Look What I Can Do

On Wednesday night London surprised her older brothers by kneeling up to a stair. They decided to test her by enticing her with a toy and she made it up all the stairs! Here is a video of her climbing a couple. I can't believe she is getting so big! She is just 7 1/2 months! Stop growing up so fast!

Max's Gallery

Max loves to get the camera whenever he can. I previously posted a few of his pictures and I couldn't resist, I had to do it again. He loves to take pictures of anything and everything!

My Man Bag

Max has been carrying around these two little bags/boxes lately. One is for a little Disney projector thing and the other he made at Lowe's. He has only been around me with a purse so he once told me he needed to grab his purse. I jokingly said, "Oh, your man bag?" He apparently heard that and liked it. The next day we were in the car. Aidan and I were in the front and Max was in the row behind us. He looked on the floor and said, "Oh, I need my man bag!" He was belted in and quite stressed he wouldn't get his man bag. Super cute kid! Anyway, he has been carrying his man bags with all his treasures.

Water Balloons

Every once in awhile I go down and clean out our old balloon inventory. Anything that has gone past its shelf life is moved to a bag for the kids. Well, this year we had an unusual amount of left over balloons. Some of them were random balloons from when we purchased the business and I just didn't know if I should get rid of it. Well, that little bag of extra balloons became 2 boxes of balloons. Since giving them to the kids they have spent pretty much every waking moment playing with water balloons. They have enjoyed going up to the sun deck and tossing them to the grass below. The only rules: don't hurt anyone, don't hit the house, and clean up all the balloon pieces. They have done well at following the rules, so they've had a great time.

Throwback Thursday #18

I thought it would be funny to pay tribute to the bang since I have a new hairstyle. Here is a sampling of my bangs through the years. I may use some of these picture in the future for other Throwbacks, so don't be surprised to see them more than once. They are used here solely for the purpose of demonstrating the bang.

This is 1981. I call this the boy bangs with pigtails. You know, just letting the hair grow out until it is long enough to do something with it. (I'm on the right)

I don't really know what is up with my hair here. I know I have one little curled bang. I can only guess the other bangs are braided on the side of my head.

I actually love this picture. I also love the classic pie cut bangs. Starting our bangs at the back of our heads...classic!

This is another form of the pie cut I like to call the lion's mane. It is the pie cut and then the bangs curled a lot and fluffed. These bangs might still be seen in small towns in Utah.

This is from 1986. Again the bangs are starting clear back and this time I have opted for some curling.

Please ignore the face I am pulling. Apparently the stilts were hard to work with! These are a slightly smaller bang that is curled under with the smallest curling iron I could find. =)

I believe this is 6th grade. That would make it 1990. These are the bangs placed more appropriately to the front of my head. They are extemely short and then curled. Also, side comment, what is up with the cowboy boot pin?

This picture is from 1996. Senior/Junior pictures (I graduated a year early). My bangs were really long and so I would take a really big curling iron and curl them under.

This is the no bang. After high school I moved into not having bangs. This picture is well after high school in 2004.


This is 2007 when I brought back my bangs with the sweep to the side kind of bangs.

This picture I took the other day. It is my new hairdo. The bangs are much shorter, but still sweep to the side. They are actually cut to also be able to be across the front, but it reminds me too much of the '80s. So this is where I'm at. (This picture was taken at the end of the day, so it isn't at it's best, but it is growing on me).

Happy Birthday Mom (Grandma)

Today is my Mom's birthday. She is an amazing Mom. She is always doing so much for our family and for me. She saves me every day by watching my kids while I work. She knows how hard it is for me to go to work every day and she willingly and lovingly takes on my kids. She also takes care of my Grandma, who now lives with them. She also has two kids at home who need her love and attention and she doesn't let all the other craziness get in the way of that. On Friday she was volunteering at the school Fall Festival and taking pictures for my little brother's yearbook which she has done for the past few years. What an amazing woman! Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Primary Program

Today was Max's first primary program. It was also possibly Andrew's last. Depending on when they do the program next year he will or won't be in the program. Aidan enjoyed his new spot, sitting in the audience. Both Max and Andrew did their parts memorized and without help! Way to go! Here they are doing them at home for me.

Little 7 Month Old

London wasn't feeling good earlier this week so I took her to the doctor. She got some medicine and is doing great now. The fun thing is we got to weigh her again. At just over 7 months she is now 15 lbs. 14 oz. What a big girl! And she is crawling now. The video below is from a couple days ago. She gets better every day. These pictures are of her in the cute outfit Daddy brought home from his cruise. The outfit is from Dominica.

Cutie Pies

My Mom took these pictures a couple weeks ago. So cute. Max with his Legos and London in the door bouncer. I am so fortunate to have a Mom who is willing to watch my kids while I work. I don't know what I would do if I had to take them to a stranger.

Pretty in Pink

I am not the Mom who normally puts majorly embarrassing pictures of the kids because I don't want them to hate me later. =) There have been quite a few I've kept to myself, but I couldn't resist on this one. After reading stories the other night (sorry, my card wouldn't read. This is from like 2 weeks ago). We turned out Max's light and let him go to bed. He got out a couple times trying to be a grownup and we would just take him back to bed. This morning we walked into his room to check on him and this is what we found.

I knew he had London's pants in hand when we returned him to bed the last time. Apparently, while in bed he decided to put them on. Man he has a tiny little bum! These are size 6 month pants. Don't you love the little ruffle on that little bum?! =)

Kachunga & The Alligator Show

The last thing we did before we left the fair was go to the alligator show. We learned a lot about alligators and it was really fun to see. During the show they do a couple tricks, but mostly the guy just catches an alligator and then they teach you about the alligator. It was really entertaining and interesting. At the end of the show we got to go up and take pictures of the kids with a baby alligator (2.5 feet long). The first thing London did was reach down and grab the alligator. I jumped in, but the guy said it wouldn't hurt the alligator and now all the kids can say they have touched a real live alligator. Pretty cool! The video is of him catching the alligator.

Lego Exhibit

They had a fun Lego exhibit where they all got to build different things. One section was building where they could do whatever they wanted. Aidan built a pyramid type building, Max built a swimming pool and Andrew built a brick =). Another section was a challenge. When Aidan and Andrew did it they were timed and had to create something that they would see on the beach. They made an umbrella. Max's challenge was something that started with a T. He made a tree.

State Fair Animals

The kids weren't too hip on seeing the animals (except Max), but after we went through the bird house they were hooked and we went to all the livestock. Here is a sampling of what we saw. The boys were determined to convince me to buy a bunny. They even wrote down the phone number for the place selling them. We'll see. Here's a list of what you will see: Baby Beef Calf, Ginormous beef cow, bears, Max betting a very large rabbit, goat with huge horns, ginormous best in show chicken, lion head rabbit, Max in a shark cage, Sharks.

State Fair Rides

The boys all chose their two activities. The first was the giant slide. Aidan and Andrew chose to go through a little fun house for their second and Max went on a little worm ride.



This is Max's artistic shot of the older boys in the fun house. Pretty good.

State Fair

I decided to have a fun day with all the kids on Saturday and we all thought it would be fun to go to the State Fair. I haven't been for years and they have never been. I have to say that it didn't have the same magic I remember. I think part of that is that we weren't there in the evening when all the rides are lit up and stuff, but we had to go in time to get back for the BYU game.

I now know why my parents never really let us go on the rides...expensive! Not just expensive worth it, but expensive rip-off. I let the kids all choose 2 things to do and then we opted for the free part of the fair.

When we first got there we went to a little hands on thing about farming. They let you plant a seed, pick what you plant, take some corn to a cow, milk the cow, get some wool from a sheep, etc. Of course they are all fake things. At the end you take your stuff to the market and sell it for $1. You then take the fake dollar into a store and you get to buy something real. Aidan and Andrew each bought a little bag of chips and Max bought some fruit snacks. Sweet deal! Here they all are at the beginning and throughout the exhibit:


Max in his apron

Max and London as Harry and Hermione (OK I guess they are FFA kids, but really, don't they look like Hogwart's uniforms?)

Aidan and Andrew

3 boys on their tractors

Aidan with his little basket. He opted out of the apron wearing.


Max milking

Andrew in his little apron

Andrew milking

Max as a sheep and Andrew as a pig (or swine as they all kept calling it)

Aidan as the chicken


Andrew and Aidan as apples