The beginning of a great vacation

Evan was able to get some time off of work. So we headed to California to visit my grandma. Thankfully grandma was able to help me finish Evan's birthday quilt which I started months ago. I was unsure how to do the binding, and well I measured things wrong luckily grandma was able to help, therefore she called it a "practice" quilt.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No it's...

A BABY GIRL!!! (the picture above is how we told our parents we are going to be parents) Yes it's true the Norbys are having a baby! We have kept this secret long enough! Amber just hit the half way point (she is now 20 weeks along). The bundle of joy should arrive the end of December. Amber had an ultra sound at 19 weeks to determine the gender and measure the baby. She looks like quite the healthy little thing. Here are some answers to questions Amber gets a lot....

Q: "How are you feeling? Have you been feeling sick?"

A: "I'm good thank you. I was a little sick the first trimester, but nothing to complain about. I just ate a bunch and that kept me from feeling sick, which resulted in me gaining a third of my pregnancy weight in 2 weeks;). I can definitively tell that I'm pregnant. You know things like swollen feet (already? I know right!), acid reflex, and bigger boobs!"

Q: "Have you had any cravings?"

A: "Oh yeah! And it's so fun! Before I even knew I was pregnant I was craving tomatoes. They tasted like heaven. Other cravings have included salsa, pickles, olives, CHEESE-mostly Parmesan and mozzarella.

Q: "Did you want a boy or girl?"

A: "Evan was hoping for a boy first. I wanted a boy because I had a cute nursery in mind, but wanted a girl because my sister is having a girl a couple months before I'm due."

Q: "Do you have any names picked out?"

A: " NO! We had a couple boy names, but are struggling for girl names....but even when we figure one out we aren't telling! yup we are "THOSE" kind of people. I don't want your opinion or you stealing my name!!! Although we ARE open to suggestions."

Q: "Have you felt the baby KICK yet?"

A: "Yes! My 8-year-old niece kept reminding me that I should be feeling it soon. On August 1st I finally felt her kick. Evan got to feel her a couple days later when she was quite active. It is so fun to feel a little person moving around in there-Evan loves it too!"

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment...I love Belly pictures...It's cool to see the gradual changes!

Ok so not much belly growth in these shots, but I do have a little belly now... Here is a picture of me before I was pregnant (on left) on April 11. Here I am (on the right) at the height of my eat everything I can get my hands on phase just a few weeks later on June 6...gained a little weight, just not in the belly;)

If it's free it's for me!

Friday July 8th was "Cow Appreciation Day." Which means free food at Chick-Fil-A, provided you make a fool of yourself and dress up like a cow. Don't worry it's not that embarrassing because EVERYONE who was there looked like they were headed to a costume party. Those not dressed up felt foolish, since they had to pay for their meal. HA!!

Sara and EvanMe and Evan...The utters were his idea. I thought it was a nice touch. Evan filled his with water so that the fingers expanded more, which made his utter very heavy, and hung a little low;) Got Milk?

Sunday night Evan's sister and her kids came over for dinner. I made tacos. When uploaded this pictures I discovered one of the kids got a hold of my camera...I believe the following picture to reveal the culprit.And apparently this is how he views me...

After dinner we played a bunch of games. Including "rhino noes." Kallie makes quite the scary rhino!

The all American Holiday

We had a great Fourth of July this year. We started out early with a drive down Provo Canyon to see the Freedom Festival Parade. Which did not disappoint-the whole family enjoyed it. Then we had a flag raising ceremony after we had grandma's scones. Then lawn games and Popsicles. And of course a firework show. Evan was giddy as a school boy. The Fireworks were the biggest home fireworks I have ever seen. The debris got everywhere and it even scared one of the not so little kids.

Justin + Meagan

We traveled all through the night Thursday to Heber City, Utah to Evan's Grandma's house. Then on Saturday we celebrated Meagan and Justin getting married. It was quite the event. The weather was perfect. And Evan's younger brother even caught the garter. I loved when Justin fished for Meagan's garter and they played the theme song from COPS. Kallie and Lexi were flower girls, Klinton held the rings and Wade carried Meagan's dress. Instead of cake they had pie and added sparklers to the top as a topper, very clever.

Me and Evan

The whole fam bam

Anniversary...again

Evan had some tests and other school things to attend to once we got up to Phoenix. But once he finished that pesky school stuff we celebrated our 3rd anniversary in style (with a coupon of course) at the Arizona Grand Hotel. Evan in his new baggies in front of the hotel. I didn't get any pictures of the water park, but that was a selling point for us when deciding to stay there. It had 3 slides, a few different pools including a wave pool, and a huge lazy river. We spent most of time hanging out in the lazy river. With our "package" we got four passes to the park (so we went the day we checked in and the day we checked out) and breakfast for two at the lobby restaurant.
The night we checked in we both enjoyed our first trip to the Rain Forest Cafe. It was pretty fun. I don't know why people would take there kids there though, it's pretty scary.

Then we walked around the Arizona Mills Mall, which is quite large!

It's Summer in AZ

(Klinton in his "dog" goggles as he referred to them as)

Last weekend Evan's sister and her 3 kids came over for a swim. They have so much fun with uncle Evan tossing them around in the air and playing games. We've hit 100 degrees, so there is no looking back now until early October. After our swim Kallie stayed behind and we did some girlie stuff while the boys went with their mom to the model car races. Kallie and I did nails, went to Build a Bear (where Kallie had a gift card that was according to her "burning a hole in her pocket"), went to Target to score a couple deals on sunscreen, and made dinner together. All in all a pretty fun day!