Mobile Moments July 2012

Enjoy the random, crazy, funny July pictures from my phone.
Anna and Nicholas like making trains with the bar stools.  Too bad you can't hear their train noises.

Anna loves to float in her pool.

Here are the Freedom Festival Fun Run shirts.  I guess a small is not small enough.

Here I am with Nicholas's shirt on.  No wonder they are too big for the kids.

Anna wanted to practice running before the race. She loves running on the treadmill.

There have been so many fires this summer.  One fire up in Alpine was really close to us.  Here are the pictures from my front porch and Anna's window.

Devin loves to read to the kids and they love it when he reads to them.  It is always a good time to snuggle up with Daddy and a good book.

Nicholas was all ready to go and run his first race.

I love this picture from the Freedom Run.  It says, "I love my brother, but I just haven't figured out how to hug him in a nice way."  Hug / headlock, they really aren't that different right?

We have had many people ask us why we bought a van when we only have two kids.  The reason is we somehow end up with extra people in our car all the time.  It is nice to have room for extra friends.  Here is one example of 3 cute little people that wanted to ride in our car one day.

Snaps to whoever can tell me where this chair is at.  I remember sitting in this chair when I was a kid.  I'm glad they haven't gotten rid of it.

Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin came down with Missy to drop her off at the airport.  Anna loved doing puzzles with Grandma.

Nicholas loved playing with Grandpa.

Anna had a really hard time saying good bye to Missy.  She was a train wreck.  She just cried and cried.  After Missy left she drew a picture to mail to her.  She wanted to draw a taxi car to bring Missy back.

Anna like to play with my old check book slips. ...Does anyone even use those anymore?

Because we have been playing outside so much,  Anna gets really tired.  I have been trying to bribe her to take "naps" or at least lay down and close her eyes for a while.  Sometimes I am lucky and she even falls asleep.  One day the bribe was finger paints.  Lay down for 30 minutes and you get to finger paint.  We both scored that day!

I am creating a little monster.  One day I came into the bathroom.  Anna said, "Mommy I am busy organizing my hair things.  I just can't take the mess anymore!" Oh, I think she has heard me say that one too many times.

The Baldwin kids still like to be swaddled.

We enjoyed lots of yummy peas from our garden.  Maybe next year we will have enough to freeze.

I am grateful that Anna and Nicholas like playing with the kitchen toys together.  They usually get along very well when they are playing kitchen.

My brother David's kids are always asking when they can sleep over at our house.  Marthe had Girl's Camp and David was taking Mark to Day Camp so we finally got to have Tommy, Spencer, and Sadie sleep over.  5 kids, that was an experience.  I was even brave enough to take them all to Discovery Park, BY MYSELF!   Snaps to any woman who has more than two children.  You are my hero!

Nicholas loves tools and he loves to help Devin build things.

Our cute little tomato plants are coming around.  They may be small, but we have some really healthy looking plants.  (They are MUCH bigger now.)  Thanks to Dr. Pam the Gardening Wizard for helping us with our garden.

Our neighbors asked us to water their flowers while they were out of town.  Anna and Nicholas loved playing on their amazing swing set each day.  Someday we will save up enough money to buy a cool swing set for our yard.

Anna and Nicholas love to help make breakfast.  Anna likes to shred the potatoes for hash browns and Nicholas likes to mix anything.

Each week my two friends help me do the grocery shopping.  This was a good moment when they were not trying to kick each other or push the other person out of the car.

Anna is getting really good at doing puzzles on her own.  She loves the big puzzles.

Talk about multi-tasking!  I guess this is one way to have Nicholas watch Devin shave.

Devin was nice and let Nicholas "drive" the car into the garage one day.

Anna has been fascinated with writing lately.  I found one of my old white boards and erasers and Anna has been in heaven.  It is such a fun way to practice writing letters and drawing.

My wonderful Aunt Leslie found some more Beatrix Potter books for Anna.  The pictures are amazing. The stories are so cute!

I wish I could remember what Anna was packed up and ready to do in this picture.  I am sure it was fun!

This is my new favorite picture of Nicholas.  I can't help but laugh every time I look at it.  Can you say, "Wedding Video!"

Ikea cups, plates, and bowls are not only the best deal for $2.  They are the best $2 toys ever!

Nicholas loves babies.  He is so sweet with them.

July was loads of fun, don't you think?

Outside!

We love playing outside.  When Nicholas wakes up from his nap the first three words are cracker, drink, and outside.
Anna and Nicholas have been enjoying our little pool.  They also like playing with their little watering cans.  You've got to love the $1 toys at Wal-mart.

I also picked up a little hopscotch type toy at Target for $5!  They love jumping in the little squares.

They also like drinking the water.

Anna and Nicholas both love to ride their bikes.  Nicholas has been figuring out how to ride Anna's scooter.   This is just a short clip of him riding.  I am really impressed at how good he is getting.

It is nice that is is starting to cool off a little.  We love playing outside, but not in the heat.  Kind of makes me wonder what we do all winter long when we can't play outside.

Idaho & Lyvi's Blessing

At the end of July we went up to Idaho for our new cute niece Lyvi's baby blessing.  Isn't she just super cute!

Nicholas did fantastic on the drive up.  Let me tell you how nice it is that he has finally learned to sleep for long periods of time in the car. 

Of course we stopped by Pam's house to see her AMAZING garden.  Anna had some good potato picking lessons.

Devin was able to give his tractor a hug and a kiss.  Someday we will figure a way to get it down here...and find somewhere to put it.

We went to our favorite Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner.  Funny how there is one 5 minutes from our house, but we only ever go to the ones in Idaho.  

Then we went up to spend the rest of the weekend with Kyle, Kat, and the girls.  Nicholas loved Lyvi's  little chair.  

Anna had fun playing outside with the girls in the pool and on the trampoline. 

It took some warming up to, but Anna really had a good time sliding down the slide into the pool.

Devin, Kyle, and Mahon played catch for a while. 

I had fun throwing and hitting the ball.  It was fun.  It has been a long time since I have played baseball.  I had a really good hit at the end that went all the way into the neighbor's field.  

It was so nice to spend time with the Baldwins.  We spent quite a bit of time playing Mastermind with Katie and Ashley.  Nicholas loved being outside.  Devin took him for a ride on the four wheeler and he loved it.

Hands down the best part was watching Anna and Kami play together. These two girls live way too far apart.  They have so much fun playing together.  I love this picture of them holding hands.  Too cute!

We let Anna sleep in Kami's room.  We knew that there might be some talking.  We knew they wouldn't go straight to bed.  But we had no idea the all night parties that would go on.  Even after playing all day they just kept going.  I think it was at least 10pm one night, maybe even later.  The first night after they finally fell asleep Devin looked in on them and they had both fallen asleep in Kami's bed.

Good times!  It is always good to see family.  I am glad that we always come away thinking how much we need to get up to Idaho more.  We sure love our family!