Hatch Family Reunion 2013

Dave volunteered this year to plan the family reunion (even though usually it is the aunts and uncles that plan it). The 2 aunts and uncles that were in charge live far away and couldn't be there.  He made it a SUPER HERO theme, we used the avenger theme a lot.  The week leading up to the reunion was a little crazy.  Along with Dave's regular work hours as a dental assistant, he was assigned to photograph and video THREE for-sale houses.  And we were dealing with our roof covering being blown off at the same time.  I made a lot of the last minute phone calls and details/shopping for the reunion for Dave and packed up everything.  He was editing photos and videos up to the moment we left for Thatcher.  

We really enjoyed seeing everyone and I enjoyed having help with Ollie.  It is nice to give my back and neck a break from holding him. Grandma Kathy was so nice and watched Oliver a lot for me, which allowed me to participate and enjoy the reunion.  Thanks Kathy! Ollie loves her, she even got giggles out of him. 

The reunion began on Thursday 4th of July at lunch.  After lunch, the Hatch aunts and uncles had their annual family meeting while the big cousins played dodge ball/ kick ball and the little cousins made capes/masks and did little kid games.  

This was one of the little kid games.  We played super hero music while the kids ran around throwing their balloons in the air.  When the music stopped, a name was chosen and their balloon was popped. Inside the balloon was a piece of paper that has a command (like bounce on one foot) that the kid had to do.  They loved this game.

My awesome sister-in-law Julie! Love her!

Jeff and I keepin it cool in the gym.  The only room that had working A/C.

Fun Fireworks on 4th of July. We had a plethora of homemade ice cream to sample that night! YUM!

Cute Ollie Trying to Balance on the Chair

On Friday, we had mini games and team building activities.  Those were a lot of fun and then that night was the Pageant of Heroes and Skits, which was a blast.  Dave, Oliver and I dressed up. Dave was "BEARDO MAN" and I was "THE AMAZING UNIBROW" and Oliver was our offspring: "UNI-BEARD".   Everyone thought I was such a mean mom because I didn't think through the fact that ripping off Oliver's unibrow might be uncomfortable.  It was like a bandaid.  He cried, and I felt bad.  Sorry Ollie!

Dave hosted the pageant. He had everyone come up on the stage and explain their costume, their nemesis, their super powers, etc.  

UL: Jake the Waffler -The Truth Syrup  
 UR: Megan The White Ballerina--Super Power is kicking people and her nemesis is the BAD DANCER    
 LL: Rose Wonder Woman--according to her daughter she kills with her evil black eyes
 LR: The Platypus Family-superpower is DANCING

UL: Mason--Batman, why is he so cool? Because he is BATMAN.
UR: Tom--S.E.T.H.->Super Excellent Truss Hero
LL: Caleb--Awesome Baseball Player Man--nemesis is the FAST BALL
LR: Donna--The Quill, saving the world, one grammar correction at a time.

We finished up the two day affair by watching The Avengers.  Good times.  The next day I went to my friend Katie Williams house to visit and she found a high chair for me at a garage sale for only $10.  I'm excited Ollie is going to get to start eating solids within a few months :).  I was laying Ollie down for a nap at Katie's and he fell asleep in my arms while feeding him.  When I was about to lay him down he must have had a hilarious dream because he just started deliriously laughing in his sleep.  He has never done that before and it made me laugh so hard.  That kid cannot go to sleep unless I feed him.  I don't know if that's a bad habit, but he sure does like having a full belly.  Grandpa Dan put it right--holding him is like holding a heavy sack of cement.  haha.  Slow down little Ollie! 

I snapped this little picture in church because I finally was able to capture Oliver's concentrating DUCK FACE.  It cracks me up.  Plus, he really loves the hymn books at church.  He stares at the music and tries to grab the notes. :)

 

Darn Roof..

Ok Can I just say, I HATE OLD HOMES.  It has been one thing after another with this old Triplex we have.  It seems that every month there is something that costs money and that needs to be fixed.  But, I guess I can't complain because we only pay about $165 or so toward our mortgage.  SO I guess it all evens out:  the money we spend on repairs compared to the money we save on not having to pay much rent.  But anyway, yea the first monsoon of the year hit, we were listening to the wind howling outside. We were sitting on our bed playing with Oliver and we hear a huge THUD.  I look out the window and what do I see?  Our roof on the ground yipee.  Unfortunately the wood underneath got wet from the rain, so Dave ran to home depot and called the Elders Quorum president who called like 4 guys to come help. They came within 30 minutes.  We were so grateful.  They showed such compassion and charity.  I'm going to be making a big batch of something yummy and bring it by their houses soon.

It was a really busy week.  Our roof blew off on Monday, the insurance guy came Tuesday night, I called around Wednesday trying to get some roofers to come give us a quote.  I called like 4 companies and only one has come so far, and we still don't have a quote from him.  

We had a tar coated plastic roof.  It completely got ripped off.

                     I had to snap a picture of our awesome ward members at work :).

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

Summer is here! It is like 115 degrees outside. The last thing I want to do is go outside, but we get so bored inside. When the weather was nicer, we went on walks everyday, but now we can't because Oliver sweats to death in his carseat/stroller. We are trying so hard not to run our A/C too low, but boy it is hard.  I could do it when Oliver wasn't born, but now that he is here, it is hard for me to see him sweating and uncomfortable.  Spring/Summer brings BUGS. YUCK. There are few things I loathe more in this world than bugs! I try so hard not to spend money on spraying the place, but when it reaches the point that there are more bugs in our house than out of our house I know it is time. I'm SOOO grateful I haven't seen a roach yet.  Those things put me right in to a panic attack.  I can handle most other bugs, but NOT THE SEWER ROACHES!  Every year we spray and these big nastys show up dead RIGHT by our front door:

This picture doesn't do them justice.  They sit there and twitch for days and you should see me trying to get in and out of the house, especially with Oliver in his carseat.  I LEAP.  Why don't you just move them you ask? Because that's Dave's job.  DAVE WHERE YOU AT?

Ok I'm done talking about bugs.  I can't believe I even let them take that much space of my blog.  Anyway, on a much different note.... can I just say I am so grateful for the priesthood and to married to a worthy priesthood holder, especially now that we are parents.  There are times when something is wrong with your baby and you don't know what, and  you wish more than anything you could help them, communicate with them, take their pain away.  Unfortunately it doesn't work like that.  But I am SO glad that Dave can give him a blessing in the name of Jesus Christ and that it brings us all comfort.

My goal as of late is trying to figure out what Oliver's natural sleep rhythms are and when he should go down for nap.  Well this kid keeps me on my toes.  There is no consistency, except he does go to sleep at night around the same time every night.  Most nights he wakes me up once or twice to eat, sometimes more, sometimes less, so I never know what to expect.  Some days he wake up at 5:30 and is ready to go and some days he wakes up at 7.  The days he wakes up at 5:30, he naps at 8, 11, and 2ish.  The days he wakes up at 7, he naps at 9ish, 1ish, and 4 ish.  His naps usually are about 30 minutes to an hour.  Yea, we are still working on figuring out a set pattern so I know what to plan for!

Every time I change Ollie's diaper I sing him the ABC song.  Now he looks forward to me singing it to him and smile at me as I sing.  He also loves looking at himself in the mirror.  I make sure we do that at least once a day.  It is a good developmental activity.  The FIRST thing he does when he looks in the mirror is look at himself and he gets this big ole gummy smile.  Then its back to business and he glares himself down and tries to reach for himself.  His concentration face consists of the cutest duck lips ever.

The first pic was him smiling at himself, but then he saw my phone (which he is fascinated with the cover) and started looking at me instead.  The second is him reaching for himself.  We call his reflection Cordelius (inspired after Ann of Green Gables and her imaginary window reflection friend Cordelia). :)

Oh I got pictures of Ollie doing his tummy time and wanted to post those for all to see.

He does pretty well with it at first and then all of sudden he head plants.  Then lifts it again and then head plants to the floor again. haha.  He is getting there.  It's hard to have such a big head!

I took these photos in front of him while he was on his tummy, and like I said, he likes my phone cover so much he was reaching for it and it looks like he is taking 'selfy' pics.  You can kind of see his concentrating face here (but usually his lips a little more duck like):

OK, i'll change subject off Ollie for just a sec (even though he is my favorite subject).  So Dave is working as a dental assistant and doing real estate photography for some agents in town.  He also assists a photographer Spencer Boerup as needed stretching canvas for him and going out on shoots with him.  Some months he is super busy and other months they don't really need him.  Fortunately, the real estate group he works for has changed there business model and doing photos and videos on a lot more of their properties, which means more business for Dave:).  He is also contacting other local agents trying to gain more business.  Dave's kind friend Spencer has been loaning him his really nice camera and lens for the shoots, but because business is picking up we thought now is probably the best time to get a new camera, and the shoots will pay for it. We didn't want to keep imposing on Spencer.  So, Dave just got a new camera today, and is saving up for a lens.  This will take the quality photos AND video he needs of the houses.  :) He felt a little guilty buying it, but at least it is a tool for him to earn money with.  He also has a website of sample work at company84.com.

Dave playing around with his new Canon. We are grateful for his self-taught skill in photography because with my decision to stay at home with Oliver, we definitely can't spend like we used to. Dave also just applied for dental school for the next school year.  He applied 3 years ago but didn't get in (we think because his application got in too late).  He is finally ready to apply again, and his DAT score are just barely making the time frame before they expire.  So here we go, we know it's not ideal to use old DAT scores, but he took some of his science classes SO long ago, we don't think he would remember anything if he retook the DAT.  SO we are going on faith, and hoping that some of his life experiences since 3 years ago will look good to some schools.

We had the missionaries over yesterday (Sat) and it our ward now has elders AND sisters.  Then the sisters call and tell us there are 3 of them.  So we had 5 missionaries over at our house.  I served BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches with potato wedges and baked beans.  While I was getting things together I had Ollie in his Bumbo on the table. Dave was sitting next to him on his Ipad and I look over and Oliver had the package of buns in his hand and was smushing them against his face.  I thought, 'hmm odd that dave gave that to him to play with'.  Then Dave said 'Britt, why did you give him the buns to play with?'  Sneaky Ollie in fact had reached them somehow and with his awesome stomach and arm muscles lifted them up and was having a blast with them while dave and I accused each other. haha.  Here is a pic of that.

Today Dave and I finally were called on to give a talk in church.  We've been in our ward for a year and a half and they finally got us.  It was good though, we spoke on obedience and keeping the commandments and Dave tied in the constitution and I tied in listening to a prophet.  A few people came up to us and wanted copies of our talks and we got lots of compliments, so I guess that means we did a good job.  Anyway, we are excited for this week!  We get to go to Thatcher for a family reunion that Dave is in charge of.  Pics and stories to come :)

This week activities. Welcome to the new and improved blog.

Well here I am again after how many years of not blogging? I have my sister-in-law Cadie to thank for this. I have been writing a little journal for Oliver as a Word Document and thought 'why not just write it as a blog? Then I can still print it off and store it as a journal for him with pics and everything. And if I write it as a blog, our loved ones can keep in touch with our lives if they so wish. So that is what I am going to do. SO... if you don't like all the nitty gritty details I write, then just don't read the blog. :) Just know I am writing this with the perspective that this is a family journal. With that said, this week was a pretty good one. Oliver has begin to give kisses. Dave asks "Will you give me kisses?" and ollie opens his mouth against our cheek. Not like a nursing open mouth, just half way open. And he loves the way Dave says kisses. It cracks him up! Our two big activities that we do every week is Story/Activity time at the library for babies 18 months and under and swim lessons. Oliver loves both activities. He likes to get out of the house and have things to see. I wish I had pics, but when it is just me and him, it is hard to get pics. Story time has lots of other babies and we sing songs, read stories, interact with a puppet, and wiggle around. Ollie just sat and stared at everyone. He loved it though. The other activity is swimming. He LOVES the water. It instantly relaxes him. I know most people think "swimming lessons, for a 3 month old?" But it really is a lot of fun and he is actually learning things too! And the best part is it is free up to 6 months of age. Ollie's new trick that he does is floating with my help of course). I hold his neck with one hand and my other hand is on his forehead. His bottom floats on its own and he just floats around the pool with me moving him around. We even practice putting his ears under the water, he startles at that at first but then gets used to it. It is a different noise under the water! I wish we had a pool, I'd probably go swimming everyday. (

Oliver is starting to support his head SO much better. It still gets a little wobbly, but he is doing great. His tummy time was COMPLETELY different this week than it has been in the past! (Man I need to get a pic of that too. Sorry!) He lifts his head completely up and looks around. I'm like "WHO IS THIS BABY?" I can see him crawling before we know it! He can't sit on his own, so I put him in the Bumbo on the table sometimes so I can do dishes. He sits in it and looks like such a little cute munchkin. His little feet stick out of the seat barely and his chubsters take up the whole seat. He is cute. Here is a little photo of him.

Other new news this week, I got Mastitis, for the SECOND time! Mastitis affects breastfeeding women a lot. It gets really inflamed, red, SUPER sore, and lumpy. The ducts become clogged and infected. They say when you get it to let your kid feed A LOT to try to unclog it. THe first time I had it I did that and I felt it unclog. This time, nothing seemed to help. I woke up one night and my whole right side was in PAIN. Wednesday I felt sick. I had flu-like symptoms and was extremely weak and sore. I had to still take care of Ollie and could barely carry him around. One time I was changing his diaper and felt so dizzy I just laid on the ground so I didn't faint. I went to the doctor and got an antibiotic. Hopefully that helps and it doesn't ever come back! If not I have to go get an ultrasound.

Because I have been so sore and my back has hurt so bad from lifting Oliver, I told Dave we need to do yoga twice a week to strengthen my muscles so I can handle carrying Oliver. We are doing P90X yoga and we did it last night and this morning I woke up and could barely move. haha. It definitely didn't help, but over time I think it will.

Last thought of the day, to save money and to follow the council of the prophets, Dave and I are trying to build up our 3 month supply food storage. 3 month supply is meant to be cooked with and used so it will save us money buying in bulk and when things are on sale and with coupons (yes I have begun couponing). I have found a few websites that I have found useful: everydayfoodstorage.net and thefoodstorageshopper.com and foodstoragemadeeasy.net are blogs with useful recommendations and recipes etc. A couponing 101 website I refer to a lot is thekrazycouponlady.com. Also I signed up for a website that is about 5 bucks a month that does a weekly meal plan according to the weekly ad deals and gives you a shopping list and everything. I love not having to meal plan. It saves me so much time! The website is dealstomeals.com. So just in case anyone was wondering, those have helped. We are getting it all slowly but surely. Plus we are going to be asking for a wheat grinder this Christmas and other food storage cooking devices :).

Oh, one more thing. So I have had a CHALLENGE my whole life making a good chocolate cookie. They either go flat, or are crunchy and hard. Well recently I made these ones on the left and posted it to facebook saying WHY?! And I think I got judged a lot by my friends that I couldn't make a cookie. I guess that is Mormon Housewife 101. Whoops! So I had to redeem myself and here are the results! I think I am finally getting the hang of it! YAY! SO do I pass? Anyway, first blog DONE! Love you all! :)

Catch up from December to March...

Wow, life has been a little on the crazy side. To catch up with some pictures and good times... While Dave and I are busy, we enjoy doing things together like watching movies, playing games, hiking, etc. We got the chance to jet down to Sedona to hike amongst the BEAUTIFUL red rock!





I forgot to mention that my really good friend, old roommate, and college classmate Jessica got married in December and I got the chance to throw her a PRINCESS bridal shower with Bridgette. We had a good time, and Dave and I enjoy having Jessica and Joseph to be our game buddies now!

Like I said, it was a Princess theme, so we were all goofs and put on Princess temporary tatoos.

And of course RING POPS!


So the weather here has been PRETTY crazy, luckily the snow is all melting and almost gone... WOO! But at one point our trash can and recycling can was being held hostage under a mound of snow that was bigger than our car...after a few weeks, the trash bags that were lining the wall in our garage started smelling BAD so we dug in, making a cave in the process.




So a new emerging hobby of mine is decorating cupcakes! I got an ADORABLE cupcake book that has decorating ideas and is pretty simple too. So I decided to make Valentine cupcakes that are supposed to look like a box of chocolates for my visiting teaching sisters. Some friends came over to decorate with me and we had a great time! We had cupcakes coming out of our ears! We were supposed to find a cute valentine box to put the cupcakes in, but I couldn't find them, so we bought regular cheap chocolate heart boxes from Walmart, and cut out the plastic holding the chocolates.


THEN we baked and frosted all the cupcakes



THEN the decorating began!


Renee is an art major, of course hers were amazing!


Dave's cupcake for me! Ahh...


The final results...



After the cupcake fun we decided to play a boardgame names Quelf. If any of you have played that game, you know it is just hilarious, and makes you do all kinds of crazy things! So this is how we all looked by the end of the game...


So one of the reasons things have been crazy lately is because I have been studying and studying and studying for my National Board Dental Hygiene Examination. They pretty much test on every class I have ever taken since I was a freshman in college. In order to get my license for dental hygiene, which means in order to get a job, I have to pass this test. NO PRESSURE... right! So I have neglected Dave, friends, cleaning, cooking, shopping etc for awhile so I could study during every free moment. Well I took the test March 18th of my Spring Break. It was long, boring test where every question had two good answers and I just had to pretty much guess which one was the best. I decided that after my test I wanted to do something fun. SO we did the Disney Give a Day, Get a Day and went down to Camp Verde with some friends to paint a church that helped children after school and Dave and I each got a free ticket!




My test was in Phoenix, so we went to Havasu that night to pick up my sisters. We left the next day (Friday) and went straight to Huntington Beach. I got to say, all of Spring Break was SUCH nice weather, until FRIDAY our BEACH DAY! We showed up and it was SO WINDY! But we braved it and were going to spend the day at the beach until the wind blew us away! So we had fun having a little sandy picnic, picking up shells, taking pictures, etc. Brooke, Liz, and Dave went and played with the huge waves in the water, I was not about to submit myself to that FREEZING water! And they sure paid for it later, being cold the whole rest of the day. Something horrible, but great, that happened while we were at the beach was we lost our keys. Dave apparently has no concept of containment (like purses) and left the keys on the sand next to some other stuff. When we were about to pack up, Dave wanted to run down at take pictures of the famous pier, so us girls packed up the camp and walked over there to meet him. While packing up we were flinging dirt all over the place cleaning our towels and such. We got over to Dave, took some pictures and started walking back to the car. On the way Dave asked where the keys were. I said that I thought he had them. And that is were the panic sets in. We decided to go back to where we were sitting by the beach and searched all over. We kept sifting through the sand, being scared that we were only covering them up more if they were there. Dave decided to go check the car and make sure they weren't inside. The girls were emptying all our stuff and searching all the bags. And meanwhile I kept sifting through the sand where we were sitting. What is touching about this story is that while we were all searching our different areas, we all said prayers (we found this out later when we were talking about it). We needed Heavenly Father's help because we had no other keys, no other way to get home, and were parked in meter parking. I open my eyes after the prayer and there is my little fry's keychain card poking out of the sand. Let me tell you, God hears and answers our prayers. I immediately had to kneel down and thank him for helping us. But anyway, here are some fun pictures of us at the beach..courtesy of Dave!

I just had to laugh so hard at this one... Brooke's "Baywatch" run... she would be mad if she knew it was on here!


My hair all up in Dave's face!


Us girlies laying out... or trying to get warm!




A few of the many shells we found


Us girls... Sister love!






The group beneath the pier...


Here we are at Disneyland. We had such a good time! Our first picture of the day on Jungle Cruise.


Other fun pics...












Now we are back to school after the fun vacation. And now I actually have time to write on our blog! Yay for being done with boards! I think I find out in 2 or 3 more weeks if I pass. YIKES!