June flew by...now it's the middle of July!

We stayed really busy in June, with Bear doing day camp every morning, Bear's Tball games, participating in a mom's group tour of all the parks in the city - twice a week we try a different park - and the usual projects that pop up.

Every Saturday, the family has been watching Bear's t-ball games. He's the one with the yellow bat.

 

Random cute pictures of Tiger, followed by this picture that makes me thing Little Miss really does take after me. (Those who know, know what I mean.)

End of June is always Summerfest. Every year, Bear wants to do the big slide first. This year I went with Little Miss because she was tall enough to go too. 

 

 We invited Grandpa and one of their Aunts to go with us (I need a nickname for child #8 of 9)

 More cute pictures of our Tiger baby.

Bear putting on a concert in the living room.

I sewed my Little Miss 3 a rainbow twirl dress. Fourteen flounces - but totally worth it. Bear is a little obsessed with rainbows and gold (like at the end of the rainbow) right now. He was as excited as she was that I was making a rainbow colored dress for her.





We spent the last Sunday in June taking a walk around the Provo temple. We have been trying to find Sabbath appropriate things to do as a family.

Candy bomber on July 3rd. We don't usually go for the big crowd events, especially in the hot sun, but it was pretty exciting to see the WWII planes fly by over our heads. Most of the candy sadly fell north of the park and missed its mark, so there were a lot of sad kids. I think it was still fun.

4th of July at my sister Sue's house. My mother and two of her siblings were also there. We had a great time. She purchased a few aerials. Wow. Being up close to those, staring straight up into the sky. Wow.

We are getting ready for Bear's birthday party next month. I finished the pinata so far.

Tiger has discovered video game controllers, much to our chagrin. He wants to do whatever the other people are doing, and he knows the difference if you try to pull a fast one on him. 


 
 Little Miss has taken an interest in dressing up in costumes, much to my delight, even if she keeps changing her mind and costume about every 5 minutes. Here she is as Little Miss Astronaut.

New Stats

Little Miss 3 is:
W: 36 lbs 4 oz  90%
L: 39.5 inches  93%

Tiger at one year old is:
W: 24 lbs 5 oz. 90%
L: 30.75 inches  80%
Head: 18.75 inches  90%

Doctor confirmed they are strong and doing well. If Little Miss 3 continues to have trouble with her speech and being understood, we will get her evaluated next Fall. For now, we are hoping she will catch up.

A Month in Pictures

 Blueberry yogurt seems to be Tiger's favorite.

We attended the Payson temple open house. We went on a weekend morning, and there wasn't a lot of waiting, so the kids did great. Bear's favorite part were the "rainbows on the ceiling" from the chandeliers in the celestial room. He tried to lay down to watch them, but a volunteer helped him up to keep the line moving. He loves the colors of the rainbow and has really started drawing/coloring recognizable things. He likes to color things with at least three different colors (red, yellow and orange) instead of just one color. Oh, and the dress Little Miss 3 is wearing is my first attempt at "upcycling." I made that dress out of a blue button down shirt, free from Werty's work, and a pink satin remnant. She calls it her "flower dress" because she likes the big flower on the front.

Dressing up her magnetic doll - see Rena, she plays with it.

We gathered together a week ago for my nephew's graveside service. Since we couldn't remember the last time all four of us sisters were together, we took the opportunity to pose for a photo.

 And one with my parents.

The kids have been recovering from sickness most of the month, leaving them more tired than usual. The older two have been taking random naps. Here is Bear, asleep on the play table in the family room, on a "bed" he made for himself out of the couch cushions. 

Bear graduated from Preschool this week. Here is at, going to his last day of school. And below at graduation later that same day. They put on a program, and the kids got to sing all of the songs they have learned this year. It was really cute. Grandpa video recorded it. When did my son get so big? He starts T-ball this week, and Kindergarten in the Fall.

Last of all, Tiger had a birthday this month. We had a combined party for Little Miss 3 and Tiger, a family BBQ in our backyard. Here are pics taken of Tiger on his birthday.

Look at those long eyelashes!

An Octonauts cake! I went for M&M decorating instead of marshmallow fondant, because who doesn't love more candy?

 Cousins roaring for the camera.

Yes, that is Tiger pushing his slightly older cousin on the fire truck. He pushed him all the way across the room. They were having a great time together.

Smash cake time - a cake flavored with blueberry yogurt. I believe he drummed on the cake more than he actually ate it.

Opening presents.

Two of my nieces, having baby cousin time.

Walking Tiger

Tiger walked several steps, and then later halfway across the room a couple times. We went and got the camera and he walked to mommy on cue. Today is the official day he walked independently. He is turning one later this week, so he is doing well. He is also joining in more with his siblings' play. He goes down stairs super fast, like my nephew Snuggle Puppy did at this age. He can also entertain himself with stacking toys or by tossing a ball, and then chasing after it.

Heartbroken

Watched my brother lay his son to rest today. Simple, beautiful service. We gathered as a family to recognize his life, that he is part of an eternal family. He is my nephew and someday I will get to meet him in heaven. He is greatly loved by his parents, and they miss him so much. This last week, One Moment More by Mindy Smith has been the theme of my thoughts as I have thought about my brother.

Birthdays and Nasty Viruses

This is week #2 of having a nasty virus, possibly the same virus that causes mono. Poor Little Miss had her birthday party postponed because everyone came down with pink eye. She broke out in hives at the first two types of eye drops. After being up all night for two nights with a girl who can't sleep because her hives itch, and having to feed the baby in between being called to Little Miss' room, I got hit by the virus pretty hard and forgot to call the doctor for the next two days, and then it was the weekend. So, it wasn't until her eye infection came back on Sunday, that I resolved to ask for a third kind of eye drops. They said this is the last one they can try, and so far, so good. Unfortunately, she gave her baby brother pink eye again, so now he has to start the eye drops again too. I was the only one who didn't catch the pink eye, just the rest of the upper respiratory junk, head congestion, painfully swollen throat, fever and chills.

Before we all came down sick, we had BBug and her family over from ABQ for the weekend for my nephew's birthday party (Zinx's son). Since Zinx and Cherry were about to move away to CA, and were busy with packing, I volunteered to make the cake. What did my nephew want? A backhoe cake. What flavor? Frosting, frosting, and carrot cake.Okay. This is what I did:


No idea why the blogger program rotated it.

 My nephew was thrilled with the backhoe cake and that made me happy. Here he is with his parents and his sister (on the left - we were also celebrating her birthday a month early because they were moving away.)

Werty took this pic of me at the party:

Pics of the family: BBug's 2nd and Dawn's little girl

 Little Miss with Grandpa

Dawn's little girl and Tiger at our favorite restaurant

 Bear saying goodbye to his favorite cousin, BBug's oldest.

 Proof that Zinx graduated from BYU!

I made Little Miss a cake on her birthday, even though we were all quarantined at home.

 A Gup-X for the birthday girl!

 Little Miss 3 has decided that her baby brother is now interesting enough to play with, which makes Mommy haapy!

Tiger Loves to Walk

Here is Tiger pulling himself up on things at 9 months old. He is quite the climber. We put the boxes at the top of the stairs to block him and keep him from falling down them.

Tiger has been walking assisted for a while, since he was about 10 months old. Tiger has reached that stage this last week or so where he prefers walking to crawling. He will use the wall to steady himself with one hand if there is no adult legs nearby to grab onto. He is standing more often and for longer periods - about 3-5 seconds. He should be walking independently soon. He also learned how to climb down stairs two weeks ago - big sigh of relief! He learned how to at church while Daddy was watching him because Mommy was teaching Relief Society - he was climbing up and down the stairs that lead to the stand in the chapel. His older brother learned how to climb up stairs at church - there are so many smaller sets of stairs at church to practice on.  

Here are pictures from April, starting with Easter:

Little Miss was so tired, she fell asleep on the stairs.

 Finally, some snow! The kids were excited to finally use their snow boots.