July Activities

-Swim lessons and swimming. Cara  loves swimming as close to the deep end as she can get and going down to get things from the bottom. Gwen is all about doing cannon balls. Lucy has just started swimming lessons and loves going each day. She even puts her face underwater (a HUGE improvement from before). Pierce jumps into Larry's arms and then swims to the edge to get out and jump back in.

-Kids workshops: I was able to take the kids by myself to the Home Depot one. AND I discovered how early you have to go to actually get a kit (they have some fun ones). We also hit up the Lowe's one to build a fun sand box. I still love going to these things!

-We came back from Malad to discover our a/c had gone out upstairs. Unfortunately, it took 5 days to get it replaced (temps got up to the mid 90s...our bedrooms were MISERABLE at night). I got a little acclimated, but sleeping got difficult (especially when it took until 4 AM to get below 80 degrees). I'm just glad it got fixed BEFORE the temps got to 100 and that our main level still had a/c. I'm sure our power bill will be insane!

-7/11 slurpee run...always a fun summer day! I decided to let the girls ride their bikes/scooters up there and back. However, I forgot it's 100 degrees out AND I would have to hold all of them for the ride back. But it's worth it to let them get more comfortable on the bikes (they've ridden them more this summer than all other summers combined, I'd bed). 

-More yard work got done! It's really been nice having Larry off work to get this all done (our whole front is as done as it can be for this year. He got the side of the back yard that needed to be done finished and then, a project we didn't think would get done, he was able to put the weed blocker under the play ground area as well. Now we can let the kids walk around barefoot in the sand!

This after is AMAZING!

-We walked through Ikea one night to just have some fun and now I have a renovation bug biting so hard! I have such fun ideas for our closet and the laundry room (which I've had for a while), but now I want to redo the kitchen and bathrooms! Haha

This is close to the idea I have for our closet

I found a "Friend's Couch" that wasn't uncomfortable!
If I could have a Friend's room, I would have bought this!

-Larry got a new job! His last contract ended at the end of May and he was working with recruiters and applying to other jobs constantly. He was just keeping busy doing yard work and fixing things up, taking the kids to their swimming lessons, anything and everything around the house while he waited to hear back from anyone. It was a bit frustrating (especially with the a/c going out and everything). But luckily, one of the recruiters ended up finding him a really good job that would be an 18 month contract (the longest he's had) for the most he's earned so far, which is really nice! He starts tomorrow.

-We went to a family wedding at one point. I got a decent family pic (even though it was VERY hot):

-Cara got a new bike! Since she learned to ride without training wheels, we went and got her, her own bike. Now Gwen practices on the training wheel bike and loves it (I never thought we'd get her away from the scooter, that was always her favorite).

-Silly kiddos this month:

Gwen's First (and Second) Lost Tooth

So a shocker happened when Gwen told us she had a loose tooth. I thought she was just being silly since Cara had just lost her 2nd tooth, but then I felt it and felt that it was really wiggly. I didn't expect her first one so quickly. This was almost a month ago so it took a while to actually fall out.

Then one day she was talking about her wiggly tooth I noticed she was wiggling the one next to it. I mentioned to her that wasn't her loose tooth and then wondered if I remembered it wrong. I went to go feel it out and, sure enough, she had a second loose tooth and both were pretty wiggly. I kept joking she'd lose them really close together.

So we're waiting for ONE of them to fall out, I kept bugging her to wiggle it as much as she could. She said she does, but I felt like she had to be forgetting every once in a while. Then on Sunday she mentioned it was going all the way backwards and we knew it was going to fall out any day/second. She had swimming lessons on Monday and Larry had to tell her not to wiggle it during that because he was so convinced it was going to fall out. 

They made it through swim lessons fine and then after lunch/during nap time they got their "music videos time" when she randomly said "my tooth fell out." Just so calmly and like it was nothing haha. We were all excited and talked about the Tooth Fairy coming to visit.

We get through that night and she was so excited to wake up to her Tooth Fairy letter and money. Then as we were doing stuff today she mentioned her 2nd tooth fell out! I knew it was going to be close, but I did NOT think it was going to be that close. 

She's so excited about another visit from the Tooth Fairy tonight. And we're excited she's lost her first couple teeth (we have a couple twinners with both girls having lost both of the same two teeth first. 

What big girls we have already!

Larry's Birthday

I really feel like I did pretty well with Larry's birthday this year. Granted, I asked what he wanted, but I still found a way to make it fun!

I realized last minute that I didn't wrap his gifts so I had to wrap them the morning of his real birthday. I then realized I should've gotten his favorite snacks and done his version of a "birthday table" (he did get a ton of snacks for Father's Day so I wasn't sure he'd want so many more), but since I didn't I decided to grab snacks and drinks from our pantry that I know he likes and put those with the happy birthday banner and his presents on his desk (I knew he'd see that before the table haha).

I asked him if he wanted to have a special breakfast, but he said no, so we didn't do that. We did do our "what we love about the birthday person" thing (one of my favorite things to do) and dinner at Leatherby's, of course. 

For his celebration, he decided he wanted to go up to Malad for lottery tickets. I get bored there so easily since it's SO tiny, but wanted to find a way to make it more fun/special for us. They do have a playground/splash pad area that we figured we could do a picnic and bring some food and outside toys for the kids to play with. I knew they also had an ice cream place up there so we could get some while we were up there as well.

The morning of I was able to bring the kids to Home Depot early enough to do their kids workshop (which I did all by myself with all 4 kids) and that let Larry sleep in a bit. Then we got home, packed up, and headed out.

So I'm not sure if the city actually got cleaner and looked so much better than usual or having a better attitude made it better, but we ended up having a lot of fun! I was able to bring a couple bikes and scooters with us, we let the kids come up in their swim suits (and bring an extra pair of clothes), we stopped off at Subway to grab some food (but we also brought some fruit and snacks with us). When we got to the park it was noon so we ate at a shadowed picnic table and then covered everyone in sunscreen. 

The kids called this "Mommy mountain"
Because of the M

We let the kids play at the splash pad, but of course they also wanted to play on the stage they had decorated for the 4th as well (singing lots of songs and dancing around, not to mention playing with all the balloons). I brought out the bikes and the girls rode around the paved trail they have. We played a little longer and then stopped at this other ice cream stop I saw on the way to the park (a cute little trailer with a cute sandbox and photo ops all around). 

They had some fun flavors, but the kids ended up picking the best ones (cotton candy, bubble gum, and play doh). We let the kids enjoy their treat and then cleaned them off and headed back home.

I swear I remember the trip taking a lot longer, but we were able to get up there, have our fun for a few hours, and head back home in time for dinner. I was able to watch the kids at the park while Larry went to go get his tickets. He won some money (but not as much as he spent), so that's nice, at least. It ended up being so much fun and I'm glad we were able to go up and give him his birthday celebration that he wanted and I didn't feel stressed, annoyed, or anxious one little bit! Yay for being in this phase of life (I even told him I think I could handle doing a nickel arcade next year! haha).

Happy Birthday USA!

I am having so much fun planning holidays! This year, for the Fourth, we had a mini celebration the weekend before at Mom's. Will cooked us some burgers and hot dogs (with fruit, potato salad, chips, brownies, and ice cream) and we let the kids play with water toys. Then around 8 we lit up some small fireworks. The kids had a lot of fun with those!

For the actual day we had so much fun! We started the day working on some Summer goals. We went to the church parking lot and brought bikes and scooters with us. We took the training wheels off the big bike and within about 10 minutes Cara was a bike riding machine. At first she had trouble staying up for long, but one of the things she loves is measuring success so I told her we'd count to see how long she could stay up and at first we'd only get to about 6-8, by the time we were done there she was staying up for almost 30 (this isn't seconds, it was just us counting, but it was quite the improvement). She was so proud of herself and we were definitely cheering her on. Gwen just scooted her little heart out, Lucy actually rode her pink tricycle bike all the way there and back AND was able to do turns all on her own. Pierce just had fun running around haha. 

After that we went over to Ridley's to get some treats and some other things we'd need for the day. Then we went home and worked on a little star craft I found online. Even though I showed the girls what it would look like in the end, they all had their own interpretations with it, which I love. 

We then had lunch and did a fun star guy craft (something I figured all the girls could do). They all did their own interpretation of it (Gwen's is the closest to what I was aiming for), but that's the creative process, right? We also made some fun red, white, and blue kabobs with fruit and marshmallows. The kids loved this part.

After that, I took the girls over to the playground while Pierce and Larry slept. I was hoping to cross off some more goals with Gwen working on pumping at the swing, but it turns out everything was REALLY hot and they were all wearing swim suits so we just played for about 15 minutes and then went back home. Cara made sure to ride her bike all the way there and back. I made it a goal to not sit down or be lazy today (I knew I'd be skipping my workout tonight so I wanted to be as active as possible).

After nap time we went for a hike to Grotto Falls in Payson Canyon. I had heard it was a pretty cool hike, but the pictures online made me have really low expectations. It ended up really impressing me. Some of the trail was a little iffy for the littles, but mostly it was a good one with lots of turn offs to walk through the little river from the falls. The falls themselves were REALLY need and we took our time playing in the water and splashing around.

It was a really cool hike that the kids all enjoyed. After the hike we came home and ate dinner, cleaned up the house a bit and then went outside. We made some s'mores and played with bubbles. Around 8 we lit our fireworks. We didn't have a ton, but it was enough to show the kids the excitement (Pierce and Lucy stayed in the garage, but Cara and Gwen were all about lighting them off, if they could, or being as close as possible haha). We let the kids play for a bit longer, Cara was even more all about her bike and riding it all over (I'm really, so very proud of her for learning AND wanting to keep with it). 

At bedtime we read our 4th of July books (one was the "'Twas the Night Before 4th of July" the other was one about the Statue of Liberty) and then said goodnight. The kids all said that everything was their favorite part of the day, which they always say, but today I think they meant it. They all said they loved the bikes, the waterfall hike, the fireworks, and especially the s'mores haha.

I feel like I'm getting really good at pulling the 4th celebrations out of thin air and making it a fun day. I kind of like our "hiking to a waterfall" tradition for it so I think I'll keep that part of it. I wish we had the energy to grill today, but we didn't have true buns and we had so many leftovers that I just didn't want to battle dinner today. Other than that it went as I had planned and was so much fun.

Happy Birthday America! And Happy Independence Day to anyone reading this! I am definitely proud to be an American and love celebrating this great day!