Goodbye. Good Riddance.

It seems like we have spent the majority of this month cooped up inside with one sick kid or another. But seriously, it's June. You're not suppose to get sick in the summer. The poor kids are going stir crazy (I'll admit that I am too) and in response to "Can we go swimming?" the answer lately has been "No, _____ is sick."

So here we are, the last day of the month of June. Goodbye and good riddance. I pray we don't have another repeat of you anytime in the near future. However, despite how lame the majority of June was, we still managed to have some fun.

Since we've been inside a lot I've tried to come up with fun things for the kids to do. I dyed some noodles different colors and the kids love them. We've made noodle necklaces and noodle art.

I escaped with Laura one weekend and we made dragons at a Lowe's Build and Grow clinic. I was reminded of why I always send Chad to these things. I had to tear apart the first dragon because I built it wrong and somehow still managed to build the second dragon wrong as well. Like I said, Chad will be covering all building activities in the future.

One perk to being stuck inside is that we've really mastered potty training. Laura completed both a "Poo" chart and a "Dry" chart. She's finally got it down and is now working on her final "No Accidents" chart. So proud of this girl of mine.

I'll be honest. Being stuck inside has led to lots and lots of movies. Don't ask me why they are both nakey. I'd like to think it was right before a bath. Good thing they are so dang cute. :)

We did manage to go swimming once at the beginning of the month before everyone got sick. Love these pictures of my two fearless water babies.

 Bundled up babe. This girl will swim and swim until her lips turn blue and she is shaking from head to toe. Then and only then is she willing to leave the pool.

While this kid is still pretty timid around water (at least compared to my girls) he has made huge improvements. He will now swim on his own as long as he has a floatie or water wings on. He also willingly holds his breath and sticks his head and face into the water. It doesn't last very long, but he does it. This is huge guys.

 Here is another one of our indoor activities that corresponded with FHE. We learned about following the Prophet and Noah's Ark. We built our own ark and found that we are master ark builders because our ark floated! The kids loved doing this and keep asking to build more arks. Ha ha ha.

El Fin

Today was Cayden's last day of soccer. I was surprised by how much he enjoyed it. I knew he would have fun, but he looked forward to each practice and game and was sad when one would be cancelled due to weather. Chad and I enjoyed seeing Cayden improve each week, but it meant that for the last two months every Thursday night and every Saturday morning was taken over by soccer. That part wasn't much fun. I'm not looking forward to when I have multiple kids in sports and I play chauffeur all day long.

Individual and team (not complete) pictures taken earlier in the season. Check out Cayden's smile in the team picture; it just about kills me.

Cayden's team, minus one. These kids crack me up. And yes, third from the left looks like he is going to pee his pants.

Goofy boy with his trophy.

Some things about the season that I want to remember... 1) We ordered the smallest size jersey which fit Cayden perfectly. Except for his head. His head is so big I thought we were going to scalp him each time we took his shirt off. 2) His absolute favorite part of soccer was a game called 'Buzzy Bee' that they would play during practice. The kids were bees and had to sting the coach by hitting him with the balls they kicked. Cayden would just laugh and laugh trying to get the coach with his ball. It was pretty cute. 3) Upon finding out that today was his last soccer game Cayden told me that he wanted to be signed up for football next. I was a little concerned about football until he told Chad that he wanted to be signed up for horseshoes. Seriously, horseshoes. What a goober. Love this silly boy of mine.

Work Hard, Play Hard

We've been helping out a lot at Grandma's and Grandpa's house lately. We've been working hard - planting bulbs, pulling down and cutting up dead trees - but we've been playing hard too. Here's some of the work and fun we've been up to.

Helping plant bulbs in Grandma's and Grandpa's house. Cayden was more help than Laura. She kept uncovering the bulbs that had just been planted.

While everyone worked, some of us played with the baby. Super cute smiles from my Grace.

This is how Grandpa plays with the baby - covering her up with as many toys as possible before she wiggles and they fall off.

One of Gracie's favorite toys at Grandma's house. Eat that caterpillar baby girl! Love this face.

We spent half the day this past Saturday helping pull down and chop up dead trees at Grandma's and Grandpa's. Cayden was a huge help. He helped load the cut up trees into the tractor and drove the tractor around the yard.

Gracie and Laura started outside. Once it got too hot we moved inside. This is how Grace helped. Notice she has the caterpillar toy again.

Laura was pretty tired from being outside so much. She sat in this spot and watched Curious George without moving for literally ten minutes. Super impressive for this girl.

While the boys finished up outside, Gracie enjoyed playing with a hula hoop and her other favorite toy, baby Pluto, inside.

She also practiced being super cute. I think she is absolutely adorable here! Pretty, pretty girl.

After working so hard all day we followed up with a yummy birthday dinner for Krysta, let Gracie play in the sunshine nakey, and went swimming to cool off. You know it's been a good day when you've worked hard and played hard.

 Cute nakey babe getting some Vitamin D.

 Big brother and little sister time. Love this picture! I might be biased, but my kids are so dang cute!

Going swimming! Laura was obviously too tired to actually carry the fish floatie. The kids love swimming and ask daily to go. Unfortunately, I am too chicken to take them all on my own so we end going only when Daddy is home and has time.

My little Gracie relaxing and loving the water. She felt like a big girl in her own floatie.

From the Trenches

Potty training. Oh how I loathe you. It seriously has to be one of the most disgusting things about being a mom. No joke. I'd trade vomit over potty training any day. We've been actively potty training Laura for the past month. There have been so many ups and downs. Within a week she had it nailed. Pee, poop, nap and bedtime. Piece of cake. Except not. After doing great she decided to quit pooping in the potty. I tried everything... just underwear, just pants, commando (that totally backfired and she pooped on my porch). We've also tried every form of bribery and prizes known to man. I finally decided to keep her in pull-ups so I didn't have to deal with the poop. Laura was still peeing in the potty - 100% accident free! - so no biggie. Once I decided to stop forcing her to poop in the potty she randomly decided to start pooping in the potty. I was so excited! She went about a week and a half of pooping in the potty. She filled in one poop chart and got the other halfway filled. And then started pooping in her pants again. Seriously kid?! And here's the kicker, after about a month of peeing in the potty with hardly any accidents she starts peeing in her pants! What the heck?! Like she's not even trying to pee in the potty. She just goes in her underwear/pull-up/on the floor and doesn't care.

Now I don't know what to do. Do I stick with it? Laura is stubborn enough to pee/poop when and where she wants. I don't see it as an accident. She just doesn't seem to care right now. Do I give up, put her back in diapers, and lose all the progress we've made? (Though, honestly, at this point there doesn't seem to be much progress.) Should I just wait for her to tell me when she wants to go in the potty? I am so over potty training, but I'm so over having two kids in diapers. Ugh.

Pictures from when Laura filled in her first poop chart! She was so excited and proud! Too bad it didn't last very long.

Some Firsts

Gracie got her first teeth! They both came in at the same time and make her look so much older. She's already putting them to good use and is becoming an excellent biter. Not a huge fan here.

Cayden paid his tithing for the first time. He was so excited and proud! He wrote his name on the envelope himself (I filled out the slip) and gave it to the Bishop. There may or may not have been 79 pennies plus other change in the envelope.

 

Gracie had her first haircut! We had to get rid of the mullet. It was driving me crazy. No more party in the back. :)

 First time on hands and knees! She's going to be crawling soon and I am so not ready. (The picture is a little bit blurry because she kept rocking back and forth.)