Hair

I was reading all of the blogs that I follow, and I saw the cutest hairstyle that Faith did on her girls. I kept telling myself that Natalie didn't have enough hair to do that, but after I got her hair into real pigtails, I decided to try it. I had to make a few adjustments, since her hair wasn't quite long enough still in some spots, but I still think it came out pretty darn cute. :) What do you think?

Vacation

We had so much fun on our vacation this year. It was an extremeley long drive, but we had a good time. We started our journey on Saturday, June 6. We got the car all loaded up, and headed to my mom's house. We spent a few nights there, and the kids really enjoyed playing in her pool. We then headed to Phoenix on Monday. While we were in Phoenix, Jared decided to look up one if his old missionary companions, and we met up with their family. The boys went swimming, and us girls chilled inside and played.



We spent a few days in Phoenix before we headed east to a little town called Mayhill, NM. We were in Mayhill, because it was my Grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. Wow....60 years! The kids had a blast. We took little stops along the way from Phoenix to Mayhill, to let the kids out of the car, and run off some energy. One of the places we stopped had teeter-totters. They don't have any here in St. George, so it was fun to play on.


My grandparents live pretty much in the middle of nowhere with a lot of mountains to climb, and a ton of dirt to play in. Cody and Jacob had so much fun exploring the area. They were outside pretty much all day, every day, unless they had to go to the bathroom, or eat. Here we are at my grandparent's home in Mayhill.


We headed back to Phoenix, and Jared had to get back to work, so he got a flight back, and I stayed for another week in Phoenix. I got to hang out with a lot of my family, and it was really fun. I spent a ton of time with my sister. One of the days, my dad suggested going to a splash pad at the mall, so we went there. Natalie loved sticking her feet in the water as it was splashing up.


Here is a pic of the boys with thier cousin, Cayden, at the Phx Zoo. We were waiting for the animal show to start, and the boys were dancing to the music. It was so funny.

We finally got back home on Father's Day. It was a long trip in the car by myself with the kids, but it was totally worth it. I don't get to see my family very often, so it was fun to be around them for a whole 2 weeks. Both my sister and my sister in law took way better pictures than I did, so I will have to see if I can get some of them from them.

House Rules

I am taking advice from Supernanny. My boys are extremely disrespectful, and I am getting so tired of it. They do practically nothing around the house, and that is going to change. I printed up some house rules, and hung it on the wall. Supernanny said to keep the same number of rules as their age. Well, I have a 3 year old, and a 6 year old. I have 5 basic rules. Once these ones are mastered, I will add more.

Recent pictures

Sorry I am such a slacker. We have been so busy this past month, that the blog has taken a back burner. Here are some recent pics of the kiddos. Playing on Mommy's new laptop doing "school", and the kids having a snack on our new kid size picnic table.

Hairbow Holder

I made a hairbow holder for Natalie the other day. I wasn't about to pay the $20+ for a professionally made one, when I knew I could make one for about $6. I think it came out rather cute. What do you think?



It was simple to do. I bought a wooden letter at the craft store, and a piece of purple sparkle scrapbook paper. I traced the letter onto the paper, and cut it out. Then I mod podged it onto the letter. Got some ribbon, and used a staple gun to attatch it to the back. Added the hairbows, and voila! I think I need to make the ribbons a little longer though. I have been getting into making hairbows, and I am running out of room already on the holder.

Chocolate pudding

I was trying to get dinner on the table, and I was using the oven. Natalie was being a little cling-on, spider monkey baby, and wouldn't let me put her down. I finally go so fed up, and I needed to get the dinner out of the oven, that I put her in her high chair, and gave her a chocolate snack pack. I think she had fun. What do you think? She is only in a diaper, since she was playing out in the pool earlier that afternoon.

When we were done eating, she was so mad when I threw the empty container in the trash. I then proceeded to give her a bath in the kitchen sink. I didn't want to walk all the way to the bathroom. She was filthy. She had pudding from her hairline, all the way down into her diaper. gross.

Soooo sick!

Jacob was so sick this past week. He started out with croup, and it just went downhill from there. Poor kiddo. One night about a week into his sickness marathon, he woke up screaming with an ear infection. It took forever to get him to calm down, and get comfortable enough to go back to sleep. He was just not a happy camper. Finally he had ran off, and was crying, and wouldn't let anyone touch him. Jared had gone back to bed, since he had to work in the morning. I tried to console Jacob, but he wanted nothing to do with anyone. He has one little corner of the house where he likes to hide, and he went to his corner. After about 5 minutes or so, his crying stopped. I was sitting on the couch trying to doze, and I thought I would go check on him. This is what I found.

Poor kiddo was so tired, that he fell asleep sitting up in the corner of the wall and fridge. The next day I took him into the dr, and found out that he had a massively brutal double ear infection, and was on the brink of pneumonia. The dr was really surprised that his ear drums hadn't ruptured yet. They were bulging so much, he said the ear drum was extremely thin in a few spots, and to be prepared for a ruptured drum in the next few hours. He was put on an extremely strong abx, according to my sister. Poor kiddo. Luckily, 10 days later, he is his old mischevious, monkey boy self. :)

Ponytail

Natalie finally has enough hair to pull back into a ponytail. These pictures aren't the best. Natalie doesn't stay still for very long anymore, now that she is walking. :(

I love her face in this picture. This is her "cheese" face.

I finally got the cutest video of natalie shaking her head. She does this all the time, it is soooo funny. I am surprised she doesn't fall over when she is walking and shaking her head. Oh wait....she does. :)

Soccer and easter eggs

I know I am a slacker, but it seems that whenever I get life somewhat organized, it falls apart again. And this blog, seems to take the back burner a lot.

Soccer

Cody wanted to play soccer this year. Fine by me. I made sure to ask him several times whether he wanted to play or not. Every time was a "yes". I told him that if I signed him up and bought all of the stuff, then he had to finish the season. He couldn't quit in the middle. He said okay, and I signed him up. Bought all of the stuff, and we went to our first practice. He did okay. Being in kindergarden, they don't keep scores in the games, so they are really just learning how to play the game, and the rules and stuff. After his first game, he decided he didn't want to play anymore, because he didn't get to kick the ball, and he doesn't like running. I told him too bad, and he will finish the season. Luckily there are only 3 games left. He is in the red socks. Doesn't he look so enthused...


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EASTER EGGS

We colored easter eggs today. Some of them came out really cool. Some of them....not so much. :)




See the pretty one in the front that is 4 different colors? Yeah....I did that. :) Cody did the top row of eggs. Jacob had the middle row, and I had the 4 in the bottom row.


Can you tell where Jacob was sitting?

Spring Break

I know this is a little late, but I am just now getting back into the groove of things after being on vacation for 11 days. It was nice to get away. I loaded the car, picked Cody up early from school, and headed out of town. We drove to Vegas, and had a little pit stop, so the boys could get out of the car a bit and stretch their legs. We then got back into the car and headed to Lake Havasu City. We stayed with my mom for 2 nights. We went to the beach and played in the sand. Natalie wasn't too sure about it at first, but after a few seconds, she didn't mind it, and was putting the sand on her own feet. It was cute.

We then headed to Phoenix. Our final destination for the week. We got to my dad's house, and unloaded the car a bit, and off to Cayden's birthday party we went. The kids had fun playing, and I enjoyed catching up with my brothers and SIL's and my aunt and sister.

We did so much stuff while we were there. We went to different parks, and we went to the zoo twice. The boys and I got to pet some sting rays. That was sooooo cool. They are really rubbery, but in a soft way. Really hard to explain. They had almost like that craft foam feel to them.

We went on a "train" ride. It was actually the Lightrail system in Phoenix, but the boys thought it was a train since it was on tracks. They didn't care what the real name was.

And, my wonderful, talented SIL took GORGEOUS pictures of my kids. *Andrea Whittle Photography*

I am trying so hard to get my hubby to move to Phoenix. At the moment, he just won't budge. :( Oh well. I guess I will be spending money driving down there then. The trip back was very long, and I did it all in one day. It wouldn't have been possible without the DVD player though. That thing is sooooo handy. I really want to get one installed in my car, but.....it will take a lot of convincing to spend that much money.