Gone Camping

We packed up the tent, chopped the firewood, got the marshmallows ready for roasting and headed up to the mountains. This was our first time camping as a family, and taking an 18 month old while being 31 weeks pregnant I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. Our camping adventure was spent with Blake, Liz, Finn, Clint's mom Sandi, and our two dogs Bronco & Molly. We found a great little campsite at Sharp's Creek Campground which was about 25 miles north of Payson.

Day 1 started at pretty good...the guys got the tents up, dinner was on the fire, and then it took a turn for the worse. Bailey choked or swallowed a grape wrong and it decided to come right back up. She started getting really clingy after throwing up and didn't want to eat or drink much after that. A little later in the evening she eat some of a hot dog for dinner, but that came back up too...and after changing her into her pj's she decided to throw up one more time just for good measure.

Day 2 was going to be great...we got the kids to take a pretty good nap, and then we were heading up to a nearby lake. Bailey had other plans & I was at this point ready to go home. She slept in the air conditioned car the whole time at the lake, and still wasn't eating or drinking. So I decided we needed to head back to civilization for an hour or two and it was the best thing we could have done. A stop at Del Taco was all it took! Once Bailey got into the AC, had her own chair to feed herself in, and a yummy quesadilla she was a changed girl! I was so happy that she had something in her system, and decided it was going to be okay to stay one more night. So back at camp we made S'mores, Banana Boats, and called it a night.

Day 3 was leaving day so we spent most of the morning packing up camp, but Bailey finally seemed to be enjoying herself and the whole camping thing. I was glad she finally came around, but I was also glad to be going home. For our first camping trip I think it was pretty successful, but next time I plan on not being pregnant and packing a lot more children's Tylenol.

I love the outdoors and camping, and I know there will be many more camping adventures to come...just hopefully with a little less throw up. Our family is getting bigger and I can't wait to make even more memories with them...successful or not! Happy Summer!

18 Months...Come & Gone

Well this is about a month over due, but on May 26th our little Bailey turned 18 months...CRAZY! She is the cutest, sweetest, and sassiest little girl I have ever met and I love her to pieces. It has been awhile since our last update (just keep scrolling if you want to see pics), so here are a lot of new things that have happened in Bailey's life and I am sure there are plenty more too...

• She has 16 teeth, and loves to eat almost anything & everything with them
• She weighs 23lbs., is around 32 inchs tall, and her head is somewhere in the 70% still
• She loves animals & can recognize and do corressponding sounds to a dog, cat, birdie, elephant, tiger, lion, snake, lizard & iguana, chicken, rooster, bear, sheep, cow, bunny, zebra, fish, whale, and probably more.
• She LOVES being outside, sliding, swimming, and going on walks
• Talks up a storm and says tons of words...too many to name, and understands most of what we are telling her.
• She loves candy and will stop anything she is doing and run to you if she hears the candy jar open
• Walks or slides up and down the stairs by herself
• Likes you to sing songs to her while she does the hand motions...she does Patty Cake, Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Crocodile Song, & Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes
• Loves her tongue
• Goes to nursery and loves it, and so do mom and dad
• She loves to color, play with mom's makeup brushes, and put on any jewerly she finds
• Her favorite show, and don't ask me why, is Shrek 1 or 2
• Loves to dance, especially when dad is beatboxing
• She know what she wants and is not afraid to tell you NO or throw herself on the floor in a fit any 2 year old might have
• Has the cutest way of saying HI when you go to get her in the morning or from a nap
• She is super independent, listens (90% of the time), so sweet, loves to laugh and tickle, and puts a smile on our faces everyday

Photoshoot after her 1st day of nursery

She is a bundle of energy and fun and I LOVE her to death. She keeps me on my toes, surprises me with what she learns everyday, makes me laugh, and makes me so proud and happy to be her mom. Love you Bailey!

Conspiring Cousins

We have the pleasure of watching Finn (my nephew & Bailey's cousin) twice a week while Blake & Liz are at work. I love having family so close and having the opportunity for Bailey to be close with some of her cousins. Bailey and Finn love each other and for the most part they play really well together...they even find time to cause a little trouble!

Relay for Life

On April 23rd we had the opportunity to be a part of the Queen Creek Relay for Life Cancer Walk and it was a blast. A good friend of mine in our ward was diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma about 2 years ago, and I am happy to say that today she is cancer free and has been for a while. So Team RBug was formed in her honor while she was going through treatment, but this year she was walking in person as a survivor! Rashelle is such a sweet gal, such an inspiration to me, and I am so happy to be her friend!

The QC walk is only about 5 years old and so it is only a 12 hour walk rather then a 24 hour one. The walk began at 6pm and after opening ceremonies our little family took to the track and walked our hour from 7:00-8:00. Bailey rode like a champ in her stroller lap after lap, while Clint & I kept trying to decided which delicious treat we were going to buy on the next go around. After our hour of walking we hung out with the team, danced to the live music, and ate some good food. Bailey and Clint stayed til about 10:00pm...but then it was time for the little Holloway to get to bed.

After they left we were entertained by a hypnotist, more dancing, raffle drawing, and some karaoke!!! I stayed til about 1:30am and then decided to call it a night...light weight I know! Next year I have decided my goal is to make it the whole night, because why wouldn't a 30 year old with two kids want to stay up ALL night!!! Really it was a blast hanging out with all the girls and being a part of such a great cause. On top of fundraising with the team I got to help Rashelle with some of the decorations for the Survivor Dinner they have at the walk. So about 4 days before the walk I was on Puff Ball duty! I made over 100 tissue paper balls (had some help with fluffing them) and made them into chandeliers that hung over the dinner tables. It was a TON of work, but they looked great and really that is all that matters right...at least I did my part!

Our Team Captain Rashelle (and my puff balls) &

Rashelle & I with two of our Young Women

One of my favorite moments from the walk was the hour when they turned off all the lights in the stadium and lit all of the luminaries. It was so beautiful! On one side of the stadium the bags spelled out CURE and on the other side it said HOPE, and then they had individual bags lined around the track that people dedicated to friends and family members they have lost from cancer. It was a great reminder that life is so precious and we really need to enjoy every moment we have been blessed with! So here's to my friend Rashelle & my mother-in-law Sandi...two cancer survivors I am blessed to still have in my life!

Precious in His Sight

Tonight we went over to Blake & Liz's house for dinner, and while we were eating Bailey was chatting away as usual. Then out of nowhere I hear Liz say, "Yes, that's Jesus." I look over and see Bailey pointing at this picture on the wall saying, "Jeejus...jeejus."

My heart melted immediately! We have a couple of books for Bailey about Jesus, and I always tell her who Jesus is when we read them and she will say his name back to me...but she has never recognized & said his name on her own. Tonight reminded me just how close to the veil her little spirit is, and of the scripture in Matthew that says,

"And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them...And said, verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven...Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

I feel so blessed to be a mother and I pray that I can learn to become like the little spirits we have and will be blessed to have in our home. I love my Heavenly Father, I know that Jesus is my Savior and that he lives, and I hope Bailey will continue to recognize their love for her throughout her life on this earth so that she can return to live with them someday.

Easter & a Visit from Grandma & Grandpa Millward

So I have given up on back tracking, from this point on I will hopefully be better at updating & recording our lives...so here is a little of what we've been up to lately. We headed out to California a couple weeks ago for Easter and to meet our new twin nieces, Saylor & Ruby. The weekend went by way too fast, but we had a lot of fun relaxing and spending time with family. On Saturday, the grandkids colored Easter eggs with Nana and had an Easter egg hunt in the neighbors yard across the street. Bailey loved coloring the eggs, but slept through the Easter egg hunt...so unfortunately we don't have a any pictures to document her big Easter experience this year.

We continued the weekend with a few fun Holloway traditions...none of which I got pictures of, lame I know! Saturday night the boys went to Priesthood, and we met up with them after at Paul's Place for dinner. This tradition started long before I was around, but ever since Clint and I started dating I remember going to Paul's Place after every Priesthood session. We love that place & wish we could find a place like it out here in AZ to continue the tradition. Sunday was Easter & we just hung out all day watching conference and eating great food! We ended the night watching Ten Commandments which is another tradition of the Holloway household.

Our other reason for heading out was to see Saylor & Ruby, our nieces that were born back in Febuary. We wanted to see them before they got too big, but they have already practically doubled in size. They are the sweetest little girls, and we couldn't be happier for Kevin, Melissa, and Reese. I seriously don't know how they are doing it with two babies...I could barely handle one! Bailey wasn't too sure of them at first, she would point & say baby but keep her distance. She quickly warmed up to them & would run over to them everytime they were in the room wanting to touch & kiss them. We are so happy we got to meet them, but are so sad that they live so far away!

Bailey kissing Baby Ruby

Baby Saylor

After too short of a visit to Cali we headed home to get ready for my parents to come the next day! We had a great time with Grandma & Papa, and are so happy they came to visit & to celebrate my birthday. We shopped, ate great food, went to the zoo, played at the park, and much more! On Friday we met up with my cousin-in-law, Kristi, and her two boys, Ethan & Blake at the zoo. It was so fun to see Bailey start to recognize the animals and make their sounds, it makes the trip so much more fun. The zoo has a kid area with a playground & petting zoo for the little ones, and Bailey LOVED it. We took the kids to the petting zoo to pet some goats, and I wasn't too sure how Bailey would react. I'm mean our dog is bigger then most of them so she shouldn't be scared, and she wasn't. She walked right in, started petting them, and calling all of them doggies. We had a great time with the Kasper's & can't wait to go again!

One of the days we headed down the street to this great park with a duck pond, playground, and splash pad. We tried to feed some ducks, but they didn't really want to come over...maybe because Bronco was there. Bailey is loving the playground right now, she will go down the slide all by herself and loves it. Once she gets to the bottom she turns around, says "agen", and starts climbing up the slide! It was super windy that day at the park, but one little boy was at the splash pad and so I told Bailey to go get the water...really just to see if she would do it or not. Sure enough she did! She loves the water and I can't wait to go to the pool this summer.

I turned 29 on April 11th, and did not take one picture from any of the celebrating we did. But to be honest we really didn't do to much, I'm holding out for the BIG one next year! My good friend Heidi made me this AMAZING shirt for my b-day, and I L-O-V-E it! The saying is a little inside joke with my other Young Women Leaders...love those gals.

We had a great couple of weeks and I can't say it enough, but I love our families and feel so blessed to have so many great people in our lives! I miss everyone already and can't wait to see them again!

Back Tracking...but we are still here

So I admit that it has been awhile, ok forever, since I updated our blog and I don't have a great excuse for it, but a few people have told me to get back on top of it so here is my attempt. I have missed a few big posts so I am going to go back a few months and try to catch up from there. I want to make a book out of our blog so I need to post these, so if you don't want to read I understand, and I will try to hurry and get back to the present day (bear with me)!

Back in November, we had a BIG event take place...Miss Bailey's 1st Birthday (what a great mom I am right...birthday post 3 months later)! We had a party here in AZ a week before the big day with friends and family. It was such a blast, Bailey LOVED her cake and opening all of her presents. Big THANKS to everyone who came to celebrate with our little girl!

Thanks to my Aunt Ashley for my super CUTE b-day shirt!

She didn't really attack her cake like I was hoping, but she did throw a serious fit when we tried to take the cake away. Maybe she was scared at how big her cake was...let's be honest it is the biggest cupcake I've ever seen, I would be scared too.

We headed out to California for Thanksgiving which was also Bailey's Birthday, so naturally we had another party for her out there. I was really bad at taking pictures while we were out there, so I guess I should be thankful I captured a few from the party.

How did a year go by so fast...our little Bailey is a sweet & ever so sassy girl, and I love every bit of her. She is a pro walker, a great talker - although her words aren't the most understandable, and she has become an amazing eater. If you have read past post you will know that eating was something we struggled with. Bailey has a rice allergy that took awhile to diagnois, we are hoping she will grow out it, but she didn't seem all that interested in real food for quite a long time. Now she is eating us out of house and home...love it! So Bailey, Happy Birthday, your mom & dad love you so much and are so glad we have you in our lives!