Our Big Boy

Hyrum is getting big so fast! It's hard to believe he's already 9 months old. I took him to his 9 month well-child check this month and he's doing great. He has two teeth on the bottom and four on top. It makes him look so much older to me. He's getting really close to crawling. He will get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth and lunge for things. I can tell it's almost time to baby proof the house!

Hyrum has been learning some fun new tricks. He knows how to wave "bye-bye" and give high fives. He also does this cute thing where when we say "big boy" he puts his arms up over his head as high as he can. We tried recording it, but as soon as he sees the camera, he doesn't like to perform. So far, this is the best we could get:

He also seems to have a fascination with tile. If I put him on the carpet to play, he'll quickly roll to the tile and then roll to his back and use his feet to push him around. It's pretty funny. We love our little man!

Green Canyon

A couple of weeks ago we went to Idaho to go camping with my family at Green Canyon Hot Springs. We had a lot of fun and took a lot of pictures, so I'll let them tell the story:

First things first, we set up our tents. This was the first time we had the chance to use the tent we got for graduation, and it was awesome! All the grandkids kept commenting on how huge it was. It's an 8-man with a 7 foot tall center. Not bad, not bad.

Once the tents were up, the real fun and games began. All the grandkids, and most of the adults, really got into a marshmallow gun war.

Dan was no exception. We're thinking that next year we should play with the marshmallow guns AWAY from the tents. . . We were walking in sticky marshmallows the rest of the trip. . .

The next activity was gunny sack races, so Dan and I lined up for our turn.

He was winning. . . until. . .

I pushed him.

. . . and then promptly tripped and fell flat on my face. Darn karma. . .

Hyrum loved being outside, and really enjoyed the water when we went swimming at the hot springs. His cousin, Mackenna, absolutely loved him, and was a great help in feeding and playing with him.

It was a really fun trip, and for a family that hardly ever camps (speaking of the Knapps) I think we pulled it off quite nicely!

Hyrum's Big Announcement

Hyrum has some exciting news he wanted to share with everyone, but since he can't talk quite yet, we'll let this picture speak for him:

Just in case you didn't quite get it the first time:

That's right, Hyrum is going to be a big brother! We are really excited! We've known for a while now, but wanted to wait until we'd gotten the chance to tell both our families before we announced it here. We told Dan's family at family dinner a few weeks ago, and then surprised my family with the news this last weekend on a camping trip. We are really excited to be welcoming another child to our family! The due date is January 3.

4th of July Fun

We had a really nice 4th of July weekend. Saturday was spent doing various activities with Dan's family. Among other things, we had a Mario Kart tournament (Dan took first place), enjoyed a nice BBQ, Dan floated the river with his brother and some of his kids, and Hyrum got to play in the pool. He really likes the water.

Later in the day we went to a park to launch some bottle rockets, and Hyrum got his first ride in a swing. Judging from the look on his face, I'd say he quite liked it!

Overall, it was a really nice weekend, and a great first 4th of July for Hyrum.