Independence Day!

So for those of you that have seen the old claymation Rudolph movie, with the snowman narrator that scoots around, this will be funny. Otherwise it might not make sense. We went camping over the 4th and so I wanted to bring some kind of our own celebration so that Allie would know it was the 4th of July and what that means. I was going to buy some little flags and talk to her about America and then I saw red, white, and blue bead necklesses and thought that would be much more fun. So I gave her the beads and told her a little about why we celebrate the 4th and I was reviewing it with her this last Saturday when we were on our way to our ward Pioneer Day celebration. I was reminding her that it was America's birthday and that we also called it "Independence Day." She looked at me and thought for a moment then says, "ya, like Kerby." Brandon and I sat there for a minute confused and the I realized she was talking about the elf from Rudolph. "I'm in-de-pen-dent!" As he leaves Santa's workshop. Brandon and I got a good laugh out of that.

As for our camping, it was VERY fun! We went with another family in our ward who has two kids and their oldest is only 3 days older than Allie. They are pretty good friends most of the time. We found the ideal camping spot with the exception of cow droppings. It had been rainy and so we didn't have any bugs. And it was a mostly grassy meadow surrounded by trees which kept the kids in the general area. It was perfect. Kenadee and Allie thought the cow manure was SO fascinating and consequently Tyler wanted to be invovled only Tyler didn't understand that you don't get in it. The girls would sit there and stare at it and say how gross it was and Tyler would walk over to see what "it" was and then get in it. We had a couple different incidents and even the girls curiousity got the best of them and they played in it as well. They were at least using sticks but it still ended up on all of there clothes and hands. I really wish I had taken pictures before we got them undressed. Tyler was covered in it the first time he got into it and I did not think to take a picture until after he was all clean. Oh well!

We went fishing at a lake that was near by and we found a great beach for the kids to play at. They played for hours. That was nice because sometimes fishing ends up feeling like baby-sitting while your spouse fishes. We did not have any luck catching anything besides a crawdad.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

cow pie that they got in

the campsite, don't mind that I am in the picture

WEDGIE!

A few catch up pictures

We have been playing trying to get in all the fishing and camping we can before we go back to Las Cruces. Brandon has it all planned to use up every weekend with either camping or fishing. Good thing we all like it.

Father's Day breakfast. Anyone care for o.j. from a sauce pan. I left most of my kitchen stuff in Las Cruces for the summer. That was the only other container I could come up with.

You can barely see the little dots if you look really close. We did not have our camera with us when it happened so we took this when we got home. Allie was stuck by a cactus while we were hiking down to Grape Creek. We are still not really sure how it happened. We did not even know it had happened until about 10 min after the fact. I noticed that she kept bending down to rub her leg so I went over to look at what she was doing. That is when I noticed all the cactus needles. There were a good 30. She was fine until we had to start pulling all of them out. We did find the culprit on our hike back up, it was pretty hidden in betweeen rocks.

Allie and Tyler and I and my sister Becca drove to Utah to attend the sealing of my foster brothers to my aunt and uncle that adopted them. That was such a great experience. Families should and can be together forever. I am SOOOO grateful for the Temple and the blessings it brings to our families. I know that if I do my best I will be with my family forever. How neat it was to see those boys that came from such a hard life become an eternal family with my aunt and uncle. The older one Devin was just baptized and is so excited to be a member of the church. You can see his little testimony growing so quickly.

All of my family minus my parents and one brother and his wife. We are at the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove Utah. I forget how much I LOVE a GOOD rodeo. We had SOOOOO much fun!!! Allie and Tyler were every bit as excited as I was. Allie's favorite was the bull riding, surprisingly. She was also VERY cute cheering the cowgirls in as they rounded their last barrel. Tyler just couldn't get enough of it. He just sat there and took it all in.

I drove home from Utah on my own and what is supposed to be a 9hr trip took 12hrs and 11 stops. Some of the stops were just to pick up a pacifier that could not be reached while driving. Overall I think we did good. And we would do it again. Of course we would rather have Brandon if we can.

This is a picture from our hike to Helen Falls in Colorado Springs. It was very pretty and a very kid friendly hike. Which was good for me too, we had not planned on hiking and I was in a skirt and flip-flops. The falls were MUCH bigger but this was the only picture we got.

I did already talk about Tyler starting to talk but this is a picture of him saying ball. Probably is first real word. He holds his lips in a complete circle. He is still not using that many of his words for communicating but we are working on that. He will usually point and make noises then if you tell him to say what he wants, he will say it.

A baby!

So I talked about having a baby in my last post but I have realized that I have never announced that I was having a baby. I guess it is because I just feel funny announcing it to the world on my blog. I would rather it be word of mouth or somthing. Anyway, I am due December 15th. The Monday after finals week, Brandon's graduation and soon after those events should be a move to Colorado. We wanted to test ouselves. hahaha

Long time!!!

Every time I sit down to post I take to long to figure out what I am doing or my pictures won't work and then somebody wakes up or needs something. Consequently I never finish what I started. Also, Brandon and I spoke in church this last week and that consumed my week.

We are still having fun! Tyler has started talking. He will say just about whatever you tell him as long as he is in his talking mood. It started a couple of Sundays ago in sunday school. We are in the cultural hall where there are basketball standards on the ceiling. He kept pointing and grunting and every time I would tell him "basketball." Slowly he would add one syllable every time he would try to say it and by the end of sunday school he was saying, "ba ba ball." He was so proud of himself because of course we made a big deal about. He will say tractor alot and one of the most comical has been when he woke up poopy. I told him to say I pooped. He smiled and said, "I poop." It was very cute! He is mostly communicating with sign language. Although, he does usually say more and thank you as he does the sign. Allie has been loving that he is learning and she is "helping" teach him. He of course performs for her more than us.

Allie is getting so smart. Everyday she surprises us with something she knows that we didn't realize she knew. She felt the baby kick today and she went crazy yelling, "my baby! my baby!" and kissed my stomach. She just knows it is a girl and she is going to help me take care of her. She reminds me of that constantly. I am sure I will be all for the help. Brandon and I both think that it is a boy. She wanted to do something in church since Brandon and I had been telling her all week that we could not play while we were writing our talks. I started practicing "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ" with her using the Church music website. She had it down perfect. She sang it in the microphone before sacrament meeting but during sacrament she whispered the first few words and then quit. I had to finish out the song myself. Oh well! Maybe next time. One of our favorite mispronounced words is computer. We must use the computer a lot because she is always finding things to use as her "computer". She will come tell me, " Mom, I am working on my poo-geter."

I hope to get some pictures posted but we will see.