The Fouth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Josh had to work this year from 8 to noon AND 3pm to 1 am, so we went to the parade (where he was working) and sat with our neighbors. Then at night I had a BBQ at our house for most of our neighbors (haha, it just kind of turned out that way!) and then did some fireworks behind our houses. It was perfect because this new road is back there, paved and ready, in the middle of empty dirt lots. It was the perfect fireworks location! The kids had a lot of fun! (Kristy, these pictures of your kids are for you to steal from here!!!)

End of the School Year and Avery is 10 Months!

It has been a busy month as usual! The boys were both doing tons of fun things for the end of their school year. Caleb's preschool ended in the second week of May with a field trip to Bear World. I went along with him and his class on the bus and got to see the bears too! They had all the cute little bear cubs out for us to watch. We also saw elk, antelope, bison, mountain goats, wolves, a moose, ducks, a peacock, a goose, goats, deer, and a very large pig! The bear/wolf/bison part you drive through and then the rest is as a small petting zoo. They have a few rides there too but they weren't open yet for the season. I think Caleb had a fun time! He was a little bored by the end, but that's Caleb. He needs fast-paced excitement!

Gabe just ended school on May 23rd. I swear they had a party everyday for the whole last two weeks of school though. I also went on his last fieldtrip about two weeks ago, which was to the Tautphus Park Zoo. I only ended up having to watch Gabe and one other kid, his best friend, Carter, so it was pretty easy.I think their favorite animal was the Tiger, probably because they got to witness it eating a little girl's shoe, which had fallen off her foot and down into the tiger's pit. Guess she'll learn not to dangle her feet in a tiger's cage anymore! haha. I wonder what her parents said when she asked where her other shoe went and she responded, "A tiger ate it." haha funny stuff.

So then Gabe also had a little party each day. One day it was "Math Mania", then "Camping Day", then "Pajama/slumber party" day. They sure know how to party over there! I think he really enjoyed school the last two weeks! :) Who wouldn't?

So now it is Summer Vacation time and on  the first day of it Josh was trying to sleep from having worked a night shift the previous night and the boys were ready to kill each other by 9 am. It was great. How I will survive, I am not sure yet. I do have one sweet little girl though!!!

Avery is officially 10 months old now! She is getting to be a little more, "Look at me, Mom! Attention, please!!" But that's to be expected I guess. She gets a little bored if I try to put her in her walker for too long. Although she HAS finally figured out how to really get around in that thing. She used to only go backward with both feet at the same time in a little, push push, motion. Now she is actually getting the walking, alternating legs, forward pattern down. She is so fast and crazy that you have to watch your toes when she is near you in the kitchen! Josh puts her in it in the garage when he is working out and she zips around all over. I wish I had some official height and weight on her but she hasn't been to the doctor so I don't know! She is definitely thinning out though. She is in size 18 months, but when I put on a pair of 18-24 m jeans the other day which were the right length, they were way too big on the waist. I am thinking she will be a tall, skinny girl. Where does she get that??? :)  She also has the best baby hair of all the babies I have ever seen. There are lots of babies that are older than her that are still practically bald, and hers is now long enough for a little Pebbles Flintstone ponytail. She's is seriously such a cutie. She still just has those two bottom teeth and she is starting to get so proud of them it seems like she tries to stick them out when she smiles sometimes! Gabe used to do that too. What a cheeseball.

So, that is all I can think of for now! Oh and I am thinking of starting an online store on a website called Etsy. So any extra time I have lately is spent designing artwork for nurseries and weddings to put online in my store! We'll see how that goes. It's a fun hobby if nothing else. Keeps me somewhat sane in a world of baby and kid stuff!!

Avery's movie star look alike

So after a recent outing where someone told me that Avery looked like Dora the Explorer, it caused me to reflect on who I think she looks like. I decided that because of her little dark pixie-cut hairdo she most resembles Ginnifer Goodwin right now. I am ok with that. Especially considering THIS is what a computer program (which took Josh and my pictures and combined them) said that our baby girl would look like:

Wisconsin Visitors, Josh's 33rd birthday, and Avery is 9 months!

It's been a busy past week! Last Friday my mom, grandma, sister, and niece all flew out here from Wisconsin for a little visit. After many, MANY delays and changes of plans, they finally arrived at our house Friday afternoon, only about a day after their original arrival time! Bad weather in Wisconsin and some mechanical plane problems were to blame. Luckily there was no snow out here, just some major wind! But that's Rexburg. We had fun going to Flips Gymnastics Center for open gym, going to get cupcakes, going out to eat, and feeding the fish in Ashton at Big Springs. We had wanted to go through Yellowstone but I guess they don't open until the end of April! Maybe next time I guess! They left early Tuesday morning. It was good to see all of them!

Then on Thursday, two days after they went home, Josh had his 33rd birthday! I made him a raspberry cake with white frosting (he doesn't like chocolate! what!?!) and we also attended Gabe's school play about "Pete the Cat" earlier that night. I don't know if Gabe was just nervous or if he is just getting to that age where he is a little too cool to sing and dance in public, but he did not seem to thrilled up there! He somewhat sang the songs and did the hand gestures to the littlest degree, but he was definitely not as enthusiastic about it as some of the little girls! I looked at Josh and said, "I feel like I am watching how you would've been in your 1st grade play." I have a feeling that watching Caleb may be more like watching me. He's a little less shy. :)

Then there's the sweet little baby girl. She is sooooo cute! I love this age! She is always smiling and laughing and learning to wave. The easiest way to get her to wave is to put her in front of a mirror. She won't always wave at other people but she will always smile and wave at herself! haha she knows she's cute! Today I was throwing her up in the air and she was just laughing and laughing. She also likes to be hung upside down for some reason! She's pretty easy still. Here are some stats:

At her doctor's appt yesterday...
Weight: 22 lbs, 1 oz (still 90 %)
Height: 30 in (over 97%)
Teeth: two on the bottom, he says the top ones will be any time!

Sleeping: Usually to bed about 8:15, sleeps the whole night until about 8 am. Sometimes wakes up once at some point and has a bottle, goes back to sleep once she's done with it and we lay her back in her bed.

Skills: claps, waves, hates being on her stomach so rolls onto her back when we put her on her tummy! Not really crawling yet. She sits up and plays with toys easily but is content to stay in one place I guess! No complaints here! :) She loves her little jumper and always bounces when we hold her in a standing position. She loves to grab at anything around her that looks interesting and has even gotten her bowls of baby food a couple times when we looked away, making a big mess!

Here are some pictures!

Easter!

I forgot to post about Easter! This year we had a couple of weeks that it was sunny and high 50's and even into the 60's for a couple of days and it happened to fall right around Easter! It was really nice for our neighborhood Easter egg hunt! About 6 families all contributed 20 eggs per child and then we set them up at the school across the street and told each kid to find 20 eggs. It's always more fun for them than the city wide hunt that lasts 30 seconds and results in each child getting 2 eggs!

On Easter Sunday we went to church and on Saturday afternoon we went to Josh's parents and they had an Easter egg hunt too for all the grandkids (there are 20 now!!!). The Easter bunny of course came on Easter morning before church and even left a little treasure/egg hunt with clues and jelly beans at each stop around the house. He went all out and did this last year and the boys loved it so I think it has officially become locked in as the only accepted way for the Easter Bunny to leave the baskets at our house now! (crap.) haha.

Here are some pictures of Easter!