Happy 7th Anniversary/Swing Set

7 years on the 28th of June, crazy! Although we really have been together for a total of 9 years! We didn't do anything fun for our anniversary(which we need to change), but it was a good day. We ordered a swing set that wasn't supposed to be here until the first part of August, and the day before our Anniversary as we were about headed over to my parents to celebrate my sisters birthday, we got a phone call saying that, our swing set was here and wondered if he could deliver it in the next 15 minutes. What? So, on our Anniversary Rob and my brother started to put together the swing set. Julie had so much fun during the day playing on it like this. Who knew you could have so much fun playing on a flat slide! She did this literally all afternoon.

By the end of the first evening of putting it together it was probably half finished, Julie was able to at least swing the next day and climb the rope ladder to the platform.

So, we were going to go get Aggie Ice Cream for our Anniversary, so we will have to postpone that for another day. It has been a great year.

We also got our AC in our van fixed, so I was without a car on our Anniversary, but we have air conditioning again, and if felt so wonderful.
 The next day when Rob came home from work, he started working on it again and my brother came over again to help. What a great help he was, here are some more pictures.

 The slide is really FAST, and Julie kind of flys right off of it at the bottom, so we have to slow her down. It is pretty fast for adults also. Funny thing, my brother went down the slide and I just caught it from the corner of my eye, but it flung him off as well. He landed and was like, whoa, that is fast. Rob felt the swing set move and said, "Julie, be careful", and my brother was like, "that was me". I took a shower later that evening and remembered seeing Jason fly off and how it just caught him off guard with how fast it was, and just started laughing. Plus, the slide has a bump in the middle, kind of need to get used to the slide.

It is not supposed to get as hot as a metal slide, but when the sun is on it, it gets pretty darn hot.

 The rope ladder, I didn't think Julie would be able to do this one very well, but she got the hang of it pretty fast.

 Here I go, mom! Doesn't she look so happy!

 She loved "helping" Dad put things together!

 Screwdriver in hand, she is ready to go!

 More completed!

 Getting late and putting the last finishing touches on!

 Julie was having so much fun that she didn't get to bed until about 10:00 this evening, I just couldn't pull her away.

 She loves the steering wheel, and until she fell asleep, she kept saying, "Jason put the steering wheel on"

 It makes a clicking noise as it goes around, and under neath the steering wheel is a chalkboard.

 My brother hard at work.

 Rob hard at work!

 Whoops, don't have a totally finished picture, but will take one tomorrow and update this!

I think Julie is going to have lots of enjoyment on this, and we are so glad it came earlier than we expected. 

 Now, my mother is going to help me landscape my backyard.
Big thank to my brother Jason and Rob for putting it together.

Riding

A few weeks ago I went riding with Rob. He had been bugging and bugging me to go riding with him. So, Friday I asked him what we were going to do, and he was like, "Go riding", and I was like "You have to work", and so he said, " I will take a half day". Well, we didn't go riding Friday and kind of wasn't planning on it today since he didn't mention it again until after her went to the store in the morning, he came back and asked if I would go riding around 2 or 3 this afternoon, I was like, "I don't know", so at 1:30 he asks me with his big grin and I said, "I will have to ask my mom to watch the kids", so I called my mom and she said she would watch them. So, we quickly got the kids ready, and everything loaded up and made it to my moms after 3:00, kind of late to go riding I thought, but oh well. So, we dropped the kids off and Julie did not want us to go. We headed up to Temple Fort to do a trail that you can take all the way to Garden City and get a shake, but we were not doing that one today, just a quick loop around. Rob drove for the first little bit and then we stopped at a turn around spot and got out and climbed some rocks and took some pictures.

 My legs were a little wobbly after sitting for a while and so when we climbed up, it had already felt like we had gone on a hike and being up there at the top was a little scary, plus there were ants and bugs just crawling all over the ground, like the ground was moving.

 But the view was beautiful!

 And the company was even better! Thanks for getting me out sweetie, I think I will be a little more willing to go next time he asks me to go with him. He wanted me to go riding with him for his birthday coming up this week.

 Our ride hiding down there behind the trees.

 Now it was my turn to drive and I drove the rest of the way and got the hang of it.

 We even saw Bear Lake, so I had to stop and take a picture.

We had a lovely time and we stopped at Aggie Ice Cream on our way home and enjoyed an ice cream. Although, once we got in the parking lot, we found out that one of the tires to the trailer had blown and shredded, so I went and got the ice cream while Rob fixed it and had my Dad come and bring his wrenches. All in all it was a wonderful date with my sweetie. And a big thanks to my parents for watching our kids while we escaped. Now I need to get a helmet that actually fits me a little better.

What is Julie up to? /29 Months

- She is always saying, "I need to hold you", it is just so funny!
-LOVES to be outside, we have ordered a swingset, but it won't be here until the first of August. She loves to push the purple umbrella stroller around the garage and down the sidewalk. She loves to just be in the garage.
-Melanie does not sleep in her crib in Julie's room yet, but I put her in there while changing Julie occasionally. Julie likes to climb in, we have since moved her bed against the other wall, so this won't happen.

-Julie loves this pink blanket and also her muslin star blanket, she hasn't cared much for her little blankie anymore, don't know if it is just too hot or what but she has been liking these other blankets and loves to wrap them around her head.

 -After giving her a bath and letting it air dry, it gets really curly in the back. Everyone asks me if I curl it, but I don't, she has naturally curly hair except for one piece at the crown of her head that is straight. Love her curls.

-Loves to wear my shoes, and here she is wearing my boots, she was moving so fast that I never got a good shot of the boots. And she has also been loving hats, guess I should make her some summer hats.

 -Whenever Julie's cousin Mason comes to visit, they bring Nilla Wafers and my sister can bribe Julie a little with them. So I got some for her and she has been loving them.

Julie is a Daddy's girl all the way, when Rob leaves for work in the morning, as he is driving away, she says,"Daddy come home". She loves to be out in the garage with Daddy helping with whatever he is doing. Playing with all his screw driver and bolts and sockets, whatever she can get her hands on that Daddy will let her play with.

She went on a ride up Green Canyon with Rob.  Rob got a little child's seat to go in the side-by-side, so that Julie could ride also. We went to Al's and got her a helmet. I think the ride they went on was a little bumpy, but I think she had a good time with Daddy, and she loves riding in Daddy's truck and since going riding with Dad means treats, she loved it and carried the jar of peanuts around for a while after they got home.

 Watching Julie and Daddy get ready before they left.

Loves her car seat in Daddy's truck, and the spot for her water bottle.

-A recent outing in the stroller.

-After church, she would wrap herself up like a burrito and then she fell asleep.

 -She has putting things in lines lately, and here she is aligning all of Robs Gatorade bottles that we were giving to Robs parents.

 She loves to fit into tight spaces, like this one and she loves to get into the cupboard under my parents sink in their bathroom.

 She is into filling up containers and then dumping the water, so I stuck her in the tub with a tiny bit of water coming out of the faucet and she played for quite a while like that. She never really sat down, but her diaper was soaked when she was done. Now, she brings her stool up to the bathroom sink and fills up whatever she can find.

 -She call her potty the "Oh Tee Tiny Potty", meaning the little potty. We tried underwear the other day, she kept them dry for a few hours but would not go on the potty, she would sit on the potty though. This will be a work in progress. At least she had her accident on the kitchen stool, so that it was easier to clean up. I knew when she did it, she had that look of, "uh oh".

 She found a diaper cover to one of her dresses and decided to wear it as a hat, haha, good thing it matched her outfit, huh!

She LOVES to be outside, I will let her into the front yard and she has to have the door cracked just a little bit so that she can get back in. She will sit on the steps, sit on the bench on the porch.
She loves to lay down on the steps.

 Loving the step

Going to check the mail.

We went to the park with friends and Julie got her first sunburn, we did put sunscreen on her after the fact, and she got a rash from that. Can't see it too well, just mainly on her cheeks, don't know how it missed her nose.

 Melanie got her first burn as well, she was in the shade the whole time. We came home and I was giving her some tummy time, which she was rubbing her face into the ground, and so I thought it was just red from that, but it didn't go away and I realized that it was sunburned. Darn it, I felt bad!

 She is into unrolling the toilet paper, this time it was a pretty full roll. It is so not fun rolling all that toilet paper back on the roll.

 Julie has been wanting to hold Melanie and will attempt to pick her up sometimes. She will grab her from the middle and lift, I have caught her doing this twice and I was just glad I was close. She also loves to stick her binky in her mouth when she is fussy, and then pull it out of course, and stick it in her own mouth. 

 Naptime is pretty non existent these days, it is so hard to get her to stay in her room. We do try to have quiet time, but that doesn't always work either. The only problem is if she does get a nap, she will be up until 10:00, she will be in her bed, but she talks and just isn't tired and takes her forever to get to sleep. And then if she doesn't take a nap, she either falls asleep right before dinner time or is just extremely tired. Or she is so tired that she still takes a while to get to sleep. The other day, I had to hold her while I made dinner to keep her awake, and then it was like she got her second wind and she still was hard to get to sleep. What in the world do I do?
Although, knock on wood, she has been sleeping through the night without waking us up lately, which is so awesome.
-Loves to play downstairs, and now that she can go up and down without me worrying that she is going to fall, I have been leaving the gate open. She loves to get into the food storage and bring me things, like crackers that she wanted and marshmallows. It is so hard to keep her out of everything.
-Her top two year molars came in, I am not sure when, but maybe that is why she hated us brushing her teeth. She is getting her bottom right molar right now, half in and half popping out.
-She is into repeating everything we say. And she also will sing songs that she learns in nursery or that I will sing to her. The one she has been singing today is,"The Itsy Bitsy Spider", but she will also sing Ring around the Roses, and she also likes Popcorn Popping, and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. So fun to listen to her sing, and it is just so fun to watch her play by herself.