The Payson Scottish Festival was held on July 13th.  Matt was soloing in the morning at 10:15 and 10:30-ish.  Henlie and I weren't having a good morning, so we didn't get there as early as I was hoping.  Then, parking was awful.  It always is, but we drove around for ages.  I was just about ready to head home and say screw it, when a spot I've used in the past was open on my way out.  It's about as far away as I was willing to park, so I flipped around and parked.  We got to the park just after Matt's second solo.

The fun part of the Payson games is seeing lots of people I know.  White Peaks wasn't playing since a lot of the band is in Nauvoo, but I visited with Natalie and Tashina.  Next, I headed across the park to see Matt at the band tent, but he was rehearsing.  I chatted with Janna for a bit before heading back to the competition field.  

My family eventually made it over, so we set up shop next to them so I could feed Henlie. For the rest of the day, I hung out around the competition field, leaving our stuff for Steven to watch while I played social butterfly catching up with people. :)  It was fun to see people (because I never see people anymore - not in real life.  Yes, I'm partly to blame for that :))  We watched the grade 5 competiton and round 1 of the grades 4 and 3 competitions.  After that, Henlie and I packed up (my family was all leaving anyway) and headed home.  Matt made it home later and informed me the grade 4 had won both competitions. (I don't remember the other grades' standings.)

Truth be told, I'm kind of over Scottish festivals.  They pretty much are all the same.  They definitely are the same when you go to the same ones every year.  Next year? I think Henlie and I will skip Thanksgiving Point for Art City Days. (I haven't been to Art City Days in years....like, since I started piping lol).  We'll still go to Payson as that was always a tradition for me, and it's free ;)  Regardless, once we finally made it to the park, we had an enjoyable time at the Payson festival this year.

Since it was last month, I don't really remember why Matt took a Thursday off, but he did, and we headed up to the zoo for the second time this year.  A few months makes a difference when it comes to Henlie's interest in the animals.  The zoo was much less crowded this visit.

We made it up in the afternoon and found a great parking spot in the north lot. We stopped at the Beastro first thing to have some lunch.  Henlie shared garlic knots with me. :)  We sat next to the window facing the elephant's enclosure, and there was a butterfly hanging about that we got to watch while we ate.  We also picked up some souvenir cups.  They weren't that much more money than a regular cup to purchase, and the refills are cheap.  Plus - lids! (The disposable cups don't have lids because they don't want things getting in the enclosures and dangering the animals.


Since Henlie can sit in her stroller sans car seat now, she could actually see some of the animals.  She is still too young for them to hold her interest for very long, but at least she could watch!




We missed the bird show, but we caught an educational encounter at Rocky Shores.



It was a pretty toasty day.  Even though we were still able to go through everything pretty quickly, the fact we got there late in the day and the heat made it seem like a full day!  Matt and Henlie recouperated by napping on the way home. :)

It's true - another month has already passed.  Four more months and I'll be throwing a birthday party.  Craziness.

This month has brought about a lot more of Henlie's personality and independence.  She's growing into such a little person :)

Speaking of personality - she loves to stick her tongue out now.  It's pretty cute.  And silly.  And cute :)  She also blows lots of raspberries, especially when she is tired.  I think she uses it as a way to help keep her awake.


She also reacts to social cues.  She'll smile and laugh on her own, sure, but if you are playing with her and laughing, she'll smile right back at you.  Sometimes she'll even laugh.  She has the cutest laugh and smile.

She experienced a lovely growth spurt this month.  Last month, Dr. Fullmer said she was maintaining her growth rate where other kids start tapering off.  We took her in for another weight check on the 5th, and she is now 15 lbs.  That is almost 3 lbs in the last month!  Who knows, she may actually end up on the curve after all!  As for height, I measured her at 25.25 in. this month.

We've had some sleep struggles this month.  I'm pretty sure it was a three-part issue. 

1) Growing.  Seriously - constantly eating (and that's how you gain nearly 3 pounds in a month!)  

2) Going to bed too late.  Previously, she was fine with getting to bed by 7:30/8pm.  Now I have started putting her to bed between 6pm and 6:30pm.  She is usually asleep by 7:30pm.  I think by the time bedtime (set at 8pm) rolled around, she was much too tired to actually sleep.

3) Developmental milestone.  She is soooo close to crawling.  Plus, if she could actually balance, I'm sure she'd just be walking.  All of this movement development I think has disrupted her sleep.  (Why does this happen?)


So, moving - if she's sitting on a chair or the couch, she is pretty immediately moving forward trying to get things and go places.  She has fallen once.  She was fine, and I was right there to help break her fall.  Silly girl.  Usually she gets up on one knee and one foot.  Once she has gotten both knees under her on her own. (She usually lets them spread out so her pelvis is on the ground instead of her knees.)  She rocks, but she hasn't actually gone forward.  A little backwards, though.  And with all of this trying, she can move around a little bit and get into things.


She still loves standing and walking (with help, of course).  She's getting better at her balance, but still can't stand on her own for very long.  She can pull herself up now, at least if she can actually grab something, like the side of her bassinet where we change her.  So mobile - and it's only going to get worse.... :)

As for eating - she really can just eat and eat and eat.  Sometimes she gets three actual meals in, but usually just two.  We nurse four to five times/day.  Usually she does get to help eat whatever we're having, though, so I guess it's kind of like three meals.  (Usually it's bread related, too....)  I was shocked at how much she'd gained, though.  Her pattern has been around a pound per month.  Almost three is pretty crazy!

She's eating all sorts of new foods and food combinations, too.  No signs of food allergies so far, and she has had a little bit of the more allergenic foods (a little bit of a peanut butter cookie, anyone?)  We still try to go two or three days between new foods, but I've become a little lax since she has been doing so well with new foods.  (Plus, there are a lot of mixed foods available, and it's hard to find things with nothing new in them....)

Part of these new foods would be Cheerios.  She still hasn't developed a pincer grip to feed herself.  Although, she does grab food (like Cheerios or bread) and plays with it....  Cheerios have been great.  That's my new go-to at church to keep her quiet.  That's probably not a good habit, but when she's just chatting and not doing anything that really warrants taking her out, I don't want to take her out....  She loves Cheerios.

We've also tried ham (the only meat she has tried).  She is not a fan.  We haven't tried again beyond a couple days.  Meat is supposed to be used sparingly anyway, right? :)


This month has also been one of firsts.  Henlie went to her first movie.  Camile and I took Henlie and Charlie to the movies in Spanish Fork.  They do a family/children's special on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week in the summer.  They do kids' movies for $1.  Since our girls are so little, they are still free, so it was $2 for the four of us.  We saw Kung Fu Panda 2.  Henlie did really well for most of the movie.  Then for the rest of it, she did pretty well being held in the back of the theater.  I'm just glad I got to see the rest of the movie since I hadn't seen it before :)

I finally managed to get her hair into a ponytail, too.  It has been long enough for a little one, but every time I'd try, she'd move and I just couldn't get it in.  We were finally able to do it, and since then, we've gotten better at it.  Her hair just keeps getting longer, too.  I'm a little excited for when it is long enough to do different styles, but at the same time, it is a little annoying having to do her hair every day.  It's only going to get more involved the longer it gets.  Oh well, maybe she won't be mistaken for a boy anymore. (Yeah, that has happened all too often. Curse not wearing pink in public I guess.)


She also got her first balloon.  We went to Payson Market for groceries, and they gave her a balloon for being so darn cute :)  She wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but it was cute.  She got some play out of it.  She loves exploring new things.  It was so sweet of the ladies to do that for her, too.  There is something to be said of shopping at a small local market.
 

 

  The other first was on her 8 month birthday exactly.  We were at Jason and Camile's for Independence Day celebrations, and Henlie and Charlie played on the swing set.  Henlie wasn't sure what was going on at first, but once she got balanced and figured out how to work things while swinging, she had a great time.  She really loved it, even laughing at one point (although once I got the camera out, she stopped all of the giggling).

I can't believe how quickly time continues to fly.  It's pretty crazy.  I'm just glad my little girl is growing happily and healthily.  I'm excited (and a little nervous) for what the next month holds!

June 8th was the Utah Scottish Festival held at Thanksgiving Point.  Matt had solos in the morning, and we had decided we weren't going to make it to his first one because of how early it was.  However, Henlie had a really crappy night of sleep, being up at 2:30am, 3:30am, and then 4:30am.  At that point, I gave up and we just stayed awake.  We watched the sunrise on the patio with the dog and cat at 5:30am.  

We got ready and were able to make it to Thanksgiving Point in time to watch Matt solo his MSR.  It was a really nice day, considering how the weather has been the past few years at this games.  Matt was going to scratch his Hornpipe/Jig competition, but Glenn let him play it early so he didn't have to.  Mocha loved Glenn.  Henlie was okay with him.  But not sad or afraid, so that was good lol.

After Matt's solos and Vivian's solo (he was playing for her too), we headed back to the tent.  Henlie and I walked the booths and visited my cousin Ashlee at the Damsel in this Dress booth.  While we were wandering, I got a text from my other cousin Lindsay.  She had her baby girl that morning and sent a picture.  We had to go back to tell Ashlee and show her the picture :)

Since I've been to so many Scottish festivals, I didn't really care to go to massed bands.  So, Matt had me go get him and his piper lunch (he offered to buy him lunch since he has been playing for him :)).  We did this, and Mocha tried to ruin it all.  Dog, plus people, plus food, plus stroller = PAIN in the BUTT. Anyway.... Fortunately, there was an extra piece of fish on one of them, and Mocha only caused me to lose the two fish of the fish and chips.  So instead of being a three piece and a two piece, they became one and two pieces. Dumb dog.  Getting all of that back plus my food was also a bit of a pain, but we managed.

Watching Daddy solo.

 

We found out that Henlie warms up to other gingers pretty quickly.  I'm pretty sure Callin was her favorite.


We ended up leaving around 3pm.  We also took my cousin's daughter, Sydney, home.  She wasn't competing and didn't need to stay for closing massed bands.  She didn't have a ride home, so we fit her in and dropped her off afterward.

 

Matt is in a new band this year, so that means new performances.  Since Wasatch and District is based in Bountiful, they do northern parades.  The grade 4 band did the Layton parade, and the grade 3 did Centerville.  Mikey had Matt come to the Centerville one, even though this season he is playing with the grade 4 due to school.  That was actually nicer.  It's a little closer and started at 9am. (That meant leaving by 7am, but it should have been cooler than Layton, which started at 10:30am.)

Since Matt was gone, Henlie and I hung out at home.  Maybe one year we'll go to the Freedom Festival parade in Provo, or far north to watch Daddy.  After Matt got home, he took a nice, long nap.  


We usually get together with the Hadfield side for food and fireworks, but Matt's parents went out of town for a reunion.  If anyone else was still partying, we didn't know about it.  So, I asked Facebook (well, posted asking my family members) if there was anything going on.  Camile offered to host a BBQ at their house.  Since Matt still had the Sandy parade that evening, I suggested a lunch time of 3pm.  


It was lots of fun to hang out with the married siblings.  Matt got to eat some food and chat for a little bit before going to Sandy.  Mocha got to run around and beg for food.  Charlie and Henlie got to play (although Henlie was content to play with a cup or a plate :)).  Henlie got to swing for the first time.

I'm very grateful for Camile offering to host a BBQ so we could still celebrate.  That is what holidays are all about, right? Eating and hanging out with family? :)

When Henlie and I got home, it was time for bed.  (She had actually napped on the way there and the way home.)  After Matt got home, I picked up some Arby's and we watched House.


I was off of work Friday as well (something about my babysitter being at a reunion :))  Matt only went in for a few hours, so we got to spend most of the day together.  I wanted to try to make it to see the hot air balloons, but Henlie was still sleeping and I'd shut off my alarm, so we didn't make it.  Matt made breakfast before going to work, and then we had a pretty lazy day.  We did make it over to the doctor's for Henlie to have a weight check, and then we stopped at the post office so Matt could take care of some stuff for WUSPBA.  On our way home, we picked up a Papa Murphey's pizza.  And we finished House lol.  (So if anyone has season 6 they'd like to let me borrow, let me know!)


All in all, it was a fun holiday "weekend."  We kept it low-key and ignored the fact there were fireworks lol. They only minorly disturbed Henlie's sleep on Thursday night.  I love getting to spend time with my family, and I'm glad the holiday provided an opportunity to do just that!

My friend is getting into Bridal and Wedding photography with her photography business, so I offered to model for her to help out her Bridal portfolio.  It was lots of fun getting all dressed up in my wedding dress again, nearly 6 years later.  Not fun was trying to drive in it!  It was also kind of fun to redo my bridals because, honestly, I was less than excited about my real bridals.  Plus, this time I had my actual wedding jewelry.

My cousin (Sarah's niece) Elisabeth also came to help out.  She's such a good little photographer's assistant.  It was fun to hang out with them.

I got smart for the drive home and took the petticoat off - less bulk was much easier.  Then it was home for a quick outfit change and then to Matt's mom's house to pick up Henlie!

Sarah truly does some amazing work, so you should all go visit her and then pay her monies to take your picture! (She did my maternity and Henlie's newborn photos too!)

This year also marked Matt's first Father's Day as a dad :)  We decided to make him breakfast, since we would be pushing getting to church on time anyway, and he was still asleep.  We made French toast - and it was yummy :)  Mostly, we had a lazy Sunday.  I texted Denise and Whitney and told them I wasn't going to make it to Primary either. (Matt turned on House while we were eating breakfast - don't worry, I didn't have any actual responsibilities like conducting or sharing time to worry about.  I would have gone to church if that had been the case :))

That afternoon, we went to Matt's parents' as usual, and Jason and Camile made chimichangas for everyone.  They were super tasty. (Fun side note, we left our tapatio and cholula there accidentally, and they are still there, almost a month later lol)

Lynell and John also came over to visit, and the boys got new ties.  Now Matt needs a new shirt to go with the tie I picked out for him.  (It's a tan colored tie. I quite liked it, but he has nothing to match! :))

Henlie sure is lucky to have Matt as her Daddy. He is so cute with her.  I know he loves his little girl very much.  And she sure loves him!