A few little events

 On April 25th, Sophie had a field trip to visit a fire station.  Since Weston never got to do that when he was in preschool, I decided to let him leave school a little early to join us.  I'd love to say that it was an amazing tour and that we all learned a ton, but actually there were so many kids and parents there that it was hard to hear what was being said half the time! 

 Sophie and her classmates listening attentively...

 Taking a selfie with this little stud!

 Brighton was a little intimidated and extremely intrigued by the big, huge fire engine! 

 Sophie with her class in front of the fire engine

 If I want a picture with my kids, I usually have to take it myself...I really like this one of me and Brighton.  I especially love the way he is cutely gazing at me!

 So, the last Sunday in April we had some very special friends, the Beckstrands, visit us from Utah.  It was SO MUCH fun to see them!  Here is a pic of Sophie holding their newest addition:

 The next morning we did breakfast buffet and then the park later that day.  Why I didn't get a single pic of me and my awesome friend, Jolee, I will never know!  But here are a few of the kiddos:

 I love the candid expression is on Weston's face.  It's not often that I capture a real, un-posed moment like this on camera!

 Brighton really keeps me on my toes!  This kid is an adventurer.  Everything intrigues him; nothing scares him (except loud noises). He is 17 months old and I am absolutely LOVING this age with him (even though he has broken half the things in our house)!

 How can you be mad at a kid that gives you a look like that!?  His playful little smile is the BEST!

 Is this one great, or what!

 A few snapshots of Sophie and Brighton in the back yard...she likes to shuttle him around on her tricycle, which he likes, despite the high frequency of falls that result!

 That evening after we had been at the park with the Beckstrands, Jason, I, and the kids all went to the single's ward FHE.  The bishop was having everyone over to roast marshmallows and socialize (oh, and I think there was a spiritual thought in there somewhere, too)!  Jason normally goes every week to the FHE activity, but this one seemed like something we could all go to as a family.  Of course, we didn't consider in advanced the potential danger of having a curious and fearless toddler around three different fire pits!  Fortunately, Brighton has a new friend who was happy to hold him for nearly 2 hours!!  Jonathan is going to make some girl very happy and be an amazing father to boot.  I am glad I didn't have to worry about Brighton that night.  Meanwhile, Weston stuffed his face with an obscene number of roasted marshmallows, Sophie roasted marshmallows for everyone who would let her, and I actually got to visit with people!  All around it was a great evening.

 

 
The first Saturday in May, we surprised the kids by taking them to Disney on Ice!  Jason's dad got us tickets, and we decided to make it a surprise...as an added bonus, when we arrived, Grandpa was there already!  It was SO much fun.  I was blown away by the ice dancing.  It was truly impressive.

 

 Sophie with her Beauty and the Beast rose...

 Since Uncle Chris was in town, he came over for dinner that night.

 Sophie loves to dance with anyone who will dance with her!

 Uncle Chris is very loved in our home.  Can you tell?

 The next morning was Sunday, and the kids asked us to stay in our bedroom for a little while because they had something they were preparing for us.  For about 45 minutes we could hear them plotting and planning what they were going to do to make breakfast special...by decorating the table with tissue paper (although they did initially consider taping it to the walls or hanging it from the ceiling).  They also put together little gift bags for us, and we each had a plastic egg with a note inside that said "I love you mom" or "I love you dad."  Breakfast consisted of bananas, apples, string cheese, chips and cookies.  It was absolutely precious.  They were SO VERY excited about what they had done for us!

Sophie is super picky about her hair, so a lot of times I take a picture of it from the back to show her how pretty it actually looks.  She is always happy with it, but then proceeds to mess it up within minutes...so sometimes I'm not sure why I even bother!

Jason's dad got the kids a program book from Disney on Ice which they have loved looking through - over and over and over again!  Brighton especially loves to look at all the characters and thinks Pumba (the Warthog from Lion King) is a dog.  He will spend 10 minutes searching for the picture of him in the book and then excitedly proclaim, "Dog! Dog! Dog!" 

The other day as Sophie was watching Curious George, I realized that Brighton had become quiet...surprisingly, I found him relaxing on a big comfy chair, snuggling a baby doll and falling asleep while watching TV!  I thought it was pretty cute.

Brighton has had so many firsts lately.  I am thoroughly enjoying him, although he does usually give me a few mini heart attacks every day. :)

Last Sunday (8/4)

On Sunday Sophie gave a little talk in primary about prayer.  I had her tell me what she wanted to say, with just little guidance (of course).  The part in parentheses she didn't actually say, I just wrote it down to remember because it was funny. :)
 

Prayer is our way to speak with Heavenly Father. When we pray, we fold our arms, close our eyes, and be very reverent.  We thank Heavenly Father for giving us freedom, giving us love and giving us blessings like our family!  Then, we ask for his help too.  We can ask Heavenly Father to help us be obedient and make good choices.  We can also ask for him to keep us safe and give us comfort when we are scared.  When I am afraid to go to bed sometimes, I say a prayer and Heavenly Father helps me know I am safe.  He sends the Holy Ghost to comfort me (and Santa when it’s Christmas).  I am thankful to know that I can pray any time.  I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus love us.  I know that prayer is important, and will help us return to live with them.  I am thankful that Joseph Smith prayed to find out the truth.  I know that we can always pray to understand the truth and be happy. 

This talk was special because Grandpa Glass was able to come and hear it!

Since it wouldn't be appropriate to take a picture in the middle of church, I decided to take a couple of pictures while daddy was helping her practice (and with Weston being her audience) before church.  I just knew that toy microphone would come in handy some day...

 
 Sophie did an excellent job on her talk!  That night, I took these two of the kids hanging out in Weston's room.  They fight like crazy sometimes, but also love nothing more than to play together!

 

 

July, part 1

At the beginning of July our dear friends, the Nye's, moved away.  We had been dreading this sad event for a while, and dealt with it by attempting to do as many things with them as possible (which was difficult because of the fireworks season, not to mention their busy schedule)!  The Monday before they left, we went to frozen yogurt with them and the Terry's which was a lot of fun.  The kids were a little bonkers, but what can you expect?  Here is Weston, Jansen, Sophie, Grace, Natalie and Emmy.

Jason chilling with the handsome chunk.  Chunk or Chunk-a-lunk have become common nick-names for this quickly growing man child!

Sophie sporting the librarian look

Weston and Sophie fell asleep one night cuddled on his bed.  It was so cute!

Visiting daddy at work during the week of fireworks sales...we picked the perfect afternoon to visit.  It was calm and the kids felt special getting to hang out in daddy's office for awhile!

One extremely hot day we visited Curtis, who filled up the pool for the kids to play in...and boy, did they ever have a good time!  Here is Brighton, joining in on the action for a few minutes.

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever capture a picture of Weston with a "normal" expression on his face!  He is so goofy and fun.  He LOVES to be silly!

Such a sweet boy.  Come to think of it, I guess this is a pretty normal expression...

Sophie, ever posing...

On the 4th of July, Weston got in a really patriotic mood (as you can see).  He invented a little song about America and marched around the house with this flag all day singing it.  It was pretty funny, and I even caught some of it on video.  He was very serious about his patriotic march!

We went over to the Terry's house on the 4th and had a barbeque which was great.  Sophie and Weston love to play at Grace's house (too bad Sophie isn't as anxious to use a real vacuum as she is the toy one)!

Brighton was pretty happy too.  He is one handsome little dude!

Playing with sparklers...

Every year I make a failed attempt at capturing the fireworks on camera.  It never really works, but you can at least see that we did some, right?  The kids loved it this year.  It is the first year I can remember where none of my children were afraid.  Last year Sophie came in the house during fireworks and watched Tangled.

Katie and Brighton

The eating adventure continues...Brighton is still easing into it, but sweet potato seems to be the one food he consistently likes.  Oh, and mangoes too.

The week after the 4th, we spent a day with my dear friend, Rachelle, and her kiddos.  It was so wonderful.  Two of our kids were born very close to each other, including Brighton and her youngest, Steele.  It was absolutely precious watching them play together!

Hanging out at the park near her house earlier in the day...

One of my favorite perks about having older kids with a baby is that bath time is so much easier (sometimes)! 

  One Friday (July 12 to be exact), Grandpa came over for dinner.  The kids look forward so much to his visits!  Every time he comes, he brings either a new magic trick or a fun new game of some kind.  This time he brought Chutes and Ladders, which the kids were ecstatic to play!

Weston was overcome with the thrill of the win!

The next day, Uncle Trevor (who was in town along with all of Jason's family) gave Weston this phone, which Weston immediately identified as his "James Bond" phone.  I have no idea why, of all the junky left over phones he has seen in his life, this one possessed the cool factor to be James Bond worthy.   It made for some fun conversations, thought, and my favorite part is that he willingly wore his handsome vest and tie to church that Sunday (because it looks snazzy and is what James Bond would wear)!

Of course, Weston is way too young to actually watch James Bond movies, so I am not really sure what the fascination is.  I guess it's the idea of being a spy.  For days after he got the phone, I would find him peeking at me from hiding places while I did the dishes or changed a diaper and finally realized he was trying to be a spy...you know, by spying on ME!

The kids have made a lot of forts this Summer.  A couple of weeks ago they made a pretty awesome one in Weston's room, but a certain little someone felt left out...when they opened a flap/door/ancient pea green blanket from the 70's that reminds me of my childhood, Brighton got SO excited & started clapping!

The next morning they undid the roof of the fort and let him in...you should have seen how thrilled he was to crawl on in and join the party!

This month Weston decided that he wanted to teach a family home evening lesson.  He set things up in the living room (by dragging half of the things in his room out there), where Sophie joined him in leading FHE.  His lesson included a re-enactment of the Book of Mormon story of Ammon cutting off all the arms of the bad Lamanites while watching the flocks of the king.  This included a sword fight between Jason and him.  After that he had us each make our own missionary tags.  When I asked him about the main purpose in the lesson, he said it was that if we are obedient, God will do amazing things through us.  I was so proud of him! 

Brighton of course wanted to join in on the FHE fun!  Last week Weston wanted to teach a lesson again, this time about George Washington.  I don't think he had any information to teach us about him, but he was excited to have a dollar bill or a quarter with his picture on it for demonstrative purposes.  He seems to have really internalized the concept of using visual aids in lessons!  Ha ha ha.  Well, that should serve him well throughout his life.

Here is Brighton at the dinosaur park, finally discovering that he can get water out of that thing!  I love watching babies figure things out. 

It's a challenge to get a picture of the kids playing at the park, since they are usually running from one place to the next.  Case in point:

Here we are in Target, Sophie sporting my sun glasses.  It is so weird to see her looking taller than Weston, which of course she isn't...she is up in the basket though, which makes Weston look littler than her.  Speaking of Weston, that tooth on top is taking f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to grow in!  I am starting to worry that he will have only half a tooth in that spot for the rest of his life!

Brighton's new favorite thing to do (along with following his brother and sister around the house) is standing!  He gets so excited about it and has even attempted to let go a few times to try and stand independently.  This kid is fearless!

I really, really, really wish that dishwashers weren't so enticing to little ones.

Just look at that chunk of love with the toothy grin!!  Did I mention that his 6th tooth came in a couple of days ago and his 7th is popping through as we speak?

Pioneer Days is something we greatly look forward to every year.  Friday night was very eventful, but I didn't have a camera with me to record it...which turned out to be a blessing since it would have been completely soaked.  As we were peacefully eating our dinner, two storms collided above us producing harsh wind, tons of lightening and thunder, hail and massive rain.  What can you expect during monsoon season?  It was crazy.  Our food was blown away, the kids were scared to death (especially Sophie), and by the time we got to our car all of us were soaked to the bone.  There was so much water dumping on my face that I thought my contacts had been washed out of my eyes!  It was truly an unforgettable evening.  Unfortunately, Sophie has been terrified of the wind ever since and gets scared even when there is nothing more than a light breeze.

But on Saturday the 20th, she was all smiles when we arrived at Pioneer Days!  She spent the first 20 minutes dancing around the park, but generously agreed to pause a few times for her picture.

I particularly enjoy the glimpse of Sophie dancing in the background of this picture...

Kaitlan, one of the awesome young women I am so blessed to know and love, spent some time hanging out with Sophie and Weston and took them to play on the blow up water slide.  It was sweet of her and the kiddos loved it!  Pretty ladies...

Here we are waiting to watch Kaitlan get dunked...

Weston on the bungee run

Then Sophie's turn...

At last, Weston attempting to help Sophie...

It wouldn't be  Pioneer Days without the treats and yummy food!

This incredible couple totally helped us out on Friday when the flood descended upon us (ok, maybe that was a *tinge* overdramatic)!  We love the Wolffs!!  I am so excited that Jaime is in the Young Women program now, too.  I am blessed to serve with the most wonderful, amazing people.

Brighton had so much fun chewing on this watermelon rind...

 We have also done some other great things this month, like go to the Children's Discovery Museum (which I will post pictures from later) and go the drive-in movie.  This was the kids' FIRST time ever going to a movie theatre of any kind!  It was super fun.  Since I was going with all the young women anyway, Jason and the kids decided to join us.  We saw Despicable Me 2, which was cute.   

Jason and I have been learning how to prepare food traditionally, and have been making things like homemade kefir, kombucha, cultured cream cheese and fermented pickles.  Tomorrow I am going to make fermented salsa, which should be interesting! 

I am grateful for the fun Summer we are enjoying. Plenty more pictures to come soon...