Summer - weeks 5-6.5

I've been having too much fun to keep up on my summer journaling! Since I'm sure I can't recall what we've been up to, I'm doing a photo blog this time. Enjoy!

I love my big girls! They will wake up and play in their room until they hear me stirring! Sometimes they'll stay in there long after I've enjoyed a quiet breakfast because they don't want to stop! BTW, this was their room BEFORE we emptied it of toys. Can't you see why it desperately needed it?!
My summer school was finally done and it was time to start being a fun mommy! Here are E&E happy that I'm taking them to a park after library time!!
We finally got back to the Children's Museum. Here's my favorite pic - I've posted way too many of the museum in past posts.
Here's my blackmail picture for Jill. Everytime I go on an outing with her, one of her children gets lost. I finally got a picture! The security guard near the water fountain at the Gateway found Tanna and brought her back to Jill!
Having fun at the water fountain. Not sure how Jill's kids ended up soaking wet and mine had a few drops of water on them???
Yeah! Mommy made us cupcakes!! I let the girls decorate and bit my tongue the WHOLE time! Aren't you proud of me?!!
Here was the floor afterwords, though!
Just a darling picture of Eden in the saucer Jill let us borrow!
Another adorable picture! Cutest baby legs around!
Daddy & daughter!
Emily LOVES her sister! And Tinkerbelle too! (Her new phase!)
Last weekend was our Family StayCation! We started on Thursday and headed to Lagoon! Jill was SUPER nice and babysat Eden all day. I'm sure she won't be having another baby soon. It was a BEAUTIFUL and hot day, but we managed to avoid sunburns. I got the only injury, a nice looking bruise on my knee from a Merry-Go-Round horse, of all things!! (Those things are high!) Emily was sad that she was an inch too short to ride all the scary roller coasters. We'll have to do it again next year! I was able to enjoy myself this year. Last year, at the family reunion I sat in the pavillion all day feeling nausious! I wasn't about to let Eden ruin it again this year! We went with the Aggies Alumni and got free Aggie Ice Cream after dinner. I actually ran into a sister missionary from my mission and era! Seems like you run into people you know everywhere!
AVOID this boat ride AT ALL COSTS if you go to Lagoon! The line was NO longer than any other ride but must have taken an HOUR!! I could feel the life being sucked out of me every minute I stood there watching the worker shuffling to each boat locking and unlocking every child in. They have new seatbelt on the kid's rides that lock and you need a key to unlock them. Then there were the screaming children that slowed the line down even more. Then people seemed to think that they could sneak their cousins on the boat even though they'd already been locked in and the worker had to unlock and lock them back in!! Anyway, I feel better now.
Emily enjoying the cotton candy she picked as her treat! Steve chose an Icee and Ella got a milkshake. What did I get? The leftovers!
So cute, meeting up after a bathroom break!
Our favorite ride, the Musik Express. Even Steve liked it!
We actually stayed until almost 10:00 PM!! What a fun day!
Eden wasn't the same after staying with Jill for the day.
The next day we took Trax up to SLC.
We went to the Church History Museum. They have a darling Children's Museum that we haven't visited since Christmas. Ella was in her element and was such a cute little mommy!
Dr. Emily took care of her sick baby and filled out a birth certificate for it.
When we got home, we enjoyed a family trip to the carwash! That's one of the girls' favorite activities! We rented Marly and Me and had a family sleepover in our Super 8 basement!
Unfortunately the movie turned out to be more of a drama than comedy, and Ella cried herself to sleep afterwords! What a little tenderheart she has!
Saturday we enjoyed a BBQ with the sisters and Mark's family at Paige's house! Everyone had fun and I passed Eden around!
She liked all the attention!
Sunday, Ella found a "beautiful white dress" in the closet! She wore that and some too big shoes I'd found at a garage sale all morning. Then I made her put a real dress over the slip for church!
Oh, Poo! Steve helps me while I clean the poop out of the tub!
Monday we went to visit G&G Tanner in Payson. It's Grandma's birthday this week, so we made it a priority to get there. We had a great visit with them and enjoyed their beautiful backyard. We had to take this picture with Grandpa twice because he had apparently forgotten to brush his hair the first time!
Tuesday we had Jill and Lynn's family over to play on the waterslide. I think they play longer in the sandbox than the slide though! Jill told us about free ice cream at Wienerschnitzel, so we headed there after getting two free Kid's meals and 33 cent tacos at del Taco! Emily prefered to eat the cone first.
And Ella ate every last bite of hers!
The week is half-way over now, but the last half of the week will be the busiest! Jill and I are headed to Naperville next week! Wish us luck!!!!!!!!

Gotta love her!

Gotta blog my Ella-isms before I forget!

After receiving some strange looks from Emily and me because she was crumbling her chips into her noodles at lunch, Ella said, "I the weirdest girl in the world...and I LOVE it!!!"

Ella was excited to hear the song, Pokerface, in the car today because she'd also heard it in Lynnie's car. She started singing along..."Poke, poke, poke yer face. Poke, poke, poke yer face!"

(Below is the music video, if you've never heard the song. You don't have to watch, just listen from 2:10 - 2:20.)

Declaring our Independence

In celebration of Independence Day, Steve and I decided to declare our independence this weekend. We were lucky because after a week of a cranky baby, Eden actually let us get these projects done this weekend!

Independence from dirt! Dave was SUPER nice to let us borrow his new toy - a power washer. We decided to make Friday a power washing party day! Steve spent 5 hours washing the entire house, garage and garage stairs, and everything I pulled out of the house. Needless to say, he was EXHAUSTED!!! He still hasn't recovered.
(This is my favorite part - clean stairs!!)
Independence from overgrowth. While I was waiting for Steve to return with the washer, I hacked away at our little tree. I got a little carried away and cut enough to overfill our trash can. I hadn't done a very good job keeping it trimmed last year, so I had a lot of work to do. I didn't end up finishing because Eden's nap ended, but it look a lot neater!Independence from toys! Steve and I finished the job of creating a toy room for the girls. We moved ALL the toys from the whole house into the back bedroom downstairs. We sorted through them, organized and found places for all the ones we're keeping. Hopefully the girls will enjoy their new room and I can enjoy not tripping over toys all the time!
Independence from a crowed bed! After finishing the toy room, we started in on the girls bedroom. We got it all cleaned and then rearranged it so we could fit a crib in there! Eden seemed to love the crib and actually slept pretty good in it last night! It was great having 1/2 the bed ALL to MYself!Independence from sanity! We enjoyed spending the evening of the 4th with Paige and Lynn at Paige's house. (Nuff said! J/K!) We had a nice BBQ and then enjoyed the "Parking Lot of Fire with the Gibson Girls!" I don't know why we thought it was ok to let Dustin near matches and explosives. We were lucky this time, although I'm sure Dustin has some singe marks. We had a lot of fun though and then went out to their field and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks. They were almost as good as the Parking Lot of Fire.
Independence from sleep! I think that was the latest we've ever let the girls stay up! Unfortunately earlier in the week we'd let it slip that we could maybe have a sleepover together this weekend. Of course the girls held us to that and we had to pretend to sleep on their floor until they fell asleep. Of course at 5:00 this morning, all heck broke loose when Emily realized we weren't there anymore! We plan on having a fun sleepover another time in the basement, but they wouldn't let us wait. The girls have been extra cranky today and Emily actually fell asleep through Sacrament meeting. I don't think she's done that since she was a baby!

So happy Independence Day to all! We sure live in a wonderful country!