It has been a LONG time!

Hmmm...where to begin? I haven't updated this thing in FOREVER! Quite a bit has happened over the last few months! I'll just mention a few highlights. Oh, and I can't upload pictures on this computer...but I promise there will be pictures on my next post!

1. Elizabeth is growing like a weed and learning SO many new things on a daily basis. Her vocabulary and other basic skills have increased immensely over the past few months. It has been so much fun to watch her grow and see her cute little personality come out. For the most part, Lizzie-lou is very well behaved and I consider myself VERY blessed. She has begun to throw a few tantrums every now and then, but they haven't been too bad (knock on wood). :) I can't believe that she'll be two years old in just a few months!

2. The weather here has been crazy. It has been so hot sometimes that if I don't take Lizzie to the park before 8:00 a.m., it's too late. It just gets SO hot!! Luckily, the past few weeks have been a little cooler and we can make it to the park at about 9 or 10 in the morning, a big blessing. Jon's parents live right across the street from a park, which makes it very convenient! Lizzie LOVES the park, in fact, she's a little obsessed with them.

3. Our little son is growing very nicely inside of my HUGE abdomen! I just feel so BIG with this baby. And I actually FEEL pregnant, which I never really felt with Lizzie until the last few weeks or so. I still have almost three months left and I feel really tired and heavy and out-of-breath a lot. I think that I have almost surpassed my weight-gain limit. :) I'm trying to keep up with my excersise, although it's not as much as I would like it to be. I ride our stationary bike about 5 days a week and I try to go on daily walks with Lizzie, although it doesn't always happen. When I first got pregnant, I had been used to running again while pushing Lizzie in the stroller and I LOVED IT. I thought that I could keep it up while being pregnant and I was really excited about it. But then I started spotting and cramping a few times during the first few weeks of the pregnancy and I felt as if I should quit running. :( So I quit cold-turkey and all of the spotting and cramping stopped, which I was very grateful for. :) As much as I love running, I love my future son a lot more and I don't want to do anything to put him in danger. But I am a little jealous of all of those other woman out there who can keep up a running routine WHILE pregnant. Maybe with our next kid. :)

4. Our house is FINISHED!!! We completed our final walk-through on Thursday and it looks so amazing. I can't believe that it will be ours in about a week. The kitchen looks so nice and I can't wait to starting baking and cooking in our absolutely amazing convectional oven. :) I am so excited for the kitchen, especially the walk-in pantry! And I'm also excited for our INDOOR laundry room. We will be getting our keys next Thursday and then we are going to take a few days to paint the walls before we move in. I am INCREDIBLY excited! We are so blessed.

5. We were able to trade in my Chevy Cavolier for a VAN. We found an amazing deal at the Saturn Dealership and we just couldn't pass it up. We bought a 2007 silver Relay and we really love it. My back loves the fact that I don't have to bend down to put Lizzie in the car. I especially love the fact that my little Chevy is out of my hands for good. We have spent close to $3,000 on repairs for that car and I know that we would have had to spend a lot more in the near future too. Again, we are SO blessed.

6. My sister, Tara, had her baby A MONTH early! I was so shocked. Thankfully, the baby was a healthy 6-pound bundle of joy. They named him Riley Easton Creel and he is so precious. And Tara is incredibly lucky that she cut off a month of her pregnancy! :) I sure hope my baby doesn't come a month early, becuase I will be in Utah for my brother's wedding a month before my due-date - and I really don't want my husband to deliver our baby in our car! Oh yeah! My brother, Craig, got engaged and he and his fiance, Amanda, will be sealed in the Logan Temple on August 8th. I have never seen Craig happier -- I am so excited for him and Amanda. :)

7. Well, I guess that I'll this post on a sad note. My Grandma Turley passed away on June 2nd. It was kind of expected becuase she was suffering from quite a few health problems, however, it was still really sad. My parents were nice enough to give us gas money so that we could travel up to Utah for the funeral. It was really difficult seeing my Grandma in the casket at the viewing (I really have a hard time understanding the importance of viewings sometimes), but I am so grateful that I was able to go so that I could experience some sense of closure. My Grandma was a wonderful woman and I feel really blessed to have known her in this life for such a long time. The spirit was really strong at the funeral and I know that my Grandma would have been happy with everything.

Anyway, I will post again after we move into our home and things start to calm down a bit (wait a minute...I don't think they will EVER calm down!).