August 2015 - A Lot of Family Time

Monday was a calm day, Pat went to work, and the kids and I just chilled at home. Melody is really 

loving bubbles lately, so Mara took her and Jaina outside to blow bubbles in their pj's.

Xander has been playing on a server of Minecraft called Mineplex. While there he can play games 

against other players and even meet up with friends on it, so they can play together. He has been 

able to play it with his friend Trey and even Max! He and Max will facetime each other on their 

iPods while they play so they can talk to each other. It's really cute and I love that they are 

finding things that they have in common and building a stronger bond.

 Melody has figured out how to make us take her outside. She begins by trying to put her shoes on, which 

gets me involved by helping her. She will then find my shoes and bring them to me, and she'll find the 

shoes of anyone else that's home and take them to the person. Once we have our shoes on, she'll say 

"hold you" so I will pick her up. Then she will point to the back door and say "outside" with a big grin on 

her face. And who can say no to a sneaky little one. She loves to play on the little slide that came from 

Grandma & Grandpa's house. Here she was peeking out the little window and saying "peek a boo".

She will sit at the top of a slide and say "three, two, one, go!" or "ready, set, go!"

After the slide it done, she usually goes into the garage and tries to pull the water table out, 

so we end up putting it on the grass, filling it up and letting her play. 

Pat thought it was funny to see her hair go crazy from the wind from the AC.

We had planned an evening to go to the pool, but we didn't want to go to Seven Peaks, so the kids decided 

on the Payson Pool. Whenever we make plans we will invite Morri, Lana & Gwen's families to join us. With 

life the way it is, it's usually Morri's family that comes with us.  On this day, the sky was starting to get 

really grey but we went swimming anyway. We headed into the lazy river which is a really nice one, 

because the bottom is lined with rubber, so your feet don't get all scrapped up. It's always nice to go 

places with other people because they love to hold and play with Melody, and she loves them too!

These girls were so excited to swim together.

Karri had let me borrow her camera, so I took advantage of that everywhere we went.

Oh how Jaina loves the water slides!!

On top of the play area, there's a bucket that fills up with water. After a few minutes, 

a bell rings and then it tips over. It's hard to tell, but in this picture Pat was sitting in 

the water with Melody and Xander, while Morri was standing with Mara.

After being in the splash area Melody was really nervous every time 

the bucket emptied, and this is what she looked like while watching it go.

This time Pat, Melody and Xander were standing in the big part.

The weather was starting to get windy and cold, so we stayed in the water as much as possible.

Here's Xander in the wake of the water.

Xander's first underwater selfie!

They had to clear the pool because they saw lightning, so we decided to be done and go get some dinner.

We tried One Man Band Cafe. We had never been before, so it was an interesting experience. 

It's just one person that prepares all the food, so it takes FOREVER, but it was really yummy! 

I don't think we'll be back, unless we don't have the kids with us.

August 14th

Pat's cousin, Cody Ridley, got married so we went to Brigham City for the reception. We caravaned 

with Morri & Liza which was really nice. But it took us forever to get there because of all the traffic 

and construction at the point of the mountain. We had put the DVD player in the car since we knew 

it was going to be a longer drive, to keep the kids happy. Sadly it didn't work too well for Melody. 

Right as we were coming into Salt Lake, Melody threw up all over herself and her blanket. So we 

got off and went to a Wendy's to get dinner and get her cleaned up. I had only brought pj's with me, which were long sleeved, so I put her in them temporarily. It ended up that the Wendy's was gross and 

full of people, so I got her cleaned up and we were back on the road. It was 101 degrees outside and 

I knew Melody would be miserable in her warm pj's, so we stopped off at Walmart so I could buy her a new 

dress. I was in luck to find a dress for $5, another one for $3 on clearance and some summer pj's for 

$3 on clearance. We then found a McDonald's to eat at, and had met up with Gwen & Doug also. So I got 

her changed and we ate dinner. It was a crazy start to the evening, but the rest of the night wasn't too bad. 

The reception was up at a house on the hill overlooking Brigham City and it was a really beautiful view.

Melody didn't want to stay in place very much, so I ended up following her around most of the night.

There was a pond in the front of the house that Jaina wondered over to. We couldn't find her 

for a few minutes and got worried, but Pat found her here, throwing rocks into the pond.

Here's a view of the Brigham City Temple.

Kinda tricky, but you can see the temple between mine and Pat's heads.

We did a lot of wandering around with these two girls all night, even with 

cousins to play with, they were still 'bored' and wanted to explore.

It was nice to spend the evening with family and to help celebrate Cody and Kapri's wedding.

I didn't take any pictures of the newlyweds, but I did get one of  us with the temple in the background. Luckily, the drive home wasn't as bad but we got home after 11 pm. So we were exhausted.

The next day we were able to go to Seven Peaks with Lana, Maddox and Olivia!! It 

was the first time we were able to go there with them, so we were excited. 

Olivia had a great time on the kid slides.

Mara too.

Mara is such a great helper with her sisters and it spills over to her cousins too. 

We had a great time being there together. 

We love you Lana!!!

I just love how Melody's hair curls up when we're at the pool.

Melody loves to have picnic's with her toys and this time she was 'reading' a book to the bear.

August 2015 - Lego's, Cabin and Mara's Toe

We were so excited when we found the Big Bang Theory Lego set at Toys R Us. Since Pat has 

so many sets, I claimed the right to put this one together. It is proudly on display in our TV room.

Melody is turning into a popsicle fan, just like Pat and Jaina. Luckily 

she eats them so fast that they don't have a chance to drip!

To get ready for the new Mission Impossible movie to come out, we watched the other four 

with these two. Mara really liked them and was excited to see the new one in the theater.

It was fun to take the big kids on a 'date' with us.

We even got pizza for dinner at the theater.

After the movie, there was a family ice cream night at mom's house.  It was 

nice to see family and Melody just loved being outside in the back yard.

She acted like she was going to slide and said 'ready, set, go!!', but decided to stay at the top.

We took a mid week trip down to the cabin with Morri, Liza and Carter. It's 

been a busy summer, so we haven't been able to go there at all. We stopped 

by T-Cee's for dinner, and Melody loved sitting in the window while we ate.

When we were leaving there was a man and his dog, Grizzly, that walked up. Jaina is really 

flighty around dogs, especially when they approach her, so we weren't sure how this was going 

to go down. Thankfully the dog ignored her, so she was able to have the courage to pet him.

She hung out with the dog while the man ordered his food. When he was done, he came out with a few gum balls for the kids. It was really sweet of him, and I'm glad it was a positive experience for Jaina.

When we got there, the boys went and played video games, while the girls watched 

a movie and Liza & I played Rummikub. After 1 round, Xander and Mara joined us. 

I am loving that I have kids old enough to join in on games and movies with us.

The next morning after breakfast, we made some sandwiches 

for lunch, cleaned up all our stuff, and headed down to the pool. 

It was a little overcast, but still fun to be there. Jaina was super excited that there was a water 

slide, but it took her a little bit to work up the courage to go down, since she had to go by herself.

But daddy was there to catch her at the bottom.

There is a rule at this pool that children wearing swim diapers have to be in a separate pool and are not 

allowed in the main pool with everyone else. I understand this rule because there was a sickness going 

around a few years ago that was spread from kids pooping in their diapers while in the pool. But as a 

parent of a toddler, this rule is very frustrating because it means that I have to stay out of the pool also.

She only lasted about 5 minutes splashing in the little pool before she was bored and wanted to run around.

Xander and Carter having a nice swim.

Luckily the staff there had some sand/water toys that kept her busy for 

another 5 or so minutes. But I was getting tired of chasing after her. It 

was very pointless that we paid for me to 'swim' since I didn't get wet at all.

We took a break for lunch

Melody had a great time with some M&M's

After lunch everyone got back in the pool for a little bit, and Melody was completely done with the 

kiddie pool. So we didn't stay for much longer. I love that my phone has a timer for pictures. So 

we set it up on the car and got a group pic, minus Melody who was already in her carseat.

It was nice to have a little getaway and enjoy the cabin and pool. 

I just wish that we could have done it more this summer.

Every so often, Jaina will play with my princess Lego's in my room. It's always interesting 

how I find them set up, but this time she had them all tied up in my shoes! I'm 

not sure if the laces were seaweed or what, but it made me laugh.

For a family night, we decided to go out for ice cream since the summer was coming 

to a close soon, and because Pat was going back to work on the next Monday. We went 

to Arctic Circle and Melody was in heaven eating her very own ice cream cone.

On Sunday, August 9th, we were walking into the church for sacrament meeting. When we got 

to the pew, Mara told me that she was bleeding. I thought it was kinda odd, but saw that 

her toe was in fact bleeding. She was wearing new shoes that were open toed, and when she 

opened the door it hit her foot and detached her toenail.  Pat immediately took her home, leaving 

her shoes behind, and cleaned her up. He texted me that her nail was almost completely detached, 

and we discussed what to do next. We decided that the best course of action was to remove the nail. 

So after looking up on google, what the best steps are to take care of it, Pat cut the toenail as much 

as he could, bandaged her up, set her up on the couch so she could watch Netflix and came back to 

church. It was quite a traumatic experience for her and she was having a hard time walking because 

putting pressure on her toe made it painful. I told her that it was a good time of year for this to 

happen, since we were going to school soon and were going to wear good shoes more often and it 

would keep it protected. Here's what it looked like a few hours after it happened. There is still a small 

amount of her nail still attached, but it's mostly gone. We read online that it can take up to 18 months 

for a toe nail to grow back, which is so crazy, I just hope it doesn't really take that long!