Tooth fairy beware

We are learning how to do things very differently around here. You know, when you lose a tooth, that just makes everything different. Everything from talking, to swimming, to riding a bike, to eating, at least according to Kate.

We have been waiting for a long time for this tooth to come out. Friday morning was quite dramatic because Kate was in major pain and she couldn't even suck her thumb because it was hurting so badly, oh the horror! Luckily, my neighbor was home. I've learned I don't really do teeth well. And Kate wanted Kayce to pull it out anyway because Kayce would give her an extra dollar. So we ended the drama by getting it out and Kate was a very happy camper after that! She is, however, determined to catch the tooth fairy. She really wants to see what she looks like. She left her a note last night asking her how big she is. It was really quite funny because then she started telling me what she thought the tooth fairy looked like and I could tell she had spent a lot of time thinking about it! The tooth fairy answered back that she is as big as Kate's thumb. Personally, a fairy of any kind coming into my room while I'm sleeping is a little creepy so I thought smaller would be better. But Jerry disagrees with me. What do you think the tooth fairy looks like?

Sara and Matt couldn't be left out of picture time. They are pretty cute huh!

Growing Pains

With a tiny bit of sadness, I watched Matt grow up a little this summer. I've started noticing a few minor changes in him. For example, when we went to the baseball game, he didn't want to ride the little train. And when we went grocery shopping he wouldn't pick out a sticker. Little things like that. And it's been a tiny bit hard to send him back to school this week. Mostly because it's still July and we were really loving our summer. But also because I miss him when he's gone. He was not super excited to start school, but after the first day he made some comment about it being fun so he was ok being back in school. He does love learning.

First day of school excitement. Actually, in all the confusion I totally forgot about pictures so this was taken after school. The school so rudely changed their start time to 25 minutes earlier. It was a little rough that morning. I walked Matt to his door so he could find his teacher and dragged the girls along in their pajamas. It was way too quick of a morning!

But even with him growing up, I still get some joy along the way. Like a couple of weeks ago he brought home this note from church:

And then last night at back to school night I had a huge proud mama moment. The kids had made a book about themselves, likes/dislikes, etc. This is my favorite page from Matt's book:

I love his wishes for his future: job, get married, have kids. He makes my heart pretty happy! I am a little nervous about him growing up. I feel like I can do 5 and under really well, but any older than that and I worry a little. He is clearly a great kid though and give us a few weeks, we'll back on track for school. Just in time for a break in October!

You say cabin, I say mountain resort home

Don't you love connections? You know, like when you know a friend who cleans your carpets for cheap, or you have a friend who gets you tickets to a game, or a show. It's great right, when you get something awesome and you do little for it? Well, we had a connection to a cabin for this past weekend. I'm using the term cabin loosely because, well, it far surpassed my expectations for a cabin!

See, what I mean? It was awesome! We had such a great weekend together.

The first morning we spent some time exploring around the cabin while Jerry got the toys in order.

Kate loved the throne chair!

Then we spent some time on the lake in a paddle boat and attempted fishing.

No success fishing the first day. Ok, no success fishing any of the days.

After playing in the water we headed out on the 4-wheelers. They had this awesome trailer for the kids to sit in. They loved it and it was the perfect way to make it possible for all of us to go!

The second day was similar to the first, plus a little geocaching and playing games at the cabin. Some of our favorite things were simply sitting on the porch swing reading stories, talking, watching the hummingbirds and just looking at the view.

Matt loved that there was a t.v. in every room (my first clue that it was more than just a cabin!) He turned it on as soon as he woke up and watched Spongebob in bed and loved it!

There was this mountain lion in one of the rooms. Sara was strangely obssessed with it although I couldn't find her at picture time. It creeped me out a little. Not in a snakey kind of way but in a this could kill if you if it was alive kind of way!

It was a very quick trip, but it was the perfect way to say goodbye to summer since Matt starts school tomorrow!

Ebay listing

I know there are some die hard BYU fans out there. Do you think anyone will bid on this picture on Ebay? I'm just taking it as a sign to stay loyal to BYU even though it will be hard with Utah in the Pac 12 now!

What's up, Cuz?

We've been lucky enough to have lots of cousins around lately. My kids love it too because we just go from one party to the next. First, my sister, Molly, was here for a week.

The first day we met my mom and other sister in Provo for lunch and some geocaching in a park.I love this picture of Kate and Emily holding hands.

And the boys, tough as ever.

We spent some days swimming and playing at home.

And the last hurrah was a Bees baseball game. Matt said it was the funnest baseball game he's ever been too. Perhaps I should say "most fun game" right Molly?

Even though Molly and her kids had to leave, it didn't mean the party was over. Creed got to come spend a few days with us and Matt was so glad to have another boy around. Of course there was some major video game playing, some swimming, a few laffy taffys consumed, but the best part was playing Ticket to Ride.

Matt had a great time with Creed. Sisters are great, but they don't know the secrets to video games you haven't played yet!

Good Manners

It doesn't matter if you get chocolate all over your face as long as you eat a S'more with your pinky up!

To die for

The other evening was one of those summer nights that are to die for! A large raincloud blocked the sun for the entire evening, so it was cooler than normal. But it wasn't a large enough raincloud to actually rain. Just enough to provide shade and make you never dream of going inside again! So we started off the evening by eating dinner outside.

Then we packed up on our bikes and rode over to the park.

We had a great time playing at the park.

We swang,

climbed around,

found sticks to try banging on every thing,

and best of all we found a great potential spot for hiding our own geocache. We are so excited. We just need to get our container ready. And when we finally went home we played in the front of our house until Dad got home from Cub Scout camp! It was the best night ever!

Home away from home

When July hits, we go swimming. The kids have had a blast this year. I had a girl who lives in our neighborhood give them swimming lessons this year. It's amazing how immediately their confidence increases. Kate started out glued to her floaties and now I can't get her to put them on. Matt is really close to doing actual strokes. He practiced side breathing, floats and glides and is totally at home in the pool. Kate is really working on putting her face in the water. I bet next summer she'll be diving for rings and stuff. Sara loves the water. She gets her floaties on and goes all over. She tries blowing bubbles and can do a back float with her floaties on. My lessons were improving my skills at watching three kids from my comfy pool chair and managing to talk to friends at the same time. I'm getting better, I'll let you know how it goes.

Kate is starting to doggy paddle a little bit. I think next year when she can touch the bottom a little more comfortably she'll be good to go.

Matt is all over the place. He jumps in 5 ft and swims to the other end of the pool. He dives for rings in 5 ft.

It's what fun is!

Every summer our stake has Lagoon Day so we get discount tickets AND get to see lots of friends at Lagoon. It has become one of our most favorite summer days. Ok, ok, this was only our second time, but we had SO much fun the last time, that we were all so excited to go. It was truly a great family day. We had so much fun together and basically no fighting and even very little complaining. It was great.

We had to take some time at the beginning to get over the excited nerves so we started on the easiest rides in kiddieland. It was great this year because Sara could do almost everything with us. I just felt bad. I have always said I wanted to have an even number of kids so that when we go to Disneyland no one has to ride by themselves. I guess that goes for Lagoon too! I love rollercoasters. They are so much fun. But lately, the really spinny ones make me not so happy. The sickestI felt all day was on the Merry-go-round. Matt really wanted to ride on a teacup so I went on it with him. Another boy sat with us and he and Matt spun it like crazy! I was glad to get off that one!My favorite ride of the day was Rattlesnake Rapids. I loved the rides that we could all go together on as a family. We started out all smiles.Until we got drenched! Poor Sara. I tried to block her, but it clearly did not work. Her entire body was wet! I loved the shock factor that we got from all the kids on most of the rides. I think that was actually my favorite part!

At this point in the day my camera battery died. That's ok because how many pictures can you take of people sitting in different rides. I did miss Matt holding Kate's hand walking to one of the rides. And I didn't get any shots from the top of the ferris wheel, but that's ok. No pictures could have been as great as the day. Some funny things were when we were on the ferris wheel and Sara asked me to hold her tummy because it felt funny. And then after one ride where you can control the ship going up and down and Matt says to me, "If I can drive Odysea, then I can drive a car." Cuz, you know, it's almost the same. But the funniest was when we talked Kate and Sara into doing a ride in kiddieland that lifts you up and then drops you. We were at the front of the line and Sara was climbing on the fence so Jerry told her to get down which made her cry. The ride attendant looked really lamely at Jerry and said, "Does she not want to go on this ride?" I laughed so hard. Yeah, we are just that mean to force our kids on rides. That's why our 7 year old is standing at the stroller watching us and not riding. Kate and Sara were both so funny on that ride. The first time it dropped they both got huge eyes and yelled out "Whoa!" Hilarious. Perhaps we are that mean! Until next year...

Goodbye E.T.

We decided to go geocaching and hiking for our fourth of July fun. It was a beautiful day in the mountains and it felt great to get some exercise other than swimming! We decided to check out a new lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon. The lake left a little something to be desired, but the geocaches made up for it. I love that my kids get so excited to do this. And it really helps them to have something to focus on when their legs get tired. I was again very proud of Kate. We hiked probably around 3 miles and she did it all by herself!

Before we left I wanted a picture of my girls in their hats. I think they look so cute. I love that Kate is always posing, Sara is always trying to be just like her at the last minute, and Matt is always Mr. Serious in the background!

We found two caches that were perfect for the kids. They always have more fun when the cache is in a container that is big enough to trade objects.

A few caches ago we found this E.T. I had to have it! I loved E.T. when I was a little girl. I mean really loved him. I had an E.T. lunch box, tried to talk like him, memorized the movie and my mom made me an E.T. costume for Halloween. So I was so excited when we found it. But Sara was never too fond of it. She would often pick it up and look at it and say, "He's evil." So when the kids brought that as something to trade, I just said my silent goodbyes and wished him well on his geocaching journey. Perhaps I should have put him on ebay.

The lake in the background was our final destination. Not my favorite mountain lake that's for sure, but it was fun to go a different direction. We looked for a cache around the lake, but never found it. Oh well. The kids are showing off their trades.