Preschool

AnnaLeita was one hungry, tired, excited, and big girl when she got home from her first two hour long day of preschool. She wore her yellow preschool shirt and her princess backpack and it was the best day ever!

A Tribute to Kell-Bell

So we really miss our Kellie. She's been staying with us since she got home from her mission in June, and now she just moved down to college and we don't really know what to do without her. Today she came over and Anna said "Mom, Kellie's home!" and tonight when we left to go to our RAD WOMEN class (a whole different story), Max insisted that she kiss him goodbye. Good thing she's not too far away. What did we ever do without her for a year and a half!?

Happy Birthday Anna Leita!

What a lucky girl! Anna Leita had a very fun party complete with a pink princess cake and root beer that Grandpa Kent made upon her request. A lot of people love Anna!

We also went to the aquarium for family night making it quite a special birthday.

And here are some things that I want to remember about Anna as a two year old (now that she is three and doesn't need a stool to reach her toothbrush) . .

• Anna Leita sings so pretty. She stands up on our window seat in the living room and performs for us, and when we clap, she takes a bow. Her repertoire includes "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. . .", "I am like a star shining brightly", and "A dream is a wish your heart makes".
• Anna went through a stage when she wore a princess dress or a tutu every day and all the time, except at church. We took Anna the princess to the grocery store every week, the playground, the Dinosaur museum, and to Disney land.
• Anna knows how to be happy. One day when I was frustrated with her about something--I said, "Anna, this does not make me happy!" She told me "Mommy, being happy is a choice you make--you can make a choice to be happy or grumpy."
• Anna Leita is a sweet big sister. She shares almost everything she has with Max and when he is sad she sings him lullabies.
  
• Anna likes to make things fancy. When she wakes up early she comes and gets in bed with mommy and daddy. One morning she brought her stickers with her and when we woke up there was a "sticker celebration" all over our bed.

We love this little girl!

Cashes at Jordanelle

Okay, one more fun summer event to add. The Cash family spent the day at Jordanelle last Friday. It was so fun to see so many of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and my grandma and grandpa. We are a big, big family now and there were so many little blonde kids running around. Anna and Max had a blast playing with all of them.

Anna loved the guitars. She made a little bed out of all our beach towels and planted herself.

Have I mentioned before that Max can be somewhat strong-willed? He is definitely a boy who knows what he wants, and it seems like what he wants he usually can't have, so this is often the result. I don't remember the issue here excactly.

BURRRRR!

Good buddies throwing rocks in the water again. Will this ever get old--no.

Vacation

We spent our summer vacation in Idaho and had a great time. In honor of ourselves and our 4 year anniversary, Taylor and I dropped the kids off with Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho Falls and went up to the cabin for some time without them. Which was wonderful. Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Casey and Max and Anna joined us the next day and we spent some quality cabin time together. Max and Anna loved all the fun on the water--the boat, paddle boat, wave runners; and they loved the fun standing next to the water and throwing rocks in.

Anna got a fun, early birthday present from grandma and grandpa--princess attire, which she has worn and worn already.

Our next stop was Colter Bay--a couple hours from Island Park. We stayed in some adorable cabins there, walked along the trails next the the blue harbor and blue mountains, took turns on the bike trails, and threw more rocks into the water.

And when we'd just about had as much fun as we could handle we found Ben and Jerry's ice cream which extended our happiness even on the verge of a double melt down.

Our last stop was back in Idaho Falls for Grandpa Davis's 80th birthday surprise party where we had a great time with all the Davises.

We let eighty balloons go at the party--Anna and Max got excited and let their balloons go up in the sky with everyone elses, but then both immediately regretted it and wailed till someone took pity on us and scrounged up two more balloons.

We also fit in a trip to the Idaho Falls Zoo, which is one impressive little zoo. We paid our respects there to the lovely duck pond fence that Taylor completed for his Eagle Project back in the day. It is still keeping the little duckies where they are supposed to be.
And we petted the bunny for a long time, till it was apparent the the bunny was very afraid for his life.

And now we are back home and feeling very vacationed and like we have definitely fit in a lot of fun this summer.

Thursdays

My laundry helpers like to dress up in daddy's clothes every time we do the laundry. It keeps them very busy. Laundry keeps me very busy.

Lunch with Dad--we look forward to this all week. Taylor works close to Provo Canyon which provides some pretty fun picnic spots--places where we can throw rocks into water and get our toes wet.

Aspen Grove Wild Flowers

In this family we dunk.

The love of E L Fudge cookies was passed on to me by my mother and I could not resist them on sale at the grocery store last week. I was proud that I only bought one package. And that at snack time I shared with my little cookie monsters.