Summer

~This summer has seriously flown by! It was too dang hot to go outside and do anything unless it involved water. My friend Kimberly and I got our kids together and went to the river. It was fun for the kids to play at the "beaches" of St George. Although I had to run after Aurora at one point because she got caught in a current and the only deep part of the river. It was so scary! But all is well and other than that, we had a blast!

~They made forts, played with friends, played with the awesome kinetic sand we got (I actually got it for them for Christmas but totally forgot to give it to them, so we whipped it out for a FHE activity one night. Whoops!), they watched a ton of TV and played on electronic devices, and had a great time just being home. It was a great summer, but we're ready for school.

~Lincoln had a bad earache so I had to take him in to the Instacare. It was the first Dr visit we had to make with no medical insurance. Barf and stress!

 Aurora had to go potty while they were playing with the kinetic sand. After longer than she normally takes, Mike went in to check on her and found this. Like I've said a million times already, she is awesome.

 I walked into the kitchen to find this. I'm very grateful my two year old is independent and can get her own food. But its still very difficult to see this!

 I love St George storms!!

This girl right here is the most helpful child I have!

 

Happy Birthday Our Beautiful Sequoia!!

All Sequoia wanted to do for her birthday was to go to Grandma Goodman's and be with her cousins. We went over the Saturday before her birthday and had a mini party. We brought some saw dust from the store and dumped it out in the garden. Then Grandma dumped a bunch of coins in it and the kids got to go digging for money! They played in the water for a bit. We had some yummy pizza and sang to our beautiful 6 year old. She wanted a Spiderman birthday so bad. I got the awesome cake for her. The Spiderman comes off later and is a light, super awesome. She picked out some Ninja Turtle walkie talkies and we surprised her with a stuffed dog that came in a pet carrier. She got some money from Grandma and cousins. She was in heaven.

~Sequoia is a wonderful child. She brings a light to our little family. She is my biggest helper. She doesn't like to talk about her feelings or chat much, but she is always wanting a hug. She's our silent sweetheart. She is a fantastic little sister for Lincoln and a big sister for Aurora. She is content to play by herself with legos or her dolls, play with Lincoln with robots and cars, or barbies and Lalaloopsies with Auri. She is by far the "easiest" child and I love her dearly.

Tom and Milda Goodman Family Reunion

For our Tom and Milda Goodman Family Reunion we went to Midway, Utah close to Heber City. It was a great little place to be. There was a big cabin that had a huge common room, kitchen, and 3 bathrooms. Then we had a few acres of grass, a stream, a huge tree, and space to run. We all pitched tents or brought trailers and slept on the grass. We ended up borrowing Tenille and Jon's camper trailer. Even though we had to add an extra 6 hours to our trip to go pick it up and drop off, it was worth it. It rained and all 3 of our children puked their guts out while we were there, so a huge thanks to Tenille! It did make me one day desire a little trailer for camping. I like to dream sometimes, it's fun:)

The kids had a good time running and playing. We rode on the Heber Creeper Train. I had never been on it so it was a fun experience to share with the kids. We helped cook dinner, had some fun programs and the kids got to make their own designed T-shirts with sharpies and rubbing alcohol. It was a good idea and they loved making them. We made multiple trips to Aunt Gayla's house to do laundry due to the never ending puked on blankets and clothes. She was wonderful to let us do that. We ate some yummy ice cream, sat around and chatted, and one of the nights Mike and I drove in to Provo and got a hotel room so we could shower and get all cleaned up. It was heavenly. I don't do well with a yucky body. We went back to camp and let Gary and Susan stay the night at the hotel for some peace and quiet. (The Dirty Dash was also going on right by our camp site. I randomly saw a neighbor who lives down the street. It was fun to see the people. Shelley and Brecken were running in it too, but I didn't see them.)

My "Easiest" Child

~I've been helping out with the store a bunch this Spring and Summer doing expos and craft fairs here and in Vegas. And I've been working Saturdays for the Summer. I do like to go in and work. When I work, Mike comes home and watches the kids so it's been working out pretty good. And I think the kids like having Daddy home more than Mommy anyway. He still makes them work and do chores, but they always seem to be happy while they work. As soon as I ask them to do something, they're just too tired, they need a snack, they have to go potty, or they just don't feel good. Um hm...

~These cute little muffins are my great helpers in the kitchen. They always want to come help Mommy make something. And help "clean out" the bowl, of course:)

~Even though we don't have a huge yard, we at least have this patch of grass. The kids (especially the girls, Lincoln takes some convincing to come outside) love to get the little pool out and come play in the water. The girls are water queens. The little neighbors will come out and play usually if we go outside. There is a 2 year old on each side of us and across the street. It's great for Aurora (who of course is always the ring leader). 

~The kids asked me one day who is my easiest child. Hm.. aka, who is your favorite?! I told them I wasn't for sure and couldn't really say who. They said it isn't Aurora because she is so hard. Given. Then Lincoln said, "Well then who was your easiest baby?" I said Lincoln! I told him that lately he's been kind of whiny and hard to get to clean up and complains when he has to, so I said I'm thinking Sequoia is my easiest right now. (She seriously is an awesome easy kid!) They were both happy with that.