July 24, 2014

1.  Cute Bethany eating cereal on the couch.  Sometimes this girl won't eat anything.  And something she eats all day long.  She refuses to eat bread though.  And throws a tantrum when we try to get her to eat a piece of sacrament bread.  It is sad and hilarious, and we don't have any solutions.

2. We had a low key 24th of July. Jake worked during the day and the kids and I tried to coll off in the kid pool.  Except that we discovered it had a crack in it.  But whatever we still had fun.  Nothing beats a cute baby with chubby legs in the water.  Sometimes I see pictures of Marianne in that ariel swim suit with her long blonde hair I think she is Kate.  How is she already that big.

And perhaps you noticed that Beth's hair is some how more red.   It is true.  I was worried the sun would bleach it out like all the kids, but it seems to have turned her into a real carrot top.  Everywhere we go, in every store, at every park, somebody has something to say about my red head baby, the other day a friend ran up to me at a party exclaiming "is her hair even MORE red?!" and I loved it.

July 25, 2014

1. Bethany on her car in the yard.  The kids all are crazy about riding bikes in the front yard and would all day.  Kate recently earned a new bike too, which means that all four of the kids have now recieved or earned a new bike/ car/ ride toy since May.

2. Kate went to hip hop dance camp at Wasatch Dance this summer.  It was only a few days.  She was by far the youngest and got a little frustrated that she wasn't as good a the ten year olds, but tried so hard and had a lot of confidence in the end.  I was very proud of her for doing her best and competing in such a new things.

3-4. Harvest picture.  Our one apricot we ate off the tree. We split if between us all.  And it was perfect.  We are looking forward to a real harvest next year.  We have been getting all kinds of lettuce, tomatoe, peppers, squash, onions, brocoli, carrots, radish, beets.....  It has been our best garden ever.

5.Three daughters sitting on a garden bench eating peas!

6. Puppet shows for beth over the stairs.

7-8.  Beth eats a shake at sundown with Cola by her side.

9-10.  We made a steak dinner on the day of Jake and my 11th wedding anniversary.  Kate and Sam decided to make it a fancy dinner surprise for Dad and we decorated.  Jake and I also the next evening managed to go to the Provo Temple though a session together.  I think it has been at least one year and perhaps even two since he and I made it together to the temple and not alone some evening or morning while the other person is stuck at home watching kids.  It was delightful, and the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary.  Then we went to a nice dinner at La Jolla Groves- which felt extra fancy since we were in dress clothes from the temple.
We have tickets for a trip to New York in a few days we are calling our anniversary trip.  But it is actually for the ten year anniversary that we didn't really celebrate last year since we had a new baby not the one we just celebrated... well maybe both.  After literally 7 years of saying we are going to take a trip, we are actually doing it.  It has been half the fun pre-trip just sitting in the evening and planning our first get away from the kids since before we had any kids.  And even then we didn't really go on a lot of trips so it is a long time coming and well deserved.  Just like last year- when he won that trip to Thailand, but went without me because I was 8 months pregnant with Bethany, Jake won a top marketer award internationally for one of the companies he does work for- and this year the trip is in Croatia in a few weeks.  It took Jake and I about ten days to finally decide to no go, but the trip would have taken us away from the kids for 8 days and we didn't think we could do it... typing that seems crazy because when somebody want to take you on an all expense paid luxury vacation to Croatia you should almost always take it.  But we decided we would rather spend our time away from the kids and work doing exactly what we choose, and going to Croatia with a bunch of people Jake works with who are notorious for drinking too much, is not really worth 8 days away from our kids.  I am pretty sure we deserve some kind of awesome parent award for that. Or crazy person award.... we are still deciding.

July 29, 2014

Marianne says funny things.  Things our other kids don't say and I don't know why.
"Shake-a-boo"  means to dance or shake your body.
"na-na-nu- boo boo"  kind of like "naner naner naner you can't catch me"
She is changing so much lately, growing and getting older.
This is her a swim lessons.  She is so happy for herself because Kate and Sam are always doing t-ball or soccer or dance and she has not been old enough to do anything.  She has patiently waited. She even has tennis shoes she says are going to be her soccer shoes and a green shirt she constantly wears saying she is going to play t-ball when she grows up.
Recently I ordered a pair of shoes for Beth and  a pair of shoes for Mari.  Mari were polka dot pink church shoes and Beths were grey and orange athletic shoes.  When I gave Mari her shoes she threw a big fit and said she hated polka dots and wanted the soccer shoes instead.  She was so jealous of Bethany's sport shoes even though she has her own sport shoe already.   This girl loves sport and loves being like her older siblings, so although she was a bit afraid the first day, she has been a great sport, and loved swim so far!

July 15, 2014

We went to Lagoon for my birthday.  In traditional fashion, I always choose to spend the day with the kids somewhere fun, even if Lagoon sounds more like a kids birthday not a mom's.
I had never been in my whole life. And neither had Jake, and neither had any of our kids.
We picked a super hot day to go. And it took us a while to figure out where riders were or what we could ride. But once we found the kid rides we were good to go and had a blast!
The kids liked the Octopus ride, the animal train, the wild rapids ride (Jake and I made them each come on it with us- so they had to go twice). They hated the ladybug bop- which sounds harmless, but was a free fall ride.  I took Marianne, Kate and Sam on it, while Jake held Beth.  Marianne sat with me and was terrified.  When Sam got off he was crying, and despite Jake begging to go on the ride, Kate would not get on it again.  It has kind of become a joke in our house since how much they loved that Lady Bug Bop ride. Sam almost didn't ride the roller coaster either except Dad went with him and we thought it was a brag tag.  We rode rides all afternoon and past dinner  Fun enough we saw several old friends all over the park too.  My favorite part of the day was riding with Marianne on the Octopus ride or the carousel.  She picked the bench that rocked so we could all sit together with Dad and Beth.. Sneaking off with the two olders to ride all the water roller coasters after dinner while Jake took the little girls on the animal train.  Kate and Sam thought they were too cool, big enough to ride the bigger rides and because they had been on one earlier with Dad- knew everything and were telling me all about it.  Watching the Bethany down a giant lemonade and a giant slurpee.  And watching all the kids gets soaking wet at the end of the night in the splash pad. Even Beth- who had just been hanging out in a stroller except for the few rides she could ride, loved the splash pad.  She also walked down the carnival game alley with me and the game workers were just giving her prizes to hold without even playing jut because she was being adorable.  She walked away with that pink poodle and was in love. Although Lagoon was a lot of work, and a big expense I think we will try and repeat it every year.  It was so easy to get to, and a happy day all together as a family.  Which is all I ever want for my birthday so it was great.
Also for my birthday Jake and I went out on a date to a restaurant at The Homestead here in town the weekend before, he also made me a chocolate cake and let the kid decorateti.  It is a 12 year tradition that he is not letting go of which makes me grateful.  Jake also shocked me with a very nice new computer.  Which is officially the first really great surprise gift I think either of us has ever pulled off.  I also received flowers cards and picture from the thoughtful kids and lots of excitement on their part for me which I love to watch..  As well as other gifts, flowers, cards and treats from family and friends who I saw that week.  I don't know that I have every had such a flood of well wishes and tokens of love poured upon me as I did the few days surrounding my birthday and  I felt very blessed to have so many kind people in my life.