Summer Stuff - August 2017

 I got a large box of books from my book biz and I let the kids open up the box and go through them.

 Jordyn loved the foil art book. 

 Our watermelon patch did so much better this year than last year. We gave them extra water and we had probably more than 20 melons.

 Jordyn and Bonnie holding a monster zucchini.

 For one of Uriah's pack meetings, we learned how to properly dispose of old and torn flags. We got to burn some US flags and flags from different divisions of the military.

 KyLee holding a small flag.

Bonnie and her new shirt

 KyLee and mommy

 We planted decorative pumpkins and the vines got so long they started to wind around our blackberry plants. We cut off some of the vines and pulled off all these pumpkins.

 This was from the day I found out we were going to have another baby girl. I brought home some balloons to give the kids the news about the baby and one of the balloons got lost to the sky. KyLee was SO upset. She cried for 45 minutes straight.

 Another shot of our moon flower getting bigger and bigger!

 About a year ago, Pocatello built a man-made pond with parks and paved paths and an amphitheater around it. They called it the wellness complex. 

J and I went to a Piano Guys concert at the amphitheater. It was amazing, and the group was so genuine and nice! My niece, Kaiya, got to meet her inspiration for playing the cello.

 I told my mom how nice the wellness complex was, so we took her there the next day. The cousins had lots of fun playing in the water in their underwear, and I enjoyed sitting in a chair and getting my feet wet.

 KyLee liked the water...sometimes...

 J and KyLee

 Trying to warm up on the rocks

 Bonnie started her first day of Kindergarten. 

 She was so excited to ride the bus to school.

 This was the year of the great solar eclipse. We tried to make some homemade eclipse viewers, but they didn't work. It kept getting darker and darker and we were sad because we couldn't really see the eclipse, but it was neat to see how dark it got around us. 

 Not long after, our neighbors came over and let us borrow their eclipse glasses, and Bonnie brought home a pair from school, so it wasn't a total loss.

 KyLee getting the mail one morning

 Our watermelons getting bigger!

 The tomato plants were getting so big and growing together that I had to go in and chop off a bunch of the vines. I felt like I was going through a jungle.

 When I was done, we could actually walk in between the tomato plants.

 I took one of the watermelons from our garden to a scout activity, and everyone said it was the best watermelon they had ever had. It was eaten very quickly, and was super juicy and delicious. 

 Some of the first pickings from our tomato plants. We used them to make delicious salsa, with onions and peppers from our garden too!

KyLee sleeping

Summer Stuff - July 2017

 Admiring the grapes on our vines. We didn't get very many, but we were able to pick off small bushels and eat them when we were out working in the garden.

 Our neighbor's cat had kittens and we went over to admire them. KyLee just loved them so much. I was able to snap these adorable pictures of her holding one of the kittens.

 One of the times we visited grandma and grandpa N. Uriah is holding cousin Phoenix's Foxy.

 KyLee sleeping on the spare bed in grandma's room.

 Spending time with grandpa N and the cousins at the new splash pad in Chubbuck. 

 KyLee got splashed and was not happy, but grandpa enjoyed the cool water on his back.

 Me watching Jordyn and Bonnie during their swimming lesson.

 Keeping KyLee entertained during swimming lessons. She really wanted to get in the pool so I had to distract her with movies.

 Beautiful sunset from the back yard. This picture didn't do it justice. The sky was more of a bright pink.

 I love taking pictures of sleeping babies. KyLee went through a time period where she took her naps in our bed. She is beautiful.

 KyLee likes to sit on this broken car that our neighbors gave us. She doesn't seem to mind that it doesn't work.

So this picture has quite the story behind it. I woke up one morning to discover that the house had no running water. The pipes were completely empty of water, and so was our reserve tank. We had the sprinklers running overnight and the pump stopped working in the middle of the night, so the sprinklers sucked up all the water we had. I called J at work and he told me some things to do to troubleshoot the problem, and none of them worked. It was a Saturday and there weren't any companies we could call to come and take a look. We did have drinking water and food storage to get us through the weekend, but the thought that our pump could have died or that the well could have gone dry had me terrified. Financially, we would not have been able to take care of either of those things, and I began to have a panic attack. I was crying and hyperventilating. I felt like I couldn't get control of my emotions. Part of it was probably because I was pregnant, but I was genuinely terrified. J tried to calm me down over the phone and it wasn't working. I called my mom and she told me to talk to Heavenly Father and ask him to help me through this. I knelt down outside by our porch swing and prayed that we would be able to handle whatever was wrong with our water pump, that I would have the faith needed to get through this and that everything would be okay. J called his dad and got some ideas to fill up our reserve tank by asking our neighbors if we could get some water from their outside faucet and pipe it into our tank. Our neighbor, who is an electrician, asked if he could come look at the water pump in the garage. He was in there for about 5 minutes and came out and handed me this blackened wire. He said the wire had burnt out and caused the pump to stop working, but he clipped it off and fixed the wire and got our pump working again. I was so relieved, I couldn't believe that all my worries were over such a small thing. I was so grateful to our neighbor that he had the skill to fix the wire and that we didn't have to call a company and pay any money to fix the pump. After the neighbors left, I knelt down and prayed again to thank my Heavenly Father for blessing us with good neighbors and for keeping watch over us when we are in need. I know in my heart these blessings come because we are faithful to God and we pay a full and honest tithe.

 Corn stalks - can you see the boys?

 I planted some lily bulbs in the spring and was so excited when they started blooming. It felt like it took forever!

 My beautiful Jordyn

 The moon flower - we planted it last year and were sure it died. This strange plant started growing in the flower bed and we knew it wasn't a weed, so we let it grow. The flowers bloomed at night and would die the next day.

 Zucchini pickings

 Jared and I celebrated our 12th anniversary this summer. We spent the weekend in Pocatello and left the kids with grandma and grandpa N. We ate at the Black Bear Diner and it was delicious! Sadly, this restaurant closed just 2 years after it opened! They have built one in Twin Falls and we can't wait to go back.

 The eggs benedict was divine!

 Green beans - we got so many of them. Thankfully J's sisters wanted some and came over to pick with us.

 The moon flower just kept getting bigger and bigger!

 KyLee took a picture of herself with my phone.

KyLee eating lunch