Another New Chapter!

So, I'm excited to say that I am officially now an Aggie, and I am officially going to be working towards a degree in Family Life Studies from USU online!  With Rob going to school, we decided that there was no reason I couldn't be going to school too!  I love that it is online because that means I can work on it wherever we are, and that there will be lots of flexibility in the time I  can do the work!  I'm not always going ot be able to go full time, and since I only have about a year of previous college, it could take me more than the three years to complete, but at least I'm working on it!

Finally!

This is a few weeks late, but I am very happy to say that Isaac is finally potty trained!  He was much harder to get trained than Eden was, and has made up for her lack of accidents, but at least it is finally done!  And, I must say, it is much quicker to take a boy to the bathroom at a store than a girl (at least in one of the aspects)!  Now to work on EmmaLee . . .

Ammon's Blessing and Summer

On July 4th we blessed Ammon.  Blessings are always special, and this one was really fun as well!  As I've mentioned in early blogs, my brother and his wife had their baby, Connor, 3 days after Ammon was born.  So, when we were trying to plan when we were going to bless each of our babies, the first day that came to both of us was July 4.  But, they live in Idaho, which makes it slightly difficult to make it to both blessings!  So, after some discussion, we decided to do a double blessing at my parent's ward, which is the ward that both Nick and I spent most of our growing up years!

This is Ammon in his blessing outfit before the blessing.

This is a picture of both Ammon and Conner after the blessing.  I felt like it was pretty special and unique for my brother and I to be able to bless both of our babies on the same day, and it was fun to bless them in a ward where I knew so many people who helped shape my life!  Aren't they such cute babies!  I think they were both wondering why everyone was standing around them looking at them so much!

Ammon is getting better and better at smiling!  I never seem to be able to catch him when he is super smiley, but he's cute anyway!

Just another cute picture!

And another!

I liked this one too!

A little bit bigger smile, but not such a great angle!  I was trying to take the picture while I was holding him in my arms, and I almost missed him!  I also love how blue his eyes look in this picture!

Last Sunday we took a ride up Ogden canyon by the town of Morgan.  We found a little cemetery that has a lot of old pioneer graves just west of Morgan; I can't remember now what it was called for sure, but I think it was like Peterson, or something close to that!  It was on a bit of a hill, and it had an amazing view on pretty much every side!  So, we took a few pictures of the kids from it!  Morgan is basically right behind Eden.

Isaac at the cemetery.

And Emma's turn!

So, besides little road trips, the kids have been swimming a lot to try to keep cool this summer!  This is a cute pool Shirley bought that the kids have had fun playing in, at least until the plugs got lost! 

Cooling off!

On Friday we took a trip down to the Springville Museum for one of Rob's school class assignments.  The museum is in an awesome building (which I didn't think to take any pictures of!) and has a lot of really amazing artwork.  They also have a sculpture garden that they just completed last summer that was absolutely gorgeous!  I have decided if I ever get to have a nice backyard and I have the money to do so, it will look very similar to this garden!  This picture doesn't really show the whole look of the yard, but it was really very, very nice!  I love Isaac's "tough" pose, and the girls sweet pose!  I had thought about taking Ammon out and holding him above my head like the statue, but he was sleeping and it was hot, so we decided to pass on that, sigh, maybe next time!

So, that has been our summer for the most part.  Eden is getting ready to start 1st grade THIS TUESDAY!  I can't believe how big she is getting, and I can't believe school is already starting!  She is in year round, which is why she is already starting.  I'm glad she's on A track, because she's been off since the end of May.  If she hadn't been on A, she would have only ended school on July 2!  There are some good things about year round, but I do hate how short the summer's feel, even when on a track that either gets out early, or starts later!  The summer still feels so short!

June

So, June has come and gone, and I thought I would post some pictures from the month!

In June, I finally took Eden in to get a professional haircut.  For those who have been following this blog, you will remember that Eden had a tendency of cutting her hair when she was 3-4 years old, but hasn't cut it for a good year now.  All the butchered spots had finally started growing out longer, but her hair was kind of a wild mess of multilength hair.  So I decided it was time for a real style.  We went in, and the lady gave Eden some bangs to help with the general flow of hair.  She cut the sides so they framed her face, and left it long in the back.  It was pretty cute. Well, the problem with bangs is that they grow fast, and get into eyes.  So, this was the before shot of Eden, not long after her haircut.

Eden decided one night her bangs were in her eyes too much, so after using the restroom, she decided instead of coming out, she would give herself a quick bangs "trim", and proceded to basically cut her bangs off to the scalp!  She came out, and asked me if I noticed anything, to which I simply gasped!  Rob and I then tried to tell her that she shouldn't cut her hair, that's why we go to professionals, etc. We brought to her acknowledgement that the only people that have bangs that short are the ones with really short hair, like Isaac.  She then got upset because she didn't want to look like a boy. So, I told her we could try curling her hair and then people would not mistake her for a boy.  I also pulled some of her hair up, and it actually turned out a lot better than I had though it would!  The only down side for me is that now she thinks she has to have her hair curled everyday, so I went out and bought some sponge curlers and most every night now, after her shower, we put her curlers in so she can make sure she looks like a girl! 

This last month my kids discovered how fun stairs can be. They had the bottom of a box, and used it as a sled to slide down the stairs!  It was fun to watch them and brought back memories of when I was a kid and used all sorts of things to slide down the stairs!

I don't really know what to say about this one besides that it's hilarious!

We also made it to the Dinosaur Museum in Ogden this last month.  The kids loved it!  They are all roaring in this picture, like a dinosaur!

Layton City has several free concerts during the summer, so we went to this one which had Peter Brienholt singing.  It was a beautiful evening, and the kids loved getting out. We didn't quite make it the whole concert before Ammon got a little upset and we had to go, but it was fun while we were there!  Also, just as a side note, Isaac pretty much thinks he has to pose for most pictures, so yes, he looks like that on purpose.

This is a shot of the concert.  With our kids, we felt we would last longer sitting in the very back where they would have a little bit of room to wiggle!

And that was our month!

Ammon Update

Ammon is now about a month and a half old.  He has become a lot more alert these last few weeks, and has even smiled a couple of times!  The kids love him, sometimes almost too much, but I think he's going to be one of the crowd soon, maybe even sooner than I want!

As you can see, his yellow is almost completely gone!

This is Alexander, my sister-in-law, Bonnie's,  new baby that was born about 2 weeks after Ammon.  He has gotten bigger as well, but I don't have any other pictues of him yet!

I thought this was a cute picture of Isaac and EmmaLee.  I love that my kids love each other.  Yes, they fight, and a lot sometimes, but you can often hear them telling each other that they are handsome and beautiful, depending on if you are a boy or a girl, and one of my goals as their mother is to help them to love and respect each other.  I've talked to them before about how special it is for them to get to be siblings.  I know I must have reached at least Eden because a couple of weeks ago I heard her talking to EmmaLee and telling her that even if their friends move away, they always got to be sisters, so they would always be best friends!

So, sometimes the kids get a little silly around Ammon, and I think it's already starting to rub off on him.

"Mom, am I suppose to be as silly as my brother and sisters are?"

"Okay, I'll try!  Hey, what are you doing?"

"Let's all make the same silly faces, that will be funny!"

"Say Awwwww"

"I can make that face too, just cleaner"

"I can do that one too!" (If you look really close, or blow the picture up, Ammon actually has his tongue out of his mouth too!!)

Ammom is such a sweet boy, and we are loving having him here with our family!

Isaac's Birthday

So, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures!  I'm going to start with Isaac's birthday, since it was almost two weeks ago!  We celebrated his birthday a day early with Rob's family.  Rob's mom has a friend who lent us this blow up water slide for the afternoon!  The kids loved it!

We didn't know it was going to be there till that day, so it was a very fun surprise for them!

I wish pictures had sound!  If you could hear Emma, she would be squealing in delight (and possibly some shock from the cold entry of the pool)!

The birthday boy, who is now 4 years old!!

It wasn't quite as warm on this day as it has been these last few days, but Isaac found his own personal "water" bed that was heated by the sun!  He would go lay there when he got too cold and get warmed up!

After all the fun in the sun, we had hot dogs and cake (can you tell?) and then Isaac got to open his presents.  This dinosaur was from Grandma Shirley, and he LOVES it!  It walks on its own and roars!

The morning of Isaac's real birthday, he wanted blue pancakes.  So, I attempted to make blue pancakes, but they turned out a more blue-green, and still cooked brown, so they were, um, interesting.  But, they tasted good, and he was happy with them!

Later that day, we went to my parents house for a birthday party.  Grandma Dickey bought a fun car pinata for Isaac, which turned out to be pretty tough to break!  It did finally break, and everybody got lots of yummy candy!

This is my adorable sister, Melanie, who is pregnant and expecting her first baby, which is a girl!  She is so cute with her little tummy!

Here's Isaac opening more fun presents!

It was a fun birthday for him, and I can't believe my little boy is already four years old!