Summer 2010

Since I have been terrible about updating our blog this summer you get one big picture overload. Between visiting family and family visiting us, playing with friends, and just living life, summer FLEW by! I have decided that life with 3 kids is just busy anyway and I wouldn't have it any other way. Here is a very brief overview of some of our activities this summer and random pictures.

Miss Kate continues to keep us on our toes. She is our crazy, funny, way too independent, bundle of joy.

Little Brookster is the sweetest baby you will ever find. I just love him to pieces! He makes having 3 kids seem much easier than I thought it would be.

Daylen is our smart, funny, BYU fan who keeps us laughing with his infectious smile and facial expressions.

Kate loves to dress herself and change her clothes often. The following pictures were all taken in 1 day. I missed her first outfit of the day however.

Backwards, insideout, it's all good!

Love her cheesy smile btw, don't know where she got that from. :)

Exploring around Spanish Fork Canyon and found red rock! How long have we lived in this area now and never knew we had red rock so close!

We decided to take Tyrel, Mandy, Ivan, Garret, and Brett exploring with us.

Kate also loves dancing, (as does Daylen, I'll have to post some video of their moves), here she is sporting one of the cute tutu's Aunt Mandy made for her.

Why are cribs so fun after we outgrow them?

I took the kids to the Hogle Zoo one day with some friends. The kids had fun, and this little guy did amazingly well. (Ok so I guess it's not that amazing he would do so well.)

Eating popcicles on the porch was an every day, multiple times a day, activity at our house.

Swimming at the ward party. Love those blue eyes!

Hiking the Grotto up Payson Canyon with friends.

We are still here loving life and doing well. Maybe with Fall and Winter coming on I'll be better about updating.

Daylen's first day of Preschool!

Daylen went to his first day of preschool today! I can't believe he's old enough for that already. He was so excited to go, he kept telling me he was going to practice his letters, do puzzles, and play with toys. He had a great time, but informed me he didn't practice his letters today. When I asked what he did today he said, "I sat crisscross applesauce, we read 'Take a Mouse to School' and 'Kissing Hand' with the racoon, and ate a snack with yellow frosting and graham crackers." He did so well, just went on in by himself and didn't look back.

Daylen has taken up winking lately, he is such a character, he cracks me up! He likes to pose for pictures now.

Birthday Boy!

I'm a little behind in my posts...Daylen turned 4 August 7! We were in Washington for Brad's 10 year high school reunion/Grandpa Gilbert's 92nd birthday party/helping my parents paint their house. It was a quick trip, but it's always fun to visit with family. We celebrated Daylen's and Kara's brithdays after a long day of painting by enjoying some Reeses Peanut Butter Pie and opening presents.

Dance Dance Revolution!

Daylen has been asking for a "Lady Bug Pillow Pet" ever since April when he saw a commercial on TV. Needless to say, he was pretty excited to finally get one for his birthday. Brad took a class at BYU on Scandinavian media and did you know that it is illegal to advertise during the day anything geared toward kids? I'm really wishing we had these kind of laws here in the States cause Daylen is very impressionable lately and anything he see it's, "mom can I get ______ for my birthday?"

He sleeps with it every night! It's a pillow and it's a pet!

Kara turned 17! I can't believe my little sister is 17!

Grandpa Gilbert is celebrating his 92nd birthday this month! Doesn't he look great! We had some yummy grub at Uncle Jim's house and enjoyed visiting with family.

Improvements

My crafty sister-in-law, Mandy, taught me a super cute, easy way to decorate using fabric on walls. While visiting this last weekend, she helped me get started putting these cute flowers and hearts on Kate's bedroom wall. So much easier than paint! We made a pattern for the flowers and hearts and cut out the material. Then all you do is get the fabric wet and place it on the wall wherever you want it, and brush liquid starch over the fabric to make it stick. It's easy to put up, easy to take down when you want a change of scenery, and no big paint mess! Love it, thanks for your help, Mandy!!

Daylen's Spot

This is Daylen's "Spot."

Ever since we moved into our house Daylen has claimed the crack between the middle and left cushions. He likes to snuggle down in it and get comfortable.

So when Kate fell asleep on Daylen's "spot," instead of picking a different place to sit, like maybe the other crack between the middle and right cushions, or the rocking chair, instead he pushed her aside and snuggled in behind.

4th of July

Rhett and Kristen and their family came and spent some time with us over the 4th of July weekend. It was fun to see them and fun for the kids to play together. Our kids follow the same pattern for gender and age as their youngest almost 3. Daylen and Jacob, Brinley and Kate, and they are expecting a boy in October. Here is kate straightening Brinley's hair, what a good sport.

Playing with sparklers and watching our fireworks show!

Jacob with his sparkler.



Enjoying the show!

We have grass!

So when we moved in to our house last August it looked like this...grass completely dead. We tried to revive it as best we could, but there were just too many completely gone spots and the weeds began to take over.


After Brad cut the grass out with a sod cutter, he and I got rid of it (as in it is now dumped in our side and back yard for a later project). We added nice compost, rototilled, raked, leveled, deweeded flower beds...and then it looked like this...

We had some great help from our ward to lay the sod on a hot, July evening.

Brad worked very hard in this whole process, he's been amazing!

Daylen wanted to help.

So Kate wanted to help, too.

Magically we have automatic lawn! Which came by hard labor.

visit from grandma!

My fabulous mother came and spent last week with us while my youngest siser, Kara, was at EFY. I love it when my mom visits, she is the best. She made Kate a quilt and pillowcase for her bed, helped me wash my windows, we went to the park, saw Toy Story 3, Brad and I went on a date :) we had lunch with my aunts and cousin, went to the BYU Bookstore, and we started potty training Kate. Plus it's just fun to just have her here. She brought my niece and nephew with her, Lily and Nathan, so Daylen and Kate had fun playing with their cousins all week as well.

Kate has starting "fixing" our hair now with a fork or spoon or spatula, whatever is closest at the moment.

Nathan and Daylen liked to wear their matching superman pjs despite the hot, summer weather.

This little guy is so fun to have around, I love his smiles!