Holiday Celebration

We celebrated the 4th of July on the 3rd this year. We started the day with our ward breakfast and children's parade. It is always fun to decorate the kid's bikes and watch them proudly ride them around.

We also enjoyed playing cornhole, which Josh and his partner from last year who went unbeatable were able to hold their title this year again.

That evening the kids went over to the neighbors house and enjoyed watching their fireworks that they were lighting off. We were sad to miss all the big fireworks this year, but still had a great time celebrating the holiday.

Out on the River

We were invited by some friends to go boating on the river and we had a blast. Megan and I were the first ones out on the tube. I was glad that Megan picked me to go out with her first since she wanted to go slow, which is the same speed I enjoy.

Megan went out again with her friend and this time went a lot faster and even had fun bouncing up and down. You can see how much she enjoyed it, she didn't stop smiling.

We had a delicious picnic dinner and the kids enjoyed swimming in the river and jumping off the boat. Connor and I enjoyed riding in the boat and watching everyone entertain us.

Josh even showed off his skills wake boarding. The kids enjoyed watching and cheering him on.

Here's a sneak peek of his skills.

Thanks for a great time friends!

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

How does your garden grow?

I am so excited how much our garden is growing. Josh has been doing a great job watering it and putting stuff down so that the slugs don't eat our plants. I made some cute garden bugs to mark our plants, and maybe even scare some of the other bugs off (maybe?). I can't wait till we will be able to pick our produce and eat it for dinner. I'm afraid that they might become ripe while we are on vacation and that the bugs will eat it. But I think we will have enough tomatoes to go around. I can't wait!

Keeping Busy

It is amazing how much more difficult it is to entertain 3 kids. When we first decided to have kids you decide to have them close in age so that they will play with each other and be good friends. We do get those moments, but I am mainly breaking up fights, dealing with tantrums, and trying to find things for the kids to do, so they aren’t fighting with each other. This is why blogging has been pushed aside and why this post is 1 instead of 4 or 5.

Things we have been doing this summer…

We went to the zoo with some friends. I am also really excited that we have a new exhibit opening up at the end of the month. We will now have seals and sea lions! I’m sure there will be pictures later since I am sure that we will go again. But this visit we saw the animals and also enjoyed the splash park to cool off.

The Library has been a great thing for the kids to do. They have a lot of fun activities for the kids to do. They have joined the summer reading program and Megan loves to fill in her “splashes” for reading. We attended their opening day of the summer reading program where the kids got snow cones and their faces and arms sprayed painted. (except Bryson who was too scared to get spray painted)

We were able to attend an event called “Silly Safari”. There was a lot of animals that he brought, even a python. Megan went up and touched it afterwards, but Bryson didn’t want anything to do with it.

BBQ

We had our annual Elder’s Quorum BBQ (2nd one ever). Where the kids got to ride horses, eat and this year we tried to do a water balloon toss and corn hole for everyone. I was disappointed that these are the only pictures I got. I missed Bryson riding on the horse, but he offered to ride it again just so I could take a picture. (so nice of him) But Connor threw up after I finished feeding him and I blamed it on me giving him his spoon afterwards cause I thought that he gagged himself. But about 20 minutes later he threw up again, this time it was a lot messier. I was very grateful for wonderful friends who helped me clean him up. (Thank you!) So I went home to bath him and clean everything up, so I missed the water balloon toss, Josh playing corn hole, and the kids playing in the hay with Bryson’s primary teacher. Hopefully there will be another one next year.

Water Park

With our gym membership we have access to their outdoor water park. We have been 3 times already, and will probably go many more times. It is a great way to be outside, stay cool, keep the kids from fighting and release some energy. Connor hated it the first time we went and would cry if he got splashed or even touched the water.

The next time we went he LOVED the water and wouldn’t stay out of it. I also took the kids again by myself and didn’t bring my camera, but Connor still loved the water.

Megan and Josh love to go on the big slides together. Megan was really scared to go down the slides but once she did it she wouldn’t stop. Bryson went down once and said that he liked it but wouldn’t go down again. Both Bryson and Megan liked going across the lily pads. Bryson enjoys going down the little slides and trying to avoid the big bucket from dumping on him.

In other news…

We moved Connor to a forward facing car seat. He looks so little sitting in it, but I like turning around and seeing him.

Bryson is getting tested for speech problems (not pronouncing some of his sounds) at the preschool we are trying to get him into. So if they think he needs speech help then he will be in preschool this school year, but if not then he will be put on the waiting list and we will find out later if he gets into preschool.

Josh is also getting his application ready AGAIN for dental school. This will be our last year applying since we feel that 6 years of applying is a good enough try. We really appreciate all of the support we have received and hope that if he is suppose to be a dentist then it will happen. We’re still praying.

We also took the kids to see Toy Story 3. We went to see it in 2D, but it was all sold out and the next showing was in 3D. We decided to do it since we were there on the cheap movie night (trying to save money, along with everyone else) and the added $3 charge to see it in 3D made it like we were seeing it on any other day. But I was reminded why we don't go to the movies that often. It cost $33 for all of us to see the movie. I just think of how you can buy the movie when it comes out for cheaper then that. We could probably get at least 2 movies. But Megan really enjoyed the movie, Bryson kept asking when they were going to bring him some popcorn. (in his mind they came and brought popcorn to everyone) and Connor did pretty good, he was noisey during a couple of quieter parts, but ended up falling asleep by the end of the movie. Over all it was a good movie. I think it would have been just as good in 2D. Megan loved the 3D though. What's your thoughts on the 3D movies?

I also added our stick family to our car. I have been wanting to do this ever since we got our van and I finally got around to picking out stick people for each of us and trying to make a stick person for Josh and I. Josh’s hairstyle doesn’t go good on a stick person, but I think we did good enough. Thanks to my friend who sales and designs them. If you want to get your own stick family check out her web page here, or at the top of my sidebar.

So how are you keeping busy this summer?

11 months!

 

I can’t believe that my baby is already 11 months old.  He is so fun to have in our family.  He LOVES to laugh.  I can’t wait till he can start to talk, I’m sure he will be telling jokes and will always be trying to make people smile.  I tried to take some pictures of him and here are a few of my favorites…

 

You can always catch Connor with his thumb in his mouth, that this picture was perfect.

He also loves to scruntch his nose and make sniffing noises.  It is adorable and then laughs afterwards.

Things that he is doing now:

• crawling
• pulling himself up onto everything
• he loves to pull all the books or movies off the shelf.
• he will walk if you hold his hands, but not holding onto a walker.
• he loves to eat table food
• he has 4 teeth now (2 bottom, 2 top)
• he LOVES to laugh, but if you get him laughing too hard he will get the hiccups and spit up.  (Megan’s really good at getting him to do that.)
• He likes to cuddle and suck his thumb
• he will grab any cloth (burp cloth, clothes or soft toys) and suck his thumb.  If he feels any of those things he will stop and stuck his thumb

The day before he turned 11 months Connor had his first surgery.  He had to get his tear ducts probed on both eyes.  Here he is before the surgery.  (I don’t know why they put him in a purple gown when they had blue and purple.  I had a couple of nurses call him a girl.)  We were able to  have this surgery at our new Children’s hospital.  It was nice to go to a hospital that was less crowded, all new and a lot closer to home. 

All of the love and support he had as he went in for the surgery.  While we waited for him to come out of surgery Megan and Bryson got pampered with toys, coloring sheets, sticker sheets & slushies. 

Once Connor was done with his surgery and in recovery they came and got me to come and sit with him.  It’s heart breaking walking down the hall listening to babies cry and trying to figure out if one of those babies is yours.  Then coming to the room and seeing your baby crying in the nurses arms with blood coming out of his nose, a bloody rag sitting on the bed  and his hand all taped up with an IV coming out of it.  His eyes were very swollen and he didn’t even look like himself.  After he finally drank some juice they took his IV out of his hand.  Of course they put his IV in his thumb sucking hand, which didn’t help in trying to comfort him.  (that was my only complaint) 

Luckily his eyes seem a lot better now, and I hope that they don’t get bad again cause I don’t know if I could put him through that again. 

End of the Season

  Megan and Bryson finished their soccer season the beginning of June.  They both had a great season and seemed to improve by the end of the season.

Here is Bryson’s team picture

Bryson loved to run after the ball and even almost scored a goal in one of his games.  It took a few games before he complained that no one was giving him the ball.  We had to explain to him that he had to go and get the ball.  After he understood that he did a lot better. 

And of course we have to give a shout out to Bryson’s coach who did a great job.  He was so cute with all the little kids and helping them all out.  He really has a talent for coaching kids.

Here is Megan’s team picture…

 Megan did a great job this season.  She did a great job playing goalie and loved playing offense.  Even though she never scored a goal she always did a great job getting the ball down the field.  We also had a great cheering section to cheer our team on.  Mainly Emma’s Mom.  It was always fun to watch them play. 

The kids did great and we look forward to the next soccer season.

Utah

I was able to travel out to Utah with Connor to visit my family for several events. (Hold on tight since there are a lot of pictures, and a really long post.)

Lil’ Sis Graduation:

The day that we flew in was the day of my little sister, Tosha’s, graduation. She is the baby of the family and I was glad that I was able to be there. Tosha really grew up since we have moved away and I feel like I don’t even know my little sister anymore. So it was really nice to be there and to meet her first boyfriend and see what a beautiful girl she has grown up to be. Even though Connor and I were extremely tired we made it through the ceremony without falling asleep. Connor did eventually give in and fell asleep at the very end. Tosha looked so pretty and I’m glad that I was there to share in her graduation. Congratulations Tosha, and welcome to life!

The next day my Mom, my older and younger sisters, Connor & I all left for our 1st Girls Weekend and we went and stayed at my Uncle’s lake house at Bear Lake.

Girls Weekend:

We started the weekend off by getting pedicures. This was my first pedicure ever. I love how it felt and the massage chairs, and my toes looked so cute. They painted them so cute… and they still look cute 3 weeks later.

We had a lot of great food while we were there. We ate at a yummy Italian restaurant before we drove to the lake. My older sister also brought some yummy cupcakes with us, unfortunately we didn’t eat them until we came home. I’m sure they would have tasted a lot better if we ate them fresher, but they were still good. We also found a great little pizza and deli joint that was so good. We ate sandwiches there for lunch and then went back for some pizza for dinner.

The house:

Here is the house that we stayed at. It is adorable. My Uncle and his family are renovating it and making it look so cute. I forgot to get pictures of the kitchen that they have finished but it looked so good. It was perfect for our time away and we are so grateful for a place to escape to, even if there was not electrical in the bathroom. We made due using the reflection on the microwave and helping each other do our hair.

Chilin’:

We did a lot of driving and spent most of our time driving to and from the lake house and then driving around the lake. We did some shopping/browsing, sleeping and sight seeing.

The View:

This was my first time at Bear lake and it is beautiful! This really is only a select few of the probably hundred of pictures that I took. I would have liked to be there on a warmer day since it was pretty chilly outside.

Pictures Around the Lake:

The group

Connor & I

Just Connor

We had a great trip and would have stayed longer but Tosha had to get back to Church to give a talk. She spent the whole ride back writing her talk. She did a great job, a lot better then I would have. Thanks Mom for a fun weekend. I look forward to our next trip so that I can get to know you guys better. I always feel like the one that is left out since I don’t live nearby and don’t hang out all the time.

Memorial Weekend

Our weekend was stuff full of events. Sunday was my Brother-in-law’s birthday and we celebrated with a family BBQ and some duck duck goose. My cute niece and nephew would always pick Connor to be the goose. Someone would have to pick him up and run around the yard.

Memorial day morning my Dad, my little bro & sis (BJ & Tosha) & I all went up and hiked the “Y”. It was a lot of fun since I hadn’t done it since Megan was born. It was REALLY crowded that day, but it didn’t seem that crowded as we hiked. It was a beautiful day and I’m glad that we were able to do it.

We came home and helped my Mom clean up the house and get it ready for our big family Memorial Day party, which was later that day and I realized that I didn’t take any pictures. I was too busy talking and catching up with all my cousins, 2nd cousins, my Mom’s cousins, & Grandpa. But it was really nice to talk to all my relatives and to meet some of them that I haven’t ever met before.

Later that night I was able to go over to Josh’s little sister, Kandis’ house and eat dinner with her, Nic and Nixon. It was my first time meeting Nixon and he is adorable and so little. Connor and him are the same height. We tried to get a picture of them standing next to each other but they wouldn’t have it. Even trying to get a picture of the 4 of us was difficult. But it was really a lot of fun to be able to spend some time with them. Thanks Dis & Nic for dinner.

Tuesday I was able to go up to the Salt Lake Temple and do a live session. It was my first live session and it was really cool. Afterwards we had a Temple worker show us the Sealing Office. There was a beautiful stain glass mural of the First Vision in the office and on the other side of the mural is the Holy of Holies. It was a great experience. I’m glad that I was able to share that with my parents and my older sister. Thanks Tosha for watching Connor for me so that I could go. The temple looks so amazing and beautiful. I can’t believe that the pioneers built this, there are so many small details. The Temple worker had told us that mostly everything inside is the original. They have replaced carpet in places. But it is an amazing building.

I had a great visit and Connor was such a great baby. It is always fun to visit family, a week is never enough.

Connor and I had one more adventure going home. (It’s a little lengthy, I just want to remember, so skip if you want and just check out here to see all the people that I met.) We were flying from Salt Lake to Houston and then Houston to Louisville. But on our flight to Houston, they shut down the Houston airport, due to weather, and so we circled around until we were running low on fuel so we landed in Austin to refuel and wait till we could actually leave to get in to Houston. I had a 2 hour layover so I wasn’t too worried. Once we finally landed I had 5 minutes before take off. I found out that there was a band that was sitting behind me that was also flying to Louisville so of course they would hold the plane for all of us…. Nope! I got off the plane and booked it across the airport, on the train, and to the terminal and found out that the plane did leave and that that was the last flight out of Louisville that night. So I checked flights to Cincinnati and luckily there was one more flight out that had seats so I got on that flight. Josh called the neighbor and he came over to stay with the kids while Josh came up to get me. The band that I traveled with before was also on this flight.

Once we were on the flight luckily it wasn’t a full flight at all. I had a whole row to myself. A couple of the band members were sitting by me so I was talking to them trying to find out more about them. They were all very nice. I heard them talking about their luggage getting transferred over and should be going to Cincinnati. They said that they told her that 7 bags got transferred and they only had 6 so we figured my bag got transferred as well. I asked what type of music they played and they said Pop. Since I’m not good with names or anything and I’m sure I wouldn’t know any Pop singers I didn’t keep talking. The lady that I was talking to asked if I knew the song “Hey, hey we’re the Monkeys!” I said “Yeah!” Then she pointed at the guy sitting behind me and said “That’s him.”

The flight took off and conversation stopped. Connor would play peek-a-boo with the guy behind me and we enjoyed watching the lightening dancing across the sky as we flew. Once we landed I joked with the guy behind me about playing with Connor. He just said sarcastically “I would never do that!” Then he handed me a CD and said “Stick this in your bag, you’ll like it.” I thanked him and stuck it in my bag not really looking at it. After we got off I was finding out where they were playing, which was about 40 min south of us. She told me to check out Davyjones.net and I could check everything out. As I walked to baggage claim I overheard two guys talking how they use to watch Davy Jones’ show. (yes, I was still clueless at this point of who Davy Jones was. I just figured at this point that he must have been someone big since he had a show.) At baggage claim I was excited to see my bag there and thanked the lady I had been talking to for calling and getting the bags switched. Then another band member that I had talked to on the plane came over and shook my hand and to say bye to Connor. Once I was in the car I asked Josh if he knew who Davy Jones was, and of course he did. So we listened to his CD that he gave me on the way home. Then I have been teased since that I didn’t get a picture with him. Nope, no picture just a CD & a story.