The month of August was a little busy. Between planning the upcoming Relief Society evening activities, signing in church, summer signing class and playgroup we were pretty busy. We were especially looking forward to Grandma Brown coming to stay with us. The last visit we had with her we promised to show her the Farmer's Market.
In between our busy schedule we spent most of our time indoors or at the pool since it was SO HOT and HUMID! Who ever thought that those two sensations should go together anyway?! |
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| Maddy looks like she's taking a selfie...I'm sure it's the first of many! |
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| Emmett loves to play on the slide. |
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| Her "mommy is going to pick me up face" |
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| My darling baby girl! |
One afternoon, after a long morning of playing in the water table and the pool, I decided to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. When I turned around from making the second sandwich I saw my son develop a new purpose for his sandwich. Apparently he took me literally when I told him to put it in his belly since he scraped all the peanut butter and jelly off the bread and started swirling it around on his stomach.
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| Peanut butter and jelly...belly? (Quite literally) |
But that wasn't the only weird thing my son decided to do. Since we were hanging indoors more frequently I pulled the walker out for Maddy to have something new to play with. Emmett had a little nostalgia and thought that I pulled it out for him. Little did I know that walker would bring so much joy to my 2 year old! I think he spent nearly the whole day playing in it and poor Maddy didn't even get to use it. He's such a goof.
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| Rediscovering the walker |
Every Monday we have family home evening lessons and activities to reinforce the Gospel principals we learned in church Sunday. Every Monday it is a struggle to wrangle my kids in for even a short lesson. This time I decided to use M&M's as a reward for sitting still. At the time I was so impressed with myself, but apparently executing this plan is much more difficult than I thought. Who knew that M&M's would be a child's heroine. This time my kids sat still for the first 10 seconds, after rewarding them for their good behavior (with a single M&M) they turned into ravaging wolves. Not only would they not sit still, they tried to maul me for more. There were many tears shed, including a few of my own, but we eventually finished FHE. I vowed to never use chocolate as a reward for anything ever again.
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| Maddy's first M&M. Does she like it? |
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| It's a hit! Chocolate really is a girls best friend! |
The time finally arrived for Grandma Brown to come. We had such an exciting time with her. We went shopping (mommy's favorite) and we played nearly everyday at the pool. Grandma brought up fun toys, including a pair of squirt guns that she took a little too seriously in the pool. She also brought up these flutes that were a big hit with the kiddos!
Friday was our exceptionally fun day. We had playgroup at our apartment pool. Emmett had so much fun with the Dyes, Fishers, and the Binford kids!
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| So handsome! |
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| Emmett having fun in the pool! |
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| Maddy starting to doze off in the pool. |
After the pool, we took Grandma to the Farmer's market. There was music and good food. Thanks to Grandma, we ate our way through the market! We had corn dogs, french fries, Mexican corn, icees, kettle corn and suckers. After enjoying a bit of the music and getting a few home grown fruits, we rolled our way back to the car to enjoy a movie and some market spoils at home.
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| Going to the farmers market! |
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| Eating the most delicious corn dogs at the farmers market! |
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| Emmett doesn't want to share his corn dog. |
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| Maddy chelaxin' in the stroller with her leg up and a french fry in hand. |
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| Grandma eating Mexican corn! |
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| Emmett loves his icee! |
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| Maddy playing with a handheld fan. |
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| Grandma and her grandbabies! |
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| Emmett thought he should drive! |
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| Eating a little kettle corn from the fair and watching a movie! |
It had nearly been a year since we had moved to Clovis, and so Taylor started applying for promotions. Since I had planned to stay in Clovis for 18 months to two years, I never would have thought that he would get promoted so fast....boy was I wrong...No sooner than he applied Taylor was called to go down south for an interview! When I asked where the interview was for he told me Bishop. "Bishop? Where the heck is Bishop?" I asked. The entire time in the apartment I had been praying that we would be sent back down south to be nearby family and the Lord gave him this interview for Bishop? I thought.... Unfortunately this was a turn around trip for us, but fortunately we did get to overlap Uncle Kevin and Aunt Kimber's trip! It was so much fun to see cousin Seth! He is such a cutie with his curly hair and chubby cheeks. We were so grateful to have this rare opportunity!
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| My nephew, Seth is so cute! I just want to eat his chubby cheeks! |
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| In the swing! |
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Maddy loves the swing!
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The day of daddy's interview was nerve racking for all the adults. Mommy took very few pictures and had a hard time not obsessing over the interview.
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| Ready, Steady, GO! |
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| The pinky is pink! |
When we arrived home from the interview I had felt like we needed to do a little temple praying. So mom and dad decided to go to the temple and leave the kiddos at home. It was seriously an amazing trip! After doing a little praying I knew that we were suppose to go to Bishop. Never had I felt so strongly. A very undesirable situation turned into a very desirable one. I was excited about it (which I wasn't before). It was truly a huge confirmation that we were meant to be in Bishop, now for the fun part...waiting for the interview results....
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| Emmett being cute while mommy was getting ready to go to the temple. |
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| Andrea was so nice to babysit the kiddos while we went to the temple. When we came back Emmett and Brodie were playing outside and waiting for Andrea's delicious fajitas. |
In order to distract us from obsessing over daddy's interview, we tried to keep ourselves busy. One way was to enter in the "Backpack Drawing" our apartment complex offered. The kids and I went to submit a name into the drawing. Lucky us we actually won! Emmett thought his new Spiderman backpack was the greatest! There were even lots of fun toys inside to play with and keep us entertained.
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| Coming back from the backpack drawing, and already discovering all the treasures the backpack holds. |
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| Wearing his back pack. (It's nearly as big as him!) But he looks like such a big boy...he needs to stop growing up. |
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| Playing hide and seek with Maddy. |
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| Where did Emmett go? |
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| There he is! |
Towards the end of August, Emmett started to get a little bolder with the water. He no longer wanted to swim with a ring float and I often times had to force him to wear his floaties. One day I caved a little and while standing near the swim step I allowed him to put his feet in the water without his floaties on. No sooner did he put his feet in the water did he try to jump off the ledge. Of course he sank straight down, thus confirming he couldn't be trusted. Much to his avail I forced the flotation devices on his arms.I quickly jumped back into the pool with Maddy barely missing his swinging fists. He went to come take his revenge on me and jumped in the pool. The moment he realized his floaties kept him afloat rather than sink his attitude changed and decided it was a good idea. HAHAHAHA! When will this kid learn that mommy knows best?
One of his favorite games to play is pull and race. He holds onto the swim rail and I try to pull him off by his feet. Once I pull him off I swing him out to the middle of the pool and he races me back to the rail. He is quite the competitive little guy.
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| Holding onto the swim rail... |
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| Racing back...YAY Emmett won! |
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| Maddy relaxing in her float. |
Maddy just started to get teeth. So we decided to try Andrea's teething trick of frozen blueberries! Maddy was a huge fan! She ate so many blueberries I'm surprised she didn't turn into one! Wish I knew this for Emmett!
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| Blueberry Face |
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| Here mom you should try some! |
For nearly 3 weeks we anxiously waited for the answer we knew in our hearts would come, but started to mentally doubt. Mom started using her energy to obsess over other things, like creating file folder FHE lessons. Between FHE group, Camille and herself she made enough for a year!
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| Isn't it pretty? |
Since it was the end of August we decided to hit up the clearance rack for all their pool supplies! We found this gigantic Nemo in the dollar store marked down 50% off!!!! It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, Emmett fell off of it in the water and no longer trusted his fishy friend, but Maddy liked chewing on it.
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| Emmett and Nemo are buddies. |
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| Worn out from the pool... |
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| Even the boy was passed out! |
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| Emmett realized a tick tack fits perfectly in his belly button. What a strange child..... |
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| Good thing he's so cute!!! |
Aside from the pool, we had to get innovative in the apartment. We started dumping toys out of bins and had indoor sledding! Emmett and Maddy loved playing in the bins together! They had so much fun!
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| I think Emmett is a little enthusiastic...but Maddy doesn't mind! |
The call finally came! We were going to Bishop!!! It was so hard not to tell anyone about it until they announced it at work. They told us that we would be leaving within the month, but they were still working it out...That week we decided to start shopping for the new place. Everyone was going to get some warm clothes and daddy was going to get some pretty new work clothes, because he's rollin' with the big leagues now! Say hello to a new Senior Manager! So proud of my husband's accomplishments!
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| Emmett playing with toys in the store...We are going to Bishop! Hooray! |
