Fair Parade

We enjoyed the fair parade very much this year. Grandpa Potter came with us and we found the perfect spot right at the beginning of the route under a tree. 

Kiddos excitedly waiting for the parade to start.

 Yay here come the horses!

 Little ponies

 BIG horses

 I love this beautiful old school hearse from Hawker funeral home.

 CANDY!!!

The kids dancing to the marching band music. Oh yes they know how to appreciate good music.

 Johnson's Mexican Crazy Corn. . . train. Many of the kids from the ward was on here. What fun!

 Olivia decided to try and escape the hard way.

 These were the greatest costumes. We really don't know what the float was for, but it was fabulous!

 Uh I guess someone decided the parade wasn't exciting enough. "What's going on back there?"

 Now here's something that got Jaden pretty darn excited!

 A very very noisy car. Bella was not so impressed. Jaden kept asking Ryan what the neat looking cars were. Most of the time he could tell him. We have a serious car enthusiast on our hands.  

This was a pretty cool float. Animals inside and up top.

 Alright a little candy before we go. Seriously, the candy haul was insane. Both kids had their backpacks so full they could barely carry them. I love a parade! 

Someone once said. . . .

7-3-13
This morning I told the kids "We're going to go for a bike ride, Mommy's going to shower, then we'll go to the park, the library, then the bank."
Bella" "Yay we go get suckers (bank), pet ponies (on our bike ride), slides (park), and Libary! Yay!"
Jaden: "No Bella, you forgot I get the TV! (Mommy Shower)
By golly I think they got it.

7-5-13
I told Bella she could bath with her glow sticks this morning. Jaden gasps "Me too?" "Sure Jaden, you too." "Even my necklace ones?" "Sure." Jaden whispers "a-mazeing."
Thank you 4th of July, your magic continues. :)

7-7-13
while setting up for singing time before sacrament meeting started I overheard some of my junior primary girls in the hall. "That's my singing teacher, doesn't she look pretty today? She's really nice."
I sure love these little kiddos.

7-9-13
This morning at breakfast Bella gets a worried look on her face and says "Oh no, when I get big and can drive, I won't know which way to drive."
Umm wow someone is trying to grow up WAY too fast.

7-11-13
This morning Bella said there is a ghost in the garage. Jaden looked and he said, "Yup, they're speedy spirits having a pillow fight."
I think the kid has watched too much Luigi's Mansion. Hee

7-14-13
Ryan: Bella's made of snail shells and puppy dog tails.
Bella: (screaming) NOOOO!
Me: Of course Bella's made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
Bella: NO! I made of blood and bones

Well then we stand corrected.

7-15-13
My kiddos first experience with Feta cheese.
Bella: Mom, I really like this it's yummy!
2 minutes later
Mom, this cheese smells like throw up. yuck I don't like it.

Jaden: Okay mom put some feta cheese on my sloppy Joe and maybe I'll like it.
2 seconds later
No I still don't like it. I'll just eat the watermelon okay.

Why am I cooking when Ryan's not in town?

Oh Olivia however gobbled up everything, but then again she eats rocks so . . . .

7-17-13
I swear every time I went to check on the kids outside today they were doing something naughty. I'll spare you the play by play of the day but Bella is currently on her second bath and the water is brown and muddy. . . much like our pool . . . just glad the day is almost over.

7-20-13
Bella again told me that she wants to marry daddy when she grows up. I told her daddy will be too old for her to marry then but she could marry someone like daddy. She looks at me for minute.
B-"With hair like Daddy?"
Me- "Sure I've met like one other person with hair like Daddy but you could try.
B- "And with that face like Daddy?"
Me - "Umm maybe kinda like daddy's face."
B- "I just think I'll marry Daddy."
Me- "Okay then."

7-25-13
Knock Knock on my door
P-Jaden's hurt
I get outside "Okay what happened"
Simultaneous reply
P- M was playing and hurt J and . . . .
J - M hurt me there on my back . . .
T - J got hurt then hit her then P hurt me . . .
B - Mom I got hurt mom mom mom mom mom mom mom. . . .
"Okay I got this . . . . whatever you were doing . . . .stop it!"
kids happily go back to playing.
Should have just lead off with that blanket statement.

(No children were actually harmed in this incident)

7-26-13
My kids are actually playing happily together inside. Shhh don't tell them or it won't last.

7-26-13
Bella's prayer last night ended with "Oh and don't let the black widow spiders and earwigs get in the house."
Whew I'm glad she remembers to pray for these kinds of things cause I forget to, and that's a pretty good request if I ever heard one.

7-27-13
A cold cave, a cold day at Bear Lake, cold ice cream cones. Our adventure was a bit colder than expected, but we still had a fabulous time!

7-31-13
Bella's pretty serious about her pretend play. She was being a horse and was naughty to Olivia so I put her in time out. The whole time there she was crying "Neigh Neigh" as loud as she could.

7-31-13
Feeling loved today. Jaden was super excited to show me how well he folded and put away his laundry (it was very good), Bella drew me a picture of a sunflower and asked me how to write "I Love you" so she could put it on her picture and gave it to me. And my sweet baby who says dada, uh oh, woah, and even something that resembles Jaden, still has not yet said Mama. While trying to get her to say mama I realized something. She makes a clicking sound with her tongue for the word  kiss cause she thinks that's what a kiss sounds like. When I was trying to get her to say Mama she kept making that sound and I finally get it. She sees Mama as synonymous with kiss. I'm happy now. :)

8-14-13
Can I stress out here for just a second? Baby is still sick, my mom's surgery had complications and she'll be staying in the hospital a few more days (but will be okay. Whew) so I'll be staying a few more nights at my parents house with Cory. Nothing I can't handle but I've slept only a few hours the past 3 nights and I'm sooooo tired. And I think I need a milk shake or cookie dough or something.

8-19-13
It has happened. Olivia is walking. She doesn't know it yet, and only does it when she's not trying, but she's got a good 5 or 6 step run going on.

8-27-13
Olivia has the waterfall of boogers with no end in site, any attempt at containing with tissue is futile I really should just strap a bucket under her chin and let it run. . . and then since she's teething again she's chewing on everything (including my skin & clothes) and tonight this chewing resulted in her banging her teeth on a wood chair which then resulted in blood. A LOT of blood. I thought she lost a whole tooth for how much blood came out, fortunately that was not the case and after a couple minutes her gums did stop bleeding, but telling a baby to hold still and keep the paper towel by her face so not to stain EVERYTHING was futile as she screamed and thrashed about. SOOOO if I come to the door and I'm covered in bodily fluid of all shapes and forms, don't judge or I just might hand you my baby.

8-31-13
Kiddos LOVED the parade this morning. Jaden even said it was better than his birthday! They got sooo much candy it's crazy. They loved dancing to the music too. All 3 of them. :)

8-31-13
I wanted a new recliner so we went to the labor day sales a bought one. Then rachel was sitting in it this afternoon and her tablet slid down the inside cushion and got pinched underneath. She didnt realize it and as you can see its a gonner. Shattered.

Olivia is 11 Months

11 Months. Yikes! Where did the time go?

 Oh yeah that's a cute face

 Check out those chompers. She has another set already coming in. Ouch.

And this happened. Yeah this walking  thing. This video was taken on Aug 23rd actually.

She's gotten so interactive and learned to splash. Boy she likes to splash.

she's starting to get picky about what she eats and thinks she should be able to to do whatever brother and sister are doing. 

Loving this girl every day!

Hail and Reunion

Don't you just love a good hail storm? Ya know if it's little hail and you're all safely inside. :) The kids really liked watching the hail bounce on the trampoline.

After the storm subsided we headed to the Little Butt reunion. I'm pretty sure we were the only parents crazy enough to let our kids play in the giant puddle.

 It was a benefit to the older kids. When their balls would roll into the water Jaden was happy to go in and get it for them.

 Ahna and Joe. Two of my kiddos favorite people

 Mmmm chips

 There were a ton of other little kids running around but Jaden and Bella stuck to the cousins they already knew, they were entertained by the older kids' entertainment of throwing things over the fence and watching them go splat.

 umm got a bit dirty in the baseball diamond, but still happy. 

 Well Hello there!

A Little This and That Aug edition

Olivia is climbing on EVERYTHING! this may not be so safe.

 "What you're taking picture? Me too!"

" And Me!" Silly kiddos.

 Lovely art. The kids book logs for the library summer reading program, some  papers from primary, Bella's spotlight child paper, and her paper she got from her Preschool teacher that had a sucker on it. :)

What do you do when a stool just isn't enough? Enlist Billy to help of course! I was pretty impressed at the ingenuity of Bella's method of getting the bubbles. She did get them indeed and had a great time outside (I was in the shower at the time and am very glad she didn't get hurt.) 

The Dentist

Jaden hadn't been to the dentist in a long time and Bella had never been at all. I figured I better get them in before school starts. 

As you can see they weren't scared at all and were very good!

 No cavities! Yay. Bella was told she needed to quit sucking her thumb and surprisingly since then she has! I guess all it took was someone else besides us telling her. 

They got fun new toothbrushes and Bella even got a pretty star stamp that she decided she needed to share with Olivia. 

Making the best out of a Rough Week

My mom found out she had a cyst on her optic nerve. She had to get surgery to have it drained. While she and my dad were gone I went over to their house to get Cory dinner and stay the night with him. Fortunately he had a wonderful nurse and her husband come in and get him into bed and out of bed in the morning, so all we had to do was make food, eat, clean up, take care of the animals, and catch up on some quality Doctor Who. :) Doesn't seem bad I know, and it wasn't really but it was time I wasn't at home getting all my other stuff done. ;) Also Ryan was working that week in Colorado sooo we did it all without him. 

The kiddos thought it was a blast! The loved getting "bootiful" ice cream cones for dessert (this is a must have at grandma's house. Even if Grandma isn't there I suppose), feeding the donkeys carrots, & bringing in the eggs. They also enjoyed the change of scenery and played pretty well together. They thought the extended slumber party was great (although Bella kept coming and sleeping with me in the middle of the night). They really loved it, though they really missed having Grandma there to play with.

Awesome sand castle!

Well it kept her busy while I did dishes so I'm happy. 

It was 100 degrees out but the kids really wanted to swing.

and she's done.

I really was trying to get a video of how darn cute she was talking to herself in the mirror, but as soon as she saw I was doing something with the tablet she had to come check it out. She really loved playing on Grandma's bed.

that would have been fine and dandy for the week, but then this happened:

Olivia got Roseola. Started out as a fever and as soon as that was done she got a crazy rash all over her body. Poor dear was miserable. She had a hard time sleeping and so of course so did I. I've also decided water beds just aren't for me. It was a loooong week because nights were no longer for sleeping. 

Anyhow, Olivia got better, Ryan got home, my parents got home, and my Mom though certainly not all well, had survived the ordeal. I got caught up on Doctor Who and got to chat with my favorite younger brother so all turned out just dandy. :)