4th of July Part 1 and 2!

Since 4th of July fell on a Sunday this year, we got to celebrate it twice!  On Saturday the 3rd, we did our traditional celebration and it was a perfect day for a parade.  It was a pretty cool day, and I was very thankful for that.  It was the most comfortable weather we've had in years!  All of the kids had a great time.  I brought candy so they didn't have to battle other kids for it, but SO many people threw candy to them, they had more than they wanted!  In my opinion, it was a perfect morning.

Ewww!  Coffee flavored candy :)

Grandma milligan made us a wonderful lunch and we relaxed at her house for the afternoon and then we moved to our house for our evening bbq and to start with the firework fun.  The men left our driveway looking like a war zone, so I think they had fun even before it got dark! 

We headed over to the Magna fireworks and they always have such a great show.  Every year seems better because our kids get older and enjoy it more.  I'm so glad that we can continue with a tradition that was Jay's all through his childhood.  I'm thankful for all of the memories that our kids will have with this fun tradition.

After trekking back to our cars and taking our "secret" shortcut home, we started the BIG fireworks.  Ethan and Kayleigh didn't want to participate this year, so I got to watch caillou with them inside...  lucky me :).  And Jay didn't have to listen to my constant warnings.  I love seeing the little boy grin on Jay's face as he gets his one of rare chances to play with fire.  (taking all safety precautions for my sake of course! :)

Usually Jay's sister and her kids have to miss our Magna parade, etc... because they go to the Layton parade where Chon is a fire fighter and ride on the fire truck.  We had the rare opportunity to join them this year on Monday the 5th of July.  Ethan wasn't so crazy about the idea of riding on top of the truck, but Jayden got to and it was such a fun experience for him!  Thanks Chon for including him!  I really enjoyed the parade.  They have more floats and bands than our little Magna parade and it was fun to see them.

Mom's Vacation Week

Mom and dad came up last week and spent a whole week with us.  It was wonderful, fun and EXHAUSTING!!!  I'm barely feeling recovered two days after it is all over.  But I wouldn't trade the memories for the world.  Wednesday we just started slow by hanging out with mom at Jana and Rachel's apartment.  Thursday they came to my house and we let the kids play until time for our girls night at Cheesecake Factory!  It was fun getting away with the girls, and the FOOD was great too! ;)  We went back to Laura's with our ten pieces of cheesecake and everyone tried all of the kinds...yummy! 
Friday is when things got crazy!  Jay left Friday morning for a camp out and I packed up the kids and our swimming gear and headed to Jana's apartment.  We went swimming for the first time Friday night and it was apparent that I don't expose my kids to the water enough!!  Both Jayden and Ethan were most comfortable in a boat that Cari brought, with lots of supports in it.  So they took turns using it.  Kayleigh begrudgingly stayed in the water for a time, with various adults, but preferred to be out running around the perimeter of the pool.  She scared me to death several times!  I was certain she would slip and careen into the pool far away from where we were.  (needless to say, we started setting rules that she stay by the table or be in the water with an adult after that day)  I found out in the course of the evening that at some time I had driven over a road hazard that put a hole in BOTH of my passenger side tires.  Luckily, Laura had a compressor, so I pumped them up once that night to keep the rims off the ground.  We stayed up ridiculously late: after I pumped up my tires, we put the kids to bed, and then Mom and I went to walmart. We went in search of more boats and groceries needed for Saturday.  We found them, but thought they were smaller so we didn't buy them.  Returned home at 2 am and got a few hours sleep before getting up and starting on the business for the next day.  I woke up in time to pump up my tires again and have Dad take me to discount tire right when they opened.  We got back and visited the pool for the morning and it worked out well.  Most of the kids weren't there so Jayden borrowed one of the big kid floaties that seemed stable to him and swam around with that while Ethan enjoyed the boat.  They were having so much fun that the hours flew by!  Before long it was noon and we got out, bathed the kids and ourselves and got dressed.  Then mom and I went to costco for things for the Saturday reunion and Sunday birthday party.  By the time we returned we ate a few bites of lunch and then I made fondant while they raced to put together stuff for the Brown family reunion in Kaysville.  Even with everyone working we were an hour later than planned.  (I'm not sorry though, an hour longer at the park would have made me MORE tired!)  The kids watched the ducks and played around the pavillion until time to eat and then we went and played on the play ground.  I felt bad not getting to talk to the fam much, but I was alone with the kids and afraid of what might happen if they got away from me by the creek that runs through the park.  And they had a great time, especially once I finally let them go to the playground!  Jayden is pretty self sufficient, so he just went wherever all over the play ground.  There is one perfect slide for smaller kids on one side that I showed Kayleigh and Ethan after they were tired of digging in the wood chips.  It was the perfect size for them to go on even by themselves.  I showed them the path up the stairs and across the bridge to the slide and back to the stairs and they went around and around till time to go.  Kayleigh was particularly funny; she is so small, she would often plop right on her bum at the bottom of the slide because she couldn't catch herself with her feet.  But it didn't even phase her.  She'd just get back up and head for the stairs again.  When I reached my limit of exhaustion, I loaded up the kids trekked home to Jay who had returned from the campout while we were at the reunion.  I would have loved to go to bed, but instead I worked on the birthday party prep till after midnight.  (I got a second wind and its a good thing!  If you read my post about the birthday, I needed to stay up that late or something probably wouldn't have gotten done!)
I will leave out Sunday since I included that in another post, but it was another long, though incredibly wonderful and rewarding day.  Happy Birthday Jayden!!!
I stayed up pretty late Sunday again visiting and relaxing after the party.  I was planning to get to Jana's apartment to start preparing for Arin's shower by 8...(yup, ANOTHER event! :)  I couldn't make myself get up quite as early as planned and was pretty sore so my movements were slowing down.  I forgot to mention that Jana and Rachel live in a third floor apartment.  I am pretty out of shape, overweight, and six months pregnant, so after a few days of walking those stairs several times I was FEELING IT!  After dressing the kids and one more trip to walmart for shower necessities, I didn't get there till 11!  And then we wanted to let the kids swim again.  Mom went to walmart and ended up buying those boats we saw as well as a ton of other floaties and it was a great thing!  They weren't smaller like they appeared, they were the same, plus they had a sun shade.  So we had tons more for the kids to play with and they all had a wonderful day.  Maybe too wonderful.  We were there for hours and apparently didn't reapply sunblock frequently enough so many of us got burned at least in some places.  Luckily the burn didn't kick in for me that day.  Some of us went to Laura's to prepare for the shower while the rest went to buy stuff for it, and we got it put together in time.  I felt pretty good except for my stair weary legs! 
It was a great party.  We don't get to see that family very often and lots of them came, even from far distances.  It was nice visiting and just seeing everyone.  Teri brought some particularly beautiful and sentimental home decorations that brought tears to Arin's eyes and we all shared a special moment.  How exciting to watch Arin anticipate her special new life to come, an unforgettable evening because we shared it with so many amazing women.  After everyone left, I dragged myself home and plopped into bed.
Now by tuesday, I was pretty close to hitting the wall.  Ethan was up in the night suffering from his sunburn, and I didn't sleep so well myself.  During the night, I was convinced that we would not swim the next day.  I suppose the wiser thing to do would have been to stay home completely. However, I am so zealous about seeing my family when they come to town.  That, combined with my desire to give my kids every opportunity for fun and memories, made me drag myself out of bed and pack up again for Jana's.  Everyone was pretty exhausted by Tuesday, but the kids, even Ethan still wanted to swim.  So I went and got a couple more shaded boats for the kids who we wanted to keep out of the sun, and we put extra sunscreen and t shirts on them and headed back out to the pool.  I struggled even at the store, but didn't even think of asking just to stay in with Kayleigh.  She never really grew to love the water.  We forced her to be in there on the other days, and she tolerated it as long as their were lots of adults to keep passing her around.  (I think she was really just trying to find one to understand her pointing toward the edge of the pool where she wanted to be! )  She was happiest playing in the shade by the pool.  We went down at right about nap time for her.  She even tried to curl up and go to sleep on my lap and on a floaty on the ground under the table, but could find no rest and was getting very grumpy.  I also was progressively feeling worse even though all I was doing was sitting in a chair in the shade!  Luckily, Mom, Cari, and Candice suggested I go in.  I felt like I barely made it up the stairs and by the time I got there I was cramping so I started feeling anxious about the baby too.  Kayleigh and I laid under the table until it went away and then I got us out of our swimming clothes and laid down for a nap.  It was SO nice to just rest and I was thankful that Jayden and Ethan could still be out having fun.  I still felt miserable when they came up and I just wanted to go home.  So we said our goodbyes and I drove home.  Jay let me go right to bed and put the kids to bed.  (SUCH an AWESOME husband!  Especially since he had spent the day digging in the sun and was extremely weary himself.)  Now two days later, I feel almost completely back to myself and all the effort was worth it.  We had such a priceless week with Mom, Dad, and Cari's family.  We are so blessed to have such a large family with wonderful cousins to spend time with.

I only pulled out the camera one time all week.  Here's some of our swimming fun!

Our little sunbather

Reunion and Camping

I didn't get any pics of this last weekend, but wanted to post anyway about our one camping trip of the summer.  Jay ended up being on call and couldn't go to the Jensen reunion with us, but since I rested most of the week after mom left I decided to take the kids by myself and let them have a mini camping trip.  The fam was really helpful, Laura let us stay in her tent.  (Jayden remembered sleeping out a couple of summers ago in her tent and was really excited to repeat the experience.)  We left bright and early for the reunion and met the family at the camp ground.  It was only about a two hour drive, but Jayden kept asking if we were in Nevada yet.  He thought it was a pretty long drive.  My fam reserved a camp ground in Manti by the temple.  I haven't been back through Ephraim for years and enjoyed seeing it again.  The reunion was fun, but really hot and tiring!  Ethan completely wore himself out!  He had been playing forever on the playground and the swings and was looking pretty sick to me.  I was swinging him and kept asking him if he wanted to get down and get a drink and he was determined to keep swinging.  Finally, I insisted, and as he got off the swing he threw up EVERYWHERE!  I guess I should have insisted earlier!  Kids are so funny!  I can't imagine he was even enjoying himself with the way he looked, but he was so reluctant to shorten his fun that he just put up with it.  You'd think I never let him outside to play!!
Back at the campground we played on another more well shaded playground.  The kids got to enjoy roasting marshmallows for a minute...(At least I hope they enjoyed it.  My paranoia takes away from those kinds of experiences.)  Roasting marshmallows was the one thing Jayden looked forward to beside sleeping in a tent.  I think it's funny he likes to roast them, since he doesn't even like to eat them.  I guess it benefits me since I can eat them.  I was excited when someone pulled out the sparklers and drew them away from the fire :).  Jayden got burned and decided they weren't so fun, but we had tons, so the other kids played for a long time!  Kayleigh and Ethan even lit some.  Kayleigh wanted to touch the flame at first, but Heather showed her how much more fun it was to wave them.
We had a slow moving morning and then packed everything up and went home.  I don't feel like I did much, but I was so tired when I got home that Jay took care of the kids so I could take a nap!

The Big 5!!!

I am late posting, because of a REALLY busy week/month, but I wanted to take a few moments and talk about Jayden's landmark birthday!  On July nineteenth my big boy turned 5!  I can't believe the time has gone by so fast.  He was so excited and seemed to know what an important birthday it was.  He talked about how he was soon going to be five for weeks before. 
What a fun five years it has been for me!  Of course we were very excited for his arrival since we felt we had waited a long time for him and we have certainly never been dissapointed.  Our whole world revolved around our little Jayden man.  And he sure LOVED the attention!  He was a ham from the very start, always making faces and doing silly things that made everyone laugh.  He has also always been very active and rambunctious boy, I feel like I am correcting him constantly, and sometimes feel like I am talking to a brick wall!  And yet, he is very sensitive in many ways, wants to be good, TRIES to be good, and is way to hard on himself.  Just the other night he was crying because he felt like he wasn't a good boy...(talk about ripping a mother's heart out!  It confirmed that I am stealing his self esteem!)  It was nice to be able to talk to him about how much I and Heavenly Father and Jesus love him.  And that they just want us to try our best, because they know that will make us most happy.  But that none of us are perfect and we just have to let things go.  Not to mention that he IS a REALLY good boy and does so many wonderful things.  I know I probably lean too much toward laying down the law.  But I try really hard to let him know how AMAZING I think he is.
It is difficult to describe in words, but he is very sensitive, kind, and observant...the reason it is hard to describe is because it is hard to come up with examples.  But I see it almost every day, in what he says and watching his little mind work...it is one of my favorite things about him.  I really feel like it is a gift.  He seems very aware of others, and concerned for their well being.  We saw a homeless man, and he asked me about him and why he didn't have a home.  He asks me questions like that a lot, when he sees things on the news etc...  He seems so aware for his age and I am always surprised by what he observes and understands when we watch the news, or when Jay and I are talking.  And he wants to make connections and learn new things too.  He really keeps me on my toes with his questions.  Not to mention delighting me with his discoveries.
In less than two weeks I will have to put him in kindergarten for the first time...  I don't know if I am ready for it!  He can't wait and is always asking how close it is, so I am happy for him.  But I have loved having my kids all to myself, and I will miss those times.  In short, I have felt so blessed to have such a special, amazing little man come into my life.  He teaches me so much and enriches my life more than words can say.


I am going to include a few of his favorite things and then I'll talk about his birthday party!
Favorite color: Red
Favorite food:  chicken nuggets, mac and cheese
Favorite toy:  bumblebee, optimus prime, turtle puppet
Favorite tv show:  transformers, curious george
Favorite things to do:  playing, riding his bike
Favorite Restaurant:  Olive Garden and Burger King

We celebrated his birthday on Sunday, the 18th.  It followed several BUSY days so we were working all day preparing for the party not to mention being TIRED from an already crazy week!  All the preparations are worth it though, when everyone has a wonderful time.  Jayden wanted an Optimus prime truck cake.  I found a pretty fun looking cake online and looked forward to the opportunity to try it out.  I started making cakes and rice krispy treats in the days before, but hadn't finished as much as I had planned to when Sunday morning rolled around.  (You know, stacking, frosting, and covering the cake with fondant :)  Then when I started rolling the fondant that I had prepared the day before, I discovered that forgetting to put it somewhere cooler than my car the day before, had ruined it....  So luckily, I had bought extra fondant supplies and I rushed to make another batch.  With the help of Jay, my mom, and sisters we got the house ready, the food ready and the cake ready, just in the nick of time!!  (well we worked on the cake through the party, but it was done in time to sing and cut it up! :)  I spent the WHOLE day on the cake, the rest of the food was made by my mom and Jana. (not to mention, Rachel did all the painting on the cake and helped me the whole time with that.)   Thanks guys!  What a great day it was.  Jayden helped me remember the final touch I forgot: oreo sticks for smoke stacks. He seemed pretty happy with the cake after they were added.

Grandpa Turpin was one of the first ones there, he read to the boys while we finished preparing the party.

We had so many family and friends there to wish him a happy birthday.  Even my parents and Cari were in town.  As usual, I think Jay made the party for the kids.  We bought a bunch of squirt bottles for the kids.  He found a big squirt gun and ran around with him against all twenty of them.  A couple of times he tried to jump over the crocodile pool, slipped and fell in getting soaked from head to toe.  SO fun to watch him being a kid with all of them! 

This is just after he fell into the pool for the first time :).

Presents!

Cake!

After the cake and the presents we tried to calm things down with a little sidewalk chalk.  I wish I got a picture of the driveway before the rainstorm yesterday!  It was very cute.  A huge rainbow and tons of the kids names who were there with their drawings.  I love summer birthday parties, they require very little activity planning yet always end up a blast!  Happy Birthday Jayden!

Yet another vocabulary post...

I didn't get a good list of Kayleigh's favorite vocabulary words so here's a few more:
EEEoow-(meow)
sniffing sound- (oink)
CHEESE!- usually means cheese, but occasionally, just stands for food
Ice and Eyes-(she says both of these words perfectly :)  so cute)
Boo-(Book)
Ree-(read)
eese?- (please?)
She also says DON'T pretty clearly as well.  She is really good at letting people know what she does and DOESN'T want.
Yah! Yah!  This one is thanks to her brothers.  She says this when she is swinging a sword or other object at Jay.
App-o - Apple
tank oo - thank you.  She really says it well, but I usually have to remind her to say it.



One more fun conversation from today.  Jayden and I were looking through a name book and talking about names for the new baby. I put the book down and Kayleigh started looking at it. I asked her jokingly if she was going to help us find a name and she shook her head. Jayden said: “I don’t want her to pick the name. She might pick a name I don’t like, like Kip.”