Our life the past two weeks!

Okay Mag Pie is such a ham ball! She always loves to take silly pictures! Anyway, the picture below is the week before school started! The girls have always used the play kitchen as a car, fun times!

GARAGE SALE!!!!!!

The girls had decided to make a "Refreshment Stand" to go along with the garage sale. Anna had made the board showing what she had and how much$$. The girls were pretty much her servants as she gave them each a job(way to delegate). They were so willing to participate, it was really cute, and HOT!
Our first customer! She was so sweet, she bought two cups of Cool-Aid for a $1.00 each. I was shocked that someone would pay that much, but appreciate that they saw the value of it instead of the $ part. They were SO excited. The girls made $11.00 that was after all of the expenses. I think they did pretty well for their first stand in our neighborhood!I had a garage sale also and made $75.00. not bad for only having a table in a half! We got rid of a lot of baby stuff, except, I was surprised that the crib did not sell???


That weekend we moved rooms around and little Mag pie slept in a "Big Girl" bed for the first time. Isn't it so cute how she sleeps!? She has done prefect in transitioning over too! Good job Maggie!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Jonathan loves posing and last year he did the same thing with their hands. I know it takes the "AWWWW" factor away from the picture, but it still is cute.Anna and Megan were so excited for school to start this year! This is Megan outside her classroom door!
Here is Megan with her teacher Mrs. D. So far she has enjoyed her. Her teacher said that she is VERY focused! :)
Here's Anna with her teacher Mrs. N. She is amazing. Actually both of the teachers have been at the school for 14 years.



LAST WEEKEND

Okay, so we had a church primary activity and I was to be a scientist. Anyway, I came up with several things to show them, one of which was the cornstarch goo. (Thanks to Aunt Kait, who did this with the girls in UT) It was a lot of fun. I am totally intrigued by this stuff. As you can see I decided to make some more when we got home, so that Maggie could have some fun too! She was just as happy to play with the goo as I was. The fun thing about this stuff is that it looks like a liquid, but acts like a solid, if you use force on it. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

LAST NIGHT

Anna had gotten a recipe from a class mate and so she wanted to make it. She had a lot of fun being independent in the kitchen.
Maggie was so funny, she wanted to test one so bad, but I kept telling her "No", so if anyone knows her you can tell that she is actually kinda saying, "aahha", which means stop looking at me, so I can eat this!
Finished product. She decided to put her own spin on the recipe and had different coatings, instead of just sprinkles. They were actually pretty good!

Okay yesterday, when we got home from school, Megan got homework done, really fast, then went off to make some invitations for her party, that apparently she had been planning all day in her mind. Wait, that morning, before they left for school she had brought down all of this "random" stuff {I say this b/c I didn't find any value in it:( } to the kitchen. Anyway, I told her she needed to take everything back upstairs, b/c she needed to leave for school. She seemed annoyed, but I didn't think twice about it. Okay, so we're back to after school. So while Anna and I were in the kitchen, she brings in these invitations, which if I would've thought about it, I would've taken a picture of it, but oh well. Anyway, she says with such excitement, "Come to my party, it will be the BEST party you will ever go to!" We both RSVP'ed right then and said we wouldn't miss it. So she went back upstairs to set up all of her games. We are going to finish the rest of the games tonight, so hopefully tom. I will post the rest of the pictures. This is the game where you through the ball at the cans. This was some of the stuff that was in the bags that morning, so I am pretty sure she had thought about everything she was going to do and had a vision of what she wanted.
Above: Megan posing, she is so proud and happy!!!
Below: Maggie's turn, can you tell she is making sure she gets the directions of how to play!?
Here's Maggie being a ham again. She used her "ticket" a.k.a skibo card, as a trick! She realized that it could stick between her teeth. She got quite the laugh out of everyone!

Don't judge me!

So we moved some kids around this weekend. We moved Amanda in with Maggie and Anna and Megan are now sharing. Anywho, as Jonathan and I were putting one of the beds together, I had asked Megan and Amanda , nicely several times, to stop climbing/jumping on the mattress that was vertical. I was nervous that it was going to fall on them. So instead of laying it flat on the ground (mainly because I was to focused on getting the whole process over with) I yelled out to them again, except this time, I swore, (this is where I ask you not to judge) "Guys get off the damn mattress, you are going to get hurt!" Megan's very innocent response was this, (I am actually laughing as I am writing this, which is probably not a healthy sign?) "Mom, this is not a DAMN-ED mattress it is my special mattress and we are just trying to have fun!" Jonathan and I started to laugh in the room; luckily she couldn't see or hear us. We moved the mattress down so it was safe to play on her "special mattress." I know, nice, good parenting right! Well, I dedicate this post to all of us moms out there who loose our cool sometimes and choose to use obscenities instead of words that are productive! Hope you got a good laugh out of this, we sure did!

Sisterly Love

I have to tell you that I was so touched this morning when Megan woke up and said, "Mom, I need to make breakfast in bed for Amanda and Anna!" I said, "Megan, why do you need to make breakfast for them?" She said this, "Moooom, so that they can feel special!" Oh my goodness, I just wanted to eat her little face. I think as a parent I often wonder, (especially when it seems like the girls just want to argue with each other), if I am teaching them how to love one another. So when moments like this come along my heart just melts and I feel a sense of, " it's gonna be okay", ya know!Megan getting their breakfast ready!

They love it!
I'm so lucky to have Megan as a sister!! :)

On the road again................!

Beautiful (this is a picture of 89-A. It's a different route that we took this time and would recommend anyone to take. The scenery was really so breathtaking!)

We went to Utah July 21st to the 27th. We were constantly doing something. There is SO many family members that it sometimes becomes overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I love to see everyone, but to have 35 (including our 4) nieces and nephews running around, can get pretty interesting. Thankfully, I have found that all of them are well behaved. Every age group has at least 2-3 that are their same age, which means everyone always has a play mate. This is particularly good for our kids, because they need that interaction away from us! You will see from the pictures that we did a lot in a short amount of time. We wished we could have had another week to enjoy everyone, but reality was screaming for us to come home! We love everyone and are so grateful for the support that we get from them. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Grandma & Grandpa Barlow's

The girls had a blast picking yellow squash and to run around after being in the car for so long. grandpa Barlow sure does a good job keeping the garden weeded. Seriously, I have never seen a garden so well kept and beautiful; if only we could be there to reap the benefit of all the hard work! Megan doing what she does best, climbing! She reminds me of how I was when I was little, full of adventure! I sometimes feel so sad for our kids, because I wish they had this kind of place to let their imaginations run free. I love seeing them playing outside and creating adventures for themselves!That night Uncle Gary and his kids had dinner with us, we loved it!

Megan with her favorite cousins Brittany, Chelsea and Lindsey! Can you tell how happy she is?

The Bountiful Parade

This isn't even everyone, but they are all in our family, AMAZING!

Anna and Ashley (her very favorite cousin and best friend)
These two were pretty inseparable!

Myself and three of my beautiful sister in-laws!
(Oh and the cutest, yummiest baby)

Isn't this SO cute!? She fell asleep as we were walking back to the house. She is so content.

Megan and one of her favorite cousins, Lindsey at the parade.

FIREWORKS!!!!

Okay I have to put my vain side of me aside, because what you are about to see, is not a pretty picture of me. I am perfectly aware that the second picture is not a good angle for me AT all, but I had to show you how little Mag pie fell asleep on me, not just anywhere, my neck, while the fireworks were going. Little Amanda fell asleep on my hip, which by the way is very hard, I don't know why she didn't move just an inch higher and she could have had a VERY good pillow. Okay anyway, the fireworks were awesome this year. It is the first year that they did not hurt my ears and I have miss mag pie to thank. You see, she LOVE to scream, which I think has prematurely deafened me. I was proud that I didn't have to look like a little kid this year with my fingers in my ears, so thank you Mag pie!

I am awake, but I had to close my eyes because the flash was so bright!


Pioneer Day Carnival in BountifulMag pie and Amanda on a carnival swing. WEEEEEE

Oh yay, nothing like some artificial coloring/flavoring and ice.
Can you tell that she is happy?Amanda and Megan with their G. Barlow fishing at the carnival.
I love how concentrated they are.Who doesn't like some fresh corn on the cob? I am still craving Utah corn on the cob. I think I could eat that stuff, breakfast, lunch and dinner.Grandpa Chad, myself, the girls and my mom chatting.
Grandma Shreeve and Amanda enjoying time together! We Love you Grandma!

The First Annual Camp out at Uncle Greg's and Aunt Carolee's house

Everyone set up camp, whether it was a tent or sleeping bags on the ground. I stayed inside, while Jonathan slept out with Megan and Anna under the stars. Anna saw her first three shooting stars that night. She said that it was AWESOME! Man I wish I was there to have witnessed it with her:( I think I have only seen one at a time, so I think I am going to agree with her and say that it was AWESOME too.
POOPED OUT!
Don't you think they could be sisters? This is one of Anna's cute cousins. Whenever I see her I think of Anna when she was younger.

Crazy Uncle John
I think it is safe for me to say, that on behalf of all of us parents we are always so grateful for Uncles who don't have any children yet, because they have all the energy in the world to play with the kids! We love and appreciate you Uncle John!

Breakfast time, the most important meal of the day!

We had several amazing cook at the camp out, Jonathan's mom Dorothy, brother Gary and brother in-law Travis. Oh I almost forgot the inside cooks who made stacks and stacks of pancakes. it was all so delicious. The night before they had a dutch oven cook off and that was SO good, I am still dreaming of Travis's sticky chicken thingy he did!

Maggie thinks she is so lucky to have such a yummy breakfast! (Don't you think I'm so cool?)

Maggie and her two older sisters enjoying the fresh air and breakfast

Maggie taking after her older sister, she's also a little monkey too!Amanda looking so delicate on her morning swing

Grandma and Grandpa Shreeve's

Grandma showing the girls pictures of me when I was little.
Aunt Kaitlyn
And last but not least, we went to mom's and had an awesome dinner with my step-sister and brother in-law. It was fun to see Aunt Kait, we love you! We wished we could have spent more time with G. Shreeve, but hot Arizona was calling us back. Thank you Grandma for helping us end our mini trip to UT comfortably.

Well, if you endured this post then you should pat yourself on your back! It took me officially 3 hours and 45 minutes. I hope you got through it faster than I put it together:) I just want to end this post by saying I feel truly blessed to have such an amazing family both on my side and Jonathan's. I have learned something from everyone and I feel so grateful to have you all in my life! Remeber to have a fabulous day and smile!!!!!!!!