Girl

No, the title of this post is not an indication of the sex of our baby:-). Although I have noticed that most people have voted "girl" on our poll and last time I think every person that guessed the gender said "girl" and so obviously they were right!
The girl I'm referring to is Layla. She is definitely all girl with some of the things she does. She loves shoes (wearing them on her feet and hands) and loves hair accessories (although she'll often want to have them put on and then takes them out and acts like she didn't mean to pull it out of her hair saying "uh-oh" immediately following). While we were camping she had been wearing some pink shoes but since they were left outside all night I told Joe in the morning to just put her white ones one since her pink ones were cold. As soon as he put the white ones on she walked over to the pink ones, brought those to Joe and kept signing "please" until he changed her shoes to the pink ones. Also, after baths now I tell her to go brush her hair and she walks right over to her vanity and will sometimes brush her hair for the next 30 minutes--with the 3 different brushes that are in the vanity. In my opinion she messes up her hair while it dries--she hasn't quite learned how to brush it nicely and in the correct direction with her part--we'll need to work on that:-). She also loves brushing other peoples' hair too including Elvis' and Gavin's:-). Surprisingly Elv most the time lets her brush his hair:-).
I can't believe she'll be 15 months tomorrow already!! She definitely keeps learning new things. She's getting better at getting down from things--she's loved climbing on things for awhile but didn't understand to put her feet first in order to get down. I don't trust her going up and down steps on her own yet, but she does know now how to go down. She learned the up a long time ago, so it'll be nice when she can master the down better! She also continues to learn new words. Today she just started saying "done" while signing "all done". Speaking of which, I realized I was teaching her the wrong sign for "help". Oops! I was doing it close to "please". I'll probably just keep doing it how I taught her though or she might get confused! She also now will sometimes tell me when she wants to take a nap by saying "na-nigh" which is cute. She still hasn't gotten any more teeth--just 4 total so far!

And one more thing on her "girl" post...this is probably not very nice of me to put that in Gavin's hair, but her and Gavin were both enjoying their hair bows on Tuesday:-).

Hungry Hungry Horse

This past weekend from Thursday to Sunday we tried out our new trailer at Hungry Horse Campground in Dorr. We went with our friends, Lindsey and Darrell, and their son, Jonathan. They recently bought a camper and since we had recently bought a trailer (with Mike and Em) we were both excited to try them out! Joe had to work on Friday so we wanted to go some place close. Some of us (Darrell mainly) were hesitant about staying in Dorr, but it was actually a really nice campground! And it was handy being so close to home. We had been talking about how we were hoping it wouldn't be super hot and humid--especially since Lindsey and I are both pregnant and not feeling great--and wow, did we get our wish! It was cold and rainy all weekend--until Sunday when we left that is:-). HH has a nice pool area (even a big kiddie pool) but unfortunately we didn't get to try it out:-(. There's always next year I guess!

Mike, Em and Gavin met us out their Thursday night in case we had any issues setting up since we'd never used it before but they had.
Layla was super excited for her weekend ahead while Gavin was sad that he couldn't stay...

Layla isn't used to getting so dirty and Gavin doesn't like being dirty...he's helping Layla wipe the dirt off her hands:-).

Prior to setting up...

After Layla went to bed we had a late supper of BC Pizza (yes, I know, that's not really camping food, but we were hungry and didn't feel like making anything:D).

Joe went to work on Friday so Darrell made us breakfast. Darrell then left for the day to work on some projects at home.

Why are you always taking pics of us, Mom?? It's so embarrasing!

Like I said, Mom, enough with the pictures!

I'm not sure how I feel about being pushed by Jonathan...

HH had a couple playgrounds for the kids. Layla enjoyed driving the "fire truck".

Huh...I hardly ever play in sand....

Both kids driving...

They love to give each other smooches!

Jonathan thinks he's stronger than he is:-)...

Here's Lindsey and Darrell's campsite. We were in the back of the campgrounds where the lots are really big (also really sandy). If we go again we definitely want those same sites or similar ones. We had a lot of room around us even though the campground was full.

Our campsite...

The inside of our trailer...yeah, it's got lovely 90s decor, but it worked out great--especially with all the rain we were happy to not be in a tent!!

One other thing nice about HH is that we had water hook up. That sure was handy (especially for my middle of the night bathroom runs:D).

More smooches!

We both can ride in Jonathan's car!

Mike, Em and Gavin came out to visit on Friday night. The cars sure were a big hit--we were glad we had them along!

Campfire time...

Saturday breakfast...

Layla might not look real excited here, but she really was having fun:-)...

Joe looks pretty serious about racing the kids:-).

Layla and I trying to stay dry and warm...

The kids swinging at the other playground...

Jonathan swingin'...

Jonathan pouting on the swing...

Layla swingin'...

Saturday night Jim and Julie came to visit...the guys are busy here watching the pizza cook. We had never made pizzas over the fire before so we weren't sure how they'd turn out...then it started raining right as we started making them. Despite that, they turned out pretty good!

Layla, Julie, Lindsey and Jonathan enjoying the pizza (and trying to stay warm and dry!)...

One thing that I did forget to pack was clothes for Elv:-(. Poor little guys was quite chilly--he spent a lot of time in the trailer--especially at night--he'd go to bed with Layla. By the time we went to bed the first night he had made himself pretty comfy on our bed so the three of us all fit on the trailer bed--surprisingly we were pretty comfy:-). When we go camping closer to the fall I'll be sure to bring some sweaters for Elv!

Sunday breakfast...well, for the kids anyway. Lucky kids always get served first:-).

The kids in their camo--perfect attire for camping:-).

Daddy and Layla...

The kids trying to help us clean up:-)...

Be sure to look both ways before crossing the road:-)...

All in all it was a great practice run for our next rip with friends! It would have been nice if the weather was a bit better, but we survived! Thankfully it rained on and off again--not non stop! Now we're looking forward to our next trip!!

Good Shot

Saturday we shot guns at Joe's parents' house with Darrell and Lindsey. We had originally planned on doing a gun shooting day a year ago May for the guys' birthdays (both in early May) with our friends but then I ended up on bedrest and never got around to it the rest of the summer. Then this May we talked about it again but never followed through with the plan, so since we both had this past Saturday free we decided to FINALLY do a shooting day for the guys' birthdays (super belated). Joe and Darrell both got new hand guns this winter and wanted us to practice shooting those in case we ever need to (intruders beware:D). It rained pretty much all day until Darrell and Lindsey arrived and then started sprinkling towards the end of the day--thankfully it held off long enough for us to shoot for awhile!

I must say we didn't do too bad! We didn't hit every target, but at least some (I'd say over half I think)! The guys said we did well:-). Here's Lindsey shooting Darrell's .22 rifle.

For those bugging me about not posting baby bump pics, here you can see my big ol' baby belly--I'm only 16 weeks! Although I do think that my improper shooting stance makes it look bigger as my back is arched weird:-). Guess I need to work on that:-). Also, I knew my capris and hiking shoes looked silly, but had I thought about how I'd be posting pics of my outfit on the blog I may have rethought that:-).

Here's Lindsey shooting into our car, j/k:-).

Heidi (Joe's bro's fiance) practicing with a hand gun...

Joe's parents were nice enough to watch Layla and Jonathan while we shot, so the kids came out for a bit to enjoy a little golf cart ride:-).

Joe's dad was itching to come out the whole time, so finally at the end he got a few shots in:-).

These were the guns we had trouble with. I didn't realize how hard they are to shoot and how hard they push you back (12 gauge I think)!

We had more trouble hitting targets with those so us girls didn't even attempt to shoot at the clay pigeons!

Joe's brother, Steve, came and shot too.


Also, I went to the doctor yesterday for my 16 weeks appointment and the heartbeat was 157. I can't remember what Layla's was at this point--I think a little higher. Not that I really believe about girls being high and boys being low--I know if varies so much depending on when you have it checked. I know when I was hooked up to a monitor with Layla it was all over the place! But it's still fun to guess:-). 3 weeks from yesterday is our ultrasound! I can't believe how fast it's going! I don't want to rush it (I want to enjoy being a mom of 1), but I'm looking forward to a few more weeks when hopefully I feel better and then I'll be looking forward to getting close to 30 weeks so that I can feel more confident about having a healthy baby. We still haven't decided if we'll find out at the u/s what we're having. We were thinking we wouldn't (like last time), but it'd be nice to know for planning reasons! We just haven't really talked about it recently--funny how things are really different with the second baby! Not any less important though:-).

**I just checked and Layla's heartbeat at 17 weeks was 158--so really close! Just wanted to post that for those that like to predict gender based on that.