Almost thru the "Ickies"

Well I am almost 10 weeks now and I am praying that I start to feel better around that 12 week mark. Let me start off by saying what an incredible husband I have! He has been so helpful and so understanding (big change from what I had the last 2 go arounds...) I can't imagine it has been very pleasant for him to have a wife who has just been sick for 2 months. Lets put it this way, we have had lots of pizza and spaghetti, and the house doesn't get cleaned as often as it used to, but we are all surviving! I can't wait to just feel like myself again. I am hopeful as we get closer to the 12 weeks, I feel like I do have more good days than bad so hopefully that means its nearing the end! Yesterday was one of those good days, Camden and I got to go spend the day with my mom! Now that we are living in Provo we don't see them as often as we used to so it is fun when we do get a chance. So yesterday we went shopping because grandma had to spoil the kids, and then we went out to lunch.

                                                                State Meet!!!
Last Saturday was my girls state meet. They all did so so good! I am so proud of them. I even had a coach from one of the other gyms come up to me and compliment me on how great all of my girls look. That made me feel really good that mine and Kaitlin's hard work with these girls is working and noticeable. Now that state is over I am really looking forward to getting back into the gym and working on new skills with these girls!

Fall festivities!

                

First day of school this year. I know it has been a few months but I figured this fell under the "Fall" category. Camden loves his preschool. He goes to Ms Rebecca at Patchwork Preschool, they do so many fun things everyday. He always comes home with a game that they have made that we play together. It is so fun to get my one on one time with my little buddy! I also love the fact that Ms Rebecca already has Camden reading! It is so fun to see him sit down with his reading folder and read all of the words they have learned. Mariah is in Mrs. Cummings 2nd grade class. Mariah doesn't love school quite as much as she did last year, but I think that has to do with the fact that she is getting older and it is more work and less play. She is such a little social butterfly. She has so many friends and she will be friends with anybody! She is so good about coming home and getting her homework done and reading for 20 mins. It amazes me how much she knows, when I check over her homework and she has done it all right without any help it makes me so proud of her. She is also mommy's little helper, she loves to help me with anything! (even cleaning bathrooms!) I am one lucky momma to have these 2 wonderful kiddos!

Halloween!! ok I seriously have been so bad, I didn't even take pictures of the kids on Halloween... don't judge. But I have been trying to find fun little craft ideas to do with the kids every week (lately its been every couple of weeks) I saw this idea at the craft store and thought the kids would like it, and they did! it is fun to see the creativity our little ones have! Mariah wanted to draw a picture of herself on her shirt and the #7 since she is 7 yrs old. Camden just liked the fact that he got to have paint all over his hands! For Halloween night, Mariah dressed up as Rapunzel, very fitting with her long blonde hair:) and Camden ended up as Bumble Bee from Transformers for his preschool, and then for trick or treating he was Iron Man! He has just about every super hero costume so it was nothing new for him to be dressed up for Halloween, he's dressed up everyday, in fact he is black spiderman at this very moment!






School Pictures! I love Mariah's picture this year, she look so mature. She is a beautiful little girl! I wasn't as happy with Camden's pictures, first of all the photographer didn't even have a stool for them to sit on and I think that it isn't as relaxed when they are standing, and he was giving his cheesy grin so his eyes are super closed. However it is very much "him" so I do like that about it! Such a handsome boy!
                                                                 

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fun at the park with Camden!!
I love that he only has school 3 days a week so that we still have time to play! (see what I mean, the kid is always dressed up!)







Crafty Crafty!
So I was called as a member of the activities committee in RS, so we had to plan crafts for super saturday... the one I decided to do was the magnet/chalk board. It was fun to do, I think it is pretty cute, but it cost $20+ dollars to make so that made it so no one wanted to sign up for it for super saturday. What a waste, oh well, at least its cute and I can use it. While I was doing that, I decided that I needed a monthly calendar, so I found this super cute frame at Michael's, and just drew the calendar on fabric, and use dry erase markers on the glass! I LOVE it!!! Next my bestie Carrie introduced me to "Pintrest" dun, dun, dun! Yes I spend way too much time looking at all of the cool things that are out there to do. So I whipped up these super easy fabric flowers (they are too big for a bracelet but I really like the flowers). Next we decided to start a monthly craft night with my group of high school friends. So we got together and made these super cute canvas paintings! It was perfect for my bathroom! I am done being crafty for the time being! Hahaha
PS ( I am still trying to figure out how to get all of these dang pictures in the place that i want them, ugh)

My little Missionaries!
I wish I had gotten pictures of this but I didn't. So for Mariah's red ribbon week at school they had a day that they were supposed to dress up as what they wanted to be when they grow up. She said, "I want to be a missionary!" So she wore a long dress and brought her BOM to school with her. When she got home she said, "Mom, I was the only one who dressed up as someone who is actually important!" Ah so cute! Then last Sunday we were getting ready for church and Camden got to wear his new church clothes that grandma bought him, complete with tie and handkerchief. We were saying how handsome he looked and he said "I look like a missionary!" He was so excited he said, "Mom, when I grow up I want to be all of the super heroes AND a missionary!" He wore those clothes all day long. Then yesterday he kept telling me that he needed to study the pictures in his book of Mormon, he would go through each one and tell me all about what was going on in the picture. Then he went and got his crayons and started underlining everything and said "Look Mom, it looks like yours and Dad's now!" It makes my heart so happy to see them and their excitement about the gospel at such a young age. Sometimes I am embarrassed to admit that I am learning right along side them, and that Mariah knows a lot more about the scripture stories than I do. She amazes me with her love of the gospel, she has such a sweet spirit!



Last but not Least.....
Here was my Halloween costume! Thats right, little baby Bateman is on its way! I have been feeling about as good as I look in this picture haha. We were both surprised at how quickly it happened. I started reading a lot about the timing required to get pregnant ( I am surprised that anyone actually gets pregnant since the egg only lives for 12 hrs) and one month later BAM pregnant! We are so excited!! Mariah can't even wait, she has been asking me since Devin and I were dating "can I have my baby sister now?" haha. While asking the kids what we should name the baby, we started joking that we were just going to call it Optimus Prime, Camden didn't like that idea and got all frustrated and said, "its MY baby brother, YOU don't get to make decisions about him!" So I am sure we are going to have lots of extra help from big brother and sister! And I will apologize in advance if my next month of post is full of complaining about feeling so sick!! 

Summer Lovin'

Every year it seems like summer goes by so fast, this year has been no different. I don't know if it goes by so quickly because it is my favorite season or because you get to have the most fun with less work, or if it is just because it really is only 3 months out of the year??? I don't know but it has been a fun one for sure, So since I have been busy enjoying the summer while it lasts I haven't really been updating the blog, so here's the run down of whats been going on with us Bateman's!

LAKE POWELL

Let me start off by saying that this summer has made me realize that I need to be better at getting the camera out and taking pictures because it is kinda lame how few pics I have of all the stuff we have done!

Ok so last year when I went to Lake Powell with Devin and his family we were just dating so it was fun relaxing time with my handsome boyfriend... This year we are a family, so it is still fun but not so relaxing time with my handsome hubby and our 2 kids:) Overall I think the kids really enjoyed our time there, but me being the worrisome mother that I am may have smothered them just a bit;)

In this picture the were playing with the 2 lizards we caught, Camden named his Zander and Mariah named hers Lake Powell.

Poor Camden was barely able to move around the house boat without me on top of him about his life jacket and where he was at all times. The worst was at night, I didn't sleep almost the whole time we were there because I was afraid that he was going to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or something and end up falling into the lake. Thats just how I am so my kids are going to have to deal with it:) We brought fishing poles thinking that the kids might enjoy that, in the end we found out that they are still not old enough to have the patients for something like that yet, so Devin and I enjoyed fishing a bit. One of the days it was really windy out so Devin took the kids out to the end of the cove that we were camping in an then they swam back since the wind would basically push them back to camp. Here I go being a worry wart again, but they started out as these 3 little heads way out in the distance, and as they got closer one of the little heads was floating farther and farther away from the Devin and the other little head. I was yelling at him to get which ever child it was. Turns out it was Mariah, and they were all fine and enjoying the float in. Looking back I don't know what I was worried about, they had life jackets on and the wind would eventually push them into camp. I think I just don't like the fact that if something had gone wrong there wasn't anything I could have done about it.

Mariah pretty much loved anything we did, she loved being on the boat, catching lizards, hiking, playing in the water, and just hanging out. She is like her momma and just loves to be out side in the summer. I think this picture is so cute of her!












Camden was not so hip on the camping thing. He kept asking, "When are we going to go back to our awesome house with the bunk beds?" He is a home body. He is always fun to have around tho. He keeps us laughing. One day Bryn asked him what his mom's name is, he said "Carli" and she asked, "what is her last name?" "Momma" he answered "Carli Momma". So that became the nick name that stuck for the trip. At the end of the trip I asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was, Camden said that the only thing he liked about the whole trip was the night that we built a camp fire. He loved helping Dad get all the wood and start the fire. The whole family gathered around and we made smokes (with strawberry marshmallows because I thought that sounded like it would be good, and BJ concurred with me that it was delicious!) So we all ate smokes and listened to Grandpa Bateman tell a camp fire story that was quite entertaining to us all. At night before bed we would tell stories with the kids, this is when we found out how creative Camden really is. His stories involved bears (named Zander... turned out to be the theme name of the trip) lizards, aliens, hunters and magic. He was very entertaining.

One of the last days that we were there we hiked Hole in the Rock... with the kids... I had never hiked it before but I figured that since everyone else had and they didn't say anything about the kids not going that it was probably an ok hike for them... wrong!

It took us about 3 hrs. We basically lifted the kids up and down the whole thing. Thankfully BJ was there to help out too because at the end they were spent and whining and we were tired and hot. BJ carried Mariah for the last bit back to the lake, Sydney's flip flop broke so Devin carried her, and I carried Camden. The sand had to have been over 100 degrees and it would get into your water shoes and just fry your feet. Jumping in the lake never felt soooo good!

They are quite the little buds. Camden loves doing whatever dad is doing!

Sydo and the Kiddo's!

It ended up being a really fun trip (Devin dream vacation might I add). I loved spending time with my new Bateman family. I have so much fun with them and feel blessed to be able to call myself a Bateman!

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY... RIGHT!

It is really a shame that I have to do so many hard things for work...

Gym sleepover! Every summer we do a gym sleepover for the team girls. This year Kaylee and I had lots of fun with all of the girls, they made forts, we ate pizza, (I did some giants on the bars, I was so proud of myself), we played games, and watched Stick It! I really do love my job! That was Kaylee's last sleepover with us though because she had to move to Seattle for her hubby's school :( I am still really sad about it. She was so much fun to work with.

I am looking forward to coaching my first competition season this fall. I know my girls are going to do great!

MARIAH TURNS 7!!!!

 The cake! I decided that I was going to make a cute cake for her this year. Every year she always wants to do a pool party and grandma's for her birthday, so we decided on an under water theme. So I got online and started looking for ideas and fondant recipes.  Here is what my kitchen looked like when I was all finished... at 1 am on her birthday.

And here is the finished product. I am quite proud with this being my first try, and it actually tasted really good.

We had about 20 kids at the party, thankfully there were a lot of adults there to help too.

With so many kids in the pool Cam had me worried that he was going to try out his new swimming skills without me knowing, but he did great and had a blast with all of the other kids.

We tried to put up some fun decorations in the backyard.

She looks terrified but that is just her cheesy smile:)

                 Camden taking a whack at it!

Blowing out the candles!

She was sooo spoiled with presents, you would have thought it was Christmas!! It was a fun day for such a cute girl. She is growing up so quickly I can't believe it. I remember turning 7 and thinking that I was such a big girl. I can't believe I have a 7 year old now. She is such a smart little girl who loves anything arts and crafts. She loves to me my little helper and has even started having chores. She is so friendly and has so many friends, she will be friends with anyone and everyone. She is a great little reader and loves to go to the library and get lots and lots of books to read. I feel so blessed to be her mommy.

My Birthday!

Ok so the next few things I have to share I don't have any pictures for. I think this is the first year that I actually forgot about my birthday until just a few days before. Remember when you were little and your birthday felt like it was a special day? Yeah it is just another day now. And I feel like I am getting old... I tried to tell Mariah that I was turning 24 again and she said that I can't do that:) Well my cute hubby woke me up with my favorite breakfast, french toast, that he had gotten up early to make. He got the kids all ready for church so I didn't have to worry about that, and he got me the most awesome gift, a mac book pro!!!! I love it! My old hand me down laptop was dying and I had mentioned that I had never had my own new computer, that they were always hand me down's, so he got me my first new computer and it rocks!! I wish I could post the video on here (I'm not smart enough to do that yet) of me opening my present. Devin spent hours wrapping the computer and putting it in a bigger box, then wrapping, and an even bigger box until the present that I opened was in a box big enough for the kids to get into (which is what they did, they now have little play houses out of the boxes). Seriously how cute is he? I love him so much and am so lucky to have him as my handsome hubby!!

BALLET!!

Mariah decided that she does not like gymnastics and that she wanted to try ballet. So I found a place here in provo and signed her up. She looks so cute in her little pink leo and tights with a pretty bun on top of her head. She has gone twice now and she says she loves it. I just can't believe how expensive it is for how little I feel that they do. Oh well I will let her keep doing it for awhile and see in a couple months if I feel like it is worth it.

BABY DAMON

Last but not least we got to meet our new nephew baby Damon. He is so adorable! Devin's brother Michael John, his wife Breeann, and their kids Sophie, MJ, and Damon were able to come out for a visit this summer. It was so fun getting to see Mariah and Camden play with their new cousins. Sophie and Mariah played princesses while Camden and MJ battled it out super hero style with swords! They even blessed Damon while they were here so we all got to be there for that. It was so fun getting to know them better, I wish they lived closer so that the kids could play more often.

Happy Valley!!!

Well we finally got moved and settled into our new place in Provo! It feels so good to finally be settled! When we came home from our honeymoon our house had Devin's stuff kinda moved in, and all of the wedding presents were kinda stacked in the corners of rooms. We knew we would be moving so we didn't want to unload everything just to pack it up again. So it soo nice to finally be settled somewhere. And guess what?... I love it here! Haha. When I first met Devin I expressed my distaste for Provo... I guess you cant knock it til you try it right? I think the thing that I love most is that my kids are actually getting to be kids now, actually for the first time in their lives. I feel so bad that they are 4 and 7 and have never really been settled anywhere for longer than a year, and we have never lived anywhere that I could let them just go out and play. Now we have a fenced backyard and we live in a cul-de-sac with tons of little kids around, The first day we were here the kids had already made friends and were out playing while I was unpacking. I am also loving the fact that I finally have some cute stuff in my house. I have never had a house that I actually felt really homey and cute, but now I do. It is a work in progress but here are some pics of the beginning stages.

The front room.

My AWESOME new table that I scored at the DI for $20!! Love it!

My blue dresser in use! Devin told me that when I told him that I wanted to paint this a fun color and that I was going to do it blue he thought that our house was going to look like Pee Wee's Play house... silly boy!

And the kitchen!!!!

Our room is still in boxes and not picture worthy yet, and the kids toys have not been organized and put away yet so more pictures to come. 

Let It Be!

Ok everybody, I need some brutally honest opinions here. So lately I have been letting my hair just air dry and it has this little bit of natural wave to it. I have been loving the no fuss hair, and I think it is kinda cute with the wave, but I dont know if it just looks like I haven't done my hair today... so what do you think? I am getting tired of the flat iron thing and the fuss but I dont want to be walking around looking like one of those girls who just doesn't care about her hair, ya know?