July 2011 Update

Here is what we have been up to:


THE MONTH OF THE BARK

After tearing up 1/3 of our grass we decided we needing something to stop weeds from cropping up everywhere so we bought a bunch of weed barrier fabric and a truck load of bark to get us on our way.

That's a lot of bark! It took us several weeks of back breaking shoveling, hauling, and raking to get it all spread out.

Seeing our back yard looking so nice made it all worth it.

The kids loved spending so much time outside with mom and dad. Their favorite task was collecting and washing rocks to add to our dry stream bed. It still is one of their favorite places to play. We plan to add more plants to make it look more like a stream bed, but this is how far we've gotten for now.

Here's what the other side of the yard looks like. After he finishes the tile in the house Jared plans to build a shed to the right of this garden bed.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

After shoveling and dumping bark all day on the 2nd and 4th, we did not feel like braving the crowds to watch the parade so we suggested the kids have their own parade at home. I must say I enjoyed the parade much more than any other one I've ever seen (including the Macy's day Parade). The kids lined up every stuffed animal or doll that they had in a big long line. Abby got a scrap of weed barrier fabric and an empty roll and made herself a flag to wave. The kids had fun marching and playing their instruments.

With the exception of a pancake breakfast and the kids' parade we spent the rest of the day working on the yard. Then Jared and I started feeling bad that we were becoming like our parents doing work projects all the time even on a holiday, so after dinner we decided to celebrate with some fireworks and ice cream. The kids had fun throwing snaps while we waited for it to get dark, then we sat down for our firework show.

Since we live on a busy street we couldn't really do fireworks there, so Jared came up with this firework stand so we wouldn't have the fireworks too close to the house.

CUTE PICTURES OF THE KIDS

Just cause they're so cute.

The girls love wearing their matching dresses to church.

Nathan wanted to be in the picture too. He loves dressing up and wearing a tie like his daddy.

Jared bought a couple pairs of jeans from Costco that the girls decided to try on. They found that the belt made nice shoulder straps.

Nathan wanted his turn too.

PIONEER DAY

My mom gave me some of my old dresses from when I was a girl. The looked really old-fashioned and I thought they would make perfect pioneer dresses so I sewed Abby and Maddy some aprons and bonnets to go with them so they could dress up for pioneer day. Here they are trying out some saddles at the ward Pioneer Day breakfast.

Here they are pulling a handcart.

After the pioneer breakfast they changed clothes and set up a cookie stand as part of our yard sale. They sold all their cookies (except for the ones they ate) and most of their water and ended up with $18 in their toy fund.

SWIM LESSONS

This is the first year we've been able to put the kids in swim lessons.

Abby loves to swim and is quite the little fish. The teachers moved her up to the next level after her first two weeks.

Unfortunately this picture is quite typical of Maddy's swim lessons. She is quite shy and scared of putting her face in the water, but I'm sure she will do great once we do a little one on one and help her overcome her fears.


TILE

Lowes was having a flooring sale and the tile was real cheap so Jared decided to do some home improvement projects. Here is Jared pulling up some nasty linoleum and carpet that we had in our master bathroom.

Here he is setting the tile. This is his first time tiling but he did an amazing job teaching himself how to do it through books and YouTube videos.

Here it is all put together! He did an amazing job.

Here's a little video of Abby reading to Maddy.

Here is Abby attempting to jump off the diving board on her last day of swim lessons.

Here's a movie of the kids' 4th of July parade.