Bluffdale Rodeo

Jeremy calls in to local radio stations all the time and wins things fairly often.  Jeremy won four free tickets to the Bluffdale rodeo!  So this last week we got to attend a rodeo! 

Clara was highly disappointed that she didn't actually get to participate, nor was there a free cowgirl hat at the end!  What a hard life my 5 year old has!

Also this week, Clara and her neighbor friend decided to "paint" our driveway with their hair.

Sewing Projects

I got a lot of sewing things done this week.  I turned 4 pairs of pants that had holes in the knees into shorts.  And then I made 2 T-Shirt dresses for Clara for school.  I let her try one of them on and I think they turned out super cute!

Joseph is so proud of himself that he can climb stairs now.

And when big sister saw me taking pictures of little brother, she had to join in.

While Jeremy was mowing the lawn and I was weeding, Clara decided she wanted to just relax in the sun.  She got all this ready by herself!

We were able to attend a wedding reception this week.  Clara was able to talk Dad into dancing with her.  I love it!

While at the reception, we realized that Jeremy and Joe matched, so we took a quick picture before heading home.

And last, but not least, Joe finally enjoys playing in the pool and Clara loves not having to play by herself.

New Job

Jeremy found out last week that he gets to be a full time employee for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We couldn't be more thrilled.  This is his 15th job in the last 8 years, which is when I met him.  Jeremy's job has been our source of trial, and I've gotten used to it.  Job searching and making ends meet is just what we do.  With the reputation the church has, we shouldn't be unexpectedly let go.  Which makes me a little uneasy.  I know the Lord always gives us trials to help us learn and grow, which means we'll probably be given different ones now.  He'll probably give us new ones that I won't be able to cope with very well. :)  But with all the new and exciting things that might come our way, I'm so very grateful for a steady job!  He starts on Monday!

We helped our long time neighbors move this week.  We helped them move into this house and fell in love with the house next door.  Part of the reason we fell in love with our current house was because we knew we'd have them for neighbors.  We'll miss living so close them!

Here are all the kids playing dress up the last day they were living next door.

And now on to my sweet baby Joe.  I can't believe how much he's changed in the last 3 weeks.  He's gone from only crawling to reach a toy a few feet away and barely rolling over to crawling all over the house, pulling himself up to standing, and climbing on EVERYTHING.  He's a pro at going up stairs, but hasn't figured out how to climb down the stairs yet.  However, he is determined to learn and continues to fall down the stairs despite all my efforts to keep him from doing that!
All the climbing started with climbing onto this chair.  He was so proud of himself he was giggling. (Until I got the camera out...)

He then kept going....

And lastly, one of Joseph's favorite things to do is find a shelf and throw everything off of it.  (Any shelf - it doesn't matter what is on it.)  He doesn't even look at what he's moving.  He just loves to throw things on the floor as quickly as he can!

I went to check on him one night and found him asleep as though he was in a mid crawl and decided to lay his head down. Oh how this little boy is way more active and busy than my Clara ever was.

4th and 1st Birthday!

We were able to celebrate the 4th of July at our house again this year.  I loved the small gathering.  My mom is staying with us for a few weeks, so it was just her and our kiddos!  Joseph was a little afraid of the fireworks, but didn't cry as long as he could cling to me.

Clara loved the fireworks though.  While we were waiting for Jeremy to light another one, she would stand up in front of us, inform us what kind of firework she was, then jump with out stretched arms and legs as she screamed.  Sometimes her screams were high pitched, and others were a loud "Ka Boom!"  Thanks for the entertainment Clara!

For some reason, we always do the sparklers last.  Clara loved getting to have so many to herself!

We celebrated Joseph's first birthday on Saturday.  I can't believe my baby is one!  I am also so grateful we do not have the trials that we were having at this time last year!  I look back and wonder how on earth we were able to cope as well as we did.

He never actually pulled out the paper.  He loved the way it sounded too much!

 

Why is it that my cup cakes never look as good as the picture I found on pinterest to pattern them after?  Oh well, they still turned out pretty cute.

 Joseph loved his cupcake!

Also this week, Joseph has gotten to be a pro at pulling  himself up to standing.  And although he's not fully standing in this picture, it captured how proud he is of himself now that he can do it. (And the sticker on his forehead is from Big Sister....)

Clara's best friend (who also happens to live next door) decided they needed to wear dresses and be princesses.  They also decided that Joesph needed to be a princess too.

Then they went from Princesses to evil sisters who took princesses and made them show their underwear to everyone. 

And yes, they cackled the entire time they were stringing the Cinderella's up!

Since my Mom is staying with us for a couple of weeks, I get to borrow her van when I find myself needing a car.  The only downfall is that she doesn't have AC.  I had to get a picture of both my sweaty kids when they fell asleep in an extremely hot car.

And in case you couldn't tell how sweaty they were, here is a picture of Joe's car seat after I took him out....

Yuck!

Birthday Week

Monday we decided to head to Trafalga in Lehi for FHE.  It was a little cloudy that day, so I was surprised when Clara picked the boat ride as her first ride.

They were only a little cold.

Clara mentioned that her favorite ride was the race cars because you can go really fast. 

Her second favorite ride was the pirate ship because it's just like a really big swing.  This was her first time going, so she wanted me to go with her.  She soon realized there was nothing to be scared of and I felt like I was out of place.....

Tuesday was my birthday.  It was also the day my sister moved out of her house, so we had some brief time for presents that day, and then had to wait a few days to celebrate. 

But we didn't have to work too hard since my nephew ended up having a baseball game that night.

Thursday I got to go to lunch with some friends whom I used to teach with at Provo High.  It was so fun to visit with them.  I only get to see them about once a year, but since two of them retired this year, maybe we'll get to see each other more often.
Friday we decided to hike to Bridal Veil Falls.  The kids loved climbing all over the rocks and things.

I loved seeing an old friend there.  We got to catch up on life as we haven't been in contact with each other. The last time I saw him was about 8 years ago, when he got married.  So glad his little family is doing great.

Friday night, Jeremy and I got to go to go out to eat and finally celebrate my birthday.  We had a wonderful evening of food and window shopping!
Saturday we decided to go hang out at Scheels.  It was fun to pose for so many pictures!

After Scheels we decided to head to Manila Creek Pond.  We had a fun day in the cold water, which we loved since it was over 100 degrees!  However, we tried to leave around 3:30, and discovered our car wouldn't start.  We hadn't left any lights on or anything, but we jumped it with my sister's car, drove about 50 ft and it all died again.  We jumped it a second time, this time leaving the jumper cables on for about 25 min, tried to leave again, and was only able to drive about 3 ft before we lost all power.  We hadn't ever had any troubles before, so we assumed our alternator went out.  So after much discussion, we loaded all kids under 10, Emma (who had to be at work soon,) my mom (So she could watch all the kids,) and my sister who was planning on dropping everyone off at my house and then coming back to help us.  That ended up being 2 more people than the car has in seat belts.  But since they were are small children, 4 kids squished into the back bench seat, and my sister Emma sat on the floor....
In the mean time, Emma and called her husband (who works on cars) and he said it sounded like the alternator rather than a battery problem since we hadn't left anything on to drain the battery and we hadn't had any previous problems with the battery dying. So we called my little brother who has changed out the alternator twice in his car and he brought his tools so he could help us change ours out.
Jeremy, Jeffrey (my 11 year old nephew,) and I then started walking the 3 miles to a car part store to meet my brother there.  We walked about 1.5 miles and Matt picked us up then took us to the car part store.  After talking to the helpful people who worked there, we decided to try a new battery first.  Good thing we did.  We put the new battery in, drove it back to Autozone, they checked the alternator for us, and it was working great!  We were home by 6:30 that night!
After we were safely home, Rachel informed us that she got pulled over by a police officer on the way home.  I guess she was doing 39 in a 25.  She wasn't even paying attention to how fast she was going let alone a speed limit because of how many hot, tired, hungry, and cranky kids she had in the car.  Luckily, my Mom explained the entire situation, and the very nice police officer let her off with a warning!  No speeding ticket and no seat belt tickets!  Thanks extremely nice police officer!