Tennessee: The Farm and The Fair

While Aaron spent some time on the road for work, I took the kids up to Tennessee for Warren County Fair Week, and to visit with my family. Here are some of the highlights of our trip. After a long ride in the van (with only a short stop in Chattanooga to get something from Grandma JoLayne), we stopped at the farm. We went to visit Nannie and Papa. William was happy to be out of the van and able to play on a blanket. The two Emmas at play! William also got his first ride on the four wheeler with his Jefe. (Sometimes it pays to be the fussy one!) A highlight of any trip to the farm is being driven around on the Gator by Papa. On this particular trip, he took us to see the garden, his punkins, and the persimmon tree, which is loaded down with persimmons. He showed us all the nut trees on the farm that have limbs breaking off because they are so heavy with nuts. We made a stop at the apple tree to get Emma an apple. I got one too and they were delicious! Part of our Tennessee trip included fishing at a pond where I fished as a little girl. I don't think the fish have gotten any bigger since then! Emma is wearing this huge shirt because she had an accident in her blue jeans (and I forgot to bring any extras), and she is standing in the middle of a field of saw grass so the shirt is to protect her little legs! I, one the other hand, got my arms all in the grass and was really feeling it for several hours after we finished fishing! Here are Emma and Jefe with one of their fish. In the end, all Emma really wanted to do was play with worms. That is her favorite part of fishing. Finding (and playing with) the worms. Girly girl? Not this one! (Check out all the mud and dirt on her legs!)

Other Fun:

While we were staying at my parent's house, my little sister (well, I guess I should say "younger." "Little" is decieving. She is taller than me!) decided to move to a different bedroom. The kids and I helped her move into her "new" room, and we found a giant foam finger from my high school. It fit Jonathan really well. I think he liked it! My mom took Emma to see "Disney on Ice" in Nashville. They had so much fun together. Emma still talks about it. She likes to line up her princess dolls on a book or other flat surface and have a "show." Then, pretending to be the announcer, she stands in the corner and says (very loudly) "EJNOIN THE SHOW!" Here are some pictures of Emma and BB before the show. The classic "Mommy-wants-you-to-make-a-nice-face-for-the-picture" face. Katherine (my super cute sister) was such a help with all the kids. And Emma worships the ground that Kat walks on. Here is Kat holding William. See Emma, Kat-Kat makes nice faces for mommy's pictures. Oh wait, I see where Emma gets it! This is a more typical picture of Katherine. Love you, Kat! Here are Jonathan and William celebrating the BYU win over UCLA by wearing their Cougar onesies they got for Christmas last year (before they were born.) from Uncle Sampson and Aunt Brittany. It was our way of showing our support for the team while Daddy got to watch the game in person.

The Warren County A & L Fair

If you currently (or have ever lived)in or near Warren County, chances are, you have been to the fair! For those of you who are far, far away and have never had the pleasure of experiencing the fair, give me a moment to explain. This is, I think, one of the biggest events in our community for the whole year. EVERYONE goes to the fair. Several of the local "Quick Cash" places ran ads in the newspaper for "Fair Week" loans and pay check advances. Yes, it is that big of a deal! I haven't been to the fair since I got married, almost 6 years ago, so you can imagine that I was a little excited to get to go this year. I went and realized something very quickly. Some things NEVER change! It was fun, though.

The lights must have been too much for William, because he started hiding behind his straps in the stroller! William hiding again. Emma wanted to ride the Merry-Go-Round first thing. She rode it several times. Since an adult needed to ride with her, I let her choose who she wanted to go with her. Luckily, she chose my dad. It was fun to watch him-mainly because he gets motion sick pretty easy. After three times on the merry-go-round, he was green. Anything for Emma! Here is my dad with Emma and the fish they won. He said it only cost five dollars! (And check out that neon yellow shirt. We didn't ever lose him!) Here is Emma riding the Scrambler. She looks like she is having so much fun, doesn't she? She actually really liked it. As long as she got to ride it alone. One time, someone had to get on and share a seat with her, so she got off the ride. We need to work on making friends! She did make friends with the operator of the crazy boats ride. She would high five this guy every time she came around to the spot he was standing. Here she is again, driving the crazy boat. She really liked this ride! The bumper cars are kind of a tradition in my family. I remember riding them with my dad when I was little. They were always so much fun! I am glad that Emma got to take a spin with him!She loved it! Especially when Russell and I got a car, too. She loved it when dad would crash their car into me or Russ.

We sure missed Aaron while he was gone, going to football games and working, but we had a lot of fun, too! We are lucky to be close enough to family to go and do things while Aaron is gone!

Yesterday my brother, Dan, met me out at my family's farm house and we took pictures of the boys on the porch. I love the way the pictures turned out, and I love that the background is the home where I grew up.

More Catching Up!

Again, I am trying to catch up on the last several weeks since August was such a busy month for us. I have taken some really cute pictures of the kids, and I wanted to start off with the cutest ones; I just couldn't decide which one to put up first. Here is William. He looks like one of the people on those cheesy commercials when they say, "Call now, operators are standing by." This was a new toy that Emma won with her tickets at her and Aaron's latest "daddy-daughter day" at Chuck E. Cheese. I love it...he looks so...official! The boys recently started rolling over. And they are still in the same crib. And adding those two factors together results in situations like this. Jonathan with his feet in William's face. Apparently he wasn't really kicking too hard, or William would have been crying instead of smiling! This is the stuff that mommy dreams are made of! All my babies asleep together in the same bed. All quiet, all playing nice. And then they woke up. We only have the one tv in our house, and sometimes I don't want to watch Cinderella, Dora, or Curious George. So, when I am watching the Food Network, and Emma wants a show, I let her watch one on Aaron's laptop. Well, on this day, she turned the sound down too low, and so she needed to get closer to hear better. I think she was sleepy, too. This is our resident princess with our resident prince. Emma loves to wear the dress-ups that Sadi let her borrow. I found some really snazzy dress up shoes at a consignment sale that are perfect for the princess dresses. Emma loves to re-enact scenes from her favorite movie, Cinderella. She makes us dance with her, and she loves to run away from "the ball" leaving her "glass slipper" on the step, all the while making Aaron run after her saying, "Wait! Stop! But I don't even know your name!" He is such a good sport-uh, I mean, prince! This is my latest craft project. It is a fabric board that I made for my sister, Katherine, as a birthday present. It was fun and really easy to make. My friend, Marci, helped the Young Women make them for an activity and she let me borrow her board as a pattern and her staple gun so I could make one for Kat. Purple is Kat's favorite color (I think), and I loved that the fabric looked like scrapbook paper. And this is my gardenia. The blooms on it are so pretty and they smell wonderful. Emma doesn't really like the way they smell, but who cares-it is my plant! We had a storm a couple weeks ago that lasted several days and we got 3 1/2 inches of rain. Everything was so green and pretty for a few days, and a lot of my plants that I thought were dead or dying have started putting on some new growth. Yay!

I also got a chance to substitute for the early morning seminary teacher while he was out of town for a week. It was so much fun! I finally see why my dad liked teaching seminary so much. And I also realized how much effort it takes to be a seminary teacher. So, on Monday morning, after teaching my first class, I called him to apologize for being such a punk teenager during my seminary years. I really liked the class, and the kids were a lot of fun.

Anyway, that is what we have been doing. I am going up to Tennessee sometime this week to let Emma get her first taste of the Warren County Fair. My mom is also taking her (Emma) to Nashville to see "Disney Princesses on Ice." Emma is so excited! There will definitely be pictures from this trip!

Have a great week!

Smokin' Hot!

My cousin, Bonnie, has started a "total fitness" plan which she calls, "Smokin' Hot Mommas." It is a fitness program that combines physical fitness with healthy eating habits. You get points for achieving different fitness and healthy eating "tasks." (I should say you get points for denying yourself things of deliciousness, but the purpose of this post is to promote Smokin' Hot Mommas!) You get a point each day if you go without sugar, soda, if you get plenty of sleep, eat all your fruits and veggies, and if you drink 64 ounces of water. There are more aspects of "total fitness" than the ones I just listed, but those are just some examples. The good thing about the program is that you can do everything on your own, and Bonnie sends out weekly emails with bonus challenges and cheers you on to victory! (She was a cheerleader all through high school.) If you are interested, check out the link to the Smokin' Hot Mommas blog on the right hand side of my page, under links. Or you can leave a comment and I will get you on the email list.

Oh, and I get 5 bonus points for posting this on my blog. It's all about the points!

Brace yourself, this is gonna be a long one! On August 3, we blessed the boys at church. We invited all the family that lives close by for the blessing, and then to our house afterward for lunch. I think that we had 36 people total (not including those of us that live in our house). We even had Aaron's brother, Ammon, and his wife, Jillian and their little girl, Grace in from Utah. They were able to drop everything and fly in at the last minute. It was really a nice time and I am glad that we were able to share such a special occasion with so many people that we love! This picture is us after church. The boys wore their bonnets for the blessings, but I took them off afterward. I know Emma is making one of her crazy faces in this picture, but it is the one I look the best in (and we know it is all about me!). The next week my dad had a trade show down here. I was working with him and when it was time for the boys' naps, I didn't have anywhere to put them. So, I improvised. Luckily, they fit into a plant crate. I put them in there, facing opposite ways, and they fit perfectly. But, that wasn't enough for my dad. He insisted that we put them on the table of the booth, next to a crate of bare root plants. We had so much fun with it. Almost everyone that walked by did a double take, and lots of people thought they were dolls until they came over to the booth and saw that they were real, live babies! This lovely plant is called a mandevilla. I saw it at the show, and fell in love with it. So, I took a picture of it. I showed it to my dad while we were walking the tradeshow floor, and at the end of the show he traded some plants for it and surprised me with it! He also got me a gardenia. (I took some pictures of both of them the other day that I will post later.) Isn't he the coolest? The boys also had a doctor's appointment that week. Here they are pre-shots. They look so happy, huh? This look didn't last long! (Jonathan is on the left, William on the right-in the suit that says "W is for whale.") Here is Jonathan showing off his head-holding-up-skills. He and William were being so cute for the doctor and their nurse (both ladies). They aim to please! Here is William, also showing his mad skills! Here are all my boys! I like this picture-the way the boys are making the same face. Jonathan is on the left, William on the right. Here they are together. On this particular day, Jonathan laughed for the first time. It was so fun to hear his little laugh. And, I finally got a really good picture of William smiling. They are so much fun!

I have more blog catching up to do, so be on the look out for more posts in the near future!