4th of July 2014

In preparation for the day we talked about the flag and what it symbolizes and made tie dyed shirts. We had such a blast on the 4th. We woke up and Taylor made his famous pancakes and even obliged and made them into stars! The girls helped him and also helped me make some fruit ka bobs. We sang happy birthday to America and the girls both took a turn blowing out the candle. Afterwards we went to the Murray Parade. We had the perfect spot. Taylor's friend from work has a house that the parade passes by, so we pulled right in his driveway and sat on his grass! Both girls loved it and got a load of candy. Afterwards, Taylor took Sage to the pool. After naps we went to Jodie and McKay's house for a bbq and fun. The kids ran around all afternoon playing on the slip n slide, water balloons, jumping on the trampoline, water table and chased each other around with water shooters and played capture the flag. Jill brought her cotton candy machine and we grandma and papa brought sparklers and poppers. We stayed and watched fire works from the front yard and had a great view. The girls were exhausted, but were so good. They both stayed up until almost 11. It was such a fun day!

Cannon Taylor Fenton

Our boy has a name. We have been calling him Cannon for several weeks now. Although, I have some reservation to announce his name because there are a couple other names I really like, Cannon feels right. Just like my pregnancies with Sage and Harper, this first half has gone by extremely slow. I'm about 23 weeks and he is getting really active. I thought I would be feeling him a lot sooner being my third pregnancy, but I am just barely starting to feel him. We love this boy already and are so excited to meet him. Sage totally understands and is so excited too. She talks to my tummy and always wants to feel him move. She talks about him all the time. Harper is cute and copies Sage and talks to my belly. She obviously has no idea. I have a feeling Harper is going to be very smothering though. This little man is going to have two, great, big sisters. Cannon Taylor Fenton is already so very closed.

Sage Bug

Sage is as sassy as they come. She is a handful and needs lots of attention. She is stubborn and has the biggest attitude for such a little girl, but has a heart as big as her attitude. She is as sweet as they come and is really sensitive to others' feelings. She worries about others. She loves being a big sister and loves friends and her cousins. She also loves her grandmas and papas. She talks about them all daily. She always reminds us to say prayers and to read scriptures each night. She loves learning about the gospel. She loves hymns and is always wanting me to teach her a new one. Her favorite movie is Frozen. She loves going to the library for story time and dancing. She loves her gymnastics class. She loves "writing". She can write several letters, but usually just writes jibberish. She is excited for preschool in the Fall. She thrives on structure and routine. She is a little more apprehensive and hesitant to try new things. She loves being read to and having her back rubbed. She notices the little things and beauty around her. She still loves her baby dolls and is always singing to them and rocking them to sleep. She is also still an early bird and wakes up between 5:30-6 am everyday. We love everything about her and wouldn't change a thing about her! 

Our Harper Lee

Harper is a week shy of 17 months and is so much fun. She really has us all wrapped around her little fingers. Her personality develops more and more every day and we just love who she is. She is an observer, a cuddler, sly, funny, fearless and has just the perfect amount of sass. She is independent and can entertain herself. She loves playing with baby dolls and looking at books. She loves doggies and her blankie. She can sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or at least knows the tune and "sings" her own version to the tune of it. She can say, "mama", "dada",  "Sage",  "papa", "thank you", "bye" and her latest word is "no". She teases Sage and it is the funniest thing to watch. She loves the movie Frozen. If the song comes on the radio she points to the screen in our van wanting to watch it. She tries and copies Sage and do summersaults and is a cute little dancer. She gives the best kisses although she is getting a little stingy on giving them out lately. She has 4 teeth and 8 on their way in. We finally have her eczema under control. She loves the bath, but we can only bathe her a couple times a week because of her sensitive skin. She is still so easy going and such a great sleeper. She is an absolute joy. We love this girl. 

Our Little Mister

We are having a boy and could not be more excited! My doctor was kind enough to take a quick peek during my monthly appointment, however, our little babe was not very cooperative and the machine is on the office is not the normal ultrasound machine they use for 20 week checks, so the quality is not great. It's basically just to see the little heartbeat. However, with the peek that he got his guess was a boy. His guess what driving me crazy. I didn't want to spend the next 5 weeks thinking it was a boy and it actually be a girl. We would have been just as thrilled, but it's hard to have something in your head and not to start planning to find out it's not what you were expecting.

 After a couple days of complicating I decided to go get it done. Taylor thought it was a waste of money and said we just needed to be patient. Luckily I have made a little bit of money of my motherhood blog and decided that an early ultrasound was how I wanted to spend it! During nap one day I called around and found a place. They had a 3:30 apt and it was already 2:30, they said if I could start drinking water right away the apt was mine and that it was the last one they had of the day. I quickly downed 32 oz of water and found someone to watch my girls. Taylor luckily got off at 3:00 so I texted him the address of the place and told him to meet me there at 3:30.

Although, he thinks I am impatient and I am... he was happy to find out as well. The tech was confident that it is a boy, although gave a disclaimer that it is never 100% and that she has seen a girl look like a little boy because of swelling due to hormones. However, what we saw was not swelling... we're having a boy! Taylor keeps talking about "his boy"... if he only knew that "his boy" is going to be a mama's boy!

Harper of course has no idea what is going on and was just happy to get a blue lollipop. Sage has been saying for the last couple months in regards to whether she wants a brother or sister, "we just have to wait and see what Heavenly Father gives us." However, when we told her she was going to have a little brother she told us that she likes girls and wants another sister! That lasted about 30 seconds and then she was excited to have a brother.

We do not have a name for our little mister yet, which is driving me crazy because we knew our girls names right away. I feel like he should have a name... we sure love this nameless boy already!

Goldman Sachs

A couple months ago Taylor received a message from a recruiter asking if he would be interested in interviewing for Goldman Sachs. We quickly jumped on the opportunity and after a phone interview, 2 in person interviews and another phone interview, he was offered a job in their operations department! According to Fortune Magazine Goldman Sachs is ranked one of the best companies to work for. It is also very difficult to get a job there. In a recent article statistics showed thatess than 3% of 97,600 applicants for analyst and associate roles won a seat at the firm last year, making it twice as hard to get into as Harvard.We are so proud of him and grateful for his hard work and devotion to provide for our family. 

Just an update

So, I take a ton of photos on my phone and post most of them to instragram mainly for the fact that I can easily upload them to the photobook publishing site Mixbook that I use. However, I cannot figure out an easy way to get them off instagram to blogger. So with that said, that is the reason I have not been posting much. Well, that and let's be honest I am just starting to get out of this first trimester funk of exhaustion and survival mode! I do love blogging and am frustrated I can't upload the pictures here, but my whole purpose of blogging is to keep our family history and I am still doing that... just less on blogger.

Harper is as sweet as they come! She can say "mama", "dada" and is starting to say "hi" and  "papa". She also continues to learn new signs every day. She blows kisses from her bed when we put her to sleep. And she is still an amazing sleeper. She has been fighting the morning nap, but how can I complain when she sleeps 12 hours at night and takes a good afternoon nap? She survived Hand, Food and Mouth, which she had a really bad case of. Her poor skin is already so sensitive as it is, so it was rough. We actually have an appointment set with the dermatologist next month. Her hair is crazy and curly. We always get comments on her hair. Her favorite thing to do is look at books. She sits on the rocking chair with books and gibber jabbers to herself. She also likes playing with the little people and with baby dolls of course. She wants to color and play play dough, climb, do everything her big sister does. She loves her blankie.

Sage is a handful these days. She tests my patience and pushes my buttons just about every minute of the day, but we sure do love her. She keeps things exciting around here! She is full of energy and is always on the go. She requires a lot of attention and needs to be seen and heard. She has a very determined and outgoing personality. She is so helpful and is also so cuddly and loving. She tells me dozens of times a day how much she loves me-always to the moon and back! She is inquisitive and eager to learn. She is so proud that she can spell her name- S-A-G-E, SA-G-E. She says it over and over again. She has mastered climbing the ladders at the park and feels a huge sense of accomplishment. She is also taking gymnastics and can do a pretty impressive summersault. She is working on cartwheels and headstands. Baby dolls are still her favorite to play with, but she also loves her doll house and playing in the kitchen. She loves playing make believe and has the greatest imagination!

We love our girls and are so excited for this next little baby to join us. I'm 13ish weeks and just starting to come alive again. I seriously have been playing major catch up the last couple months because I seem to always be behind on laundry, meal planning or grocery shopping, dust that I usually never let settle has graced our bookshelf and my usual clean mirrors and windows have gone weeks with streaks. At the end of the day I know those things don't matter, but I am constantly reminding myself that. I should also mention that Taylor is amazing as always. He lets me sleep in just about every day, has fixed countless meals, given just about every bath to the girls this last little bit, gone grocery shopping for me and has done way more share of his laundry folding, which is both of our least favorite chore. He.is.amazing.

I'm kinda in love with this little family that I get to call mine!