Nolan turns 7!!

The long-awaited day finally arrived on June 28th and Nolan turned 7 years old!! How can this little man be getting so old?!?!?

We spent the day at home and at the pool and got home just when Jason did from work. Nolan was anxious to open his presents and seemed to enjoy his new clothes, LEGO set, Lite-Brite kit, Gumball machine and coloring books.

Even Landon was excited to show him just how cool his new LEGO set is!!

After opening presents, we went out to eat at his favorite place...Golden Corral! He ended the night with a great chocolate mustache from the chocolate fountain there so it was definitely a successful birthday! 

Nolan, I hope you never lose that enthusiasm you have for life. I also love your inquisitive nature. I have never known a child who asks as many questions as you do, but you keep us on our toes and I love how much you want to learn and understand the world around you. You have been nicknamed "Monkey Boy" because of your amazing climbing abilities and I love when you are a kind and caring brother to your little sister. I know you are excited about this new little baby brother coming soon and I know you will be a great big brother to him too.

Happy Birthday Nolan Man!!

End to Baseball...wait scratch that!!

Landon's spring team celebrated the end of their season with pizza and Nerf wars. It was a good season for these boys but I was anxious to be done with organized sports for a while...

But then Landon made the summer All-Star team and we all gave up some of our summer freedom to support this little baseball player...

 Looks like the "boys of summer" will be including Landon and we will be spending lots of summer evenings at the ballpark. 

Go Maugansville 8-10 All-Stars!!

Pool afernoons

This first week of summer without family reunions and Girl's Camp has found us at the pool a lot. We sure do love belonging to Northwood Pool as it gives us a chance to get cool on these hot summer afternoons!

Plus it gives me a chance to sit on a lawn chair and be lazy while the kids get all of their amazing levels of energy out!!

They are all worn out by the time we are done...a win-win in my book!!

18 weeks!!

Weeks 6-12 were really ROUGH this pregnancy and that made that time period go by really slowly. The six weeks since then have flown by once I started to feel better and with so many events and activities going on in our lives. I started feeling better during weeks 13-14 and by week 15 was starting to feel like myself again. I am still pretty exhausted most days, but at least the all-day nausea has subsided for the most part.

I have continued to exercise 5-6 days per week throughout this pregnancy which has helped me to feel better.

The "bump" is just starting to show but still looks more like I ate too many donuts than an actual baby belly yet. I am starting to feel his little movements now which is always exciting. I really do love the second trimester of pregnancy as I feel it is the "sweet spot" for me, not too sick and not too large yet. I'm grateful that my second trimester during this pregnancy is during the summer while the kids are home from school and the weather is so hot!

Girl's Camp 2018

Three days after returning from our Tennessee reunion, it was off to Girl's Camp for Abby and me. They called me last October to be the ward camp director. I was really excited at the time because I thought it would be fun to go with Abby for her first year and hopefully help to make it a better experience than I had when I was a young woman. Of course then in March we found out we were expecting another baby but I thought I would still be okay since I would be 17 weeks during Girl's Camp, putting me well past the yucky 1st trimester but before I start getting too large and uncomfortable.

I started to get pretty anxious about going to Girl's Camp as the time grew nearer though. I'm not really a camper and I knew that since we were camping as levels this year and I was with all the first-years, it was going to be quite the experience. But finally I just decided that worrying about it wasn't going to make a lick of difference and that I could do hard things.

There were some definite "hard things" about camp including the lack of sleep, screaming 12-year-olds at all hours of the night, sleeping on a cot, using smelly latrines, and the fact that it rained everyday that we were at camp. But I had some pretty amazing experiences with these girls that strengthened my faith and testimony of my Savior.

I mean how could you not have fun with a bunch of crazy girls like these ones?!?!?

My first-years were terrified of all the bugs and spiders they kept finding in their tents at night. Then one morning we spotted this snake outside the showers. What fun!!

I loved all the time built into the camp schedule for personal study and meditation!

The girls seemed to bond really well, and while there was some homesickness going on by day 3, for the most part they all did exceptionally well!

On Wednesday evening, all the Young Women ward leaders came up to camp and our ward put on a "spa night" for us. Here is Abby with her mud mask on...

We also got a foot soak with some scrub to go with it which felt great on our tired feet!

Some nail polish definitely happened that night too!!

Such an amazing group of girls and leaders!! Our theme for camp was "Be Not Moved" and we really focused all of our lessons and devotionals on standing in holy places and on being firm and steadfast with sticking to those things we know are right.

Here were my first year campers from the Hagerstown Ward...Jessica, Abby, and Hanna.

The first years were assigned to the Whispering Oaks campsite which had tents instead of cabins. Some of the girls were sad about this, but I think the tents stayed cooler and at least they kept us all dry despite all the rain.

Skit night on Thursday was definitely a favorite!

One of my favorite parts of camp was the five-mile hike and day at the lake afterwards. Another chance for the girls to see that they can do hard things!!

I am happy to report that we all survived this camp experience and even came out better on the other side. But I can't say that I have any desire to go camping again anytime soon!!

Tennessee Family Reunion

We had a wonderful time at the Call Family Reunion in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee on June 11th-15th. Tennessee is such a beautiful area and Jason's parents rented a really nice log cabin right up in the mountains for us all to enjoy together. 

The community that the house was in had a lot of great amenities including both an indoor and an outdoor pool that we went to everyday.

They also had a miniature golf course, lots of hiking trails, and a fun park with a big slide and zipline.

Here is Maylie trying to get a good slide on just her backside!!

Maylie loved getting to know her cousins on the Call side who she hadn't seen for a couple of years. She especially enjoyed playing with Emilee at the park!

Not sure what I am finding so funny in this picture, but it must have been good!!

Nolan tried his luck on the slide too...

Here he is trying a more "laid-back" style!!

Here are the two pregnant ladies who tried going down the slide. There was one other in-law who is pregnant too but she wasn't about to go down that slide!! I had my workout pants on and they helped me to fly down!

Nolan loves the swings and I love that he no longer needs me to push him!!

The zipline was a huge hit for all the kids...look at the huge grin on Maylie's face!!

We had great weather the entire four days that we were there. We did have a big rainstorm move through on our second evening and afterwards we got to witness firsthand why they call them "The Smoky Mountains!"

On Wednesday some of us headed over to "Wonderworks," the famous upside-down kids museum in Pigeon Forge. It was a great museum with lots of hands-on learning experiences that the kids enjoyed.

On Thursday some of us went on a hike up to a waterfall in Smoky Mountain National Park. It was a beautiful hike and the views at the waterfall were well worth the effort to get there. 

On our way home, our family stopped for an afternoon in Gatlinburg where we rode the Aerial Tramway up to Ober Gatlinburg. It was fun exploring the ski resort area up there and we also got to  ride the ski lift up to the alpine slides which all the kids loved going down. 

We only wished we had more time to explore that cute little area!! We left for home on Friday morning after a great reunion. It was fun to get reacquainted with the Call side of the family and we all enjoyed our time together in beautiful Tennessee!!