Family/Maternity Pictures 2013

Well, I thought I would dedicate a whole post to pictures because there are so many I love and just breaking down to this many was hard! Are pictures were so fun to do and turned out amazing! I give credit to the amazing photographer Rachael Van Schepen from Van Schepen Photography . If you live around colorado springs I would highly recommend her!

Enjoy!

I posted 3 new posts, so look at those too for more pics and videos!

June 2013 Highlights

The first week of June I had a couple of days off from school so we decided to go camping. I figured my pregnant body could handle 1 night for Joe and Isabel. =)

So we decided to head up to the Sand dunes campgrounds since Joe and Isabel have never been before.   We got there in the morning and set up camp. Had some watermelon and headed to the sand dunes. It was hot but no too hot. The water stream was pretty low but Isabel and Joe had fun making dams and formations to make a little type of pool with the water. Isabel really loved playing with the sand and water. Eventually she got tired and had a picnic. Afterwards Isabel was tucker out. At the same time a storm came in so we left just in time. =) Got back to the camp ground, took a nap in the tent since it was raining. Joe made Isabel and I walking sticks and then we headed out on a "bear hunt" as Isabel would say. Really hoping we wouldn't see any since we were in bear country. After our long walk we roasted some hot dogs and then Smores. Isabel was pretty much scared of the fire the whole time. Another storm was coming in so we didn't see any stars, which is what I was looking forward too. =( The wind was blowing hard all night so we really didn't sleep very well.

At the camp ground

Camp ground

Mine has a man and Isabel has a cat face

"Going on a bear hunt"

Isabel photo bomb

 In the morning we packed up and then went on a hike to Zapata Falls. It was very pretty and the water extremely cold which was nice for cooling off. After our hike we decided to go to the visitor center. We actually learned a lot about the dunes and they had some fun kid activities there. After the long 2 days I was glad it was only about an hour drive home. =)

At the beginning of the hike

She totally posed for the picture

We celebrated Father's day with a "Meat Cake" for Joe. He has been asking for one for a while. So I made him a meatloaf with glaze in the middle of the layers. Mash potatoes for icing and bacon for sprinkles. Isabel really thought it was a cake and was very disappointed when she realized it wasn't.  

Other than that the days have been just filled with me doing homework all day. Joe and Isabel hanging out. 

Highlights from end of April through May 2013

Forever Long Updates: End of April and May 2013 Highlights:

Time has gone by fast! I started up in school again for summer semester.  So our schedule has been really hectic. Joe started working 2 part time jobs (one he can have Isabel with him) so he can be home with Isabel more while I am at school most of the day. Joe spent his birthday with the family and I made him a lego cake. Isabel picked out a card and made him a book called "Daddy and Isabel."

We got out my wedding dress and Isabel wanted to try it on so we took some fun pics of her.

Isabel singing little bunny foo foo, which is a song she has been obsessed with.

Isabel finished up her soccer season. Her team kicked butt! There were two boys that were really good, while Isabel was scared to kick the ball. At the beginning of the video Isabel kicked the ball.

She kinda enjoyed it but not as much as her gymnastics workshop that she loved. It lasted for two weeks. In that 2 weeks she lost most of her fear of the balance bean and can do it by herself forward on the one little off the ground and will go on the regular balance beam, with help of course. In the first video, we luckily caught her very first summersault done all by herself.

Joe had a little project painting the fans for the kids rooms. Joe is very proud of himself.



In the last week of preschool they had a McDonalds thing for reading that apparently the Mayor is doing. They had Ronald McDonald there doing a magic show and then the Mayor came and read the kids a book. All the kids received a book and lunch.

Isabel's graduation from her first year of preschool. Only one student was missing, since she was sick. Her teacher was Ms. Dawnia, who Isabel loved so much! She really misses school.

End of the year school carnival

Isabel sporting her first pair of cowboy boots.

Cloth Diapers

Joe finally got the easter day videos up... So it's like you were there with us. Kinda boring but Isabel is still cute. =) (on side bar)

Isabel had her first soccer practice this week. That was fun to watch! She was hesitant and didn't quite understand what to do but she will get better. She didn't want to stop once she got all into playing. They played one game with "don't get hit by the soccer ball on the ground" and Isabel won every time. It was funny. She is pretty much the only girl on the team. There is one other girl but she is 2 years old and didn't really want to be apart of it at all, but it is supposed to be a 3-4 year old team. This should be a lot of fun to watch though! We have a little video of that... once the video uploader works...

Pretty much got all the major things for the baby Grafton that I have been wanting to order. I have been ordering everything online so far. It's been an interesting experience.  I have been finding some really good deals though!

I got our first set of cloth diapers today in the mail. I ended up ordering mixed gender ones so I'll be good for the next baby as well, covering all my bases. In this batch are mostly unisex and boy ones. They are so cute! I just hope that doing this will work and won't be too much work with the laundry. This brand I got are sunshine baby from e-bay. They had good reviews, so lets hope! Since there were about $5 each for - all in one, one pocket diaper and the name brand ones are more like $15-30 each. Getting name brand is way to expensive for me! Even though in the long run it would save money and all.  After I got the diapers out, Isabel wanted to put diapers on her dolls. She was excited about that. I notice when the diapers are at their largest settings it would be too big for Isabel. So hopefully these will actually last our next baby for a while unless he is a chunky!

The jean one is at the smallest setting and has a liner in it already. The love bag, is a wet bag for stinky diapers.  The 3rd row from the left are minky fabric ones (starts with the dots). It's hard to take pics of all of them sorry!

This is the 2nd shipment. I am missing 1 diaper so i'm gonna have to e-mail them about that one. lame. 1st row left: Minky type. The rest PUL fabric 

And we are back.....

Joe told me I needed to try and start blogging again. Seeing it's been a year since our last post maybe he is right! In church they were talking about how important journaling is and blogging is such a journal.

We take so many pictures of bells and her cuteness it's hard to keep up!

So what is going on this year of 2013...

Joe is working at Rustic log still and pretty much does whatever the boss wants him to do around the place; either working retail, deliveries, and produces products for customers. So far no complaints about work. ;). This coming August joe wants to go to Trinidad Junior College but we will see. We found out the certificate program he really wanted to do in Machining has been taken out of the curriculum and they don't know when it will be back. :(  He does want to go into diesel and heavy machining as well so we might just start that up and hope the that other machining classes come back. We will see. 

As for me, I have another year of school under my belt and I have one year to go until I graduate with my Bachelors in psychology! We found out this January that we are expecting a little bundle of joy in Aug 18, 2013! We are very excited! From getting pregnant, our lives went upside down for a little while. I ended up having hyperemeisis once again for the first trimester. I was pretty much put on bed rest and had a PICC line in for a couple of months. From being so sick I had to dropped out of school. Resulting in loosing my job as a resident assistant (RA) and because of that we had to move. The school was nice enough to let us stay on campus housing since I will be continuing school in the summer semester. Luckily for us a 3 bedroom opened up and they love me so much, they let us move into it. So all this happened in a short period of time. We got so much help from our ward which has been amazing! We don't really know many people and from this experience we have met some. Providing meals for us was such a blessing since no offense to joe.. he is not a really good cook (Love you joe!). One night the RS president came over and showed joe how to make "fast" jello which was fun to watch and the baby was happy to get =). Also moving was a hard, esp. when I can't do anything, so the RS cleaning the apartment was amazing help for us! So thankful for the ward out here helping us out. =)
I am now finally feeling back to normal; as normal can be being pregnant ;). Now I can focus on actually getting our house all unpacked and organized... before summer semester begins.

Isabel is going to preschool and since the school year started in Aug she has made great strides in social situations and we are very proud of her for that. She is becoming her own person with her big attitude. It's amazing to see how she was scared to even stand by a kid her own age and now she has conversations and makes friends easily. Her speech has gotten much better since she has started getting help from her speech therapist too. Isabel loves going to school and just loves her teacher. I can't believe that she is already 3 1/2 years old!!  She is getting to be so smart and fun to play with. Isabel will be starting a soccer league soon and she is very excited for that!

Isabel and I made a trip out to California to see Family. That will need to be a whole other post! Isabel had a blast going on a plane for the first time. The highlights: We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Leonard's house. Got to see my sister Jenny and her cute kids. Went to a San Diego Zoo Safari Park and saw many animals. We went on a "train" to see some of them, which Isabel loved. Went to Sea World and Isabel favorites were seeing Shamu, meeting Elmo and going on the sesame street rides, and meeting a christmas princess. We had so much fun in california!

 At a party slow dancing with a little girl

Isabel's Big girl Bed that Joe made her

 Isabel's first hair cut by my friend Christiana

 Isabel on Halloween, she pretty much dresses up in princess dresses every other day.

 Here are masks that Joe and Isabel made together. Isabel loves cats and often says she is a cat.

Easter was fun with bells. She was so excite to collect eggs and dye them too. She loves her Easter dress that her Grandma and Grandpa Leonard gave her. Whenever we take pictures of bells she now has her "poses" that she has to do. She is such a diva.

We found out yesterday that we are expecting a baby Boy! At first I was taken back and in disbelief that were going to have a boy. I thought for sure we would be having a girl. But I am so excited to shop for baby boy things! 20 weeks have gone and baby boy is starting to get big!

                                                                   I Love My Babies!!