Ready, Set, RIDE!!!!

Bria absolutely amazes me! When she wants to learn something new, she goes in with complete confidence. Sometimes I think she almost has too much confidence and she needs to be a little more cautious. But, when she puts her mind to something, she always accomplishes what she wants. Today that was riding a bike with no training wheels. We got a bike in Albuquerque from Grandpa that had no training wheels on it, but the tire needed a new tube. So, Bria has been patiently waiting for fireworks season to end, then dad's master's classes and finals - so her dad could fix the tire. It seems like one thing after another. So, first thing this morning, she grabbed her dad while he had a minute and finally got him to fix the wheel for her. I bet it didn't even take her ten minute before she was riding down the road all by herself. We had to keep telling her to slow down so she wouldn't crash. She's still a little shaky on turns and is just getting the hang of starting again by herself (instead of someone holding the bike). But, she practiced all afternoon until her face was so red and sweaty she had to stop to get a drink and take a rest. I am SO proud of her!!!

Meanwhile, our extremely cautious little Max (don't tell him I called him little, though) is making little to no progress on the bike he got back in March for his birthday. He can't seem to figure out how to pedal, and really doesn't even want to take the time to try. Every time we try to help him, he gets on for about a minute, gets a little frustrated (but not very because he's a pretty laid back kind of kid), then decides he probably has something better to do and gets off. I'm sure eventually he'll get it, but for now.....I guess he has better things to do. At the end of the day I'm secretly glad he's so cautious when trying new things. It gives me a little bit of peace knowing he's probably not going to get hit by a car or drown in a river. He won't even go near either one because he's so cautious. But, he always tries new things when he is ready, not when I'm ready for him.

It's really fun to watch how different these two are!

Mom and daughter day

I've been promising Bria for a while now that we would have a special day with just the two of us to help her get ready for school. My original plan was to take her to lunch and school shopping, but when the baby dropped and it made it so uncomfortable for me to walk around a lot, we changed things a little bit. So, we decided there were other, more calm things we could do. Bria worked really hard to earn her special day - she had to be on her best behavior for a while and keep the downstairs cleaned up. Finally, on Thursday, she got her day!

First, we went to the hair salon so she could get her hair cut. This is the first time she has ever been to a salon to get her hair cut. I always cut everyone's hair and just go to the salon myself to save money. Even when I go, it's only about every eight months or so - more because I have no time to go than anything. So, this was pretty special for Bria. She had a grin on her face the entire time her hair was getting cut.

Afterwards, we headed over to Claire's to get her ears pierced. I originally wanted her to wait until she turned 8, but I have another idea for celebrating the kids eighth birthdays, so this wouldn't have been a special thing. She has been begging me for months to get earrings. She's such a girlie girl.

I was pretty nervous that we might leave with just one ear done. The associate doing it made it very clear that she was not allowed to do the second ear if Bria told her no. She recommended coming back in a few hours when two people would be there. That way they could do both ears at the same time. There was no way that I was going to sit around and wait for a few hours, so I pretty much said - now or never! Bria picked some really cute pink flower earrings for her first pair. She was so excited until they actually got the first earring through - then she decided she was DONE! She cried and cried and tried to get away. It took me a little bit to settle her down so they could do the other side. But, she was really brave and decided on her own it would be much better to have two earrings. Afterwards, when they put the solution that makes all the pain go away, she was fine. The rest of the day she was so proud of how brave she was.

When she was all done, we got pretzels and smoothies. Doesn't she look cute in her new haircut? It's a lot shorter, but way more manageable. It'll grow back just in time for me to feel like spending more time and energy fixing it again.

We had such a fun day!

Pregnancy Update

Just a quick update about the baby. The good news is he is growing healthy and strong. The bad news is, he decided to drop too early, which is extremely uncomfortable for me. Okay, maybe uncomfortable is a nice way to say it. It just plain hurts. But it's not completely hopeless. The less activity I do, the less pain and contractions I have. (It's actually pretty amazing at how far behind I get on blogging when I have to limit my activity so much.) It's still too early for the baby to come right now, but it won't be much longer....maybe 3 or 4 weeks (instead of the almost 6 it should take). But, as long as he can make it to full term and he's healthy, I think this is more of a blessing in disguise. I've been nervous all summer because the baby is due about a week after Dave has to go back to school. It's really pretty ironic that Dave is here and available all summer to help me, but the time I'll need the most help is when he has to go back to work. Plus, Bria is starting Kindergarten this year, so that adds a little more complication into things. So, if the baby decides to come a week or two early, it may not be worst thing schedule wise. The key is to make sure it's not any sooner. The Dr. thinks that when I actually do go into labor, it will go pretty fast since the baby is pretty much ready to come out now. So, for now.....it's just take it easy and spend some much needed down time with the kiddos. And, thank goodness that Dave is here to help me now. He's pretty much taken over all the household chores and cooks dinner half the time. I don't think lucky even comes close to describing how blessed I am to have his help. I cannot even imagine trying to wrangle our two kids when I definitely can't chase them - half the time I can't even waddle fast enough to catch them. It'll all be okay, though. The baby is healthy and that's all that matters at the end of the day.

Summer Yard Projects

First, I need to say...Dave is FABULOUS!! I'm so lucky to have a such a handyman around. I know he is so under appreciated and taken for granted. But, I am thankful for him just the same.
This summer (and every summer, really) Dave has taken the lead in all of our summer yard projects. This year, especially, he has been very ambitious. Everything is starting to look so nice. Really, if it were just me in charge, we would be lucky to have grass, let alone any kind of landscaping. So, here's an update of what's been going on around our yard:

CURBING:

Earlier in the summer, we got a good deal (with a little bit of trading) on some decorative curbing. We actually didn't have any plans to do anything with our front flower beds this year, but the deal was so good, we just couldn't pass it up. So, we got curbing. It's been fun - but quite the project hauling in dirt and bark...finding and planting bushes and flowers....watering the bushes and flowers so they don't die. But, the new flower beds look really good! We got curbing around the front and side of our house, out by our water spicket and well, by one of the power boxes on the edge of our property, AND around our side gravel driveway.

NEW DECK:

Probably the biggest project Dave tackled was our new deck. It's beautiful, though. He really worked incredibly hard. Early in the summer when we talked about getting a deck, we couldn't completely agree on how to do it. What we ended up doing is entirely Dave's vision. I guess instead of insisting that I really knew more about how to put a deck in, I should have just listened to begin with.

Max has had a BLAST helping his dad. He spent nearly an hour getting screws for Dave....one at a time. It's amazing he had the attention and patience for that (Max, of course - not Dave). Dave worked quite a bit in the evenings since it's cooler, so unless he was already asleep, Max pretty much spent every second he could helping his dad.

NEW TREES:

We've added new trees every year. It's fun to watch how fast they grow. I can't wait until they're big enough to give us some much needed shade and privacy. In a few years, I suppose. This year we added a willow, a purple robe locust (which is gorgeous in the spring when it fills with beautiful purple flowers) and a bunch of poplars. We put the poplars behind our garden along our property line, so that should give us a little bit of privacy in the back anyway. Current tree count: 15. WooHoo! I just want to add some apple trees sometime. We might wait until spring and get some bare root ones, though.

GARDEN:

I've already posted about our garden, which was a huge project in an of itself. But, Dave has really been such a help in keeping our garden weeded. When we planted, I had all these dreams of mornings spent weeding, the kids helping me harvest, and lots of home canning. I don't know. Maybe my dreams were unrealistic to begin with, but I'm starting to realize maybe they won't come totally to fruition. This pregnancy has made it hard to do little things like weed. Well, it won't be long until this baby makes his debut, and the garden will still have plenty of time left, so...I don't know....maybe my home canning goals won't be a total waste. In the meantime, though, Dave has worked hard weeding and weeding and weeding for me.

Confessions of a Binge Blogger

This morning I was thinking that it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. And before that it was almost 2 weeks earlier. Not that we don't' have things going on, cause we totally do. We've been really busy. Truthfully, I think I have a little bit of a problem. Admitting is the first step, right. Okay, I'll just say it. I think I might have a binge blogging problem. It's really a vicious cycle. It goes something like this: I stop blogging for a period of time. Then I get really far behind, because we actually are doing thing during that time. Then I spend hours binge blogging to catch up (it takes FOREVER to get all the pictures uploaded and the wording spell checked and re-read). Next comes the blogging burnout - from spending so much time catching up. So, the blog just sits for another couple of weeks until I am sufficiently behind. And, the cycle starts all over again. So, there you have it. And, here comes another blogging binge. Hope you enjoy! =)

Swimming Lessons

We decided to put the kids in swimming lessons this year. It worked out really good because the class they are in is for 3 to 5 year olds, so they both got to be in the same class. It's been really fun! Bria is doing awesome! We knew she would - she is pretty fearless when it comes to trying new things. Max is also doing incredible! I almost pulled him out at the last minute because he's had a lot of water anxiety lately. Until swimming lessons started, anytime we went near water he went running the other way. Even if we could talk him into getting into the pool, he would hold onto a grown-up for dear life! But, he is just joining right in and doing a great job! It amazes me to see him try things by himself and the expressions on his face are so enthusiastic. It's too bad it's only two weeks! I think they would both love to go everyday for the rest of the summer!

Idaho Summer Festival

This weekend, Dave had a booth at the Idaho Summer Festival. He did all the graphic /website/advertising designing for it, so he got a booth for free (or rather trade, I guess, since he did so much work). The festival started on Wednesday and went all the way to Saturday. Me and the kids went to go visit him on Friday for a while - they had a TON of stuff going on.

It was kind of like a carnival-type event, so there was lots of yummy food. Our kids have never eaten a funnel cake before, so I knew they had to try one. Yep - an instant success!

They also had a booth from Austin Kade Academy in Idaho Falls doing crazy hair for kids. So, we headed right over.

Very cool!! Bria requested braids with lots of pink....and green, and yellow, and sparkles. Mad didn't know what he was getting himself into. They hair dresser did a fabulous job on the star. He loved all the attention he got walking around after that. Bria cracked me up! I finally had to tell her to quit pointing when she saw someone walking around with crazy hair. Some of the girls walking around may have had crazy looking hair, but it wasn't "crazy hair". We got a pretty good laugh!

I must be suffering from camera forgetfulness lately because I meant to get a picture of Dave's booth. His dad was there helping also. But, somehow I left and no pictures of that. Darn!!!

Cherries, Cherries, Cherries!!!

45 pounds of cherries is A LOT of cherries. Seriously. When I first saw them, I didn't think it was very much, but trust me - it most definitely is! I ordered cherries from my old visiting teacher. Her parents have a fruit farm and were selling them for an excellent price, so I couldn't resist. They were VERY good! They were picked fresh last Tuesday morning and delivered that afternoon.


Max loved eating them. I think he would have eaten the entire 45 lbs himself, but I can't imagine what that would have done to his little system, so I had to keep him from sneaking too many. I told him not to eat the pits, so he started on one side and ate all the way to the pit. (I guess he didn't realize that he could also eat the other side.) He's really sensitive with name calling, so he wasn't very happy when I told him he had a messy cherry face. When I told him to go look in the mirror, he agreed - definitely a messy cherry face! (I love how red his teeth are!)





It took me several hours just to wash and de-stem all the cherries. I dried a few, but decided after pitting about 100 or so cherries by hand that it was going to be WAY too time consuming. So, I decided to bottle all the rest. I was really excited to use the new canner Dave got me for Christmas. I ended up with 34 bottles of cherries, so we should be good for a while. Since it was my first solo canning experience, I was pretty proud of all the bottles sitting on my counter. More great canning to come!

How we spend our 4th of July

At our house, the 4th of July is probably the busiest holiday of the year. Dave grew up selling fireworks with his parents and we have carried on the tradition by selling fireworks ourselves. We have 2 locations that we run every year in Rexburg - one in the Walmart parking lot and one in the Broulim's parking lot. It's an amazingly HUGE amount of work! Every year I wonder how we make it through, and yet we always seem to. It's long hours - 12 to 16 hours every day for 9 days. Then, after it's over, we still have inventory, accounting and settling to do with TNT, the company we sell through. But, it really is a lot of fun.

So, as you can imagine, the 4th of July is our busiest day. We started this year at 8:00am and didn't get home until about 2:30 the next morning. If we watch fireworks, it's only for a few minutes from the stand or tent and then back to work.

But, despite the busyness, I always try to at least go to the parade with our kids. Dave usually misses it - he's almost always stuck at Walmart. But, I head over to the Broulim's stand and spend time with them. I'm sure they have a lot more fun. They usually spend the rest of the day with Dave's family. This year they did some backyard swimming. Then, when evening comes, they head over and hang out with Dave and I until it's time to go home.

This year, our helpers at the stand were my brother, Tyson, his cute girlfriend, Jalim, and Vallie Pond. They were fabulous helpers! In this picture, they were taking a break during the parade. I wanted to get pictures of Dave and his dad at our tent, but it was so busy (and to be honest, I was so tired) no pictures were taken. We always have next year, I guess.

The parade is a hit with the kids. Almost every float has candy to throw out. Bria really got the hang of collecting all the loot this year. She got all kinds of fun stuff. Max got a few things, but kept coming back to sit by me so he missed out on all the booty.

Most of Dave's family usually comes to watch. Bria and Max are watching the parade with cousins Morgan, Alexess and Michael. I love how Bria is covering her eyes from the sun!

When they got to the tent with Dave and I, they were absolutely exhausted!! It took a good hour and a half to get them calmed down enough to finally fall asleep in the back of the van. We rented a few movies to help them fall asleep. I thought it was so cute how they fell asleep cuddling each other! So cute.