Family Update

We have had a pretty quiet last few weeks. Just trying to keep up on things around the house and patiently wait for baby to make her arrival. Kaya came about 5 days early and Logan was a few days late. I did MAJOR grocery shopping this week in order to be stocked up and avoid having to shop until after the baby is born. (I usually only grocery shop about once every other week except for fill-ins like milk & bread). So we're just waiting! To keep busy we've taken swimming lessons, made visits to the county swimming pool, played at the local sprinkler park, played at friend's houses, and have enjoyed working in the garden and eating the vegetables we've been able to harvest.

Kaya passed her swimming lessons course.

Logan enjoying the water at the Sprinkler Park/Splash Pad

Aaron & the kids at the City 4th of July Parade. (Held on the evening the of the 3rd)Kaya and her good friend Whitney. Whitney moved to another town about 2 1/2 months ago. We were finally able to go visit her at her new house. Kaya & Whitney have been playing together since they were about 18 months old.

Last weekend we took the kids to the Living Planet Aquarium Preview Exhibit. It's actually temporarily located in a converted grocery store as they build the full scale aquarium in Salt Lake City. It wasn't very big and didn't take very long to tour but the kids had a good time seeing the exhibits. We all enjoyed just getting out the house.
Kaya smiling for the camera. Logan checking out the fish.

This Tuesday we took the kids to the Sandy Expo Center to see the "Days of '47" parade floats. Utah celebrates the arrival of the first pioneer settlers to the Salt Lake Valley every year on July 24th. It's a big State holiday here. Almost like the 4th of July. Each year they have a huge parade in downtown SLC with lots of floats. They put the floats on display at the Expo center for the public to come and view for free. This was the first time we've done this and it was fun to see the floats up close. We even got to vote for our favorite one. Kaya was looking forward to seeing the "pretty girls in dresses on the floats". (For our local 4th of July parade, several of the local cities had their royalty riding on the floats and Kaya enjoyed seeing all the "princesses" ) Kaya wasn't disappointed when we were able to see the Days of '47 royalty with their float. They weren't dressed up but they were wearing their crowns. It was all in all a fun (and free) time!

Days of '47 Royalty FloatPrimary Children's Hospital FloatThis was my favorite float. It was a flock of seagulls having a BBQ of insects, also known as Mormon Crickets.

Last night, Kaya had her first experience with the stomach flu, or at least getting sick to her stomach from something she ate. She woke up around 11:30 complaining that she was too hot. Shortly after helping her get all situated and back in bed, we heard her screaming at the top of her lungs. She'd gotten sick in her bed and it had freaked her out pretty good. Aaron and I tag teamed the clean up and got her back in bed. Logan slept right through all the drama, only to wake up 3 other times during the night for various reasons. Ugh. Needless to say, Aaron & I are quite tired this morning. I just remember laying in bed at some point early this morning praying that my water DOESN'T break and I DON'T go into labor. I'm TOO TIRED!!! Hopefully this was an isolated incident and we can keep the rest of our family from getting sick. Kaya's back to normal and quite hungry this morning so we're keeping our fingers crossed! Kaya posing in a dress she got from Grandma Luna for her birthday.

And last but not least.....Where was I when this picture was taken? Aaron shouldn't leave strange pictures on the camera unless he wants me to share them with everyone! According to Aaron, he had both kids in stitches with these "googly eyes"!

Lunch according to a 4 year old

Kaya: Mom, can we go to Mc Carl's Jr. for lunch?

Me: Do you mean Carl's Jr? Maybe, We need to go pick up Logan first.

Kaya: Can we go to the Carl's Jr. by Panda's?

Me: No, that's too far to drive today.

Kaya: Can we go to the Carl's Jr. by the haircut place?

Me: No. Not today.

Kaya: Well, then how about we just go to McDonald's.

Note: My kids aren't even interested in eating 90% of the time. All they really want to do is go and play in the play yards. When you have the extreme cold weather in the winter and the extra hot weather in the summer, you find cheap places to go just to get the kids out of the house. I don't even have to buy them anything! (But this conversation tells you a little too much about how often we frequent the play areas - especially when there are 3 different Carl's Jr.'s within about 5 miles of our house.) Having the backyard done has cut down on our visits to public play areas, but the kids still ask to go there now and again.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad Serr!!

Aaron's parents celebrate their 37th wedding anniversay today!! Happy anniversary to a great example of a happy marriage. May you be blessed with many more wonderful years of wedded bliss!!

Happy Birthday Moose!!!!

Today we celebrate Aaron's birthday! We are happy to celebrate another year of health and well being with Moose. Aaron is a great husband and dad to our children. Our family has been very blessed and we look forward to Aaron being another year older and wiser.

A flashback picture of Aaron on his 8th birthday

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

For Aaron's birthday this year, I bought him tickets to go see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at the Sandy Amphitheatre. BBVD is a swing band from Ventura County where Aaron grew up. They've been together for about 15 years and Aaron has been a huge fan since day one. Tickets to the concert was his birthday present request this year. We booked our favorite babysitter and made plans to go to dinner and the concert. We had a fun evening and really enjoyed seeing the band play again. They put on a GREAT show! After the show, we stuck around hoping to get a picture or two with the band. Our persistence paid off and we were invited backstage by one of the band members (Karl Hunter). We chatted with the guys like we were old friends and snapped a couple quick photos. They were anxious to leave and had already changed out of their suits. Aaron lucked out with a very happy birthday present!

Back Row L to R: Scotty Morris, Joshua Levy, Glen Marhevka, Alex Henderson, Andy Rowley, Tony Bonsera , Dirk Shumaker, Kurt Sodergren, Karl Hunter
Front Row: Heather & Aaron

Heather, Aaron, & Karl Hunter (Saxophone/Clarinet Player)

Here are two really short video clips of them playing. (We probably shouldn't have been recording, but couldn't resist sharing our fun!)

Still no baby as of yet. Luckily the Sandy Amphitheatre is located right across the street from the hospital where I will deliver the baby. Baby really enjoyed the drum solo and remained quite active through most of the show. Aaron's hoping she'll be a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy fan too!

"Production" Update

We have entered the final stages of production. Only 29 days or about 4 weeks until my due date. (Who's counting?) I'm in the final stages of nesting. The carpet cleaners come today in about an hour. Aaron has been a good sport, enduring moving furniture and helping me DEEP clean. (Mostly by keeping the kids distracted.) It's been like 2 straight weeks of cleaning the unimaginable. Who knew it was even that dirty? But this need to "nest" and have things clean & organized has hit me hard this time. I surely don't remember being this anal about it with Kaya or Logan. I told Aaron last night that the goal is to keep the house clean for the next 4 weeks. Surely we can keep the dishes done, the floors clean, and have things picked up each night before bed in the event that we're suprised with an early arrival. (Yeah right....but I can still hope!) I had my 36 week check up yesterday and I have started to dilate. That doesn't mean a whole lot but it does mean that we're in the final stretch. Yeah!! We still haven't decided on a name. We have a few that we've been "kicking around". I'm not too worried about it. There are still some things I'd like to get done before baby arrives but nothing critical. I'm essentially READY & WAITING!! We'll keep you posted.

(P.S. I stole the picture from a fellow blogger! Thanks Bree!)

How does your garden grow?

Well....mine isn't doing too bad. Things are at least GROWING!! The only plant to have produced anything so far is the tomatoes. (Seriously though - Just about anyone can grow a tomato!) It's exciting to watch the garden growing. Everything you see was planted from seeds except the 2 tomato plants. Our church is having a "Stake Fair" in August as a way to encourage people to plant gardens and learn to be more self-sufficient. There will be judging and prizes just like in a regular fair. For my first attempt at a garden, I am quite pleased. Hopefully what you see will produce edible vegetables and something worthy of being judged!!

My little green tomatoes!!

P.S. We also planted some strawberry plants in our planter by the house. The birds got to the first few strawberries that ripened. The kids and I shared the ONE strawberry today that was ripe enough to eat. It was tasty! The kids wanted more. We'll have to wait a few more days for the next ones to be ripe enough to eat.