Sleepy baby

This is what happens when Natalie doesn't get a nap before church, and I can't get her to fall asleep during church. Poor thing fell asleep trying to eat dinner. This was maybe 20 minutes after we got home.

Fireworks

Well, since it is a week after the 4th, I thought it was time to blog about it. Now that Natalie is old enough to actually do some things, we decided to let her have some fun with sparklers. She was completely entranced by the whole thing. As soon as it was lit, she would just stare at it until it burned all the way down. Then she would hand it to Jared, and ask for another one. It was really cute. She didn't quite stay awake long enough to enjoy the little fireworks that we set off in the street, but the boys had a blast with it. There were 3 other people on our street that were doing fireworks too, so our measly pile didn't really matter this year. The boys loved being able to stay up a little later (like 11:00!) and watch all of the fireworks going off down the street.

Fruits of our Labors

We planted a garden this year, just to see what we could grow. I planted corn, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, watermelon, pumpkins, and beans. Our corn is doing good. Our tomato plant has 9 tomatoes on it. Both the watermelon and pumpkin plants are just little plants still. They aren't very big, and they only have a few leaves. Our carrots are going great though. I have never planted carrots before, so I have no clue how long it takes for them to be fully "grown". I decided to pick one, just to see how far along it was. They are supposed to get up to 7 inches long. Here is our first carrot.

Jacob was so excited to eat it. We washed it right away, and I cut it into 3 tiny pieces, so Cody, Jacob and I could each have some, and we ate it. I have to say, for only being about an inch long, it was still mighty tasty. :) I can't wait for our other ones to be ready to pick. I think next year I will have to plant more than 5 carrots. :)

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. :)