10 Months!

Yesterday our baby girl turned 10 months old. She's still the happiest little girl ever. This past month has been so much fun. Her personality shines more and more every day and she's every bit of the little diva we always knew she was. She knows just what to do to make her brothers jump and get her whatever she wants.

She's also started wanting a lot more of the foods the rest of us are eating and getting really good at chowing down. No more baby food for her. She's scooting around super fast on her butt and likes to head straight to the dog food/water dish and make a mess of that every little chance she gets.

We had a breakthrough of her first tooth and she started playing patty cake with us on que. She jabbers and jabbers away most of the day.

The babysitter kept mentioning to me this week that she couldn't believe she had grown so much over the last couple of weeks. I had noticed some growth but this morning it really hit when I went to put an outfit on her that she had just worn on vacation last month and it wouldn't even do up! Then when I laid her down for her first nap, I swear she looked like a giant baby (at least a foot longer, I swear). I can't believe she's growing up so fast.

Time to start gearing up for that first Bday ladybug party. It'll be here before we know it.

We love you baby girl!

Grandma Judi's Bday

This year was Grandma Judi's 50th Bday! We got to go down and celebrate with her. We tried to surprise her with a big family dinner at the Cowboy Club and then we all pitched in to give her a nice gift. We decided to get her a Pandora charm bracelet. Then each of the kids families and Papa gave her a charm that reminded them of her.

Mike (her Mike) gave her a colored glass bead, Tracey gave her a house charm for Grandma's house, Ryan a fish charm because they like to go fishing with her, Papa got her a heart charm with a birthstone in it and we gave her a charm with a bunch of open hearts on it, we though it represented how her heart was always open to all of us (awww mushy, I know).

After a big meal, we had cake and ice cream.

And then sadly we had to head back home with our boys back in tow to get a ton more chores done at home. Hope you had a great birthday Grandma Judi.

Melon Carving

Friday we had the day off together. The boys were playing at Papa's so it was just us and little girl. We ran errands all day long and then it was time to play with our friends the Jones's. We got to enjoy catching up with them over some pizza and then we had a little amature watermelon carving contest. None of us had done it before so we decided to give it a go. I wasn't going to do one but then Walmart had some melons on sale for super cheap so I decided to go for it. Here are some pics of the fun.

Mike ended up doing a pacman eating dots and chasing a ghost.

I went for some roses I had watched a tutorial on. My first couple turned out great and then they started heading downhill, so I gave up. But still I would say not too bad for a first try.

It was a great evening and the time spent with them was much needed. It's been too long.

Fun on the Fourth

Whoo hoo! We love the 4th of July. This year was pretty laid back for the most part. We spent all day at home doing chores and playing. Then we got ready to go to our traditional Bees baseball game. But first we had to primp to celebrate the USA properly.

We got to the game and got some dinner at the concesssion stands and went to our seats. Then started watching the game.

We had some fun goofing off in between innings and Dad took the kids to the play area for a little bit to run off some energy.

Dad took Caleb over to pose with the Honeybees. What a stud-muffin.

While the game finished up (we lost 6-5) and we had had our snowies and cotton candy, Zaric and Faith dozed a bit then were awakened to watch the fireworks show.

It was a great night overall. And something we look forward to doing year after year. Hope you all had a great 4th as well.

Camp Ouren

It was finally time to kick off the camping season this year with our annual trip with friends to Granite Flats. After Mike got off work on Friday we hooked on and off we went. We arrived and set up camp and then it was time for what the twins had been talking about all week, roasting hot dogs for dinner.

After dinner, we roasted marshmellows and played a game of Apples to Apples with our friends then enjoyed the campfire for a while longer.

Saturday, we talked off and on about going to the reservoir or a drive somewhere but it ended up that we just stayed in camp. Our site was totally shaded and was so nice. We seriously just hung out all day and visited with our friends and let the kids play and play. This picture is Faith's new buddy Scott. She thought he was pretty ok to hang out with.

His wife, Holly, was dying to get her hands on Faiths one long tuft of hair.

And put in these adorable pig-tails.

The kids played games of their own.

And in the pirate tent.

Mike took a nap.

We climbed rocks and played in the trees.

Sunday, we packed up camp pretty smoothly and headed home to start the massive chore list back in reality. It was a really good trip. Mike was even quoted as saying, "As far as camping goes, I would give this trip a solid A-." For those of you that don't know, that's a HUGE deal !

Grandma Braska Visit

This past week Grandma Braska got to come to town for a conference for her work. So we took full advantage of being able to spend some extra time with her. She flew in early on Tuesday and spent the day at the house with Mike and the kids celebrating her Bday with a cake for everyone. Wed, we got to see her a little in the evening for a quick trip to the mall and some visiting and then we didn't see her again until Friday night. We had plans that night to go to West Fest but Zaden started feeling poorly with a tummy bug so we decided to nix that plan and stay in with ordering pizza and Red-boxing a couple of movies. We had dinner and watched Ghost Rider 2 and called it a night. And good thing too because the next thing we knew we were up and down all night with a Zaric who was now sick and feverish with the same tummy bug (we think) Zaden had earlier that day.

Saturday morning, we got up and it seemed that everyone was feeling better so we went ahead with our scheduled plans. First we hit up the zoo right at 9 when they opened to try and beat the heat and get our membership renewed. It worked well and we all enjoyed ourselves. We also loved the new exhibit. We stopped in for a carousel ride and Faith got to ride for her first time. She LOVED it. She laughed and chattered the whole time and actually got mad at me when I had to take her off when it was over. It was so cute. Here's a few zoo pics:

After the zoo we stopped off in Sugarhouse for some Training Table for lunch. Yumm-y. Then came back home to catch a break. The twins ended up falling asleep right before we were going to leave for a movie so we decided just to let them sleep and go to a later showing. Once they were up, we ventured off to the theater to see the new movie Brave. I thought it was really cute and the kids liked it. Mike and Grandma weren't real keen on it. Then it was back to the house again where we ate a sporadic dinner and hung out the rest of the evening while Mike got the kid's pool set up and filled with water anticipating a hot Sunday.

Today came and Mike and I took advantage of having a grandparent in town and let her watch the boys while we went grocery shopping. It was super nice for us to get it done quickly with less stops. And I'm pretty sure it was fun for her here at the house as well. The boys played in the pool and loved being with Grandma. Mike then went to help a friend with some computer stuff. So me and the kids played with Grandma some more then I put in the other Red Box and we watched Sherlock Homes, A Game of Shadows. All 4 kids napped and at the same time so it was nice and relaxing. Then once Mike got home we went out for a late lunch/early dinner at Olive Garden. Yum. Then it was back home for some more hang out time and Mike and I did a couple of crafts that we've been needing to get done. Then we sadly took Grandma back to the airport to head home. And just in time too. Turns out now Caleb and Faith have the tummy bug and started with the symptoms right after Mike got back from the airport. Blech.

It was a nice visit overall and the kids are already ready to see her again next month when she's back with Aunt Kari.

More Father's Day Fun

For the afternoon today we drove to Price Canyon to meet my dad and my siblings for a little picnic and picture time. It was super fun and the kids were so excited to see Papa and Grandma Judi and play with the kids. We took a ton of fun pictures. Here's a few that have our kids in them.

Thanks for the fun afternoon everyone and we hope to play with you all again in a few weeks.