Dairy Days '11

We had such a great time with our friends, the Taylors, at the Dairy Day parade. The weather was absolutely perfect, the parade was a little long, but fun, and the kids got tons of fun goodies; chocolate milk, string cheese, t-shirts, and candy! It was a great family date night.

Grrrr... every time I try to post on blogger it has problems uploading my pictures so I end up having to upload them one at a time, sometimes multiple times for a single picture, so I have been deterred from keeping up this past week on our happenings. But alas, I am going to try again....

Last Saturday was our ward carnival. They really do a cute job with it; this is our second summer attending. There was a great turn out. Jefferson helped set up and man one of the booths while I took the kiddos around to do some games and get their faces painted and eat popcorn and ice cream sandwiches and such. It was a lovely morning and the kids had a great time.Andi won a cake in the cake walk! Our odds were pretty good when we occupied three of the ten spaces.

Saturday @ Home

One of the biggest difference between Jefferson and I that we are constantly trying to rectify is that I love to go out and do things. Even if it's just going on a walk or to the park. Jefferson, however, just wants to be at home, probably because he's gone all day every day. Our kids do better when they have things to do, or if we get out of the house for a little bit. Luckily on Saturday we had some nice weather, finally. We were able to keep our day decently busy while staying at home. The kids spent a lot of time on the trampoline, of course, and then we set up our new sprinkler. It was a hit.Then we made cookies.
And Jefferson said he wanted to be in charge of dinner. This is literally a first. He chose a recipe, went and bought all the ingredients and made some of the yummiest ribs ever! I was super impressed and so thankful that I didn't have to decide what we were having (probably the hardest part) or shop, prep, or cook dinner. Aaaaah. So nice. Thank you dear hubby of mine.

Inspired.

I had a really neat experience yesterday involving inspiration. I had been thinking about one of the ladies I visit teach for a few weeks. I had left her numerous messages on her answering machine without hearing back from her. This is completely normal. We're lucky if we schedule a visit about every other month. She's just a very private, somewhat guarded, individual. So, I didn't really think anything of it when she didn't return my calls. Well, I kept thinking about her and couldn't get her off my mind and wanted to take something over, whether it was just a card, or letter or something. I had been having this feeling for about a week and had included this sister in my prayers, but just hadn't gotten around to doing anything. Then on Monday night I was reading a conference talk and it was about visiting teaching and what a blessing it is. That's it, I knew I needed to stop by and see this sister. So yesterday I wrote up a little card and attached it to a little goody and walked it over. When this sister opened her door I just told her I was thinking about her and wanted to stop by and see how she was doing. Then she opened up like she never has before and told me she had been having a hard month with a death in the family and some serious illnesses that had been going on with two other close family members. We stood on her doorstep and cried together and hugged and shared some personal experiences. It was definitely an inspired visit and I am so glad that I followed the promptings of the spirit. I don't say this to give kudos to myself or anything because I usually don't have really strong promptings or blatantly obvious inspiration or anything, but rather I share to encourage anybody who has promptings or feels inspired to do something to do it. Do I sound like a Nike commercial? Just do it! It was a spiritual experience and strengthened and reaffirmed my testimony of visiting teaching and also that Heavenly Father is aware of all of His children and that we can be tools in His hand.

Clarification

Thank you for the advice on Taytum's diapers, however, I should clarify, she doesn't take her diapers off. This is the end result of a blow out diaper! I know you all wanted to know that. :)

In other news...

The kids went to outer space. All made sure they had their space helmets on.
We got a trampoline from one of Jefferson's patients. The kids LOVE it. They will go out their rain or shine, windy or not, for hours every day. It's wonderful. Unfortunately Taytum had a near death experience just a few days ago, so she's only allowed on by herself for now.Two of Jefferson's cousins and their families came to stay for a weekend. We had lots of yummy food, let the kids stay up way too late playing, and had some good grown-up chats and laughs.
Andi had her end of year Joyschool party. It was a fun year, kind of crazy and sporadic at times, but I was so glad Andi had Joyschool to look forward to every week.
Carter had this weird red mole on the back of his leg that turned into a huge purple ring, that then got agitated and raised and scabbed over, and then fell of and left a dark gray ring. After his pediatrician looked at it we were referred to a dermatologist who then cut it out and biopsied it. Carter did amazingly well, especially since I didn't know they were going to biopsy that day so I didn't prepare him at all. He was super tough. Biopsy came back and it was just a benign random group of nerves. Here are his two stitches that he got.
Taytum has left us this on more than one morning. I am so done washing sheets, stuffed animals, bumper pad, pajamas, etc, etc...
Trevor was in town for a bit and our kids harassed and annoyed him to no end I am sure.

Sisters, sisters...

These two are finally starting to play well together. I'm not sure if Andi just resigned herself to the fact that Taytum will be her only playmate available while Carter is at school or if it's the fact that Taytum can finally kind of engage correctly in their play, but whatever it is, these are two are getting along rather well these days. (knock on wood) Andi has been sharing her "lips" with Taytum and even gave her two of them to keep. Andi kept reassuring Tay that she "doesn't have to give them back." They also play dress up together and enjoy singing and dancing together. Just last night I went in to give Andi her blanket after they were already in bed and as I opened the door Andi was just standing by Taytum's crib singing to her while Taytum just laid there looking at her. It was darling. I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful life long relationship. I can't wait for Bentley to join the fun!

As promised...

Miss Bentley. I love this girl. A lot. She had a bit of a rough week last week, but seems to have evened back out. She smiles so easily and has been giggling for a few weeks now. It is adorable. She drools a lot and loves sucking on her fists. I know I say this every time I write about her, but she is very attentive, like she just wants to be part of whatever is going on. She likes "talking," likes her binky, loves being swaddled, and does not love being held when she goes to sleep. She'll fall asleep in your arms, but truly does better just being swaddled and put into her bassinet. She's a pretty good baby.

Summer soccer

Andi just started a little summer soccer camp today. One of my friends in our ward is assistant coaching it and so she invited us to join. The girls are called the "Pink Princesses" and got a little pink shirt with their names on it. I was super excited for Andi to join for a couple of reasons. A. She has kind of always been the lone girl no matter where we have lived, so it is fun for her to do some activities with girls around her age. And B. she is so super uncoordinated (especially compared to Carter) that I thought that this would be a good opportunity for her to gain some coordination. Imagine my surprise when she actually rocked it out there on the field today! She was a pro dribbler like she'd been doing this forever. I was impressed. Go Andi! It was a fun first day and we're excited for a few more weeks of it.