Where did June go.....

Oh man! I am getting behind on the blog! It's been kind of busy but fun around here!

On June 2nd, we went to this kid fun place and it was nice to just let the kids play. We had some pizza, too.

Basketball superstar!

Messy Face!

And a cute little video of Jonas blowing on his food:

Then Jonas squeezed in a quick game of Air Hockey with dad:

Some video footage:

And you gotta love Sydney's expression as she plays this shooter game. Makes me think "You rascally rabbit!"

We borrowed our neighbor's kiddie pool one afternoon and the kids had a blast! Oh, and the thing on Jonas' shoulder is a temporary frog tattoo. We're not beating our kids!

Some video footage:

Then, we took all the cousins bowling! It was a tad crazy with 6 little kiddos but they still had fun! I broke 100 so I was happy. LOL.

Ross and Scarlett by the large bowling pin!

Scarlett and Sydney! These girls are so cute! always getting super happy to see each other and giving each other a huge hug!

 Here's Brendon with his cheesy grin!

 Liam, giving it some extra air just in case!

And Drea, looking like a serious, pro-bowler even though I whooped ya! We all were distracted during the game but it was fun!

And can you believe it, that same day, we went to a birthday party! Full weekend! Sydney has gone to 3 birthday parties since the summer started! whew! Lots of fun stuff though!

Here's Sydney with the birthday girl, Peyton. Peyton and her 2 brothers are who I watch during the week.

 And Jonas, just going along for the ride.

And then this is some pictures of bedtime that night. The kids are fighting over my lap more. I do get annoyed sometimes but then I am glad Jonas is still such a sweet little cuddle bug, even if he is a wiggle worm. My mom said I was a wiggle worm when I was little so I guess I'm just getting a taste of my own medicine.

Jonas has really taken a stronger liking to books. Like the one he's reading in this photo, "How Do Penguins Play" is one of his favorites right now and one day, he had to take it with him everywhere we went. It's cute to see him looking through books.

In this one, he finds me a comfortable place to lay on and read.

 Jonas has also started to point at pictures of Jesus and mumble "jes" or something close to that. It's cute and sweet to see that he's recognizing him and just testifies of the sweet spirit of children so close to the veil.

Here's a video "Super Princess Sydney". That's what she told me she wanted to be for Halloween, a super princess. We'll see if we can pull it off... Right before this, she was telling me, "Mom, don't look at my super trick" because she knew she wasn't supposed to be jumping on the couch but I couldn't resist letting her because she looks so cute in her "super" costume.

Here's a video of Jonas putting on my shoes and walking around. He loves shoes, loves putting your shoes on your feet, taking them off and trying others' shoes. It's cute!

And! a few days ago, I smelled the warning signs of a dirty diaper and had Jonas sit on the potty. We have a little training potty in the bathroom and he's been sitting on it some times. He likes to get toilet paper and wipe too even though he never goes. But this day! He stayed on, I think it helped that Sydney was sitting on the big potty next to him, and he went! I tried to make as big a deal as I could, telling him what a big boy he was and giving him a sticker. I'm not sure how much I want to do as far as training right now, I think I'll just see how long he'll sit there some times. But here is a photo of the big boy on the first day he went in the potty!

The silly boy, he'll make that face when I'm taking the picture, then a HUGE smile comes on his face as he races to me to look at his picture on the camera. Little stinker...

Anyways, that's what we have for now! Looking forward to a visit to Alabama this week to see Grandma and Grandpa Tuck!

May adventures

I went too long without posting to make a theme for this post so it's a bunch of photos and stuff all together!

May 1st
Jonas wants to take part in the cooking and when he saw me brushing the glaze on my homemade Italian Bread, he wanted to help. Our little chef:

May 12th
A couple days before Mothers' Day, I was excited to find that the birds' nest on our porch had baby birds! They were so cute! the mom was a little annoyed to have us on the porch but I managed to get a couple of photos in.

And I got this cute little video of their little chirping. I loved how a slight breeze would make their mouths pop open. It reminded me of the catching fish game I had as a kid.

Then, for a couple weeks in May, I watched my nephew Liam who just graduated from Pre-K! We had some fun taking him to parks, and singing and playing together. Sydney and him loved swinging, blowing bubbles and playing with playdough. I have some pictures of the fun we had later on in the post.

May 21st
Just a quick video of Jonas playing with some toys. He's starting to get to vocal with his growls and play noises.

May 23rd
A couple more videos of Jonas playing. One of him bowling and one showing how he likes to make the snoring noise and pretend he's sleeping. He'll go get a blanket and pillow to lay on.

I'd love to include more videos but these 90-second videos are taking about 20 minutes to upload each so it's just hard to include more than a few.

May 24th
On this day, Jonas, Sydney, Liam and I went to a fun water park. It was great and the kids loved the sandboxes especially. There were a ton of kids there!

Jonas saw this girl sunbathing and decided it was a good idea so he went and got a towel to lay down beside her. They thought it was pretty cute. He actually laid down for a couple minutes beside her.

Sydney and Liam playing in the sand.

May 28th- Memorial Day

Yes we barbecued on Memorial Day but we did spend it with a War veteran, my grandfather. Unfortunately, he's not in either of these pictures :( But we love you grandpa and are indebted to your service and millions of service men and women like you who have put a greater cause before themselves.
Grandma with 3 granddaughters

Great-grandma with 6 great-grandchildren 

And that's all I have to show for May!

At the end of May, I stopped watching Liam but have started watching a family of 3 kids which includes an 8-month old I've been watching a couple of days a week for a few months now. It's fun and they play well with Sydney and Jonas. Sydney is picking up the phrase "Oh My Gosh!" from the 7-yr old girl and it's just funny.

Brian has signed up to start his Master's program (MBA) with University of Phoenix in the fall so I'm really excited for him to be furthering his education. I know it means a lot of work and things will be busier around the house but I know it's for the best. It should be a year-and-a-half long program.

Also at the end of May, my sister Nicole (who you can see in the blue shirt in the Memorial Day photo) has moved from Nevada and in with my sister Drea along with her two boys, Brendon and Ross. We're excited to have them so close and to be able to spend more time with them. It reminds us of the time we'd spend with our own first cousins when we were younger. A bond really formed between us that lasts to this day and I think we really want that for our own kids.

Sydney enjoys doing worksheets each day with me on her letters and numbers. She practices cutting as well. I'm glad she has that hunger for learning and is excited about it. It's too bad she can't start Pre-K until next fall (her birthday misses the cut-off by 3 days!) but she'll just be that much more prepared when she starts!

Jonas is talking more and has also started signing "more" when he wants more food. He also has developed a habit of sucking on his lower lip (which I blame on Aunt Kymry!) but it's cute! His canine teeth are all coming in so he can be a bit grumpy at times.

I'm working on developing my digi-scrapping business more as I have 1600+ facebook fans and launched my newsletter this last week. It's pretty exciting and keeping me busy. It's helping to pay off the new computer I got last fall and then with a little bit of extra cash when we need it. I eventually hope I can get a Wacom tablet (after paying off the computer) and maybe a photoshoot for the kids with my friend who's a photographer in Dallas. Those are my goals at least!

Hope everyone is doing great and having a fun summer!

Kymry's visit, group shots

Ok, last post about Kymry's visit. LOL. You think I took a lot of pictures? I'm only posting about 1/10 of the ones I have. We had a super fun week with her!

So we went to the Norton Art Gallery trying to get some gorgeous group photos of 6 children all 5 and under. lol. you can tell how well that worked. but we got some cute shots of them in clusters.

The girlies :)

We were trying our hardest to grab their attentions and make them smile with every goofy phrase we could think of. I think these came out pretty cute. Just a rundown for you:
Left to right: Jonas, 1; Scarlett, 2; Liam, 5; Bryce, 1; Kaylin, 4; and Sydney, 3.  They are a cute bunch are they not?

Cute mother-son shot!

then we let the models play in the creek. they LOVED that.

Some cute flowers in the girly-girls hair :) Such pretty little ladies!

Then we have some pictures with our grandparents. have I ever said how totally our grandparents are? Well they ROCK. Not only are they the reason why we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which blesses my life every hour of every day, but they have always opened their home to provide help and assistance to their children. They are so loving and I love getting these multi-generational shots with them.

6 great-grandchildren in this shot!

The granddaughters with the best grandparents ever!

And I was glad that our cousin Peggy was able to come see Kymry the night before she left.

Another shot with the sisters and their crazy bunch of kids! 

Sisters, always and forever. Love you guys and hope we can get together sometime soon again..  :)