obligatory post of the month...

i suck at this blogging thing lately. instagram is my new blog. but i'll try!
we have lots of pictures from the last week or two so i know my family would want to see them, and here we are!

dudes, i even lightroomed a few of these bad boys.

4th of July party at our friends' home, it was SOOOO hot!

 so hot you wanted to make out with a swing!

 so hot you didn't want to play on a tramp!

 so hot 2/3 of us whined a lot.

 so hot you needed a LOOOOOTTTT of lemonade.

 too much lemonade.

 One day last week we decided to do everything there is to do in Des Moines in one trip. So we went to the Better Homes and Gardens test garden (it's where they shoot all the pics for the mag, cool eh?)

 but dirt and pebbles are way cooler than plants.

 don't you dare try to make me leave this spot!

 want some??

 fences are like, so hilarious.

 I will kiss all of these pebbles!

 hearty.

 then we went to the sculpture park, where Ellis practiced his new trick of backing himself up till he's leaning against something, and then pouting.

 it's contagious.

 we also went to the Dallas County Fair in Adel, IA... where there were more animals than people and less ride/foods than the mall down the road from home.

 But. There WERE huge tractors. Well, one.

 Also, Ellis was asked to come play drums as the opening act of the 7 pm grandstand show.

 which was a family act with an 11 year old frontman, based out of Branson, MO

 that other trick he still does.

 i will kiss your face.

 post a traumatic bang trim done by dad. wherein we gained a daughter.

Best Wife EVER!!!!
Well as many of you know I (Damon) am studying for my boards these days and it is extremely time consuming. I wake up at 6 and go to the school by 630. I study and get home by my goal of 6 pm but that never happens and I am always late and get home by 620 or so. Then we eat a well prepared meal by Tara which is always delicious. Then I play with Ellis until he goes to bed at 8. Then I go back to the books until about 1030. I really hope this horrible schedule pays off. I've took my D.O. boards last week and I'm taking the MD boards next week. I don't know if it is possible to express the gratitude that I have for Tara and her support for me in my current schedule. Last night we were able to spend some fun times at the local parade. The red heads (Ellis and Tara) were instantly roasting in the 100 degree humid heat. The red cheeks are apparent. Here are some pictures.

 Ellis only shows mom the love. He doesn't like to cuddle like that with me. Who can blame him. Tara's the best

 This is Ellis Dancing. He loves those headphones and rocking out.

it's like, blah?

you know?
i just don't have anything to blog about. did i ever really? there's not all that much to say about life here in des moines right now. damon spends his days and nights studying (he's home and not studying for under 2 hours a day, from 6:15 to 8 when Ellis goes to bed), it's hot, ellis and i are bored.

we took a road trip to texas.
sorry these are all blurry, i've become a lazy phone picture taker.
ellis shopping at the children's museum. a great place, though i think he would have appreciated it a little more maybe a little older.

 playing with the dog, i wish i could get him a dog!

 spent a lot of time in sprinklers/pools. it was still 95 after 7 p.m. here, so this was the most we went outside.

 him, all but 2 of the days we were there. super fun.

ellis was pretty naughty the whole week and a half, i got a $200 inspection ticket, even though i'd driven my stupid car with no ac (which i got fixed in texas) down there in JUNE so i could get it inspected/ac fixed. don't they think i would have rather taken damon's breezy roomy car? well. they didn't care or drop the ticket. ellis and i shared a room the whole trip which meant a lot of sleepless nights and 1+ hour wake times in the middle of the night, horrible naps, and 2 very tired and annoyed Demars. so we came home early.

here at home? well... the house is a mess and i'm too tired to care. i assume i didn't fail my glucose test since my midwife hasn't called me back. i spend hours a day trolling craigslist and zillow *which by the way, is a crap website that steals information on foreclosures and labels them as rentals when they are NOT rentals*  trying to find us a new home with a little more space but still in the ward boundaries and something we can afford.

buying the veggie trays for youth conference wednesday morning... i was doing my test at 2 so i couldn't eat any pizza, brownies, pineapple lemonade or even measly salad! or even a cracker with strawberry jam on it!

i'm just ready for june 29th. when damon can take the COMLEX and be done. except then he has to keep studying for a week and a half to take USMLE on the 10th of July. cause we waited too long to sign up and so are giving up a week and a half of our almost month of summer.

i'm ready for summer to be over.
here's to hoping the next blog post will be funner and more exciting! i do love the 4th of july, it being my favorite holiday and all. though, really, the 4th of july is made for Provo, i have yet to find another place that does it such justice.

As of Late

Ellis and I are enjoying some time in Texas hanging out with family and letting Damon get some real good studying in. But I realize my epic blogging comeback has fizzled and sputtered out, so I thought I'd take the time while the tyrant is down for a nap to post some stuff from our life the last week or so.

Ellis has been pretty bad at church lately. Maybe we don't bring enough toys. Maybe I need to actually make one of those 'quiet' books that other moms make their kids. Either way, Sacrament Meeting is really losing it's flavor with this kid around.

Soon as he's out in the halls though, he's happy as can be. He thinks he owns this place.

Floral is so in right now.

Don't you think I'm so fun mom???

The dreaded first haircut.

I miss that long mullet hair.

Picking mulberries outside our apartment- they made a really good pie!

This has been staring me down for a while. The dreaded test is on the 20th. One of the reasons I came down to Texas now was to eat all the good stuff before I potentially have to go on Atkins. I've heard of some doctors or whatever telling their patient 'just have a coke and a snickers bar before you come in', um, why can't my midwife do that? This orange stuff is so disgusting.

The other night we watched our favorite movie ever, Ghost Town. How did a movie so funny ever exist? Except, how we both fell asleep by 10, so we had to finish it the next day.
Bertram Pincus: Dr. Prashar - you're from a... scary country, right? 
Dr. Prashar: ...I'm from India...
Bertram Pincus: But, you're not... Christian, like us?
Dr. Prashar: ...I'm a Hindu...
Bertram Pincus: Yeah. So, um, how would you extract information from a hostile?
Dr. Prashar: Well... as a... Hindu person... I would just... ask him... politely... 

We ate at super fancy Lucca downtown, courtesy of Damon's longest drive in the golf tourney. It was soooo good and all fancy shmancy.

The cheese sample platter and the menu. Yum.

Ah, relaxin in my coordinating underthings.

This was before an epic freakoutmeltdown at Jason's Deli.

Dancing to Stevie Wonder in our craphole 'hotel' room in OKC.

Playing with my mom's chickens out back

My mom got me my favorite lotion for my birthday... MMMmmm.. I love this stuff, I could almost eat it.

Jake in the undies section at Target.

 Playing at the San Antonio Children's Museum...

If you don't watch this

we can't be friends.

An Epic Comeback

 can i just say how much i can't stand the word "epic"? i just can't. i don't know what it is, but that word. it gets me. anywho. 

i really am really really trying to do this blogging thing right. the hiatus was nice, but i know we have 3 family members and 2 friends in utah that read this thing, and i know they are DYYYYYYYING to know what we are up to out here in iowa, so this is me making a huge effort to be a decent blogger once again. 

lately we've been up to a couple things. 

       1. ellis- this kid is getting funny, man, he makes some funny noises and basically spends his whole day walking around the apartment shaking his head going 'hoo ha hoo ha hoo ha hoo ha'. yeah, hoo ha. i don't know where we got that from, but it's what he chose.

        2. church. damon is in nursery (where the 18 month to 3 year olds go for the last 2 hours of church) and he's super good at that, also bonus, he takes ellis with him. i am in young women's still and we are planning girl's camp at the moment. remember girl's camp? so fun! also i'm glad i'll be super huge pregnant and don't have to go out there. haha. 

      3. the bachelorette. is emily kinda boring? or is it too early in the season? 

      and 4. boards. damon's taking them the 29th of june, so until then, he's eatinglivingbreathingsleeping studying for the stupid test. i go back and forth twice a day about whether i should be leaving and spending the 6 weeks somewhere else, but i just can't be away from him that long, so here we still are. ellis and i are planning a little road trip down to texas in 2 weeks though, to eat good food and swim and see all our family there, and i'm excited!

also, i'm kinda tired of the layout of the blog, but if i'm too lazy to actually write posts, then i'm probably too lazy to change it. maybe later tonight over a pibb. 

the baby in me is still growing great, he was right on target during the ultrasound we had 3 weeks ao, though his mother is packing on the pounds at an alarming rate and hoping she doesn't have to switch to diet soda because of gestational diabetes. keep your finger's crossed, i think that glucose test is coming up. 

in other smaller news, i'm still trying to understand this iphone thing, but i did figure out what was eating up my mac's hard drive (duh, it was pictures, but i had to figure out where they were, and got back 90+ gigs of space), we started cloth diapering (easy! cute! i don't touch any poop!) and also damon ran the Tough Mudder, an obstacle type 12 mile race that looked super hardcore, i'll have to post pics/video when i can get them from him.

here are the pictures!

i'm trying to get ellis to wear hats. it's such a pain to try to put sunblock on his scalp what with all the mop of hair going on up there. he doesn't really like hats though so... maybe spray block?

this is ellis at the mall play place. he spends the entire time climbing around the bench seats. at this particular moment, he was flirting with a mexican lady sitting over there. he loves to flirt. he doesn't quite distinguish between men and women yet. when we go grocery shopping, he sits in the cart and smiles like this to anybody who walks by and calls out to them all high pitched. it's pretty funny.

michelle and i at drake diner, the 4 of us (oh yeah, and the kids) went for our last hurrah here in iowa (at least till brandon's graduation next may) before they left the next day for utah. what a sad day, i'm still in denial that she isn't here. but tonight when we take the shuttle to the farmer's market, past their house, i might have to look the other way. michelle, i miss you! also, she doesn't even look pregnant, isn't that so rude?

ellis helped me make gender reveal cupcakes for brandon and michelle. since brandon couldn't make it to the ultrasound she brought me a HIGHLY TOP SECRET SEALED envelope with the incriminating photo and i got to work on some crazy cupcakes with a little swirl of color in the middle, it was so fun! also i ate all the leftover cupcakes within 2 days.

as you can see, ellis really likes to help cooking (note, 2 nights ago he was up on the counter playing with those spices while damon made sandwiches and he touched the bag of cayenne pepper. not a good thing), here he's helping dad make a cake on Mother's Day.

he also loves more than anything else, being outside. i really wish we had a yard for the poor kid, but our apartment parking lot is ok by him. these pinecones are EVERYWHERE and every single time we walk out to the car, he collects them along the way, i probably have 2 dozen in my backseat.

 dad and ellis at the pond. we went to feed geese, but they weren't there. so we played with rocks instead.