Gavin's 1st Birthday

We waited to do a combined family birthday party for Gavin and Ellie where their birthdays are only a couple weeks apart.  I have to admit that I was busy enough with food, cake, pictures of Gavin, etc that I didn't get many pictures of anyone else...  We were trying to get some things done through the day, and most of the family coming had commitments earlier in the day too, so we ended up getting started a lot later than we had planned.  We grilled hot dogs and brawts and had corn on the cob, chips, and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables as sides since that's what Gavin liked to eat best.  We watched "Sing" with the family on the projector while we ate and then did gifts and cake.  Poor Gavin was tired by the time we got to gifts.

 However, he had two gifts that especially brightened his mood - dinosaurs from Aunt Julie, and a helicopter toy from Aunt Sheri.

 It was also the time for our first boy to get his first tonka trucks, which was fun.

I made Gavin a ceiling fan cake, because that boy LOVES ceiling fans, and finds them anywhere we go that happens to have one - restaurants, warehouse stores, you name it.

Here he is with his cake.

 Like I said, it was late - he was really thrilled to be sang to, considering he had no idea what was going on...

 He did like his cake and ice cream though.

 We sure do love our happy one year old boy!

A little about Gavin at one.  He is huge.  Like 28 lbs, wearing 2T clothing huge.  He is so happy most of the time, but definitely has a temper.  He is our first baby who had no real words before his first birthday.  He is a great eater even though he doesn't have that many teeth (for our babies) and only had 6 teeth for his birthday.  He's funny too, because he got 4 teeth on top and only 2 on bottom, which is backwards of most kids.  He Sometimes sleeps through the night.  He is cruising on all sorts of furniture, but clearly thinks far too much and doesn't walk yet.  He is best buddies with Grandma Bennett and has a special smile that lights up his face whenever he sees her.  His goofy grin lights up our house and he definitely has some mischief in him - although I'm sure Steve has no idea where that came from...  We are just so grateful we have him, even when he decides he is manly and yells when he doesn't get his way and we are constantly taking him out of cabinets, dishwasher, and everything else.  He's pretty darn fun, and we sure love our Gav-man!

Back to School

August 21st was supposed to be the first day of school for Ellie, but her district moved back a day so that families could see the eclipse.  So, Tuesday the 22nd saw us up bright and early to catch her school bus.  Ellie's teacher, Mrs. Murray seems like a fantastic match for her this year and Ellie was so excited to get back to friends and start second grade!

A couple of weeks later, after Labor Day, on the 6th, our little girls started pre-school.  Mckayla is at a new school this year with Miss Mindy, who I'm not sure could be nicer and love those kids more.  she loves it.  Of course.  

  Miss Mindy set up a little photo spot before the kids headed into their first day.

MG has done so well there already and made the "High Five Club" a few weeks ago on the very first testing, where she got a pin, ribbon, and sticker and got to give everyone high fives in her class to celebrate that she recognizes all her letters.  Honestly, she's beginning to read, so we expected her to make the club pretty quickly, but she was the only one in her class and was so proud of herself, which is awfully fun to see.

Kassidy is with Miss Cherie, who taught Mckayla last year.  She's in a class for 3-4 year olds and only has two twin boys in her class.  Unfortunately for Miss Cherie, Kassidy is - well, Kassidy - which although very fun at times, is very challenging all the other times... So it's probably for the best that she is in such a small class...  We have high hopes that preschool will be good for her and not overwhelm poor Cherie.  She sure does love preschool though, and asks everyday if she can go see Miss Cherie.

Of course, Kassidy's pictures are un-posed and on the move.  Her coming down from a happy jump in the second picture is almost expected whenever we take pictures of her anymore.  We really do love our crazy girl.

Solar Eclipse - 21 August 2017

We live only a couple of hours from the path of totality for the solar eclipse that happened in August, so Steve being the science teacher / adventurer that he is, there was no way we were missing the total eclipse.  We drove to a small park at the base of the dam at Palisades, Idaho the morning of the 21st.  We got up and out the door early, not knowing what kind of traffic we would come up against based on all the warnings on the news.  We actually had very little traffic on our way to the park.  Steve's friend had given us some eclipse glasses long before and we even managed to find them.  That meant we had lots of time to play around and then see the eclipse come and go.  The eclipse started not too long after we arrived though.  It was chilly with the wind, and of course we forgot jackets - again - but we did have blankets this time around!

 Everyone (minus Mom) and excited for the eclipse to start!

 Kassidy didn't look at the eclipse much, which was probably for the best as we were worried about her hurting her eyes, but she was excited to see the eclipse when Steve or I helped her look.  (We still occasionally hear her randomly ask if we can see the eclipse.)

 Gavin was completely oblivious of course, and just enjoyed crawling around in the grass everywhere.

 Kassidy is always happy to find dandelions.

 I have pictures of MG smiling, but I just loved this one.  Classic Mckayla.

 I also love the joy on her face here as Daddy helps her see the eclipse.

 Gavin was so happy to find sticks and bark from a nearby tree to investigate.

 Annnnnd...... Kassidy.  She was trying to crawl under her blanket over and over all over the ground.  We often just saw a lumpy blanket shape somewhere on the ground.

 Or laying on the picnic table.  To be fair, all the girls were sitting on the concrete wrapped in their blankets pretending who knows what at different times...

 Daddy made a great wind block while the kids ate their picnic lunches.

 The secondary show while we checked on the eclipse was all the osprey hunting fish below the dam.  We watched a LOT of fishing as the birds dove into the water and carried off large fish.

 Just a fun picture of Mckayla checking on the progress of the eclipse with her collection of sticks from the day.  It's hard to capture it in photos, but you can kind of see here with Mckayla and the grass behind her how the light was changing.  It was so strange to see the light progressively dim and just - change - there's no explaining the different quality to the light just before totality.  Strange and kind of creepy, but so cool too!

 Ellie popping out from her blanket hiding from the wind.

 And then we got to totality.  The temperature dropped, although not for us like many people described - because of the wind.  Everyone started cheering at the dam and it was just incredible!

 Just before totality as the sky darkened the lights on the dam went on, which was pretty cool to us.

 One of my favorite pictures - just as totality started to end.  It was just so cool.

 Here is a picture of where we watched the eclipse as Steve brings the last of our supplies back to the durango.

 Although we didn't have much traffic on the way to Palisades, we did have traffic while leaving.  You can see the cars lined up behind us.  We really only had about an hour, hour and a half of bad traffic, and then it was smooth sailing the rest of the way home.

I have to say, I give Steve a hard time sometimes about his restless nature (I'm too much of a homebody in comparison) but I am always so grateful when he gets these crazy ideas for adventures because our family gets to have the most amazing experiences together.  Seeing the eclipse in totality really was so incredible and I'm so grateful Steve took the day off so we could share that with our very excited girls (and oblivious little boy).  Bucket list item if you ever get the chance!

Ellie's Birthday

Ellie's birthday was extra special and extra long this year.  In July, there had been sign-ups for mutton-bustin, which Ellie really wanted to do.  However, Steve had farm work and I had swim lessons, so I went and got in line before work.  Time was getting late though and I was still several people back, so I ended up asking the ladies in the front of the line if I could sign Ellie up quickly and they were so nice to let me do it! 

As a result, Ellie's birthday had us eating at Panda Express (her choice) on our way to the rodeo so Ellie could ride her first sheep.  (Per Ellie's request we had to go out and find Ellie a "cowgirl shirt" in red or blue because it was Patriotic night.)

We got to the rodeo early thinking that mutton bustin would be early on where it's all young kids.  Here the girls are getting acquainted with the sheep.

Wrong!  We were one of the last few events...  It was so late for our poor, tired kids.  We also learned after we got there that they didn't provide the protective equipment...  Ellie was clearly nervous, but we were proud that she bravely kept going since criers aren't allowed to ride.

 We learned too late that the parent can place the child on the sheep, and one rider didn't show which meant they announced Ellie wrong, but all the same - she rode!

 She fell off pretty quickly - you can see they put her too far up on the sheep - and scored a 51, but she hopped up quickly, gave a thumbs up and waved (as we'd discussed to try and avoid an upset reaction) and then was proud of herself, which was the biggest accomplishment for our very timid girl!

 Here are all the kids with their belt buckles.  She still loves this belt buckle and talks about trying again next year.  It was a huge relief for us to have had it go so well and we were so proud of her!

 A few days later, on the 14th, we had Ellie's birthday party.  It was her first friend birthday party and she was so excited.  We had 6 friends confirmed as coming, but only 3 made it that day.  We had lots of fun though.  Ellie chose a "Trolls" birthday party, so we watched Trolls and had popcorn and capri suns.  The girls took a break partway through the movie to make their own "hug-time bracelets," and I made Ellie the cake she wanted - a Baby Poppy cake.

 Ellie then opened her gifts.  Here is my favorite picture - the girls all in shock and excited when Ellie opened her new pearler beads from Aunt Julie. 

We have been trying to do more meaningful, homemade gifts for the kids.  Ellie wanted a "pretend face-painting kit" which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist...  So, I got an idea and I made one!  (I bought the brushes and pencil case obviously.)

Kassidy has dug her fingernails into the kit several times, requiring touch-ups, but Ellie liked the kit and I love giving her something so personalized that I put the time and effort into making just for her.

Ellie also opened gifts a few weeks later with family at Gavin's party - we did one party where Ellie and Gavin are only a few weeks apart.  And when the package from my parents arrived she opened her gift from them.  My Dad made her an amazing and personalized jewelry/treasure box.  The hilarious part is that two birthdays in a row - my girls loved the rock they sent!

I can't believe our big girl is seven already.  She keeps talking about her baptism next year and it is blowing my mind how big she is getting.  We sure love our giggly, gappy-toothed girl though!

Summer Mini-Adventures Part II

Some other quick things we did in the second half of the summer:

More quick fishing - no, we didn't catch anything, but that's not the point is it?  Despite the girls' unrealistic expectations...

The kids all got haircuts on July 31st, which had been a long time coming.  Ellie wanted short hair, and Kassidy needed to lose a few inches, so we decided to just go short with her too, since she hates having her hair done.  

Mckayla just got a trim since she is growing her hair out to have "princess hair" although she did try to convince me to have the lady cut her hair short after she got her trim since everyone else got short hair cuts, which we denied.  We also got Gavin his first hair cut.  It was a HUGE change.  Like crazy different.  This was his fuzzy head before, and his clean cut hair after.

Needless to say, we left a lot of hair on the poor woman's floor.

We took to the kids to the local carnival that comes each year with the rodeo.  The girls love the rides, so we always go on Thursday night when rides are only a ticket each.  MG loved the roller coaster, although the other girls did NOT.

Steve and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, which seems a bit crazy to both of us...  We went to dinner at the Copper Mill which had delicious steak in my case and scallops in Steve's case.  Then we went to the Martin Harris pageant, which was kind of hokey with the mediocre singing in the beginning, but had such a strong spirit and powerful testimony of the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon by the end.  It was a fabulous night, especially given I had a rough day earlier that day.

Which brings me to another big event of the summer - I got fired!  For the first time ever!  Last spring I was supposed to be running the same program I supervised the summer before, but a few weeks before the season started they suddenly told me they were moving buildings because they couldn't support the pool anymore.  So, I was out of a job.  I found one pool that was still certifying staff (mine had lapsed while pregnant on limitations with Gavin) and hiring.  I got a job teaching there Monday-Thursday from 9-1 all summer.  Then, at the end of the summer they needed a new Head Guard/Instructor.  I was interviewed and told I had the position.  Then, a girl on staff who hadn't applied and insisted she didn't want the job, and that she wanted me to have the job turned around and got the job.  I was told the manager "owed her one".  Later on, she tried to blame everything on the outgoing supervisor, and when I wouldn't agree to that she started causing a lot of drama.  So, I was told it wouldn't work with both of us on staff, and that even though I hadn't done anything wrong, it was too much and that I was being let go.  Fun times!  I still teach my lessons there, just as a private individual now.  So, yay for being self-employed?

Other not-so-fun things, included health challenges with the kids through July and August, which was a blast...  Most of the challenges started when my parents got here in July.  Gavin had a cold that day and then woke up in the night with distressed breathing and vomiting while crying and gasping for breath.  He ended up in the ER that night getting steroids, breathing treatments, and popsicles to help the swelling go down.  Thankfully his breathing did normalize.  We later found out we were just a few minutes from the doctor admitting him to the hospital.  After that, we never could seem to get Gavin healthy, or Kassidy.  By August we had Kassidy suddenly leaking some strange yellow discharge from her mouth with really swollen tonsils.  We later found out that they both had bad sinus infections that had moved to ear infections, and in Kassidy's case caused major tonsil inflammation.  They finally got healthy after antibiotics.  In Gavin's case we first found out he seems to be allergic to amoxicillin and had to take expensive antibiotics.  Yeah, it was fun.  It also taught us Kassidy and Gavin have very high pain thresholds since we had almost no idea they were even sick until they were VERY sick.  Once they were on antibiotics we couldn't believe how much more Kassidy was talking, how much less she was crying, and how much easier she was to be around.  Obviously she wasn't feeling good, and just never really complained.

Lat this summer Reva and I have also been busy canners.  We canned green beans, pears, peaches, spiced peach butter, green gage plum jam (those plums are delicious!), pickles in a few different varieties, and we still need to do apples and carrots.  It has been busy but awesome to get all that good food put up for our family!

 We have also made a TON of progress on the house this summer.  Wyatt visiting meant we pushed Mckayla's new room into high gear.  Admittedly we still haven't done our last fill and touch-up paint, but it is definitely her room now with wall decals of princesses and planets hanging from the ceiling.  This is what it looked like when Wyatt came.  I'm pretty proud of the work we did.

 Similarly, we got the wiring done in the family movie room downstairs so we could watch a movie on the projector for Kassidy's birthday, but that project stopped there.  Then, we got some temporary flooring and cheap seating and I organized all the junk that was in the room before Ellie's birthday party.

The playroom has been organized (several times), has temporary flooring through most of the room, and while my Dad was here we hung closet doors.  I even organized a large part of the game closet with what I could put together and we've started doing family game night on Sundays.  Ray helped us hang the last of our doors a few weeks ago, so all of our doorways officially have doors! (if not knobs...)

We also took our yard from full of rocks, scrap metal, weeds, and uneven mounds and dips to just dirt and then to flattened out dirt, and eventually laid 3 truck loads of scrap sod.  

And we got a second, larger propane tank so that we don't have to fill up in the winter!

I also raked out two small flower gardens in the front yard and we have some flowers growing up against the front of the house now.  I have worked some on the sides of the house, but they won't get done till spring probably at this point.  Ray just laid gravel at the side of the house next to our garage as well.  This is about what our yard looks like now.

Our next project will be a fence around the back yard.  We already bought wooden posts, metal gates, and metal fencing fabric so that the dogs and kids can play more freely and more often.  However, rain and crazy schedules have delayed our fence.  Hopefully in the next week or two it will go in!

The last thing I'll put on here is that we were much more involved in farm work this year.  Because of my work schedule the kids got to ride in lots of trucks and tractors and spend lots of time with Grandma, for which we are SO GRATEFUL.  Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying their time on the farm.

Oh, and a field caught fire just down our road - that was exciting.  Thankfully, they saved the wheat near the fire, although they did lose the hay, the trailer and truck hauling it, and a tractor that fell into the fire trying to help.

 Other fun things this summer included hikes to Willow Flats, trips to zoos, and lots of great family walks around the farm.

 It has been a very busy, but great first summer in our home!