NO TECHNOLOGY FOR A WEEK!

What am I going to do?? This Tuesday morning at 6:45am, we (Matt, Berkley, my mom, Aunt and 2 cousins and I) will be on a plane to Corpus Christi, TX. Then Wednesday we will make the 9-10 hour drive to Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Seriously...what am I going to do without Facebook, Etsy, email, Hulu, Youtube and Blogspot for a week?! I guess it will be a nice break, but I have a feeling I'm going to be so happy to get back to my computer. :) What has technology done to us? I didn't write a paper on a computer till my junior or senior year of high school, I didn't have email till my freshman year of college (2000-2001), I didn't have a digital camera till 1/3 through my mission (2005) and I didn't know about photo editing, youtube, blogs and other things till I got engaged and married to my way technology savvy husband....WOW....I've come a long way. I give ALL the credit to Matt. Well we will update when we get back and hopefully tell you all the awesome things that happened on our vacation!

PUTTING YOUR FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH

We've all put our foot in our mouth metaphorically, but my little girl does it several times a day physically.

(I am sure all kids do this, we just wanted to throw a short video up as a test run on blogger for our first time)

SUNRIVER, OREGON

Lila being a good cousin and pushing Berkley in her stroller.

Grandpa and Grandma hanging with Berkley at the lake.

Daddy and Berkley having a swim.

Grandpa and his girls.

Lila and her favorite Aunt Val.

Patty's sister, Annie, and her 70th birthday cake.

The before picture of our float down the river. It was so much fun!

Best Buds.

Good times at the pool.

We had such a great time in Oregon. It was 3 whole days of pure fun, enjoyment and amazing food. We feel truly blessed to be in such a great and fun family. We played lots of games, floated down the river, went on paddle boats and kayaks, went shopping, ate a lot and just enjoyed our family. It was the first time Berkley met Paul, Andrea, Lila, Morgan and Gregg. She loves them all. We can't wait to do it again sometime.

BERKLEY IS HALF A YEAR OLD!

Berkley had her 6 month checkup on Wednesday, which was bitter sweet. I always hate it when she has to get her shots, but it's nice finding out that she is as healthy as a horse. She weighs 17 lbs. and is almost 27 inches long. She is a growing girl. As you can tell from the picture, she is sitting up on her own. She is also grabbing everything in site and sticking it in her mouth. She loves to watch people cough...she thinks it is hilarious! We just love being with her. Her little personality is coming out, and she just makes us smile.

NEW CRAFTS!

So, a few weeks ago I went crazy on the crafts for Berkley's room. Here are some pictures!

I cut out and glued a piece of scrapbook paper to this door hanger and sanded the edges. Then just put stickers on it.

I did the same thing with these letters. Just scrapbook paper, glue and sandpaper.

Here is the end result. I also painted and sanded the shelf. I made the little hanging words also. I did it the same way I did everything else. Scrapbook paper and sandpaper is AWESOME! I definitely have to thank my step-mom Patty for the gift card to Michaels. I did all this from that.

Volleyball Tournament

Saturday the 11th of July a friend, Mel, and I participated in an outdoor volleyball tournament. We had so much fun! Since we had never played two's together, we entered into the novice division, and won! We were first in our pool, and then won 2 games in bracket play to win the tourney. We each got a $25 gift card to Wal-Mart, which is pretty cool. We are hoping to play in Park City in a couple weeks. We will enter into the B Division so it will be a little bit more challenging but I think we will do pretty good.

I'm really excited for these tournaments, because it will be a challenge for sure. It's hard for me to play and rest, then play, then rest, for 5 or 6 hours. But I'm thankful for the challenge.

SUPER SERIOUS

So I decided to take Berkley outside to take some pictures and I think she smiled about twice. So I've dubbed this her Super Serious PhotoShoot.

TIPS WANTED

So as you all know, Matt and I are new parents, and with that we are learning as we go. We have discovered a lot of tips, I guess you could say, that has made our parenting a little easier. Such as, rocking or bouncing Berk to sleep on an exercise ball and teaching her to hold her bottle at a young age. I understand that every baby and child is different, but I thought it would be nice to hear everyone else's ideas and things that have worked for them. If you get a chance, share a few with us and hopefully we will be able to try a few and see if they work with Berkley. Here is a list of things things that I figured people would have tips on (not all of these apply to us at the moment, but we will keep them in mind): Weening from bottle and binkie, potty training, tantrums, being nice to siblings, and whatever else you might think we need to know or try when the time comes. Thanks so much for whatever your input is!