New Cousin!

My cousin Aaron and his wife Lisa welcomed their second baby boy, Jake, into their lives on August 8 - right in between Makenna and Kasidee's birthdays! We went to meet Jake and visit them yesterday. What a little cutie! The girls couldn't get enough of holding Jake and looking at him. I guess if we ever feel like we need a baby, we'll just visit Jake and get our "baby fix" from him! Congrats, Aaron and Lisa!

Baker Family Reunion

Quentin's mom's family had a reunion in the Salt Lake area from August 7 to 11. We had relatives from California, Minnesota, Florida, and Washington. It was good to get everyone together again and have some fun.

Let's see...what did we do? We had a picnic and played at a park, had everyone over to our house for a family picture slideshow (we crammed over 35 people into our tiny theater room!), went for a long walk and picnic on Lagoon Trail (about half of the group did the Alpine Slide in Park City instead), had another potluck at a park and played volleyball and did bubbles, went swimming at Raging Waters (the girls and I opted out of that - they seemed tired and I thought 7 hours of swimming would do them in!), hiked Timpanogos Cave, browsed at Cabela's, and got together for yummy pizza at Ogden Pizzeria. Wow - it was a fun week, and so good to see everyone again!

THE WHOLE GANG

QUENTIN'S MOM AND HER SIBLINGS

TIMPANOGOS CAVE

COUSINS....

Happy #3 Kasidee!

Kasidee turned 3 on August 9! I usually wait until my girls are 5 to have a "friend party" for them, but after seeing Makenna's friend party a couple days before, Kasidee kept talking about her friend party and who she wanted to invite. Since we were in the middle of the Baker reunion, I decided to keep it simple and invite a couple of friends from the neighborhood over for a cupcake that morning. Not a real party, but enough of a celebration to satisfy Kasidee! We had Minnie Mouse cupcakes, and we even gave her Minnie Mouse ears to wear. Our Kasidee continues to amaze us - she is so fun and smart and sweet. We love you Kasidee!




A cute new dress...

It's hard to get a picture of these 2 cousins together - but aren't they cute?

Happy #6 Makenna!

Makenna turned 6 on August 7! A couple of days before, she walked into the kitchen with a sad face and said, "I don't want to turn 6. I like being 5." Oh, how I wish I could keep her 5 forever! Kiera and I convinced her that, even though 5 is a fun age, 6 will be fun too. I think she's okay with it now!

Makenna had a "few" friends over for a party the day before her real birthday....


Makenna loves monkeys (she especially likes that monkey starts with the letter M, just like her name does) and wanted a monkey party. For the party, she and her friends first went on a monkey hunt (they searched for jungle animals that were hidden in the trees in our backyard). The jungle animals were actually tiny 3-D puzzles that they then put together. After that, the kids colored a jungle animal mask, then we did a monkey pinata. I've never been a fan of the hitting pinatas, so I was excited to find a "pull the string" monkey pinata. Everyone grabbed a string and pulled....



....only one string was supposed to open the secret trap, but apparently I got a dud. It didn't open at all! So we busted open the bottom and scattered the candy and prizes. Then we divided it up equally so everyone was happy!

Kiera liked wearing the monkey head!


Then we had monkey cupcakes and opened presents.
(I can't figure out why this pic is sideways)



What a fun party! We just love Makenna so much and are so lucky to have her in our family. She's spunky, silly, sweet. Our little monkey!

We saved the presents from us for the next day, her real birthday. How fun to open presents two days in a row!

Summer Succotash

Okay, every once in awhile I get in a "chef" mood and feel like posting pics of our dinners. I wanted to capture this one because it was just so dang good! I'm a big fan of succotash (zucchini, corn, lima beans) because it tastes like Fall. Tonight I made an "expanded" version of succotash and added lots of produce I had on hand (thanks, Ben and Jen!) So I guess technically it's not succotash anymore, maybe a goulash of some sort, but whatever you call it, it's good!! Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, lima beans, corn, green peppers, and a dash of Chicken Seasoning (don't worry, my fellow vegetarians - there's no chicken in it - just spices that taste a little like Cajun seasoning). Mmmmm. Late summer/early fall is the best time for cooking!

Time Out

We've been so busy the last couple of weeks with camping, a day at Lagoon, 2 birthday parties, and we're currently in the middle of a 5-day family reunion (I'll do a post on that later.) We've been staying up late, getting up early, and just going, going, going all day. The girls and I decided to take a break from all the activities today and catch up/relax so we can be ready for a full day of activity tomorrow! When I glanced at the clock at 2:00 this afternoon and realized the house was still messy with cupcake crumbs and greasy fingerprinted windows from yesterday, my first thought was to bark a reminder to the girls to please stop goofing around and clean up your messes, for crying out loud! But before I began barking, I stopped to listen. All 3 girls were playing with Makenna and Kasidee's birthday gifts. They had set up a My Little Pony town and were having a blast playing together. "Hi! My name is Rainbow Pony. Do you want to come out and play? We're having a tea party!" "Oh, that would be lovely! It's nice to meet you - my name is Sparkles Pony." "Isn't it a beautiful day out? What a wonderful day for friends!"

Hmmm.... I stood there at the kitchen sink, hands still dripping with sudsy water as tears filled my eyes. I cried and sniffed silently, so the girls wouldn't hear me, but my shoulders shook as I realized how precious this time is. Don't you wish you could just stop time for a moment and hold onto it forever? I had been so preoccupied with straightening up the house and putting away birthday party/gift messes that I almost missed and messed up a tender moment between sisters. I love, love, love having all of my girls home with me. I want to relish these last days before school starts and schedules begin and they are gone....

Camping

Last weekend we went camping! We haven't been for two years and have really missed it - last winter I started almost craving it!! We joined the Johnson family up at Sheep Creek Lake near Flaming Gorge. My uncle and aunt go up every year and invite the family to join them. It's so fun to get away, enjoy nature, and relax with family.

Amid all the relaxing (reading, naps, etc.) we stayed busy:

ENJOYING NATURE


PLAYING IN THE LAKE (My cousin Ben "dared" the kids to dunk their heads in the water - if they did, he bought them a candy bar)




GOING FISHING (the girls were horrified to discover that the fish get holes in their mouths from the fishing line, but they still had fun - they assumed that the fish would be thrown back into the lake, and we didn't tell them otherwise!)



SHOOTING BB GUNS (Kiera joined the boys for hours - she even nailed a bottle cap!)


GEOCACHING (We only found 1 of the 3 we attempted, and there wasn't really even a treasure, but it was still fun)


VISITING THE NEARBY RED CANYON LODGE, FEEDING THE DUCKS AND FISH, CHECKING OUT A FLAMING GORGE OVERLOOK, AND HAVING DINNER AT THE RESTAURANT



LAUNCHING WATER BOTTLE ROCKETS


QUICK, IT'S A GAME - CAN YOU SPOT THE POP BOTTLE IN THE TREE?


SITTING AROUND THE CAMPFIRE, TELLING STORIES, ROASTING MARSHMALLOWS, AND MAKING AWESOME LIGHT SHOWS IN THE DARK




HAVING FUN WITH COUSINS





FLAT TRAILER TIRE ON THE WAY HOME - WE WERE SO BLESSED THAT IT HAPPENED ON A STRAIGHT PART OF THE CANYON AND WE WERE SAFE!

HANGING OUT AT THE REST STOP AFTER FIXING THE FLAT TIRE

Pen Pals

Last summer we got together with a couple of Quentin's friends from high school and their families. Included in all the kids was a girl named Kayla, who was about a year or two older than Kiera. The two girls were pretty shy at first but by the end of the evening, they didn't want to say goodbye. A few weeks later, Kiera was thrilled to receive a letter from Kayla, who lives in North Carolina. She wrote back to her, then Kayla wrote back, etc. They kept up their little pen pal friendship for over a year! In fact, when Kiera got glasses last Fall, she said, "Oh, I can't wait to write to Kayla to let her know!" Well, Kayla came back to Utah this summer to visit her grandparents and we got together last night. It was fun to see their friendship, even though they had only seen each other once before. So cute!

Longtime Friends

My friend Kristin and I met in sixth grade. Well, I guess we had known of each other before that (we were in kindergarten and I think second grade together), but in sixth grade we became best friends - a friendship that lasted through junior high, high school, college and beyond. I still consider Kristin my best friend besides family. But since we've each had our own little families, we don't see each other nearly as often as we'd like. She lives in Orem now, and it had been about a year and a half since we last saw each other. We decided it had been too long - so we met at Thanksgiving Point yesterday for some fun! It was so good to see her and her cute kids and catch up on our lives. It just makes me realize that we need to get together more often!


LITTLE COWGIRLS . . .




PLAYING IN THE WATER FOUNTAIN CONTRAPTION . . .

ALL OF US, INCLUDING THE WET KIDS!

Lagoon Trail

I love Sundays. And I love having early church at 9:00 (even though Quentin's meetings begin at 6:00 every Sunday morning). Once church is over and Quentin's meetings are done, we have a free day as a family - I love it! Quentin and I love puttering - there always seems to be some sort of "Sunday-approved" project we can work on. We also like playing games with the girls, watching a family movie, going for a Sunday drive, reading, visiting family, or going for a walk.

Last Sunday evening, even though it was hot, we were all in the mood for a walk. Kasidee began asking to go for a walk the moment we pulled into the driveway from church! We waited till evening and drove to the Lagoon Trail. As we were looking for a parking place, we drove alongside Quentin's cousin Brian's family - they had just arrived! What a surprise! We joined them on the walk, and the weather was surprisingly pleasant. The walk was invigorating, and it was good to catch up with Brian and his family. All 3 of my girls simply adore their baby, Abby, and were happy trying to make her laugh on the trail! We only walked about half of the trail and back, which took just under an hour or so, and we can't wait to go on the other half of the trail sometime soon!