Lady Liberty

A few of my friends in the neighborhood decided to do a "Art Class" this summer with our kids. Something to keep them busy and entertained. This week it was at my house. We made some fireworks artwork and then made Statue of Liberty costumes. I think I will be vacuuming glitter up for months but it was a lot of fun :)

Palisade 2011

Even though I am 8 months pregnant we didn't want to miss our favorite summer tradition of camping at Palisades. Thank goodness for modern trailers with air conditioning. I would not have been as adventurous if we had to sleep in a tent. I leave that for my mom and 81 year old Grandma :) that's another story

Greg is such a GREAT Dad, he loves playing with the girls and they adore him! They played in the canoe taking many rides around the lake (Greg got a good workout). They fished for hours for the tiniest little fish swimming near the shore. And I didnt miss out on all the fun... picture included for proof only please dont' look closely :)

We planned our trip this year so that we could attend the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti. The show didn't start until 9:30pm so we spent a lot of time just waiting. The girls were able to meet some cast members. I really enjoyed the show but I think Katie loved it the most... she stayed awake the entire time and I swear she didn't even blink.

good friends... good times

We got season passes to Cowabunga this year along with some of our best friends and neighbors. We have so much fun and I LOVE just going for a short time, just enough to cool off and then heading home to my air conditioning :)

BREAKING NEWS...

I wanted to make sure this time so I haven't posted about our most amazing accomplishment. But today will be officially 4 weeks since Katie has stopped sucking her fingers!!! YES you heard me right...

KATIE HAS STOPPED SUCKING HER FINGERS!!!!

I can't even count or mention all of the times we have tried to get her to stop. We've tried rewards, bribing, scolding, nagging, ignoring, devices of all shape and size.... and nothing has stopped till we got this little friend...

We have promised Katie so many things including a trampoline many times but we finally decided just to go out and buy one. We told her she could not jump on the trampoline if we saw her sucking her fingers and the first 2 days she had some tears over being kicked off of it and having to watch Brielle and her Daddy jump (are we mean???) But low and behold she has not sucked her fingers since, NOT ONCE!

This is a HUGE accomplishment for her. And I am so PROUD of her! And the greatest thing about it is she feels proud of herself and knows that she did it, not Mommy and Daddy! I knew all along that we just had not found the right motivation. I was considering an appliance or counseling..... there was no way I was going to send her to 2nd grade still sucking her fingers! I was so worried I was scarring her for life with all my nagging and scolding. I wasn't sure she was ever going to be able to stop... but she did it!

11 years!

We came home from Texas on Greg and I's anniversary. As soon as we got home Greg had planned to take us all to Copperton, which I haven't done in years. Even though its about 5 minutes from our house. It was actually more fun than I thought and we were just happy to be spending time with him (we missed him lots while we were gone!) Then we went to dinner and just spent time together. It was very nice- I LOVE Greg and I'm so glad he is the man I choose to spend eternity with.

side note: I'm now 30 weeks along. I can't believe this baby is coming in just a few months! I really need to start getting things ready and find a name! We are so excited for her :)

Texas

We had such a GREAT time in Texas visiting Amy, Michael, and the "boys". My sister is fostering some adorably cute little boys in hopes of adopting them. We couldnt wait to finally meet them and spend some quality time with them. My girls were BEYOND excited and we immediately fell in love with them. Unfortunately I can't post any pictures of them on my blog since its not private until the adoptions are final so I will post just a few of the pictures that I took that don't have the boys in them (which is very few!) I took about 150 pictures and only about 10 of them didnt have the boys in them! You couldnt catch my girls anywhere more than a foot from them at any time. They just LOVED them.

We went to Galveston Island and Kemah Pier, the Moody Gardens Aquarium, and we spent the weekend with Michael's parents and on their boat in Conroe. But mostly we just hung out and spent time at Amy's amazing pool in her neighborhood and just spending quality time with them. It was so hard to leave, we miss them so much already. We are sooooo hopeful that the adoptions all go through and that my sister can have her happy, cute little family because we just LOVE these boys and want to see them grow up in the loving family they deserve!

Summer finally begins

We didnt have enough to do the day we were flying to Texas so we decided to take the girls to Cowabunga so they could spend some time with their Daddy. We got passes this summer and plan to be there a LOT... YAY!

HaPpY BirThdAy eLLa

We leave tomorrow for Texas!!! I'm so excited to see my sister and her cute little boys.

But unfortunately our trip was planned while my cute niece Ella is turning 7! So since the girls are going to miss her party we decided to take her out for a special dinner (chick-fil-a) and give her her presents. We LOVE Ella! It makes me happy to know that my kids have a cousin near their age that they enjoy spending time with.

We got the fire pit going the other night and roasted marshmallows.

I am so glad summer is FINALLY here!!!

Spring Soccer

Doing soccer in the spring is a challenge because of the weather. We had so many games and make-up games cancelled due to the weather that Brielle's season lasted longer then expected. But we finally played our last game and she received her trophy! I think she really enjoyed it and says she wants to play again... we'll see

Brielle w/ Jen and Jodi my good friends and the coaches

(because the entire team consisted of kids from our neighborhood including their own children, they volunteered to coach- they did a GREAT job!)