A Really. Long. Post.

Surprise, Surprise I'm behind with the blog (among many other things!).  Whatever happened to the lazy days of summer??  I guess between swim lessons, staying on top of the dreaded "chore chart" for the boys (much more work for me, haha), the garden, and anything else there just isn't a whole lot of time!  Anyway, I'm at least going to put up pictures from the last little bit . . .

The last day that Bob and Janet were here was spent at pool.  They came and watched the kid's swim lessons along with Erik which was really nice.

 

I really do have great in laws!

Of course it wouldn't be a true Nyholm trip if Erik didn't inlist his Dad to help with some things :)  This time, they moved this heavy armoire that has been sitting in the garage since we moved up to the boys room.  Bob also helped Erik put up shelves in the garage that will hold dry food storage.  Yay!

The last couple of mornings that they were here, Bob left a little smiley face treat for the boys to wake up to.  This oreo man on the last morning was quite elaborate.

Girls Camp was a couple of weeks ago.  Since I still have a nursing baby, I got to go for just one evening (is that a bad attitude to have??) :)  I drove up with Amanda, and it was fun to see the girls having such a great time.  It brought back some fond memories of my Girls Camp days.

This girl knows how to get her picture taken.  She will cheese it up on command.  If she hears the camera go off on my phone or camera, she immediatly start saying "cheeeese"  Today I noticed that she didn't even stop playing when she heard the camera.  She just went about her merry way while saying cheese to herself.  Haha, she is so funny to me!

We've had a couple of good thunderstorms lately.  This one last Friday, blew threw right as Erik came home from work.  We were enjoying the show, but then realized the trampoline wasn't staked down.  So Erik resigned himself to getting completley soaked and staked it down.

Unfortunatley our tomato plants didn't fare too well.  Erik rigged up quite the support systen for them, and they seem to be doing OK now.

What a little commedian :)

Last Saturday, we decided to use the dutch oven again on Sunday.  So for the first time in our marriage, Erik went on the internet to search for a good recipe, made a shopping list, got the ingredients, and completely prepared it himself the next day.  Way to be domestic!  It was a really good whole chicken cooked with onions, red potatoes, rosemary, and thyme.  Yummo!

Anna had her 15 month well check last week.  She's 22 lbs and I can't remember her length, but I remember it was 50 % weight, and 90% height.  Very similar to Jackson's build at this age.  Dr. Duck said she's growing well, healthy, and doing great!

Last Monday we all went to see Brave. I feared the worst with Anna.  Thinking I would have to just stay outside the theater with her the whole time.  However, she did surprisingly well.  She mostly just wanted to walk around, and with they way the Alamo is set up, I could watch her do that without disturbing other viewers and still see the movie.  Another great Pixar movie.

Last week, Anna and Wyatt were having way to early of wake up calls.  I hate waking up in the morning after only 5 or 6 hours of sleep, which I seem to only be able to get now.  But these cute faces do help lessen the sleep-deprivation-sting :)

Last Thursday, we went to Wilson's Wild Animal Park with several moms and kids in the ward.  It was pretty cute.  There were lots of goats, llamas, and deer to feed.  Plus monkeys, pigs, cows, bison, and a lion to look at.  It so reminded me of We Bought a Zoo (great movie by the way).

Is it surprising that Wyatt found a stick that magically transformed into some wort of weapon?  Right here he was showing me how his bow and arrow shoots :)

Who do you think won the staring contest?

Piper and Jackson feeding the deer.

Aiden and Wyatt checking out a monkey.

Wyatt fiercely running like a lion!

. . .  and getting more pool time in.  Jackson was trying to make me laugh by "accidentally" walking right into the pool.  funny guy.

Jackson convinced me to get a couple of hula hoops at the store the other day.  So I challenged him to a hula hoop competition.  I smoked the competition! :)