Pineview Reservoir

I went with some good friends to Pineview Reservoir to play on the beach. I had never done this before with my kids and it was so so much fun. I can't believe we live this close to such a great lake! It was a nice break from routine.

I love this beautiful daughter of mine and her little creations. She wanted me to come in the water with her so badly and I really wanted to, but I had Edison in the wrap and couldn't put him down on his own. Kind of made me look forward to being done with the baby stage and getting to play more with my kiddos in situations such as this.

Ellie is such an easy-going child. We are always so amazed by how independent and content she is.

She really loved the feeling of that sand on her body!

A mermaid! With floaties!

A fun day with good friends and great kids.

Field Trip #2

For our next field trip, I took the girls down to the aquarium! This was hands down one of my favorite days of the entire summer. The girls and I really enjoyed looking at all the animals, especially the Octopus.

Signing frog.

Both Hazel and Charlotte got to pet the sting rays.

It's so funny to me that these penguins were really the exact same size as my girls. There was a third one next to Charlotte's that was Ellie's size, but we couldn't get her to hold still.

Somebody climbed into Edison's bumbo and got stuck...and yes, while she was crying, I ran and got my camera for a picture.

Ellie was playing with Edison and singing to him. I love these two together (when Ellie's being nice).

Cute babies.

Summer

 Hazel eating leftover watermelon.

 I got this out for Edison to play in now that he's big enough and I think it was all a little overwhelming for him!

 Sometimes my day starts like this. I knew this summer would probably be one of the hardest since I have all four children home with me. I'd say the hardest part is the constant cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning up. But the rest has been pretty good so I'm counting my blessings.

 The girls and I studied the letter M for mountains. And boy do we have great access to those! At Mount Ogden park, there's a little stream where I showed them the little water hoppers that I always believed were minnows! Later I found out that minnows are a type of fish....whoops.

 I decided to start taking the girls on a weekly field trip these last few weeks of summer and visit the places that I love around Ogden. For the Letter N, we visited the Nature Center and spend some time with these beautiful birds.

 Coming up on four months.

 The girls put this together while I was chatting with a neighbor.

 Fighting over the boy.

 At the Nature Center, I got one small gift for each of the girls and Hazel picked a peacock feather. I showed her how to make it into a pen (a small business idea I had when I was seven).

 Helping mom shuck corn.

 Best picture ever! I love this. She was sliding down a slide at our favorite park and the static made her hair stick out. Pure happiness right here.

 Hazel kept trying to get her hair to do the same.

 Eating green beans from the garden.

 

Another one of my favorite things in Ogden is the weekly Farmer's Market in the summertime. Hazel got dressed up for it this time (sometimes you just have to let them be themselves with their own fashion sense...)

 

Our favorite horse. He can dance and "talk" and is always fun to visit.

Summer Lovin'

June 11th-
We harvested strawberries this morning and there are so many! They are so sweet and delicious and the girls enjoy helping me find the ripe ones. Here's some great shots we got this morning:

I love those little dirty fingernails. My girls have never been afraid of getting dirty. I love that.

This picture is now hanging in her room. I love it.

Can you tell she's already eaten a few?

And this one graciously took hand outs from the girls and gobbled them up.

Two hands were needed for this one.

This week we're studying the letter "K." K is for KISSES!

Oh my goodness, I finally caught a smile. I genuine Eloise smile.

 My little three month old boy. Really wiggling around, getting closer to rolling over.

Edison is quick with his hands these days. David was eating some pie with whipped cream and didn't even see Edison's little hand come up and grab it!

(Sunday, June 17th)

Something about Sundays tends to relax this little one's bowels and he lets loose. This is the third or fourth time we've left church with him half naked after a blow-out. This time, only the tie survived.

Edison with his Dad at Gram and Papa Kevin's.

Love these two.

Vicki is beautiful!

I love how he still tucks his little legs in under his body. So tiny still.

This is what I love about blogging. There are several "moments" throughout the day when my job as a full-time mom is mundane, boring, and repetitive. But there are these other moments in between, usually the ones I run and grab my camera for, that I get to save and look at again and again. Helps me remember the reasons behind the messes that I clean up every day. 

Just busy building a family here.