The Progession of a Sad Face to a Happy Face - Because of a Camera

 Utah has such beautiful sunsets!

 I canned for the first time ever! 23 bottles of peaches! Thanks to Aunt Carma they turned out wonderfully and they taste GREAT!

 Can you tell that she dressed herself? Drew's baseball helmet and Madison's tap shoes with a funny face are priceless!

 This nasty spider was BIG! The best thing to do when you see a big spider is to take a picture. Then it started to move. The best thing to do then is to kill it - quickly. When I hit it with my shoe it was a direct hit - usually a good thing. This happens to be a wolf spider. Wolf spiders carry their babies on their backs - the only spider that does this as far as I can find. When I squished this spider baby spider went flying everywhere! It still gives me the chills when I think of it. It was so wrong. I wish I had a better picture that showed the babies better. 

Madison was throwing a temper tantrum - again! Make up some reason for why she was throwing some tantrum, there are too many to guess from to give you exactly why. When you turn the camera on her though, she perks right up! This happens over less than one minute!

Gotta love her!

Lagoon 2013

 We learned that Jocelyn has a need for speed. This ride was not slow, it went around and around and around and then it would stop and go backwards! She LOVED it! Any big kid ride that she could get on she did. And she loved them all! She also did not pee for nearly EIGHT hours. She HATES public bathrooms, mostly because they have the toilets that flush by themselves. She refused to go pee at all while we were there. She didn't wet herself at all, even after falling asleep in the car on the way home! 

 John, Grandpa Rod and a baseball player for the Owlzz, who had never been to an amusement park before, all decided to do the big drop. Yes, they're all stupid. They survived and they didn't have to change their pants afterwards!

Madison got a hold of the camera:

 Beautiful eyes!

 And chunky monkey cheeks!

What little kid doesn't love Zu-Zu pets? Entertainment that lasts for hours!

Bird Watching

Drew's view from the back seat:

Alexis chose ice skating and Madison chose dance. Drew didn't want to do either of those and had a hard time coming up with something he wanted to do just for him. He finally decided on bird watching. Yep, bird watching. John, being the amazing dad that he is, took Drew bird watching once a week for a few hours. John had no desire to watch birds - at all - but he did it with a smile on his face just for Drew! Drew was so excited and got giddy every time it was time to go bird watching. He thought for sure he would find a new bird and get to name it!

The Progression of a Short Cry Caught on Camera

 Alexis had her very first ice skating lesson! She was SO excited to finally get to go ice skating and learn how to do it. She did really well, only fell a couple of times. The next time we went I remembered to take her gloves and jacket. Can you still blame pregnancy brain five months later?

 Jocelyn decided to take a green marker to herself. The bathwater was very green by the time we were done scrubbing it off!

Drew got a hold of the camera and these are the pictures he took:

 I have not a clue why she was crying, probably because she didn't have the camera.

 This was literally about ten seconds worth of pictures. Once she realized Drew was taking pictures of her she perked right up. If you can't have the camera the next best thing is being on camera right?

Parades and Playing with the Gaede's

 Jordan is just five months and one day in this picture! He looks a lot bigger than five months doesn't he?

 

Wellsville has a decent sized parade, considering how small the town is, at the beginning of September. We heard they threw candy so we had to go and see - of course. Lucky for us Aunt Carrie and her boys were up visiting their grandma so they were able to come with us. We sat right next to this drainage canal and it couldn't have been better. The kids loved to fetch the candy that was thrown but hit the canal and floated down. It also provided an excellent source of cooling that we needed. We heard that there was an Indian and Cowboy show afterwards with gun fights and fire. We headed over and while it was somewhat enjoyable, I think next year we will skip it. It was the same thing over and over again and you couldn't really tell what the story was. One of those if you've seen it once you've seen it all.

 I love this picture of Russ and Jordan, Russ actually looks like he's enjoying holding the squirmy wormy little guy!

The Gaede's came up to Brigham City for the Temple Open House and we drove down to see them. It was such a great day to be outside having fun and enjoying the weather. We went to a park to play and Jordan just couldn't hold still. We finally found my camera and since you can see yourself while you're taking pictures Jordan sat still and content - until I took it away! Poor Carrie went to the Open House while we were at the park and the line was wrapped all the way around the Temple block and then some. She said it didn't take too long, but taking five boys by herself sure earned her some gold stars!

John - Super Daddy

The second of September we had a nice relaxing day. Practicing riding bikes with no training wheels! and going to the park and racing around and around with daddy! John was pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but he's such a good daddy he just kept going all day long playing and playing with them. He rode up and down our street too many times to count teaching Madison and Drew how to ride a bike with no training wheels. Madison took to it and had it mastered within a few hours. Drew is our more cautious child and didn't like to ride without his training wheels, just in case he fell. He's always been extra cautious, not trying anything until he's sure he can do it without failing. He was very content to just ride his bike and not learn to ride a two-wheeler. After playing at home we went to the park to get more energy out of the kids. How they had any energy left after riding up and down the block over and over again I'll never know. The park in town has a sidewalk that circles the toys. The kids love to pick a place to start and then race around and around to see who is the fastest and how many laps they can get in a certain amount of time. Mommy likes to time them. Daddy gets out there with them and runs around and around. He's such a great daddy and one day the kids will realize how great he really is!