July 2015

The first half of July was a fun one! Griffin was our sweet little helper as we de-junked the garage and did yard work. I love this kids smile! 

 Jaxson had his first ever sports camp. It was a multi-sport week long camp consisting of soccer, basketball, baseball, and football. He had so much fun if you can't tell from the photo.

 All the kids received medals at the end. I think Jaxson got the "respect" award.

 He was a sweet brother and asked if Avery could have one too. I love it when they play nice with each other.

 Ahhh this smile. I am so grateful he choose our family because he is the happiest little guy. I think he helps us all calm down and just be a bit happier because he is around. We love you Griffin!

 He is crawling/scooting all over the place. This was one of his favorite places to play and drool. You can always tell where Griffin has crawled because you will find a trail of drool marking his path.

 Griffin's fang teeth popped through this month. Now that this picture is a month old and his top middles are coming through, we actually thinking these might be his 2nd teeth and not the 3rd/fang teeth. Either way, he is still a cute little vampire baby.

 Now for the reason the 2nd half of July wasn't very fun. On Saturday July 18th, I went to play basketball with Ryan and some of the other men from the stake. I have been playing with them for a while now, but this will be my last. Towards the end of the last game, I jumped up for a rebound and was hit from the side by two younger guys fighting each other for the rebound. My legs got taken out from under me, and when I tried to land, my knee immediately dislocated. Painful!!  We rushed to the ER, took X-rays, and the verdict was am avulsion fracture with a partially torn ligament (shown in the MRI a few days later). Bummer ....

This was the lovely full immobilization brace I wore for a week. I stopped using the crutches on day 2 because they were slowing me down. 

 Swelling and bruising on day 1.

 It just kept getting more colorful throughout the week.

 Ryan showed one of these pictures to a guy he was working with, and his response was "I haven't ever seen that much bruising on someone who was alive!" Ha! It was quite colorful. I am glad to say that after 4.5 weeks, the bruising is basically non-existent. I still have swelling but am trying to get that down.

See ya later July, I am happy you are behind me - now onto rehabbing this knee and getting it bending again!

June-July 2015

I can't believe we are in the middle of summer already! We have been enjoying the AC inside when we aren't at the pool or playing in the sprinkler on the trampoline. We have been trying to teach the kids how to play without an ipad, tv, or Nintendo (gasp!). I guess when you grow up and those easy entertainment options are readily available, its harder to develop your imagination. Nonetheless, we are trying, so if you have any advice please feel free to share. 

One of Avery's new favorite things to do is to have tea parties. Our church doesn't start until 1pm on Sunday, so we have some time in the morning for such events. We set up her stuffed animals and gave them each a cup and snack, and Avery got dressed in her finest super hero shirt, pink tu-tu, crown, and jingle bell necklace. She definitely felt like a princess :) She even let me borrow a crown and some necklaces. 

Before church selfie.

Ahh this cutie is growing up too fast! This is him at 7 months.

Happy Canada Day! We celebrated with some yummy BBQ and red n' white parfaits. Hopefully one day we will get to spend Canada Day in Canada! 

July 4th weekend rolled around so we drove an hour north west to Fredricksberg, Texas. We enjoyed the small town parade and atmosphere.

You will notice I have been taking more selfies with my kids. I have come to the realization if I want to be documents in their lives and in our life through my photo taking, I need to be in some of the pictures.

I took about 20 photos trying to get him looking and holding the glad. This was the best I got - ha!

Poor little Griffin didn't like it when the SUPER LOUD police man and firetruck made their alarms go off right in front of us. I don't blame him, it scared me too!

This was the best part of the parade. A cowboy riding a longhorn cow. Texas is awesome.

Jaxson fell asleep on the way home from the parade. Avery "pretended" to be asleep for the photo.

Sprinkler fun on the 4th. We thought the pool would be super crowded so we opted for the trampoline instead. It is always a hit with these two!

Pot luck & fireworks at our friends house to found out the day.

This poor girl has had bad luck three years in a row on July 4th. She was handed a sparkler and decided to twirl it around - unfortunately she hit her neck and burned it pretty good.

This is a couple of days later - it is still healing to this day.

Last July 4th photo.  I thought it was cute how Avery took her glow stick wand to bed and fell asleep holding it like a real princess. 

Someone is learning how to eat more solids! Griffin loves eating food in this mesh bag (whoever thought of it is genius!). To date he has had frozen blue berries, frozen banana, and frozen peas - he loves them all.

Griffin loves sitting next to Jaxson. I don't know how Jaxson does it, but he can make Griffin laugh like no one else - it's darling to watch!

More selfies with my baby!

This green Izod shirt was Ryan's when he was a baby. I have some pictures of Jaxson wearing it 5 years ago, and now Griffin took his turn wearing. Such a cutie!

This kid loves his bathtime, and anytime really - he is our happy boy!

Avery got a little close on this one.

 I am trying to make it a goal to play more with my kids - so this week I jumped with them on the tramp with the sprinkler. I loved doing it as a kid, so it was fun revisiting that pastime.

 Jaxson has been doing a multi-sport camp this week at a nearby church. The sports include soccer, baseball, basketball, and football. He has been having a great time and has been loving the unlimited Gatorade :)

 They were playing sharks and minnows in this photo.  Can you guess which one Jaxson is?

 Tuesday was Cow appreciate day at Chic-fil-A. Even though it was super packed, their service was effecient and the food was great like always. Thats why we love Chic-fil-A!

 Avery loved the giant cow. She would start giggling every time he walked by.

ahhh all caught up and it feels so good :)