Chillin' at the Park - September 9, 2012

Sunday - September 9, 2012

We had a really nice day.  After church, we ate some lunch, then relaxed for a little while.  After our naps and relax time, we went across the street to the park and played football.  I never thought I would love playing football so much.  I'm getting better at throwing the ball.  It's just really fun to play football with Roger and the kids.  We laugh a lot.  Almost every time we go out to play, we are joined by some neighbor kids.  I think that makes it fun too.  When we tired of football, Alissa started working on her cartwheels again.  She is so determined to get really good at doing cartwheels.  Her friend Jasmine came over to the park to join in our fun.  I really love living across the street from this park. It's nice.

Parker's Super Fun Bouncy Ball - September 8, 2012

Saturday - September 8, 2012

Parker has a really fun bouncy ball that we all love to play with.  It is full of a liquid and some sparkles.  We were bored on tonight, so we went outside to play.  Roger was watching Parker bounce the ball and he wondered how strong the ball actually was.  Parker gave Roger the ball so we could see.  Roger threw the ball into the ground as hard as he could.  It looked really cool.  The ball spread out as it hit the ground, but it didn't pop.  It just bounced back up really high in the air.  I tried to take a picture of it as it was spread out against the ground, but I never managed to snap the picture in time.  The kids pulled out their scooters and started to ride around.  We just had a lot of fun goofing off outside as it got dark outside.

Alissa's Ouchy - September 4, 2012

Tuesday - September 4, 2012 
Alissa fell on the way to school.  I'm glad that I didn't have them walk by themselves.  I've been walking with them everyday, because it just seems like such a long way to go all by themselves.  We were almost to the school when it happened.  She had found one of her friends and decided to walk with that friend.  Her friend wanted to run.  I heard them say, "Ready, Set, Go!"  Her friend took off running, but Alissa tripped over her own foot before she could even take one step.  For some reason, she wasn't able to get her hands out in front of her, to catch herself.  She landed right on her face.  Her teeth cut into the back of her top lip, as her top lip skidded across the pavement.  There was a lot of blood.  Luckily we had some tissue in her backpack.  Then we walked into the school to tell them that she was going home.  Poor girl!  she ended up not going to school at all that day.  We had our scheduled time to go see the Brigham City Temple that day, so I was going to be pulling the kids out of school early.  So, it was just easier for her not to go at all.

We loved seeing the Brigham City Temple.  It is sooo... beautiful!  I loved all of the art work.  Our favorite things were the chandeliers and the sealing room.  The kids loved being able to see forever, when looking in the mirrors.  It was too crowded for us to take pictures.  We decided that we will go back on a less busy day and take family pictures in front of it.

Playing in the Rain - September 1, 2012

Saturday - September 1, 2012

We went outside in the rain so I could clean up the branches from the tree.  The mailman had complained that the tree was getting in the way and he wouldn't deliver the mail anymore if the branches didn't get cut.  So, our landlord came and cut a bunch of the branches, then I had to go out and clean them up.

It felt really nice outside.  Parker and Brinley were so excited to be out running around in the rain.

Parker went back outside after I had come in and laid down in the gutter.  Then he came in and asked me to take pictures of how wet and dirty he was.  He was especially proud of his yucky, mud spotted head.  What a goofy kid!

Hairstyles - August 31, 2012

Friday - August 31, 2012

The girls let me do their hair this morning!

Just Hanging Out - August 29, 2012

Wednesday - August 29, 2012

The kids were just playing in the backyard and I was trying out some of the settings on our camera.  I love these kids! And I love our camera!

First Day of School - August 28, 2012

 Tuesday - August 28, 2012
The kids were so excited for their first day of school.  Although, Parker didn't want me to take his picture.  That's why he has his head down.  What a stinker!

The kids walk to school.  It takes 15 to 20 minutes to get there.  I don't love that it takes that long to walk, but they are too close to ride the bus.  I miss living right across the street from the school.

Alissa and Brinley chose flower braid hairstyles.  They look so cute!

When we got to school, I made them stand in front of the school sign, while I took their picture.

McKinley Elementary offers free breakfast, so we ate breakfast at the school.

Then we went to introduce Brinley to her teacher.  Brinley wasn't able to meet her teacher on back to school night, because, as we were getting ready to go, I realized that Brinley had a fever.  She was sad that she didn't get to meet her teacher that night.  Her teacher was really nice and Brinley was really happy when she met her before school started.
In front of Brinley's class room, there is a cowboy picture, that you can put your head in.  So that's what Brinley and Parker did.

The kids came home happy.  They said that they had a great day!

Dentist, Swimming, and Our Art Wall - August 23, 2012

Alissa went to the dentist.  She had some baby teeth that weren't falling out on their own and her grown up teeth were trying to come out.  The dentist pulled 4 teeth.  Alissa was so tough and so brave.  She didn't whine, cry, or even flinch!  She was amazing.  The dentist said he has never worked on such a tough child.  He was really surprised that she didn't even flinch when he gave her a shot to numb her mouth.  It took a long time for her to get the feeling back in her mouth.  She kept trying to smile, but she couldn't.  It looks like she's frowning.  I'm surprised that she let me take pictures of her.  I really don't like that feeling when your mouth is all numb.  Poor girl.

We started this summer with four swimming pools.  Two of them, we had been using since the summer of 2008.  The third one, we got from the Beverly's, two years ago.  The fourth one (my favorite pool), we couldn't use, because I couldn't find the plugs for it.  I always kept them in the same place in our shed, every year.  I remembered putting them in a safe place, while we were packing, so I wouldn't lose them.  I looked every where and couldn't find them.

As the summer went on, the pools broke.  All three of the working pools had broken and I was so sad, but I figured that, summer was almost over, so we could handle waiting until next year to buy more.  Then the swamp cooler broke.  We had to wait for a few days for someone to come and fix it.  I was so hot and desperate to cool down.  I pulled out the pool that was missing the plugs and got creative to plug it up.  I blew it up, then shoved a bouncy ball in the first hole and used duct tape to keep it in place.  I still had two more layers to fill with air and I couldn't find another bouncy ball that was the right size.  Then I came up with another idea.  It was to crumble up plastic wrap into a ball and shove it in the valve after I blew up the pool, then duct tape it in place.  It worked great!  I was so excited to be able to use our favorite pool.  Here are some pictures of the kids playing in it.  Erin, Ellie, and Jake came over to swim with us.  Two weeks after, I figured out how to plug up the pool, I went to visit an old neighbor.  We walked across the street to our old house, just to look at things.  We looked in the shed, and there were my plugs for the pool!  I was so excited!  I love that pool and it is so much better, now that I can plug it up the right way.

I was just having fun experimenting with the different settings on the camera.  I love our new camera!

We all love to do art.  I decided, to use our empty walls by the stairs and in the hallway as our art wall.  Also, I hung up our maps in the kitchen, by the table. 

 Here's our cute little Brinley and Alissa.  They were just chillin' while I was taking pictures of the art, so , of course, I had to take their pictures.  Alissa let me take a close up of her missing teeth.

The Fair - August 22, 2012

Wednesday - August 22, 2012
Alissa has been wanting to be in the fair parade for years.  This year, she finally got to be in the parade.  She is in the Student Council this year, so she got to walk in the parade and hand out pencils.  She was so excited!  It was a long hot walk and not quite as fun as she thought it would be, but she was still happy that she did it.  We watched the parade with Brinley's friend, Taylor's family.  It was a fun parade and we got a lot of candy.  Roger always works the night of the fair parade, but he took a couple of hours off so he could see Alissa in the parade.  It was really nice to have Roger at the parade with us.

While we were watching the parade, Roger's worked called and told him that it was slow, so he didn't need to come in tonight.  That meant we were able to go to the fair on the night that all of the rides were only one ticket!  Parker and Brinley were scared at first, but eventually they warmed up and had a ton of fun riding some rides.  Alissa has no fear, and rode on the big scary ones.