July Activities

 Some of July's activities included:

Children's Bike Parade. We made it through the parade fine, but at the finish the rains came pouring down. We tried to wait it out, but we finally ran to our car. We were totally drenched and the boys were crying.

We've continued our weekly hikes. One week we went with Melissa and her kids to hike at Snowbird. We packed a picnic dinner, but who can eat when a pot-gut is around? Not Noah. He was glued to the ground looking for the tame animal who loved cheetoes, as were all the other kids.

Jason enjoyed some carnival rides with Austin and Grandma Linda at Steel Days. Noah got to hang out with me in the wrap.

Watching the Highland Days parade.

We've also enjoyed more boating with Grandpa Jesse, and Jason has loved going to his swimming lessons.

Noah finally decided to walk everywhere in July-- he was 17 months old. Now I can't get anything done while he is awake, except play :).

Noah's Photo Shoot

Melissa took these pictures of Noah back in May when Noah was 15 months old. I am obviously not very funny or entertaining because I could not get this kid to crack a smile.

This is one of my favorites. I was blowing bubbles to get him to smile, and he started blowing too.

I had a hard time getting a good smile out of Jason, too. He is almost four in this picture.

Austin and Jason

This is my very favorite picture!

Jason is Four!

Jason is four today. He really wanted a friend birthday party this year, so we gave him one. He chose to have an "Angry Birds" themed party. Both sets of grandparents came to the party, and we were grateful for the extra help.

I found this cute idea for angry bird ballon decorations online.

Opening presents.

We had a couple of pigs at the party. We let the little kids knock over the pigs with water balloons. After the balloons were gone, we let them run through sprinklers.

The take-home party bag had "pig food" inside of it" candy, angry birds fruit snacks, angry birds graham crackers, stickers, and a little angry bird toy.

Kyle and I gave Jason a bike for his birthday. Hopefully he'll be up and riding it soon, but it might take us a while since it is so HOT outside.

Dear Jason,

I am so grateful we have had you in our lives for the past four years. You are getting so grown up. These days you still love to play with cars and trains, but your newest love is playing with Angry Birds.  You also have a great imagination and you like to pretend you are various baby animals. We have gotten you to try several new foods by telling you "baby (insert animal name) loves to eat (insert food name)." I am especially excited that you eat fish now. You are a nice big brother to Noah and you look out for his safety. Noah absolutely adores you. Sometimes it is hard to let him play with you because he knocks everything over. You play by yourself for longer periods of time, which lets me do other things, so I have to remind myself to play with you more often.

We just finished a session of swimming lessons for you and you now put your head under the water! Good job! I am so glad that I can stay home to take care of you so that I can take you out to do fun things during the day, like swimming. We like to go to the Aquarium, duck pond, library, park, zoo, and Thanksgiving Point. We also love to have play dates with friends.

You have a kind personality. Kids your age love to play with you because you are nice to them and you don't hit. But you do better playing one-on-one. Larger group settings can get overwhelming. Talking to strangers is hard for you, but I guess that is a good thing.

When you were three you would often say, "I will do that when I am four." So now that you are four, you are ready to learn how to ride a bike, dress yourself all the time, and practice wiping yourself more.

I love you so much,

mom

Happy Golden Birthday to Me

I had an awesome golden birthday! The best present was having healthy kids (last year was so awful with sick kids on my birthday). But everything else was wonderful too. I got to sleep in, go to my exercise class, go out to lunch at "Taste of India" with my friend Shehnaz, boat with family, and eat cake and ice cream with family as well. To top it off, Kyle gave me a surprise present: a future getaway to St. George. Woohoo!

 The boys loved boating. Noah didn't seem to mind his life jacket.

Hard at Work

Jason playing with play-dough. The pink structure is a temple.

Noah loves Kyle's laptop. This little guy is SO close to walking. He will take steps, and he can stand alone, but he still prefers to crawl everywhere.

A Visit From Shelby

My niece Shelby came and stayed with us for five days. We were sad to see her go. The boys loved having an older sister around. She played with the boys, read them stories, helped Noah practice walking, and she helped me with dinner. I told her I didn't think we would give her back to her mom, but she didn't like that idea.

We went to Scheels twice to ride the Ferris Wheel because that is what Shelby requested. We were happy to oblige.

Hikes

I am enjoying not having a nursing baby this summer, so I am trying to go out and do a lot of things that we missed out on last year, like hiking. We have great hiking buddies-- Sadie, Isaak (4 yrs), and Chloe (1 yr). I have a goal to hike once a week during the summer.

Week 1: We hiked Ensign peak, which was quite ambitious, but we made it. I carried both boys for parts of the way.

Week 2: We hiked Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon, which was a little less ambitious, but still a challenge.

This is my friend Sadie and her daughter, Chloe.

Week 3: Lisa Falls, which was a great little hike, but we should have worn shoes that could get wet. Shelby came with us.