24th of July Parade

 Took the kids to their 1st parade for the 24th of July! (except for the super small one in Elk Ridge the week before the 4th...) It was 2 long hours in the sun, but we still had a great time and enjoyed the energetic feel of celebrating the pioneers

 The cops were a little loud with the sirens. Lyla held her ears, Mac just looked around as if nothing was even going on, haha

 

 Bet you never had a celebrity like Henry B Eyring at your parade before! The highlights of going to a parade in Utah: an apostle can just show up cruising down the street. Although my thought of taking a picture of him was very last second and you can't even see him since his body guard is in the way. But really, he's in there, and was cool to see him and his wife in the parade

 Shelly and Miles joined us too while Benjamin took the bar that morning

 My favorite float and part of the parade: the Polynesian Cultural Center from Hawaii! They were all dressed up and had loud Hawaiian music and dancing down the street. It made me want to go back to Hawaii SOOO bad. Lyla is already dancing before the float got to us

Kid Videos

Some cute videos of what the kids are like right now

The newest thing McKay loves to do: stick his tongue out. It is adorable, he just sticks the very tip out and makes me laugh every time. Lyla did the same when she was about this age but has a super long tongue so hers would go down to her chin!

Lyla is saying quite a few words and sentences these days. But when she gets going telling her own stories its a lot of her own little language. Here is a good little representation of that.

I was trying to get the super high squeals that Mac is doing lately, but didn't quite get it. I decided to add this video anyway since it shows his adorable happy self.

Rodeo

 Can't live in Utah without going to a rodeo! We went to the Days of '47 Rodeo at the Maverick Center on Friday and took the Day family along with us. It was fun, loud, and a little funny with the crazy clowns, but all in all we had a good time together

 These girls are all getting so big! We have known Brookie (in the middle) since she was 2 months old, and can't believe that she just turned 4 last month. So cute to see them all together

We had to go to the DI to round up some rodeo get-up and were super excited to find Lyla's pink boots at Target of all places. She LOVED them and insisted on wearing them to church today. Love that sweet smile Mac has behind those little fingers

Birthday...Week

Yep, its true, I celebrated ALL WEEK LONG!! Man, I was super spoiled this year....like really bad.

Last weekend:
Got my bday present from Josh early, a new computer! Love it..my netbook was having serious issues and I just about threw it across the room, so Josh agreed to get me a new one

Josh's parents were in town, so I also got to go shopping with Connie and she got me a new outfit for my bday, or should I say outfitS. She got me way more than she should have!! I was very thankful though because I am in serious need of new clothes

Monday: Spent "FHE" in provo buying me more clothes(in provo because its where my favorite store is)...I know, I couldn't help myself. Then went to dinner at The Pizza Factory which was right by our apts that we met at :)
Tuesday: Got a free bday dinner coupon from Tucanos, so we used that and went to dinner
Wednesday: 4th of July events, I loved it
Thursday: Enjoyed the day at my parents, and went out to lunch with my Dad. Just me and him, it was really nice.
Friday: I woke up feeling amazing. I got a migraine Thursday evening, and so instead of driving home Josh took Mac and let me stay another night at my parents. I got 7 straight hours of sleep people!!!!!! First time in over 5 months....it was amazing and may have trumped all the other bday gifts and events....
Saturday: We went out for bkfast as a fam. That night my parents came to babysit and Josh took me to The Roof restaurant, (SO yummy) and then to the laser show at the planetarium. It was a great date and the longest one we have been on since Mac was born! (Since we always have to be back to put him down for bed we never stay out late, but my parents held down the fort and we got to leave for almost 5 hrs. woot woot!)
Sunday(my actual bday!): Party at Cindy's with Wally's fam and my parents. Cindy made a bomb dinner and of course a delicious cake.

WOW!! Can you even believe it?! I'm almost ashamed to post how spoiled I have been this week. But just goes to show I have an amazing family and husband. It will be hard to beat this week next year....

Josh and I talked about turning 27 a little bit at dinner. I have been so blessed in my life. I am exactly where I hoped and wanted to be at this stage in my life. I have a great husband, 2 sweet children, and am a healthy happy woman. I just feel like Heavenly Father has truly given me so much and I am so incredibly blessed. I can only hope that I remember that daily instead of just at the milestones. 

Here's to another great year this year!

The Roof:

 Waiting for the laser show to start:

 I requested Mickey pancakes on my bday morning:

 Our walk home from church, man those two are cute! Aren't I lucky?!
(like our "double stroller" haha)

 Party at Cindy's!

4th of July

 We had a great 4th of July! 

It started with the ward breakfast/party that morning. This was her favorite part:

 Then it was naps and Dad went off to work for a few hours. Then we headed up to my parents to drop off McKay and took Lyla to the festivities in Provo. First it was the festival, and Lyla got a snowcone...

 This is her "mom is making me take another picture, this it the best smile I can muster up at this point" face. But at least it shows off her cute little outfit

 And her cute hair. I wish she would stay this little forever. One day she won't let me dress her up anymore...dangit

 After the provo festival we went and found our spot that we had staked out beforehand, just outside the BYU stadium. We listened to the stadium of fire concert with the Beach Boys as the hit band. It was entertaining and we could hear it surprisingly well.

 Doing some sparklers as we waited. Lyla was a little nervous to hold it by herself, she wasn't quite sure what was going on. But did like watching us do them and with some help she did a few.

 The $3 one-hour entertainer! The glow sticks were a hit and she LOVED breaking them and watching them light up.

 FINALLY...the fireworks started...at 10:30pm. I figured they would be a little later since they don't start until after the show but not that late. Lyla made it fine until we had her lay down next to dad to watch the fireworks and then most of the time hid her face in his arm and closed her eyes, she was exhausted. So we watched about half way through and then left since she wasn't enjoying them that much anyway and we wanted to beat the traffic. All in all though, we had a great day and it was really fun spending some time with just Lyla.

Weekend in Elk Ridge

It was the first of many weekend stays at my parents house. The kids were even more spoiled because they got both sets of grandparents! Mike and Connie decided to come stop by for a few days and visit us and the kids so we all stayed up at my parents house. 

 We got to attend the Elk Ridge parade and festival and had a blast enjoying the small town folk. Here we are waiting for it to start. Josh was at home with a sleeping baby...

Everyone who went by threw candy, Lyla made sure to get EVERY piece that came her way

 One of the old cars in the parade got a flat tire right as they passed us. The guy driving was pretty old so my dad went out and helped him get the spare on

 Made some festive treats! They were pretty yummy

 It was a really hot weekend so we filled up the little pool and let Lyla swim. 

Here's Mac just chillaxin watchin Lyla bounce around.

 The parade was Friday night and then Sat morning was the festival. Lyla got to ride a horse, get a snowcone, go in the bounce house, get her face painted and other fun little activities. It was a fun day for her but by the time we were done she was pooped  because it was such a hot day!

 She LOVED getting attention from 6 adults who adore and love her to pieces

 Lyla tryin out the squirt gun on dad, she thought it was hilarious to shoot people

 So Josh tried it out on her too

She played with the chalk quite a bit too

 Nothin cuter than watching my dad snuggle the kids

This is the view we get to stare out at from my parents house. It is definitely a place of R&R and is so beautiful. Its even cooler at night with all the lights down in the city. We got to try out the telescope while we were there and saw the craters on the moon. Then we checked out the city and zoomed in on the Provo temple!
We had a great weekend and really enjoyed seeing both sides of the family and just relaxing together.

Silver Lake

 It was a hot Monday afternoon and we wanted to escape to the mountains for a little bit of FHE and some cooler weather. I heard about this little lake just about 20 minutes from our house so we went to check it out.

We had a picnic for dinner

 Then walked around this beauty. It was a really short easy walk that even Lyla could do by herself so it was perfect for our little outing

 McKay loved being outside as usual

 Lyla just couldn't help herself and had to venture off the path for some exploring

 Even got to throw some rocks

I love that we can go from hot sunny SLC to shady cool beautiful mountains in just 20 minutes. One of the many perks of living in Utah. We had a great time enjoying the beautiful scenery and just relaxing together in the outdoors