Random Pictures--The First Month Of July

We haven't been up to much. Just doing the day to day boring life things. We had an enjoyable fourth of July weekend. On Friday night Cathy and Becca came into town. On Saturday we did the parade on Main Street and then went down to Idaho Falls and watched the fireworks. On the actual holiday we didn't really do anything. We bought some snappy things that pop when they hit the sidewalk, but other than that, it was pretty low key....or boring....

Here's some pictures and a video of us at the parade

A flag we made a few days before.

This was how Michael dressed himself on the morning of the parade. A canada shirt and waving the canadian flag....I made him change....

It was so cold that morning!! We were wearing our jackets and some people were wrapped up in blankets.
Nathan taking pictures for the paper of people waiting for the parade to start.

Michael was so funny at the parade. The "floats" (they were just trucks with people sitting in the beds...ya, they worked hard on those...) had people throwing candy out into the streets. All around kids were going nuts for the candy, filling up bags and getting as much as they could. Then there was Michael. He'd pick up a piece, put it in his pocket or bring it to Cathy, and then walk back into the street and the CHEER for the other kids who got the candy! It was so funny.

Michael and Xander are going to be really good friends, we believe. We had just gotten back from a walk and I went into the kitchen to get a drink and I hear Michael and Xander laughing, and Michael saying, "hey baby, HEY!" So I walked around the corner just in time to see Xander lean over and pull Michael's hair. I had to get it on video. It was just too cute!

I LOVE THIS KID!!! He just makes me so happy! We looked up his middle name (Isaac) last night and it means "laughter". And that's just so fitting!! He's such a happy baby (most of the time) and lately, whenever he smiles he has a little giggle that goes along with it. He's just so fun!

Sometimes I will put sit Xander on the counter in the bathroom and put his hair into a mohawk. It's the best I can do until I finally have a girl! This was the first day he got excited about "the other baby" in the mirror.

I was able to get a FREE high chair earlier this month, too! It's so awesome! Someone in my ward announced they had a highchair they didn't need anymore, so I jumped on it, and got it!!! And this highchair is SO AWESOME!!! It has 7 different heights it can adjust to (which has been perfect for feeding Xander in the living room if I'm watching a movie with Michael or if we want him to be sitting at the table with us, it can act as a booster), has wheels that lock, the trays can fit into the dishwasher, and the cover can be thrown into the washing machine. It also comes with 2 really fun toys that Xander LOVES! The toys hook onto the tray so he can't push them off and it keeps him occupied when I'm getting his stuff ready. It's pretty cool! A few weeks ago there was a huge fire in Idaho Falls. It was incredibly windy (over 50 MPH winds) so all the smoke got pushed over to our city. It looked realy wierd. This is a picture of our tree...it's usually really green, but it looked white. Crazy!
Xander has started crawling...kinda...He pushes off with his toes and pulls himself with his fingers. But he's definitly getting around, and he seems to be so much happier now! But we've really had to start being super careful about what's on the floor! He can get to anything he wants, and those little fingers are GREAT at picking all kinds of things off the floors. I forgot about the tiny little vacuum stage!!

Happy 4th Of July

Going to shake hands/give a high-five to the duck
Trying to get some candy. The bigger kids were really mean and would take the candy from his hands, but he didn't really care. He was just having fun.
My favorite float. It looked really cool.

4th Of July Celebrations

We had a very fun and relaxing 4th. It was really nice to not worry about school, just be a family, and relax. We didn't really do much, either, which was the nicest of it all! That morning we woke up and went to the park to watch the parade. There were a lot of fun things to see and Michael loved it. There were, of course, fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances. But what really topped it off for Michael were seeing the tractors and tanks!!!! (He's such a boy!!) I forgot to bring my camera, but we had a good time. Then we came home and put him to bed for his nap. After he woke up we made 7 Layer Bars. They are soooo yummy and were very easy to make. It was a great activity for Michael to help me with, too! Here are some pictures of that...

(I'm guessing his hands were getting tired? His foot was much easier)
Pounding the graham crackers for the crust. We did 3 cups of crumpled (or stomped on or hammered) graham crackers and 2 cubes of butter for the crust.
Pressing the crackers onto the 9x13 pan
We messed up on this part, intentionally. The recipe called for half a bag of choc. chips and half a bag of butterscotch, but as we were pouring them on Nathan convinced me to just use all of each bag. I thought, sure, no problem!! They turned out fine, but are just WAY TOO SWEET!!!! Next time, we will be following the recipe!! Michael enjoyed this part the most!!! It's hard to see in this picture, but he was determined to eat each chip!

Next we put about 4 ounces of coconut on top, a bag of nuts, and a can of sweetened condensed milk. Then put them in the oven for 25 minutes at 350. Very yummy!!!

(Waiting for the bars to be ready)

The finished product. Have I mentioned how yummy they were??

After that was made we started cooking for dinner. Nathan got the bar-b-que out and he made some hamburgers and ribs (yum!) and I made some potato salad. Michael was no longer interested in helping me. Now he was just interested in trying some raw vegetables!!! Gross, I know, but after him whining to me for a few minutes and saying "ite, ite!!! I figured, why not? So I gave him some raw potato....he ate it for a few minutes, then ran over to the trash can and spit it all out!!!! Then he looked at me and said, "Yucky!!!" All I had to say was "told you so!" But he obviously didn't mind it too much, because a few minutes later I turned around to him taking another bite out of a different raw potato...Michael!!!! Then a few minutes later he helped me dehusk a cob of corn and then walked away content on eating it! I'm thinking he was hungry!!!

Eventually we were able to eat and the Floyds came over and we had a nice dinner outside on a picnic table.

A few hours after dinner we were invited to go outside and play a fun game called Ladder Ball. This is such a fun game!!!! You can sort of see how to play from the pictures, and it's a bit difficult to explain, but there are two balls attatched with a string and you fling the balls onto the ladder in front of you and try to get them onto the rows. The bottom row is worth 1 point, the middle is worth 3, and the top is worth 2. The goal is to get EXACTLY 21. Like I said, it's very fun.


After a round of that (and losing HORRIBLY 5 to 21) we went to the nature park to watch the fireworks. The fire works were okay, nothing spectacular, but Michael loved them!! He was clapping and saying something that we interpreted as Whoa!! It was very fun watching him.
This picture really makes me laugh!!! Nathan...well, I don't know exactly what he was thinking, but I don't think he was impressed!!! Michael was holding his hands over his ears for the few minutes of the show.

When we got home, Michael wanted to see more fireworks, so we were searching the sky for more.

So there's our 4th of July celebrations!!! Like I said, it was a very fun day with a time spent together as a family enjoying eachothers company.