Happy Un-Birthday

Back in June....I'm finally blogging! This summer Mike's sister from San Antonio, Jeannie, and her family was moving to Ohio and spent a few weeks here in between homes. It was so much fun having her here. We did lots of fun stuff and all the cousins had a blast together. One thing we did was have an un-birthday party for some of the summer birthdays. Isabelle got included even though her birthday isn't until late fall. For the oldest grandkid in each family for their 2nd birthday, they get a wagon from Mike's parents. Since Isabelle wasn't going to get to use her wagon much she got her wagon this summer to enjoy early.

She couldn't wait for the wagon to get put together. Everyone was jumping in while Mike and his dad got it put together. Here she is with David and Chase and Collin looking on.


We sang and had "cake." We made clown faces using a doughnut, scoop of ice cream, and an ice cream cone. The kids loved the mess!


The wagon finally put together sitting by mom.


She had to take her babies on a ride in her new wagon.


Then she wanted a ride from daddy.


David took Isabelle and Annabelle on a wagon ride. He took it down the hill in Mike's parent's back yard. You can guess how that was going to end. I know, I'm a great mom standing on the deck with the camera instead of stopping the madness. It was just grass and no one got hurt. It was hilarious to watch. Unfortunately the picture is a little blurred, but too good to leave out!

It was such a fun evening, chinese take-out, presents for little ones, lots of sugar for everyone and great time together as a family. Isabelle asks to go on wagon rides almost daily and often more than once a day. It's been a great toy for this summer.

Jill's Wedding

At the beginning of July, my little sister got married! All 6 of us are now married. As I looked through my pictures, I realized I did a stinky job capturing much of anything. But here's a few things.

Here's the happy couple. I didn't get a single good shot of them. I'm really bummed!


My mom's parent's.



My dad's parents. They turn 90 this year and they're still pluggin' away!


This is setting up for the reception the night before. Isabelle really loved her cousin Nick. She kept trying to pick him up.


Isabelle and cousin Sydney playing on the little kid bench.


Sydney, Isabelle and cousin Jane playing on the bench.


After everything was set up, Melanie and I took our kids to a park to feed the ducks and let the kids go wild!


Here's all my siblings with my mom. I'm not sure why we didn't have Dad IN the picture instead of taking the picture. There were plenty of people even standing around to take it. Silly us!


At the temple staying cool in the shade. Isabelle with cousins, Samuel, Nathan and Jane


How do you get 8 small hungry children to sit still at the end of a long hot morning for pictures? Fruit snacks! Each kid had a pack of fruit snacks and no one moved for just enough pictures. Jill was such a great sport to let them have fruit snacks in her wedding pictures. She's the best aunt!


We had so much fun spending time with all the family. The wedding was perfect, although you can't tell from any of my pictures. Tommy's a great addition to our family. Isabelle had a great time with her cousins on my side. It was a great couple of days of wedding festivities!

Partners in Crime

This was actually a few months ago and I just downloaded the camera. Grandma got new carpet. Along with the new carpet came a new rule...no food in the living room. Isabelle and Sarah apparently didn't like this rule. They were the first to eat on Grandma's new carpet. You can't be mad at those two cute innocent faces.

Lots going on and some news....

Over the last 3 weeks, we've had lots of family in town, family reunions, and my little sister got married. I have tons to post about but in the mean time we got some good news too....We're having a boy! Mike guessed right. He's 2 for 2. I'm curious to see if he'll be right on all our kids. The baby looked great and he's measuring just right. It's always nice to see them and know everything's ok...for now. Hopefully when I get around to downloading my camera, I'll get some posts up, but until then, a pictureless post.

Adendum to both bed and shoes entries...

I went to get something out of Isabelle's room and found this. I think sleeping kids are so cute and funny at the same time. Here she is flopped in front of the door asleep with her shoes on, (which I did remove before laying her in her bed for a nap) complete with her blanket shoved into her mouth as much as possible.

Bed...Who Needs A Bed?

We've made the toddler bed transition. I wanted to have plenty of time before the baby came so we could go at Isabelle's pace. The first night I set it up and she jumped in and squealed in excitement. I tucked her in and left and nothing. I closed the door thinking, "That was too easy." And then 45 seconds later the shriek came. She's not much of a screamer, but man it was the most scared cry I had ever heard. I went back in to console her and I let her choose which bed and she chose her crib. I was going to let her choose for about 2 weeks and if she still preferred the crib, then I would take it down. After 3 nights of choosing the crib, the next day for nap she chose the toddler bed and she's been "in" it ever since.

Most nights I go in to put her back in her bed because she's somewhere on the floor in her room, but after 2 1/2 weeks, she's now starting to be in her bed when I go in and check on her. I can't believe how big she is!

The unfortunate event that comes along with this is she has figured out door knobs. Amazingly, however, she won't come out of her room until after she has slept. Naps and bedtime, she'll kick on the door or play, but never come out. Then when she wakes up she comes and finds me. I'm enjoying it while it lasts, I'm sure it won't be long before she realizes she can come out before she sleeps. She also hasn't started opening other doors in the house, ie pantry, bathrooms etc. Door knob covers are on the shopping list so I'm ready for the day that my life will change once again.

"Da-ye, I sorry"

We made a practical decision and sold the boat on Monday. It was a sad sad day. Sometimes it stinks making the practical choice. It's not always the fun one. We have had so many fun memories on that boat. That's actually how Mike and I met. We've gotten to spend lots of fun times with friends and family boating and camping. We always had a blast even when the weather wasn't perfect or something didn't go right. Isabelle enjoyed it the couple of times she got to go and has been wearing her life jacket around the house saying, "boat." We definitely will be getting another boat when we are done having kids and they're old enough to help out.

As we watched someone else drive off with our boat, Isabelle so sweetly from the backseat said, "Da-ye (Daddy), I sorry."

Shoes and wipes

I was making breakfast and Isabelle kept herself entertained while waiting patiently. She unloaded the box of wipes and organized them. She then proceeded to "count" them. She really only counts to three, but then kept making up words to count the rest. Then I got her cheesy smile.

Notice the shoes and jammies. She wakes up still in her crib and asks for shoes. She hasn't even eaten yet, but still needs shoes on. Most days she wears shoes all day weather we go anywhere or not. It's even funnier in her footed jammies with shoes.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, Mike's extended family always gets together to put flowers on his grandpa's grave and then we go to a park for an afternoon of visiting, food, and fun together. Isabelle was not happy at the grave, but perked up as soon as she got food, mostly chips. That girl loves her chips. We had a great day. Mike played some ultimate frisbee and soccer. I got to visit and play at the playground with Isabelle.

I have no idea whose hat she found, but she was putting it on everyone else. I told her to put it on and this was the face she made. I thought it was funny.


Later cookies, candy, and rice krispie treats came out. She has such a sweet tooth. Mike found a sucker, and therefore, Isabelle found Mike. He shared it with her, but in the end, she got it.



She spent most of her time climbing the table to see who would give her more sweets. Anyone with a cookie was her best friend.

On the way home, exhausted and a tiny bit sunburned, she got ahold of Mike's shoes and was being cute.

The Duck Pond

We went to Layton to spend a morning with one of Isabelle's cousins. We went to this great duck pond. It had TONS of birds! There were geese, swans, ducks, seagulls, and I don't even know what else. Isabelle had a great time feeding them. She was quacking at them all the whole time. It was pretty funny. It was a really pretty park and we had a nice stroll along the huge ponds and river. It was a little chilly, but still an enjoyable day.


There was also a great playground. Isabelle had a blast climbing up the stairs and going down the slide a hundred times all by her self. She has finally decided slides are really fun. We also spent some time in the swings which she has always loved.