Playing Catch up

As much as I wanted to update, I hate to admit, but I think summer got the best of us. We got caught up in all the fun activities we were doing, and being lazy, it overflowed into my desire to update...I just got lazy. I'd like to say the photos all go in great order, detailing every moment of our summer fun, but they don't. So I'll just put a small caption under each one.

The fam at Jordanelle Reservior. Our final vacation before the end of summer. We went with five other families and had the best time...so much in fact, we've decided to make it an annual thing.
Jake...need I say more?
Jefferson and mom testing the waters. He had a hard time with this camping trip because up until that weekend, he'd never worn shoes. Lets just say it wasn't him favorite thing...but then, neither was walking on the rocks. Needless to say, he had a lot of extra energy to burn when we got home, only to get back in the car for another hour and a half drive. (More on that later.)
The Dickamore's brought their mini 4 wheeler and the kids had so much fun on it! The funny thing about this picture, as you can see, Jake is looking down at his hand, pushing the gas while Ben was still in the process of telling him how to make it go. He'd seen Tanner and Tyler do it, and knew exactly what he was supposed to do, he didn't need instructions!
Tyler gearing up for her ride around the camp pod.
Tyson and I were both very impressed with Tanner on this trip. He took right to the 4 wheeler and was driving every other kid around. He had a little friend that he buddied right up with and on the boat, that the Pettit's were so nice to bring, he was on the yellow banana with two other girls and an adult and when it tipped, he kept his cool and just enjoyed the swimming time. He also loved going fast on the tube we tried out as well. Even mom had a hard time with that one.
Becky, Jefferson and mom getting ready for bed.
Tanner and his buddy Maja. Seriously, these two went everywhere together. We were sad to see the Biggs go after one night. Oh, and yes, they are the same age. And no, she's not standing on up on something to make her taller. She is a full head taller than Tanner.
Enjoying tinfoil dinners...well, I think Tyson is enjoying the tinfoild dinner. Jefferson and Tyler were eating cantelope and smores.
One tired little guy! Summer was hard on him. His naps were never on a schedule so he had to sleep when and where he could. The crazy thing about this picture, Jefferson is the one and only child we've had fall asleep in the high chair. The others have been close, but never made it. Doesn't EVERY kid fall asleep at least once?
Jefferson LOVES being outside. He throws a fit every time I open the door to let the dog in or out because he wants to go outside. He loves it so much, he doesn't even care if he's sitting in the stroller, he just wants to be outside. Here, he's sitting in the stroller while we unload for our second trip in one weekend.
Tanner and Tyler with Desi and Marissa at the restaurant after Grandpa Greats viewing. My grandpa died the day before we left on our camping trip, Friday. (He died Thursday morning). So after we got home Sunday morning from camping, at 11:30am, we had exactly an hour and a half to unpack the car and our bags, get cleaned up, pack back up and head out the door for an hour and a half drive up to Tremonton. Needless to say, most of us had had it at the end of that day. We spent the night in the Hampton Inn, much better than sleeping on the ground! And woke up early the next morning to go to the funeral. It was fun to see all my cousins, not so fun for the purpose, but having the knowledge we do of eternal families, I'm grateful that I will be able to see my grandpa again someday and I can't wait to see the garden he's taking care of!!Me and my brother at the same restaurant. I don't think we have any pictures of the two of us.
Just some carrots we've gotten out of our garden, yes, I have a garden! Its so fun to go out and pick a fresh tomato pretty much every day to have either a toasted tomato sandwich or my new found favorite, grilled cheese and tomato! YUM!! Not such a big fan of the fresh carrots, I think their taste is just too strong. But they're fun to watch grow. And its fun to be able to give them to people I know will enjoy them, like my grandma!

Jefferson's new found joy! He LOVES opening and closing the dishwasher and climbing inside. The best is when he stands up and opens the drawer and sees all the fun things his hands have only been able to feel up to the point of this realization.
And now our summer has come to an end! Tanner on his first day of school! I can't believe he's in second grade!
Tanner has Mrs. Armenta this year.
Best buds...well, most of the time! These two really are best of friends. They have their sibling quarrels, but really, who doesn't!?
Tyler on her first day of school. She has Mrs. Sperry. That's the same teacher Tanner had last year. We've told Tanner that even though its the same teacher, she may do different things this year, so he doesn't need to give her a play by play of what they are going to do this year. Even Mrs. Sperry told Tyler some things will be different, so if Tanner tells her how its supposed to be, to let him know, this is a different year.
She looks so grown up!! When did that happen?
Jake just hangin' with Charlie, waiting for Tanner and Tyler to get home from school.
Jefferson playing around. Notice the "toy" in his hand. For some reason, both he and Jake have found these "toys" to bring hours of fun. Well, maybe not hours, but its lots of fun to pull them out of the box, and put them back in. Or not even put them back in, but walk around the house all day with them, and leave them around.
Jake and Fritz waiting at the bus stop waiting for the bus to come take the kids to school.
And that wraps up our summer. I'm not so good at taking pictures or else I'd have more pictures to document on. Now back into the daily grind of school, homework, reading and lessons. I love routine!!

My Money Man

I have never been so excited and waited so patiently for a magazine subscription to arrive!! Even back in my high school days of Teen magazine and whatever other magazines that appeal to those awkward teenage years. And just for my OCD friends, yes, I would organize them on my night stand by publish date and size of magazine. But, today, my favorite magazine of all time arrived, FamilyFun Magazine. I get this magazine in hopes that my children's claim that our family is not fun, will in fact, be something of the past...we're still working on that. This months issues did not disappoint. I've been really struggling to get my kids to work and be motivated to do anything because, according to them, I never let them do anything fun, I never let them play, I always make them be my slaves so I can sit on my computer all day. Those are their thoughts. Isn't it funny how the kids make the same claims that the parents make. I swear I feel like I'm the one that does all the work, and to avoid the complaints that come when I do ask them to do anything, I let them continue playing so I can have my piece and quiet. In any event, there was this great idea for the kids to earn dad dollars to spend at the mom market. I'm hoping that they will see the money as an opportunity to buy things that they really want and would like, while not using real money, but still teaching them the value of a dollar. I can hardly wait! But here is our money man and our dollar bill! So excited!! If you'd like to do the same thing, with any face, you can go here.

I call this picture of Tyson his Bronco Mendenhall face.

And he's off!!

I feel like a horrible mom, because I haven't documented the exact moment that any of my kids have started walking. Partly because I'm not exactly sure when to document it. Is it the actual "first step" or is it when they can take more than a step without falling into the ground, or is it when they are in fact walking? Well, Tanner, Tyler and Jacob all started walking at about 13 months. Jefferson was acting like he'd walk before then, just because he would take a step or two and then fall to the ground, before his first birthday. But to be able to feel like I can actually document that he is in fact walking, I felt that he needed to be able to take more than those first few steps. So, he followed the family pattern and is now walking at just about 13 months. For a while, it was something that he had to be in the mood to show off, but now, he'll get up and just start walking. I think he still prefers crawling to walking, just because he's still picking it up, but I'm sure it will be no time at all and that will change!

Our summer, Warning: Picture overload!

I thought I was going to be so good to document all of our summer happenings. I'd like to say its because our summer has been non stop fun and crazy busy, but really, its just due to my laziness. Actually, I can't say that we haven't been doing things, but its just little things here and there. My sister and her kids were here for a few weeks in between moving. We were lucky enough to have the kids cousins here for the week while my sister drove her car from New Jersey to Utah. It brought back to my memory, all the times I spent the night with my cousins and how much fun we had when we were little. We spent half of a weekend in St. George. It was a quick trip, and by quick, I mean we left at 6pm Friday night arriving around 9:30pm, and were headed home at 8:30 Saturday night. We went down for my cousin to take our family pictures and we should have stayed longer, but I had a meeting to be back for Sunday morning and Tyler had a talk to give in primary, so it worked better to do it that way. If you want to see a few of the pictures she took, you can see them on her blog LC Photography. You'll have to scroll down a little bit to her entry titled "Mayhem". We've gone up to the Disney Radio fair and had lots of fun there. We've gone swimming and thanks to my mother-in-law, got free passes to the Children's Museum. Anyway, we've had lots of fun this summer, but the best is when the kids want to do something else and we say no, they go into this full on fit of how we never do anything fun blah blah blah. So we just list all the things we've done this summer and tell them if those things were not fun, then we won't do any of them next year. They're quick to take back their complaining...well the complaining doesn't end, but they just move onto something else. Anyway, I'll let the pictures show our fun.
Tanner playing news ancor at the Childrens' Museum
Tyler on the horse at the museum.
Babyland at the Childrens' Museum
Jefferson playing with the potatoes out of the Childrens' Museum garden. This really is a happy expression.
Tyler playing checker at the Childrens' Museum grocery store.
Camping out on Tyler's floor. Tyler was in her bed and cousins Marissa and Desi along with Tanner and Jake on the floor. It was one crowded bedroom!
Jefferson trying to throw the potatoes at me, enjoying his freedom to crawl around at the Childrens' Museum.
Cousin Marissa on the horse at Childrens' Museum
Cousin Desi at Childrens' Museum
Tyler and cousin Desi at Childrens' Museum
Jake at Childrens' Museum
Cousin Marissa at the gateway fountain.
Tyler pouting because she wanted to get wet, but didn't want to get wet if she wasn't in her swim suit.
Tanner and cousin Desi in the fountain at the Gateway cooling off.
Jefferson and Grandpa Lybbert at the Lybbert family reunion up Big Cottonwood Canyon. This is the one and only picture I got of the entire day. Its a little difficult to be camera happy when you are without your husband.
Radio Disney fair. They all got a free creamy for sitting in a line to put a sticker milk stash on, but hey, isn't that what summer's all about!
In front of the hotel in St. George.

Tyler learning to swim in the pool.
Tanner and Tyler.
Along with all our summer fun, Tyler had to take a trip to the dentist to have her first two teeth puller. Her adult teeth were pretty much all the way in and the baby teeth were showing no interest in coming out. Reason being, the roots were still 100% there instead of the adult tooth eating away the root, which in turn makes the tooth become loose and fall out. So, to the dentist we went. I could not believe how long her teeth were! I had to measure them. I know, gross! But both teeth were half an inch long! She was a trooper. The dentist had to pull out the pliers, every kids worst nightmare!! But he was twisting and yanking and pulling to get those teeth out! She had laughing gas and a numbing shot, but still, this was one of those times where her drama was lagit! Anyway, here are the pictures of Tyler's first two teeth!



Anyway, I warned you, picture overload!