July...

This post may be all over the place, and completely random.... I have had great intentions of getting my blog updated for the last two weeks.... but keep forgetting my camera - so no new pictures -

But no pictures may not be a bad thing. Last week I took Grace and Max to the Brigham pool with my sisters and nieces and nephews. Not one lovely child would look at the camera - not even once! We, or maybe I should say I - had a great, short time. I have been nervous about taking my kids to the pool by myself. Max is a wanderer and who knows where he'd get off too. I brought both their life jackets, had them sun screened up and they both were terrified of the water. Max wouldn't even sit in it - he clung to either me or Cassie and was scared to death. Grace liked to play on the very edge, I showed her cousin Adi swimming like a shark, down on her hands and knees and belly. But she wouldn't do it. We tried to coax her down the small kiddie slides, but she wouldn't do it. I tried to wade with her into the water, but she wouldn't do it. Nope. Then I said come on honey, don't you want to go down the slide? And she looked at me and pointed to the big, big, big slide and said "That one!" So we took off her life jacket, and she went down it three times. She loved it! But even after that she wouldn't go down the kiddie slides. Next time we'll have to go earlier because it hits nap time and my kids wanted to go home.

We also took a trip to the zoo with all of the cousins, which was so much fun. It was a cool breezy day, and not too busy. Grace loves the elephants and the giraffes and Max is my busy body. He's happy as long as he's moving....

One thing that is kind of funny.. kind of funny for now... Grace doesn't get along with her cousin Adi so well. Grace is 6 months older, and I'm not sure where the animosity came from, but for the last several months Grace has just been mean. On our way up to Hyrum she says shes not going to share with Adi - I catch her taking her toys and pushing her - what am I going to do? When we get to my sisters Adi always says "Hi Grace!" and my daughter just ignores her or says "No!" Where does this behavior come from?

So back to the funny thing - at the zoo Grace would not sit in the wagon, even though she loves the wagon. I could see it on her face, do I sit with Adi in the wagon that I love - or sit in the stroller and let Max sit in the wagon? She ended up in the stroller. Oh yes, she is a stubborn little one.

But she still makes me smile. Her vocabulary is very advanced for only being 2 and a half. A dvd was skipping at my house and she said, "Mom the DVD is struggling." When she was slipping on the couch she said "I'm struggling". She she's using words in the correct context. The last few days Grace has also started to pretend she is a puppy. She named herself, and only answers to Little Jake. (Grandma Kates dog is Jake...) I've told her if I have a puppy I'm naming it Sparky, and she gets really mad. She crawls on all fours, barks in the store and wants to eat bones. I made Mac N cheese and told her they were cheesy bones to get her to eat. Isn't she a little young for this?

Max is learning new words to.. But he is mostly of the opinion of the point and grunt will get him what he needs. He can say mama, papa, bye, ball, grandpa, hot, i wub u and thank you. But my very favorite thing Max has started doing is growling - he growls when he's happy, and pats his chest with both hands. I'll have to try and get it on video, it is the funniest thing! He loves balls and cars, and his mama. (I'm not saying he doesn't love others... but I'm definitely his favorite right now....)

We've been having a really hard time at church for the past few months. I've skipped sacrament a couple times, and Mikes left early with the kids a couple times. Grace hates nursery, but she's too little to sit still in class. It's during nap time. So yesterday as I was getting ready I kept thinking, I'm not going. I'll go to primary, but I'm done battling every week. I thought about telling the primary president that I needed to be moved to nursery, or released. In fact, that thought ran through my head many times. But we went anyways. We sat in our "usual" spot, towards the back of the chapel and my kids were not holy terrors. They were not angels, but we didn't leave once, not even for a potty time. I was just thinking, were doing okay today when Grace broke out in tears and started crying. "I don't want to go to nursery, there is too many kids!" Mike tried to take her any ways but ended up bringing her back to me because she wouldn't go in. 5 minutes later he came back and said they wanted to move Grace into the older nursery, it's more calm and structured as the kids are getting ready for primary. I went with her, and she sat down and started string fruit loops on a pipe cleaner. I left after a few minutes and she didn't cry. She had fun! She colored, talked about Jesus and told me she suppose to fold her arms in sacrament. Just when I was ready to quit church shes having fun! hmm... maybe a few prayers got answered yesterday! We'll have to see how next week goes!

And now I think I've rambled on long enough.... oh. I'm really glad for spell check...

4th of July

The fourth of July is my favorite holiday. I love the parades, the colors, the family time, bbq's and fireworks. I'm so thankful for living in a country where we are free to chose to believe what we want, practice what we want, go to work, school, church and shopping without worry. We are so blessed for family and freedom.

We had a great, fun filled day, starting with the parade in Hyrum. It really is a great parade - Mikes family hates Kaysville because they get soaked every year, but I counted only two parade participants who had water and I didn't get wet at all...

We really couldn't have asked for better weather - two years ago I remember sweating so hot and begging for water for Grace... last year was better - but I'll take a cloudy 85-90 degree day any time! After the parade we had a BBQ at my mom and dads... such yummy food, family and friends... (not yummy family/friends...just the food) - then we went to Mikes family and played in the water for a couple hours and had another BBQ. We finished the night with some fireworks. Were we sat we could see Fruit Heights, Lagoons and Kaysville's. It was perfect! Then on the way home we caught Layton's finale. Since the fireworks are my favorite - I thought it was fantastic!

Pictures from the parade...

My sister's dog had puppies and Max is in love - he really would have kept it... I'm not sure if he loved the watermelon or the puppy more!

Playing in the water...

Fireworks before the FIREWORKS! (disclaimer... the fight over the jacket was hilarious...and obviously I lost!)

Azoozoo

Grace and Max had so much fun at Hogle Zoo this week. I let them play with the water ball for a good 20 minutes. Its amazing that such a simple thing can make little kids so happy!

We rode the train and the carousel - I'm not sure why Grace picked the Rhino - there were definitely cuter animals in my opinion - but this day was all about what the kiddos wanted...

This giraffe was only about 2 feet away from the kids - I think I thought it was cooler than they did...

We went with our friends Brooke, Max and Isaac... Notice Max Elder was the only one to look at the camera when I said smile.... Grace is in the process of running away...

Lovin the zoo - not loving the heat!

Happy Birthday to ME -

I'm blogging time challenged... I've become addicted to Facebook - and as such my blog seems to be getting neglected!

I turned 30 this past Sunday, and I had a great birthday weekend. We went to Golden Coral with my family - where else can @20 people get what they want at a restaurant that has enough seating? The funny thing is, when I was young that was where I always would pick to go. Back when it was in the middle of Logan - even at 6 I loved to eat! Sunday we had brownies and ice cream with Mike's family. Grace sang Happy Birthday all weekend long.

Monday we had my work, family party. We had dinner at the Pleasant Valley Golf and Grill and went to an Ogden Knights football game. I'm the only person with little kids, the next closest to Grace and Max is a 7 year old - and they were the life of the party. I wonder how my co-workers feel about being hung on, touched, hugged and kissed. I work with a lady who Grace has always called Grandma. (Now Grace has two very young grandmas so its not that this lady looks like a grandma, but from the first time she met her - she has been grandma.) Grace loves her - and after meeting her husband she loves him too. She kept giving "Grandpa" kisses and hugs throughout the football game... But after he walked out she asked "Grandma where did your dad go?" I told her she better not tell her husband that!

After dinner they let us hit a bucket of balls. Not my thing - so we just let the kids walk around with the putters - Max loved it... Obviously!

A smile is worth $1000

I bought a little book at a garage sale the talks about feelings. Its a really cute little story that follows a frog around and each page has a different feeling. I feel happy when... I feel frustrated when... silly etc... Well on the I feel sad page the little frog feels sad when his new balloon floats up in the sky. After I finished the book Grace was just sobbing, real tears and everything. I said what is the matter and she said he lost his balloon, like dad lost my balloon. She cried and cried for a good 20 minutes.

(Being a little mean it was so hard not to laugh at her.. I said, "hit a little too close to home?") When Mike came home from work I told him what she had said and he was like, "When did I lose her balloon?" And oh the memory of a two year old - when we had Easter pictures with the cousins back in early April.

So that night Mike went and bought Grace a balloon - you can see how she loves balloons, and how tightly she is gripping the streamer it's tied to, there was no way she was losing another!

Inside Outside Upside Down

I like the rain - in the spring and in the fall. I like the rain at Jacob Lake where I could be carefree and jump in puddles and be drenched in seconds. I like the rain in Baton Rouge where it poured sheets of rain for 15 minutes and be sunny at the same time. I used to like to sit on the couch and read a good book or drink hot chocolate when it was cold and rainy. I like that I don't have to water my garden or lawn because of rain. But, but, but.... I am really really really done done done (you get the idea I'm sure) with the current weather conditions!

Grace and Max have been so stir crazy the last couple of days. I can tell my rainy day, gloomy, mellow mood is weather related. So yesterday we escaped the walls of the house, without getting wet. I took the kids to the indoor Back Yard Adventure place in Kaysville. It was $5 bucks per child and well worth a little sanity check in my humble opinion. We were the only people there and it took Grace a few minutes to get brave enough to climb up the tree house, but after awhile she loved it. Both her and Max laughed and laughed. Max climbed all over and was fascinated with the wall paintings. He was so busy the whole time I could not get one picture of him looking at the camera. Grace loved the tire swing and the little telescope - we played for an hour and half and then they both crashed when we got home.

Gracisms... and more.

Gracisms.....

During the sacrament I always try to tell Grace Jesus loves her... Well a couple Sunday's ago Grace screamed back, "No! Jesus loves Max!"

My mom was watching the kids for us on Friday and as I went to say bye to Max I smelled something... I said, are you stinky again? And Grace piped up, "No, it's just gas. He just has gas."

Grace wakes up in the night and comes in to my bed. (Something I swore I would never do.) And she says, "Get dad of his pillow for me." Which means Dad gets booted to the couch, because I'm just to tired to fight at 3am.

Max got a yeast infection on his bum from all the antibiotics hes been on. I told someone on the phone that his poor bum was so red. The next morning Grace said, "Max has a bum infection on his peeps?"

Grace runs around with Mikes flash light that goes on his head. She thinks its a camera and she says, "Sit still for one minute! I'm takin your picture!" One may wonder where she has heard that before!

I almost forgot this one... "Mom, I'm going to feed the ducks!" I hear the front door open - and she is on her way. The park is about a mile from our house. We deadbolt the door now.

Max had a few bad days after his surgery, he got some other virus that caused a high fever and really bad blow outs 6-7 times a day.

Then I took him in for his 12 month check up and shots... 5 weeks late. (I wanted him to get over everything he had!) He weighed 23.5 lbs and was 32 inches long. That put him in 50% for weight and 90-95% for height. He only gained 1lbs in the last 6 months. But I don't think anyone ever looks at Max and thinks he has an eating problem!

I did talk with the doctor about him not eating most kinds of meat. He won't eat hamburger, chicken, turkey etc... He'll eat ham and sometimes lunch meat and hot dogs, but that's about 50/50. She thinks he just doesn't like the texture of meat and he'll probably grow out of it.

Over all he's doing really good now! He's back to my happy little boy. The last few weeks he's really started to find his voice and has started yelling, singing and babbling like normal little kids. Its amazing what being able to hear will do for a little boy!

We are loving the warm days! The kids can play outside for hours. Max loves to "help" in the garden, he eats dirt and rocks and makes his mother crazy!

We are not loving church at all. Our ward goes from 11-2, well Max always goes down for a nap at 11 and he will not fall asleep being held. So by the time sacrament is over at 12:10 he is wrestles and cranky. Grace does not know how to whisper, and thinks its a funny game. I'm sure everyone thinks I'm beasty - This week she went potty 4 times at church. She went every single time - and if I don't let her go she always starts yelling "I SAID I HAVE TO ..." so which is worse, having her yell that in sacrament or just getting up and taking her? The last two weeks she has also started not wanting to go to nursery either. She has been really liking it for months now - but has become very clingy. Last week I left her screaming hysterically and went to opening exercises for Primary. 15 minutes later I could still her her screaming so I went and got her. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her! She wants held constantly and has also started crying when I leave her with Ruth in the mornings. Is this just a phase?

I'll have to get some picks of the kids playing in the pool and water - but probably not this week, forecast calls for rain every single day!