Nothin' but Nathan

June and July

Having this new baby in our family has been so special.  Sweet little Nathan never lacks for arms to snuggle him.  He gets lots of hugs and kisses and cuddle time.  We are enjoying all the moments of our last newborn baby.  We love his yawns and his funny facial expressions.  We love watching him suck on his tongue in his sleep.  We love holding his tiny little hands and marveling at his perfect littleness.  He smells like heaven and looks like heaven and his perfect skin feels like heaven.  What a blessing this little boy has been in our family.  We seriously cannot imagine our crew without him.

Backpacking Trip

July 2016

6th annual Turkey Creek backpacking trip

These are some good dads. Arthur and Chuck took our four oldest children and the two Breinholt boys on their annual backpacking trip up in Turkey Creek for three days and two nights.  They hiked and hiked and hiked and fished and fished and fished, and came home nice and dirty!  So basically, a perfect backpacking trip.

  

After three days of backpacking food, they stopped at Boss Hog's in Pagosa Springs for some REAL food!  And those boys put away some pretty big burgers!

4th of July

July 4th, 2016

ABQ, NM

We enjoyed a great 4th of July at home.  First up was our ward's pancake breakfast, followed by a neighborhood celebration in the Steel's neighborhood.  Sydney and Bennett loved the fire engine, and we all enjoyed refreshing snow cones.  We watched 1776 in the afternoon and that evening we attempted homemade ice cream.  That was a big FAIL-- after churning for over 6 hours, it was still the consistency of soup! But the fireworks and glow sticks with the Garasi family were fun, and we just put the ice cream in cups like frosty's.  It was a fun day!

June Tidbits

National Donut Day!

I always love a good excuse to eat a donut.  

And when it's free, that's even better!  Thank you Krispy Kreme!

New tile in the kitchen

We had scheduled to our kitchen tiled a week before Nathan was due.  As it turned out, I had the baby, and the tile went in when he was a couple of days old.  It actually worked out perfectly because kind friends were bringing us dinner before my mom arrived anyway, so it was a great time to be without a kitchen.  We LOVE how it turned out!

Nona

Just thank goodness for my mom who came to help for a week.  We always love spending time with Nona, and I'm especially grateful for her coming to serve our family after each of our babies.

Daphne's Mabel Costume

While my mom was here, I asked if she would help me work on Daphne's CMT costume.  It was a super complicated pattern and required both of us to figure it out.  Mom did most of the work, but I helped and I LOVE how it turned out!  So, so darling!  We had to get that side shot to show off her bustle! Daphne looked great in it.

Mary Poppins at Vivian Awards

In May, I was down at Albuquerque Little Theater renting some props and set pieces for Pirates of Penzance.  One of the staff saw me and asked when the baby was due, and if I would be interested in singing a song from Mary Poppins for their annual Vivian Awards--an evening of awards and entertainment where they recognize outstanding performers and crew members from their recently finished season and introduce a couple of shows from their next season.

It was a bit of a gamble because I was due 10 days before the Vivians, but I said I would.  Thank goodness Nathan was born 11 days early, and that gave me about three weeks to recover before performing.  As it was, I barely fit into the skirt they gave me to wear, and was a nervous wreck, but vocally I think it went just fine.  Hopefully by the time auditions roll around, I can have the baby weight off and be ship shape and ready to put my best foot forward!

Drop the Mic Show Choir Camp

Dallin and Daphne participated in this show choir camp the week that Nona was here--another reason I was so glad she was there that week since my two biggest helpers were gone all day M-F of that week.  They really wanted to do it because it's the last time they'd get to sing under Mr. Prior's direction since he's off to Columbia to get his Master's degree.  They had a lot of friends participating and had a great time!

CMT/Courtney

Since the Amsdens have moved to Colorado Springs, we got to have Courtney stay with us the week of CMT!  Here are Daphne and Courtney decorating their hats for their costumes.  We were happy three of the Amsden kids could come be in CMT this year even though they don't live in ABQ anymore!  

First time out with 7 

Always gotta document the first time I go out by myself with all the kids including the newest baby.  I took them all to see Finding Dory on 5 Dollar Tuesday!  Great movie, and everyone was good, except for Bennett who kept trying to escape.  I must say that going out with 7 kids isn't so bad when three of them are really helpful.  4 kids with no helpers is much scarier.

Sydney Turned 6!

Sydney turned six years old on June 25th.  Due to CMT, we had a small family celebration that weekend and a bigger friend party a few days late.