Sades

This girl went and turned 5 years old today. FIVE!

We are going to have a fun day where I basically let her do whatever she wants because I am burned out from Daniel being gone for 8 days. I think I will let her open a new present every few hours. 

Sadie is a complicated kid. 

Shy, but also loves to be recognized in front of big groups

Loves princesses, but insists she will be a scientist when she grows up.

Happy to tell us she loves us, but quick to announce she doesn't want to be in the family anymore.

Whines about cleaning the basement, but makes her bed each morning without being reminded.

Plays pretend for hours alone, but asks for play dates every day.

The perfect student, just not for her parents.

Begs to wear make up every day, but cries about cleaning out/clipping her fingernails.

Asks to hold Camille 50 times a day, but after 10 seconds tells me Millie is fussy (when she isn't)

Favorite show is Winx (TERRIBLE SHOW ON NETFLIX), but constantly asks me about dinosaurs

Obviously there is more to Sadie than this. I am amazed at the high-caliber of child that I can claim as mine. Sadie is so smart, capable, creative, stubborn, and thoughtful.

The other night when I was putting her to bed she brought up all of the following in a short time:

-why we are baptized when we are 8 years old

-what sin is

-why there are no more dinosaurs on the earth

-dinosaur dwellings

-how she wished Disney princesses were real and how it would be so cool if they came to our house and watched their own movies with Sadie

-which types of bears prefer which climates

-how I knew I was in love with Daniel

-

Lou Goo

Elise is one of a kind. She makes me laugh every day. Both intentionally and unintentionally. We had a hard couple months with her around her 3rd birthday but that behavior is mostly gone. She lives in her own world. She loves to play with Sadie and defends her even when Sadie is getting in trouble for hurting Elise. She convinces Sadie to wrestle and fight and not be so girlie. She is over-enthusiastic about random things like eating an apple. "Apples, wahoo!"

At a birthday party the other day she handed me her fork and said "get this outta here!" She proceeded to eat her cake by hand and wipe her hands on the table cloth. Classy. 

She cried after I caught her wrestling with some random kid over his toy at the pond. 

 She started a gymnastics class with Sadie this week. During stretch time she repeatedly threw herself on the ground and said "Oh, I fell!" She thought it was comedy hour. You can see her below laying down when she didn't feel like flipping over the bar. 

 She loved the class and the donut treat after class. 

PS- Nothing to do with Elise, but Daniel makes the best forts for them.

O Tannenbaum

Why, yes, that is a dried out Christmas tree. Only took 7 months to get rid of it. 

I am sure the neighbors will miss seeing this on the side of our house. 

Travel Log

July is a busy month of travel for Daniel. There are lots of high school age girls to get out and watch! (I will never tire of making those creepy jokes) I have found the best way to deal with all of Daniel's travel is to stay busy. It makes the time pass by much faster. And the girls and I don't drive each other crazy when we have fun stuff to do.

Here is some of the stuff we did during Daniel's first week of travel. 

 Tummy time while I watched American Ninja Warrior, my new favorite show. That kind of work out by Camille led to some snuggles from a tired girl. 

 Picnic at the splash pad. Below, the girls turned into rocks for a while.

More night time fun with Millie

A visit to the library.

 These pictures are a great illustration of our girls. Elise won't stop moving for a picture. Sadie asks me to take one and poses like this.

 Park trip

At a stop light between errands.

The Bean Museum with the Faucettes. Again, Lou cannot stop for a picture. Right after this she knocked over the velvet rope barrier around the giraffe. 

Testing out our new umbrella sun shade.

A trip to Manila Creek Pond. Elise always swims way far out by herself. 

One silly Millie

 Our set-up on the grass. Yes, I did carry all that in one trip. 

The wind picked up just as we were going on a walk to find ducks to feed. I hadn't staked the umbrella so it flipped over. I went back to fold it up and the wind turned Camille's stroller towards the beach. It was one of the funnier experiences of my life as I looked over my shoulder and saw Camille in her stroller rolling down the sand to the water. I sprinted back and caught the runaway stroller before it hit the pond. It was quite a spectacle for the other people around us. One of them helped me fold up the umbrella.

After that drama the girls were thrilled to feed the ducks. All of Elise's bread got stuck in rocks.

More nighttime snuggling

A baby t-rex was on the prowl in our house

And Daniel surprised us by arriving home a day early. Nothing better than that. 

Gessell Guests

Alicia, Bryce and Addy visited us last week. 

That Adelaide is one charming little girl, even when she has a cold.

One evening after dinner at the prestigious Pizza Pie Cafe we made Bryce and Addy go for a walk around Manila Creek Pond by our house. 

We also hung out at the park on a morning that was much too hot to be outside without swimming. So naturally I let Bryce and Alicia play with my kids on playground while I sat in the shade with the babies. I also allowed Bryce to pull all 100 pounds of kids in the wagon. 

On July 4th we waited around all day while Daniel did yard work. We planned to eat dinner late so we didn't have long to wait between dinner and fireworks. We went to the Highland splash pad from 4:30 to 7:30, which was great because no one was there. 

Below is Sadie and then Alicia running through the fountains. 

We got home and cooked up a quick dinner. It was so nice to eat outside. Daniel thinks I am crazy but I love eating outside. 

Bryce & Lou had a hilarious noodle battle while Daniel got the fireworks stuff set up. Noodles are the best toys. I bought them for $.99 each and they have never made it to any kind of water, but our kids play with them constantly. I love that they can't actually hurt each other with them. 

We set up our small fireworks on the side of our house since we live on a busy street. 

Hey, it's me with no makeup/shower! And an adorable baby girl. 

Then we moved to the front yard for the main attraction. Our neighbors had told us that we would see fireworks all around Utah Valley throughout the night but I wasn't prepared for how awesome it would be. Several neighbors behind our house were setting off huge fireworks as well.  It's pretty much impossible to capture how cool it all was on camera, but here is a video I took. 

My kids had never seen fireworks in person. Elise kept yelling "dreams come true!!!!" It was the best. 

At 11:30 PM after the kids were all in bed we had a patriotic strawberry shortcake dessert. Patriotic both in color and in size, because, obviously, it is so American to eat massive serving sizes. 

Go America!
Not pictured: swimming at the Lindon pool (one of the most fun activities) and Alicia and I shopping for 5 hours one day. 

Picture of the Day

Camille is coming to Spain with us (and the BYU women's basketball team) in August so we had to get her a passport. And it is awesome. 

June Summer Lovin'

The last couple weeks of June were good to us. We tried to get out and do stuff as we continued to adjust to life with 3 kids. The older girls came up with creative ways to have fun at home as well.

Stirring bowls of dish soap bubbles in the sink

The bizarre faces I get when I ask for a pose

Camille working on her follow-through

Another round of stomach flu a week after we returned from Boston

Tuckered out from the ride to visit Daniel at work. I had to scream in Sadie's face to wake her up.

First splash pad trip of the summer and Sadie voluntarily went into the fountains that sprayed her face for the first time ever. 

Millie's 2 month appointment

Just the view when taking the trash out

 Sadie was too busy admiring her shadow to notice the view