July 2011

I'm slowly doing it! I'm getting caught up. I can hardly believe it!

Our July was pretty much like our June and May. Just a lot of questions about Michael and not much else going on, that I can remember anyway, other than the 4th of July.

For the 4th, we had Nathan's cousin and wife, Ben and Chelsea, come down from Canada with their 3 kids. We, of course, had a blast! I always enjoy our visits with them, but they're never long enough! We had a fun day that started with the parade on Main Street. Then we went home, attempted naps for the boys, did some shopping and cooking, and then took off for Idaho Falls to wait and wait and wait for the fireworks and then came home. So the typical 4th of July. It was fun, but I wish we would have just stayed at our place and not gone down. It would have been way less stressful for everyone involved and probably more...enjoyable/memorable. Next time!

Michael waving the flag with so much enthusiasm it hardly shows on the camera!Xander holding a gun and sporting the awesome USA headbandBen and Chelsea's adorable, but massive, little Levi. I think at the time he was 9 months old?? He just had his first birthday a few days ago!!! I'm not sure he knows what to do with himself in all the red, white, and blue. He's a canadian!
But he soon warmed up to the idea that it's not so bad after all! Or maybe he's just trying to show 'USA' whose boss?
Xander spent a lot of the time we were in Idaho Falls hanging out in the stroller. He didn't mind it too much and enjoyed people watching, while we didn't have to worry about him wandering off and getting into trouble! It was a win-win!And that was about as exciting as our July got!
Xander got into some sugar.... He enjoyed it!
He also started climbing....The boys started playing together more and Michael started making goofy faces for the camera. And then I had a little photo-shoot with Xander in a box!He's so stinkin' adorable!!!!!!!!Here's a quick video of Xander. He's an incredibly picky eater, and the faces he makes can sometimes just be priceless! There's really no question what he's thinking most of the time!Good thing he's so sweet, as well!!

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.

Easter Trip To Cedar City And Las Vegas

For our Easter week we decided to get out of Rexburg and visit family. It was a nice relaxing trip and so great to see family again!! It never happens often enough. It was a blast watching Michael an my Niece Emma together. They are 11 months apart so they got along pretty well together, although I think Michael was a little too spunky for what she's used to. While we were at Kellies we did a fun little easter egg hunt and Mom gave them some easter goodies.

Michael was sooooo excited to get out of town and see everyone! He was constantly talking about it and asking when we could go! It got old really fast, so we made a little count down. It helped a little.

Michael playing in our packing bags. He was able to fit all the way in so I could zip the top.

The Goodies my mom got for the kids

The reveal of the Easter Bunny surprise

The search for the eggs

Michael enjoying the fruits of his labors

Our New Year's Eve Adventures

We had a very enjoyable New Year's Eve. The highlights were the small fire in the kitchen and the poopy diaper that exploded against the wall in Michael's room. It was quite the little show for our guests. Hopefully they come back over some day...

On the day of New years eve, we decided to have a small gathering and invited some of our friends over. They each brought some food items and Nathan decided he would make wings. When Nathan makes wings, he likes to deep-fry them. We bought the wings from the frozen food aisle so there was some water left on them while Nathan was preparing them, and because of that, when he would drop a batch into the oil, it would make a VERY BIG noise and it was very distracting. Nathan was a bit self concious about that and wanted to finish quicker, so he decided to drop way too many wings into the pot full of oil, and the oil splashed over. This didn't fair well for the burner and a HUGE fire ball rose up from the stove!!! Seriously--It was HUGE!!!!! From where I was sitting, on the other side of the living room, there was a nice orange glow coming from the stove. One of the men jumped up and ran in there and told Nathan to get some baking soda and pour some on. Nathan was grateful for that, because he basically froze in place and couldn't think about what to do. Luckily by that point the fire had descended to just around the pot and wasn't scary anymore. The baking soda put the fire out just as ALL the smoke alarms in the apartment started going off. Ya, the kids weren't too fond of that!

Nathan then, very carefully, finished cooking the wings and it was a nice, relaxing evening. We decided to play a game and towards the end of the game, one of the men decided to go into Michael's room and check on the boys. It's a good thing he did!! A few seconds later we heard him proclaim, "NO, NO!!! DON'T TOUCH IT!!!!!" One of the kids had found a nice poopy diaper in Michael's trash can and threw it against the wall. The poop exploded out just as the father walked into the room and saw his son going for the new, very interesting mess. Luckily no child did touch it and it got cleaned up quickly.

The party didn't last much longer than that and after every one left and Michael was put to bed, Nathan and I conveened in the kitchen and realized just how blessed and protected we were!! All logic says that fire should have been BAD!!! The fire ball reached all the way to the ceiling and we have black soot needing to be removed. Nathan knows the fire touched the cupboards above the stove, but there is no evidence of that. Not a dark mark at all!!! Nathan should have been burned! His hands were right there dumping the wings into the oil. He did report that his hands stung a bit, he didn't have any sign of any fire touching him. Any hair that was on his hands weren't even singed!!! The next day he put his glasses on and realized there was oil on them...if that hot oil had hit his eyes, who knows what damage it could have done!!! We're very grateful for the protection we recieve and that our family, all our guests that were here, and our apartment are all safe and sound.

I truly hope you all had a more peacefull new years than we did, and that we all have a nice, happy 2009!!!!

Fall Time Decorations

So I love this time of year!!!! I grew up in hot, hot southern California and I ALWAYS hated the heat!! I would always get pretty happy when the temperature would drop down into the 60's and 70's and I wouldn't be soo stinkin' hot anymore! So it has been so wonderful to be in Rexburg for Fall the last 4 years. September is when it is supposed to be cool and Rexburg is following the Calendar perfectly!!!

Another reason that I love this time of year is because it's so fun to decorate for!! You have all the leaves and Halloween and Thanksgiving and in a few months, Christmas!! I just find it all so exciting and I look forward to decorating all year. But there's a problem: I only have (seriously) about 8 decorations!!!!!! It's horrible! How am I supposed to decorate with only 8 items??

So I need your help! I don't have an original item/idea in my mind AT ALL. People would always compliment me on my singing time activities, but honestly, they were never my original ideas and the same is true with my house! I need to see what you do so I can get some inspiration and...maybe, if it's okay, copy. :) Plus it's fun to see what other do and to get some ideas. So please!! Lets post our Fall/Holiday decorations!!!!

Here are my decorations! Enjoy and I look forward to seeing what you do!

Our living room
(Thank you so much Mom for the flowers. I really did appreciate it and they helped me a lot!! Now you can see what they look like!)
This is just a cute little pumpkin I have sitting at our window. There's a green light but it doesn't work. Bummer.
This is a door hanging my mom sent me last year. I love it!

This is a scarecrow we put onto Michael's door. We're thinking of doing it up a bit more too. We'll get some black crows to put around it and also some corn or something...that's the plan anyway.

This was actually the activity I did for Singing time last week. I put each piece of the Scarecrow into a bag with songs attached to the back. The children then came up, chose a piece and put in on a board. When they were done we had built a Scarecrow! It was really fun and they enjoyed it. (And as a sidenote, I did get released from my calling a few weeks ago. It's sad, but at least I can go to Sunday School with Nathan and attend Relief Society with the other women...I'm excited!!! I might actually know some people in our ward now and they may know me!!!!!!!!!)

I'm also thinking of doing a simple countdown thing with Michael. You know the activity of cutting strips of paper and making a chain with it and then you remove one link each day. I was thinking of doing that with black and orange paper to count down to Halloween and then make one for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Oh, and if anyone has any fun craft ideas or websites/blogs they love to go, please share those as well!!! I'm really excited to see all your ideas!!

Happy blogging!!