Welcome to the world baby Tristan!

Tristan Duayne Metz

Born on Setember 24th at 3:59pm. He's 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 21 inches long. Healthy baby boy!!

Here's his cute mommy, Whitney. I took this picture on Saturday.

Awe! Cute little family! Whitney, Chris and baby Tristan

Papa Steve and Grammy Dawn were SO proud of their cute, first grandson! They couldn't stop looking at him- well none of us could! Ha, I had to remind them all to look at the camera and not that cute baby boy

Finally I got my turn to hold my new nephew! I was so excited. I was at the hospital the last couple of hours waiting and waiting and it felt sooo long. I love him already!

Gramp, Addie and Tristan

Later, we I went back with Addie and Jed to meet Tristan. Addie was a bit overwhelmed with all the people in one hospital room, but she definitely was happy to meet Tristan. When we left to get in the car she said "baby....Tristan.....time?" she says "time" when she wants to do something one more time :) I hope that they'll be cute little friends as he gets older.

Congrats to Whit and Chris! Whit you did great yesterday and I know you'll be such a cute mommy!!

What's the word I'm looking for?

When things have been rough for awhile and you feel like you're just keeping your head above water while you try to enjoy life at the same time, but never truly relax about it all.......then slowly, very slowy, but surely everything falls into place and somehow works out.

Pretty sure that is the definition of a

BLESSING!!!

My little family has been blessed. So much. I know that we all have trials and that faith truly does get us through them. I've been counting my many, many blessings recently as we've been struggling. Honestly it IS what gets me through trials.

Whenever I'm feeling like the light at the end of the tunnel is soooo far away, I literally thank my Father in Heaven for all my blessings. I start listing them as they come into my mind. When I realize that 10 minutes later, I'm still listing them- I KNOW that He IS there for me and IS blessing me.

It is very easy in this life to feel abandoned, alone or afraid of what's to come. I'm so very grateful that I never feel that way for longer than it takes me to get on my knees. I have had no idea how things would work out lately, but I knew with all my heart that they would.

Now they have. And I know that none of this has been easy, but I also know that all of what has worked out has been a blessing and that we're being watched over and taken care of. We always are.

Happy 1st Birthday Deacon!

Deacon turned the big ONE year old yesterday! We celebrated on Sunday with a fun birthday party for him. He is such a cute happy boy and seemed to enjoy his own party :) It was his mommy, Melissa's birthday and her twin, Maria's too so it was a party to the power of 3!

The kids all loved the play hut Deacon got. Addie called it a tent and thought it was the coolest thing ever. They got a little wild, but had a lot of fun.

Check this face out.... Deacon was confused as to what he was supposed to be doing with this piece of cake in front of him. He kind of looks like, what do you want from me people??

We had fun celebrating with you Deacon! Happy Birthday to you and your mommy and auntie too! I hear that they turned "29" ......again.

Social September

So remember how I posted a couple weeks ago about the whole "see ya summer" thing? Well apparently it isn't over. So not over. We've been playing in September just as much as the rest of the summer. We've been having a lot of get togethers with family and friends and play dates. Addie and I had a busy week! So here's the run down of the past three days......backwards though. Sorry, I'm tired haha.....

Today

We went down to Salt Lake to meet up with some fabulous girl friends and their cute kiddos. We went here to grab some lunch to go......oh their dessert selection was to die for. We took our food over to Liberty Park and let the kids run around and play while we attempted to get some chatting in.....you know, in between.... "where's my kid?" and "hey, don't run over there, come back!" Ha, kids. Loved it though. The kids (Addie led this group) discovered the 1/20 of the park which had water spraying everywhere.
The kids loooved splashing in the water....yes, while they were all fully clothed. We allowed it, A-because they loved it and B-who wants to seriously try and stop a kid from getting wet??? Not me!
Addie loved playing with the kids and riding down with KariAnn and her girls. (thanks for the ride!) She was really good in the car since there were other kids to entertain her- Score! Top right picture is Maddux, Addie and Hailey splashing. She loved the park and swinging in between splashing.

Here's Cooper, Addie (dripping with water) and Annabelle. These two kids managed to stay dry somehow.....ironic since Megan actually had a swimming suit for Anna. Go figure right?

Play Date number two today- we went to my mom's house and swam and played with Grady and Taylor. I can't believe that we've swam 3 times since labor day. It rocks though. Addie loves it. Have I mentioned she loves water?? ;)

After we went swimming, we got some pizza for the kids, then went shopping. Grammy likes to spoil the grandkids when they sleep over. So we went and found cute outfits for Grady and Taylor. We found these funny hats and made the kids model them. Yes, we're those people.

Thursday- went to Willard with my mom and Addie with a mission: PEACHES!

Wednesday

We went to the zoo with Grammy Dawn and Whitney after work. We saw the baby elephant and baby giraffe-- SO cute! Whitney wanted to walk a lot to try and induce labor....didn't work but we had fun. Addie loved all the animals. She'd say the names and make their sounds. She really like the penguins...probably since they were swimming in water.

Addie loved the giant ball that rolls in water at the front of the zoo and hasn't stopped talking about the train ride and the animals she saw.

Well, I think that sums up the past 3 days......hope you're all enjoying this beautiful September! Next stop- autumn! I would also like to thank my blackberry for being there for me to take all these pictures. Somehow the camera I leave in the diaper bag got taken out and I keep forgetting it!

Holy big kid!

Check my kid out at Jumpin' Jacks being all big and indepent! She had fun with her buddy Maddux. I didn't get good pictures, cause my battery was dead on my camera, but I was able to capture that on the trusty BB.

Oooh- also note the "big girl" piggytails :) I thought she looked adorable, even though she looks like a big girl now, not a baby.

She's so fun and funny- check her page to see some of the stuff she's been saying.

I was thinkin'......

10 years ago I didn't OWN a cell phone or use email on a regular basis

5 years ago, I'd never heard of a Blackberry and had just barely got an iPod

3 years ago, I was barely texting and didn't like it

2 years ago, I had never blogged anything, nor read anyone else's blog for that matter

1 year ago, I didn't belong to facebook


Today- My Blackberry lives in a 10 foot (or MUCH smaller) radius from where I am. With this device, I get emails INSTANTLY, see ALL that goes on in the facebook and blogging world, I have Pandora on it so I don't even use my iPod.......oh and it makes phone calls too.

I don't go an hour whilst awake without either sending/receiving a text, email, fb message, or instant message.

Kinda crazy when you think about how much technology changes and how FAST it does! I'm barely keeping up it seems.

Sometimes I wonder if I threw my BB out the window if I'd really miss it......Hmmm...... oh wait, that's just CRAAAAZY talk-- of COURSE I would! I love being able to stay connected to my family and friends.
Although I sometimes agree that all this technology is a bit much and I have a slightly irrational fear that "iRobot" will take place and my BB will indeed attack me, for now-

I heart you beloved Blackberry!

Camping

After realizing that summer was about over and we still hadn't gone camping with Addie like we had planned on, we decided to take an impromptu camping trip overnight on Thursday night. I'm so glad that we got to get away, even for just a little while and enjoy the outdoors as a little family.

Our cute little camperAddie was so excited when we told her we were going camping, even though she had no idea what it was. She kept saying "camping!" Once we got up to the campground she realized what camping meant. Playing outside, running and exploring and mommy letting her get dirty.

She LOVED it!!

She was such a helper when we were setting up the tent. She handed me and Jed stakes and thought that the tent was pretty much one of the coolest things she'd ever seen. She loved rolling around in it and running in and out of it.


After we set up the campsite, we decided to take a little walk down to the lake and maybe "stick our feet in" Ummm, I guess we forgot that our little girl LOVES water! See the progression below that went from, oh look at the lake, to let's put a foot in, to our child RUNNING and DIVING INTO the lake fully dressed!! Daddy ran back to the site, got her swimming suit since I had to strip off her wet clothes, so we could let her swim. She loved the lake! If it wouldn't have been almost sundown, she would have swam for hours.

Mommy forgot towels, so Jed had to wrap Addie up in his extra shirt then we put her in her jammies and she cuddled with me for a few minutes and then she told me night night. She was ready for bed! Haha, we were worried that she wouldn't want to go down for the night very early, or that she'd have issues being in the tent alone. Nope. We laid her down in the pack n play and she just went to sleep. Yessss.

Jed and I had fun roasting hot dogs and marshmallows after she went to sleep and just hanging out by the campfire. There's something so relaxing about a campfire.

Good Morning!

The next morning we got up and Addie was ready to explore some more. I walked around with her a little bit, then we had some breakfast and got our stuff together for the lake.

Addie and daddy both hanging out in the morning by the campfire. Like how neither of them remotely posed for me? Not sure what either look is supposed to mean.

And, back to the lake...... I was prepared this time for Addie to jump right in. Of course this time she just waded in the water and played in the sand. Funny girl.

Addie befriended some strangers, then ditched the kids and just played with their shovel and pail. Seriously, Jed and I have never seen her sit and play with one thing for such a long period of time. Apparently, if I lived by a lake, she would never be bored. She loved sitting there shoveling sand and water into the pail then dumping it out again.

We had so much fun playing with Addie and watching her explore and enjoy the outdoors so much. She's definitely a happy camper :)

She said "camping" about 30 times in 20 hours.

See ya summer

It is Septemeber 1st- where did summer go?

Well, we had a busy, fun-filled one that's for sure. Crazy to think that the next few weeks will bring cooler temperatures, changing colors of leaves and that awesome smell that autumn has.......ahhhh I love it. I'm torn though, because Addie LOVES summer, playing outside, and more importantly WATER!! We had our last swim of the summer at Grammy's house today. Addie was such a wild little fish! She couldn't get enough of it.....hope she doesn't meltdown next time she asks "swim" or "pool......sunshine, whale, froggy??" (her little pool toys) Telling her that the pool is closed till next summer will be a sad day.

Meanwhile.......bring on the Autumn!