Happy 4th of July!

Well I'm way behind in blogging. I had this post all ready to go a couple weeks ago but blogger lost it and it made me so mad that I couldn't bring myself to re-write it until now. That being said I really don't like to get too behind and the month of July was a fun, busy one, so I better get to it!

We had a low key, fun Independence Day. We took a slow morning then headed over to the Alpine splash park. We went last year too. It was a nice, hot morning, but surprisingly the splash pad wasn't very crowded. My kids were the only ones in it at one point! It was a hit. We stayed for a couple of hours, then headed home for lunch and naps. Tal and I painted our nails too.

Once everyone was up from naps we got dinner going. We enjoyed a delicious BBQ. We didn't find any friends to have over for dinner, but it was nice with just us. We had burgers and hot dogs, Cheetos, strawberries, and corn on the cob. Mmm.

After dinner we packed up for the night and drove over to Electric Park at Thanksgiving Point to watch the fireworks show. Right when we walked in we ran into our neighbors, the Havican's, so we set up shop right next to them and played and visited until dark. Luckily Jessica had brought way more fun stuff than I had, so the kids played Cootie and Beckett entertained himself with a beach ball for a good long while. Ian and Weston played some Frisbee before it got too crowded.

Once it got dark we busted out the glow sticks and glow wands I had brought. Ian did sparklers with the kids for a little bit before we were asked to stop by security. Oops. We did them last year and thought they were allowed, but apparently they had already had a couple of burns since it was so crowded. Oh well, at least I got pictures first. :)

Finally it was time for fireworks. Talia still wasn't a fan of the noise. Beckett seemed to like them. He didn't cry at all and kept saying "wow." He fell asleep halfway through the big show though. Talia stayed awake but was pretty exhausted and grouchy by time it was over. We figured out the parking situation finally and were home and kids in bed by 11pm.

It was a successful 4th of July! I'm so thankful to live in this beautiful, free country. I am grateful for all the men and women who sacrificed so much to make and keep us free. Happy Independence Day!

Q-Why aren't there any knock knock jokes about Independence Day?
A-Because freedom rings!

Gardening 101

I am still by no means a "gardener." However, I have been really excited to watch the seeds I planted in May sprout and grown into a full blown garden. In fact, I think I over-seeded. My plants are too big for their containers now! I hope their roots are able to still do their job and I get some good fruits. It was the coolest Spring activity to water and keep an eye on the garden. 

Now we are close to harvesting some zucchini! There are a few baby tomatoes on the tomato plant, but they aren't very big yet and are still green. Maybe in a few more weeks?

The same zucchini two weeks later. Almost ready!

As for the spinach, I didn't realize I was supposed to harvest it within 7 days of leaf growth, so I missed out on eating it. Next year for sure. My broccoli plants are growing huge, but there are no flowers or edible broccoli sprouts on it. I know it's more of a cold weather plant so I'm still watering it and hoping it might yield a head or two of broccoli come Fall.

The herbs are beautiful and smell amazing. My cilantro went to seed before I could use it. :( Still learning about when to harvest what. Next year I will have a better idea and I will go with my gut about when I think it's ready. The dill tasted great. The basil smells fantastic and the parsley still looks good. I'm hoping to cut and dry the dill and parsley next week. The red pepper plant is getting bigger and bigger but there are no signs of any peppers. We shall see.

I made tartar sauce with some of the fresh dill. Yum!

There are green onions and regular onions in there with the tomato plant but they are kind of overshadowed and I'm not sure when I should harvest them. Another wait and see?

Overall it has been a super fun experiment and at least I will for sure be getting some yummy grilled zucchini out of it! I think it was the prettiest when it was first sprouted. I will definitely garden again next spring, but I may change up what I grow.

Home Sweet Home

If you just looked at our blog you might think we never stay home! But the truth is we are home most of the time. Every once in awhile we venture out and do something fun. This post consists of happy moments at home. They aren't even all this cute and happy, but I generally don't whip out the camera when the kids are grouchy and fighting or when I'm doing dishes or vacuuming. 

This is Talia at dinner grumpy about something we asked her to do. I can't remember what.

I am so grateful that for the most part my kids love each other, are kind to one another, and play well together. It's not always a party, but I'm glad that I'm home to see and capture some of their more loving moments. :)

Weston is such a good big brother. He loves to have Beckett climb all over him. He will even let Talia climb on him. He is good about including them when he and Dav are playing in the basement. He also gets along great with Davin. They play together for hours. Davin and Weston are buds and are entertained by Legos for days on end.

We also spend a lot of time playing on screens when we are home. The boys love playing Super Smash Bros. and Wii Fit games on the Wii. Talia would watch shows all day if I let her. Her favorites are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Doc McStuffins, and Super Why. Beckett is usually content to play cars in front of whatever is on the TV.

Davin and Talia are my kids that fight the most. They struggle to get along, but the other day we walked over to the little park and we were the only ones there. They did great playing on the playground together, then I looked up and they were sitting in the grass like this and my heart melted. I hope they will do better together over time.

Beckett loves playing in my closet while I'm getting ready for the day. Some days I swear he and Tal get out all of my shoes. It's kind of annoying, but pretty dang cute. Beckett also loves to play on the piano. I keep it closed most of the time, but when I open it up he's right there ready to play. :) He also is SO close to talking. He is finally saying more words: mama, dada, brothers, bubble, go, up, uh oh, wow. He also can do animal noises for horse, cow, bear, duck, pig, fish, elephant, etc. I'm looking forward to him learning to say yes, please, more, drink, and his siblings' names.

This was me trying to get him to say "brothers" on camera. He wouldn't do it, but he had said it perfectly right before this and he loved watching himself onscreen.

To sum up . . . I love that I get to stay home with these little munchkins and that I never miss a sweet moment. It makes all the grouchy, squabbling moments less awful. :) Also we stay home a lot. It's hard taking this whole crew out and about! 

Date Night

I had been wanting to spend a little quality time with Davin, so I took him out on a date! We had an awesome time. He is such a cute, funny kid. We used his In N Out gift card that he won at Mel and Brad's BBQ, so he paid for dinner. It ended up costing $.02 after the gift card. He was proud of himself for paying for dinner. We had some good conversation aside from the fact that he speaks way too quietly and I had to ask him to repeat almost everything he said.

We talked about his friends. Who is nice to him (pretty much he gets along with everyone) and who isn't (just one kid I already knew about). He told me out of the blue that he knows the difference between a cowboy and a shepherd. I was intrigued. He explained that cowboys have to push the cows along, but a shepherd walks in front of the sheep and they follow him. He said that it's kind of like how we follow Jesus. I'm always impressed with what sticks with kids. I'm thankful he has such awesome primary teachers!

After dinner I gave him a couple dessert choices, but he chose picking out a candy at the dollar store to take with us to the movie. So we ran into Dollar Tree and both picked a box of Junior Mints. Then we headed over to the theater to see How to Train Your Dragon 2. We were there a little early so we got to hang out and watch all the commercials and trivia. The movie was fun. Davin loved it. I maintain that the first HTTYD was better, but the sequel was pretty good too. :)

I had to laugh because Davin did not inherit my major sweet tooth. I kept asking him if he wanted to open his candy and he had to tell me about 4 times "I'll tell you when I'm ready for it Mom!" I had already almost polished off my entire box by the time he finally asked for his. I am glad I got to spend some time with my Dav man. Love him!

Discovery Gateway Museum

We took a couple of days off from major outings, but on Friday we were at it again. In the afternoon we went and picked up Ian from work and we all went up to the Discovery Gateway Museum to play. Jules and Rick gave us tickets to the museum for Christmas and the kids had been asking to go for awhile. It took forever to find a day Ian could come with us though!

We hadn't been to this museum in a long time, but the kids remembered some of their favorite things there. There were also some new things to do and see. We started in the ball room, which is always a hit. Talia only used blue balls. Weston was such a good helper with gathering balls for Beckett. And Davin was all about filling up the ball bins.

Next we went into the Kid's Eye View room. Basically kid town. It was a blast. The museum wasn't super crowded so the kids didn't have to fight to play with anything. It was perfect. Weston spent the entire time in that area being the mailman and delivering different items all over the "town." I mostly followed Beckett around. He loved it all. Especially the water table, the little slide in the baby section, and driving the cars. Davin was at the perfect age for this place. He knew how to use everything and spent a good amount of time in the store area. He also got into the dressing up and played police with another kid.

(Is it bad that I thought he kinda looked like a stripper in his cop outfit?)

When we finished in the kid town area we left and walked over to the food court for dinner. It was kind of stressful. Davin wanted Subway (it's pretty much his favorite), the other kids wanted McDonald's, and Ian and I wanted Panda Express. We got it figured out though and everyone was hungry and ate up!

We went back to the museum and headed upstairs. By then we practically had the place to ourselves. We did the puzzles and the magnet wall. We went outside to the helicopter and found that they had built a whole new exhibit out on the patio. It was an Intermountain Medical exhibit and simulated an ER. There was even touch screens to treat the "patients." Weston performed surgery on a kid's femur on the touch screen. He said it was kind of gross.

The Lifeflight helicopter was pretty much the same but with an added "patient" in the back along with instructions on how to treat him.

There was a temporary Bob the Builder exhibit set up in the back room. I spent the last hour there with Talia and Beckett. Weston and Davin popped in for a little while too. I thought it was really cute. Lots of interaction things to do. All of the life sized characters talked. The water pump installation was by far the favorite though. Beckett could have played there forever! There was a tube that sucked the balls up into the pump then spit them out the other end from the "spigots." Super fun.

We had a great time playing together as a family. Thanks again for the fun Christmas gift Garcia's! :)