Our Last Days of Summer

This was our last week of summer. The girls are both excited for school to start. Jordyn starts on Tuesday. She is THRILLED that her teacher is going to be Miss Hunter. Tessa starts next Tuesday, but we're going Thursday this week to an open house.

Jason enjoyed some fun days hunting. He left early Saturday morning last week and came home Wednesday. One of the nights while he was gone the girls and I picked up some Purple Turtle and a DVD from the Redbox. When I was little my mom would always buy dinner when my dad was gone and we would have a "picnic dinner." That meant we got to eat dinner on a blanket in front of the TV. Mostly I remember Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music. This time, with my girls, we watched The Muppet's. Jordyn especially liked it. Tess just liked eating on the floor.

Thursday night I had to traffic school. Jason was later getting home than we had hoped so I had to take the kids with me for a little while. During the class Jordyn leaned over and asked me if I was over 21...they were talking about the point system..."Oh Yeah!" she yelled, clapping her hands. "You get 200 points!" It was really funny, and made all of the people around me laugh.

Jason picked the kids up and took them to watched Jake play football in Provo. They had a great time and when they got home we went on a walk. Here's Asher enjoying the stroller.

We let the girls ride their bikes. Tessa loved it and was really zooming around, but Jordyn just kept saying that she was too nervous.

Friday night we went to the football game at the high school. I love going. The cheering crowd, the night air, and the whining kids. So fun!

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to South Jordan. We found a place to take all of our Roosters. We said goodbye to Midnight, Kramer, and Dora. We also them gave Charlie the Chicken. She isn't growing very fast and she can fly pretty well. We just don't like her as much as our other birds. Is that mean? Are we chicken haters?

And finally, Asher is getting teeth. He has not been a very happy baby. The bottom two have cut through and we're just waiting on the top two. Today was his grumpiest day so far. We put him in the swing and one of the girls gave him Gammie Norah's back massage thing. He LOVED it. He just held it to his chest and let it buzz. It was pretty cute.

Tomorrow we're going to Seven Peaks. Then Tuesday is Jordyn's first day of school. It's so crazy how fast they grow. Then next week Tessa starts Preschool and Gymnastics and Jordyn is staring Broadway Bound. They are going to be two busy little girls!

Parade Videos

I took these videos at the parade on the 24th of July in Spanish Fork. I wish they weren't sideways. The first one is Houston, my nephew, but if you watch Jordyn she gets excited about something. The next one is Jordyn...shaking her groove thing. Super Funny!

Jordyn Sings

At the Hunter Family Reunion we went to a few weeks ago Jordyn had a great time watching all the girls take turns at the microphone. She got her courage up and decided to join in on the fun. I was so proud of her.

Growing Chickens

Did you know that I now have 13 chickens living in my back yard? THIRTEEN! We had 11 but 3 of them are roosters. So, Jason went and bought 2 more hens from a lady who lives near our house.

Here is Blue. She hurt her leg a few weeks ago and we've been nursing her back to health. She's walking again, with a limp, but seems to be on the mend.

Kramer is the one with the crazy, white hair. HE is a rooster. Behind him is Boots.

Here are our two new birds, Silver and Pepper. They are having a hard time adjusting to our bigger chickens. I guess that's where they get the term "pecking order."

This is Owl, or Bear. I can't tell them apart.

These two love their chickens!

Cutie Pie is our biggest bird, and behind her is Sunshine.

Susie is named after my Mom.

Jordyn has taken a real interest in Blue. She protects her from the other chickens and makes sure is right next to the water. It's cute.

The white one is Charlie the Chicken, the brown one is Bear, or Owl. That big, black beauty is Midnight, a rooster. He has started to crow, which is against the chicken rules in Pleasant Grove. We're trying to find a place for him to go. Jason says we're going to eat him. He is wrong. I can not eat my pet, that we've lovingly named.

Jordyn gathers eggs.

Tessa picks up feathers. Her face is filthy.

I didn't get a picture of Dora. We're pretty sure HE is a rooster too. So far I've had a lot of fun with these crazy birds, more so than I thought I would. I'm glad we decided to get them.

Turning Five

I asked Jordyn tonight, as she was getting tucked into bed, what her favorite thing was about being five. She said, "You get to do cool stuff and go to kindergarten." I can hardly believe she is five. FIVE! I've been a mom for five years. The night before her birthday I told her that the night before she was born we had just bought Taco Amigo when the hospital called and said we could come and have our baby girl. I was so nervous that night. I kept wondering if I would be a good mom, what she would look like, if she would be healthy, and if I would I love her enough. She certainly captured my heart right away. Jordyn was long and skinny and had cute hair that stuck up all over.

Her birthday was Thursday. In the morning we had our very last day of swimming. Jordyn passed preschool 2 and was so thrilled with herself. For lunch we went to chick-fil-a with the Halladay family. (Sue Sue, Julie, Heber, Houston, Harper, Kara, Leslie, Carter, Jaymie, Jaxon, Me, Tessa, Asher, and of course Jordyn.) We were going to go to Thanksgiving Point but it was too hot so we decided to go to Kangaroo Zoo. Hallie and Megan came too. All of the kids had a blast, and they were exhausted when we were done.

That night we had cake and ice cream in our back yard. The weather ended up being perfect. It was fun to have everyone over. The kids played and played...even the chickens were well behaved.

Houston (Julie and Jesse's little boy) and Hallie (Megan and Steven's little girl) are only 7 days apart. They followed each other around and enjoyed a squeeze-it together. I tried to teach them cheers....with no luck.

Jordyn got a FisherPrice IXL for her birthday. It has games and books, you can practice writing letters, and best of all....it has music on it. Jason downloaded some Taylor Swift songs for Jordyn. She LOVED it!

Jordyn was spoiled rotten. I asked her what her favorite gift was and she said the brush and headband that Hayden and Jake gave her. Silly Girl. She told me later that she also really loved her Dream Lites Pillow Pet from Sue Sue and Grandpa Day and her curlers from Nonie. She also got a game and money and gift cards and hair stuff and a pink towel and a cool doctor kit. Did I mention that she was spoiled rotten?

Asher loved the balloons!

Friday we went up to Strawberry with our awesome neighbors to their cabin. I of course, didn't take a single picture. We had another party for Jordyn with them. Kelly made Hawaiian Hay Stacks and we had cupcakes and there were more gifts. It was so fun! ((Mini shout out to the Houston family - we are so grateful for your friendship. We love you guys! Thanks for being so fun!!))

Tonight, Sunday, we played a game of Life. Jason says that one day, when they're older, we'll play and they will tell us that we're playing wrong....and we will have to tell them that this WAS the real way. All the other times we just made up rules to make the game go faster.

Lucky for us, we get to enjoy the made up rules for a while longer. We have good girls. They keep us going and make us smile. And Asher too!

HAPPY FIFTH BIRTHDAY JORDYN!

As The Days Fly By . . .

. . . I'm beginning to wonder what I'll do for entertainment when Jordyn goes to kindergarten. I'm not sad. Far from it actually. I'm so excited for her. She is going to love it. But she cracks me up so much these days. During the Hunter family reunion Nonie took a picture of her and she said, "Put that on my facebook." HA! What a kid.

We started a second round of swimming lessons and this time Heber is coming with us. Jordyn didn't pass Preschool 2 last time so she's taking it again. I decided to put Tessa in Preschool 1 again so she could be with Heber. They are loving it!

My sister, Julie, had her beautiful baby girl on Monday, July 30th. Her name is Harper Kay Harding. She has the cutest dark hair. I think she looks just like Julie and the girls are excited to have their first girl cousin on the Halladay side.

Asher found his tongue.

At the family reunion we had name tags. Tessa wouldn't show anyone her tag, she didn't want them to know her name.

Jordyn loved her clown face paint. Tessa pooped her pants 2 minutes after I took this picture.

On the way home from the reunion we drove the long way from Heber to Pleasant Grove. We went by Cascade Springs, through Little Deer Creek Camp Ground, and then down the Forest Lake road. It was a long drive. LONG. Asher did great. Jordyn and Tessa did pretty good, after the stopped touching each other.

Oh. And then this happened.

And Tessa wondered if we were ever going to make it to Sue Sue's house for dinner.

The girls went on an ABC hunt. That is where Jordyn writes letters in the dirt and Tessa has to guess what letter it is. It was fun for two letters...

I was really there. See. This was when I was happy, then there were too many bees so I started screaming about how I hated the wilderness and that my feet were dirty because I had flip flops on. Jason just laughed at me.

Tessa said, "Look Mom! The letter H."

After we finally made it to Sue Sue's house Asher got to meet sweet Miss Harper. Oh she's adorable!