Monday, August 31, 2009

Bath Time with Sophie

Sophie loves bathtime, she climbs towards the tub whenever she gets the chance. She loves splashing and playing with Garen's snakes and frogs.







Sunday, August 30, 2009

Hamster Update

So our little hamster that the pet store guy said would not bite, bit Andy twice. And the next morning we found out why-that little thing had 6 babies!!!
I was on the phone and Maddie kept saying I see little red things in there wiggling around, I thought she was making it up. But when I got around to looking myself I realized the mommy was popping one baby out after another.
So Saturday morning we were now the owner of 7 hamsters. Of course I called the pet store right away and let them know I would be bringing all the hamsters back to the pet store in exchange for a new, non-pregnant hamster.
Maddie enjoyed picking out her new little guy-this one she names Jerry (from Tom and Jerry). Maddie has held it several times a day and he is very nice and no biting this time.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Newest Memeber of the Family...


Yes, we got a hamster. And no this was in no way my idea. Maddie entered her name in to win this little creature during the Library's Summer Reading Program. And what are the odds that she would actually win! :[
The library called and wanted to talk to Maddie directly. As they talked to her on the phone she looked up and me and whispers, "I actually won a hamster!"
That night we went to the library to pick up the hamster cage from the library and get Maddie's picture taken for the newspaper. They gave us the certificate to go pick out the hamster.

Maddie is so excited. She has begged me for a pet since she was two, so she loves the little guy. She named him Rascal, after our neighbors dog that moved away a few months ago.

Lets just hope we don't kill the little thing, since Garen has already picked him up in that little ball and threw him.
So here we go with our first pet!

putting the cage together-

Monday, August 24, 2009

Maddie Lost Her First Tooth!

Maddie joined her friends in the toothless club yesterday. She begged me all day to pull the tooth out but it just didn't seem loose enough yet. So she wiggled it and messed with it all day long and finally around 6pm she showed it to me again and I pulled it right out.
She was so excited! She kept saying, "I can't believe I lost a tooth already, and I think I have another loose one."
We went with friends last night to celebrate a birthday and she was pleased to show anyone who would look that she had lost a tooth.
When we got home that night she made sure the little pouch with her tooth in it was partly open and clear on the side of her pillow so the tooth fairy wouldn't have any trouble finding it. And it worked! Her tooth was gone this morning and her little pouch was filled with money.
She ran in my bedroom yelling "the tooth fairy came!"
Losing her tooth is just another sign that my little girl is growing up!

This is the book I gave her on Saturday that came with the pouch to put the tooth in-

She loves sticking her tongue through the whole-

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Jury duty, swimming, potty training, and an old friend

A few things this week:
-On Andy's day off this week he got called into jury duty and then got picked to be on the Jury out of the 70 people called. So the one chance we had to play with dad this week was gone. Andy was there Tues, 8:30-5:00 and Wed, 8:30-7:00-then headed to work for the rest of the evening. I think, other than being inconvenient he enjoyed being on the Jury.

-I am trying so hard to potty train Garen. I am so tired of diapers, but wet underwear is no fun either! We are making progress, but it's slow going.
I put the little potty in front of the TV so Garen will sit longer. Well one day I left him down their for a minute and I hear, "I did it." Apparently the cartoon was to good to look away from and didn't seem to notice that the aim was way off!
There is a little broken part on the bottom of our TV and he just so happen to pee right in there causing the TV to short out and stop working. My first thoughts were "well no more TV for us since buying a new one isn't really and option right now." But later that day it magically turned back on with the volume at 53 and on some strange station and it works perfectly again. Close one-no more toilet right in front of the TV.

-We blew up our pool again and the kids had a good time playing in it-






-Friday Natalie and Nick stopped in on there way to Washington D.C. It was fun to talk with them late into the night. There's nothing as good as spending time with friends you've loved and trusted for most of your life.
Since I didn't take any pictures while she was here and I missed my Flashback Friday, here's me and Natalie in the past-

Saturday, August 15, 2009

8 Months Old


I can't believe she's already 8 months old. On top of that I can believe she is crawling and climbing on everything! Her new trick is to climb up the couch and let go and just stand there. I'm not ready for another walker and her getting into everything!
Except for these painful teeth and this little cold she has, she is mainly happy and all smiles! We love watching her little personality come alive!
two teeth-




waiting for her bath to be ready-

Friday, August 14, 2009

Flashback Friday

As Summer is quickly coming to an end, I think back of all the good times I had with my sisters during the Summer as a kid!
Sara, me, Amanda-

Garen's first Movie Theater Experience and Maddie fishing with dad

We got home from our Bear Lake Vacation on Tuesday just in time for Maddie to go to Ballet. Andy still had one more day off from work so on Wednesday I took Maddie and Garen to the Summer Movie, Monsters vs. Aliens. We have had several movie nights at our house but this was the first time Garen had been to the theater. I gave each of the kids their bag of snacks and Garen didn't even open his till half way through the movie. He just sat back in his chair and stared at the screen with big eyes. He enjoyed the experience. And of course Maddie loved going to the movie as well! She had already seen it so she enjoyed telling us what was going to happen next.

After the movie Andy needed to squeeze in some fishing before he returned to work, so he took Maddie for the evening. They didn't have much luck this time with catching fish, but they still had fun. They enjoyed the beautiful sunset and finding rabbits.


Thursday, August 13, 2009

Bear Lake Vacation: Staying with Grandma and Grandpa

Andy's Grandparents were nice enough to let us take over their house for 5 days in Bear Lake. We truly enjoyed our time there. If we weren't at one of the places listed in my other posts we were relaxing and having fun with the grandparents.
The kids loved all the wind chimes hanging everywhere, the talking stuffed animals-mainly the talking deer head, the humming bird feeder that brought plenty of humming birds right up to the window to watch, throwing sticks in the creek that runs through their yard, playing croquette, making long roads out of grandma's blocks. Andy and I enjoyed the late night chats with grandma Janene, watching a movie with them, and looking through grandpa's old history books and baby pictures of Andy.
We also enjoyed seeing Grandma Jann, Grandpa Boyd, Amber, Zeb and Levi on Saturday.

Andy, grandma Janene, grandpa Roger-

Sophie loved the singing deer until I put her foot in its mouth, in which she full out screamed, not cried, screamed like a girl-

Everything was so beautiful as the sun was going down, I would make the kids go around the yard with to the barns, the grass field, and the creek so I could take their pictures. They were good sports and I love the pictures I got. I didn't get any of Sophie because she was always to tiered by 8pm from her lack of naps-














thumbs up-




I even got Andy in the picture action-
Andy and the kids found a dragonfly that was barely alive and freezing so they tried to save it. Maddie was cute and would go check on it every few minutes-
playing in Grandpa Boyd's truck with cousin Levi-
Sophie and Dad just chill'en-
Garen loved driving this Tractor around-
One cool baby-
Why do we buy toys when they could just play all day with a stick?-
play Croquette-
A little video recap of our trip-