Busy day!

Today Grace finally got to go back to school after having Potato Harvest break so it was really fun for her!  She matter of factly told me that "I get to go play with my friends" and I just love hearing her feel so sure of herself :)  After we took Grace to school, Levi and I went to Walmart to return his church shirt and get him one that fits (a 3T) and then we headed home.  He was such a great helper while I vacuumed, swept, and scrubbed toilets!  Oh, and did the laundry as well :)  I love that whenever I pull the vacuum out, Levi pulls out his Dyson vacuum and also helps me.  There was a laundry basket that was in my way and he was such a big helper and got it out of the way for me so I could vacuum.  After this we went to pick up Grace from school and headed to Sonic to have some playtime!  I brought lunch for the kids since they don't really eat much and I didn't want to waste food.  But they did get to have french fries and Oreo ice cream.  We played there for about an hour and then took Grace to therapy.  Levi was so so ready for a nap so while he napped, I read "The Infinite Atonement" and it was really nice to just have a break to read.  After therapy we played outside with Amanda (Dallin and Sariah) and then it was time to go in and have dinner.  The kids were SO hungry!  They had chicken nuggets and cantaloupe while mommy had her pre-made chicken Mexican stew.  Levi was till hungry after so he had some of my stew and Grace was still hungry so she had some of Levi's cantaloupe!  Haha.  We like to share!  After we all ate and watched Chuggington for awhile we headed out on a walk and mommy didn't know but daddy was so close to coming home!  By the time we got back from our walk Daddy was home and it was so great to see him!  The rest of the evening went quickly, we read scriptures, said goodnight and it was time for bed!

Goodnight kiddos!

Amanda

Church Time

Well the outfits were great!  Daddy was still at the cabin so it was just mommy and the kids, but they did so great :)  Grace looked so fabulous in her dress, and boy was Levi so spiffy in his outfit.  Both of their shoes were too big (they will grow into them!) and Levi's shirt was too small but oh well!  Grace plays her iPad after sacrament and Levi got a bit fussy but all in all, they did great.  Here are the cuties!

Perfect kiddos!

Grace had a bit of a tough time staying in class today but that's ok.  She sat in the hall with her aide, Sister Chace and they looked at church pictures and learned about them.  Levi did great in his nursery class so that is a lifesaver!

Oh, and we walked to church and back and boy, it was a beautiful day!  

Amanda

Busy Day

Today was a busy day :)  Daddy went to the cabin to get some supplies for putting the cement slab down (as well as the generator and propane tank), so we headed out to get some church clothes.  Grace's dresses are all getting quite short because little miss is growing straight up like a weed!  And Levi has never actually owned "church clothes" since little ones usually grow so fast that it's not worth it.  But we did it!  We went to DI and Grace found 4 wonderful dresses that would fit her, and then they got to play in the toy area for 5 minutes (Grace's choice).  Afterwards we went to Walmart to get Levi's outfit and Grace some new church shoes!  It was a fun day!

Amanda

Play date!

Today we got to have a play date with some friends!  Mama wanted to get some wheat ground and her friend, Amanda, has a wonderful wheat grinder.  So we headed to her place about 9 am and ended up staying until 1 pm!  It was a surprise that Amanda also made the bread for mommy instead of just grinding the wheat and then being done.  The kids had a great time and got to have cheese sandwiches for lunch.  And after lunch it was just warm enough to be able to go outside to play on their play structure.  Fun times!

In the evening we also went to a dairy to return some bottles that we had from some time ago, and we got to see so many cows having dinner!  And the day wasn't complete without going to the nature park and visiting the ducks and geese.  This was an extra special trip because there were college students there that bought a huge bag of corn!  They were so sweet with the kids and let the kids use a bunch of the corn to feed the ducks and geese, so it was a great experience.  Both kids also fed right out of their hands!

So much fun!

Amanda

Therapy and Frosty's!

Today was a yucky weather day so instead of riding horses today, Grace got to go swimming with her therapist!  She really enjoys swimming so it's always easy to get her to the pool.  Since she has been on harvest break, we've been trying to find things to do to keep her busy, as well as Levi.  But so far, the kiddos haven't been too bored, so that's good.

Here is Miss Grace swimming!

She really didn't like playing with the ball because it was boring for her, but Dylan did great at pushing her to finish playing pass back before moving on to something fun.  

The rest of the day was just us being home and trying to stay warm!  Levi is old enough that the kiddos are able to go downstairs and play with one another, and for the most part, they can play together without hurting one another so that's great!  For dinner tonight we had zucchini lasagna and had Wendy's frosty's for dessert!  It was fun being able to make this with Grace, and she had a great time helping me mix the mixture, put the ice in and watching the frosty mixture actually set!  Granted, by the time it was time to eat dinner/dessert, Grace wasn't wanting to eat because I had given her her Ridalin which completely takes her appetite away :(  Poor girly.  

Here she is!

Awwwwww, my sweet girl!!!

Love you Grace!!

Amanda

A Fun Morning!

After a hard night, it was time to get up and have fun!!  Grace woke at 6:50 am and was oh so loving when she came in to see Levi and I!  As promised, we planned on going swimming in the morning so I got breakfast started!  Cinnamon rolls!!  Because we woke up so early we had to waste some time for the pool to open (8 am), so we watched cartoons!  It's great to have TV because we get to watch something other than Netflix shows!  She really does NOT like commercials but get over it quickly.  We had cinnamon rolls and orange juice for lunch as well as granola bars that they ate while the rolls were cooking.  Here's our awesome kids!!

Hahaha!  Look at Levi's huge cheeks!!  hahaha.  Anyways, we went swimming at about 8:40 and we had a great time!  Here are the super cute kiddos.....

I love these pictures because the first one is Grace's "Ok, mom said to smile" face, whereas the second picture is her being SUPER EXCITED to get to go swimming!!!  And I love Levi's face because he doesn't normally smile at the camera.  Oh, and I really love him looking up to Grace girl as she's being oh so sweet.  These kids are so awesome!!!

We got back to the room about 9:20 am after a wonderful time swimming :)  There was a 2 foot pool just for kids and so that was really great because I didn't have to worry about them drowning or anything like that.  Plus, with the kid pool, Grace was way comfortable about jumping in from the side of the pool, which was so awesome!  Levi also enjoyed jumping in but wanted to hold my hand, which was fine for me!  Then we showered and got ready to head home.  It's been a long trip (not really but it was a tough night with little Levi not sleeping very well) and so all trips must come to an end.  We headed home and it was a much nicer day than the rainy day when we went to the Temple.  We stopped at Bear Lake and played for a little while!  But it was pretty cold so it didn't last very long...

 At this picture Grace goes.... "Mom...why are you taking a picture?!"  It was pretty cute :)

It was a nice visit but I was ready to head home...plus it was cold!  Haha.

On the way home we stopped at the Oregon Trail Museum.  Not much to see but it was good to get out of the car :)

It was really cold...like....REALLLLLLY COLD.  And I did not want to be out there!  But the kids were really enjoying swinging on these cute horses :)

It was a good trip, but good to get home as well.

Amanda

Traveling to the Star Valley Temple!

Well, we headed out on a mini trip.  Since Grace has potato harvest, I figured that it would be good to get out of the house and go on a trip.  It wasn't a very nice drive because it was raining but I guess it was good that we were in the car instead of a wagon or something!  haha.  Once we got to Afton (Star Valley) we went out to eat because our passes weren't until 3 pm and I was HUNGRY.  But boy was daddy not feeling to well.  He had the runs so he decided not to eat.  It was SUCH good food!  Yum!!  I had a pastrami cheeseburger, Grace and Levi shared a corn dog kid's meal and we all shared a chocolate shake.  Daddy at a Butterfinger shake that I bought because I thought he'd like something to eat.  Picture!!

We ended up going through the temple earlier than planned so that was nice because we were able to travel to our rented room sooner than I thought.  We went to the store and got some easy microwaveable meals for dinner and grabbed cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then headed to the hotel!

We loved the hotel!!!

Amanda

Visiting the Star Valley Wyoming Temple

We went to visit the Wyoming temple!  Since school is out for harvest break, I thought it would be great to take Grace since she's always so interested in the temple.  It was great for the family to go!  I have to say, it was absolutely tiny and I think we spent more time getting ready to go into the temple than we did inside the temple.  Haha!  But that's ok...I think the kiddos liked the experience.  Here is a picture!

Amanda

Yummy Breakfast!

The second day of conference and I decided to make a yummy meal!  Funnel cakes and bacon!  Oh yes, that's for sure!

WOW.  They were SO good!!!  I really want to make them again but they aren't very healthy for us.  At all.  haha.  Everyone really enjoyed this breakfast so I'm happy about that :)

After breakfast it was Conference talk time so Grace got to play with her iPad :)  It was so sweet to see the two of them cuddling together...

He really enjoys watching Grace play her game and it's cute because every so often he'll try to push a couple of the buttons and it's so cute to see him try to sneak onto the screen while she's playing :)  These kids are so awesome.  Fabulous.  They are buddies together!

Amanda

Swinging Time

Today we hooked up Grace's swing that she got from Dado and she absolutely loved it!!  I am so glad that this is what she got for her birthday because now she can swing without needing to be pushed, but of course, she still likes to be pushed :)  That's ok, though.  It's fun to take the kids downstairs and play because they trade off with one another.  It is so darn cute because she'll swing for a while and then Levi will jump on the trampoline, and after a few minutes they trade with one another.  He likes to lay on the swing and run for takeoff and then pick up his feet and SWING like crazy!  I so wish I would have gotten a picture but I only got some video of them playing down there.  I'm so excited for them!!

Amanda

Just Hanging out :)

Sometimes it's so nice to just sit around in your pajamas and not have to worry about doing anything, and Saturdays are great for that.  So here are the kiddos, sitting around and not doing much of anything.

Amanda

Horseback Riding

WE LOVE HORSEBACK RIDING!!!

I live vicariously through Grace each week she goes horseback riding.  And I hear her squeals and giggles and laughter as she rides and works hard and just am so darn happy for her.  This week she did something huge and turned around on the horse and rode backwards.  Last week this was a very hard thing to do...in fact, she went so ballistic that they had to stop riding!  So she did so absolutely great!

I love watching you, Grace!

Amanda

A Fun Day!

Today was a fun day...out of the norm, that's for sure.  We used to do a lot of fun activities and things like that, but for quite some time now, I've been too tired to even come up with things for the kiddos to do.  But today we got to paint AND make cookies with her birthday present!  Hurray!  It was a bit boring for Grace and her favorite part was eating the cookies after, but she enjoyed watching Chuggington while I finished cooking the cookies for her :)

One thing that was TOTALLY different this time with Grace painting....she was clean!  She didn't smear it all over her hands, her arms, and everywhere else!  I was so incredibly happy and proud of this girl.  I've not wanted to have her paint because of the mess that always comes with it but oh my gosh!  Great job, Grace!

Amanda

Lower Palisades Hike

So we haven't gotten out much this past summer and so I thought it would be good to go for a hike before the weather got to where it was too cold to go out.  So we decided to go on a hike since Grace only has kindergarten for half days.  I didn't quite realize it would be so long, though!  It said online it was only 2 miles (4 miles total) so we headed out.  But then we realized it was 4.5 miles in (9 miles total) but decided to go for it anyways because we are crazy!  It was an insane afternoon, it took us so darn long and we were all so tired but we did it!  Grace walked most of the way in and out so that was absolutely amazing, and I was so happy to see how sure footed she was on the trail even though it was uneven with roots, rocks and washouts in it.  Levi also walked a lot of the way but we had the carrier for him so that was nice.  Grace loved riding on Daddy's shoulders when she needed a break and it was fun to see her have fun with him.  When we finally made it to the lake there was so much more to be desired but we made it fun by having popcorn, a freeze dried meal and other snacks.  

SO much fun!!!!

Love you so much kiddos!

Amanda