Catching Up! June 2012

I'm on a roll!  I can do it!  And I won't get behind again!  (Yeah, right...)

Above: Kicking off June with a bridal shower for our soon-to-be (and as I write this, current) Aunt Robin.  If you can't tell, it was SUPER hot that day and everyone was melting from exhaustion.  It is a very rare thing to see Peter just sit in a chair like that.  And while Jonathan is a cuddly guy, he isn't usually that lifeless when he is sitting on his Aunt Emily's lap!

Above: Even Thomas who has never-ending energy was sapped of his energy.  Thomas and Aunt Laurie came to town for a lengthy trip for Uncle Sean and Aunt Robin's wedding.

Above: Oh, he's so cute!  I love the socks and diaper look.  He is again doing his "this is what the bunny says" expression.

Above: Peter giving his mom some rare cuddle time.  I love it!  I'll take whatever I can get!

Above: It's okay.  I'm alright.  Let's see if any damage was done to the car.

Above: Hey wait!  You left before we swapped insurance!

Above: Thomas loves to play with his big boy cousin, Peter!  Thomas can play with the best of the big boys! Watch that little guy push Peter on that lawnmower toy!

Above: Jonathan is very forgiving.  He let Thomas get into his car for a ride home after the "accident."  And he even let Thomas drive!  :)

Above: We LOVE Aunt Emily!

Above: Cousin time is the BEST!

Above: Just jammin' together.

Above: Aunt Laurie and Cousin Thomas came over for a sleepover party while they were in town.  It was pretty much the best thing ever!

Above: We also went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point while Aunt Laurie and Cousin Thomas were in town.

Above: The baby goats were sooooo cute!

Above: The Three Musketeers!

Above: The kids got to ride the ponies.  Jonathan didn't like it too much.  He had to get off and hold Mommy before the ponies even started moving.

Above: Thomas was much more open to the idea of riding ponies.  He had a great time.  But he did start getting nervous towards the end and he too had to make an early exit.

Above: Pete's the winner!  He made it through the whole pony ride!

Above: Oh no!  My sweet Pete in prison!  He doesn't seem any worse off for his situation though.

Above: Jonathan, on the other hand, tends to get claustrophobic in closed in areas (like his Mom).  So, he couldn't stay in the prison.  Poor guy.  He really DID have a great time at Farm Country.  I guess I'm not doing the best job of showing the happy pictures! 

Above: Oooooh!  Bunnies!

Above: Those bunnies were pretty cute!

Above: Enjoying the wagon ride!  So much to see!

Above: I love my mommy!  

Above: Awwwww.

Above: Good times!

Above: Look at those sweet brothers together!

Above: I don't know, I just think Jonathan's body looks so cute here!

Above: Things just got EVEN better!  More cousins!  Maddie and McKinlie got into town for Uncle Sean and Aunt Robin's wedding!

Above: Time to go back to Driver's Ed!

Above: Can you tell why he's smiling?  Look at the bottom of the picture and you'll see his binky.  That boy loves his pacifier!

Above: I like to call this picture "The Stride."

Above: Cousins having a great time playing together at Grandpa's house during Uncle Sean's and Aunt Robin's wedding dinner.

Above: "Angel, are you doing alright?  Is there anything we can do to help?"

Above: "Hey, this is a great book!" (hint: it's the Bible)

Above: Look at that cute Thomas.  He will climb on anything and everything.

Above: Me and my friend, Angel.

Above: Sweet Kinlie and the angel.

Above: "You've got to be kidding me!  You mean I can eat this too?  It's called mint?  This is the greatest day ever."

Above: Beaming Sean and Robin at their wedding dinner the night before their wedding.

Above: Waiting for the happy couple to get out of the temple.

Above: Pretty Maddie and her Nammy.

Above: Here they are!

Above: What a happy couple!

Above: Beautiful Mackay girls!  Shandie, Maddie, and Kinlie.  And have you ever seen a cuter pregnant gal than Shandie?  No fair!

Above: Cute and delicious wedding cake!

Above: Cute and delicious groom's cake!

Above: My beautiful sister, Emily, posing for me.  We had a mini photo shoot.  :)

Above: Jonathan with a fry in his mouth.  Thanks for sharing your food with me, Grandpa Niel!

Above: I love my Grandpa Mackay!

Above: I love my Grandpa Niel!

Above: Peter got into another container of Vaseline (just like he had back in January).  Thank goodness he wasn't as extreme this time.  But what is with this guy and getting into things that aren't water soluble and that make a huge mess?

Above: Getting into Mom's cookbooks is just about the greatest thing ever!

Above: But it's not as great as chasing each other!  Brothers are the BEST!

Above: This is our first trip to our community pool here at Suncrest.  Peter had a blast and LOVED it!

Above: I had a long day and opted not to swim...but that was a mistake because Jonathan needed to cuddle his Mommy.  I think if I had my swimsuit that day, Jonathan might have stayed in the water longer.  We tried to put him in at the beginning and he got soooo sad.  So, I got to hold him, cuddle him, and spend some quality time with him.

Above: As time went on, Jonathan got a little more comfortable and was almost ready to get back in the water.  He didn't really do it that day because we had to leave, but the next time we went, he had a great time and never feared the water again.

Above: After going swimming, we had a pretend camp out in our living room.

Above: Jonathan hiked to the top of a toy box.

Above: Peter scaled Mt. Daddy

Above: Batman vigilantly keeping watch over the city.

Above: Jonathan is so sweet in the morning!  We rarely get to cuddle him in bed.  But when we do, we enjoy every minute of it (and snap a picture when we can!).

Above: We went to the zoo with my Dad while he was in town for the wedding.

Above: Peter loves his cousin Ethan!  They had a great time together!

Above: Grandpa and Jonathan were old pals instantly.

Above: I don't know what it is, but the kids all LOVE that tiger sculpture at the zoo.

Above: We end up getting a picture there every time we go!

Above: I love my Grandpa!

Above: I don't know if you can see this or not, but can you notice the orange tint to this picture?  This is the beginning of fire season.  There was a fire the evening before (I forget where) and the smoke covered the sun and made an orange glow the entire day.

Above: My camera couldn't really capture it.  But here is the sun glowing an intense orange behind a cloud with a lot of smoke and dust particles mixed into it.

Above: It reminded me of The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis.  The two main character children in that book travel to another world that is a much older world than ours and it has an older sun that is close to the end of its life.  The sun in this world is larger than ours and glows a dull orange instead of yellow.  I honestly felt like I had stepped into that world while the sun was transformed by the ash of the fire that day.

Above: I know this isn't that great of a picture.  But it tells a story.  At Jonathan's 15 month appointment, he really wasn't talking very much.  Our pediatrician challenged me to practice words with him more often (which I did with Pete when he was faced with the same situation and it did absolutely nothing for him--because he's stubborn and he simply wasn't ready to talk yet).  While we were blowing bubbles, Jonathan suddenly said "bubble!"  Which was news to me because he hadn't said much besides "Mama" and "Dada" up to that point.  I used that and ran with it.  I figured that any words with similar sounds and consonants would be the easiest for him.  And before we knew it, he was saying new words all over the place.  Banana, bear, baby, ball, mama, dada, papa, mimi, nammy, cracker, etc. are now just a few of the words in his repertoire.  Once he got going, he picked it up fast!  He loves to try new words all the time now.  He sure is sweet.

Above: Playing in Nammy's mini pool/boat race.

Above: And getting WET.  This is why I always bring a change of clothes as well as a pair of pajamas when we go to Nammy's house!

Above: This is the BEST!  Nammy's the best too!

Above: "I wonder what would happen if I just dunked my head into this soapy, bubbly water?"

Above: Nammy came to the rescue and quickly wiped the soap off of my face.

Above: Wheeee!

Above: More water fun.

Above: Sweet smiles!

Above: Argh!  It be Pirate Pete to celebrate Half-o-ween at Nammy's house.  So, it wasn't technically the half-way point between Halloween.  We watched an i-Carly episode and they celebrated Half-o-ween.  Peter got excited and decided he wanted to as well.  I had plans to do something much more low-key...and then Nammy and I started planning more and more!  So, we decided on the idea in early May, but didn't actually schedule it until June.

Above: Also, Peter was initially supposed to wear his dinosaur costume from last Halloween.  Jonathan couldn't wear his because he is now too tall for it and it doesn't fit very well anymore.  So, I decided that I would put Jonathan in the pirate costume that I got for Peter when he was almost 2.  At the time, Peter HATED it and absolutely refused to wear it.  I now know the secret to getting Peter to wear something he doesn't wants to wear.  I simply tell him that it is for Jonathan to wear and he can't wear it.  That's what I told Peter when he spied this costume.  Jonathan needed some cuddling on the couch and while I was holding Jonathan, I heard Peter scuffling behind us.  I KNEW he was putting on that pirate costume.  I kept telling him that it wouldn't fit and that Jonathan would be wearing it and not Peter.  But Peter kept at it.  Then, the next thing I know, Peter pops in front of me, as pleased as pie, wearing the pirate costume that Jonathan was supposed to wear and it actually still fit Peter!  So, Peter wore the pirate costume that he should have worn when he was almost 2 and Jonathan wore the pirate PJ's that Peter wore that Halloween in place of the actual costume.  I think it turned out best for everyone.  Jonathan wouldn't have wanted to wear that costume anyway.  He was much more comfortable in the PJ's.  And Peter fell in love with the costume and continued to wear it on and off for a few weeks after our Half-o-ween party!

Above: Sweet Kinlie dressed up as Tinkerbell.  Here, she's giving Cinderella (her sister, Maddie) a break by helping with the household chores.  That Lady Tremaine can be a slave driver!

Above: Cinderella gets a little more time off her feet as she is read a story by her Aunt Emily (who said she could either be an angel or a Greek goddess...your choice).

Above: My mom "dressed up" as a Russian.  :)

Above: We love our Aunt Emily!

Above: Arrrrr!  I want things my way!  Even if ye don't always understand what I want my way to be!

Above: Pirate Pete is always up for a fight.

Above: We had lots of yummy and spooky Halloween treats to choose from!

Above: Trick-or-Treat!  Yup, we even went trick-or-treating.  We trick-or-treated at the play house, the side door and the front door.  And then we repeated.  Over and over again until all the candy was passed out!

Above: Then we played some Halloween games.  We played a game to see who could get wrapped up with a roll of toilet paper like a mummy the fastest and who could break free before the other person.  Peter won the first round against Maddie.  The kids got out of their Halloween costumes at this point because it was a boiling hot day!  Everyone had rosy cheeks and was drinking a ton because it was so hot.  We decided that there is a very good reason that Halloween is in the fall.  It is a lot more fun to dress up in heavy/bulky costumes when it's nippy outside!

Above: Maddie wasn't up for a second round, but Peter was.  So, he competed against Uncle Sean.

Above: Peter is pretty much the cutest, most rosy-cheeked mummy you will ever find.  He won the round against Uncle Sean too.  But in all fairness to Sean, there was a lot less surface area to wrap up on Peter so it was a lot faster to wrap him than Sean.  :)

Above: I love my sweet Pirate Johnny!  What a sweet guy!

Above: Pirate Pete and Cinderella Maddie always have a great time with each other.  They are the best of cousins!  Good friends!  Arrrrr!

Above: Enjoying our Half-o-Ween feast.  Yum!

Above: Arrrrr!  What ye be lookin' at?

Above: Having more fun cousin time.  They love to copy one another.  Nammy was reading them a book and they were both laughing and laughing.  One of them would start laughing and the other would join in simply so they could laugh together.  Maddie kept covering her mouth while she laughed.  Peter NEVER does that...but he did it here, simply because his beloved cousin Maddie was doing it.  They sure are cute together!

Above: Beating the heat with some water balloons on our trampoline!  Fun!

Above: It was a lot of fun to bounce over the balloons and to run around them.

Above: This guy loves to laugh!

Whew!  June was a lot busier than May was.  There was a lot to do in relation to Sean and Robin's wedding.  It was busy, but we did a lot of fun things too.  We had lots of fun family time...and time with the family is the best!