Summer Fun

Trying to pack in as much Summer fun in as we can. School starts for Vance next week.

We went to Thanksgiving Point last Tuesday.  It was worth the little drive.  On Tuesdays in August the venues are only $2 a person (Porter was free) so we took advantage of that and went to the gardens as you can see below.  Awesome.  Then we went to the Museum of Ancient History.  We really enjoyed the gardens and Stephen and I want to go back sometime to enjoy all of it and maybe even without the kids...  The museum was so busy it was hard to enjoy.  We don't like crowds and we could barely walk around with out stepping on kids that were running around everywhere.

 This sword and shield I made a few weeks ago to use as a visual with my primary lesson (Armor of God).  Porter has since adopted it has his personal sword and shield.

 We took the kids miniature golfing at this fun indoor fun center.  It had a dinosaur type theme to it.

 If you are friends with me on facebook you have noticed that the boys have been writing messages lately.  Here is a little message Tanner wrote to me.

 We didn't really have plans for Saturday, but Vance really wanted to do something fun.  I remembered going to Logan when I was growing up when we'd visit my grandparents so we took them up there and visited Willow Park Zoo which I remember going to as a kid.  We also visited the temple grounds.  It was quite enjoyable.

 Vance all ready for church on Sunday.  He loves his tie.

 Today we went to Brigham City and were able to do the temple open house there.  We really enjoyed it.  The boys were really excited to see inside the temple.  They liked seeing the oxen at the baptismal font and all the pretty windows and chandeliers.  They also enjoyed the cookies afterwards, riding the bus to and from the temple, and walking around the temple grounds.  I'm glad they were able to have that experience.  We went to the Rexburg temple open house, but Vance was a toddler and Tanner was a baby.  As the bus pulled away Porter waved and said, "Bye temple."  He did that pretty much the entire bus drive to the parking lot.

Aquarium and other Fun

Since we changed Porter's crib to a toddler bed I put on Cars bedding on his mattress.  He has been loving it.  The older boys have expressed an interest in doing something different in their room besides Cars so on Wednesday I took some of their posters and moved them to Porter's room.  He has had Classic Pooh stuff in his and I guess he is officially out of "babyhood" and has graduated to a little bit older theme.  He loves the Cars posters in his room!  The older boys will have to wait a little longer before I change their room completely.  They want a Star Wars themed room.

 I already shared a post with a picture of Stephen and I on our anniversary.  We had a good afternoon.  Here is a picture of Tanner enjoying some easy mac.   Do you know that Porter is giving him a run for his money as the pickiest eater in this house?  Oh boy.  I don't know how I am going to live through all of the picky eaters in my house!

 Since Summer is winding down we are trying to stuff as much fun in before Vance has to go back to school.  On Saturday we went to an Aquarium.  We all had a great time.  Although Vance avoided the spiders and I avoided the snakes.  Vance said his favorite thing was the stingrays and the sharks.  Tanner's favorite was the otters and the fish.  Porter said his favorite were the penguins.  It's hard to take pictures in there because it is dark, crowded, and what not.  I will post a few on facebook sometime.

 Here is a picture of Vance ready for church. A couple more weeks and this kid will be starting first grade.  Sniff, sniff.  It will be good to have him in school all day, but then sometimes it hit me that he'll be gone all day long.  It seems like a long time for him to be away.

 Here is a picture of Tanner.  He will be staying home with me another year before starting kindergarten since he misses the cut off for school by 3 weeks.  His primary teacher grabbed Stephen in the hall yesterday and told him how impressed she was by his reading skills.  Guess we'll continue to work on that and especially other areas that he is weaker in at home for another year.

Anniversary

Stephen and I actually celebrated our anniversary a couple of weekends ago.  I think I mentioned this before.  Anyway, today was our anniversary and my mother-in-law was kind enough to watch the boys for us so we could go to lunch.  We also had our desktop computer go ka-put on us this week so we took advantage of no kids and bought a new computer as well.  Happy Anniversary to us- a new computer.  Very romantic, huh? 

I woke up this morning to these beautiful roses on my kitchen table.  I think they are even prettier in person and my sister confirmed as much when she stopped by later since I'd sent her a picture of it on my phone earlier in the day.  Good work Stephen!

 Vance took a picture of us.  That has become a tradition I guess since this is the third anniversary in a row we've had him do it.  We took it right after Stephen got out of the shower (he showers right before work) and I am thinking we should have done it at a different time because his hair looks extra poofy.  Haha.  Oh well.  :)  I love Stephen so much and I feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for leading me in the right direction to finding and marrying him.  The best decision I have ever made and I know it was not one I could have done without guidance from above.  I feel equally blessed to have the wonderful children I do and to have married into a wonderful family.  I have very sweet in-laws.  Ok, my gushing is over. As I said on my facebook status, nine years and counting... :)

Pacifier free and some fun things too

One thing Stephen and I have talked about for a long time now is visiting as many temples as possible with the boys and letting them walk around the grounds and what not.  Last week we walked around the South Jordan Temple.  I've never been close to that one.  It was fun.  My small camera is having issues and that's all I had with me so this is about the only shot I got.

 The boys had fun getting wet and spraying each other with water with spray bottles.  Porter even had fun spraying himself with water.

 Another activity we did was pulling pipe cleaners through a colander.  It was a simple activity yet, it kept the boys busy and having fun for some time.

Another activity we did was making bubbles that bounce a little bit before they pop.  It was real cool.  Here is Vance blowing one of the bubbles.

 On Saturday I made Porter say good bye to his pacifier.  He loves it and I had restricted him to only using it at nap and bedtime.  I knew it'd be rough.  We cheered for him when he threw them away and then I gave him this cute Mater in exchange.  He loves his Mater, but was definitely still missing his pacifier.  He cried and cried for it on Saturday and was still looking for it on Sunday morning.  He is doing much better now though and hasn't brought it up since yesterday morning.

 Sick time!  Yucky.  Porter and I still have colds, but on Sunday we were all battling something.  Tanner was the worst.  I will spare details, but it was lame and the boys didn't end up doing their talk or scripture at church for obvious reasons.  Anyway, Stephen decided to cheer them up by showing them a lego set they didn't know he had.  Here was their reaction to it.

 Here was a little experiment we did with colored water, paper towels, and cups.  It was cool.  Although the boys were very impatient as the water moved up the paper towel.

This morning we went and fed the ducks and geese at a nearby park.  It was fun.  The boys really enjoyed it.  Porter tried to chase down the ducks when they wouldn't take what he offered out of his hand.  Vance was trying to throw the bread as far and hard as he could.  Tanner giggled and had a good time watching them come eat things up.

Scripture and Talk

Tanner has to give the scripture in primary tomorrow and Vance is giving a talk.  I thought I would share with you what they are going to be doing.

Stephen was trying to tell me to move the pictures down so he could see Vance's face and since I am a wonderful lip/hand reader I helped Vance move the pictures up so his face is covered more.  Oops....

Fun

Vance showing off his Angry Bird pajamas that he loves.

 This past weekend Stephen and I left the kids with his parents and had a little get away for an early wedding anniversary celebration.  We had a great time and the kids had a great time with their grandparents.  Instead of swapping car seats we just swapped cars.  Stephen's parents had a light out in the back so we took a few minutes to change it on Friday.

 Here is Porter on our way back home.  We gave them each a new book.  He loves the book we got him and was cute holding it in his lap on our drive home.

 This pictures isn't very good, but it is a necklace I got from Stephen.  It's fun cause I can buy different pendants to swap out.

 At the beginning of the summer I signed up for a kids bowl free program (www.kidsbowlfree.com) and we haven't actually taken them bowling so this morning we decided to go.  They even have ramps for younger kids so Tanner and Porter had an easier time bowling.

Quick trips, rash, juicers

Tanner reading "The Pigeon Find a Hot Dog" to Vance, Porter, and me.  They love anything written by Mo Willems.  In Tanner's own words, "I love the pigeon books.  They are funny."

 We took a quick day trip to Preston to see my mom, Rose, and several family members on my Mom's side of the family.  It was a quick trip, but we had a good time.  Porter had a fabulous time on this tree swing with Rose.

 Porter developed a rash last week.  I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn't really show up on the picture.  It was the worst on his cheeks, but it also got his arms, back, and his upper legs.  It has cleared up now.

 My cute Porter hanging outside in our driveway.  He was watching his dad clean off our driveway.

 I purchased a juicer back in January, you may remember.  Well, I was loving it until a piece got warped and I could no longer use it.  I order a part and it showed up a month later only for me to realize it was the wrong part.  I won't go into the details, but after several phone calls (my wonderful husband made) and five months of waiting for the right part, for people to tell us what was going on, poor customer service and Stephen getting demanding on the phone they sent us a new juicer.  I got it yesterday.

 Just a picture of Vance and Tanner playing with their plastic dinosaurs.