The Name Game

I'm not sure what it is when it comes picking a name for your child. At first its a fun bonding experience for both parents, looking through the name book and sharing favorites. And with today's advanced sonograms, they usually know the gender beforehand so they have a few months to prepare. So you'd think it'd take the stress off. But, of course, it never does. For some reason, never usually matters what it is, the parents start to panic over the chosen name.

Where I am going with all of this is that we've decided to change our daughter's name. We still liked the first name, we just didn't feel that the middle name fit. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but we were planning on using a family name. So then I called that relative and explained so they wouldn't be shocked later at the official announcement. Thankfully the relative was very understanding, it could have been a lot worse. I feel really bad, because I had gotten their hopes up now only to break them. I can now see why some people don't bother to share names until the baby comes. So now we're doing the same thing. Zoe will still most likely be the name, but the middle name is secret until then, so stay tuned!

Shaffer Butte Camping Trip

We just came back from our Ward's camping trip. I was a little worried about how Bennett would handle this outing. This was his 3rd time camping, but he used to sleep inside his infant car seat before. We brought along his pack n' play and thankfully it did fit inside our tent. The start of the day was pretty rough. We had to drive to the top of a mountain just to get to the campsite, Bennett had missed his nap and wouldn't rest after we got everything set up. So we just listened to him scream for a while. But he went down very well when it was time for bed. Ironically I was the only one who didn't sleep well. It wasn't that anyone kept me up, I just was no longer tired for some reason. The following morning, the guys went paint balling with slingshots and the girls played Bocce Ball. Then the infamous Boise heat started getting to us so we broke camp. Enjoy the pictures!

The view from our campsite

Andrew -- armed and ready for paintball!

Bennett sleeping on the way home

Bright and sunny first thing in the morning

Chipmunk nibbling on a used marshmallow stick

Bennett and Bruno

Such a dirty face, very cute!

Our 4th of July

Our 4th of July was pretty fun. We tried some new dishes, some working out more than others. We tried a boneless ribs crock-pot recipe that turned out GREAT! I ate it and I don't really like meat much this pregnancy again. We also tried a turtle cheesecake that was a failure from beginning to end! While cooking it in the oven, some of the cooking grease escaped the pan and baked onto the bottom of the oven so we had to really scrub it afterward. Then part of the caramel crust hardened onto the pan so we really had to dig it out only to discover that it didn't bake all the through. So that part wasn't great.

We live right next to one of Boise's many parks and noticed a whole lot of traffic coming through our area so we suspected that was where the fireworks would be set off from. We just figured we'd wait and see how close it'd be. We had no idea just how close! It looked like they were being set off right behind our complex! We could practically feel the booms! Set off a few car alarms too, that's what those sirens are during the video. Amazingly, Bennett slept right through it all, we watched from outside our door. I doubt we'll ever have a better seat again!

Also we just found out that we were approved for our new apartment! We'll be moving around the middle of August, making our time here about a year. Hopefully we'll stay in this apt til Andrew graduates. It seems we never stay in one place for more than a year and a half. Not that I haven't loved our past places, but moving takes a lot of energy. Anyway, we're really excited about our new apt, its just what we wanted -- 2 bedroom with a washer and dryer and for only $10 more rent than we're currently paying! How lucky is that?!

We are doing well in general too, we're planning on attending the ward camping trip this weekend. It'll be an interesting challenge! Never camped with a toddler before. We're taking it easy this summer for the most part, and trying to stay cool. It gets pretty hot here, one day last week it was 102 degrees, in late afternoon! So needless to say we're running our air conditioning quite a bit!

Bennett is doing very well too, he's beginning to warm up to nursery. Last week when it was time to leave, he started to follow me, then turned around and ran back inside to play some more! That is definitely progress! His latest trick is bringing me my shoes, he's figured out we only wear them when we go outside. So after dinner sometimes, we take him to the park so he can run around. Its just too hot to do so during the day. Zoe is doing well too, she's been much more of a mover than Bennett was, we'll see if that holds true when she's born too. So that's our update!