It's summertime!

Now that swim lessons are over, summer has finally arrived. Kind of backwards, but that is the way my luck goes sometimes. Now we have actually been able to ENJOY the swim pool!

A couple of the children in Olivia's swim class wore goggles and so she has been asking for a pair since then. When I finally got her a pair, they were worn for about 20 seconds and she hasn't cared for them since. Not only do they pull her hair when we adjust them, but they didn't magically plug her nose for her when she went underwater. Too bad, she looks pretty cute (and a little silly) in them!

Our little 10x10 garden has been putting out the veggies! Almost everday last week I was able to bring in an armful like this.

We are so lucky to have a beautiful pool next door. Our neighbors are so kind to let us swim almost anytime we want.

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Aaron was getting after me for not putting pictures of myself on this blog. Well, here ya go Aaron!!! Maybe if you would take a half-way decent picture of me occasionally, I would post them.

(Clipping coupons made me extremely tired this week and NO, I didn't drool.)

I would have laid down on the couch to snooze, but Aaron was busy reading....a book that had nothing to do with engineering!

Olivia got a hold of the camera again and these are some of the great shots she came up with (including that one above of Aaron reading).

Olivia laughed so hard when she was showing me these pictures of her nose and mouth. It was so cute.

She's becoming quite the photographer. haha (And obviously taking lessons from our friend, Ken, on how to cut off the head's.)

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Nope! The van isn't fixed. Nope! This isn't a picture of our new car.

The van is at the shop waiting to be repaired. In the mean time, I am hooked up with a rental car just like the one above...it's fine, but I do miss my van!

"POW!"

Wondering what a camper top has to do with our Independence Day? No, we definitely didn't go camping again. Carter is still banned from going camping! I'll get to this adventure later...

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My All-American Girl!

My All-American Boy!

Olivia was so excited that Connor was at the party we attended. I was happy to hear that Connor likes fireworks, because Connor liking fireworks equals Olivia liking fireworks...a first for Olivia!

Carter has no fear! He yelled, "POW" all night with nearly every firework that exploded.

We visited the Bradley's on the 4th of July. Olivia loves their Guitar Hero...she actually understood how she was supposed to play this time.

Aaron still had to concentrate really hard even though he had a really big helper. (HA! Actually Aaron was told to give me a "sexy face" and this is what I got.)

Olivia saw her friend do sparklers on the 3rd of July and so she was ready to give it a try on the 4th. (I guess she had to sleep on that decision or something.) She loved it!

And once again, Carter has no fear.

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Back to the camper top now:

Apparently someone decided they no longer needed a camper top and so they let it fly on I-75. We were the first ones to "find" it. "POW!" We feel so lucky though. Aaron kept the car straight (didn't swerve, which could have been really bad!), no injuries, and I forgot to cancel our comprehensive insurance on the van when we paid it off a few months ago. How lucky can we get?! Carter actually slept through it all...the hit, the scream (by me) and the police report. We just hope that all continues to go this smoothly with insurance covering a rental car (can I really handle being stuck at home for the duration of fixing the van?) and all the other related costs of fixing our van!!!

Thanks for all of those that helped us out with rides and such these past few days!

Also, I really wanted to have this song playing, but it wasn't on playlist...so I chose 2nd best.

A date to Home Depot

Aaron and I were lucky enough to go on a date this past Friday night. After we went to pick up Carter and Olivia, Olivia immediately began to ask when Aaron would take her on a "gate." Aaron decided that Saturday would be good since we didn't have much going on. Olivia has also been asking to go to Home Depot so she can buy some supplies to build a bird house...so...the "gate" (date) ended up at Home Depot and then back home to build a bird house.

Their date had some visitors...

I got to finish off the "date" by supervising Olivia's paint job. Now we just need to find a spot in our yard to put it!

Side note: Olivia apparently didn't count this as a date because "you don't go to stores on a date." She wanted "Old McDonald's" (McDonald's) and then a walk to "talk about ourselves." Where does she learn this stuff?

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Swim lessons started on Monday and continue to the end of this week. The water is certainly chilly, but Olivia and Carter look forward to it every morning. Olivia is taking a class with other children and instructors. Carter is doing a class with mommy. I would say that he and Olivia are about on the same level. I would love to do a mommy class with Olivia, but I don't think Carter would sit on the sidelines and wait his turn very good.
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Aaron and I are actually growing a garden! I didn't know if I would ever be able to get anything to grow but weeds, but the veges speak for themselves. We've gotten a few cucumbers and zucchini and the others are on the way. I even made my first loaves of zucchini bread yesterday and I love it! Olivia loves knowing that she's eating food from our garden when she sits down to dinner.

I've been feeling bad when we sit down for family scripture study for awhile now. We all have scriptures, but Carter. I took the plunge this week and gave Carter his own Book of Mormon. He was thrilled! He loves getting out his own scriptures now when it's time to read...a big cheesy grin everytime! Totally worth the already crinkled pages! (We're working on gently turning the pages.)

Build-A-Bear

Last Saturday was a big day for Olivia. Our neighbors, Gary & Vanessa, took her to Kenwood Mall to visit Build-A-Bear workshop. It is Vanessa's favorite store and it was Olivia's first visit.

Vanessa gave this dress to Olivia because it reminded her of a dalmation. Olivia liked to think of it has her Cruella De Vil dress. (101 Dalmations has been her favorite movie for the past two months.)

Olivia was so excited to go to the store. It apparently took her awhile to understand that she got to pick one out and build it and TAKE IT HOME TO KEEP (our poor deprived little girl ;).

Once she understood that though, she had a hard time deciding because she wanted them all!

Olivia got to pick out her own outfit for her bear. I don't think it matched, but she picked it out and loved it!

So many things to buy!

Thanks Gary and Vanessa!

Especially for letting Olivia play with the cicada's for a bit!

**most of the pics are from Gary's film camera.

Brood XIV

Isn't this one of the ugliest BUGS you have ever seen?

Well, Olivia was smitten!

Carter even got in on the bug action.

The cicada's aren't in our part of town this year and that is fine with me. I've never really seen one until this week. Our neighbor works on the other side of town and brought some home with her. Olivia loved it when Mr. Cicada would sing his love song to her!

hot campin' with hot kids

This last Friday we went camping. Just our little family. It was Carter's first camping trip and it didn't turn out as we had planned. Let me say that Carter has lost his overnight camping privileges until he's 12...no, make that 21!

Normal temps for this time of year are around 80 degrees...not this weekend! It was 92 degrees and very humid! Campfires aren't fun in that weather.

Olivia and Carter had fun playing in the tent.

They also had fun at the camp playground.

Roasting marshmallows for s'mores was HOT, HOT, HOT! (my chocolate bar came half-melted though ;)

We had planned to rent a pedal boat and go fishing after waking up, but the night didn't go as planned. I guess we didn't look at the forecast good enough. Aaron and I had left the rainfly off of the tent so that we could get as much circulation as possible. (It's hard to fall asleep when it's in the high 80's...although, it did remind Aaron of his mission in Venezuela.) Well, at 3am, Aaron and I woke up to rain drops falling in our tent. We had to run to the van to get the rainfly. After getting settled back in the tent, Carter decided he had enough sleep. He climbed over us for an hour as we tried to ignore him and sleep through it. At 4am, he began hitting us to try and get us up...I was ready to pack camp up right then! Bless Aaron for taking him into the van and wrestling him in there for the next two hours. Well, pancakes, fishing and pedal boats didn't happen as it continued to rain for quite awhile after we got up. Olivia was heart broken! So, Aaron let her throw a couple of lines in (with worms, of course) and then we packed camp up and headed to Wendy's for breakfast. When we got home, we asked Olivia if she had fun. "No, because I didn't want to leave" was her reply. Poor thing!

Some of you may ask why we went camping when it was so miserably hot. Well, we had promised Olivia for over a month that we were going camping. We planned a campout in May and it rained all weekend so we cancelled that trip. We couldn't let our sweet girl down again.

For our next camping trip (am I crazy?) Aaron will stay with Olivia (who slept so peacefully through the wind, rain and crying) in the tent while I bring home little monster to sleep in his bed. Since he usually wakes up by 5am, I'm sure we'll be back to camp before breakfast!

Escapee

Is it normal for one little boy to drive one mommy bonkers?

I have to keep a constant eye on him!

As I was putting a band-aid on Olivia the other day, I turned around and found Carter with an open bottle of medicine...I thought these things were supposed to be child proof!

Do you have these on all the doorknobs in your house? I have never had to use one of these until this weekend. I had to make an emergency trip to the store on Friday night to buy a package. I spent Friday afternoon chasing after Carter as he would open the front door, the storm door and then be out to the sidewalk in no time at all! Either that or he would ring the doorbell over and over and over again.

Oh my little munchkin! He's lucky he makes me laugh a lot or I would consider giving him away. (for a little while anyway)

And when Carter doesn't make me laugh, Olivia usually fills in the gaps!

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My cousin, Brandon, graduated from High School last week. Congratulations Brando! Brandon took over my bedroom (at my parent's house) shortly after I moved away to college. Now he's moving to NM...because that is what Byrd's do...they fly south! Much love to you Brandon, we'll miss you dearly!