Pioneer Day-ish

Remember a few weeks ago when Bill Cosby's trial was all over the news? Well apparently my takeaway from all that was that Sarah would love the Cosby Show.

And she does.

Erica peeled her own huge carrot and found a small container of ranch in the fridge.

It became less about the carrot and all about the ranch.

"What? I love ranch."

Saturday was Mapleton's Pioneer Day celebration. This is one of my most favorite holidays but for some reason I was not in the mood this year. Justin could do without all the breakfast/parade fun so he wouldn't have cared much if we skipped it this year but I couldn't see how that conversation with the kids would end in anything but tears so I sucked it up.

First off, huge pancakes and fake eggs and 4 oz cartons of orange juice.

And switch so I could be in a picture.

Then we found my family at the elementary school and watched the parade. It's slow and full of gaps. There's always a ton of primary floats and local businesses and candy.

And a lot of fun for the kids.

I thought this was pretty clever. You couldn't help but wave back at their motorized waving arms. The real stake presidency was walking right behind throwing candy.

After a long day of naps/fishing/hanging out at my mom's, we got to the sports park in time for the fireworks. Since we got there at the time when James is usually fast asleep, I was nervous as to how he'd cope with being up so late. Around 9:45 I had to feed him bits of rice krispie treats to keep him happy. During the actual fireworks show he got super excited then bored, then ornery, then excited again.

And because we're never in pictures together:

This is our pretend engagement picture. 12 years this week since our first date!

The rest of my kids just ran around shooting things into the air, eating junk food, playing with cousins.

Erica is telling me she can't find her rocket that she sent into the air.

And lots of building with glow sticks.

Lots of glow sticks.

Even though it was hot and exhausting and I still felt a little blah all day about it all, I'm glad we went. Traditions are important.

Today is actual Pioneer Day but we're spending the day doing laundry and cleaning bedrooms.

James spent much of the day doing this.

I thought his face was funny in this picture. I think he has pink eye.

He's such a big cute stinker of a baby.

I'm posting this picture for the sole purpose that I'll go "awww, they were so little" in a couple of years.

We lit off the rest of our 4th of July fireworks.

There were mostly sparklers.

Erica even got brave and tried a few.

Sarah is writing her name.

I love this picture so much.

That face.

She got the hang of it.

During family home evening, Justin asked the kids what we can do to be like the pioneers, you know, things like being faithful and brave. Erica suggested dressing up in pioneer dresses.

Jumping, curling, posing, swimming, and diving

Since it's a bazillion degrees outside, the only way the kids can enjoy the trampoline during the day is if we turn the sprinklers on too.

Which they actually enjoy more than when it's dry.

They played until they were cold and pruny then ate popsicles on the porch wrapped up in their towels. Pretty good summer afternoon.

Some Sundays I do hot-rollers in Sarah's hair and Erica wanted a turn but her hair is too short so I promised we'd do foam curlers. I put them in for her one afternoon. I don't have an after picture because she was too busy running around and knocking them out. By the time she came back in, they had gone pretty flat. We'll try again when her hair is a little longer and she's more patient.

James is now doing baby yoga in preparation to crawl.

He does this all the time and the kids think it's hilarious.

Sarah finally got her week of swimming lessons. She's finally at the level where they focus on technique and learning new strokes so it's been fun to watch her practice.

 Here she is practicing her breathing. They learned the elementary backstroke and underwater swimming this year. I am looking forward to seeing what she learns next year. Now we just need to get to the pool more so that she can be on the high school swim team like she wants.

I wonder if this dive will do her well in a competition.

Here are all the kids' underwater pictures.

James at 8 Months

Today James is 8 months old!

Disclaimer: He is on day 5 of a nursing strike and super ornery from teething (I'm thinking the two are related but he's been an angry nurser for months) so I am beyond distraught. I will try my best to come up with other milestones and positive things about James but to be honest, I am so sad and frustrated with him and pumping and him not nursing that it's pretty much all that comes to mind. Add in that most of the time he just wants to snuggle with a blanket in his crib instead of me rocking him to sleep and my heart just aches that I don't get to do any of the bonding things anymore. But I'll keep trying because I'm more stubborn than him.

Plus--this face. (He's watching Erica jump on the trampoline.)

Likes: Eating and trying new foods, pulling grass, toys with wheels, knocking down stacked toys, peek-a-boo, his brother and sisters, yelling really loud in stairwells. He also likes baths now that he sits up in the tub instead of lies down in the water.

Dislikes: Nursing, changing clothes, nursing, being awake past 7:30, teeth cutting through his gums.

Remember last month when I announced that James had finally mastered sitting up? I was so excited because babies are so happy and easy when they just sit in one spot and play with toys and I thought this would usher in a respite of baby James being high-maintenance?

Yeah, that lasted one day and then he moved onto this.  He stretches out onto his stomach and then pushes himself backwards until he's far away from his toys. Sometimes he reverse scoots until he's under the bench or a chair. I don't like it and he doesn't like it but he keeps doing it.

After he got bored of watching Erica, he noticed the air vent.

And then it turned on and became even more intriguing.

Other things he's good at: Pulling at my jewelry until I take it off, eating more than Erica, being noisy at church, growing hair, producing slobber.

He didn't want to look at the camera but at least he gave me some good grins.

Oh James. Such a pill but he's my pill.

Independence Day 2017

In keeping with tradition of having no 4th of July tradition, this year we hosted a few neighbors for a barbecue and fireworks show.

First we ate dinner in the backyard. Then once the sun was low in the sky, we moved around to the front yard and started fireworks.

What is it about men and fireworks? The even took lighting sparklers seriously.

I loved seeing all the kids play together and be super goofy.

Hey there handsome. And no, I don't want to hold a sparkler. They still scare me.



This was one of my favorite 4ths so far. The kids had a blast with our sidewalk of fire.


We got a trampoline!

We've been telling the kids that we would get one when we moved to a different house that had a bigger backyard. But I don't know when that will be and I'm tired of waiting so we surprised them with it the day before the 4th party. Best baby-sitter ever.


They go out in the morning before it gets too hot, play under it when it is hot and then are back out there once it's in the shade in the afternoon. It is waaaaay too big for our narrow yard but oh well.

When Justin took the older kids camping, Erica got a little bored creative with her toys. I remember Sarah doing this same thing with her toys and other dining chairs. "That girl and the king are hiding from the monkey. The king is supposed to attack the monkey and the monkey is in jail."

We got another box of grapes from Costco so Erica made a "hat crown"

She found another one for James. He's such a good sport.