Lessons from the little one

 

Seriously, could this boy be any cuter! I love him, some days all I do is chase him, others all I do is laugh, and yes some days I cry. In case you were wondering though this is how to recylce a ball that has popped because you were jumping up and down on it when your Mom told you not to, rip it in half and share with your sister so you each have a head of pink hair, your Mom will not be able to be upset because it is still useful and so dang cute! 

Cousin Fun

So the weekend our Dear Aubrey left (see previous post) her family came up to get her, and since Doug's brother was coming up, we invited his parents to come up too. On Saturday Doug and his family went over to his sister's for some good ole fashion fun of painting! I had already committed to a garage sale with three other families before I knew what was happening so I spent the morning pedaling our crap which paid off quite well, and then Aubrey and her family as well as Doug's Mom and Dad and our family headed off for one last day of water park fun before Aubrey left us, we went to the indoor water park this time though it was a great time (again I have no pictures) Then back to our house for a bbq water bash, and a little birthday party for Logan who happened to have had his birthday the week before (one of our nephews) We pulled out the slip and slide, and the pool, we did water balloons and a few games, and we had a slushie machine from Doug's work ( the one they use for snocone Tuesday during the summer) Love snocones it was good fun, I think the kids LOVED it.

 I can't say I don't love water I do, anything with water involved is usually at the top of my list of things I want to do, so I love that kids all had so much fun in the water and hanging out.

 Ashley was so kind to show the kids how the slip slide is done, and even help our little Addy the first couple of times, by the end of the summer Addy was a pro at the slip slide, no help needed

 And I don't know what it is about kids and cupcakes that just cracks me up, but I find it adorable, seriously adorable so here are 3 messy faces to enjoy

We had so much fun with everyone here for the weekend, even though Sunday was a hard day, we knew it would come eventually and what better way to end our summer adventures with Aubrey then with a party.... How we love cousins!

Our Aubrey (as Addy Calls her)

We were SO BLESSED to have one of our nieces come and spend some time with us this summer.  She was such a HUGE help and so fun to have around, we really just wanted to get to know her better and well the kids still ask for their Aubrey and when she will be coming back. What a Great Young Woman she is. She was with us for just shy of 6 weeks, she helped me with the kids and she loves to cook so that was a bonus that she always volunteered to help in the kitchen, I think 4 sundays in a row she made breakfast for us, and I don't think I cleared my own plate from the table the entire time she was here. We couldn't have asked for her to set a better example for our kids, she is so kind and loving and very even tempered which I admire. We had planned to do some things that we never got around to because the kids wanted to swim EVERYDAY(above pic) we spent the majority of our summer in the above pool and who could blame them we had such a hot summer this year, the kids thought it was great to play in the pool even more fun if Aubrey was out with them.

We kicked off our fun in Utah at Lagoon we had bounce back tickets so we were headed back and Aubrey joined us,  which believe it or not I don't have a single picture of, but we had a great time at  laguana beach and then on to the park. While she was here we tried to have at least one if not more family fun nights in addition to FHE every week. So we took the kids bowling for the first time, they have a kids bowl free program here in the summer, Addy and Jimmy lasted almost 7 frames, they loved it Aubrey was such a good sport she would happily do whatever we offered. She even joined our youth for temple baptisms on her birthday.

We took advantage of the kids movie program, and we went to see Ice age. We had so much fun learning little quirks about Aubrey like that she can't eat in the dark, she misses her mouth often. And that she LOVES popcorn.

She went to the water park with us, it is new this year called the Oasis, we all had a great time. Since she was her before her 16th birthday she was on a learners permit, but Doug or I tried to take her driving every day she was here, we missed a couple but we had so MUCH fun driving with her, which is really when she would show her beautiful self. A couple of times I got to go on Dates with her in preparation for her dating life, to which Addy informed me she would like to be included, Aubrey and I were having too much fun. and one night she went with Doug and I on a date that oddly enough someone else picked up the tab for. (I told you so willing to go with the flow)

Of course it is not all fun and games at our house, we do work, and if you are around long enough you will probably find yourself helping us with something, we had just moved into the house when we went and picked Aubrey up so there was still much to do around the place, and the entire garage to find which is where she really came in handy with helping with the kids or odd projects, above she is helping Doug stain our patio, it was the fourth of July and I was SICK very sick Jimmy had shared a terrible bug with me, so the fun for the day was kaput, I did nothing and they worked, Doug also had Aubrey help him hang blinds, clean, move landscaping, put together toys and she worked on her laundry skills while she was here

 I love this picture of her, the little girls are our friends kids and Aubrey is just happy as ever hanging out playing with the toys. Below we went to red lodge, we had another trip planned but because I was so sick we had canceled it, but we were still able to make one of our road trips the following weekend, we had a great time hiking in red lodge and checking out the town

 While Aubrey was here she had her 16th birthday, which was so fun for us we rarely get to spend birthdays with the nieces and nephews so we felt loved that she was willing to spend such a special birthday with us, I mean come on you only turn 16 once, so we put together a surprise party for her and invited all of Doug's family that is around this area to come in, We did it on a Sunday so his parents could travel in, our family went to church as always and then I snuck home after sacrament to put the party together, which by the way I discovered is hard to do when someone is with you the majority of the waking hours it was very hard to sneak things into the cart and get what I needed with out her noticing, and then I went back to church and we all came home together, She was VERY surprised that the house was all decorated and then we told her we were having a party, it was a good time...

 So the meal was planned around things Aubrey likes to eat, fruit, and no knead bread, chips and a salad, I didn't do a cake since she doesn't like cake, but we did get her own tub of Ben and Jerry's pistachio her favorite, I have never met anyone that can eat a tub in one sitting but she can, it is amazing to me, Doug and I both tried and failed, who knew we were such poor ice cream eaters... Her favorite color is blue so we did the party in that color Whenever she would choose which ice cream place we would go to she would choose dairy queen, to which Addy says I want to go to aubreys store, meaning she would like some ice cream from dairy queen, so funny. Aubrey also nibbles her food kind of like it is all corn on the cob, guess who else does that now. So fun!

All and all we had a wonderful summer, with Aubrey I couldn't post all the fun we did and had if I tried, not to mention how helpful she was, and how much the kids adore her, We are so thankful she was so brave to come and stay with us, and willing to give up some of her summer to hang with us old farts that go to bed early and have mandatory nap times... all joking aside(we do really do those things)  though we just love her and the time we had with her. We are just sad it went so fast.

Zoo School

This is Addy on her first day of Zoo School (which is Preschool at the Zoo) She LOVED it, she was a little concerned about her arm and how that would work out, but so was I so I ended up staying. She has two years before she starts kindergarten so we are only going to zoo school one day a week and then we do a Mom based preschool one day a week as well. She LOVES preschool, her friend Avery is in her class and Addy cannot get enough of that. Addy did so good with the whole thing, if I didn't need to be there to help her with the bathroom until the cast is off, I wouldn't, but it does give me a good chance to evaluate the program and meet all the other mom's/parents as every week there are different parent helpers. Addy just loves the animals and getting to see them and feed them, they get to go in area's normally visitors are not allowed in, and they get tons of info and time with the animals, her teacher is also a REALLY great teacher, I was pleasantly surprised.

Someone else at our home was super excited about the first day of preschool! Grandma has so kindly been Spending some one on one time with Jimmy while I am at preschool with Addy, and Jimmy couldn't be happier about it, He adores grandma and thinks any adventure with his backpack is worth sharing. This week he starts his music class with grandma and I have a suspicion that will just make Grandma that much cooler in his book. We are so blessed to be near Grandparents and to have them so active in our lives and our children's lives. We Adore that. I think the best part of Zoo school so far was the kids getting to pick out their back packs, who knew it would bring such joy to them

 

The above picture makes me laugh, we definitely grow kids at our house, Addy is so tall the girl to the left with brown hair was in Addy's gymnastics class this summer she is 2 months older then Addy, and the girl to the right is her friend Avery she is only 3 month younger then Addy, but this is the way most of our pictures look with her next to kids her age, she is so TALL! This is the class lined up ready to go in, only one little girl cried, there are by the way 10 girls and only 2 boys.

 

Day one we got to meet all the animals, it was seriously the nicest day we have had all summer not so hot but still warm enough to wear short sleeves, the animals were all so active, and we even got to see the bears be fed and bathed. The only thing Addy doesn't like is that when one kid needs to go to the bathroom the whole group has to try, she is VERY annoyed by this but seems to be adjusting. Yay for Zoo School so far so good, we are really enjoying it and Addy seems to be learning quite a bit. I can't believe she is going to preschool it seems like time is just going so fast, but I am so happy for her that she likes to do things, she is such a people person she just can't help it.

 

I know, I know....

I should still be doing updates becasue I still have a TON of ground to cover, but alas, I just couldn't pass up these adorable pictures! Addy is so dang funny! I just love her, Her imagination has just taken off and man she comes up with some hilarious stuff.  She has been begging for a pair of rain boots for well, all summer and I finally gave in when they were on sale. Truth be told it may be the best 9 dollars I have spent on this girl she wears them EVERY day, she came up with this outfit on her own and the poses yep that is all her. What a goof....

I also had to include some of my handy work of late, we are headed on vacation one of these days and this is our countdown, it is actually a matching game we take down the number and find it's match then do whatever it is we are given to do, ie talk about what happens if we get lost, or bounce around the house like a tigger, the kids are having so much fun with it, that would also include the big kids at our house.

  We are back into our learning time at home, we had kind of taken a break during the summer, we would just do the singing and scripture mastery but now we are back into our normal morning devotion which has been so fun, the kids love singing together, learning the apostles is still slow going but they do recognize the prophet so that is progress, and Addy has almost completely memorized this months primary theme. People ask all the time what the mirrors are for, they look a little strange, but we use them for our speech drills so we can see what our mouths are doing, and sometimes they are hats depending on Jimmy's mood.

And my other favorite addition our tree! We are doing a season tree for our art work, the kids made these apples in honor of the newest addition to our fun, Addy checks everyday to see if they have fallen like the ones in the back yard do, she is ready to switch the leaves and bring in the Fall fun, and truth be told so am I! Not that I wish summer away, but I do love fall!!!