Josh & Amber + 3

Monday, July 1, 2013

Jaycie

Jaycie is almost 1 year old. It makes me sad to think she's gotten so big so fast.

Josh is rocking his supervisor job at the Holladay Post Office. It's the first summer he wont be out in the heat, all the time, in the last 9 years. We are so thankful. He's been trying hard lately to be the fun spontaneous Dad and so we've been on a lot of last minute activities. He was bummed that he didn't get to fish much while camping so the next weekend we went to Lake Vernon. It was nice and Josh wants to go back and camp sometime. He sold his truck because it's part of his one year plan and he misses it already even though he only drove it maybe once a month to Home Depot since we got it. He's quite the social butterfly in church and he likes to get to know the new people. He's determined to get to know everyone and he's off to a great start.

Amber is still trying to be frugal and save money however the current situation has dictated that I get a job. So after talking to everyone I know for a few weeks I landed one as a personal assistant to a couple Mary Kay directors. It's so nice, I do most everything from home and just leave on Wednesday evenings for about 3 hours. So far it is a little overwhelming but I think once I get the hang of things it will work out to be quite nice. I've been cooking quite a few new recipes lately and this batch has turned out much better than the last batch. I still live for play group, girls night, and dates with Handsome. The big news this month is that I finally bought some new bath towels. I love them and can't believe I waited so long to get them.

Madisyn has become much more opinionate in the last month. She has a comment for everything and asks so many questions it can make your head spin. I have no idea where she gets it. We've found out she is still deathly affraid of animals and bugs. She loves her new swingset and is super excited every day to go play in her playroom downstairs. She's taken a liking to my phone and the games that test her on her alphabet. She's doing great considering I fell off the teaching bandwagon before Jaycie was born. She's excited to preschool to start in the fall and asks everyday if she can go swimming at Spencer's house (his grandparents have a pool).

Katie is so smart. We have been learning that she really absorbs a lot of what we say even if she doesn't appear to be listening. She still has a talking back problem but she says it with such an attitude that I'm sure we are in for it when she becomes as teenager. She still loves Taylor Swift and we have to listen to it in the car wherever we go. I curse the day I programed her CD into my van. She loves to dress up and had started to take her hair out when I do it so that she can do it herself. She went down the waterslide at Spencer's Gpa's Pool and is so proud of herself. She was so excited about the Princess Festival but insisted she wasn't having fun until she met Cinderella.

Jaycie is almost 1. I had Allison take some pictures the other day so we can send out invites for her birthday party. She has three teeth now and she is such a happy baby. She likes to climb on things, most recently she learned to climb up the kitchen chairs to stand on them. She isn't walking yet but has taken a few steps between Daddy and I. She loves to swing on the swingset and thinks that only food she should eat is fruit (especially grapes) but she seems to be growing well. She still isn't sleeping through the night but she usually will stay in her bed until after 2:00 am. We love her to peices and wish she wasn't getting big so fast.

Ewert Family Reunion (Waterfight)

Every year my Grandma Ewert (Oma) hosts a Family Reunion. This year it was a family Waterfight.

I just have to say that Little Brother started it... and that's all.

The Pool (Charlie, Amy, Maddie, Kate, and Vince)

The "By- standers" (Don't worry we got them too)

The pathetic excuse for a hose

Some Action

The instigator & Allison

Maddie

Katie after she smacked into the rock wall and got a big gash in her head. Ouch.

My thought's exactly baby girl!

Calling All Princesses

Did you know that Thanksgiving Point hosts a "Princess Festival" every year?

I didn't either until a few weeks ago.

You see, my super cute niece Taylor got a job playing one if the princesses at the festival. So naturally we had to go and check it out.

However, tickets were ~~way~~ a little overpriced and so I put the idea on hold.

That is until my super cute niece got us free tickets (we are all about free) and we went.

The girls loved it. We went with Aunt JaNise and our cousin Addie. Of course Taylor showed us around and introduced us to all the cool kids.

Alice & Tinkerbell

Belle

The Cast of The Princess and the Pea (totally adorable, my favorite part of the festival, they were awesome)

Rapunzel

Hook and his Pirate Friend (So sorry I forgot her name. oops)

and Cinderella

We had a blast watching the little skits and playing with the charaters. The girls also loved the "Pirate Ship Splash Pad Thing" and got so wet they all ended up riding home naked.

Jaycie was trying to grab the water and couldn't figure out how come she couldn't get her hands on it.

It was so cute and so fun that I think we may have to go again next year.

(but only if we get free tickets, as I said ~~a lot~~ a little pricey).

Fishing at Vernon

Sometimes our Daddy gets off early on a Saturday.

It's rare.

But occasionally, it happens.

On those rare occasions, sometimes, he says "Let's take our three kids to a bug infested lake 2 hours away to try and catch a fish in 100 degree weather".

So we go.

We fish.

We catch nothing.

We go home.

.... and spend the evening watching Fireworks at Westfest.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Strawberry Pinnancles

We spent this years Father's Day Weekend camping up at Strawberry Pinnacles. It was a nice enough campgound with fun things to do but it would be better as a ward campout place or a family reunion. There was a lot of open space but they packed people on top of each other. The had this fun rope swing right in our camp spot. The kids loved it. So did the adults until Charlie just about broke the rope; then it was back to the kids again.

Katie & Maddie loved the swings

We ate mostly outside although my mom and Allison had their trailers. The bugs were horrible but we got through it.

The river was right next to our spot as well. The girls were very good and didn't even go near it without Josh. It was cold water but when it's 100 degrees outside you want it cold.

This was kindof a rough weekend for Jaycie. She's teething and as a result has had a runny nose lately. On our last night there at 3:30 a.m. she choked on her mucus and puked all over me and the sleeping bag. I was extremely grateful for the showers the campground had after that, and minus the strange bug that starred at me throughout my shower, it was rather pleasant.

Thanks goodness Aunt Allison brought popsickles.

The big kids went tubing down the river. I hit the banks quite often and if there was a tree in those banks I hit them too. When I was finished I looked like I had been in a fight with a cat.

Poor Handsome got the mini tube and did not have a good time his first run.

But he had a few more chances to enjoy himself on larger tubes as he took each of the girls down.

Overall we had a super-fun weekend. It made me miss my trailer quite a bit but we made it work. The tent was small and not ideal but the girls loved it, so we survived. I would probably not go back to this particular location unless I had a much larger group of people to accomodate. I'm not one to live on top of strangers.