6.12.16

S loves to call dad on the phone and just talk to him during the day. One morning she found a highlighter that she knows Brett uses to do his work. I love how excited she was! She called him and told him all about it, and was so proud to show it to him when he came home that night.

Brett has talked for ages about wanting a bike. I wanted him to have something that he would love. We have looked, and I have looked on my own. Brett has really short legs so it's a tad tricky trying to find a bike that would work for him. I found what I thought would be the perfect fit based on his height. S was almost as excited as Brett was to unpack this bike. Needless to say she was up a bit past her bedtime helping dad put together a bike. 

Potty training this kid has been quite the long road. We have only put a diaper on her at bedtime and nap time since September. She hasn't really had any accidents since then, but also has refused to go poop in the toilet. She just waits until nap time or bedtime when she has a diaper on....and I am SO over it! So, a few weeks ago we started leaving her in underwear and majorly pushing a sticker chart with lots of treats and rewards involved! This week was huge for her. When she earned that final sticker we immediately went to the store to find the toy she's been pining over. Complete happiness right there, people!

I was cutting up a watermelon the other day and I was excited to share with S one of my favorite memories that my dad did with me growing up. I gave her the end to eat right out of like a bowl. She was in love! Yum!

Brett had to go on a scout camp out on Friday night, so we went to spend some time with my sister, Jessica, and her family. We grilled dinner, the kids played outside, and we had a good chat. S is really lucky to have cousins a bit older than her that are happy to help her with things. They pushed her around in a car, pushed her on a swing, and just had lots and lots of giggles together. 

Jessica and James

coming home from cousins

I love seeing the relationship between these two. I love how she just snuggles in. She places his hand exactly where she wants it. They are such good buddies, it just warms my heart! 

Last, but not least, our weekly family picture. Not too shabby for a photo at the end of church...S's hair was still somewhat intact, which I'll consider a minor miracle!

6.5.16

We ended up having my sister's family come over for a barbeque on Memorial Day. It would've been perfect if the wind had been a little less. Multiple plates were blown over by the wind. With some of our diet restrictions I've had lately we went out on a limb making a non-dairy, no sugar chocolate ice cream. It was SO good. I think we'll have to make it again soon. Scarlett was a fan!

chocolate ice cream

We had some friends invite us to join them going up in the canyon for dinner one evening. It was SO nice. They are new friends to the neighborhood, and it was good to get to know them better...too bad I forgot to pull out a camera.

We took a spur of the moment trip on Friday to go see grandma and grandpa. It was an added bonus that we got to see cousins while we were there too. I feel like we had a picture like this not too long ago with these 4 cute kids. I love that she has so many cousins close to her age!

Avery, Corbin, Scarlett, Maci

Scarlett loves grandpa. It was fun to see them just snuggling together watching a show. They chose to watch Minions. Scarlett really likes that one...largely because Scarlett is a character in it. I, however, am not in love with it for that same reason...I don't want her to love the villain. Maybe that's wrong, but it's just kind of my sentiment.

We ended up going out to dinner for Thai food with my sister and one of her kids. Scarlett and James loved the Satay chicken. What a fun dinner date! The kids had fun together, and it was also some nice adult time!

showing off her chicken

playing with their chicken sticks

We went shopping together for flowers to plant together on Saturday morning. We all helped to pick things out. I love how Scarlett took charge of that wagon and took it everywhere we needed. She's such a good little helper. I love this kid!

And...we can't leave out our weekly family photo!

5.29.16

I need to much better schedule to help me be able to blog regularly. We have had some really busy weekends, and little time to blog, but I am hoping to get better at something regular.

We had these two cans of fun silly string that Brett got S and me for Christmas. We had a lot of fun all playing together and chasing one another with it. S didn't want to spray it so much, but more wanted to play with it once it was out of the container and on the ground :)

S has a huge love of books and had quite a great time reading lots of hers during her nap time. I had to wake her up from a nap one day and was SO surprised to see that she had slept with all of these!

We have taken quite a bit of time the past few weeks getting our garden put in. S loves tomatoes and was so excited to help plant some tomato plants. We can hardly wait the few months that it will take for the garden to be harvested.

While our weather has been nice we have been taking advantage and spending time in the park. We will have to do that more in the mornings so that it is cool enough to enjoy it. 

We wanted to have some fun family time together. Over the Memorial Day weekend we chose to pitch a tent in our backyard. S found it quite fun. We brought out a laptop and watched Toy Story. It didn't end until 10, and S suddenly said, "I sleep in my bed!" We tried to convince her that it would be fun to sleep in her sleeping bag, but she wasn't having it. We gave in, and all went to sleep inside.

pitching the tent

our favorite guy

enjoying our tent

For a family fun time we all went to the Farm at Thanksgiving Point. It was fun to get to see Brett and S enjoy it together. We don't get to go all together often, and really savored our time together there.

riding a pony

wagon ride

 snuggles

my favorite girl

our little blurry family pic taken by S

clear, but silly family pic

5.22.16

I had an appointment Monday to try to get a few things figured out. It is easier to have a conversation with a doctor without a 3 yr old, so I asked a friend to watch S. Her daughter is S's age and they have the best time together. Oh, how I love them! It was her friend's birthday, so they went to get their nails done as well as playing and having fun. It's nice to have good friends!

We went over to see Nana and Papa on Tuesday and help them plant their garden. After we got it all done S helped Nana water her plants and seeds to help her garden start growing. 

helping Nana water

pushing Papa to his room

Then somedays you just have to take silly pictures. With Mr. Potato Head tongues. Mostly just because you can.

S had been asking to go to the Children's Museum for quite a while. We had a pretty full day, with no nap, and by the time we got to that point I was done being the entertainment committee. The museum seemed like a great choice. I love all of the fun things they have to do outdoors as well as in. 

Saturday we were back at it again trying to get the cupboards finished up. We thought we would have things finished, but were given a wrong piece and had to run back to Home Depot again. We only lack the doors, but am hoping to finish it one day this week. 

We took dinner for Nana and Papa Sunday evening. We stayed for a tad bit to watch a short movie with them. It's not a great picture, but it's a fun memory to save. 

Sunday we were getting ready to do our family picture and waiting for Brett. S wanted to take my picture, and I just wanted to do whatever makes her happy...would keep her happy :)

me

S

our family

and our silly family

5.15.16

We took time clearing out our office space so that we could add some built in cabinets. S was pretty cute shining her light between the baseboard (helping me) remove the baseboard so that we could have the cabinets flush against the wall. 

little helper

We went over to visit Noelle before she had to start back in classes. She had picked up this adorable dress for S a few weeks before. She loves it. As soon as she put it on, she squealed, "It twirls!!" It was so thoughtful of Noelle to think of S.

So, I had this day that didn't start out great, and just ended up going down the tubes. We headed out to pick up our mower from the repair shop. I get there, and they don't open for another 30 mintues (I drove 15 to get there, so there was no way I was just going to go home). I ended up taking S to a nearby park. Sadly, she had on flip flops and she was not happy shortly after getting there with wood chips stuck in her shoes. Thankfully once we made it to the wooden platforms, all was well. At least until I followed her through a little kid sized tunnel and smacked my head pretty good on my way through. 

queen in the beehive

After our little wait, we made our way to the shop...only to find out that the mower wouldn't fit with the boxes (really heavy 200 pound boxes) that were in the back of the car. No one was available to help quickly, so I unpacked them from the car piece by piece and went back to pick up the lawn mower...again. Blah! Thankfully we got it home without much problem. I had a friend who could stop by to help me unload it. Heaven knows my yard was in bad need of a mow and I wanted to get it done! I got about half way done before I ran out of gas. At that point I needed to put S down for a nap anyway. I was able to take a little breather. A friend texted to meet them at the park, and after my morning I was totally happy to! We ran to grab some gas on the way home from the park. S had been really good through everything, and I grabbed us a slurpee while I got gas. We came home, and I worked to finish mowing the lawn. It was a little after 5 when I finished...kind of. After one tank of gas the mower wouldn't start again. I was SO frustrated! We had plans we all needed to be clean for. I showered, bathed S, Brett got home, then we started to figure out dinner when my sister-in-law, Kerri, called. She was at my in-laws home and needed tylenol for her 1 yr old. We were headed there shortly, but she ran over anyway. This was the kicker of my whole day. The only bottle I could find had a tiny hole for a syringe. I couldn't find a syringe small enough to fit in the hole. Ugh! The last syringe I found pushed that part of the cap farther into the bottle. at that point the only option I had to to push it all the way in to access the medicine. So, I take a butter knife to push the plastic in to get to the medicine. The knife apparently was sharper than I thought. It was SO painful. It bled like crazy! Brett was able to butterfly it together. It has continued to be sore for the past week plus. Anyway, crappy end to a crappy day. 

Brett's first aid skills at work

our weekly family picture

5.8.16

Seriously. In the past 3 plus years I haven't gone this long without blogging. Life has been a bit hectic and I have been occupied with so many other things. Ugh. So, I'm going to give this a shot and see what I can remember from the past three weeks...

Brett was traveling from the 3rd to the 8th. We definitely had some challenging days as well as some really fun days. I am really grateful that I am not a single parent...for more reasons than one! At the end of one of those really long days I had to take this picture. She is such a precious little girl! I wanted to just pick her up and snuggle her, but I didn't dare for fear of waking her.

I had a rather long day later that week, and was hugely disappointed when I opened the door to pick up a package we had ordered from foster care only to find it totally cut open. It was sitting on my front porch, hidden behind our column, and someone had come and cut it open. It was maddening! It felt like such an invasion of privacy. To say I was mad might be an understatement.

We went up to visit my sister and her kids (visiting from Idaho), and my parents while Brett was gone. We spent one full day, and went home the following. I miss our kids being able to get together so much. S and M are only 3 weeks apart. Maybe one day they'll make their way back to Utah so we can see them a bit more often.  

a wiggle car together

cousin fun

treats with grandma and grandpa

 So, some nights when I am on my own I opt to let S choose her own dinner...because it doesn't seem worth the fight to eat a "mom approved" meal. This night (only night we did this) her choice was "Super S" cereal, raspberry lemonade, green olives, and applesauce. Yum ;)

dinner of her choice

The day before Mother's Day we got family together at my sister's house for a barbeque. Then we all just hung out afterward together. It was pretty cute to see all the toddlers gathered around grandpa in their bedroom reading books.

Brett got back Mother's Day afternoon while we were at church. He actually picked S up from nursery and brought her home to help make a fun sign for me. After dinner we went over to his parents for some family time too. It was pretty cute watching S play with her closest cousin in age on Brett's side. Empty the toy basket and turn it into a little wagon for this guy. So fun!

S and P

family pictures while Brett is gone

5.1.16

Brett was out of town again this week for 4 days. We sure do miss him while he's gone! I looked back through my phone and saw that I have a sum total of two pictures (at least the ones with people in them) for this week. S and I spent part of the week doing things to help family who were sick or needed a little something, visiting teaching, and doing lots of errands. We are feeling like we are getting back into the swing of things. 

I had bought tickets a few months ago to go to Women's Conference. I have gone for at least the past 8 years. It is something I have really grown to look forward to. I had a bit of a problem with who was going to take care of S because Brett didn't get home until the end of the third day. My sister had offered, but was diagnosed pneumonia and there was no way I could do that to her (despite her insisting). I am SO grateful for a good friend who was willing to have S for an incredibly long day! It was such a kind thing for her to do, and such a great opportunity for me. I have gone with my mom most years. We always stay for the big service activity, dinner, and concert. This year we participated in helping to make 350,000+ meals for local people in need.  

making meals

Saturday we spent time getting things from our home study list done. I think there are about 5-6 different items that she put on a punch list for us to complete to be able to have kids placed in our home. We officially have everything done with the exception of window well covers, which we have talked to a seller for and hope to have by next week. 

We went out to dinner together Saturday. We opted for somewhere we hadn't been in a while, Red Robin. They have a pretty great kids menu (aka more than 3 items to choose from). After, we walked around the nearby shopping area. They had a popcorn store. S and I both have a weakness for popcorn. Brett...not so much, but he humors us. Looking at the prices there was no way I was paying for 2 kinds (even the smallest size), but we couldn't not get some with S there with us. We ended up letting her pick. It is super yummy, but not something we would splurge on on a regular basis. 

so happy with her confetti popcorn

And, of course, our post wouldn't be complete without our weekly family picture!

her silly face

and our little family