Kitchen Taste Testers

On this day we were baking a treat for daddy.  The girls helped but the recipe was short so there was not much for them to do.  I gave Brailie the beater to keep her from crying for a minute and when she had licked if super clean in less than a minute and wanted more I decided to just let them lick the bowl.  Allie has never shown interest in this before but I think today she learned what she has been missing.  Brailie was not going to let a drop go to waste and had batter up to her armpits.

Pictures

Found these pictures in my craft pictures file. 

This is Allie helping me make bread.

These are the beautiful carrots from the garden.  I usually have ugly carrots so this year I hardly planted any and now look how nice they are.

Sweet Sisters

I just thought this was one of the most adorable scenes to come into a room to find.

Hunting with Daddy

Hunting season is upon us and I am praying Greg will kill a huge buck-he is long overdue.  Allie has wanted to go with him every time but of course can't.  This day though Daddy asked if she wanted to go and she was so excited.  We don't have any camo that fits her right now (shocking, I know) but we did the best we could to outfit her in proper gear.  Greg said she was really quiet and picked out some spots that they should look.  She is very good at spotting deer normally so she just might be his good luck charm.  I had fun at home with Brailie while they were gone.  She helped me as I washed dishes and she splashed water everywhere and then some.

Happy Birthday to Daddy (sort of)

On Thursday Aug 27th, Allie said during our breakfast that today it was Daddy's birthday and instead of being an adult and saying, "no it isn't his birthday, his birthday is in march" I said, "it is!!! Wow, we better throw him a birthday party."  So that is what we did.  We baked cupcakes (the girls helped with the liners), the girls "shopped" around the house for gifts, we blew up some balloons and even found some party hats.

Dad got a new doll, and a touch and feel book.

He also got a Rapunzel book and he got some super cool paper weight rocks that the girls painted for him the day before.

He had no idea about the party and was tardy getting home from school so we only had a very short time to celebrate.

Here he is in his party hat.  Oh and did I mention he got his favorite dinner of spaghetti and meatballs too. 

The Beach

School started on Wed (Aug 24th) and the girls were a bit bummed that dad was for sure going to be gone all day.  I decided to take the girls out to the beach (a big sandy area by the river).  I felt like I should call and see if we could find any friends to go with us and it turned out perfect because there were friends that wanted to come and so the girls had lots of kids to play with.  At first we thought that we weren't in a good spot for them to play by the water so they were just playing in the sand but they really wanted to get wet and so as we started walking we found the perfect spot with just enough sand for kids and a perfect place to get wet.  My girls had a blast and didn't want to leave.  I for sure will be taking them back as many times as I can before the summer ends.

Elise, Byron and the girls in the sand.

Allie and Katelin

Katelin thought it was so fun to roll in the sand.  I bet her mom's car had much more sand in it when they got home than ours did.

Brailie is a good copy cat these days.

What a fun morning with friends. 

A visit from cousins from Canada

Daniel and Jenny made a quick trip to Utah for Jenny's brother's wedding and we had a chance to get together at Auntie Helen's for lunch.  The kids had fun seeing eachother and Allie took the role of boss on perfectly.  The only thing I wish is that Dan and Jenny had dressed the boys in different shirts so that us "average" folks could tell them apart.  I am telling you, I need a month with these guys (though I would be exhausted) so I could figure out who is who.  But for now, poor Aunt Heather hasn't got it.

Good to know that the boys love playing in water just as much as my girls.  They loved this little teapot.

Helping Auntie Helen wash the chairs.

Allie being the boss.

I think this was Jakob wearing two hats.  He just had to have them both on.

This is blurry but I thought it was so cute how he had his hat folding over his ears just like Daniel used to do when he was little. 
We love these guys and always love seeing them.

A camping we will go (sort of)

Before the summer started we made a list (kind of) of things we wanted to do over the summer and one of those was to sleep in the tent with both girls.  Well school was about to start and we still hadn't done it so I told Greg we had to get the tent out and do it.  The girls were super excited-I however was a bit worried because it meant having Brailie sleep somewhere with out a crib to confine her and she has never done that.  We decided to watch Tangled until it was time to sleep.  Brailie wandered all over the tent, climbing over everyone until she finally just laid down and was out.  It actually was so much better than I thought it was going to be.  The moon was super bright which made it hard for me to sleep but otherwise we slept good (even through trains and dogs and chickens-which usually doesn't happen).  The girls were really excited to still see the moon when they woke up in the morning.  I think we will camp like this a few more times before we really try the real thing.  The girls think it is awesome.

The Wedding

A couple of weekends ago we went to the "cousins" wedding reception weekend with two of Greg's cousins having receptions.  We also went to the sealing of one (his cousin Jesi) who got married in Manti.  That was probably the best sealing I have ever been to with the sealer explaining the temple covenants so well.  It was beautiful.  After a long day we got to the receptions at the time my girls usually go to bed.  Let's just say we left kicking and screaming and had "a really nice time."

Daddy dancin with the girls which is all they wanted to do the whole time.

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Part of the reception they did a sparkler thing and so this is Brailie with hers and daddy.

Kylie dancing with Kinsey.

Dancing with her daddy.

Zach dancing with his mom.  They were in much better spirits than we were.