Summer

This summer has been a flash, but also incredibly long.  This post is going to be a marathon, I haven't posted anything for so long.

We started with a baby. This kind of put a damper on everything else, at least for me.  Luckily the kids had Grandma around so they ended up having a lot more fun than usual.  They did lots of cool stuff, including camping, trips to the pool and splash pad, a train ride to Salt Lake and much more.

The Children's Parade.

The Farmer's Market.

The Springville splash pad opened in spring at it became a regular outing for us, since it's only about 2 blocks away.  Annie likes to hug this statue.

And splash.

With the neighbor girl, Codi.

One day we rode bikes to SOS Drugs on main street and got ice cream cones before rinsing it off at the splash pad.  It was old-timey awesomeness.

We also went with Hannah and family when they came from Denver.  Cousin Cate is in the middle.

Baby Aaron and Baby June had a good time, too.

On a rock at a park.

There were also some outings to places like Thanksgiving Point and Trafalga.

We had a quick trip to the county fair.

He's a softie.

I wish I had a goat.

Jack had a couple sports classes. A general "sports camp", a football camp, and now has started soccer.  He's pretty cute.  He likes to pose (and Annie likes to copy him).  Here he is posing in front of a beautiful rainbow and the soccer game.

A few days before June was born we attended our first Art City Days as actual residents of the Art City, Springville.  We live half a block from the parade, a couple blocks from the carnival, balloon festival, a great kid's fair, an art fair, and we also had a fun BBQ with friends.  It was great and I look forward to making it an annual thing.

Most of our fun was had at home.  Jack and Annie both love their babies.

 Annie made diaper shoes.

The curio that I painted is for stuff that we like to collect.  Interesting egg shells, a bird nest, coral, an especially smooth stick, etc.  We have a lot of foot traffic near our house and occasionally someone will throw garbage in our yard.  Lily and Jack found a Bud Light can and Lily suggested that we collect cans for recycling.  Jack liked the idea of "collecting" it but misunderstood the type of collection.  I walked by to find this:

The gutter across the street fills up with irrigation water once a week.  It's pretty fun.  They're "gutter babies", which is the term we've used for kids in the gutter, since Grandma let Lily play in the gutter when she was still a tiny baby.

 Jack taught Annie about being a ninja.  She wears a headband, kids her legs and says "Hi -Yah!"

Jack and Ruby love each other.  I think he might be a little allergic to her, which is a problem because she sleeps on his pillow.  His whole bed is covered in her fur, since she's getting old and I never brush her, she sheds a lot.

 We painted the inside of the play house.  It was a super messy mess, but I just let them have at it and spill as much paint as they wanted to.

Lily and Annie love dress ups.  Lily dresses Annie like a big doll.  Here they are the Pink Princess and Purple Princess.

Jack has devoted a significant amount of time to Legos.

The kids slid down the stairs on a baby mattress.  It's amazingly fast.  My sisters and I used to do the same thing.

These pictures crack me up.  One day we painted some shirts.  Lily of course took it very seriously, Jack made some crazy poses, and Annie had to copy him.  This is 4 of about 30 wacky pictures.

Annie decided it was time to go on the potty.  It was so easy compared to the older two kids.  It was only one, maybe two days of effort and a couple accidents.  She did a great, great job.

Cat hat.  She's such a patient cat.

Making fruit loop necklaces.  These were the cheap brand and really toxic, they bothered her stomach and she had blueish poo for a couple days.

Swings.

Annie insists that the diaper covers that come with her dresses are actually hats. (this is a really old picture, she's changed so much in just a couple months.)

With a 4th kid we needed a new car. The first thing Jared thought of after the the initial shock of finding out I was pregnant was what kind of car we would buy.  After almost a year of discussing it and contemplating, we finally pulled the trigger on a Honda Odyssey minivan.  I've always sworn I would never drive a minivan, but after having driven the least convenient vehicle for two years, all I cared about was making my life easier.  It's got power doors and lots of space so that the kids can get in and buckled on their own, unlike the truck where they would fall out and couldn't reach the buckles. The kids are spaced out so there's less fighting, they have their own climate, DVD player, toy cubbies, and more.  It's ridiculous how much I like it so far.

Good bye, truck.

While still in first grade Lily wrote this.  There were several of these kind of writing projects that really cracked me up.  In case you can't tell, it says "Na na na na na, little shark come and get me!"  and then I guess that shark did get the little, brown seal.

Right before school ended Lily got a super-cute short haircut.

Lily started second grade.  She now walks to school and back with her friend and no need for an adult, which is very nice for me.

This is Jack's Preschool project.  It's the survey he did for Mother's Day.  My favorite part is that  I weigh 11.  Maybe if it were a scale of 1-10.

Here he is at his Preschool graduation.  He put his little paper graduation cap upside down.

Jack started Kindergarten finally, it seems like we've been waiting anxiously for this forever.  He was very excited, but also nervous, just like me.  He's so grown up.  I'm really looking forward to my afternoon break when the two big kids will be at school and the two little kids will be napping.

I am going to miss him a little, too.

I did some crafts, which is kind of a new thing for me, I'm not a crafter.

I painted this cabinet which was a yard sale find. (Actually Jared painted it, but I commissioned it.)

I painted two old side tables this yellow/green and the coffee table and a curio the blue.  The colors look different in real life and really pretty.

All the other house projects have been on hold, although we did get the scary, "haunted house tree" in the front of our house chopped down.  It doesn't look too bad in the picture, but without leaves it's terrible and dying anyway.
Before:

After:

Jared did a great job with our new garden.  He planted pole beans, 3 varieties of tomato, 3 types of peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkins, and watermelon.  Besides the watermelon, it all grew and did amazingly well.

We have giant tomatoes and tons of everything else.

 Two trees full of apples.

The rest of the yard has been a struggle.  Turns out we have a ton of grass and it takes a really long time to water; sprinklers next year, maybe.  Here's Sandy enjoying the sprinklers on a hot day.

Jared also is working very hard, as you can see here, in his office working on important stuff.

I'm sure someday I'm going to be grateful that I wrote this down, my brain is not working at its top performance.  Even though this was such a long post, there are still so many funny, cute and sweet things that happen and that I've forgotten already.  Some days, when I go to bed, even remembering what happened in the morning seems like it was days ago instead of hours.  It was a good and exhausting summer.