Aug/Sept 2011

Lily made a bed on the floor for all of her dolly's and then decided to lay down with them. Pretending to have a nap.
Matt is teaching her how to kiss her muscles.
Cute Matt. That's not drool on his shirt. We were celebrating the 24th of July (Pioneer Day) at the park and it was REALLY hot. So, we went to the drinking fountains and drenched Matt's shirt and Lily's hat with water to cool them off. It was a fun family day.
Matt is tickling Lily's leg here. Very cute! They play so well together.

Matt's dad's uncle has a fishing boat and took Matt and his brother Zack on a fishing trip in August. Here is one of the fish Matt caught. He cleaned it, brought it home and I helped him fry it up to eat. What a good kid!
Lily and Tayson (Josh's little boy, 2 months younger than Lily exactly) eating popsicles.
Tayson loves his food! Here is his ice cream all over his face, belly and hands. We just hosed him off afterwards!

Tayson and Lily enjoying the water at Nannie and Bompie's house.
We went to see the floats before the Pioneer Day parade. They have it set up inside a building with air conditioning, so we went to this instead of the parade. Plus, the kids can touch the floats and stuff. Very fun.

Lily putting on her own headband. Scary.

Matt climbing the rock wall at the pioneer day festival. He got to the top so quick, they let him do it a second time for free. Good job, Matt!

September 2011

Jason and I were able to go to Torrey, Utah earlier this month. Jason is in a band that played a concert there. It is right next to Capital Reef National Park. Here are some of the sites. The mountains were beautiful!! The band paid for our cabin to stay in, too. It was so peaceful. Matt was at his dad's and Lily stayed with Nannie and Bompie (my parents) for the weekend. Wow. We really want to go back there!

Here is Lily posing for the camera. We did her hair all girly (moussed it, diffused it, french twisted the top....). She was really excited to have me take her picture.

Here is Lily's new bed. Our neighbors got a new bed for their daughter, and gave us this one. It's a captain twin bed (with the drawers underneath). For now, we just have her crib mattress on it, but she LOVES it. It happened to come our way the same weekend we were potty training, so we told her it was her present for being such a big girl. My brother, Nate, had the princess twin sheets set for his daughter, but didn't need them anymore, so he gave them to us. When Nannie put them on her bed, she ran up to the comforter and looked at the Disney Princesses and said, "My friends!" How cute.
This is what Lily looks like when she dresses herself. She chose the outfit and put it on. Then she wanted to go for a walk around the block, so we got to show off her matching skills.
Daddy and Lily. She is starting to cuddle quite a bit. We love it.
We had a family reunion again this year with Dad's family. His brothers, sisters and their kids. This is the fun reunion, because it's all of the cousins I grew up with. The picture above is Lily and 2 of my cousins girls. She had a great time! Matt was there, but too busy with a friend that he brought to get his picture taken. I'll get more of him soon.
Here is Bompie and Lily playing at the family reunion. There is a little stream at the park, and Lily was throwing rocks in and just checking it out with good ol' patient grandpa!

Summer 2011

Extreme Home Makeover came to our neck of the woods this past month. Only 3 miles from our house! Since I watch this show faithfully, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go and check things out. Jason, Lily and I went to see the house going up. Matt decided he didn't want to.

Here is the finished product. I just took a quick picture from my car, because by this time, the family was back in the house and I didn't want to bug them by taking pics of their home out on the sidewalk. The house is kind of small, but very pretty. It's in a great location with the school a block away, a park just down the street and a man made beach across the street to a lake. Very cool area! I'm told the show for this one will be in September 2011. It's about a single mom and 2 kids. Her son has 2 types of blood disorders.

Here is a pic of the backyard of our home. Not an extreme home makeover, but definitely fun and we love it. The previous residents left a turtle sandbox (empty) when they left, so I cleaned it out really well, and Lily loves it a splash pool (or, as she calls it, her swimming cool).

I just took these pics this weekend. Matt was going with his dad's family for pictures, so he was waiting for his dad to bring his shirt. I did Lily's hair with some mousse and a diffuser to bring out her curls and then did an updo, because it was so hot. Such cuties!

Matt, Lily and I went with some of Matt's friends and their mom to a water conservation park. It was a very hot day, but pretty cool little place. Lots of different types of plants, flowers, etc. plus ideas of what to do with your yard and plants for the weather here in Utah.

Pic of Lily's curls. Her hair is getting so long! It actually goes to the bottom of her shoulder blades when it's down.

Lily is a fish. She LOVES water. We have automatic sprinklers at our new house, but some of them just aren't working quite right, so I've been turning on the manual sprinklers in the evenings. Luckily for Lily, she gets to run through them almost daily! Here are some pics of her playing in the water, and smelling the roses in our front yard.

Matt and friend at the Water Conservation Park playing in the sand. He claims he was bored, but as you can see, he's not too cool to play in the sandbox!

New House 2011

The pictures are kind of sorted around wrong, but I will explain them! Ok, so we moved last month and LOVE our new home. We are renting in a great new area with tons of kids for both Matt and Lily to meet and play (or "hang out") with. Lily has twin 4 year old girls 2 houses down that she loves to play with and she is outside all of the time. Matt is meeting new people, but still has yet to "hang out" with them. We are working on this. This picture is of our living room.

Here is our kitchen. Notice that in all of these photos, Lily is posing. By the way, she dressed herself....blue shorts, Dora pink sandals, striped socks. Luckily she let me do her hair!

Family room. We love the double sided fireplace!
Dining room. Again, we love the bay window. This house is so bright and airy! We open windows and it is wonderful!
The front of our home. I didn't get any pics of the basement yet. It's unfinished, except for Jason's drum room, or man cave! But Lily has a large play area, Matt has a video game area (we hung a swing up down there for Lily too), and we have a LARGE food storage area! We love it!
A co-worker of mine GAVE us this swing set! Her grandkids are older now and she wanted to get rid of it for more room in her yard. So, my parents took it apart, brought it over, and put it back up while we were at work. Oh yeah, it was also snowing the day they did that! My parents are great! Lily is on this swingset constantly.
Easter morning.
Indoor Easter egg hunt.
Matt is super excited about finding eggs! Just kidding. He is such a good sport to help us let Lily have fun! He plays with her all of the time.
Lily's room.
Handsome Matt! Ready for church.
Playing and wrestling.
Matt is in karate. He was showing us some moves when Lily wanted to join in. Here they are punching and yelling "Hi-ya."
Matt is doing so well in karate. I think he can test soon for his next belt. He's a white belt right now (beginner), and he only started about 2 months ago, but he loves it.
My mom is pushing Lily and her cousin, Tayson, on the swing set. Lily just kept laying on poor Tayson and he was so squished. But he just kept taking it. Tough kid. Mom thought it was hilarious!
Again, Lily dressing herself. Actually, just accessorizing this time. She has Matt's baseball helmet on backwards. Funny kid.
Need I say it? I got her all ready for bed, but she had to add her touches.
We went to the zoo. The monkeys and dragons (tigers) were her favorites.
We got Lily ready for bed, but then went out for a family treat of ice cream. On the way home, this is what happened during her chocolate ice cream cone. I'm not quite sure she got any in her mouth. It's all over her face, her shirt, her doll (and doll's hair), the car seat and the car door and window. Oh well, she had fun and I just tossed her in the tub again while Jason cleaned the car. I also gave "Dora, the dolly" a little bath and shampoo.
Too cute. Matt's baseball helmet again. On backwards. She is a funny one!