Wyatt's Birthday

Wyatt is 3 years old!  I love Wyatt so much, he is such a Mama's boy!  It can be hard, because he's almost always right next to me, but he's so cute!  Wyatt is still obsessed with his little brother Logan.  He kisses him, hugs him, rubs his head, and asks to hold him endlessly.  A few months ago Wyatt was evaluated by a Child Development Center and was found to be behind in a few places.  Since then we've had two ladies come to our house once a week to work with him a child development specialist and an occupational therapist.  He has grown so much in the last few months!  It's been a lot of fun to watch him play with them each week.  He'll be starting preschool at the end of the month and it will be fun to see the growth that comes from that.  Wyatt loves to sit and figure things out and see how things work.  He loves STEM toys the most.  He loves learning new things and trying to see how he can help me around the house.  Like by putting all of the clean baby blankets into the washer for me!  I think this year will be fun with Wyatt.
I wasn't planning on doing a party, just dinner and a cake because of my family being in town.  So the girls took it into their own hands and planned a party for Wyatt!  Three of my sisters were able to come up and spend the evening with us.  We ate dinner, had cake, opened presents, and played a game.  It was simple and fun!

Lehi Mini Vacation

A few weeks ago Louis and I were talking about the idea of doing some sort of local overnight vacation as a family.  We decided to go to Lehi, UT and go to the Museum of Natural Curiosity! 
We started out the day by stopping at a park and playing after a long two hours in the car.

Logan got to have his first ride in a swing and he enjoyed it!

After the park we headed to the museum, and had a quick picnic on the lawn before heading in.

We spent over three hours at the museum and I didn't take a single picture!  We were having too much fun!  I was uncertain if we should spend the money to go to the museum, I hate that parents have to pay to go in when it is a place clearly for children.  It ended up being worth it though, the kids all had so much fun!  We would definitely go back again.

This is after the museum, can you tell the kids were worn out?

After the museum we went and walked around Cabela's then got Chick-Fil-A to bring back to the hotel.  After eating we went swimming!  It was my favorite part of the whole weekend.  We had the whole pool to ourselves for an hour and it was a blast! 

At the end of the night when all of the kids were in bed Louis and I enjoyed some hot chocolate.  It's a tradition of ours to drink hot chocolate every time we stay at a hotel.

Sunday morning we decided to surprise Louis' brother's family at church.  We went to church with them and spent a few hours at their house afterwards.

This is Lydia and Logan, they are just over 2 months apart.

I think the most fun thing about the trip was that we kept everything a surprise from the kids!  In the morning we just said we were going to go to a park, they just didn't know it was going to be two hours away.  Then we told them we were going to the museum.  After we got Chick-Fil-A Louis said it was getting late so maybe we should just go to a hotel for the night.  The kids got so excited!  That night at the hotel Mary said to me "Thank you for this fun day!"

July Happenings

July was a busy month for us!  My parents came home from their mission, all of my siblings came into town, two of my sisters stayed at our house throughout the month (not at the same time), 4th of July, fireworks, the rodeo, Wyatt's birthday, Logan's baby blessing, family reunion, non stop fun!  I'm not sure where to start, I may just post a bunch of pictures with some descriptions underneath.

Sammy and Mary worked together to do a "Welcome Home" chalk art for Gram and Grandpa

Sarah was sweet enough and patient enough to let the kids help make cookies

My kiddos in their 4th of July attire

Evanston city does a super fun Independence Day Festival every year.  It has become our tradition to go every year and the kids have so much fun!  This was one of my favorite memories of the whole day.  Avery and Mary wanted to do this game where they stand on these pedestals and try to knock each other off.  It was hilarious to watch them try this because they could barely hold the bars up and reach far enough to hit each other.  In the end, Avery decided to throw her stick at Mary.  It worked!  Mary wasn't amused.

Ethan really wanted to try this obstacle course, I wasn't sure he would be able to climb to the top, but he did it!

The biggest highlight of the day for the girls was getting to ride in the paddle boat with their Dad!

Can you guess who did most of the work with peddling?

Louis' sisters Kami and Tif brought Avery, Mary, and Ethan to the rodeo here in Evanston.  

They had such a good time!  

Fireworks at Weber State with John and Courtney and Sarah and her girls

My girls have quite the knack for coming up with extravagant ideas.  In July they made big plans to open a bakery.  They named their bakery Cookies and Creamies Bakery.  We made giant chocolate chip cookies, muffins, and pie.  We were hosting dinner for some of my family that night and for dessert the girls opened the bakery.  I brought out the money I have for the girls' allowance and had people pay with that.  The girls were absolutely thrilled that people came to their bakery!

It was so much fun having Jessica stay with us, the kids all loved her!

While everyone was here my niece Madison was able to go through the temple.  

It was nice being able to be in the temple with a lot of my family.

We did a little weekend reunion with my family.  Louis always has to break out the hammocks!

We played a few minute to win it type games, this one I believe is called the elephant walk.

You put an orange down one leg of panty hose, put the top of the panty hose on your head and swing your head back and forth to knock over 6 water bottles.

This one is cookie face.  

You put an oreo on your forehead and use your face muscles to move it to your mouth!

We did a water fight to end the night

toe touch competition

Don's birthday was the next week so we surprised him with cake and a pinata

The last Sunday in July was my parent's mission report as well as Logan's baby blessing.

It was the most family we have had for a blessing I would say.

Big Phill and Lil' Phill (and Louis)

We're missing one person, so this is almost everyone from the blessing circle.

Clearly we had a busy busy month!  After everything from that month we were ready to get back to our regular schedule and routine and get ready for school to start at the end of August!  I am grateful for all of the memories that were made in July, hopefully they are ones that are remembered by my kids for years to come.