Sunday Bike Ride

 We have early church, so sometimes Sunday afternoons get a little long hanging around the house. So today we decided to pack up the bikes and take them to one of our favorite parks, Liberty Park. It is a beautiful park just a few blocks from downtown. There can be some sketchy people there sometimes, but if you look past them there is an awesome park with a beautiful view. 

 It has a perfect mile long path around the whole park that is nice and flat and perfect for beginner big girl bike riders like Lyla. She loved it and never complained about being tired. 

We also stopped half way and fed the ducks and had PB&J for dinner :) Isn't this such a great picture of these two with the sun reflecting off the water like that? Love it.

We stopped and played at the park for a few minutes before loading back up to go home. It was such a pleasant day and great weather. If only we had a truck and didn't have to take 2 cars with tied down trunks to get our bikes there...haha

Lyla's 1st Drawing

Lyla has some problems with wanting to do any type of directed activity if I'm involved. One of the many reasons I have put her in preschool this year. She will never draw or write letters or anything if she knows I want her to. I have got her to write an "L" for Lyla and she has been doing that for quite some time, but she wouldn't ever try any other letters or try to draw people, objects etc. Then one day she FINALLY was in a good mood and I got her to draw a sun. I think it was the cutest sun I've ever seen. I showed her how on the right and then she did her own on the left. I'm just hoping preschool gets her in gear and she starts learning even more since she responds better to other adults. In any case, I was very proud of her for drawing this sun :) 

Fun at a Friends Cabin

 Some friends in our ward, the Kilgore's, invited us up to their family cabin for the day yesterday. We had so much fun 4-wheeling, canoeing, shooting guns and a small hike. It was a great day and both kids had a blast.

Just excited to be outside and exploring

 I have shot a 22 before, but they brought up some shotguns that we tried out for awhile. The kick was way stronger than I thought and didn't feel too great on the shoulder! I shot it a few times but decided shooting is not really my favorite sport. 

 Exploring the woods, and a dried up river. Lyla was a little champ climbing all over the place 

 There was a little boy there (also in our ward) who she became good buddies with. The 4-wheelers made her a little nervous for some reason and she wouldn't go on them. But as soon as Jacob got on and called her over she jumped on without even thinking twice. It was adorable. She wouldn't ride on them the rest of the day unless he was on it with her. 

 When we were cleaning up the cabin to leave we couldn't find the kids, until we looked in the bedroom and saw this. So innocent and sweet, but we all had a good laugh about these two in bed together. 

The End of Summer Swimming

 We have been swimming a lot this summer. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are some from one of the last times the water park was open. We had such a blast going to both local pools and to the water park since we had a season pass. 

Lyla's favorite part: the slides. Since I can't take both kids on the slides at the same time Lyla only got to go down when Josh was with us. So even though it was only a few trips, she couldn't get over the water slides and was such a little daredevil. She looked terrified going down the big dips and just before entering the water, but at the end came bobbing up with a huge smile every time and said "that was fun, can we do it again?!" 

This year Lyla really got even more comfortable with the water and is super close to being able to swim. She can hold her breath and look under the water and is good at using her arms and legs but just doesn't make a lot of progress in moving forward. All of the swim lessons were booked within a minute of registration around here and we just couldn't get into any of them, but we will probably be taking some at an indoor pool this fall. What a great summer!

They play music at the wave pool and got this cute video of the kids dancing

Lyla's Life

Lyla comes down from her nap (which she didnt take) and says "Mom, I have a bead up my nose". I looked, sure enough, at the top of her nose was a blue bead. It was turned sideways and filling the space so no tweezers or anything were going to get up there without pushing it farther. I googled it. Hold clear nostril closed, blow through mouth. I tried, she screamed, I panicked. I decided to call Josh for some extra help, so he came home and tried the same method and after the second or third blow the bead flew right out. Whew. Just glad we didn't have to go to the doctor or anything to get it out. Thanks google

She is just starting to transition from taking naps but it does catch up with her after a day or two without one. So the first time since she was a newborn she fell asleep somewhere other than the car or her bed. She was out cold and was hard to wake up (it was 5pm, I wasn't letting her fall asleep for too long!). I still give her naps every few days and bed time is pretty early the days she doesn't nap. 

Got a new big kid bike. She wanted to push the pedals back to rock the bike to get herself going like she does on her tricycle but this bike makes it stop when you push the pedals back. It took only about a half hour for her to figure it out and already a day later she has picked it up and loves riding around the neighborhood. 

Mac thinks the bike is pretty cool too and had to try it out

The first time she rode by herself without me by her or helping push her to get going

Quotes:

I come into Lyla's room and she's wearing her Belle dress (from Beauty & the Beast)
Me: Hi Lyla
Lyla: I'm not Lyla, I'm Belle
Oh, hi Belle. What are you doing?
I'm getting the beast (pointing at Mac)
OK, lets get him together!
No mom, I'm Belle, I got this


Mom!  Look, I'm thirsty. See? (Lifts up shirt and points to stomach) My belly is thirsty


Don't drive off that hill Mom, its dangerous. (looking at a random grassy hill on the way to the store, still not sure what made her say that)

7th Anniversary

 We had a nice romantic dinner the night before our anniversary. My parents and Cindy were all leaving for the weekend so we had to do it a day early so we had a babysitter. We had a great dinner at Christopher's Steak House in Salt Lake. 

We still wanted dessert and dinner went by really quick so we decided to go all out and go to Melting Pot for dessert. It was delicious as usual. 

Even though we celebrated the night before I couldn't let our anniversary pass by without doing something fun. So I surprised Josh and set up a few candles after the kids were in bed. We had some sparkling pink lemonade (i'm not a huge fan of sparkling cider, and we both liked this one a lot better). Josh's parents had sent a fruit bouquet and chocolate covered fruit we enjoyed that by candlelight and opened our cards. In Josh's card I put some tickets to Imagine Dragons, one of Josh's favorite bands right now. 

It was a fun anniversary. Nothing huge or spectacular but a nice date and time together. We are so happy and loving our simple but busy little life with 2 kids. 

The New 'Do

Basically a huge bulk of my life my hair has been the same: Long, straight, boring. It doesn't take curl very well or stay any certain way so I just blow dry it and pin back my bangs because I hate hair in my face. I felt it was time for a change, finally. I have been looking at the "bob" haircut for awhile and decided I'd try it out and see how it goes, and if I hate it, hair always grows out. 

Old Hair: 

New Hair: 

I decided to do sort of a bob in the back and have it do an A-line type cut down to the front. I.LOVE.IT. 

This picture isn't as accurate as I sometimes think it looks. When I first do it in the morning its fuller on the sides, but overall it usually looks this way. Thanks to Lindsey who is a great stylist and cut it just the way I envisioned it. My hair actually cooperates most days and stays full and cute. I think I'll stick with this for awhile. 

July 24th

Josh went off to Belguim this week for work so we have been spending our time up at my parents house. We came up on the 23rd, and on the 24th (pioneer day) I woke up early and went to get a spot for the parade in Spanish Fork. 

The parade was super long, but we had a good time and were thankful for some nice cloud cover that made it a little cooler. The best part was the 2,000 stripling warriors that passed by singing "We have been born as Nephi of old..." and all stomping their sticks down in unison. It was quite the sight to see.

That night my Mom and I took Lyla back to the carnival and rode some rides and watched the fireworks. One of the rides was called the Scrambler and was super fast and nauseating, but Lyla laughed and screamed her head off the whole ride. She can be so daring sometimes, I love it. We had a lot of fun together. We also got an amazing spot to see the fireworks and enjoyed waiting for them by eating cotton candy and then loved the actual show also.  

Additional cute moments while staying at my parents house:

I can't get this picture to turn for some reason, but Lyla loves to sit with her Papa in the recliner every night and usually requests popcorn. Tonight she requested to have "meat" with her popcorn, which is beef jerky. We thought it was hilarious that she was so excited for such a weird combo of "meat" and popcorn. 

 Lyla got to have a little bit of ice cream and Mac just sat there patiently waiting for a bite. It was so funny watching him get as close to Lyla and the bowl but not grabbing the spoon or anything, just watching her every move. They can be so cute together sometimes. She did end up giving him several bites. She hardly ever shares toys willingly, but for some reason she will share any type of food, even if its something she loves. 

McKay at 18 Months

Weight: 25.1 Pounds: About 45th%

Height: 33.6 Inches: 80th %

Loves babies. Will touch them real soft and kiss them or laugh
Begs for food no matter when he last ate. If someone is eating he goes right up as close as possible and gives the most adorable puppy dog eyes you just can't resist. Even does this to random strangers and kids at the park who are eating lunch, haha
Is a lot more cautious than Lyla was. Just got over needing to hold my hand to go down the stairs.
Hair is getting really blonde, eyes are still speckled, mostly hazel/light brown
Follows Lyla and does everything she does. Even when she mauls him he goes back 2 minutes later and wants to be playing with her again
Total boy. Loves trucks (aways makes a truck noise when driving his cars), outside, sand, dirt and balls
Every once in awhile he gets in little fits and throws a tantrum, its still at the cute stage and we laugh
Started nursery, doesnt even look back when he goes in
Such a sweet snuggly little boy
Very social, gets right in the middle of kids playing no matter how old they are
Laughs and smiles with pure joy when dogs or basically all animals are around
Blows Kisses
Loves to wave at people
Claps
High Five and Fist Bumps
18 Month Clothes
Size 4 Diaper
Loves to swim
Sleeps about 7:30/8pm to 8/8:30pm with usually one 3 hour nap, every once in awhile will take 2 naps
Getting better at drinking out of a cup without spilling
Uses a fork and spoon pretty well, but still working on it. Thicker things like oatmeal he's really good at using his spoon
LOVES to wrestle

Picking up new words almost daily and when you ask him to say a word he will usually try and say it. His words as of now are:
Ni-Night
Hot
Bonk
By-Bye
Hi
Mama
Da-da (Daddy)
Lyla
Cheese
Papa
Thank you
Side (outside)

He can also ride a scooter. I didn't know it was possible for an 18 month old to ride a scooter but he is a little champ at it! The differences between child 1 & 2! He definitely watched Lyla ride around on it and has picked it up quickly from her. 

His cute little belly laugh