Park City (June 2014)

Aaaand we're  back!  So before we made our trip up to PC, we went to a birthday party for little Ember.  She's Deja's BFF even if she doesn't know it yet.  Ember is such a cutie-pa-tootie and lately has the best little laugh.  Maybe she'll teach it to Deja if we're lucky :)

Once we got to Park City it was a non-stop party from beginning to end!  We played some of our favorite games like Scum, I Declare, Settlers, Pit, Catch Phrase, Mormon Bridge, Yahtzee, the candy bar game, etc.  We are very much a game playing family.  Sunday was fathers day and John had to work in the morning :(  But no worries I had plenty of entertainment, like the fact that I sat behind Mitt Romney during Sacrament, haha.  I debated wether to post this picture or not, but I figured it was just for fun, so why not!  (The more inappropriate act was probably the fact that I took the picture in the first place....but come on, he was right in front of me!!)

Back at the Hotel they fed us a special lunch since my parents are partial owners of the resort.  Our burgers were huge and delicious, but my favorite part were the GIANT cookies! Yum!

First Time Fathers on Fathers Day!

In Park City the buses pretty much run for free, so went on a little adventure and walked around Down Town PC. 

Deja is just thrilled in this pic

The weather was pretty cold all week, and it actually snowed pretty hard one day!  We only ever go during during summer time, so it was fun to see what it looks like during winter.

The Snow didn't stop anyone from having fun, especially the Kiddo's!

 Deja just loved crawling around a new place!  I can't believe how fast she's gotten at moving.  She's going to be walking in no time crazy girl!

High-centered on a chair!

That face haha

I wish I had taken more pictures, but we also went shopping at the Outlets and a Farmers Market, watched movies and soccer, went to the Alpine Slide, had a pizza party, and ate all sorts of other yummy food.  We had so much fun with the family and Deja loved playing with all her cousins!

FYI...

Once upon a time I started a blog about our DuPaix family trip to Park City.  However, as I was preparing (downloading photo's), Deja's foot had a go with my lap top screen, and needless to say, the foot won the battle...  So hopefully I don't forget all the fun details about our P.C. before I get it back :(   And also hopefully it's reparable...  The end

St. George!

     Words cannot express how much fun we had with the Southwick clan down in St. George last week!  But I'll at least attempt to share some of my favorite moments :)  Before driving down, John and I kept Deja awake all Sunday morning so that she would sleep longer in the car.  We were pretty successful at our endeavor because she slept from the moment we got onto the freeway till the moment we got off!!!  (about 4 hours)  She did wake up for about 10 minutes somewhere in the middle, but went right back to sleep without making a peep.  It was great.  John and I talked about life goals, where we saw ourselves in 5 years, and just the future in general.  It was a lot of fun to day dream together.  

     The first night was pretty chill, we mostly waited for the rest of John's family to get there and got settled into our rooms.  The following morning John got up early to play basketball with some of the boys and nieces/nephews.    He was really looking forward to getting a good game in with his brothers/in-laws sometime during the trip which ended up happening the next morning :)  But back to Monday, the main event was definitely our trip to Sand Hallow in Hurricane.  I tell you what, I've been to St. George many a time, but this was a first for everyone on the trip (that I know of anyway).  Basically it's a lake with a red sandy beach-typical of Southern Utah.  John and I had our doubts, but it ended up being one of our favorite activities!!

All the kids loved playing in the water.  We also rented a paddle board and had a picnic lunch.  

It was a lot of fun!

The biggest con to the area was probably the fact that there isn't any shade.  So some of the men took it upon themselves to set up a tarp to help everyone stay cool.  

Later that night we played a big Jeopardy game that John and I organized with all sorts of trivia. Some of the categories were: Family trips, Family random facts, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Psych, Name that tune, TV shows, etc.  Afterwards we brought out our Yonana's Machine and had fro-yo style sundaes.

The next morning was devoted to more basketball and swimming.  John was trying to get as much fun in with his little brother, before he left early to go on a Senior trip to Hawaii.  How dare he ;)

That evening we went to a park and played some good ol' fashion kickball and had a pizza party.  They split us up into 3 different teams which actually worked out pretty well!

The next morning, some of us wanted to get some hiking in before it got too hot, so we went and checked out "The Big Red Crack."  It's basically a huge rock that is split in half and for those who aren't claustrophobic can try to squeeze through to the other side.  Clearly we didm't think it through that this wasn't the most baby friendly activity...So I watched Deja while John went through :)

When we got back we ate lunch, played games, and hit up the pool one last time! 

Over all it was an awesome family trip!  We had amazing food, lots of laughs, and good times all around.  Deja did really well crawling around new territory and playing with all the kids.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of her with her cousins!!!  Next time :)

Almost 9 months!

Well lets back up... John finished his first semester of Nursing school at MATC a couple of weeks ago.  (1 down 3 to go, Wahoo!!)   It was kind of annoying because they pushed his finals back a week, but now they're over and we're enjoying spending more time together!  Near the end of the May my sister had a condo at Snowbird that they couldn't stay at for the full time, so they invited John and I to stay a couple nights so it didn't go to waste.  We had a good time relaxing and took Deja swimming for the first time!  

View from the Hot Tub/Balcony

My other sister Meri and her family were in town from Arizona for about a week and a half, so we had a couple family dinners/game nights with the DuPaix side.  Some of us also went to the Outback Steakhouse for my brother-in-law, Christian's birthday.  Yum!  We gave Deja a lemon to taste during the meal, but she didn't react at all... I think she actually liked it because it was nice and cool on her gums, haha.

I was laughing so hard at Christian during this pic, haha.

On the last Sunday of the month, John and I sang an arrangement of "I Need Thee Every Hour" in sacrament meeting and Aunt Caroline accompanied us.  It went well, but because of it, they asked John to sub for the chorister in Primary for the following week.  (They had a special meeting for all the women in the ward, so they put the men in charge for the last hour of primary).  He said it went well for the most part, but it was basically just him singing for 25 minutes straight.  I have been hiking with my friends a lot lately since the weather has been nice.  Deja enjoys the hikes, but usually falls asleep on the way down.  

Memorial Day!

Deja's many flesh bracelets ;)

Now to this almost 9-month old!  (We are going to St. George this next week, so I wanted to do this post before we left). Her stat's from the doctor were as follows: Weight 19.4lbs (64%), Length about 28 inches (about 60%), and Head 17.1 inches (37%)...Her head has gone down in percentile at our last 4 appointments, kinda funny.  Other new things with her are:

• She has almost perfected her form for crawling but is still pretty slow... which is ok with me :)
• She loves clapping and waving and will usually copy John and I when we do it. 
• She will spit her binky right out when I tell her it's time to eat, haha.  She loves her food.  For the longest time when she was crawling around she wouldn't put foreign objects in her mouth when she was sucking on her binky, but a couple days ago it clicked that she could spit it out to put something else in :(  I was so sad.  Now I'm going to watch her more closely.  The binky-blocker was good while it lasted!!  
• She had a major cold the last two weeks.  We've used the humidifier a lot and went through a ton of tissues.  The saddest part of her cold was that she sounded like Darth Vader-baby because she wouldn't cough up the junk, but it's getting better :)
• She has started climbing and can get up to her knees and sometimes up to standing.
• She's getting pretty good at turning the pages in books (while I hold down the other pages).
• We love her lots

Deja 8 Months!

This cute girl is now 8 months old. She makes us so happy. Here are some things Deja's been up to!

• She is officially "army crawling" and loves being more mobile.  She's still trying to figure out placement of the knees and moving her arms in time, but its coming along.  It's so fun to watch her progress.  
• I can't remember if I've mentioned this before or not, but she still LOVES kids!! She enjoys watching her baby cousins, friends, pictures, or anything resembling a child (like dolls or baby animals).  In relief society there is a little 11-month old boy who is Deja's best friend at church.  I'm not sure who loves who more, but the other week when they noticed each other they just kept cooing and laughing back and forth.  It was pretty distracting from the lesson, but ultimately adorable for all who witnessed it.  We received lots of fun comments about it after church, haha.
• She has started to give big, slobbery, open-mouth kisses.  I'm glad she loves us as much as we love her.
• She has started waiving!  The action doesn't hold any meaning yet, but John and I try to reinforce the behavior by waiving back to her when she waives at us.
• I think she actually recognizes herself in the mirror now.  She has always loved watching the little baby who looks back at her, but yesterday her laughing reaction sounded way different than usual and she just kept doing it.... then again maybe she just thought the baby on the other side looked extra funny that day ;)

Here are some pics from Easter Sunday!  We sang in the choir during Sacrament Meeting and ate dinner at my parents house.  Deja loved shaking the eggs with jelly beans inside of them.

We're all about the cheese... at least I am anyway

Deja made a new friend in the kitchen.  She laughed and laughed at the picture of George Foreman.
It was pretty hilarious for John and I to witness the event.

Apparently I didn't put her down for her nap in time...  She's been sleeping on her tummy more these days.

Last week we spent a lot of time with the Southwick side because of various family events.  First off John's youngest brother received his mission call and is going to HAWAII!!!  John and I really want to pick him up when he's done, but who wouldn't!  Later that week we went to the same brothers last home soccer game of the year.  They won their game and conquered those pesky Beetdiggers ;)

 Other exciting things we did that week were going to our nephews baptism and John's cousin's Eagle Court of Honr.  Something awesome about John's family is that every single one of his Male cousins on both sides of his family have their Eagle.  What an awesome legacy to belong to!!  We'll have to help keep it up...when we have a boy...someday....don't worry I'm not pregnant.
 

Thomas and Deja cousin fun!
(Danny and Sarah Jr. haha)

John's almost done with the semester and will finish his finals this week!  

We can't wait for his summer break :)