The Best 12 Years of my life

Today is our anniversary and it has been great!

We have been on vacation in California-beach, Disneyland, and some sight-seeing. 

Peter makes me so happy! He is always thinking of ways to surprise me and serve me. He is a hard worker and he loves the gospel and to server the Lord.  I found me a Prince Charming and I am loving my happily forever after!

I love you Peter!

Favorite Moment of 2012 Olympics

The Olympics are coming to a close and I have watched a fair amount.  

I love watching and wish I could have watched more but of all that I watched this was my favorite.

I love the shocked look on his face.  Then he immediately congratulates the swimmer next to him on his race.  Then he nearly cries.  The reaction of Lochte and Phelps is great too.  A great moment.

What was your favorite moment?

Lily is One

I should start with a picture of Lily when she was just tiny (5 lbs 13 oz when she came home) but she is so cute now.  You will just have to suffer through a bunch of pictures of her now. 

Swinging in the sprinklers.

Emptying the diaper bag and swimming bag during lessons.

Playing at the splash park.

Chillin' in the new stroller while the older kids are roller skating at a birthday party.

Swimming yesterday for her birthday at the Lewisville Pool.  All of the kids loved it!

This was the safest place for her because she wanted to crawl on her own everywhere and she did not care how deep the water was so 6 inches was the safest place for her.

All smiles this morning as she eats blueberries for breakfast- her favorite! 

 I am pretty sure Arabella helped Lily find her presents and decided she would help her open them even though we had planned to wait until after dinner. 

 They only opened two and then I said no more. She, like most kids, enjoyed the paper about as much as the contents.

 Eating dinner-homemade mac and cheese and watermelon were on the menu and she loves them.  I think she was wondering why I had been taking pictures of her all day.

 Finally, the rest of the presents. 

 She stood up and lifted this up.  She liked playing with each toy before moving on to another present. 

 Her ice cream cake.  We just made a layer cake with a layer made of ice cream. 

 Lily had no problem diving into the frosting.  If we were going to leave it where she could reach it she was all over it.  The other kids were a bit panicked.

 When we gave her a piece all she really ate was the frosting and the ice cream.

 

"Oh no, the ice cream is all gone."

We love our Lily.  She makes all of us so happy.  She is super smiley and is really good with other people.  She has been taking a few steps here and there and I imagine by the end of the month she will be walking consistently.  She has mastered the stairs up and down.  She loves to put items into things.  Lately her favorite thing to do in my bathroom is take all of our small hair clips and bows and stuff them into a toothpaste box she took from the trash- hours of fun for her! She has taken to milk well but is not really liking the idea of giving up her bottle. If you give her more than one binki (like 3) she will suck on one, realize she has one in her hand and spit the one in her mouth out and put one in and then pick up the one she spit out and a few minutes later repeat the process.  

We love you Lily! I really can not believe it has been a year.  You are such a blessing, I am so thankful for you!

Guess Who's One?

The mystery will be solved later but here is a hint.  She is as sweet and lovely as the flower she is named after.

Fort Worth Museum

For the summer reading program, the kids were given a free ticket to the Fort Worth Children's Museum.  

We got together with some other families from church and spent a fun day there. 

The Grossology exhibit was there for the summer.  It was really fun.  We had seen it in Las Vegas but they did not have as many of the displays there-like the giant nose you see in the picture below.

 There was even fake hair at the top that you can not see.

 Arabella had a great time with her friend Corbin climbing into the mouth and down esophagus into the stomach. 

 Then you could climb into the intestine tunnel and climb out onto a brown blob shaped mat (yes a bit gross).

 Jon laying on a bed of nails in the Risk exhibit. He thought this was so cool but you can tell he was a bit nervous as he was laying on them.

 Joey had to think about doing this while we walked through the rest of the exhibit and decided just before we left it that he should try it.  I am so glad he is working through his fears and anxieties.

Lily finally got to get out of the stroller and play for in the little kid play area.  She loved the bubbles and buttons.  It is so much fun to see her moving around with more and more confidence-still not quite walking though. 

Swimming Lessons

We have finished swimming lessons- yea!

Lily is really glad to be done.  She was a trooper to sit through 2 hours of lessons and not get to join them in the water. 

 Joey has learned to comfortably float on his back.  I don't have any pics of Jon swimming because he has decided that swimming under water is great and so all you see is a blur under the water.  I am thrilled with all of their progress.

Arabella was able to wear her life jacket at the end of the last day.  She swims so much more comfortably in it now.  We swam with some friends on Friday and instead of wanting us to hold on to her though she had her life jacket on, she was swimming all over the place.  Yippee!

Some videos of the slide.  I loved the design of this pool.  It has features I would put in my pool if I were to build one (we all have dreams!).

Week in Review

First, we did not put the towel on Lily's head.  She likes to put things over her head and pull them off.

 The best part was as she pulled on this it got caught in the hooded part of it and she was really stuck but did not get upset!

 Oh, those eyes!

 Oh so silly!

 I am such a big girl!

 I canned my own pineapple.  It was not very hard but I think I need to get a better deal on pineapple to make it worth my money.

 Biggest news of the week was swimming lessons.  I found a lady (Mrs. Sigler) who teaches in her backyard.   She has been amazing and the kids have responded really well to her.

Arabella has made some great progress but is still a bit hesitant.

Jon is swimming with his face in the water and is learning to breath on the side!

Joey is swimming with his face in the water and learning side breathing as well and he is not coughing and choking after each breath (real progress!)!

Lily just wanted to feel like a part of the swimming with goggles on.

As I said before, I taught Joey to tie a quilt. A nice sister in our ward had these quilt tops given to her and she was leaving on a mission so she gave them to me.  They are made out of double knit polyester and very bright and cheery as you can see.  I believe the polyester will last forever-great for donating.

Finally, I recorded this video this morning.  Lily loves to pound on the piano.  Jon and Arabella thought she needed to be in on the Dora dress up action and that is why she is dressed so fancy! ;)