Gymnastics Camp

Last week Vanessa had gymnastics camp ALL. DAY. ALL. WEEK.  Or, at least Mon-Thur 9am-3pm.  It was a LONG week.  It was long for her, long for me, and just crazy.  She was SO tired by the end of the week and such an exhausted drama queen.  She did have fun.  They did gymnastics in the morning until about noon and then did an activity.  They did swimming two days, horseback riding one day and then open gym the last day.  While she was gone all day, I had to entertain the boys.  It felt so much harder without my little mini mom there to be in charge of their playing.  Vanessa is pretty good about playing with both boys and they all play really well together.  I know, I never thought I would say that either. 

To fill our time, we ran lots of errands since Vanessa hates running errands.  We also did some planting in the garden for fall.  I added more dirt since we didn't quite fill the beds in the spring and the boys felt it was necessary they play in the dirt.  Typical boys.  This made Brigham really thirsty though and he went inside to find himself a drink.  We keep the cups low and he can now let me know he wants a drink by walking to the cupboard, finding a cup and taking it to the fridge for water.  If I don't see, he will stand there and yell, "MA! MA!"  until I do see.  He also found himself some oranges.  Benson also did some finger painting during a couple of Brigham's naps.  And quite honestly, I'm not sure how we filled the rest of our week.  Probably rolling cards down the driveway :)

 

 

SMA Run

Back on July 27th Jon and I helped out with a 5k run/1 milk walk for SMA.  It was a lot of fun.  I wasn't much help with the preparations but I showed the day of the race and tried to be helpful.  One day, I won't have three very needy toddlers and a house to remodel and then I'll be able to do other things.  :)  A family that just happens to live just down the street from us recently lost their 10 month old son to SMA.  He was type 1, diagnosed around 3 months old.  It's such a cruel disease.  I count my blessings every day that Benson is a type 2 and "strong" in the SMA world.  I can't imagine losing him already.  At the race, they had face painting and Vanessa got butterflies.  Jon got pictures of her reaction while looking in the mirror and they are quite possibly my all time favorite.  Benson didn't want his face painted at the moment, then changed his mind later but the line was insanely long so we had to leave to go to our next activity.  He was upset for the whole next week that we didn't let him stay to get his face painted.  We owe him big time.

After this we went to our ward pioneer day celebration.  They had a picnic at the park and then had stations the primary kids could go around to and play pioneer activities.  Jon and I joined in so Benson could join.  We did some serious square dancing.  I was the luckiest girl to get two partners (Benson and Jon) and Benson had a giant grin on his face the whole time.  I think he liked it.  Although their most favorite was "panning" for gold.

Changes

Remember this crazy tree we didn't like?

Took care of that.  Now we just need to add some fabulous curb appeal.  I'm thinking hydrangeas and.....not sure what else but we recently saw a miniature Japenese Maple we both loved.  We also plan to replace the tree with a Redbud, Fringe Tree, or Japanense Lilac.  Jon also bought a truck.  That's the little bit of red in the pic.  He traded in the Kia for the truck and I think he's pretty darn happy with it.  Except now he wants a motorcycle.

 We bought this rug online and I nearly lost my  mind trying to keep all the fibers off our dark wood floor.  So I paid $30 return shipping and held my breath that they would accept my return.  And they did!  And we found a rug to replace it that has hardly anything shedding.  We also bought this couch on craigslist for $30 and decided to get crazy and reupholster it.  Total cost: $180.  We spent about $150 on supplies.  It was a cheaper option that buying a similar one I saw at Pier One for $500.  But, it doesn't look amazing either.  I guess for a play room it's okay though, right?

So here is the finally completed playroom.  With a new rug and all.  We're very happy with it but mostly just happy that it's done.  Now that we have accessibility to the toys, we have to work on accessibility to the house.  We may hire that one out though... we'll see.

Fourth of July

I seriously remember writing a post about the fourth of July but it's nowhere to be found.  It's the weirdest thing.  Maybe I dreamt it. 
So, for the fourth.  I looked for a parade around town but couldn't find anything.  I am guessing since they have a Christmas parade that July is usually just too hot.  That afternoon, around 3, we went to our friends, the Daughertys for a little get together.  Around 5 it started pouring rain.  So, we canceled all other plans and just chilled for a while.  Then we went back home around 8.  Our neighbors all chipped in on fireworks and we had an awesome firework display.  The boys were done by about 9:30 so I just took them to bed while Jon and Vanessa continued watching then went back out after they were asleep.  There are no restrictions on fireworks here so we had the real deal going and it was fabulous.  I loved that we were at home.  No traffic.  Take the boys to bed and then go back out.  I can live with no parade for a firework show like that.  We did sparklers with the kids another night and contrary to their faces, they did enjoy them.  And no one got burned! yay!

Sunshine

This was a post from early July that didn't publish for some reason.
It's been hot. Really hot. So a Popsicle it practically a necessity. I finally wised up and bought Popsicles on a stick since the otter pops are hard for the boys. They all insisted on eating their pops here one day. It made me nervous but they mostly rested on the mesh. I just stayed close. Benson even wore his braces a good chunk of the day. That doesn't happen often. He doesn't like them. But his feet are turning in so its a good thing when he wears them.

Brigham has learned what a dog says and can say ball, "ba." He carries the two around often. His first choice of random objects to carry around the house will always be dad's tools though. If he finds a screwdriver, Jon may not get it back without a severe tantrum. We also made some pretty fantastic homemade pudding and homemade chocolate zucchini cake. I think these beaters are the chocolate frosting for the cake. Yum!

The Destroyer

Brigham has earned this nickname.  We don't mean it in a cruel way, it's just the best way to describe this kid that is so stubborn, crazy, hilarious, hyper, and stinkin cute.  This kid can throw a tantrum with the best of them.  I'm scared for twos and threes.  But here are two pictures that show Brigham's personality exactly.  He's throwing his fit for the hose and finally muscles it away to his complete delight.  The joy on his face just shows that he completely feels he earned that hose and he gets what he wants.

 Doesn't this face just have mischief written all over it?  And it's so darn cute!  And that belly gets me every time.  His belly button is also a deep dark cavern that he loves to stick his fingers inside.  It's cute.  It will one day be an abyss of clothes lint.  Here are some pics of the kids playing with our neighbors.  They are the cutest family ever and we love having them around.  We have gotten more than just one project done because these kids came over to help entertain. 

 The above pic makes me laugh because Brigham gets so red and hot and sweaty from the heat here.  It's cute, in a miserable looking way.  He doesn't enjoy the heat and won't tolerate it as well as the other two.  We recently bought a Kelty Pack from my sister.  We finally tested it out to see if Benson likes it.  Here we are gearing up to go for our hike/walk at the Nature Center.  We went about 1 1/2 miles.  After a while Benson said his legs were hurting.  We couldn't adjust it quite right.  I'm not sure if it will be the solution we need or not.  But we'll keep working to figure it out.

 We have been doing a bit of this lately.  I'm really nervous to potty train Benson so I'm not serious about it yet.  He's pretty good about telling me while he is peeing, but not so great about anticipating it.  Practice I suppose, but such a frustrating journey.  Vanessa was so easy and boys are such a different story.  And it doesn't help that I am completely responsible for the whole process.  I'm not responsible enough for that :)  We also recently found a downed robin nest.  It had fallen from a tree and two eggs were smashed with it.  One bird was obviously killed on impact.  The other, was still trying to breathe.  We brought it inside and put it under a lamp while I googled how to save it.  We finally decided there wasn't much we could do and buried the poor guy with his sibling in our yard.  The kids are now obsessed with finding some eggs to hatch.

Recent Shots

Here are a few shots from some of our recent trips to Table Rock Lake, Dogwood Canyon, and Nathaniel Greene Park.