Canoe ride

Yesterday we went to Nathans work party, and they had a little lake you could take a canoe ride on, so we took the girls on it...ya it was kinda scary I'm not going lie. I was nervous we were going to tip (and it was COLD)! Becca as you can tell by the look on her face was not so sure about this herself, but it was fun to give it a try! I sat in the very front with Rachel on my lap, and she thought it was pretty great :). Anywho it was a fun day, here are a few pics!

I love this face! It looks as if I passed down the Raptor Dinosaur gene:) For those of you who don't know I do a fabulous Raptor impression:)

WHo knew??

That a vacuum and a broom could be so entertaining?? I needed to get some cleaning done the other day, so I pulled out Becks old toy broom and vacuum. If only that vacuum worked I would have had one seriously clean house! They could not stop because if one of them started to walk away from the broom or vac the other one would run after the toy the other one had, so they just had to keep going haha! It was great I got some good cleaning done! And I had two pooped girls by the time they were done and decided it wasn't worth it anymore, even if the other sister got the toy being used.

How do you turn this on mom? Seriously you people!
Still going.......

Tah Da! So proud of herself!

Tasty!!!

Last week I made some homemade orange marmalade, it was SOOOOO GOOD! So this week I picked up some grapefruits and made grapefruit marmalade! TASTY! I am looking for some more ideas, so please leave me any great tips or recipes! I want to bottle fruit, make salsa??? I want to bottle once a week before summer is over :)!! I have never really done this before, but I love it! Again please send advice my way.

Love Love Love

These Girls!

Yesterday after church, we went home took naps, and after we woke up we headed outside! It was so beautiful out! Becca and Raywho were still in Sunday clothes, but that did not stop Becca from running out in the sprinklers! Cute girl! So she is soaking wet in these pictures, but they were being so cute with Pumpkin that I just could not stop taking pictures. Yesterday was just one of those really good laid back summer days. After we laid the girls down to bed that night Nathan, Pumpkin, and I took a picnic blanket and laid outside on the grass until the sun went down! It was a good day:).

Becca

- Loves Blueberries, and will ask everyday for "bluesberries"
- Calls her self Angelina (from Angelina Ballerina) And talks about herself in the 3rd person lately.
- We usually wait to go anywhere for the day until the girls have had naps. So when Becca wants to speed up the process of getting out the door, she will go pretend to sleep in her room, come out a minute later and pretend to look sleepy, and says "mom I sleep well". :)

Rachel

- Will not eat blueberries, or anything healthy for that matter if she is being asked too! So the other day Nathan was eating some ice cream, and she was screaming for some! Nathan pretended to be scooping some ice cream into the spoon, and instead he filled the spoon full of blueberries! She took the bait, and walked around with a smirk on her face thinking she had gotten her way:).
- Has learned the art of the fake cry, and pout face! Ah I wish you could see this face does, it still makes me putty in her hands, and she knows it! Even if it is a fake cry:).
- We have learned that she gets car sick. We always knew she was a horrible car traveler and now we know why! The other day we went with Nana and Grandpa Lord up to Park City for the 24th of July. Rachel was sitting in the back back with no window, and so up came her whole lunch! Mac & Cheese everywhere! And apparently she had swallowed it whole because it had not even been chewed! YUCK! She was smiling, and one happy camper after she was all done:).

I would like to think I have come a long way..........

The other day I was down in our storage area when the girls were down for a nap, and I saw a box that holds all of my old journals.....hours later I was half sorry I started down that road! My heavens! I could not stop reading! I could not wait to find out what happened next in my life! It was like a real life soap opera! I was laughing out loud, and crying at times. I had butterflies in my stomach all over again reading about people I had forgotten about, that at one point I had HUGE crushes on! I experienced heart braking moments all over again......when at the time these moments seemed like the end of the world. I found myself wanting to go back in time and apologize to people. Most of the time I kept reading thinking about how big of a dork I was! Ah the things I would say or do?! It was interesting though to read about myself, and to remember the person I use to be or so I thought! I found that as I was reading I still had a lot of those same feelings inside of me. The same wants, the same desires, the same dorky ways of expressing myself. Becoming a mother has changed me in a lot of good ways, but I find that it has not buried the other person I was. Maybe in someways, but not many. As I approached the end of my journal reading I defiantly came to the conclusion that I have to set these on fire! If my daughters got hold of these they would defiantly have some leverage against me! I would like to think that If I was sent back in time, I would do better! That I would listen to my parents more! If I am being honest though I would probably do the same things I did all over again...... if I were put back in that setting.

Virginia Family Reunion!!!

I have so so much to tell about this trip! I will try to spare you too many details. It was so much fun! We flew into D.C. on Tuesday the 30th of June, and returned home the following Tuesday. We were so sad to leave, honestly we could have stayed another week, and been happy campers! I guess that thing called work, and reality had to get in the way :(. Anywho we (all of Nathans family) stayed at Kristen and Deans home in Gainesville about 40 minutes out of D.C. We got in REALLY late Tuesday night, but the girls did awesome:). However when we arrived to their house, Becca crashed on her bed, and Rachel was in hysterics and was totally wired because she had fallen asleep on the car ride over, and we had to wake her up to bring her in the house! YIKES! Eventually she fell asleep, and after that it was smooth sailing as far as sleep went for the rest of the trip. The next day Ken, and Angie with their 5 kids arrived, party time! YEA! We went to Museums, went through a really cool cave, did swimming, and an incredibly cool water park. We went to the battle field of Bull Run, which was so humbling. We had an incredible fireworks show thanks to Dean and Ken :).We had Grandpa Lord's birthday party! A lot of fabulous food, and the kids played played played! Becca and Rachel were in heaven with so many cool new toys, and cousins to hang out with from sun up to sun down. At night when the kiddos went to bed, we played lots of games, and had a lot of great laughs! Nathan had us wetting our pants just about every night! This was probably the best family reunion yet! Thanks again Kristen and Dean for hosting, we love you guys, and are missing you like crazy! I know I said it a million times, but I could not get over how green everything was it was beautiful, It was so GREEN:). Here are a lot of pictures for your viewing pleasure :).

All of the kids gravitate towards Nathan :)
Licking her fingers after lunch!
This was a cool train ride the kids (and Dean:) took after exploring the cave.
Becca with her cousin Hannah, these two had a lot of fun together.
Ray Ray in her "take up my whole arm floaties", with Chloe, these girls are so CUTE! I just want to take a bite out of those thighs:)
Kristen with Chloe
at the kiddy pool, pool of choice for Becca
I miss these kids, they were so fun to be around.
I love that grin!
Making 4th of July artwork!
waiting for the fireworks to start!
Becca was in heaven with these babies! After she got over the fact that they were not "scary".
This was at Bull Run, so cool to see!
Becca contemplating the meaning of life:) This was not a posed picture.
Raywho and I going down the water slide, by the look on her face I'm not sure she enjoyed it.
Kid size Lazy riverWatching all the kids go down the lazy river, wishing they could go down it too:).
The sun setting on our last fun filled day in Virginia...I feel like crying about now! I think we could live in that place:).

Family in town

My sister came into town with her kiddos, for a few weeks! It was so fun to hang with them! Becca had so much fun having sleepovers with her cousins London and Tyler. She was waking up at the crack of dawn to play with them! Rachel of course was a big hit with London and Tyler, they were always wanting to hold her, and play with her:). We went swimming (when it wasn't raining outside), went to the Library, the children's museum. We went for nature hikes, and just played played played! We sure miss them already:(. Here are a few pictures from the past weeks! My camera died half way through the trip, and I never got it charged, so I missed out on a lot of pictures :(. The Girls had a blast playing in the rain with these umbrellas! However after everyone started getting wacked in the head with them, the umbrellas went into hiding :).

After sidewalk drawing, we had some serious chalk bottoms :)
This was on the roof top at the Salt Lake Library! I was having bad allergies that day, as you can see:(.
I got smarter the next time the kids did some chalk drawing, and removed Rachels bottoms all together :).

This book rocks!!

If you have children this is a must read! I know there are some people out there who are against schedules, for those of you who are not you really really should read this book. It really gives you a heads up and better understanding for infants, and children's need for sleep, and a schedule. It goes through each age group and really teaches you about what it says "healthy sleep habits". This is going to sound like a cheesy testimonial but I have to give it anyway:). We have put this book to work with both our kiddos, and it has been a life savor! Our kids go to bed around 5:30-6:30 p.m. When I tell this to people this they look at me like SERIOUSLY!? The response I get is "oh well your lucky my kids won't go to bed at that time". The thing people don't get is that truly they can and they will, you just need to put them on a sleep schedule. As kids get older there bed time starts to advance to like 8, but that's not until they are around 7 years old. Anyway, the fabulous flip side to this bedtime is that Nathan and I get plenty of adult time, and much needed bonding time with each other! Honestly since we have had kids I have never felt like I have been deprived of me time, or being able to spend quality time with my husband because my kids are in bed getting the much needed sleep they need, and I am getting the down time I need. I know some people also believe it is selfish to let there kids "cry it out" (which is one of the methods in this book). I personally find nothing selfish about letting your child cry it out because you are teaching them to self sooth so they can sleep easier. And it is incredibly liberating for you as a mom to know that when you put your child down (awake) they will fall asleep with out you rocking them to sleep every night. At least that is how I feel:). And they only cry it out for the first few weeks of getting them on this schedule after that it is pretty smooth sailing. Another benefit that the book talks about is sickness. If your child is getting the good sleep that they need, they usually do not get sick as easily. It is so important for little immune systems to get good rest. And we have found that to be true with our kids. They hardly ever get sick, no ear infections Nada! And if they do get sick recovery time is fast. This may not be the case with you, but no matter what time Becca goes to bed, she is up bright and early at 6:30-7 o'clock, but is always much happier when she gets to bed early. Rachel has been going to bed around 5:30 and wakes up around 8 a.m. sometimes 9 a.m.! Anyway I know this got a little long, I just can't help it! When you have info that is so good you just want to share it with everyone so they can benefit from it also! So go to your local library and check this book out or buy it! I think you will find it to be pretty fabulous :). This post was not meant to brag, or to make anyone feel bad! It is simply just to share some WONDERFUL (I think) information! :)

Love Lauren