Summer Catch Up

Have you ever gotten so behind in blogging that you don't even know where to start?! That's how I feel right now. So this summer has been a busy one for us. I know I have lots to catch up on. There was a visit from my sister, swimming, seeing "Thomas Goes to the Circus", hanging out with Pa and Nama, playing with the neighbors and so much more. I'll try and see if I can keep it all straight.


First off I have to share current favorite media of the boys. Pa introduced the boys to "The Wizard of Oz". It was pretty funny because he started with the munchkins and then slowly started added scenes. The boys will now ask for the 'flying monkey' movie. This is hilarious because when they watch it they are fairly frightened and snuggle together and try and be so brave until the scary parts are over. It's like they LOVE to be scared. They also to love watching the short pixar films with Pa. Their favorites are "Bounding" and "For the Birds." I also introduced them to the joys of Carebears much to the chagrin of Tj (according to him Carebears are about rainbows, feelings and hearts and that's girl stuff). lol Vance will ask for it sometimes and Tj just shakes his head. Although, again Dark Heart scared them a little bit. Pa also, bought them "Where The Wild Things Are." Vance loves it!!! I think Vance has a little 'Max' in him and likes the part where Max rules over the wild things. He likes pointing out all the wild things and saying "and that a wil' thing, and that a wil' thing...." I think Joel was a little frightened by the book at first but couldn't be showed up by his little brother so he put on a brave face. So funny!

Joel and Vance snuggling during the scary parts of Wizard of Oz.

We've been really fortunate to have Pa around a lot this summer. The boys have been loving it! Pa is such a fun playmate, teaches them all sorts of fun stuff and spoils them rotten! The boys have been forgetting their 'pleases' and 'thank-yous' so Pa taught Vance to say "Don't boss me around Nama, and don't boss Pa either." Fortunately for Pa and Vance he hasn't said this to mommy or daddy. lol Pa took us all out to dinner last weekend and we pulled up to the restaurant and Joel cried out "It's the cow place!!!"The boys with Molly after eating at "The cow place" with Pa.

So a few months back Pa saw that "Thomas Goes to the Circus" (or something like that) was coming to town so he splurged and got 4 tickets to the show. Tj was busy that day so the boys and I went with Tj's mom. It was actually really fun! I was surprised at how good the show was and the boys of course LOVED it.

We are so excited we finally have neighbors! Well we've always had neighbors but now we have 2 families from church that live across the street from us. It has been SO fun! And we are expecting 2 more families from church to move across the street in the next month! Our neighborhood (and especially that side of the street) has been nicknamed "Little Provo" at church. The kids are all around the same age and so the boys have loved having people to play with and it's fun to have other moms around too.
We had a pizza night on a Monday night with our neighbors and then we attempted to have a family home evening lesson. Here are all the kids trying so hard to sit still for the first picture:

Exhibit A.

Here's how the night really looked! Josh bless his heart just kept trudging along with his lesson.

This summer has been filled with lots of swimming. Swimming at Pa's house, swimming with the neighbors at the community pool and swimming for Friday playdates- and that doesn't even count the few trips (and by few I mean like less than 5) to the beach. Joel is starting to swim a little bit without any help and depending on whether it was his idea or not does fairly well. Vance wants to swim by himself but is also fairly content to use the floaties or his life vest. I was hoping to get Joel swim lessons this summer but I guess we'll wait until next summer- which is fine too.

So my baby sister came out and stayed with us for about a week. It was so fun! The boys had a really great time with Auntie Jay Jay and I really appreciated the help and the company. We went to the beach, hung out at the pool, wandered around the outlet mall, cooked, baked, watched movies, and talked. It was a really fun time! It's hard to imagine your youngest sibling all grown up- especially when you missed most of it (I left home when she was only 10). But we had a really great time and wish she'd visit more often. (And no Jaron I haven't forgotten about your post. It will come!)

Anyhow, that is a generally summary of what's going on here with us. I'm hoping that now that I've gotten this out of the way I will be better about my weekly posts again. Here's hoping.....