what we've been up to...

Okay so we had some computer problems and got a new computer, and then the last week I've been busy/lazy and haven't posted. So here's a few new posts for ya'll. (Sorry, am I allowed to say that? I've never lived in the South so I don't know if I've earned the right :) )

Anyway here's the girls enjoying the fresh fruits and vegetables of summer. MMM. I love summer! katelyn got ridiculously messy eating cherries the other day. She is the queen of messy-faced and -handed eating.

Whitney eating peas with scraggly hair (see the end of this post). She figured out she could pick them herself, how fun! We've loved our peas and will definitely plant twice as many next year! That will be one of my favorite memories from this summer. picking and eating peas as a family most evenings for a few weeks.
I took the girls one day and drove to Ephraim to see my good friend Rachelle that I hadn't seen in 8 years! She was there for a family reunion, she lives in Idaho. We grew up together and she was one of my best friends in high school. I just love her and her family and it was SO GREAT to see her and just talk for a couple of hours. We still have so much in common and life is good. I love seeing old friends.
After seeing Rachelle we stopped at the Manti temple. It was hot but the girls liked it. The best part was when we were sitting on the grass in the shade for a minute and looking up at the temple. I told Katelyn that it's so peaceful at the temple because it's Heavenly Father's house and you can feel His Spirit there. She looked up for a minute at the windows and was like "which room is Heavenly Father's?" so sweet. I told her that it's probably the highest one, and that he lives in Heaven and just comes to visit this house and all the other temples. :)

We went to the Orchard Days parade and Katelyn had a good time even though she refused to go out into the street when people would throw candy. Whitney LOVED it of course, especially when some floats and trucks were throwing out frozen OTTER POPS, her favorite treat ever! She went crazy over the horses and would dance whenever there was music.
And, I was quite the haircutter this week. I trimmed Kate's hair, accidently cut Eric's too short (not my fault, he handed me the buzzer with a #1 on and I thought it was ready to go! 5 seconds later it was too late and we had to do the whole thing that short) and gave Whitney her first hair cut! It was cute but a little scraggly before:
Here she is mid-cut, what a squirmer!!
and the finished product. I'm just happy that now it's closer to being all one layer on the bottom, so as it grows it won't be so scraggly again. And I did a little bit of an A-line, it's funny.

Katelyn quotes

Here are a couple I didn't think I'd be hearing quite so early in her life:

"This does not concern you Mom!!"

"But you're not understanding me!"

Funny eating quotes:

(Kate pretending to scoop bites out of me and eat them) "I'm having you for some breakfast for me."

Me: "You're eating me for breakfast??"

Kate: "Just one slice."

Eric: "good job katelyn, you ate a piece?"

katelyn: "just one innocent little chicken."

Oh how the months go by...

Whitney will be 15 months old in a couple of days and she's growing up fast! She can say several words: mom, dad, dog, down, done, whoa (when she sees something cool), juice, and sometimes cheese and she's tried to say bear and ball. I love it that she's following directions really well, trying to help me clean up and give stuff to Katelyn. I know she can understand so much of what is going on. She is a cutie cutie and she smiles and laughs easily. She dances around when she gets excited about something, which is often. And she loves books, baby dolls, and anything Katelyn is doing. This video shows her new favorite accomplishment, climbing up the ladder and going down the slide by herself. Katelyn didn't learn this until she was much older, but we also didn't live here until she was much older... I still think she wouldn't have gotten it this soon. Whitney is more daring, and it probably helps that I don't hover around her quite as much as I did Katelyn. Anyway, good times. Oh and I love how katelyn hugs her at the end of the slide, and how Whitney almost bumps into the swing. She is SO clumsy, it's hilariously cute. Even a couple of teenage boys in our ward have told me they like to watch her in church! She walks out into the isle a little and then comes back in too quickly and falls almost every time.

One more thing- Eric's been building us a new deck, so in the evenings we play outside while he works, it's fun. We'll post pics of the deck soon.

portraits

We got pictures taken of the girls a couple of weeks ago, check them out.

It was fun the first 5 minutes until Whitney satrted crying and wouldn't smile basically the rest of the time. Hence only one picture in the purple and green outfits. Katelyn was an all-star though, she did great.

Girls Camp!!! (church camp for teenage girls)

I think Girls Camp is in my blood. It's something I was born to love. My parents are big time supporters of it, my Dad has been to Girls Camp as a Priesthood leader at least 20 times I think, and my Mom has been at least 10 times(sorry if that's an underestimate mom!). The last few years she has told me so many amazing stories of great spiritual experiences and even miracles that have happened at camp, and I've always thought in the back of my head that someday I'd probably go.

So I've been working with the Young Women in my ward for the past few months, and I got to go to camp for a day and a night! Eric's mom came and stayed with the girls, thanks again Mary! And I had the BEST TIME EVER.

Here's a bunch of my girls at the lake where we went canoeing. I wish I had a picture of me and Shelby in our Polynesian War Canoe, we were attacking everybody, so fun. We still need to get Tia and Talyr since they're the only ones who escaped us, twice!

Then we found a log and had a great time playing on it.
Back at our Hawaiian decorated cabin, I made Shelby take a picture with me. Too bad you can't really see us.
We also had one of the CRAZIEST games of catch phrase I've ever played in, and an amazing program put on by the stake about Temples, it just reminded me so much of when I was a teenager and I couldn't wait to meet a wonderful guy and get married in the temple. The Spirit was strong and it was refreshing to just be with a bunch of girls and cry together and soak up the good feelings. I know that our temples are the House of God on earth and that we can have the greatest blessings God offers us by being worthy to enter the temple! I know the girls could all feel it too and I could just feel my love for all of them growing throughout the day! What a great day. Oh and a bear came into camp that night and everyone was freaked out, exciting!

Yay hooray for Girls Camp!! I was really glad to come home though, and glad I wasn't there for the whole time, I missed my babies too much!

Sister!!

So my sisters and I have had a piece missing for the last year and half, but now we're complete again. Katrina is home from her mission to Russia!!! I have missed her so much and can't wait to see her. Now we just need Donny to come home, but then Derek and Jonathan will leave... what a crazy and exciting time for my family.

Grand Old Flag

We love the fourth of July!!! Here are the highlights of our holiday.

1. I made/bought some super cute decorations. I used to have ZERO decorations for this, one of my favorite holidays. Now I have 5!

2. We went to see the balloons in Provo- Awesome.

The girls were just as excited as I hoped they'd be!
We were late but we still had tons of fun watching the balloons go higher and dancing to the fun music they had playing!
Katelyn watching excitedly as a balloon came back toward the crowd
3. Whitney tried sparklers and fireworks after Kate went to bed! It was so funny to let her stay up later than Katelyn, who was deathly afraid of fireworks last year.
watching a little fountain firework
4. We went to the parade in Provo! The girls definitely liked the bands the best, and Whitney really liked the flag-twirling girls. Katelyn also liked the old cars, which we kept comparing to CARS characters- "look, there's a Sarge!" "it's another Doc!" She would get so excited!
Us at the parade. Eric's family came down to watch it with us- we love seeing them so much in the summer!
5. Later on the afternoon of the 4th, Eric was taking apart our deck (he's rebuilding it) and we girls played in our swimming pool. Katelyn wanted to put on her own swim suit, and she came down looking like this:
with her strap all weird and her Elmo potty seat on! She's so skinny! It was hilarious.

6. Then we enjoyed my favorite fruit and an Independence Day classic, watermelon.
7. I also had a great experience at church on the 5th, with singing the national anthem for the opening song, which always leaves me a little choked up, and saying the opening prayer for sacrament meeting right after. I was on the stand, and we all stood to sing the song, and so there I am totally crying through most of the second and third verses in front of everyone! It's okay I love this country and I am so grateful for the sacrifices that so many have made to keep it safe and I pray that we can keep it strong and continue to elect and support good leaders and stand up for what is right so that I can continue to be proud to be an American!

These next two weren't the 4th of July, we just went boating with Eric's family this weekend. Aren't they adorable?? Whitney continues to be our little daredevil, not afraid of the water or the boat at ALL, and Katelyn continues to conquer her fears, we are proud of her.

I love July!!