Finding JOY in the Journey

Hair do's

I have been having fun with Jessica's hair. She goes in waves where she will let me do her hair, and then for a few weeks she won't let me TOUCH it to wash it or comb it or anything. I still wash it of course, but she is not a happy camper about it. My sister came over and braided her hair and got her to hold still by telling her wild stories. I remember her making up stories when we were younger and I LOVED them. Anyway, It re-inspired me and several stories later... This is what you do if you have 1:00 church and have hours to keep her occupied before it starts. My mom made the girls matching dresses and then I made bows and bracelets to match. Didn't she do a great job? Some of these ideas have come off of a couple hair blogs including this one I've mention before and a blog about short hair.

And here is the back...

This was an inside-out braid. This story involved her favorites- Jack and the Beanstalk and the Giant and Kyler and Casen and Pyper and Jessica and Kelsi and Matt and Josh and Ben... Sometimes we add in Julia and Blake and Luke and Rachel and Ellie...

This hair do is a standard. I can use 6 different colors of elastics and it matches everything. I usually leave it in for an extra day or so. This particular day it had even survived swimming. She has 3 more elastics on the other side. This has been GREAT for growing out her bangs.

We're still working on Kelsi's hair...

And I thought Jessica was bald. This is Jessica just over one year old.

And this is Jessica at just over 14 months. Look at all that hair! I guess good things come to those who wait. :)

We still love our bald beauty, though. She is such a delight. I really want to catch her mischievous grin and camera, though... I thought her lip was cute in this picture. And she is definetly starting to get more hair.

Birthdays!

The Month from June 30-July 31st is crazy in my family for birthdays. It starts with Kelsi on the 30th, Matt and Jen and Chad on the 2nd of July, then Casen on the 12th, Luke somewhere around then, Jessica on the 29th and Pyper on July 31st, and I am sure I missed someone else. Here are some pictures from Jessica's and Pyper's Birthdays. That doesn't even include August with Julia and both of my Grandmas.

On Jessica's Birthday I decided the thing Jessica would love the very most would be to go to Grandma Nettie's house and go swimming. Not only that, but Grandma made her a cake that Jessica got to help decorate! She turned 3, but if you ask her how old she is, she says that she is 2 and turns 3 in July. She is in denial. I thought that didn't start until you were older.

Grandma Nettie gave the girls a dollhouse. It looks like they are sharing so nicely in the picture. We'll let you think that. :) It came in the mail hence the packing peanuts all over the floor.

Here we are are Liberty park for Jessica's and Pyper's birthday opening presents. That is Kyler looking on. Jessica adores her cousins. Kyler and Casen can do no wrong.

My mom (Grandma Bear) made the girls fabulous tutus.

They proceeded to turn everyone into animals. Here Grandpa was just turned into a monkey

As you can see from the top picture, the girls are the best of friends.

Bricks and Wolves

Jessica has a fixation with wolves. She both loves them and is afraid of them. She loves all nursery rhyme stories that include wolves and made-up wolf stories, especially ones about Jessica wolves and Kelsi wolves. Tonight as she was going to bed she said that she was scared of the fish, tigers and wolves. I explained to her how lucky we are that we live in a brick house- she has a cinderblock wall in her room. Cinderblocks come in handy sometimes. :) Tonight as she said her prayers she said "thank you that my wall is made of bricks" and again "thank you that our house is made of bricks." She was really sweet as she was going to bed.

Me

So my Aunt pointed out to me that there are no pictures of me on my blog so she could not point me out to her husband. Here are a few random pictures of me.

This first picture is with my lovely nieces Pyper, Jessica (okay- my daughter), and Julia on the 4th of July.

The next weekend we went up to Rexburg, ID for a family reunion and my Great-Uncle Melvin took us on a 3 hour horse ride through the sand dunes. You can kind of see them in the background. The ride was awesome and a perfect length.

While Jen was visiting (DJ's sister) we went to Seven Peaks and had a blast. We borrowed that floatie thing from Jen for Jessica and it was SOOOOO nice.

Here is a picture of me with Kelsi at the Hogle zoo. We live within minutes and have a membership which is a lot of fun and a lifesaver in the winter.

Happy 4th of July

Most of these pictures ae pretty self explanatory. I love her expression of delight.

Jessica and Pyper with DJ

Not all went well all of the time

Watching the fireworks in front of the house. From the left cousins Blake, Casen, Kyler, Julia, Jessica and Pyper.

Kelsi looking festive

Imagination

A couple of days ago Jessica decided that she wanted to hop like a bunny. I tucked a washcloth in her pants and cut paper ears and attached them with a barrette. That night I was walking home from watering our garden and someone was moving and had just put a bunch of toys and books beside the dumpster. I picked out some books and found these ears! Today she decided to be a bunny again. She makes a cute bunny, huh.

Just before the bunny episode, I asked what she wanted for lunch and she said "Flowers with worms in it." Who knows where she got that from, but I decided to do it just for the fun of it. She actually ate a pretty healthy lunch. The worms were a couple of pieced of spaghetti mixed in with a few monster cookie crumbs. The "leaves and stems" were lettuce and green beans that we had just picked out of our garden. Apparently she likes raw green beans. She ate them all the way home. (We are in an apartment complex and they have garden plots, but you have to walk to them). The "flowers" were apples and ham with a bit of pepperoni with a grape and cheese for centers.

We just got back from a family reunion in Rexburg, ID where my Great Uncle Melvin has a ranch with lots of horses on it. If you have ever seen the Americanas in a parade (black horses, american flags, Roman riders), he trains them. Jes has loved horses since she could talk, but she was always too afraid to get on one. This is her first time and she hasn't stopped talking about it since.

Happy Birthday Kelsi

Kelsi is officially 1 year old! Here are a few pictures from her birthday a couple weeks ago. In typical one-year old fashion, she has taken up walking! Her approach was so different than Jessica's. I have on video Jes trying and trying and trying (and squeeling as she tried) to walk. Kelsi just did it. It has been hard to get any attempts on video because she stands up, walks a few steps, sits down and continues playing. I'm always amazed how quickly she learns a new skill because she just does it. This week she has really picked up walking and has gotten quite good. Today she was making the cutest babbling noises. She is so fun. She is actually a very different person when her older sister is not around.

Eating her birthday cupcake.

I got this great (and easy) idea off the frosting bottle.

More please!

Playing with her birthday present. Jes has really taken to this toy and any time Kelsi tries to play with it Jessica says "No Kelsi! It's not your birthday today!"

Jessica!

Jessica has been a busy girl this month-both having fun and getting into trouble!

We went on a camping trip with my family in June. It went pretty well minus the first night. Kelsi WOULD NOT sleep. All she wanted to do was nurse all night long and whenever I pulled her off while she was asleep, she would wake up and cry and cry and cry. Usually that would just be really annoying, but with tents and campsites all around us... Not to mention my nephew who woke up SCREAMING with night terrors--twice. It was a rough night for all. Kelsi started crying again at 5:30am and she and I finally packed up and left when it got somewhat light and slept at my sister's house (15 mintues away) from 6:00-10:15. Anyway, she woke up happy for the rest of the trip- the next night was uneventful. We had a great trip. We were all pretty tuckered, though. This was Jes in the car on the way home.

Jes wanted to go swimming so I heard drawers opening in her room and didn't think much of it until I went in a bit later... She never did find her swimming suit.

She has picked up a lovely habit this month of dumping bottles of stuff out. This particular time it was a bottle of dish soap. Here she is cleaning it up.

Sweet little girl- We love her even if she can be a handful.

Potty Training

Jessica and her cousin Pyper have been potty training and both are doing really well. We had tried a few times with Jes over the past few months and they didn't take, but this time we are thinking it will. They are both doing great. It is a lot more fun for them to be doing it together and they encourage each other. Plus, they love visiting the treasure chest together.