handled more!

Mega Summer Trip - Part B

AKA - Casdorph Family Reunion

I still think it's weird that my immediate family is spread out enough that we actually have to plan to get together. But with Brett & Lisa in Georgia and Skye & Michelle up in Garden Valley, Idaho, it takes some planning. This time, we were all able to hang out for 2 1/2 days in Garden Valley (well, all of us except Kirk who had to stay home to work). We stayed in a great 3 bedroom cabin (ok... double-wide trailer) that had enough room for my boys to be loud and obnoxious without it being all that obnoxious. Thanks, Mom, for spending the dough to have us all stay together without having to hate each other by the end!

My favorite thing about this trip was that it was all play and no work (for everyone except my dad, who had to change my brakes in Boise). Even my mom didn't bring any school work. For a family whose get-togethers pretty much always involve work, it was so great to just PLAY! Here's the highlights:

Croquet. This is Lisa's "I won" stance. For those of you who actually know Lisa, you'll be able to picture it perfectly. Motorcycles. My dad and Jack brought their bikes and shared with everybody. Since my 7-month pregnant body wasn't really up for riding, I just took pictures.

Dune buggy. My dad built this really fun dune buggy, and the brakes even work now! We decided to load it up with Brett driving, me in the passenger seat, and Jack, Michelle, and Lisa standing in the back.

Other highlights included staying up past midnight every night playing games, bridge jumping (Skye and Jack), and going to the theater nightly to watch Skye and Michelle's shows. Michelle was AWESOME as Annie in "Annie Get Your Gun," and I really enjoyed Skye as Ren in "Footloose."

Footnote to "Annie Get Your Gun" -

Alex has been going around the house singing, "No you can't... no you can't... no you can't..." from the song "Anything You Can Do (I can do better)" He even goes up in pitch and holds out the last word like it's the end of the song. He's definately going to be my performer.

Mega Summer Trip - Part A

I was out of town from Friday, July 24th to Saturday, August 1st on a mega summer trip, which was really just 3 short trips that happened to be back to back. Here's the highlights from Part A - camping with some of the Fife family in the Manti-Lasal National Forest:

Adam learned an important lesson. Don't trust your older cousins when they tell you a sign says "Beware of bears beyond this point." It may actually just say "No motor vehicles." For awhile, he was afraid to go beyond this sign to pee, but he actually believed me when I clarified what the sign really said.

There's nothing quite like having a bunch of cousins to warm your bums with. L to R: Alex, Ryan, Kaleb, Adam, Mason, Leslye, Colton.

I'm not one for fishing, but I had a fun time taking pics of the kids while other people fished. Well, to be more accurate, everyone else was technically busy getting their lines snagged on the rocks of the dam and making Mark really grouchy.

Those who were fishing finally caught some fish when we picked up and moved to a pond. Kirk had lots of success, which was fun for him since it was his first time fishing.

Uncle Mark let Adam reel in a fish.

Kirk let Alex reel one in, but Alex refused to pose with it.

The big boys who were riding in the truck all got rained on. Adam tried to act like he was having fun, but I'm pretty sure he was miserable.

Alex adopted a "new grandpa," Rachel's dad. He always had to know what "the Grandpa" was doing, and he even invited himself to go along for a walk with "the Grandpa."

And here's a pic of my favorite boys. I am so lucky to get to spend lots of time outdoors with them.