Children's Garden

If you haven't been around Jesse this summer..
well this is his, I love water smile :)

They all had fun in the water and playing with the Domes in the mazes! Kacen even ended up falling in the maze, he had dirt down his clothes, in his hair, everywhere!

We met the Domes at the Children's gardens at Thanksgiving Point
all of them except for the babies on the bear
Kacen...going on a bear hunt. He was following the bear tracks
Jesse petting the baby cubs
taking pictures of the girls through the bugs eye

Its like we're Celebrating!

Saturday was an early day. We had to be up bright and early, fed dressed and out the door to start driving up the canyon to pick up Alona by 8:30. So I was all ready and out the door by 8:00 and get there at 8:37. I thought that I was seven minutes late... Then I ran in to a line of cars waiting to pick up their campers, at least 1/2 mile long, and grew longer the 20 minutes that we all sat there waiting for them to open the gate.
It was so sweet to see Alona again! She had a fabulous time riding horses, camping and with all the other activities. On Friday she even lost a tooth, she Really lost it. It fell in to the floor boards of her tent. She was very sad that the tooth fairy didn't even visit at camp, I suggested that she write the fairy a note now that she was home. The sleeping bag that she was sent with also ended up lost as well, hopefully that turns up. It is so fun to see my oldest with her BIG front tooth coming in, she is growing up!
With pick up time being at 8:30, I figured that we would be back in time to go to the Children's parade for the freedom festival two blocks over. It was 9:50 by the time we left and I thought for sure that we wouldn't make it. But in fact running with all four kids in the stroller I actually made it with 15 minutes to spare.

There was a really cute float with a bunch of toddlers riding rocking horses,
pulling a wagon of infants :)
There was a preschool there that had a banner, bunch of balloons
and a teacher that had painted all of the kids faces.
My brave little girls went over and asked if they could get theirs done too
Alona got a flag, she also got a pin and they were all in the parade
thats when she mentioned, "Mom its like your celebrating me coming home!"Abbi had cute red and blue flowersthe children that were on bikes in front of us were throwing candy

and then at the end of the parade, the library had an awesome event
they handed out popsicles to EVERYONE!
Had a make and take activity, Super Why's super writer!
Pictures with Super Why (a cartoon character on a local station)
and Pictures with Princess "P"

They also had cartoons to watch, games to play, stickers, tattoos and other fun awesome things for the children. After our long walk in the parade we walked the parade route back and then walked further up to our church and had lunch at the activity there. It was a great day!

Things we did, While we were waiting...

For Alona to return from girl scout camp at Trefoil Ranch

We played at Mandy's and had a blast!
kids played and watched movies and
I was able to watch a cute show with Angie and Mandy!

Friday, we discovered a new park
Wilderness park
Where we went to a girl scout activity
There was dutch oven cooking,
getting to know you games and freeze tag!
Our troop made peach cobbler,
Abbi got to help pour in the ingredients and stir it in
It turned out fantastically!
We all played games while it cooked.
It was a long night at the park
The stew was good too, we brought some home for Paul,
he loved it!
It was Abbi's first time as the girl scout!
Abbi has been signed up for girl scouts,the official girl scout year starts in September though
She is so excited to be involved!
and of course a great dirt pile
with some young boys, just for Kacen!!

bittersweet goodbye

Alona is at Girl Scout Camp right now. Tonight is her second night there.
She was dropped off on Wednesday night, the whole family took the trip there to wish her luck and say good-bye. Dad and Abbi got a good hug from Alona, then she was in a rush to get back to the circle of girls! She is super excited and has been waiting so long to go to camp. Even the last hour was torture for her to wait. She told me, Mom a half hour isnt a long time for you to wait, but for me, as a kid its a LONG time! She was right in also saying that her growing up takes a long time for her and goes by way to fast for me, what a smart cookie!
She is growing up so fast, it is hard to believe that she is almost eight years old, that she is big enough to go away from home for three nights and be supervised and entrusted to by other adults. But I have comfort in knowing that they are trained, caring, certified adults and are experienced with girls.
Abbi and I wrote letters the day that she went to camp, sealed and stuck them in her suit case so that she would have letters to read while at camp. She has pre-addressed and stamped envelopes to be able to write home and send the letters.

I hope that she is doing well making friends, and having an easy time listening to the leaders at camp, enjoying the activities that they have, most of all enjoying being a kid.
She gets to ride horses, have fun debunking myths, puzzles and codes, create a morse code bracelet, delve in to astronomy and stories of the night sky. Try out low ropes such as tension trade and balance beam. Alona loves figuring out codes and was exciting about what they would be doing when we were reading all the different descriptions for the camps! I have seen with her being gone, how much of a help that she is and what an amazing
daughter that Paul and I have.

Swimming

This year all three kids were signed up for swimming lessons
and so we have been going Mon-Thurs at 10:30 for 30 min for the past 2 weeksThe girls on the first day with their teacher(in the brightly colored swimsuit)

Alona did great with swimming lessons this year.
This is the first time ever that she put her whole head in the water and didnt scream :)
Her and Abbi were both in level two together in the same class.

Alona was very excited on Thursday when she got her report card and it said, "Great Job"!
And then she started to see all of the things that were not checked
(the things that she still needs to work on)
and at the bottom it was recommended that she repeat level 2.
So now because of her "bad grades" she doesn't want to go back.

Abbi loves to swim and is not afraid of the water.
She was always smiles even when gurgling pool water

With a little more practice and confidence
She will be able to do great at swimming in the water
She loved to go to swim class everyday

They talked to each other in class a LOT
and would scream across the pool to Mom when they would see me :)
Kacen had a blast in his swim class
they played a lot of games
blowing bubblesgetting out of the hoop (I know there is a better name for this)

some of kacen's class
waiting on the first dayKacen is doing so much better at enjoying water
before if his head or face got wet he would jerk his whole body,
scream and try to jump up and get away.
He got his whole head in the water the last day of class
and even drank some pool water ;)

Twelve months

Jesse is My baby. He is not yet walking or talking, and is still so little which all of these make it so much easier for me to hang on to him as my baby. Which is really hard for me to accept that he is my last baby and really hard to talk about. He went to his ONE year appointment last Friday he is currently 17 lbs 13 oz and 29 1/2 inches! Growing slowly but surely.
Dear Jesse,
You are such a sweet little baby boy. You brighten each day with me. You wake up and love it when I come and get you out of bed and I get to feed you, to nurse you, see you calm down be content, your screaming stops and hunger is gone and then you are off. You are such a busy little boy, always finding some new thing to climb or explore or play with. You Love the water, if it is time for your brother or sister to have a bath and you have all ready had your bath, you are very insistent that you need to get in again, at least to play. You have jumped in to the tub before with all of your clothes on. You love to splash and play with the toys, suck on the wash cloths and enjoy pulling out the plug to the tub.
You do not eat many table foods, you will suck on pizza and try to take little bites. You like bananas and will eat about 1/4 of it before wandering off in search of some activity. At the dinner table, no matter what meal you are given Jesse, you throw most of the food on the floor and only take little bites. If it werent for your oldest sister I probably would be worried sick about you not eating much. But I know that eventually you will want to eat more, try new foods and have the ability to eat more and not have all of the food end up on the floor.
You had tubes put in your ears at the end of last month and go in for your check up on the tubes tomorrow. I know that you still have an ear infection. When it should be nap time you instead scream and cry and if I put you down you chase me around the house, but yet are not happy when I am holding you. You dont go to sleep very well at night either and wake up throughout the night crying. I gave you motrin today and after about 20 minutes, it took effect and I walked around with you and you fell right to sleep, but of course that didnt last long. Your naps dont last long when having ear infections.

Favorite toys
balls of any shape, size, color or texture. You get so super excited. You roll the ball to Mom then start clapping, giggling and then crawling towards me and then catch the ball when I roll it back to you.
little people farm: you love to make the animal noises and play with the little pieces
The rocking horse and the Winnie the Pooh ride on bike. You love getting on these by yourself. You can rock the horse all by yourself and on the ride on bike you can push yourself and go about ten feet. You will sit there for a couple minutes at a time and look down and push the buttons on the bike and figure out how it all works.

You love dogs and cats, you love to chase Gibby and are really good at petting her. It is only when you get to her tail that we have trouble. You get so excited and end up pulling her tail.

Jesse's words:
uh nuh nuh: Alona
Dad
Guck: Duck
go
Caca: Yucky
cu-cur: color, he's asked to color and then says color and starts to color :)
ought oh: when he drops something
rock-rock: rocking in the rocking chair
rock: when he holds a rock
up
(I will add more words as I remember them.)
you sign wash and milk and understand a few more. You look at me when I am signing to you
I am excited, sad and happy to see you grow..

I love you,
Your Mother

The last "One"

Jesse's first birthday in pictures
We had a little kids pool, a pool for the bigger kids and a slip n' slide. Jesse loved the kids pool

He went in there first and did not want to get out for lunch.
His interest changed once he saw the food, he was one hungry boy!

He loved his cupcake!
So much so that he was eating his wrapper and
started to wail when I took it out of his mouth.

He really loved his ice cream
and the cones from Grandma Caren were a BIG hit!
Gifts:

My cousin Maria brought him some pool toys, he loves them!
The soft squishy balls were especially wonderful in the pool he kept eating them and in the process washed his own face from all the ice cream!

Fun Helicopter from Mandy, Jesse couldn't wait to get it out of the box!

Orange ball from Luke and Jessica.
Jesse is real good at rolling and catching balls and gets super excited
when playing catch with me & his brothers and sisters.

The zany zoo that we went to target to get the Monday after his birthday
Grandma Caren, Grandma &Grandpa Price,
Aunt Tiff & Uncle Mike, and Grandma & Grandpa Bagleygave Jesse money as a gift so we went and traded it in for the zany zoo and some sandals and shoes at the store.
Grandma Wood had come to his party, but her gift had been shipped. Monday afternoon before Paul headed off to work it arrived. Jesse was so excited for the rocking horse that he was trying to mount it as his daddy was putting it together. He can get on all by himself and rock it by himself too. Alona has had fun attaching a string to the horse and pulling Jesse all over the house.

pool time after cake and ice cream
Brother and sisters

present from Mom and Dad,
that Mom was too busy with everything to wrap

Four Melissa and Doug wooden puzzles that make noise when the pieces are put in place.

More cake for dessert after dinner

happy time after bath

Jesse, he loves to climb

He loved his whole day, and had a wonderful birthday