Old Not-So-Faithful

This weekend we made a trip to Idaho to see our friends Blayne and Rachel. We all rented a minivan for a day trip to Yellowstone National Park. Jared has been wanting to go there for a long time. It was a long day for the kids but they all did great.

Old Faithful was suppose to errupt at 2:07 and we got there early so we wouldn't miss it. However, it ended up being 20 mins late. Blayne and Rachel ended up having to take their boy Darek out to the car and so they watched it from there. After waiting so long in the heat people were wondering if old faithful had finally quit. Mackayla really had to go to the bathroom so I finally took her very quickly into the building to go. We hurried out and caught only the very end of it. So, Jared and Bradley were the only ones that ended up getting to see it from the front row.

Jared and his family took a picture at this same sign 20 years ago.
When Jared was at Yellowstone 20 years ago there was a huge wildfire that burned nearly 75% of the forrest. This area shows a picture of the new growth since the fire.

Mackayla made it through the entire weekend without an accident. We were so happy with her. Since we spent a lot of time on the road we brought our little potty along. Whenever she "had the feeling" we pulled over and took care of business. This is my favorite picture of the trip.

We spent an afternoon in Rexburg at a fun little waterpark for kids. It was just a free thing in the park. I wish we had something like that here. The kids loved it.


Mackayla was excited to ride the horses like they do in Mary Poppins. Once she got on though she was pretty nervous and wouldn't let go of her Daddy's neck. This is just to add to my collection of "don't take my picture" pictures.

A very rare picure that actually has me in it.


Finally some apricots. This is our fourth summer here and this is the first time our apricot tree has really produced more than a handful. We had five bags full of good apricots this year. We made some jam, gave some away to neighbors, ate a ton and are still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of them.


Pictures of children eating corn on the cob are always so cute. I made Jared take my picture also and we came to this conclusion. Pictures of grown people eating corn on the cob are not always cute.

Just a picture of the kids.

Mackayla's new wall. Grandma Hatfield sent Mackayla some wall stickers and to her delight she now has a princess wall.

9 months in - 9 months out

Our little baby is already 9 months old this week.

It's hard to remember life without him and that makes it seem so funny that he's only been outside of me as long as he was inside of me. That makes pregnancy seem so long! Now, nine months after the pregnancy I feel like I'm still trying to recover from it. Look at this cute little boy though... he's worth every bit of it!

We took his 9 month pictures this afternoon. Bradley is wearing Jared's tool belt and hat. I think he's ready to follow in his father's footsteps.

I love his curls!!!

We tried to snap a couple pictures of Mackayla, but as you can see she did NOT want her picture taken.

Then, when she was all ready for bed, she decided she wanted to have a photo shoot too (anything to get to stay up later).

She was smiling and doing all kinds of poses for us.

This was requested by her... "now take a picture of my hands!"

We told her to give us a surprised/happy face...

We have so much fun taking pictures of the kids!

God Bless America

We had a fun-filled fourth of July. It started out by going outside at 7am to see the hot air balloon festival that happens every year. Then we spent the rest of the morning watching the big parade. That evening the we had a BBQ, did fireworks, and then watched the Stadium of Fire Show from our front yard. We love having such a great view of the big show!

Bradley at the parade

On our way home from the parade Mackayla told me she needed to get that picture from me of her with the big Curious George Balloon so she could put it on her blog.

The kids both loved the parade. Bradley fell asleep before it was over but had a great time clapping with the crowd while he was awake.

Watching the balloons from our front lawn-

This pig ballon was Mackayla's favorite.

We had planned on making red, white and blue cupcakes and decided last minute to also decorate them as a flag. They may not be the prettiest but we had fun making them.

I didn't end up taking many picutes that evening but it was a lovely night for a BBQ. The Henrys, Doug Trees and Christine joined us.


SPARKLERS!

With the days being so crazy this week, we went on our weekly trip to the library in the evening with Jared. He picked out a DVD of Looney Toons shows (bugs bunny, tweety, daffy duck, etc...) to check out. I had to take a picture of him watching it. He was loving it! It was pretty fun to watch.

We started putting sticks into our bananas and making them into popsicles. The kids love it. I think it felt pretty good on Bradley's sore gums this week.

What a week we had!

Bradley cut his first two teeth this week so he had a couple of rough days. On Monday afternoon I decided it was time to get Mackayla potty trained. I took off her diaper and its been off ever since. The potty training was a success but it was absolutely exhausting for me! She was capable of doing it but not wiling to. I didn't want to force her so I had to be creative in motivating her to sit on her potty every time. We had a chart and treats but she needed even more than that. I had to make up songs, do dances, play games, everything you could imagine to keep her going. I spent the week saying things like, "Horray! Your pee pees make me jump so high!" (as I jumped around the bathroom) "hurry up and sit on your potty, all your animals are waiting for you!" (after having moved a pile of her stuffed animals into the bathroom)... it was so tempting to just stick a diaper back on her, but we made it through the week! The first couple days she had a couple of accidents. Then the third day she had six accidents. As soon as Jared got home from work that day I went straight to my room for a little time out. Then the last three days she hasn't had any accidents! Success!

Also, I've been babysitting another kid in the mornings and that has made things much more hectic.

Then before we started fireworks last night Mackayla suddenly got a very high fever. She was very sick all night and today. We finally seem to have the fever under control so hopefully she'll get some sleep tonight. I think we just have to make it through one more week then things will quiet down a little. I'll be babysitting for one more week and in another week I'm hoping things will be running very smoothly with the potty business. At that point we will shampoo the carpets. :)

Another big milestone this week is Bradley learned to clap. As soon as he figured it out he didn't stop clapping for days. He's so cute! Even though all babies learn to clap and even Mackayla started clapping at an earlier age we just can't help but watch him and think he's the smartest, most talented, genius baby in the world. Here's a little video of the day he started his clapping.

Our biker girl

Mackayla's new bike came in the mail on Monday. She got to ride around on it in the house for a couple hours then it moved permanently outside. She's still trying to get the hang of pedaling all by herself, but loves riding her bike. She also got a package from G&G Hatfield that day, so she's also wearing the stuff they sent her in this picture. :)

Mackayla LOVES being "twins" with her baby doll.

This week for school Mackayla was learning about partiotism (at a two year old level.) She added the terms: United states of America, American, and Old Glory to her vocabulary. She also learned about respecting the flag and what it means. It's nice to know a little of it sunk in. I heard her telling Bradley, with her hand over her heart, "this is how we be nice to the flag."

Now in this picture I know she's got the wrong hand over her heart, but again, she's only two.

We've been having lots of pool parties this week. Mackayla loves playing in the kiddie pool.



Bradley got to go to his first Father & Son outing. Our ward had a BBQ, and Bradley said he had a GREAT time with his Daddy.While the boys were gone to their BBQ, Mackayla and I played dress-up. Mackayla recently discovered that I have my own box of dress up clothes and loves to pick out outfits for me. This is the beautiful ensemble that she came up with last night. She, of course, just wore her cinderella dress. A family picture! Jared finally shaved his beard yesterday (I forgot how handsome he is)!! I could hardly keep my lips off of his soft, smooth face!
Mom and Bradley

Jared and Mackayla went to a few yard sales this weekend and Jared found a table saw for only $40. He was pretty excited about it. Now we just have to figure out where we're going to put his new collection of tools! :)

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After months of searching we finally found our cheap slide! We decided to try yard-saling again on Saturday morning, even though we've found nothing but junk on our last few attempts. When we pulled up to the house and saw a slide for sale we all began cheering. Mackayla was clapping and saying, "HOORAY! WE FINALLY FOUND MY SLIDE! I'M SHOUTING FOR JOY!"

In addition to the slide we also got a little tikes basketball hoop and three FULL bags of nice clothes for the kids all for a grand total of $20. It was a great day!

We didn't have the kiddie pool set up yet to slide into, but we put the slide under a sprinkler and had a glorious time.

Bradley and Mackayla enjoying a beautiful summer day.

This last week Mackayla was learning about wild animals. On the day we were going to learn about tigers I came out from putting Bradley down and told her to get ready because it was time for school. I went into my room and quickly put on my tiger costume. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this costume (I think I recall Amy wearing it while dancing on a dumpster in the middle of the night.) Anyway I wish I could have gotten a picture of her face when I came out. Her jaw dropped, she got the biggest smile on her face, and proclaimed, "IT'S MOMMY TIGER!" She of course had to try the outfit on herself later. Isn't she a cute little tiger?!

Mackayla is working on her baseball skills. She's almost ready to join the little league.

Bradley was perfectly content just trying to get the ball out of the net sock it came in.


Mackayla and I made a strawberry rhubarb pie together using the rhubarb from our yard. It was delicious.

Mackayla is still amazing us every day with the things she learns and says. She's really into making up her own words now, adding a "y" to the end of every word (kitcheny, backyardy, down stairsy etc...), and giving Bradley new nicknames. Some of the recent things she's said that made us laugh are:

Jared was outside and I told Mackayla to look out the window because Daddy was waving to her. She looked out and said, as if she were so grown up looking at a little kid, "He's just waving away out there. Look at the big ole dad, just waving away."

Jared was getting Mackayla dressed for bed and told her to put her arms up. She did that and then said, "I situated my arms." We were pretty impressed she has picked up that word and knew how to use it.

Lately when she's been waking up bright and early, she sits up in bed and yells "It's good morning time! It's time to get up everyone! It's good morning time!" We have our own little rooster.

She uses the phrase "at one point" from time to time. I'll ask her if she's hungry or something and she'll say, "well, at one point I was, but now I'm ok."

Bradley is starting to talk like crazy, too. He loves to babble and say "mama" and "dada" and throw in an occasional screech also. He's not crawling yet but manages to get around by rolling and turning. He's starting to be able to pull himself up to a standing position. This means we'll have to lower his crib mattress. That will make it a lot harder to put him in his bed when he's already asleep without waking him up. :(

He smiles ALL the time and everywhere we go he gets compliments on his adorable smile and big curls. He's got quite a head of hair for an eight month old. It's going to be so sad when we have to give him a haircut. We're holding out until his one year birthday.

He loves watching and playing with Mackayla. She calls him her best friend and loves to smother him with hugs and kisses. She can be a little overbearing at times. Mommy is always trying to protect him from her affection. We figure he'll have to get use to swarming girls due to his dashing good looks!