Thing 3

We are so excited to be adding to our family! It took a little more internal convincing on my part to convince myself that I was ready for this- I still don't know if I'm convinced but I am excited! I'm thinking we should have waited as long as possible to tell Makenna because it's all she has been talking about and wanting to know how much longer, and now tells me that my belly looks big (makes me feel really good since I'm still wearing normal clothes.) A new adventure is ahead!

Artists

The kids have been little artists lately. We've had the crayons, markers, colored pencils and paint out almost every day. I've given up putting the stuff away since it's just pulled right back out! I love it when they are creative.

Another School Year

 Another year of preschool started today and Makenna couldn't have been more excited. I was nervous because we are doing a different preschool this year and there are no friends going with her this time. It didn't phase her- she was ready an hour before it was time to go!

When I dropped her off she jumped out and waved goodbye-that was that. She's going to be awesome!

Photo Shoot

 The Sunday of Chases' birthday we hurried and took some cute pictures before church. This little 2 year old is starting to be quite the character. He is mastering the tantrums which makes me sad but he is still so sweet. He's pretty good about sharing, he loves nursery and loves to sing Popcorn Popping and Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam. He folds his arms while saying prayers and always has such a serious look on his face while the prayer is being said.

 He is finally getting his 4 pointer/canine teeth in and am pretty sure we haven't even started on the molars. He hasn't been my good eater like he used to be and enjoys playing with his food more than eating it. He is currently a huge fan of Buzz Lightyear and is always pretending to be him. He loves it when I call him Buzz. He is a total boy in making sound effects for everything he is doing and also enjoys spitting.

When he is giving everyone their goodnight hug he says "goodnight stinky Dad, goodnight stinky Kenna, goodnight stinky Mom." Last week in church he was calling the people behind us stinky butts! (How do you discipline that when they are laughing and I'm trying not to laugh?!) He loves Makenna. He follows her around all day and if she's not home he continuously asks when she will be. He says new words everyday and I'm amazed with his vocabulary. One morning this week I turned on Toy Story and he screamed Disneyland! when he saw the castle. I didn't even know he knew that word?! He'll still occasionally cuddle with me for a minute and always gives me hugs and kisses when I ask. We sure love our Chase and don't know what we would do without him!

 Makenna of course had to get in on the picture action. She loves the camera. She is super excited about preschool starting again next week!

 We love our little Makenna too!

Birthday Week!

It was birthday week at our house last week, and it was a good one! We started the week with my birthday. In May we bought a piano and Steve has said to not expect anything for my birthday/anniversary/Christmas for the next 5 years due to this purchase (which I was ok with even though he would have spent more money on me for those things then we actully spent on the piano but I wasn't going to complain.) So I was pleaseantly surprised to see a new waffle iron and a piano book on the counter when I got up and we had take out from Olive Garden that night! It was a great day and I loved it! A few days later we had our birthday ice cream from Cold Stone, and then Sunday was Chase's big day!

I can't believe he's 2! We've been practicing asking him how old he'll be and he'll hold up all his fingers and say "5 like Kenna" and then start laughing and then a little bit later he'll say 2! We gave him a bike and he loves it. That night we had the family over for dinner. Lauren was painting nails and even though Chase likes to wear purple tutus, he refrained from getting his nails painted.

Makenna was more excited about Chase's b-day than he was. She was up at 6:45 that morning saying that it was his b-day. She was an excellent helper opening presents. The first present he opened was a dump truck and he could have cared less about the other presents after that- he just wanted his truck! So Makenna opened up the rest of the presents for him and loved it.

 He had a football cake which he liked until we lit the candles...

 Don't worry though, Makenna has it covered and will blow them out!

 We of course had to get some group pictures and these crack me up. His bored face with Grandma J and yes, he has his finger up his nose with my side of the family! Love it, Love him!

We sure had a fun time and a great week. Another year older and hopefully wiser.

Camping Trip

Last week we took the kids on a 2-night camping trip up Logan canyon. Makenna has been so excited to go camping since it's been 2 years since we have been. The car was so full you would have thought that we were going to be gone for a month!

Chase was terrified of the fire. I think he thought it was going to be like fireworks. He finally did warm up to the fire but it took a while. Makenna however was obsessed with the fire and having a stick to poke in it. Steve and I came home with a few gray hairs due to her flinging a sticks around that were partly on fire.

 On our first morning we took the kids hiking on the Wind Cave trail. It's not the easiest trail so we knew we wouldn't make it to the top with the kids but it was right across the street. It was the first hike that we've taken the kids- I'm sure Chase will want to hike again but Makenna might not. We probably made it half way and then turned around, not too bad I think.

 After our hike we headed to Bear Lake. The kids loved playing in the sand and looking for shells more than playing in the water.

  When I took this picture Steve had gone out in the lake and was pretty far. Chase was worried about him the whole time and kept yelling for him to come back. Since that wasn't working he decided he would just go out and get him, if only mom weren't so mean and brought him back to shore.

 Makenna found quite a few shells. They have since been washed probably three times and now sit in a small jar on her dresser.

One funny story- Shortly after getting to our campsite me and the kids went off to find the bathrooms. These were your typical camping restrooms, we had toilets and running water but not the cleanest of places. So Makenna and I go into one of the stalls and I pull the toilet paper and their appears a spider on the roll! Makenna screamed so loud I thought I would go deaf and Steve heard her all the way from our campground! Not a good way to start off our bathroom camping experience. I thought after that Makenna would hold off as long as possible to go the the bathroom. She did pretty good just as long as we never went in that stall again and I had to check the stall that we would go into to make sure it was spider free.

We had family visits both nights around the fire to help pass the time in the evening which was great. Such a fun week together!

24 of July!

We live in such a great neighborhood! So many good friends and so many kids to play with. Every year our neighborhood has a party for the 24 of July. We had a BBQ, bike parade for the kids and fireworks. Makenna was so excited this year for the parade. Her and Steve decorated the bikes and we patiently(or not so patiently) waited for the party to start. 

 The smoorgasborg of fireworks!

Chase was not a fan of the fireworks. Granted this is his first time watching them but I took this picture before the real fireworks had started, right now they are just shooting off the parachute guys and he's all huddled up and shaking. So Steve took him home and put him to bed- maybe next year:)