Video Time

So I have a ton of videos to get up on the blog so each week I will add a few more. Sorry if you get bored, because as I said there is a lot. Most of these ones are from while we were gone for the month of July.

This was their birthday video for Auntie Mandy!

Hadley trying to figure out the whole crawling thing.

Gavin & Audra jumping on the trampoline.

More trampoline fun.



More crawling.  For awhile she was really good at crawling backwards, but had a hard time figuring out how to go forwards.

InstaFriday

Alright.  Another week.  The kids have all been fighting colds this week, so we haven't been too much of anywhere, so here is some of the excitement.

 

Audra loves to wear her high heels around the house.  I have to say she is pretty good at walking around in them.  Well one day she decided to try to walk down the stairs, maybe not the best idea.  Within 2 steps she rolled her ankle!  After a few minutes of sobbing and crying, she got back up and was walking down the stairs again.  She's quite the determined girl to say the least.

Miss Hadley is also quite determined these days.  Last weekend, she discovered she could crawl all the way up the stairs.  And then of course it didn't stop.  Everytime you turn your head, she heads to the stairs and is half way up before you know it.

The girls enjoyed some horse riding together.  I'm not sure Hadley really enjoyed it.

Audra, the party girl, is crazy as usual!

And Miss Hadley is the quite one!

 

 While I was on the phone with Kevin one day this week, Gavin was very busy making another meal.  Gavin is quite into cooking and making sandwiches.  He likes to be self sucfficient.  Usually its just sandwiches, on this morning he had already made him and Audra rollup, with a tortilla, cheese, turkey and raspberry vinigerette.  We have been out of ranch and bbq sauce which are usually his go tos.  So then for an afternoon snack he decided to make a nutella (which I have to say, it was the fancy stuff from France, a gift from Mandy from Paris), balsalmic dressing, and raspberry vinigerette.  The sandwich was originally just the middle 2 slices of bread, but in effort to save the bread, and counter from being a complete disaster, we added to additional slices to help absorb all the liquid.  He then declared that the sandwich was for daddy.  Yum!  Don't you just want a big bite!

 Miss Hadley got to sit in the big girl seat with Audra at the grocery store.  She was not so sure.  I think she actually likes that Audra or Gavin can't usually touch her in the cart. 

 Audra was carrying on some important business. 

 Hadley is growing so fast.  This outfit I actually took out of Audra's closet this morning . . . I mean, it still fits Audra.  Crazy! 

 Hadley has a gotten a cough the last couple of days, and well yesterday it prohibited her from staying asleep during nap time.  I think now she is regretting not taking that nap now that it was dinner time. 

 But of course she managed to wake up in time to get some ice cream. 

InstaFriday a week late.

Wow, ok, I'm really behind.  I thought I had already posted this, but apparently not.  So this is last week.  Miss Hadley is crazy busy these days, crawling and climbing on everything.  She has made it up the first 2 stairs, but hasn't ventured any further yet.  She is also trying to stand up all in the middle of the floor.  And pulling herself up on everything, as you can see the wall and then walking around.

On Saturday morning I set her on the table while I was cleaning up her high chair and she crawled across the table and was cleaning off Audra and Gavin's plates! 

"Who me?"

While we were at Costco one day, I heard Hadley laughing so hard and I turned around and saw Gavin making faces at her!  It cracked me up, because I had never seen him make this face.  Funny kid.

On Wednesday night Coley & I went to check out an auction.  Hadley was having a rough day, so she got to come with mom.  I have to say, she loved it.  She was so happy the whole time, kicking around and waving her arms and chatting and talking with everyone.  She was trying her best to bid everything up.

Miss Audra discovered how to make a snorting noise.  Its pretty funny!

And that's about it.  Nothing too exciting going on here this week.

InstaFriday

Helping Pops pick up pinecones.  Their reward was a ride in the wheelbarrel.

Building houses with Pops.  She was very proud of her houses.

Bath time.  They enjoyed Grammy & Pop's big bathtub.

On Saturday the ladies enjoyed some junkin'.  We had lots of fun digging through the mess to find our treasures.  Even Audra found a few treasures, a necklace and a few horses.

And we then had a yummy lunch at Rons as a treat.

Hadley has quite enjoyed the wonderful green grass and all the freedom.

And lots of jumping on the trampoline!

The kiddos enjoyed playing lots of hide and seek.  This was my favorite, Pops hid under the buffet and then got stuck!  It was pretty funny.  I have to admit, I couldn't stop laughing.

And lots of picking raspberries at Grandmas.

We had a wonderful breakfast for dinner at Frank's Diner!  It's an old train, the kids thought it was very exciting.  As we were getting on, Gavin yells, "but mom, where's the wheels!"  And while we waited for our food they enjoyed building towers with the creamers and jams.

I think they had fun!

Gavin was quite busy in "his office" as he called it.  He was very busy in the window, drawing lots of pictures and chatting away.

Audra and Gavin were Pops little helpers and collected all the trash to head to the dump.

One day we went to Silverwood, its a theme park and a water park in one.  The kids had sooo much fun.  I was so impressed, Gavin and Audra neither one were afraid of any of the rides!  They just wanted to ride everything over and over again.  And they even rode all the kids rides all by themselves.  It was a big day for Gavin who seems to be quite easily scared.

Gavin rode the ferris wheel with Pops.

And Audra rode with Grammy. 

They loved the airplanes!

The tilt-a-whirl!  Yikes!  I think this will be Pops and Mommy's last tilt-a-whirl experience.  Too much spinning!

Gavin was dying to go on a rollercoaster, so thankfully they had a kids coaster, because he's not quite tall enough for the big coasters yet.  Next summer.  Gavin loved driving the antique cars.  It was quite a rough ride for Audra and I.

We spent the second half of the day over at Boulder Beach the water park.  The kids had so much fun in the water!  Gavin even went down the water slides all by himself.  I was so proud of him.

Gavin enjoyed karate-chopping the waterfall.

Audra was no so sure of Gavin's driving in the cars!

One night after Gavin had gone to bed, Hadley was quite happy to play with his "guys".

Audra, Hadley, Grammy and I had a tea party one morning while Gavin and Pops helped fix Grandmas car.  As if the picture doesnt speak for itself, Audra loved it.  Grammy had a Strawberry Shortcake tea set with little cups and Audra thought they were great and LOVED the tea.  I think she had 5 cups of tea.

Of course we had to get dressed up, but Hadley was not so sure about what was going on.

Grammy & Miss Audra in their tea attire!

Look at this big girl sitting in a chair all by herself and of course busy sneaking lots and lots of food!

I think she liked it!

One afternoon we went to Riverfront Park for an afternoon of fun.  The kids loved all the rides.  I think the bumper boats were a favorite.

Even Hadley enjoyed herself and the beautiful weather.  Gavin rode the ferris wheel with Pops.

Audra rode the ferris wheel with Grammy.  And we all rode the carosel many, many times!

Lots of fun to be had.  The kids just love all the space to run and play outside, and of course the grass!  And Gavin took a lovely picture of me trying on my $1 find.

Hadley was enjoying climbing around and inside the suitcases as we packed.

Hadley particularly loved the grass.  I think shes a good 'ol country girl.  While Audra and Gavin showed off their muscles.

One last goodbye to Grandma before we left.  The kids just loved her.  It was so cute to see them interacting.

A rare moment of them both sitting still and reading.

And then we packed the car and got ready to set out on our way back to Phoenix.  But the minute I started the car I heard an awful thud, and then again, and then the car started shaking while we were just sitting there.  So we drove the car to my parents neighbors shop to have them take a look at it.  He didn't have time to pull it apart, but said that it was something with the fuel line.  So on we went to another shop, a friend of my parent's from church.  Thankfully there was a park right around the corner, so we took the kids to run around and play.  About an hour and a half later I get a phone call and the man says, "You're never going to guess what we found in your car,"  I really had no idea, he said, "a SQUIRRELl!"  Apparently a squirrel had climbed up under the hood, and when I stated the car, the squirrel got knocked in the head by the radiator fan and fell inside.  The squirrel did manage to break a few of the fan blades, so we had to wait for them to get a few new blades and put them on, but very minor considering how awful the car felt.  And I have to say, that squirrel was one of the fatest squirrels I've seen in a long time.  The guys had a picture of the squirrel it was all in one piece and not even a scratch on him, just sitting inside the fan, dead of course.  It was a lovely way to start our trip and we got a very late start, but we went on and made our way to Idaho Falls that first night.  We were just very thankful that it was just a few fan blades and not something more.  And to think it was all because of a squirrel!  Which can I add, not one time, the entire time we were at my parents did I see one squirrel!  Not once and we spent a lot of time outside.  Crazy.

It was a beautiful drive.  The kiddos were definitely going crazy by the end of the night, but finally fell asleep about an hour before we got there.  They were quite tired when we arrived, so they rode on the cart with all the bags.  They thought it was very exciting, heavy for me, but fun.

The following day we went to St George, Utah and then made it home the following day.  The whole car ride home Gavin was talking about us going to Daddy's Home!  I'm not sure if he really couldn't remember or if he was just joking, but he kept acting like he had no idea what our home was like, like he had no recollection of his room or the backyard.  At one point he asked where he was going to sleep.  Goofy kid.  And when we got home, he ran around to all his toys, hugging them like he was seeing them for the very first time.  It was quite hillarious.  I guess we need to leave our toys behind more often.

Audra was very excited to get back to her Auntie Mandy.  She was very happy to snuggle right up to her.  And whenever Grammy got more food out, Audra was immediately by her side waiting to "help" her.

Over the weekend, we went over to Auntie Mandy's pool, to try to beat the heat for awhile.

"Cheese!"

Miss Hadley is all over the place these days.  She also is enjoying being home and cruising around.

I love this crazy girl!  She is quite busy these days, crawling all over and pull herself up on anything she can get her hands on.

Especially the tub!  She is quite proud of herself!

Gavin decided he didn't need my help.  He went to the fridge and made himself a turkey and cheese rollup (w/ bbq sauce) all by himself.

The other day while I was working on my computer and the girls were sleeping, Gavin had been sitting quietly on the couch.  See I should have known, it was too quiet.  He then came over and asked me if I would help him draw a daddy with my finger, I said "what?" and turned and looked at the couch and this is what I saw!  I couldn't believe it.  I told him Daddy was not going to be happy with him and that he was in trouble, so he proceeded to grab the wipes and clean it off.  And about 5 minutes later he told me to look and I have to say that they were all gone.  He got lucky this time and must not have scratched as deep as it seemed.

Silly Gavin trying on a baby hat.

And that's it!  Took me long enough, but that is the last 2 weeks of our life.  We thank the Lord we made it home safely and without too much craziness!  Of course there had to be a little crazy, but we survived and are back home in the scorching heat!