Outdoors

A few Sundays ago we went for a drive up one of the canyons and went for a little walk. I always forget how beautiful it is up the canyons and I wonder why we don't get up there more. My kids had so much fun funning around, picking flowers and admiring the river. They had so much fun they decided they wanted to go camping the next weekend.
So, over the next week I reserved us a camping spot, planned the food menu and packed up our camping stuff. The spot was only 15 minutes away from our home and we were totally secluded. One night we were the only ones in the whole campground. We found a fun little hike that was a perfect length for the kids and they loved the giant dandelions they found along the trail.

The kids helped unload the wood, set up the chairs and explore our camp. They loved to roast marshmallows (or should I say, catch them on fire) and tell scary stories around the fire.

Piper loved hanging out in her pack and play, sitting in daddy's big camp chair, and standing on her head.

Hazel's favorite things to do were collect flowers and play in the dirt. She got SOOO dirty and loved every minute of it.

Lincolns new favorite thing to do was chop little peices of wood with the hatchet (I was totally against this, but Tommy was for it and kept a good eye on him).

I can't wait to go camping with my little family again :)

4th of July (a little late)

I am way behind on my posting, but here are a few pics from the 4th of July.

My kids had so much fun this year getting out and hanging out with family and friends! We were able to watch fireworks on the 3rd up in Park City. On the afternoon of the 4th we went to a family bbq and played with cousins. Then later that night we hung out with more family and friends at our annual bbq at our house and watched a ton of fireworks in the front yard. Thanks to my brother-in-law Pat and the new legal fireworks I think this was our best year ever (oh, yes, and we also enjoyed Sugarhouse Park fireworks also).

Lincoln decorated his bike just to get in the spirit of things:

Here is a blurry picture of our backyard (how do you take pictures of lights at night?), but I wanted to show you Tommy's new addition to the backyard - commercial grade string lights. These lights were his Fathers Day present this year and they are his pride and joy. I have to admit, they do make the ambiance nicer for our bbq's. Nothing like 200 ft of lights strung across a tiny backyard.

I love the joy my kids get out of Holidays and being with family and friends. We need more times like these :)

A Surprise for me

I just got back yesterday from a 7 day trip with my three kids and my husband had a surprise waiting for me. Well, kind of a surprise. I knew he was building me a closet, I just didn't expect one this nice.

As most of you know, I live in a small bungalow house that is very limited on closet space. Tommy and I share a small closet that consists of just one rod. Well, because of this, I don't have much space so lately I have just been laying most of my hang-up clothes over a laundry basket, rather than cramming them in the closet. And because we have no shelves, my pants and sweaters have been folded under my bed (not ideal when you have a cat). We have another door in our room that leads to storage space under the stairs. I had asked Tommy to clean it out and just put up a closet rod and a few shelves for me while I was on vacation. That way I could finally get my cluttered clothes and laundry basket off of the floor and make our room look nicer.

Well, I didn't take a before picture, but Tommy did take one of the creepy coal shute hole he uncovered behind the non-working water softener (that is now removed). Please admire the nice yellowish color of the walls that has probably been there for 20 years or so...

Now the final result! He added 6 shelves, bead board all around, a closet rod, white paint, and he even upgraded the pull-chain light bulb to actually have a light cover and a light switch. :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I know this might not look fancy to those of you who have walk in closets, but if you have ever seen any of my closets in my house, this is amazing. I will now be able to get all of my clothes up off the floor and from under my bed and have my own personal closet space.

Of course, I will still be hanging stuff in Tommy's closet too ;)

Piper is crawling

Piper woke up on July 4th and decided she was going to crawl. I know she is 8 months old, but she just seems to small to crawl. I am not ready for her to start growing up and being more independent. I LOVE the baby, snuggly holding stage. Now that she can get around though, she is constantly coming over to me and crawling up on me and pulling on me to stand up. I think she will be standing and trying to walk in to time - but here is to hoping that it takes her a while to get it down ;)

Here is a video I took of my happy baby yesterday:

Swimming Lessons

My kids are LOVING swimming lessons this year. Lincoln has always had a fear of "the deep" but I think he is finally overcoming it. They are both doing so well and I am proud of their accomplishment so far!

Lincoln:

Hazel:

A little late

Although Piper is 8 months old on Monday I wanted to finally share some of her 7 month pictures. I am normally really good at getting my babies pictures taken promptly when they are newborn, 3 mo, 6 mo, 9 mo, 12 mo, and then every year after, but with her I was 1 month late. Tommy laughed at me because I stressed about being late with it. My excuse is that she wasn't sitting by herself until 7 months and I really wanted her to be. I guess all that matters is that I did get them done and I love them :)

What a Character

You would probably never know it because she is so shy, but Hazel is such a character. When we are around people she doesn't see very often she barely speaks, much less moves from my side. However if you see her often enough she will loosen up and you will get to know the real her. The un-shy her. Her true self.

She is fiesty, sassy, funny, strong willed, sweet, happy, silly, naughty, etc, etc. She is my "hard" kid most of the time because she is such a button pusher, but then she has those moments when she makes me laugh and smile and know it is all worth it.

Last night when I downloaded the pictures off of my camera to my computer I was greeted with these pictures and busted out laughing. Obviously she found my camera lying around and decided to take some self portraits of herself:

She seems so much more grown-up than Lincoln did at 3 1/2. Here are some things about her (to love or not to love):

She loves to watch my reaction when she is about to do something naughty (which is often).

I have to tell her about 20 times a day to be soft with the baby.

She goes through about 3 outfits a day and about 5 different pairs of shoes (her choice, not necessity).

She LOVES make-up.

She is definitely a mommy's girl (only goes to daddy if I am not home)

Some of her favorite sayings of hers that I love are:

1) she calles the sun "summer". When she wakes up if it is light outside she comes downstairs and tells me it is summer. Just this morning she ran inside with her swimsuit I had hung up saying the summer dried it for her.

2) whenever we pass a McDonalds you can count on her saying "look Old McDonalds" or "can we go to Old McDonalds for lunch?"

3) when I tell her to stop doing something or she will lose a toy she just responds "it's okay, I'll just earn it back later" and continues on her way (obviously I have changed my dicipline since this)

I love her so much despite all of the "bad" times we have together. I am so curious to see the woman she grows into. I know she will be amazing!