Goodnight....1 hour later

We are still having a hard time getting Mikayla to stay in her bed and fall asleep within a reasonable time. She will constantly get out of her bed and lately me and Craig have tried a new tactic---ignoring her (unless she enters Austin's room). In some ways this tactic has worked.....

Except it has left her falling asleep on the floor in her room...

Or on the floor in the hallway...

Someday she will figure it out (hopefully soon)!!

Visitors from Colorado

My sister and her family came from Colorado and spent a week here in Oklahoma...and we had lots of fun!!!

 

On the first night they were here Tyler came over and spent the night at our house (Austin's first sleep over). 

We spent lots of time at my parents house playing and hanging out in the backyard. 

My parents also decided to drain their swimming pool and after a little while Austin and Tyler were able to touch the bottom. Austin LOVED it!!!

 Austin, Tyler, Jeff, and my dad making a whirlpool while on their "boats".  

We also got to join in on the celecration as Rachel (my neice) turned 1 year old while she was here.

We had a great time going bowling!!!

Mikayla was scared about trying it....but as you can see she decided it was pretty fun!!

We also went to the Dewey County Fair (which is free!) and had lot of fun. They had a corn grinder for the kids to try which Tyler LOVED!! (even more than the animals I think).

Austin and Milaya however were in love with the water well. Milayla left the fair completely soaked and screeming after being dragged away from it.

Mikayla LOVED the kids barnyard.....she was running around from animal to animal talking and pointing at them all. There was pigs, donkeys, baby chickens hatching, goats, turtles, birds, etc....

The kids also saw cows, horses, and sheep.  We got to watch a sheep get a bath, a sheep get their wool shaved off, and the kids got to go in and pet the horses.

And they even got to ride one :)

It was a super fun day....HURRAY for the fair!!

 (and thanks to grandma for suggestion it)

On Saturday morning, September 11th, me and my sister ran in the Indian Summer 5K Run. It was lots of fun being able to run with my sister and I even beat my last run time...coming in at 29:01....we stayed around for the raffle drawing and they gave away some pretty cool stuff like T-shifts and gift certificates to restaurants etc.....and out of everything they gave away I won a gift certificate to a Tanning Salon (like I honestly have time for that :)......But what was neat about this run was the date Sept 11th....because 9 years ago on Sept 11th when those tragic events were occuring in New York I was running that morning with my BFF Katie in the Provo Canyon as we were training for the St. George Marathon. We were running 16 miles that day in the canyon and I listened to the events unfolding on my radio headset for several hours until making it back home to the television. I am sure that eveyone can well remember where they were that day when they heard what had happened.  

And after waiting all week for some warm sunny weather, we finally gave up and headed out to the splash pad anways.....and even though it wasn't very hot outside the kids still had a blast!!

So glad you guys came to visit.....wish we lived closer so we could hang out more often!!!



Enjoying the Outdoors

For Memorial Day weekend, we decided to head up to Independence, Kansas with some of our friends and do some camping. It was beautiful weather and the kids had a blast!!! It's amazing that once outside there's no need for toys to entertain because nature becomes the entertainer
As the tents were being set up and the fire started the kids had fun exploring "the dark forest" just down the hill from our campground. They found "swords" and fought the dragons .
We enjoyed a campfire dinner, exploring with flashlights, having smores, and looking up at the millions of stars that lit up the night sky. Our tent was a perfect fit for the four of us and the kids actually slept very well.
The next morning after breakfast we enjoyed taking the "hike" down to the water, skipping rocks, looking for frogs, and canoeing. The kids all wet and dirty and were loving it!!!
Unfortunately it had to come to an end and Austin got really upset because he was never able to catch a frog down at the water.However, later that night we found a grasshopper in our house that was very content to sit on Austin's hand. And he was super happy about that!!

Little Monster

Over the last week, Mikayla has only taken a nap 2 out of 7 days...that little (cute) monster!!! The transition from the crib to her bed has worked well but she has now also turned it into a game and finds it fun to climb out of her bed once we leave the room and find a toy or open and shut the door. And she usually does this over and over for at least a half hour (so frustrating).

One night after struggling with her at bedtime for over an hour and her not falling asleep until 10:00pm I decided her schedule had to change......so skipping the afternoon nap has made it easier to get her to bed at night. And part of me is sad because Austin is still very willing to take afternoon naps but because Mikayla doesn't I don't let Austin either......and those afternoon naps are so hard for me to let go of. I love having a couple hours in the afternoon to myself without any distractions so I can recoup and be a happy mommy the rest of the day........so now with this no napping thing I am afraid I will turn into a little mommy monster myself!!

Fun In The Sun

We spent a lot of time in the water this summer especially because it was a super hot summer and the only way you could enjoy being outside was if water was involved.

We spent many hot days at the little pool at my mom's house. They had lots of fun taking the water from the pool and pouring it in the flowers, in the trash can, or on our legs as we sat and watched them.

Kayla's slam dunk!! (she actually looks a little nervous in the picture--holding on for dear life)

Austin loved the root beer my mom made using dry ice.

Me and Kayla in Papa Dave's pool. Both Austin and Kayla had such a great time there jumping from the deck into the pool--over and over and over again!!

And the sprinkler is always great for a quick cool-down.

We loved going to the Splash Pad this year and we went there a lot and even had several playgroup lunches there with friends. The kids had so much fun together running around here together.

The "car wash" as Austin calls it.

I could always count on the splash pad to wear these kids out

(which made for some nice afternoon naps)

And we also loved going to the new Frontier Pool. The kiddie area was perfect.

And by the end of the summer Kayla brave enough to go on the "big slides" by herself.

So much fun!!