Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Gabe's Farewell!

It's official! I am all caught up on blogging. Dan's youngest brother, Gabe, went into the MTC today. He was called to serve in the Mexico Guadalajara Mission. We are so excited for him and proud of his decision to serve an LDS mission. He is officially the 7th sibling in Dan's family to serve a mission.

We spent lots of time at Dan's parent's house the last few days. Sunday we went to Gabe's farewell and enjoyed yummy food and visiting afterwards. Monday night we had a fun backyard picnic and family testimony meeting where we all shared things to help Gabe out on his mission. Tuesday night he was set apart as a full-time missionary. I had to work, but Dan and Daphne were happy they were able to join for that.  




Daphne found a way to be on the swings the entire time we were at their house Sunday. Once one person got tired of pushing her, she would find another. At one point, she couldn't find anyone to push her so she pushed her Zebra in the swing instead. Lately, her and Zebra are inseparable.


 
Daphne is always a little more leery of boys, so she has struggled a little bit with getting used to Jordan being home. He was so excited when she let him hold her for a picture!


Monday night during the picnic Gabe had us all take pictures for him to take with him on his mission. He is becoming quite a good photographer and did a great job editing the photos.


Daphne got to see Boston 5 of 6 days in the last week and the two of them always wanted to be together, so he joined us for our family picture with Gabe:)



August

It's August and I am starting to work on a post about it! Miracle of all miracles.... or rather, I am determined to check as many things off my "before baby comes" to-do list which includes catching up my blog and getting it printed again, so I am more motivated than usual lately:)

This first picture, is of Daphne and I saying goodbye to my childhood home. I was pretty sad to say goodbye to the house. I surprised myself that I was a little over emotional about it (I blame my baby belly) but we have so many good memories there. Good thing the people that helped make those memories live just as close as before and we can make lots of memories with them in their new house and already have!


Daphne is becoming quite particular about what she wears and what she does. We never leave the house without her pink zebra and her blanket (known as "meme"). On this day, she was determined it was windy outside and that she needed her raincoat and both her and zebra needed hats. I am pretty sure it was the hottest day of the year and she looked like she was going to sweat to death:)


One of the many foods Daphne doesn't digest well is grapes.... she discovered that our backyard is full of thousands of grapes and she went to town! I couldn't stop her. I offered her ice cream, cookies, candy....anything to get her to stop eating a healthy food, haha! She refused and just wanted to eat and eat and eat those grapes. Hopefully in the future, she handles them better so I don't have to bribe her with junk food every summer and can just let her chow down. She also loves to "help" me pick the green tomatoes out of the garden and squish them. I enjoy seeing her learn about growing a garden.


I can tell my energy is wailing a little the more pregnant I get and the closer to 3 years old Daphne gets as I look at all these photos in August and realize most of them are of her getting away with things as her determination outweighs mine. Haha. To the left.... I tried a recipe on pinterest for this moon sand. It said it would keep a toddler entertained for hours and is easy to clean up. Well, they got the first part right. Lesson learned. Do not mop your floors right before giving a toddler moon sand. Right: Daphne loves to pretend to sleep in almost any location she can find.


Every once in a while Daphne convinces me that monkey needs to come in the car with us:)


We went to the Davis County Fair again with my mom on one of her days off work. We love the fair! We went on a Wednesday, which was awesome. It wasn't very crowded, so Daphne got to ride a horse multiple times, get right into the petting zoo, and watch the princess show they had. All for free!




For our 8th anniversary, Dan and I went to Restaurant 1107 on the top of the Ben Lomond hotel. I bought a Groupon for the place like two years before and we accidentally let it expire. It was still good for what we paid for it, which was $15, so it was nice to at least use the money we had already spent there two years ago. The food was awesome. The place was super quaint and fancy. Our food was delicious!



We started a new goal in August for our family, which is to be successful at holding FHE! I usually work Monday nights since it's the night with the least conflict during the week between our callings and other things. We are trying our best to find ways for me to work other nights from now on. We have had family home evening 3 weeks in a row now and I have loved it. It has made it to where we know our lives don't get too crazy and we will always have one night to just be together with no interruption once a week. On this particular night, we made cookies with pink frosting. Daphne has been begging to make cookies lately (she makes us pretend ones every day) and so we did! We delivered some to her nursery leader that is moving (we are sad to see her go, Daphne loves her) and Dan took the rest to work to share with the missionaries.


Daphne and I got brave (I avoid heat and Daphne avoids splashing water) and joined Cami and some of their friends at the Kaysville splash pad. So glad we did! We had such a fun time.



We also went to our ward campout for the first time this year! We have wanted to go in year's past but have always had a schedule conflict. So glad we finally made it. We had a great time setting up camp, cooking our dinner over the fire, and roasting marshmallows. Daphne loved going on walks with the flashlight and Dan enjoyed getting to play volleyball with others. The whole "sleeping in a tent" thing was miserable. Daphne had a very rough night. Her tummy was upset, so we had a colicky screaming toddler most of the night. We are used to those nights but they are much rougher when you are in the middle of nowhere without the comfort of home. I felt bad for all our ward members who could hear her. They might not want the Crandalls ever to come back! It's a good thing that breakfast and good company the next morning helped us forget about the awful night and made us want to come again every year! Dan even plans on starting to camp in the backyard with Daphne a few more times before winter since she had so much fun.



Girls playing in the dirt while the dads played volleyball.


Like I said before, Daphne can pretend to sleep anywhere. That rock looks super comfy;)



Cute girl at the Jasmers for Sunday dinner.






We decided to brave the zoo last week and I am so glad we did! Last time we went, it was so hot, that I haven't been good at taking her this summer. We got lucky though and it ended up being a cool day and actually rained quite a bit. We might have left the zoo a little wet, but we had so much fun and the animals were super active!

Daphne loved the bubble machine by the gift shop.


The girls drinking out of the lion water fountain. I have a picture of myself about the same age drinking out of it as a kid when my Grandpa Musker used to take me regularly to the zoo.


Riding the lion.

Seeing the actual lions. They were wide awake and very noisy:)



Riding the zebra on the carousel. This girl LOVES zebras.


The baby elephant decided to take a bath during the rainstorm. Daphne thought it was super silly to watch the elephant squirt water out of it's nose. She thinks the elephant squirted her. Everyone she talks to, she will tell them that the "Helphant squirted Daphy" and giggle.


The YM/YW in our ward hosted the first annual Rosewood Ward Color Run. Dan had a lot of fun, I think he especially enjoyed getting first place. Haha.


Daphne and I watched. She had fun taking pictures of Dan. They had a color fight with all the extra powder afterwards in a nearby field. Daphne followed Dan in, not realizing what she was getting herself into:)


My cute shopper.


We went on a Friday night to my Grandpa and Grandma Musker's house. They were kind enough to give us a daybed frame they no longer need for Daphne to use as her "big girl" bed. The night consisted of horsie back rides, stuffing pockets with sugar packets, yummy food, and good company.


Daphne found her teething binky from when she was a baby. She has had fun playing baby a lot the past few weeks. She is starting to understand more and more that there is a "baby Tucker" coming to our house and thinks she wants to be a baby too!


Left: Playing with stickers Right: Enjoying the splash pad! Daphne is finally brave enough to enjoy them. Can't wait until next year when we can go to them more.


Sunday dinner at the Jasmer's house. Daphne loves going to Grandma Lita's house so she can swing.