The Month of July

J u L y

One of my very favorite months. There is always a lot of fun things going on. Plus it always starts with my birthday.

Happy Birthday to me. The night before my b-day I went out with some friends to celebrate some of the summer b-days. We went to P.F. Changs and to see Eclipse. It was a great time. It is always nice to have a night out with the girls.

On my birthday Ryan and the kids were great all day. Bailey made decorations, Ryan got some great gifts, including my new favorite BSU hat, Ellie told me Happy Birthday at least 100 times, and Loggy wanted in on the party action!

Not so much fun being pregnant on your birthday, or anytime really, but at least you can eat as much cake as you want and not even feel one bit bad when you eat the rest for breakfast. My sister Mel made the cake for me and it was delicious, we made homemade mint oreo ice cream to go with it. YUM!

For dinner we went to Flatbread Community Oven. It is one of favorite places, they have the best salads and pizza. Plus it is kid friendly. Win-Win.

The kids can make their own pizza and then go watch it cook in big oven, they loved it

There were also some fun fountains outside for the kids to play in

Jackson, Avery and Logan were in heaven

How cute are these 3?

It was fun having my sisters and their families celebrate with me.

It was a good birthday!

I am glad everyone could stay to enjoy the holiday weekend.

Red - White - Blue
How cute are you?

4th of July spread. Gotta go big.

So good: ribs, steak, shrimp, salads, watermelon

and of course Flag Cake

Logan is crying because he wants cake, he doesn't want to take a picture with the cake, he wants to EAT the cake. He LoVes cake - obsessed actually.

Hey cute girl you were awesome in our kick ball game

Love this picture of him, look at those eyes

My friend Natalie gave those earrings one year when we went to fireworks together. They use to glow in the dark. Bailey made me promise that I would save them for her, so she could wear them on 4th of July. This was the first year she could and she did not forget. She ran around looking for them. Good thing I saved them she looks cute in them .

El is sort of a scaredy cat so she stayed close to Grandma, Logan loved looking at everything but didn't want to stray to far away either.

Although he did like the snakes

The weekend wasn't the warmest, especially for 4th of July, but no one seemed to mind too much. We still managed to have a great time.

My sister Jenn put together a little party for all of the July birthdays. So after a trip to Baja Fresh we came back and had some birthday for festivities. Avery and Bailey also have July birthdays, and since Avery was turning 1 the next week the party was mostly for her.

There were wheel barrel races

3 legged races

A pinata

and of course lots of candy

It was a really fun weekend. Thanks everyone for coming to party.

Some of the other things we did in July......................

Swimming Lessons

This was a big deal for Ellie to jump off the diving board by herself, she was very scared but she did great. But she didn't really want to do it again.

She made great progress on her swimming this year

Bailey learned to dive this year and really started perfecting her strokes

The kids also all got hair cuts. Bailey chopped hers off and donated it to Locks of Love again. She was really excited about it and loves her new short hair.

They sent her a postcard thanking her, she thought it was awesome

Ellie got a trim. She was mad. She said it looked exactly the same. It really did look much better, and her hair is finally getting longer and thicker so I told her she couldn't chop it yet. She was mad!! But now she likes that she can have ponytails and Bay can't.

He may look happy now, but it is only because it is over. He screamed, thrashed, and screamed the entire time. He HATEs haircuts. He won't let me do it, won't let Ryan do it, or my poor friend, at least when she did it you could tell he got a haircut. Bless her for her patience with him. I hope it gets easier soon, his hair grows fast. Good thing he looks cute right?

We went to see Toy Story 3 afterwards. The kids loved it, thought it was hilarious!

We went to the zoo with Mel and Jackson one day. This year Logan really got into it, he loved looking at all of the animals, he tried to talk to them or wave, it was fun to watch him. The girls still love it too, which is nice. It made for a great way to spend an afternoon.

I love Logan's face, he is trying to see the giraffes, he wants nothing to do with me. Thanks for smiling girls, you can look at the giraffes now. Jackson wasn't about to turn around either.

Now we can see everyone. It was a really nice day to be at the zoo, not too hot. Which is great because all of the animals are out for you to see.

The penguins are always a fan favorite



We had to get a zoo water bottle at the end of the day, the trip wouldn't have been complete without it. They still use them so I guess all was not lost :)

One day Logan discovered all of Bailey's old soccer uniforms. He called them soccer suits and was very insistent that he had one on at all times and the girls had to wear them too. Since he stopped wearing bibs sometimes it worked in my favor, but when we had to go somewhere like church it wasn't such a fun new habit.

This one was working great as a bib. I love this picture.

He is so exhausted, they had all been playing outside all night. He was mad he had to come in but he is so tired he doesn't really know how to feel.

We also had our primary Pioneer Activity.

I love celebrating Pioneer Day and singing all of the fun Pioneer songs.

We had some fun water games the kids could play that related to the Pioneers.

Ellie is walking across the frozen river


We finished off the month by going to the Tim McGraw concert

It was really fun, we went to dinner with some friends before. We had good seats, it was a fun night out. It was really hot in there. I wanted to stick my head in the beer cart a few times, but I figured being pregnant and all it would send the wrong message. But it was really hot in there.

I think Tim was a little hot too.....ha

The next morning Ryan left and a golf trip with his dad and brothers They started in Boise and headed up McCall way. They golfed four different courses in 2 days. They are crazy, but they had a good time and can't wait to do it again.

One of the courses they played

Thanks July you didn't disappoint, see you next year!

Happy Birthday Bailey!!!

Happy Birthday Bailey !

I can't believe our Bailey Boo is 9 years old. The saddest part of this milestone for me was, the fact that I have the same amount of time left with her as I have already had. I am half way to teaching her what she needs to know to face the world. I hope we are on tract. Some days I wonder, but other days I am pleasantly surprised by how grown up and wonderful she can be. I hope the next 9 go slower than the first 9.

Birthday morning. She always gets so excited for the decor and seeing how we set everything up. She said she wants me to do it every year.

She got a few new books. She is into reading and LOVES to get books. She got a Ramona book, the AG Molly set, and a 39 Clues book. All some of her very favorites.

She really wanted to go get a manicure and pedicure for her birthday so I asked her if she wanted me to do it or if she wanted to go somewhere. She was very torn by this. I was too, forking over the cash or sitting on the floor for an hour :) Either way I told her. She decided that she wanted me to do it. Ryan took Logan with him for a while so we could have an at home spa day without a crazy 2 year old.

Here are the ladies arriving for their mani's and pedi's.

They look perfectly fashionable for a day at the spa.

Gotta start with the soak

They were very impressed with my pedicure knowledge :)

I was very happy that I could cut their toe nails without them complaining too much, I must admit I did try to speak with some sort of accent which just made all of us laugh!

I am not very good at painting toe nails I tend to go "out of the lines" but they didn't seem to mind too much and loved getting the flowers painted on their toes.

Thanks for coming ladies you two are my very favorite customers!

Later that day we had dinner at the Olive Garden. Bay's favorite, she picks it anytime that she can. They all love the fettuccine.

Back home for presents and cake. She really wanted this backpack it is awfully cute, but I am going to make her use it until she goes to college.

She is also going to start hitting the links with her dad. I keep telling her if she wants to go to college she better learn how to golf. She doesn't take me seriously, but she was super excited for the new clubs and wants to use them all of the time.

She really wanted a Huckleberry cake, um okay how does one go about that. This picture is taken from a distance for a reason the cake fell apart in my attempts, it was sad, it had great potential. But it tasted pretty good and she thought it was cute so that is all that mattered. We did manage to find Huckleberry ice cream so that was awesome!

It doesn't matter whose birthday it is, they are all always SO excited.

You need to put some of those fingers down, I can't believe you are that old already.

Outside to play with the new loot.

Things we love about Bailey...................

• She is a good big sister. She has really taken to Logan and is always looking out for him and doing anything he wants her too. She and Ellie have their moments but for the most part are great friends and play together very well.
• She cares about people, she feels bad when others feel bad. She looks out for her friends and family.
• She likes to have things organized she is very particular about her stuff and wants everything put back in its proper place.
• She is really good about helping me out, Ellie lacks a little in the working department, but Bay steps it up and works hard for both of them. Hopefully El will catch on soon :)

Things Bailey loves.................................

• Still loves girly things like earrings, lip gloss etc.
• She loves books
• Playing soccer
• Pepperoni Pizza and Fettuccine
• She loves being silly and making people laugh
• She loves singing, dancing and putting on shows
• Projects! This summer she and Ellie turned their room into a Hannah Montana studio it took them all day, another day they made an American Girl poster which took up an entire wall. I stocked up on paper at the back to school sales.

Happy Birthday Bailey, we love you!! Please stop growing up so fast.