Wednesday, August 8, 2018

3rd Week of July

This picture was taken by a High Councilman that was visiting our ward.  He spoke in our ward and was truly the answer to prayer.  The night before I was at the end of my parenting rope...and this High Councilman spoke all about parenting.  His message was just what my mama heart needed.  As he came out to the foyer he commented on my sweet sleeping Silas and offered to take a picture.


Our Tuesdays and Thursday in July were really busy with Phin's soccer followed immediately by Millie's dance.  Several times I dropped Phin off at his activities and did a quick run to the store...the store with just two kids is a million times easier than the store with three kids.


We watched Seth play Frisbee on a couple of Tuesdays.  A soccer group was also practicing and Phin and Millie found a way to get one of the soccer team's treats.


I was also crazy enough to take all three kids to have the oil changed on my car.  We were quite the circus at the dealership.  In between circus acts...Millie and Phin played in the little kid area.



I pulled out another little project for Millie to paint...it kept her busy for at least a half hour.


Phin kept himself busy with a ninja sticker book.


Millie earned her Mermaid tail blanket...she was so excited.


We spent Thursday to Saturday with Seth's side of the family at a family reunion in Star Valley, Wyoming.  We were running late so we dropped Seth off at the temple and then drove to meet the rest of the family.



Millie and Phin had a great time playing with cousins on the playground.









Silas got reacquainted with Aunt Emily.


The place where we were staying had some wagons in the front for photos.  The kids loved playing with them with cousins.






After a yummy pizza dinner the kids painted rocks.  Seth was back from the temple by this point and was a great assistant.





After rock painting the kids blew some jumbo bubbles. 









I also found them playing in the gravel of the volleyball court.  They found some rocks that looked like eggs and were pretending that they were building a nest.


The next morning we were up bright and early to head off to meet with extended family.




Seth was in heaven playing games with family.


The kids were in heaven playing in the dirt and then at the park.






I loved watching Millie play with her cousins.  Eliza and Lily had brought some Disney Princess dolls and these girls pulled out their squeaky voices to play with each other.


Phin preferred to hang out in the hammocks that Uncle Philip set up under the playground.


Silas took a great nap in the shade tent.



Millie has been swinging quite a bit on her stomach lately...it reminds me so much of my childhood.




Millie found a cute Second cousin to watch Blue Mermaid UmiZoomi with on the iPad.


Silas took a great nap with Grandma Jo.


Phin played some Foosball with extended cousins.


That evening we met at a Stake Center for a yummy BBQ.  Phin loved running around outside with his cousins as they tried to catch butterflies.




Seth also brought along our stomp rockets which were a huge hit.


This happened to be our 8th anniversary...Happy Anniversary to us.


The next morning we took family photos before heading for a huge extended family photo at the Temple grounds.














Seth with his cousin Aaron who lives in Cody, Wyoming.


After family photos and breakfast we headed to the pool.


Phin spent most of the pool time with his head down in the water testing out his new snorkel set.





We heard the happy news when we first arrived in Wyoming that our newest niece had been born...so we decided to come home via Chubbuck so we could meet Sarah and Joe's baby girl.  Phin and Millie loved hanging out with Kate and Harvey.  They were so sad when we left.  They loved their inside playhouse. toys, trampoline...


and outside playhouse.


I loved meeting sweet baby Rachel...straight from heaven.

Monday, July 23, 2018

2nd Week of July


Cow Appreciation Day is one of our favorite days.  This year I found an easy printable mask for all of us and then we taped on the Chick-Fil-A sign.  Seth met us during his lunch break.  Millie was afraid of the cow again this year.


Millie is all about the dress ups these days.  Here she is dressed up as a Strawberry Poppy Troll with her free Chick-Fil-A balloon.


We spent some time at Nona's with Carver.  I brought along our play-doh and the kids had a blast.  I found them making pretend food and then pretending to feed it to Carver.



I also found Phin and Millie playing "exercise" as they did sit ups and counted to 10.


We also celebrated 7-11 with free Slurpee. We went to a different store than we usually do...and they were way less organized...but the kids were still thrilled with their Slurpees.


Papa was exec of the day, so we headed out to Lagoon for a few hours.  We met up with Amy, Zoey and Connor as well.  I am realizing that there may not be many of these pictures in the future...Phin seems to be growing at super speed and I don't know how much longer he will be allowed on the kiddie rides.


Silas also appears to be growing at super speed.




After Lagoon we planned to go to Build-A-Bear for their Pay your age event.  I had been away from social media all day and couldn't believe the line...which was apparently much shorter than it had been.  They closed the line down at 9:30 am.  We got there about 3:00 pm.  The people at the back of the line had been in line for over 6 hours and still had hours of waiting ahead of them.  It was stinking hot...in the high 90s at least.  The line also had very little shade.  These poor little kids had been standing in line all day for a stuffed animal...I think that fits the definition of madness.  We decided to make the best of our trip to Farmington Station and got a FIIZ drink, which the kids call a "special" drink. 


Nona and Carver met up with us and Millie was kind enough to share her drink.


Then the kids played near the fountain and made a wish by throwing in a penny,





Phin has finally learned how to pump!  


Carver loves playing with Phin and Millie and copies their every move.  They moved Nona's stools around and sat in front of the TV to watch a show.



Seth and I hired a babysitter super early on Saturday morning so we could go on a hike.  


We brought Silas along and he fell asleep.   We had told Phin and Millie that they may wake up to a babysitter.  Phin ended up sleeping through our entire date and was quite disappointed that he missed playing with our babysitter.