insta-jam for june!

I took a LOT of pictures this month. That just means my life is super interesting, right?

1: We were having some beautiful June weather, so we went out for a walk one night. Of course, it started raining, and Michael didn’t have a jacket so we ended up waiting awhile under a tree!

2, 3 & 4: We stopped at the playground on our walk. I’m glad we’re both such big kids… but swinging while pregnant does not feel so good. Don’t try it.

1: Breakfast time for piggies! They are always so happy and alert when I greet them in the morning.

2, 3 & 4: Just plain cuteness! I love those Juni lips.

1: My first ever oven-roasted chicken. I even made gravy! It was so easy and delicious and definitely worth buying the whole chicken. We ate it for about a week I think!

2: Homemade stir-fry. This was a new recipe for me, too! I was so proud of myself for actually cooking some real meals this month (for some reason, I am just not easily motivated to cook during pregnancy. It’s so weird because I used to cook all the time before). I’m sure Michael appreciates anything that isn’t frozen pizza or hotdogs.

3: A wild bunny we saw when we were out walking! At the end of our walk, we saw a run-over bunny and I busted out sobbing because I thought it was the same one.

4. Panda came camping with us. I guess he was scared of the dark since he was hanging out by the lantern!

1: New sunglasses because my pink and purple ones broke.

2: Cheap clothes I got for munchkin. I’m super excited about those little overalls!

3: The free Target beauty bag I got in the mail. Yay!

4. Michael learned a hard lesson: never send a pregnant lady to the store alone, because she WILL come back with donut holes (not like he minds)!

1: As you already know, Kroger does not have rainbow Twizzlers, so I “settled” for this red pack of Starbursts instead. They were so good! Mmm.

2. The next morning, I woke up to this love note on the kitchen counter.

3. I fell and hurt my knee pretty badly. Michael came home early from work to take care of me, since I couldn’t even put any weight on it, let alone clean it and wrap it myself (we actually didn’t even have many first-aid supplies, so he had to go buy some. Lesson learned)! I’m so grateful for my buddy who is always looking out for me.

4. One morning I woke up to this surprise- a cute game on the tablet! It’s called Kinectimals and Michael knew I would love it, so he downloaded it before I got up and then woke me up to surprise me.

1: I surprised Michael with freezie pops! Who knew you could get a big box of them at the Dollar Tree? He was thrilled!

2: We went out for milkshakes, and ended up getting an extra one for free because they messed up my first one. YUM!

3: Poor Michael studied for HOURS for this network intrusion exam he took at work. He passed, of course!

4: We got a piano! Michael was and still is so excited about this and I can’t wait to hear him play more often.

1: Balloons my mom got for the double baby shower we had with cousin Nicole!

2: After years of hearing about this place that Michael’s grandma used to take them to for ice cream, we finally got to go! It was delicious and worth the 3.5 year wait! Haha.

3: Lelia and Jeff are kind of weird, but we let them have ice cream with us too.

4: We had two HUGE storms. One of them hit while we were out of town at my parents’ house, where it wasn’t nearly as bad. A lot of people lost power and a lot of trees have gone down. What a mess. I’m grateful that our power didn’t go out though, because my pigs would have been pretty hot without the air conditioning.

family baby shower

On Saturday, Michael’s family had a double baby shower for cousin Nicole and me! Nicole had her little boy in March, but she lives soooo far away (Vermont!) that she didn’t get to have a family shower before.

Michael and Nicole have always been close cousins. Look how cute they are!

Michael even got a little practice holding her baby!

My mom brought these pretty balloons and flowers to decorate.

So many of my favorite people were there, including Lelia, my mom, and Auntie Joyce! I love this picture because it really captures everyone’s true personality.

We played a fun “mad lib” game, which told stories about Nicole and I going into labor. In my stories I ended up going to the gym while having contractions. Somehow that sounds almost realistic!

Munchkin made out like a bandit and got a lot of clothes, books, pacifiers, blankets and hats. She doesn’t need any more clothes until she is about 6 months old!

The best part of everything was just spending time with my family. Lelia missed her “Daddy Dinosaur” (her nickname for Michael). I’ve missed seeing them together.

Of course we had to do a “dinosaur family” shot.

And then we had to include Jeffrey… Haha!

Thanks so much to everyone who came!

family temple trip

On Friday, all of Michael’s immediate family went to the temple! It was the first time that all the boys could go together since about 6 years ago, because all their missions overlapped!

I was looking forward to taking this photo all week long, and I’m so glad that everyone humored me, posed, and smiled for it despite the 116-degree heat wave we had.

I was so grateful that we had the opportunity to serve in the temple. I love the cleansing and eye-opening feelings that we can experience there, and the strong Spirit that can enter our hearts. This is probably my favorite place to go, especially with my family!

If you want to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, click here.