W is for Waves

This is Amy waving to Grandma Carol from their boat:



This picture is from when we went Tuesday night to the beach for a romantic walk (with Amy). When we went near the water Amy was rather nervous. I put her down on the sand (standing up holding on to my leg.) When a wave came to where we were, it was bigger than we thought it would be. It got her wet to her waist and scared her. So we took off her clothes and changed her diaper. We put her in her car seat without clothes, and she fell asleep on the way back to Grandma and Grandpa's. We thought she looked rather cute.















When we went to another beach on Friday with Deborah and her kids, Amy was not scared anymore. She loved the waves and pretty much everything about the beach.

X is for XOXOXO; Y is for Youth Speaker; Z is for zzzzz's

X is for XOXOXO.

We really appreciated the hospitality we enjoyed so much. Lyle and Carol spoiled us so much, taking us out to eat all the time, buying Amy birthday presents and having the party, taking us to the games, etc, etc, etc. Carol didn't let us do any work so we could just enjoy our vacation - which we did very much. It was so fun to be with them.

We also loved and appreciated our time with Lance and Deborah and their kids. They were very good to us. Thank you Joe and Jake for letting us have your room. And thanks to the whole family for taking care of/ playing with Amy so we could go to the temple. And for a million other things you all did for us. We loved our vacation!


Y is for Youth Speaker.

Nate Parks (Lance's son) gave a talk in church on Sunday. He did a great job and made us all laugh - which was one of his main objectives. We enjoyed visiting their ward. It was especially nice for me to have so many people to help me keep Amy from causing too much chaos at church. Matt even took her out for a little while in Sunday School - something he rarely gets the chance to do - leaving me to listen. During preisthood/ Relief Society Amy wanted to nurse. To my delight, the mother's lounge shared a wall with the primary room. So I got to listen to singing time. It was marvelous! They clearly have more children in their primary than we do.


Z is for zzzz's.

We drove to and from California through the night for Amy's sake (and ours.) She slept so well both times. And she was pretty happy on the few occasions when she was awake. It was marvelous! And Matt and I did fine, just stopping to sleep for 2 hours on our way there. We enjoyed listening to The Work and the Glory in the car.

The Park, Hair, and Smiles

When we were in California, Carol kept teasing us about how many pictures of Amy we take and how it won't be the same with our next kid. I'm sure she is right although I take hope in the fact that my sister, Salli, take TONS of pictures of her kids still, and she has three. Only problem is I'm not so cool as Salli in this way. Although I never thought I'd be a regular blogger. Maybe there is hope for my future children yet.
Anyway, the point is that yesterday we went WAY overboard, and it was so fun! So all these pictures and videos are from yesterday alone, and they aren't even half of the ones we took. We loved her outfit - thank you Carol for the new birthday shirt - and we had never put her hair up before. (Matt calls this hairdo a fountain, and my sister, Laurel calls it Jack Jack hair.) We thought she looked ADORABLE! My last comment about Amy before we get on to the pictures is that in a few of these when she's playing at the park, I think she looks like a miniature version of Addy Fell. Those of you who know Addy, what do you think?

A new trick:


I love delighted shrieks instead of upset shrieks:


On the bridge:




Playing on the swing:

Amy's new dress

Here are Amy and Grammy playing a game. (I just had to throw this into this post because it's so cute I have to show all of you. It doesn't really go along with the rest of the post though.)



I guess it's a little related to the rest of the post. Amy's new dress is from Grammy. It's so beautiful and looks so pretty on Amy that I wanted to show all of you.

Katelyn's Party and Sibling Dinner

Before I post about the trip we just took to California, I want to post a little about the weekend before we left. We were so busy, I didn't get the chance.

Saturday afternoon (the 23rd) we went to our friend, Katelyn's birthday party. She turned 4. It was very fun! There was a little pool and a slip-n-slide which Amy and I played in. After the party, Amy posed for a photo shoot.

Highlights:

















That night we went to La Parilla Latina. It is an authentic latin food place around the corner from my parents' house. They introduced us to it; it's now an Armstrong family favorite. So we invited Matt's siblings there for our every-other-month sibling dinner. The food was good, but my favorite part is the atmosphere. They have karaoke singing every night. So Matt serenaded us. He and I also got to dance while another man was singing. We had a lot of fun!


This is the man that was singing when we danced. He was really good.















Here's Matt singing away (or pausing to smile for the camera.) He's so cute!















The siblings:
(Matt, me, Dean, Robin, Brent, Susan, Melanie, Brent - not pictured: Lance and Deborah - we miss them at our sibling dinners.)

To all more experienced parents

Now that Amy is 1, the time to get her a front facing car seat is coming closer. (We're not quite ready to be done with the carrier that we can just bring in the house without waking her up. I love that. But before long, it will be time to change.) So I was just curious if any of you parents have opinions of what you did/ didn't like in the car seats you've gotten. What kind of features should we look for? Do you have favorite brands or even specific car seats? We have been pleased with graco so far and would be happy to get another graco car seat. I plan to do some research/ price shopping before we get one, but I thought this would be a good way to start the process. Thanks!

LDS Church position on Same-sex Marriage

I've sometimes struggled with how to describe, in secular terms, the negative effects on society that legal same-sex marriage would have. Religiously I think it's much easier, but from a secular/freedom standpoint, it's a bit trickier. (See, I can hardly even describe what it is I struggle describing!) Anyway, I am really impressed with this article from the LDS newsroom. I've never heard it explained so well. Read the whole thing!

--Edit on Tuesday, 2-Sep

Here is a great list of examples of why traditional marriage is so important. It's easy for many to say "Ah, I don't care. They can do it if they want. As long as they don't bother me any." These are great examples of why it matters to all of us.

--Edit on Monday, 8-Sep

Here is another great list of reasons why this issue is so important. That some of these things could actually occur - and they will if this passes - makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Check out this Hair

Goodbye Heisses. We'll Miss You!

Some of our favorite friends in our ward, the Heisses are moving. We are really sad about it. But excited for them too.

Here are a few recent pictures of Rachel at our house:






































































Have fun in Egypt!

I Love you, Amy!

I Am a Mother

I'm going to post this on three of the blogs I post on so more people see it. Sorry for those of you who read all those blogs. I just loved this book!!!

I Am a Mother by Jane Clayson Johnson

It's the story of an LDS woman who chooses to be a stay-at-home mom rather than continue in her successful, high profile career. She refutes myths the world would have women believe about motherhood being inferior somehow.

My sister, Laurel recommended this book to me - no surprise. We talked about it yesterday, and she said that she was surprised how much it touched her because it was already all what she totally believed in. I felt that way, too. Her story was encouraging and inspirational and fun to read. She had great things to say about motherhood. Reading her book is quite similar to reading Elder Ballard's conference talk from last conference in that it makes you just feel good about being a mom and takes off a bit of the ridiculous and unnecessary pressure we moms sometimes put on ourselves. Enjoy!

Punny Punny

No one knows how to spell that.

Sunday night Matt and I were goofing around when he randomly put his suit coat on his head. It made him look bald. I decided that bald isn't his best look. I told him bald doesn't suit him. He replied that the suit balds him.

I thought it was hilarious. You might have had to be there. Sorry if none of you thought it was funny. I really enjoy Matt's wit. Especially in certain moods, he's really funny.

Lagoon

I'm way behind on all the things I want to post, so time to get started.

We were really lucky to get to go play at Lagoon twice this summer and not have to pay for it! We went on July 19th for Matt's work party. This time we brought Amy, and I was so glad we did!

We started out by going to Lagoon-A Beach and playing in the water. Amy really had fun. That's why we were glad we brought her. We went on little slides with her and let her walk (while holding her hands) and crawl all around in the water. It was so fun to play all together in the water.











































After lunch there were prizes given away for employees. After a while, the announcer told us of a prize of a scrapbook tote with lots of materials in it that they were giving away. Now we aren't scrapbookers in our house so that prize really wouldn't suit us. So Matt told me that's what we would win and that he would laugh hard if we did. So of course, we did. Someone else really wanted that prize who had won a nice Maglight flashlight set. So we traded. But we did laugh quite a bit about Matt calling it.

The other funny thing about that day at Lagoon was when we were trying to determine what rides Amy could go on. We thought it would be fun for her and fun for us to watch her ride the kiddie rides.

While Matt was off asking someone about a particular ride, I checked on Amy who was riding in the stroller. She was totally asleep with her head resting on the tray thing of her stroller. We decided that was not the time to bring Amy on rides. Rather than take turns waiting in super long lines by ourselves, we just decided to head home.

Here's Amy sleeping in the stroller. (We reclined her back so she could be more comfortable and more shaded.

Aaaahhh!

Look at Amy's Tongue