Fair Prep

Today was going to be a busy day today without the discovery at noon that all fair entries needed to be in by 7 pm tonight. We spent the rest of the afternoon baking muffins, feeding the baby, eating muffins, then driving to the fair to enter muffins and a wreath.

I then decided to take on the project of entering onions. My dad was so kind to go get them. He invited Natalie along, but she informed him it was far too hot for her out there. 

My skills of onion prepping for the fair are a little rusty, especially when you have extra little hands to help you. The girls did better than I would have thought and we all learned some good things along the way. We look forward to returning to the fairgrounds sometime this week to see how our exhibits placed. 

July

I can’t believe this is the last week of July. Highlights of this week include

• Natalie learning to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and button and unbutton clothing. 
• Showing up to the swimming pool with no cash and the employees there being kind enough to let us in and tell us they will catch us next time for payment
• 100* heat nearly every day...
• Playing at the splash pad in Fruitland with friends and cousins
• Justin changed all the light fixtures in the house. The little updates seem to add a lot to this older house. 
• The sweet corn is on! We love fresh sweet corn. 
• 24th of July celebration with our ward. We made homemade ice cream for the first time on our own for this. The girls had a great time at the party playing in the water and with friends. It was a very hot evenings and never really cooled off that evening.
• Saturday I was able to make wheat wreaths with my sister Mary. Then we went to lunch as a family, picked corn and beans, visited with my parents and came back home to watch a movie and get ready for Sunday. It was a much needed, laid back and in ways productive day.

Swim Lessons

Another year of swim lessons in the books. 

Three

Jenna Ruth turned three years old this week. For quite sometime now as we would walk through stores and she would point to things that appealed to her and say "I want this for my birthday mom, ok?" I would say ok and then we would move on. Well she finally had her birthday and was able to get some things she has been wanting. 

I don’t know that she really wanted this, but we knew she was ready for a bike as she is a pro at her trike. She got on and started pedaling around th house and realized quickly that it was pretty fun. She has a few crashes, but is a very tenacious girl and just kept getting right back on. 

She was also tickled to get to drink from the fancy glass at breakfast.

Then she kept asking about her cake. She wanted a chocolate cake with pink frosting. I decorated it and she saw it sitting on the shelf all afternoon. She was persistent at asking for it before the party. Then when it was time to eat it, she licked all the frosting off her piece and left the cake. She loved this cake, even though it doesn’t look the best as I was in a hurry, had Beth in the pack and was interrupted about 5 times while frosting it. It still tasted delicious!

Jenna got everything she could want for her birthday. Jewelry and a purse from Grandma Corn and a Rapunzel doll and horse from Grandma Jamie. She was thrilled to get the doll as she has been consistently asking for that for a longtime. 

Jenna is such a smart, humorous, and daring little girl. As I said before she is tenacious about what she wants. She can be so loving and is very observant of her surroundings. She is also an animal lover, but struggles with allergies. We are so grateful to have her as part of our family. She had greatly challenged and improved my parenting skills (I still have a loooong way to go). Love you J!

Kittens

Our old Tom cat had to be put down back in April after some unfortunate events. We were all sad to loose him. 

A month or so later my sister had two cats who had litters of kittens. After a couple of coaxing conversations, and catching a mouse in our house, we decided it was time to get some cats back at our house.

We had two kittens dropped off in a box that said "fragile" and "don’t refrigerate". (Thanks Ty and Rachel for your sense of humor) At first the kittens weren’t too sure of us. N and J were not quite sure what to do with them either. Jenna wouldn’t touch them and Natalie often tim squealed and would drop them. With time we have made friends out of these little guys and enjoy having them around. Natalie knows how to handle them and Jenna giggles the entire time she plays with them. Yesterday she was trying to get Gus to sit in her lap while she drove our pedal tractor. They have also made attempts at having the kittens ride in the back wagon of the tractor and the basket of the bike. The kittens promptly jump out, but it is entertaining to watch the girls efforts. They are named after the mice from Cinderella - Jaq and Gus Gus. I suggested these names to the girls as their initial ideas were princess and lady. We hope they will stick around a while.

2 months

This sweet baby turned 2 months this week. 

She weighed 13 lbs and was 231/2" at her 2 month appt.

She give the sweetest smiles, is very interactive with her her eyes and is great at talking with little coos. She sleeps prettt much wherever during the day. In my arms, in the pack, in her rock in play in the kitchen while I work. She is generally happy as long as her belly is full. She does prefer to be held, but will sit in her rock in play or bouncer for periods of time as long as she can hear and see you. She loves her sisters and tries to have good conversations with them in the morning when they say hello to her. She is also getting stronger at holding up her neck. She can have nights where she only wakes up once to nurse and then other nights where she wakes up 2-3 times. That is was last night. Overall we do alright in the sleep department.

It has been such a delight to have a new baby in our home again. It has been a lot of work as well, but she is worth it. I find myself sitting and holding a baby often though. Everyone has said going to 3 children is challenging. While it hasn’t been easy, going to two seems like it was a bit harder. However, Justin was gone for four days at a Young Men’s camp. When we had our second baby he was gone often for work. Having three children on my own for four days was challenging. Justin being here has made a huge difference in going from 2-3 kids. I am grateful he has been able to be around more with his work now and grateful that he was able to go that camp to show me how blessed I am to have him around.