An Apology to My Husband

About two years ago we were moving to a new apartment in Pennsylvania. Dave was grumbling about all the junk we have and how he wanted to declutter. He took a load of trash to the garbage and came back with a highchair that he found next to the dumpster. I murmured and complained that that wasn't my idea of "decluttering" and we didn't have enough room for it and weren't even planning on getting pregnant for a while, etc. We still moved it to our next apartment and then across the country. Well, last week we pulled it out of storage and I cleaned it up so that McKenna could use it. I spent a good hour or more detailing it and disinfecting it. (It really is in great shape. I'd guess that only one child has used it.) I was curious what it was worth, so I went online and discovered that if we were to buy the same model only new, then we would pay $209.00! Suddenly Dave's little treasure seems a little more valuable to me. So here is my apology to my husband for complaining about the hassle of storing and moving it. I love you honey! :) Forgive me??

Look Who is Sitting Up!

I should have posted this a couple weeks ago when McKenna started sitting. Since then she has learned to move from lying down to the sitting position all on her own. She has also been getting up onto her hands and knees for about a month now. She hasn't figured out that she needs to move her hands in order to crawl and ends up landing on her chest. But that's how she gets around. It's fun to see how proud they are of themselves. McKenna at 5 1/2 months.

Look at that! Another brown-eyed baby!
So, Taylor started this. He put his sunglasses on McKenna and she loved it! I would have thought that she would try to get them off, but she never did. In fact, she was very interested in what her hands looked like with the glasses on. We are having so much fun with her!! (And I'd like to think that she's having fun with us as well. :) )

Don't Move or I'll Shoot!

One Little Monkey "Walking" on the Bed...

...He fell off and bonked his head. Momma called the PA and the PA said "no more monkeys walking on the bed". Okay, so last Friday Taylor said he was "walking on the bed" and fell onto the nightstand. I didn't see it happen, but I'm guessing he was doing more than walking. Dave said that he fell straight onto the edge and I heard the horrible sound. Ouch. He immediately started gushing blood and Dave said that he "knew right away that it was going to need stitches". Lucky for me (and Taylor), Dave has the skills and he had just arrive home from work! But getting a 4 year old to hold still for the lidocaine shots was a struggle to say the least. Finally, he said he would hold still if we didn't hold him down and if he could lie on his "sport" pillow and watch the movie "Cars". We obeyed his wishes and he did pretty well holding still. So Taylor has already had his first stitches, with plenty more to come I'm sure. Here's the before: during: (This part made me a bit queasy. Dave put in 2 stitches.)
and after:
Dave took the stitches out on Wednesday. Much less dramatic than putting them in. No problem!
Oh, and here's a cute picture of McKenna. I had to put it in. :)

'Tis the Season for Family Reunions

On to the next reunion! We spent 2 1/2 days at a reunion for my side of the family, but this time it involved my grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

Day 1 (July 7th)

Dave and my brother, Scott, drove up to Hyrum Reservoir early in the morning. Us women and Doug drove up later. We ate lunch, played in the water, and rode in the ski boats. Taylor even rode behind a boat in one of those "water banana" thingys. I wish I had brought my camera on that ride.

My aunt Melva, sister Laurel, Grandma, and aunt Karen.


After the lake we drove a few miles to Paradise, Utah. We stayed at a "lodge" designed for family reunions. It had 8 rooms (all with their own bathroom) in the basement and the top floor was a large room with a kitchen attached. The aunts and uncles slept in the rooms and the rest of us were in tents out on the grass. As a child I loved camping...any kind. But now, this is my kind of camping. In a tent on grass and only feet away from air conditioning, a shower, electricity, and flushing toilets. Don't get me wrong, I am still willing to "rough it" in the dirt, but this was especially great while taking care of small children.
The view was gorgeous!

Day 2 (July 8th)

We mostly ate and played games. My uncle, Paul and his wife, Karen, prepared a "Survivor" challenge for all of us to play. We threw baseballs at terra cotta dishes, ate nasty baby food, put together puzzles, balanced a ball on poles, and played a fun water game. (I didn't take any pictures, but I am hoping to get some from my brother.) They put a lot of work into it and it was tons of fun! After dinner we watched "Over the Hedge" and stayed up talking until 2 AM.

Day 3 (July 9th)

This is always a sad morning...saying goodbye. It's usually a quick goodbye, if at all. People just seem to pack up and disappear. We always say that it ends too quickly. We just seem to get going and it's over. We pulled the kids out of bed, ate breakfast, packed up, said our goodbyes and drove home. It's all over. Sigh...until next year.

One last picture with the cousins from Oregon.

Derek loves his great-grandma (my dad's mom). When he saw her he said "I didn't know she was going to be here!" He looked at her like she was a celebrity. He thinks she is just the greatest. She always sends a card on his birthday and makes the neatest handmade Christmas gifts. She's a loving grandma to all!

Let's Get Together (Day 2)

To continue our family "get together", the next day we went to Cherry Hill Waterpark. I hadn't been there in years and it brought back so many memories from my childhood. I could just hear the 80's music playing in my head. Oh the memories of running from shade to shade to avoid the hot pavement and carefully stepping to dodge the cherries that had fallen from the trees. That part has not changed.
Traci, Kari, Scott, and Kurt in the lazy river.
Doug, Ethan, and Laurel. (Laurel and I were blessed enough to leave our babies with my mom.)


(No, we don't know the people in this picture, it's only needed for the story below.)

We had a fun day of water play. However, Taylor had a lesson on the importance of lifeguards. We had gone down the waterslide (shown above) several times and we convinced Taylor that he and his 4 year old cousin, Kari, would be able to go down together. Dave went down first and I sent Taylor and Kari down on their mat and followed next. Dave said that Kari came out of the tunnel off her mat, but there was no Taylor. He just figured that Taylor had fallen off the mat as well and was coming slowly behind her. But when I came down without him Dave really wondered "where is Taylor!". (From my perspective) So Derek and I were cruising down the slide when we turned the last turn and whizzed past Taylor, who was screaming, and standing up holding onto the wall of the inside of the slide. We were going too fast to grab him, so when we got to the bottom we yelled to the lifeguard and she walked up the grass hill and pulled him out for us. I can't describe the feeling of sailing past my stranded, panicked, little boy. It all ended well, but the rest of the day Taylor kept saying, "I will not go with little kids anymore". He still loved going with us adults though.

After the waterpark, the men went out for 9 holes of golf. Dave had never gone before, but I think he might be hooked. Great. :)

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fabulous fourth of July! This is one of my favorite holidays. It takes a close second to Christmas. My sister and brother came in from California and Oregon for a family reunion the following week. We tried to hold a family reunion, but Stephanie couldn't make it, so we just called it a "get together". I took a total of 175 pictures over the 6 days, so please bare with me. It may not seem like it, but I really am narrowing down the pictures.

We started the day by attending the Centerville parade. Smaller parades are great since they still throw candy...and lots of it! Every year about 4 or 5 planes fly overhead in a "v formation". It's always so amazing to see and hear them. I should have taken a picture.

Here's a picture of the grandkids that were at the parade (four were missing). I wish I had put McKenna in the picture as well...darn. My parents have a total of 14 grandkids with 2 on the way (Traci and Camille are pregnant).

Scott (my brother), Traci, Kari, and Kurt came in from Oregon.
Laurel (my sister), Madeleine, Ethan, and Doug came in from California.

Here's my dad and below is my mom, Dave, and Camille (my sister) .

Brian (my bro-in-law) and his daughter Elizabeth.

After the parade we returned to my parents' house and the kids played on the slip n' slide.

They played tag and some fun water balloon games that Laurel made.

Laurel also put together this fishing game for the kids. It's a classic!

My dad went out to buy a slip n' slide and came back with this pool. Slightly different, but it was perfect for all the kids...and Dave. :) After all the water play we had a BBQ out on my parents' new deck. I'll have to get pictures of that from my brother. After dinner everyone went to see fireworks at Davis High School. I wasn't feeling well, so McKenna and I stayed home with my parents. They live up on the hill, so we were able to watch 3 different firework shows from their front yard. I hear that the kids had a great time and loved the show. It was a classic 4th of July and I'm excited that I can help make the holiday for my kids now.