Real Bike Rides

After Maycee rode her bike by herself last week, I couldn't get her back on again.  She refused.  I had no idea why.  Stephen and I had a mission today.  We had to get Maycee back on that bike.

It worked.

Now she is a biking fiend.  Serious.  She's good.  AND to make things even better she had her first crash today.  Into a parked car.  BUT she got right back on and rode back home.  I'm so proud!!

Maycee, you are awesome!!!!

Fun. Date.

Stephen and I are getting much better at dating one another.  Three kids really made us step back and realize that we desperately needed us time.

So.

Bring on the dates.

And the babysitters.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE teenage babysitters?!  They come to my house. They entertain my children.  AND they put them to bed!!  I come home to a quiet house and my children love having someone else to play with.  Can't get any better.

Anyway.

Stephen planned our date last night.  I wanted it to be a surprise so I told him not to tell me.

He took me to Kuna Caves to go spelunking!!  It was SO much fun!  I love doing that stuff.  The tighter the squeeze the better.  I definitely made Stephen squeeze through things he otherwise would not have.

I have to tell you my favorite line of the night.

By Stephen.

Of course!

"Do you know how much I love you?" He said.

"How much?" I asked.

"I've had to fart the whole time we've been in this cave and I haven't because I knew it would be awful. You're welcome."

I could not stop laughing.

Thank you, Stephen, for an amazing night out.

Update.

Wow.

Things have definitely not gone according to plan.

After we sold our house, we were under contract for a week and the buyer backed out.  I was crestfallen.  That might sound a little dramatic, but it is how I felt.  The day before the buyer backed out I had this sick, dreadful feeling in my stomach.  The next day we found out and we were put back on the market.

We've continued to have 2 to 3 showings a week.  Our realtor keeps telling us that it is a good sign.  (I LOVE our realtor.)  Last Tuesday we had a couple walk through that I felt really good about.  Two days later they sent us an offer.  Not a good offer, so we countered.

They countered.

We countered.

They walked.

At this point in time I was devastated.  I didn't realize how much it affected me until a good friend sat next to me in church on Sunday to get an update.  Last she had heard, I had sold my house and was moving the last week in August.  As I told her the whole story, I unexpectedly started to sob.  I couldn't stop.

This is an emotional rollercoaster that I no longer want to ride.

I'm ready to get off.

I know.  Millions of people have already done this without any scars.  AND millions of other people will go through this process after me.

But this darn, emotional female (me) cannot get over the fact that the cute couple that put in an offer on our house last week, was supposed to buy our house.  At least that it what I thought I felt.

And P.S. I have a bajillions of other posts to post previous to this one, but we packed up our computer so our house would look less cramped.  Therefore, all of these cute pictures I have taken on my camera are stuck on my camera until I get my computer back.  My iPad just doesn't function the same way.

My cute little thumb sucking Ollie

Two Wheels AND Pedals

Maycee has finally done it.

She learned how to ride her bike!

When Maycee turned 2, my parents gave her a Strider bike.  She has that thing mastered.  She has now graduated.  It is such an awesome feeling to watch her master a new challenge.

Cooper now gets the Strider.

I know.  Picture overload.  We were just SO excited!

Maycee's Birthday #4

Maycee is finally 4.  Most of her friends have already turned 4, so it feels like she has been here for a while.  Since her birthday was on a Wednesday and Stephen had work and mutual, we decided to do presents and cake on Wednesday and save all of the fun stuff until Saturday.

The night before Maycee's birthday I put balloons on her bed so that she would wake up and see them.  I thought I had a lot more colors, but I only had 1 blue and 1 green and 15 blacks (from Stephen's 30th birthday...a year ago).

When Maycee woke up she didn't even notice the balloons.  She came into our room and I had to drag her back to her bedroom to show her the surprise.

In the morning we went to the park.  Check out the cutie birthday girl!  She definitely picked out her special birthday outfit.

Maycee picked these beautiful flowers for us!

While the boys were down for their naps, I gave Maycee and manicure and pedicure.  I am SO slow.  It took me two episodes of 'My Little Pony' and a full Tinkerbell Movie to finish.  In my defense, I put three layers on every nail.

Isn't this the coolest birthday cake ever!  Maycee was SO excited.  She told everyone that I built her Arendelle for her birthday cake.  She requested a pink and purple birthday cake.  So awesome.  I am having so much fun creating these fun cakes for my family.

Cooper had such a hard time on Maycee's birthday.  He wanted to open all of Maycee's presents and play with them himself.  Hard life of a two-year-old.

We got Maycee 2 dress up dresses, a tea set, and 2 my little pony figurines that she didn't have.

Cooper ran in front of my camera just as I took this picture.  Check out that cute smile I missed!  She LOVED her dresses and tea set.  She's been playing 'tea party' almost non-stop.

Couldn't get it again.

Singing our 'Happy Birthday' songs with Grandma on facetime.  Maycee was a little upset because Cooper helped her blow out the candles.

On Saturday we woke up and started off the fun.  Stephen and the kiddos filled water balloons for 45 minutes.  It took us 5 minutes to 'unfill' all of those things.  It didn't help that Cooper would pick them up and throw them on the ground because he liked the look and sound and mess that it made.

When the boys went down for a nap Stephen, Maycee, and I had a special tea party.  Maycee requested that Stephen wear his suit and I wear my wedding dress.  Stephen bartered with Maycee and he ended up wearing his normal church attire, except with his shorts on.

Maycee was our hostess.  We pulled her little table outside and sat around it while Maycee poured us lemonade and served 'crumpets'.  It was actually the leftover strawberry wafers from her birthday cake.  We had SO much fun!!  I taught Maycee to hold her pinky up, serve guests first, and to always say 'please' and 'thank you'.

Right after we took these pictures my camera died.  SO we didn't get pictures of the actual tea party.  Next time.

After the boys woke up we went to the Meridian Pool with Stephen's family.  Again, no pictures, dead camera.  We all had a ton of fun at the pool and then came home for our treat and movie.  I popped popcorn, Maycee's favorite treat, drizzled white chocolate on it, then added fun sprinkles.  Then we watched Aladdin.

Happy Birthday Maycee!!  We love you!  And we love celebrating you.

Ice Cream Mess

Cooper.

You are adorable.

And a mess.

OLLIE HAS A TOOTH!!!

That's all I got...

Farm Week!

Stephen went on high adventure with his Young Men from July 28th to August 2nd.

I decided to go on a 'high adventure' of my own.

I went crawling home to my parents.  We had SO much fun!!  And I forgot my camera.  Of course!  So luckily I got some of my mom's pictures off of her smart phone.

I got to the farm around 8 o'clock on Sunday night.  My Dad called me just before 8 to find out if I had left yet.  I had originally planned on leaving my house at 8, but since Stephen had meeting after meeting getting ready for high adventure we decided to leave early.  I told Dad I was driving up the lane and he said, "Okay, we'll see you in three hours then." And hung up the phone.  My mom was quite surprised when a minute later I walked in the door.  The kids were super excited to see Grandma and Grandpa.

Monday morning came very early as Mom took me to her summer swim aerobics class.  We woke up at 5:15 am, put on our swim suits, and ran out the door at 5:30.  It was SO funny to watch all of these old ladies do this class.  Honestly, my mom was one of the 'young pups'.  It makes me laugh to even type that phrase.  Dad watched all of my three kiddos so I was able to go.  Thanks Dad!

Honestly the week passed very quickly.  We went from one thing to the next.

I told my mom that for the entire week I was cooking dinner.  I was making healthy dinners.  All of the recipes were new and untried...so we were going out on a limb.  I was pretty impressed with myself!  My favorite was the marinated tilapia covered with mango salsa.  Mmmmmmm.

During the beginning of the week we helped Dad put the header on his combine.  When I say helped, what I really mean, is that we were in the way of my Dad the entire time.  This year my Dad bought a new/used combine.  When we were helping, Maycee, Cooper, Mom, and I were crammed inside of a little one man combine.  My Dad squeezed in a minute later to attach the header.  My Dad couldn't start the combine.  This "new" combine was so hi-tech that apparently one of the kiddos had touched something and made my Dad unable to turn it on.  He was a little perturbed.  Ten minutes later we were good to go.  The combine started.  Note to self: too much computer can be a bad thing....

Here are cutie pictures of the kiddos in the tractor while trying to attach the header to the combine.

My mom just bought the coolest kiddie pool known to man.  Seriously.  It came in the mail while we were at the farm on our visit.  Boston came to also be a part of the fun pool-ness.

This is funny.  Cooper and Boston each had little bowls to play with in the water.  They were trying really hard to get the other wet, but couldn't figure out the proper angle.  They ended up just getting themselves wetter and then laughing.  It was sure fun to watch, though!

At the end of the week, my cousin, Blake, came to visit with his wife, Janet, and their three kids.  We drove them all over the farm checking out the different crops and seeing farm life.  It was fun to take Maycee and Cooper to do these things as well.  We've ever thought to take them out and dig potatoes or chew on the grain with them.  These were all things that I grew up doing, and lamely, have not done with the kiddos until now.  Everyone loved the farm excursion!  Way to think of a great way to entertain a California, born and raised, city family, Mom!!

Here are some pictures of Maycee and Cooper in the grain.  Cooper was at the wrong height.  The tips of the grain were right in his face. He was not a fan.

Poor Oliver missed out on most of the fun because of nap time.  When he can actually remember the fun, then he won't be napping so much!

Thanks Mom and Dad for letting me come and bombard you for a whole week!  Maybe if Stephen gets put in Young Men's again we can keep this as a tradition.