Chalk Art Craziness

Just biding our time before the school year starts and the summer ends. Man! This heat is killing me! But then that means the cold is coming and I can't decide which I hate worse!

Lana's bum was dirty in 0.5 seconds of getting the chalks out!

Our 5th Anniversary/Ward Campout

Yes. Yes. You did read that right. Our 5th Anniversary happened to fall on the same night as the ward campout this year. Coincidence? No. I would call it serious forgetfulness. You see, my dear husband was in charge this year and decided August 2nd looked like a great day for a campout. Weird. I always thought it was a good day to get married and maybe have an anniversary. Hmmm....different pages I guess.

So of course, we packed up the car/kids and headed out for the most romantic anniversary yet!!! We camped at a spot up East Canyon. This would be our first time camping with Lana and second with Kels. Yeah. We are definitely not big campers with the kiddos.

It was scorching hot while the sun was out but cooled down in the evening. In fact, at 2 in the am it cooled down enough that Lana felt like she couldn't sleep anymore. We took her into our sleeping bags which ended up being quite the fiasco. Lots of up and down and turning around. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. Except for Kelsie. She ended up sleeping the whole night. I did give her 1/2 miligram of melatonin which might have helped:)

Let's just chalk this one up to most adventurous Anniversary! I did have some neighbors offer to take my kids for the night to their tent and my sister send us a poster to put on our tent....something about 'if the tents a rockin'......I don't know! Can you imagine? Haha. Oh the stories to be had.

Dwight Yoakam Here We Come!!!

To be completely honest, I'm not really a big Dwight Yoakam fan. I know only a few of his songs. Jami called me one night and asked me if I was spontaneous. I said not really. She wanted to go up to Red Butte to see Dwight perform. Alrighty then.

Jami is a huge fan and we talked about how our Dad would have come with us too! I guess when Jami came back from college in the summers she would listen to Dwight on the way up to my Dad's work in Layton. He started to like it too and took some of her cd's before she went back to college. Ah makes me miss him.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.....

Kelsie started her first year of swim lessons. We started out at the South Davis Rec Center for two weeks. For the last 3 weeks, we have been doing lessons twice a week with one of the dad's in the neighborhood. She's really improved and has become more brave.

This summer she has started to pick up on a lot of things. We got a scooter out for her at the beginning of the summer and now she is zooming around like crazy. She also started riding a Strider bike and has been doing awesome on that as well. I love seeing her understanding how to do things and overcoming her fears. She's a pretty brave girl!

Lana is CRAZY

Another child that likes to hide in the entertainment center.

Lovin' the goggles and sun glasses!

But Mom I just want to help!

Setting up the tent in the backyard before the ward campout. We had to make sure we didn't look like idiots cause it has been a while since camping last. I couldn't see Lana for a second and I looked in and saw her just chillin' in the middle of the tent. It was pretty hilarious! Of course, big sis had to get in some pics too!

This girl has gotten some serious personality as of late, but she is still pretty even-tempered most of the time.

Heritage Park Summer

We purchased a This Is the Place Heritage Park pass this summer. I have actually enjoyed going because it is just a mellow fun place to go! We have taken some of Kels' friends with us too.

Her bestie Ginny. These two are trouble!!!

We also took Lauryn with us and the Allen's tagged along as well.

 

July 24th Festivities with Grandma and the Allen's

The Nelson's Come to Visit Over the 4th of July 2013

Chad's Mom and Dad flew up to SLC to visit us for a few days at the beginning of July. At first site, Lana would not let Grandpa Nelson go. I tried to get her to take her in our car and she just held on tighter to him. Kinda funny. Below are pics of the Murray Parade with the Allen's. It ended up being pretty lame this year and had a super long gap in it. We left not knowing it was still going on. Poor planning for Murray.

See! Tight hold on Grandpa!

We introduced the Nelson's to The Red Iguana . Possibly the best Mexican food on the planet. Well, that I have tried so far. I'm still craving their Mole (pronounced MOH-lay) which for some reason I've been scared of trying for years. Oh. They are so good! What was I thinking? Get the sample plate people and you will see what I mean.

We also saw The Lone Ranger which was so so.

Kels and Lana both had such a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. Kelsie wanted to be in their car every where we went.

It was nice for Chad and I to be able to have sometime with them without the kiddos as well. Excited to see them again at Thanksgiving.

Spring Dance Recital

Kelsie had a dance recital I think in May. So this is out of order as well. Her dance teacher decided this was her last year so now we are on to a new one. It's been pretty fun to have her focusing her energy a bit:)

Lana's Family Birthday Party

For Lana's family party we had a cookies and milk theme. We also decided to get pizza and make a little dinner out of it too. I made all the cookies above. I made these sugar cookies, orange creamsicle cookies, and these chocolate chip cookies. All of which are fantastic recipes. The chocolate chips cookie recipe makes about a million so just be warned.

Chad told them to do the soccer clap for this one:)

After all the fun of eating, we played a wicked games of kick ball. And by wicked I mean that my husband (while playing on the other team) took me down at 3rd base. I had a nasty bruise to prove it. Those Nelson's are serious competitors. Pretty much Chad, Blake and Tommy dominated the rest of us.

Lana's First Birthday June 21, 2013

I still can't believe it's been a year since I've had her. It's gone by way faster than Kelsie's first year. She is such a happy, chill baby. Anyone can hold her. Anyone. She just loves being held. Lately, she's been giving us a piece of her mind. If she wants something she will yell at you for it. The girl knows what she wants. I love on her all day. She is such a happy loving baby. For a few weeks, she has been pulling herself up to standing and walking along things. It won't be too long before she's on her own I'm sure. She's says "Mama", "Dada" and "tank too" for thank you. Her big sister loves her like crazy.

Getting some pointers from Big Sis.

Getting help with the eating from Big Sis.

That's one happy/messy baby!

 

12 Month Stats:

21.7 lbs (50%)

30.5 in tall (75%)

18 in head (50%)