oh august

I'm so behind in blogging. Somehow I've gotten it into my head that if I look at other people's updates, that's just as good as updating my own. I'm going to try to get back to my every other week pattern of blogging. Maybe.

The end of July I pulled out a Pinterest activity for the kids. They dropped colored vinegar onto a tray of baking soda for at least an hour. Win!

The face I get when I pull out the camera.

We sure loved playing in the pool this summer. Although as the season progressed, stranger and stranger accessories were added to the pool.

Me and my little buddy. (Pictures of me don't need to be quite as large as the pictures of the kids.)

Playing with some stickers from a "How I Feel" book.

Nate is the manager of the service department at work now, which means he is big and important, obviously. After a particularly grueling week, he smoked brisket for all the men that he supervises. I got to drop the food off at Gunthers since it wasn't done when Nate left for work. I took the kids with me and we made a day of it. We stopped at In'N'Out to grab some lunch, then took it to Cabela's and had a picnic out on the grass. Then we went inside to look at the fish and stuffed animals. I also bought way too much delicious fudge.

My personal favorite was the honey badger. Because it don't care.

How sweet is this? Colin was holding a sleeping Kate's hand in the backseat on the way home.

The kids pulled out a bunch of stuffed animals and post-it notes and played store. Colin wrote the price tags. We paid with pretend money. After an item was purchased, the price tag went in the huge Mr. Potato Head.

My generous neighbors called me up and told me to come pick some corn in their cornfield. So I did. Nate's parents came and helped and we picked, shucked, cooked, cut, and froze somewhere in the neighborhood of 88 pounds of corn. Awesome!

The amazing balancing pirate baby!

Colin's outfits are always priceless. I'm going to miss them when he grows up and decides he's too cool.

Gray stole a board book from another mom during Sunday school one Sunday in August. He ran several rows up the aisle, lay on his belly to look at the book, and carefully placed his head down on the pages. He stayed that way for a long time. Like a really long time. I told Nate what was going on and he told me to go get Gray. I said no, because why mess with a good thing? But Nate wasn't about to let a sleeping baby lie, so he went and got Gray, who immediately woke up. Good call, Dad.

Aww, what a sweet pink-diapered little boy. I'm glad they play well together.

One Saturday I decided we were going to have a Family Fun Day, even if it killed us. Nate and I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point to the natural history museum. The hands on stuff was fun, but the kids couldn't have cared less about the other exhibits and fossils.

Gray's 1st Birthday!

Gray turned one on the 13th (which also happens to be his cousin Donovan's birthday). I made Very Hungry Caterpillar cupcakes because Gray seems to always be Very Hungry. As you can see in the picture, a certain disobedient 4-year-old boy sampled the frosting when I wasn't looking. Gray got his own small cake to eat. I thought I would need to stack two for the head, but I didn't, so Gray got to eat the other one. Cupcakes are the traditional 1st birthday food at our house.

Cousins enjoying their treats.

Beautiful messy boy.

Gray had a lot of help opening his gifts. He has really enjoyed playing with everything these last few weeks. His grandparents/aunts/uncles really know him well.

Gray is starting this whole dress-up thing early. He loves to wear masks and chase the other kids. He brings his accessories to me and whines/grunts until I put them on him.

Western pirate princess?

She's so weird. She still sleeps in the strangest positions/places.

A pictures Colin took of himself with my phone. I find many of these when the house gets unnaturally quiet...

A picture Colin took of me and Gray.

Gray's sweet BYU onesie from his Granny. He always looks good on game day.

I have no words.

How could you not love this child?

The joys of learning to eat with a spoon. It creates so much more work for me, but it keeps Gray entertained.

Kate's crazy hair. I gave her several braids in an attempt to make her hair kinky/fluffy. When we took the braids out the fancy hair lasted for all of 20 minutes before it fell flat. Guess she has straight straight hair like her mama.

Kate loved having crazy hair.

The kids starred in a horse swing photo shoot for Papa's horse swing business. (Check out this website to see the swings and my adorable kids!) This is one of the reject pictures, but I love it.

Stay tuned for another update, coming at you in about 30 days...

fine, I'll update the blog: part three, july

He certainly doesn't look happy enough to be a cowboy. It's probably just because I made him stay still for a moment so I could take a picture.

Huzzah for guns and blankets and shows!

Gray has gotten a haircut since this was taken. He loves to play in the water with the big kids. But he also loves to drink the dirty water, so he has to be closely watched. The kids love to play in the water, but I haven't gotten the pool out much since I can't leave them unattended in the pool. They seem to be just as happy with a big bucket of water, some smaller buckets, and some squirters. (And I'm happy because I can run inside for a few minutes and not worry about anyone drowning.)

Me: Colin! Smile!
Colin: (stares blankly)
Me: Colin! Come on! Smile for Mom, please?!
Colin: (stares blankly)

And then this is the smile I get.

Aww, wet handsomeness.

Kate and her watering cans.

It's the 4th of July! This picture is out of order because I took it on my phone and apparently phone pictures come before camera pictures on the computer. On the 4th Nate and I went to a Real Salt Lake game in the evening. We left our kids at home because no one would have enjoyed themselves if we had brought them. Nate's parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews also went. A good time was had by all. Fireworks were after the game, but since Nate had to work the next day (and since we don't really care about fireworks) we left as soon as the game was over.

And now to the morning of the 4th. I took the kids to meet up with Nate's family at the Provo parade. We left Nate at home because no one would have enjoyed themselves if we had brought him. We had to park about a mile from where we sat, but since I'm awesome at pushing kids in a stroller it wasn't a problem.

Adorable weirdo Kate and her daddy. Kate is sitting on my lap as I type this and now she wants her daddy. Thanks picture.

On the 6th we had a Cousin Birthday Bash to celebrate all the upcoming birthdays since Lenna and her family were still in town. It was a Princess Tea Party theme. JK. It was pirates.

Piñata! (And no, I'm not hitting any children in this picture.)

Gray looks pretty proud of himself. Just like his older siblings, he loves to climb/sit in car seats when they are brought in the house.

We spent the 13th and 14th in Logan at the Hanks Family Reunion. The only time I took my camera out was when Nate and I took our kids to see the Logan Temple. Thanks for posing so nicely for this picture guys!

That's a keeper.

Oh, I love them. Yes I do.

The reunion was a lot of fun. The Silveys were adopted into the Hanks family many, many years ago, so Nate knew all of the people there, but I didn't really know any whose last name wasn't Silvey (or Hiatt). Still, the kids had a blast playing with all the new "cousins." And the highlight of the trip (at least for Colin) was staying in a hotel. That boy loves sleeping in hotels.

Before my sister Heather moved to SLC, she gave my kids some of her old fake glasses. Doesn't Kate make an adorable nerd? They had some good times playing dress up with those glasses, until they broke all 3 pairs about a week later.

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue! My sis-in-law Kelli gave Gray this onesie for Christmas. It finally fits him, and he looks adorable in it.

Kate insisted on getting her picture taken too.

And since Gray was dressed like Buzz, Colin also needed to be dressed like Buzz. So here are my two Buzzes together. Awww.

It's the 24th of July! I coerced Nate into joining the family for the parade, and I paid for it for the rest of the day.

Classic Nate.

Yay Mapleton 15th Ward! (Our ward.)

Yay Mary Nelson! (Colin's best friend Mary who lives across the street.)

The Mapleton Drill Team. (Notice how they are all carrying drills?) They had a sweet song and dance number this year.

After the parade we went to the city park for the funtivities. The kids played in the bouncy houses and won prizes at the duck pond and fishing booth. It was fun!

Kate's crazy hair and super large dress made me smile. She was pretty pleased with herself.

Gray's smile cracks me up. It feels like I've seen this face before...

Another crazy hair picture. It was just so adorable.

Colin borrowed my phone and took some pictures. Here is his newest best friend Alexis and her dog Sadie.

Our weedy garden.

Me and the other kids.

A funny cloud.

Our new chairs! That's right, now when you come to our house we have a place for you to sit!

My brother Ethan went to San Diego with his girlfriend. He brought back these awesome sodas for me and Nate. Mine was the Leninade and Nate's was the bacon, obviously. Everything written on the Leninade bottle made me laugh. I'm a sucker for funny Communist stuff.