::a busy day::

So, while we were at the amusement park on Saturday (more on that later),
somebody called on our Tahoe (it's for sale).
They came and looked at it, test drove it, loved it, and are taking it home today.
So yesterday I had to take it in to the dealership to have the air looked at
(it was blowing cold air everywhere but the driver's side vents).

Bubb woke up sick. He threw up a few times. He also couldn't walk. He would just cry any time he had to put any weight on his feet, particularly his right foot. I let it go all morning, and finally called the dr. and got an appointment to take him in at 3:40 because I was worried that he might have broken it while he was running around in the water the day before. I asked Susan if she could come stay with the kids so I didn't have to take them all to the dealership (we've done that a few times before-not fun. Especially with one of them being so sick). I spent about 2 hours at the dealership (they fixed the air), came home, grabbed Bubb, and went to the dr. I spent probably an hour there, and then went over to the hospital for x-rays. That took another hour. Then we came home, Matt took Chloe and Port to her softball game, and then to the store. Then they came home, and then went back out to get some huntin' necessities.

Here's my poor sick baby. He just has a little virus, I guess. He doesn't have any broken bones-thank goodness!! (I felt dumb for going to the dr., but the "what if" feeling was strong enough to make me take him in), and he's walking without a problem today. I hope the sickness goes away just as fast.

And today looks just as busy.
(mechanical inspection for the car, Porter going to a birthday party, Chloe going to a friend's house, Bubb's still sick, sign paper work for the Tahoe, flag football coach's meeting (Matt), Young Men's (Matt), basketball tonight (Matt).
Oh man. I don't have days like these too often, but when I do, I kinda hate them.

::4 months::

Our little "Bee Ava" is 4 (and a half) months old.

She's a fun little teeny girl. She loves to goo-goo. She squeals a lot-sometimes when she's mad, sometimes when she's happy, and sometimes just to get my attention. Sometimes it's cute, and sometimes it's not :) She's super smiley! She'll smile at everybody-pretty much all you have to do is look at her! She thinks Porter is hilarious. She's always laughing at him. She grabs stuff with her hands and tries to put it in her mouth (sometimes she misses). She's really drooly and still a spitter upper. She likes to cuddle and be held all the time.

She started rolling over about a month ago. I took the two big kids and one of Chloe's little friends to a movie, and my sister in law (thanks Jennie!!) came over to watch the two little ones. When I got home, she said "how long has she been rolling over?" I was a little sad I missed it, but it was pretty awesome that she was already rolling over! She pretty much does it all the time now, and always from her back to her tummy. I've only seen her roll back over once.


She sometimes gets mad after she rolls over. If she could roll herself back over, I think she'd be a little happier :)

And...
She started eating rice cereal last week. She did so great with it! She's definitely my best eater. She caught onto nursing right away (the others had trouble getting down the suck, swallow, breath rhythm-they'd squeak and then have to cough), and now she's gotten down the eating-food-off-a-spoon thing really quickly; which is nice, because it frees me up a little :)




I love when they first start to eat off a spoon. I think it's cute how they have to learn it. They try to suck the food from the spoon and use their tongues a lot. It's just cute.

She got her 4 month shots yesterday, so she isn't feeling awesome today. Poor beebee. She's had a bit of Tylenol (I hate to give her that, but I don't want her to hurt either), but she just doesn't feel well.

Ava's 4 (and a half) month stats:
height: 26 3/4" (96th)
weight: 15.2 lbs (66th)
head: 40.5cm (23rd-still a tiny little head)

In other news...
School starts in just over 3 weeks. I can't even believe it. We haven't gotten our letter to see who Portie's teacher is going to be. I kinda hope it's not the same one Chloe had. I didn't mind her, but I feel like Port needs a teacher who is more enthusiastic and fun; which Chloe's kindergarten teacher was not. Speaking of Porter...he's wearing me out! Sometimes he's such a little sweetheart, and then other times, I feel like I just want to rip my hair out! He suddenly decided to be really snotty to me...like he just gets this snotty voice and says snotty things. I hate that! He sometimes throws a fit like a 2 year old, and lays on the floor. I just don't know! He does much better when we don't get too mad and yell at him, but at the same time, how do you not when he's being such a butt?!? Matt says it's normal-he's a boy and he's not going to be as sweet as Chloe was at that age. Really? Is it normal? If it is, it's going to be a long few years because I've got another one following right behind him! He's been kind of great these last few days though. But, man!, the last couple of weeks have been rough. I guess we all have our days. He wants to ride the bus to school. That makes me nervous! He's just a leetle boy! Chloe's not excited about school to start; which is kind of weird for her. She's just loving summer so much, I think. Once she gets her new school clothes, she'll be way more excited-yeah, that oughtta do it, she is MY child after all :) Also, she wants a new bike. We've talked about getting her a bigger one, but probably not 'til next summer. Then her little friend across the street got a bigger bike for her birthday, and now "my bike's too little, I need a new bike, everybody has a bigger bike than me, can't I get one for my birthday?" is all we hear. I told her next summer. Then we hear "UGH!" and her whole spiel again. We told her she's going to probably get baptizey things for her birthday (which would normally include scriptures, scripture pencils, a CTR ring, things of that sort). That really makes her upset. She says she doesn't want scriptures because she can't even understand them-which makes me a little sad. My sis in law (Amberlee) pointed out that those could be baptism gifts, and the bike could be a birthday gift. Duh! Great idea! That's probably what we'll do, but don't tell Chloe. We'll keep letting her think she's not getting a bike 'til next year. ;)

Also...
I have my 10 year high school reunion coming up in September in Texas. Matt and I were planning on going, but now I'm not too sure about it. I'm a little nervous about leaving my 3 babies home with Grandma. I hate to be away from my kids. I left them over night for the first time just last year (we'd been married for almost 8 years at the time). I always feel guilty when somebody watches my kids, and I'm a little nervous for both of us (and Ava) to fly at the same time! What if something happens? We'd have 3 little orphans. It scares me. So I say no, we're not going. But then I start thinking about all the people that I'd love to see and catch up with, and I say, yes, we're definitely going! Except I had a dream the other night that I ran into one of my old classmates (who I even went to elementary and junior high with), and he just kind of was like hi, and then ignored me and kept scooting away from me! Is that a sign that we shouldn't go? Ugh, I just don't know!

::tummy time::

Pediatricians say tummy time is important for babies...

...I agree.

In other news...
We made brownies. They were hot. Matt and the kids put theirs in the freezer for a minute to cool them down. Bubb ate his. Then he said "Chloe can I feel zuh bwownie?" He crawled across the counter to feel it. Chloe was talking to us, so she was looking up from her plate. Then she looked down and her brownie was gone! I guess the only proper way to tell if a brownie is too hot is to eat it.

::bounce::

I told the kids after our Moroni adventure that I wasn't going to take all of them anywhere by myself again. That lasted all of a few hours. I've since taken them to the store a few times, the movies, and this place...

Kangaroo Zoo
Tuesday. July 19th. 1-ish pm.




They had fun.
The little boys played Mario & Luigi a lot.
Chloe was a sweaty mess after nonstop jumping for 2 hours. She told me she wants to have her birthday party there. Sounds good to me!

::lvd::

We started off with a race
(5 miles around the lake. Took us 51 minutes)

(Amberlee (my runnin' buddy), me, and Lynette (Matt's aunt). Me on the home stretch giving Portie high fives)

Then a parade...

(J helping Coop get some candy. Bee-Ava in her seat. She thought the parade was kinda loud)


(Portie kinda liked the dancers...we even caught him dancin' a little himself)

A few hours later we staked out a spot on the lawn of the town hall to get ready for some fireworks.


This is one of our favorite events of the summer. The whole day is just fun. I love Matt's hometown. I'd move there tomorrow if I could.

::T-ball's over::

Portie finished up T-Ball last week.

He played every week for about a month and a half. He did pretty good. He was great at batting and running. The outfield---not so much. He had a hard time paying attention to the batter and not playing with the dirt. Overall, though, he seemed to really like it.


His last game was pretty fun. He got to bat 3 times, and when he was running the bases, he slid every time. It was SO funny! I wish I would've gotten a picture of his awesome slides!! He got a little T-Ball dog tag which he thinks it's pretty cool.

(Coach Austin and the team)

There was a swim party at the city pool for all the "ballers" (softball & t-ball). Oh my gosh it was crazy! There were SO many kids in the pool! Matt and I were both there with all 4 kids. I held Ava the whole time. It was SO hard keeping track of the other 3! I took all 4 swimming a few weeks ago by myself, and it wasn't as hard as that! It was pretty fun though. We swam from 8:30 'til about 10. There's somethin' fun about swimmin' in the dark

:)

Great job, Portie!! Next up, flag football!

::Angel Moroni::

^{"...Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon, containing the fulness of my everlasting gospel..."}

~Doctorine & Covenants 27:5

There's a temple being built not too far from us. It was announced that the angel Moroni would go up a on July 12, so we thought we'd go see it.

But we didn't see it.

It was raining. A lot. We got there and parked a little ways away. We walked down a busy road with no sidewalks (me and the 4 littles). We found a place on the lawn across the street from the temple where we could see the top where Moroni would be placed. We sat on what I thought was a waterproof blanket. We huddled our 3 selves (Ava was in her stroller all cozy and dry) underneath 2 not very big umbrellas. Our hair was wet, our legs were wet, our clothes were wet, our butts were wet (except for Bubb's 'cause he sat on my lap the whole time). It was a little miserable. I kept telling them who Moroni was and why this was going to be such a neat thing to see.

They just complained. All 3 of them. "I'm cold. I'm wet. I'm hungry. I'm tired. I'm hot. I'm bored. I can't see. I wanna leave. My butt hurts." All the other little kids there were running around playing in the rain. I saw one kid who was probably a few years older than Chloe get a running start and dive and slide on his tummy across the wet grass. My kids just complained.

I kept telling them just a little longer. After a little while it stopped raining. Then, somebody came across the speakers (they were playing hymns while we all waited) and said that it was too windy to take Moroni up there, so they were waiting for it to die down. They offered a prayer. I swear it got windier after the prayer.

I looked at the trees blowing in the wind, my crying, hungry kids, and the clock, and decided that after 3 hours of waiting, it was time to go. I told myself that they probably wouldn't do it that day anyway because it was just too windy-especially when you're 40 or so feet in the air. I took them to McDonald's for some lunch. On our way home, when we were turning into our subdivision, I saw some people looking North, towards the temple. Moroni was just taking his place on top of the temple.

We'd missed it. I was sad.





Even though we missed it, I can't get over the fact that there's going to be a temple right here close to us. I often think of the people in other countries and even in our own who travel great distances to attend the temple. How lucky we are to have so many so close to us. I hope that we will be able to go often and enjoy the blessings it provides.

::really??::

I got this in the mail the other day...


Don't get me wrong. I LOVE school shopping. LOVE it. But, I feel like Summer just got started (especially since we didn't hit 80 degrees until around the 3rd week of June). We're lovin' finally getting to wear flip-flops and shorts and swimsuits. I don't wanna think about boots, scarves, pants, and sweaters and all that yet.

::slippin' & slidin'::

Yesterday, we slip-n-slided @ Grandma & Papa Snowman's house (because our grass isn't nice enough to run on yet-more on that later). Portie got it for his birthday. It's got 3 lanes so you can race. The kids loved it (mostly). Port and Bubb went a few times and then just kind of wanted to kick the water at eachother and watch the tractor in the front yard. Chloe slid about a billion times and even "swam" in the pool of water at the end of the slide. Little fish.


I think they liked it. Good ol' slip-n-slide. What would the world be like without slip-n-slides?

::fourth::

"America, America!
God shed his grace on thee."

-Katharine Lee Bates

This year...
We got to go to Stadium of Fire on the 2nd! And it was pretty awesome! We were crammed in there like sardines, but it was a good time.

Ava came with us ('cause she has to eat). She thought it was kinda loud. We had some little earplugs for her, but it was still pretty loud. She and I stood on the ramp and under the stands during some of the really loud stuff.

There were lots of pretty cool patriotic things. I especially liked the parachuters. They played a patriotic song (I can't remember which one), while parachuters dressed in red, white, and blue jumped from a plane above the stadium. The final (4th) parachuter brought the flag with him. It was pretty great. Something about seeing that flag and hearing the songs about America, just fills my heart with pride!

There was music, speeches, some beach balls being thrown around in the stands, some little dancers on the field...lots to see.

Then, the biggest reason why we wanted to go...

Mr. Brad Paisley himself.

I'm not usually a big country music fan, but this guy I like. A lot.
He was great! It was so fun!

On the fourth, we did our usual swimming, dinner in the park, and some fireworks.

(Chloe on the big slide)

(Portie-he came so fast, I only got his head under water)

(and Bubb w/ Da-da)

This holiday, again, leaves me feeling incredibly thankful. I try to always be mindful of the sacrifices made by so many for the freedoms and blessings we enjoy.

Happy 4th of July!