Summer Happenings: A random sampling of everything else

Overall, it has been a fast and good summer. Fast summers are good in my world in this Arizona heat. :) Here is a little glimpse of some of the "daily":

In July, we celebrated TWO YEARS OFF TREATMENT!!! What on earth? Is that cool and amazing and hard to believe or what? She is doing fantastically well. Her risk of relapse is as low as it will ever be - she is well beyond the most risky stage for that. Anymore cancer would probably be considered a secondary cancer as a side effect of treatment from here on out. She still gets monitored every two months for long term effects and proper development and such, but she is doing very well. Her biggest scars at the moment are emotional and there are some hard days... poor girl. But we are so proud of her and grateful for where she is at. It is a miracle! When she was diagnosed, we could hardly imagine being done with treatment period, let alone two years OFF treatment! To celebrate that big milestone, Elena chose dinner out at Chili's.

And it was freaking hot... a lot.

But with the heat, there are a lot of amazing desert sunsets to be had:

 We made several trips (across the street :)) to visit Daddy at work. I have fond memories of visiting my dad at work as a young child (sugar cubes, an old DOS golf game on the computer, and the smell of oil and grease and tires and cars) and so this made me smile to think about the memories our girls are creating. One of those memories will surely be that Eric lets them get a treat out of the vending machine when they come. Definitely a highlight. :)

Our little engineer in his cube - with lots of things to make it "Eric" - I spy a fish in a vase, some greenery, and a little BYU love.

Engineering space camp photo!

Although I'm at 29 weeks now, here's the latest belly shot at 27 weeks. This is getting serious, people- we are down to every 2 weeks appointments with my midwife!

We braved the heat a few less insane mornings (like the mornings we can get out early when it's only in the 90's) and enjoyed some nice walks. 

We have been counting down for the first BYU football game of the year all summer and the day before the game, I walked into Elena and Lily's room to see them all prepped and ready. :)

Elena, Lily, and I had fun decorating the house for the first game and surprising Eric. When he walked in the door Elena shouted, "It's a secret wonderland forest of BYU football!!!" Hahaha. Secret wonderland forest, indeed. :)

For Christmas, we got the girls a baby bird. She is a Parrotlet and the girls named her Blueberry Gogurt (Lily) Snow (Elena) Hoffman - Blueberry for short. She is funny and smart and not too loud and a good deal of fun to have in the house. We had many hours of playing with and laughing at our funny bird.

Lily is still crazy. And stinking cute. She has such a BIG personality inside that little body - she confounds Eric and I on a daily basis and all we can do is laugh and shake our heads at her.

Everyone is getting rather excited to meet little baby boy. One day shortly before our ultrasound, Elena spent her quiet time browsing a baby book for possible names for this baby. This list is pure awesome, but our favorites are probably: Boromeo (pronounced Bore-o-mayo), Earl, and Feo. :)

And we've enjoyed some good pool time, as well. 

Goodbye summer! And here's to fall and football season and babies and less heat (please, please come on cooler temperatures!) and holidays and all the wonderful things that come from here on out!