Friday, July 16, 2010

Fourth of July, Visitors, and Randomness

Well, I don't have a ton to report, but Brice is camping with the scouts tonight so I'm lonely and bored and I thought I should put up some recent pictures of Landon (and family)--they change so much in the beginning! Most of the pictures that have been taken lately are on Gina's camera (I'll try to get some from her blog to post here and I'll get a whole batch from her the next chance I get).
Summers for us are filled with visitors from California. Everyone is dying to get out of that state, I guess. And here I am, dying to get IN!

Alaina's dancing in this picture--she dances to any music she hears--so cute!
So this summer, we had Brice's sister and her family come for a week or so, during which, Brice finished his Spring term at BYU and started his first break from school in about three years. Then we had a week of no visitors at the end of which Landon was born. Then our friend Andria came out with her three kids and we had a couple of fun, big gatherings with them and all the mutual friends we have out here (think about 10-12 adults and about the same number if kids--all under 8. The park was our friend!).

Alaina had a great time eating anything left unattended. If you wanted your food or your drink, you'd better have hung on to it!Brice's parents' visit overlapped with Andria's and they were here for a week or so. We went on several hikes, Brice's dad helped him on a shed he had to build, saw a couple of movies, and we went to Jumpin' Jacks (always a favorite for the kids. And Brice). The day they left, Brice's other sister arrived and spent about four days out here. They were at the end of a two week vacation and were pretty beat (and so were we), so we mostly hung out here at the house and let the kids play while we chatted or slept. They even took the kids to the movies so Brice and I could spend some time resting. That was so nice! They left yesterday and now Kari and Glen are coming out for the weekend! I'm particularly looking forward to our Sunday dinner plans with a few other friends too! So much fun! We took some family pictures the week before Landon was born. We all LOVE my parents' property! Beautiful!

My sister played around with Alaina and took a ton of pictures of her. They turned out SO cute! She was able to capture her little personality so well. There are a bunch more pictures, but these are what I got off of Gina's blog, so more to come from this batch later.
Gina got Russell and Landon matching 4th of July shirts, so we decided that we'd better come up with something fun to do for the holiday because they HAD to wear their shirts! So we planned a little get together and ate some yummy food and played with fireworks that Gina and Toby brought. SO fun! The boys had a blast playing with fire and us girls and the kids had fun watching the show.

Amazing what a difference three months makes...

Look at that! Three months old and walking already!! What a stud! Heehee!
Look at that handsome boy!
Tia (Gina) and Toby took the kids for a couple days and they had all kinds of fun! One thing they did was go to a splash pad in Highland. They had a blast! And look, they DO love each other!More of cute Alaina. I LOVE this smile!
Ooooh!! Could she GET any cuter!!!???


Granddad with the newbies.
As you can see, Landon sure thinned out since his birth! He's got his daddy's build: long torso, short little legs...
And big, wide man hands.
(A friend asked me yesterday upon meeting Landon how I felt about breastfeeding my husband--Landon looks just like him! She cracks me up!)

A few more of Alaina (no one with a camera can get enough of this little girl. Not me, not Gina. Even random strangers take her picture. Should I be worried?)

Cooling off? Yeah, I always lay in a puddle when I'm too hot too.


Playing on the tramp
And this pretty little girl (I love the bangs-free face! So beautiful! I really hope she'll quit cutting them and let them grow out!) spends all the time she can up in trees. This tree is at Grammie and Granddad's house and I think it's her favorite one to climb. I think she literally spent 3 hours in it yesterday.