Going Through June

Adrian

Our little man has now been rolling over back and forth so I've been a lot more careful about where I put him or let the girls put him. He rolled to his stomach for daddy a couple times before I was able to see it for myself and he isn't always so happy about it because now I want him to do it all the time. I think his sleep schedule is getting better, but I'm knocking on wood as I say it because I don't want to assume it will stay consistant or he will hear me and change it up. I am just loving his happy attitude and adorable smiles, it makes up for him holding all his poop for the two hours of church so that I have to leave to change him 3 times!

Claire

I am starting to wonder how she is at school because every time I say she needs to do her homework for the day she groans and says no, so I've tried a tactic of letting her get away with it. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't get to watch TV or do a lot of the things she wants to until she finishes which makes her groan louder. Now she is a full week behind and sincde that didn't work, I think we are going to lay down the law a little harder and she has to sit in her homework spot until she's done no matter what. Some of the homework isn't even that hard! I hope she wasn't like this at school, and she doesn't continue this stubbornness because I like to give them happiness as well as teach responsibility. She went on a kick of wanting to catch bugs because Shay got a few bug catching things as a prize from the library. She got a fly in the house and was so proud, even though Shay let it escape in my house... Then the rolly polly she played with all day...instead of doing her homework.

Shay

This girl loves her brother so much and it is so cute to see her trying to make him smile and giggle. I can always count on her to be concerned about him when I go upstairs and leave him sitting with them! I got some sand from someone who bought too much for a project they were doing and we now have a sand pit that they absolutely love. They spent 3 hours playing in it and making a beach, burying and digging up treasure, and making a big mess on my lawn! I find it so funny that she only takes naps when we have church, but it is pretty warm when we go so I hope its not a problem in school.

Hot Summer Days

 Adrian

We were back to our summer normal this week, but I've recently decided that Adrian is determined to never be predictable. One day he will happily go to sleep right after a snack and sleep for the first 4 hours of the night but other nights it takes an hour to put him to sleep and he only sleeps for 2 hours. It is never the same two days in a row, and he doesn't like naps in his own room still, but he does get a lot of naps in the car seat because we are often out of the house at his nap times. When the girls go to school, I hope he will get better and I can have  more time to do the chores, working out, and other things around the house. I don't know why I give myself so many projects, but I have a running list of things that will eventually happen. The girls got some balloons from the park and we tried to get Adrian to play with them by kicking!

Swimming

We had a lunch and pool party with the ward relief society this week on Monday and the girls had so much fun! Claire now wants these cute diving gems for her birthday since I told her the kayak was too expensive and we couldn't use it in the pools we go to. There were extra free swim classes that the girls were able to go to this week so we went to the pool 3 times this week and they both leveled from beginners to intermediate. They were very proud of themselves and got a little toy as a prize, and Claire keeps saying, "I can wait to be a seahorse!" Its the naming system the swim school uses, they used to be starfish as beginners but now they get to be seahorses. I want to take them swimming as a family with Chris to see how much they can actually do. Shay put on her whale tattoo right on her face and its been there all week so maybe it helped her get better at swimming!

More fun

Claire goes to our calendar each day and turns the page to August to see when her birthday is because she is so excited. She tries to count down the days, but if I've forgotten to X out the current days she has too many, we talked about what she wants for a party and she wants to invite her whole school class! Shay had her date with Daddy this week and they rode the quad to that park with a picnic and sat under a tree to eat and talk. Luckily Chris took a picture because I didn't get a picture of our movie and dinner date at home with Claire, Adrian, and myself. Since we took last week off of doing homework, this week was hard to finally get them to do it, but eventually they got tired of not being able to watch shows and Claire spend Friday and Saturday doing all week's worth of homework. Now let me explain what the girls were doing...Shay wanted to be a mermaid and Claire was keeping her from the water so she would stay and play with her. 

Into the Wilderness!

 Camping

So glad we got to take the family camping this week and see some cousins, boat on the lake, swim around a bunch, and enjoy all the bugs! Honestly, they weren't that bad and I don't think any of us got bit enough to notice, the girls were just having way too much fun. On Tuesday we drove the 4 hours to the camping spot and the girls had to learn that the first thing we do when we get there is to set up the tent and unpack. They wanted to go run off and explore and play at the little playground, but we were the first ones there and we couldn't see it from where we were setting up so I had them help Daddy set up the tent instead. Pretty soon some cousins showed up though and they could go play before Grandpa and Grandma came and dinner was started. All the cousins had one big tent with a girl's room and a boy's room that they slept in which was peaceful for us parents and fun for them. They giggled and told 'ghost' stories for a little too long the first night, but that second night we didn't hear them staying up because everyone was exhausted from the fun.

The Lake

The activities were mostly centered around the lake with Grandpa's boat and the Harper's kayaks! Claire and Shay both learned really quickly how to row and then were cruising around the little area close to shore. I was surprised they were so good at navigating and they only fought over the pink boat a few times. Originally I planned to get in the water with Adrian, but it was too dirty and rough and he got tired as soon as we went there the first time so he took a nap while I helped get the girls going with the kayaks. I'm glad I didn't feel left out because I did have all the girl cousins and sisters-in-law want to hold him since he was the only baby out of the 3 in the family that made it to camping. Everyone got a chance to go on the tube behind the boat and I went with the younger girls to hold them on which was hard on the biceps. 

Guests

While we were gone, we had house guests! It was convenient to let them watch Buttercup because I don't think she is ready for camping and it would have made it super hard to enjoy it to have a baby and a puppy. I set up a fenced-off area with shade throughout the day, a fan to create wind, her water bowl, and her food available so she didn't have to be confined to her small cage the whole time. I had a camera to watch over her too, and luckily the most time she was stuck alone was about 6 hours. When we came home from camping, we spent a little time with our guests even though they were gone most of the day, we went out for pizza one night and the girls loved the arcade games. Claire and Shay were obsessed with making Adrian and his 3 week older cousin hold hands!

Happy Independence Day!

4th of July

This year was so much fun because there was a chance to explain why we celebrate this holiday to Claire and Shay, and they seemed to understand it! We also got to join in the hometown celebration in Star with a parade in the morning. There are a ton of other things we could have joined in that is hosted by the city that we can do in the future, and our neigborhood started a block party that everyone wants to do every year. I think the city has grown a lot over the last few years and they haven't quite figured out how to handle it because we were a little disappointed in the parade. The instructions they gave the floats were not throwing candy because our main street was widened recently and if any dropped in the middle of the road it would be too tempting for kids to run out so they could only hand out candy on the side. There were also huge gaps in the middle and I think it was because they had to make a turn. We did our own sparklers in our backyard and had the neighbors fireworks fall on us...but got a front row seat to some bigger ones. 

Adrian

Adrian is getting back to sleeping better and has a pretty regular wake up schedule during the night. Its predictable but still keeps me from getting sleep all through the night so I've just accepted he's a very hungry boy! He is already so big and it is hard to carry him around all the time espeically in the car seat for very long. I usually keep Buttercup away from him but she has been really good recently and he reached out to her when I was changing his butt that looked so cute. I don't like choosing between spending time with my two babies, but at least the girls play with Buttercup and I can have time to play with just her during his naps. I got to try our first outting to a big gathering because Chris stayed home while he was napping when the block party started

Claire

Swimming this week was a good time and there were a lot more people because they had to make up for being closed on Thursday. I don't get to see if they are actually learning anything because I'm with Adrian in the baby pool but I have them tell me what they have learned. We also get to have fun times when we go to the park and get to have activites that the library sponsers before lunch is served. We've seen our neighbors there a few times this week. We started a marble reward since the other ones I've tried hasn't worked so we will see if this one does eventually. I liked the idea because they earn them easily by doing things I'm going to make them do anyway and I can also take them away if they do things I've told them not to do a million times. 

Shay

There has been a few bad instances of Shay biting and getting violet when she is upset so I'm trying to figure out ways to remind her to stay calm. She knows it's wrong, but in the moment I don't think she can control herself. It might be that I always expect her to be as advanced as Claire, but no matter how many times people mistake them as twins they are a year and a half apart! She has had to take a few naps this week even which I don't think Claire ever had to do once she turned 5, she just sleeps more at night. We are so close to starting school and I think once we go school shopping at meet her teacher she will talk about it every day and I need to get a count down so she won't ask how much longer as often.