The Rest of July 2013

If I'm ever going to get this blog caught up I'm going to just have to do some giant picture dump posts to summarize July and August, so here we go...

When we got back from our epic road trip we jumped right into swimming lessons. I took all 3 kids every day, for 2 weeks, by myself, at the height of 1st trimester yuckiness. (Giving myself a big pat on the back for that one ;)

Getting them ready, in the car, to their lessons, dried off, changed, bathed and dressed again, wiped my tired pregnant self out! So that was pretty much my big accomplishment each day for those 2 weeks, and not much else got done :)

The kids did amazing though and absolutely LOVED taking lessons.

By the end of the 2 weeks both girls were swimming independently across the whole pool and Teya could even jump off the diving board in the deep end. 

Yay for swim lessons!

Another big fun adventure in July was getting to go to Girls Camp for a week as our ward Girls Camp director.

The awesome Geneva ward girls (minus the YCL's) getting ready to head out to camp!

We camped at Wesley Woods conference center on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. It was a gorgeous setting with great facilities.

Me and our Young Women's president, Nikki, stayed the whole week, and our other counselor Julie got to come up twice to help out. Love these ladies!

I especially loved spending time with and getting to know the amazing young women. Being around their energetic little personalities was such a high for me!

Aren't they adorable? Seriously!

 Our whole ward on Bishop's night

 Had to do a silly pic too ;)

 One of the highlights of Girls Camp was having my sister Naomi, who is in the same stake as us, come up and dance the hula with me for all the girls. I haven't danced in YEARS but being up there with my sister gave me confidence and we ended up having an awesome time!

Someone took this picture of me while I was dancing and I thought it looked pretty legit ;) So fun getting back to my dancing roots!

That night I was also able to give a fireside talk to all the girls about Self Esteem and the confidence that comes from knowing we are daughters of God. It was such an uplifting and spiritual experience and afterwards so many girls came up to me with tears in their eyes, hugging me and thanking me, saying I spoke the exact words and messages they needed to hear. I know Heavenly Father helped me and guided me as I prepared that talk and I just felt so grateful that I was able to share the message He wanted them to hear. 

Being at camp was one of the most wonderful experiences of my summer. I am so grateful to Taber for supporting me in being there and holding down the fort while I was gone. 

He wasn't able to take the whole week off work so a couple of my friends watched the kids during the day, then Taber would pick them up after work and do the single Dad thing during the dinner and the nighttime routine.  

 The kids had a blast with daddy, S'mores one night...

And a super fun outing to a kids carnival place on the day he took off work.  Pretty sure they didn't miss me at all!

 And finally at the end of July the kids had the cutest little Pioneer activity with the Primary to celebrate Pioneer Day. I was babysitting Brooklyn and Lily that weekend so the girls got to bring their cousins which made it extra fun.

They dressed in Pioneer clothes...

 Played Pioneer games...

Did the stick pull...

Made Homemade butter and ate it on biscuits...

And even did a mini "Pioneer Trek" pulling their wagons while they sang primary songs.

 It was an awesome activity and a great way to end a very fun and very month!

Next up...August!! 

Grandma Uda's first visit to Chicago

Back in September my mom flew out to visit us and see our place for the first time since we moved to Chicago. 

The kids were elated to have her here.

The first thing they wanted her to do was make her special fudge! For the 2 weeks leading up to my mom's visit, the girls told everyone they knew that Grandma was coming, and she was going to make her famous fudge. It was amazing as always and made all our dreams come true :)

 The girls loved having Grandma all to themselves to sit and color with them.

 And do manis and pedis in 8 different colors with them.

She even let them wear fancy bright pink lipstick. They were on cloud nine.

While she was here we built a fire and cooked S'mores in the backyard.

One night Naomi came up and the three of us went out to a fancy dinner for a girls night out.

We also met up with Naomi and Kevin to feed the ducks and play at the park.

Cute cousins feeding the ducks

Grandma Uda and all her Chicago grandkids

 Weeeee! Grandma is so fun!

Lily and Uncle Kevin soaring on the swings.

Cousins in a tree

 Cam loved the park because there was plenty of room for him and Monty to run around, chase the geese, and just be wild and free. 

Later in the week we took Grandma to the Zoo. We went on a weekday so there were no crowds and the weather was perfect!

 We also had the unique experience of witnessing a boa constrictor devour a white rabbit. It was slightly disturbing but fascinating at the same time. Teya was totally into it but as soon as Brinley figured out what was going on she was having nothing to do with it. Poor bunny.

 Other highlights were walks to the school play ground

 Lunch at steak and shake

 And Grandma being able to come to the girls primary program.

 We had so much fun with Grandma in town and are so grateful she could make the trip out! We love you Grandma!! Thanks for the memories!

Brinley's 5th Birthday! July 2013

Our big girl Brinley turned 5 years old in July!

On her actual birthday Daddy came home with a birthday crown, a birthday badge, and a beautiful butterfly birthday balloon. She was soooo happy! (until Cam ripped the balloon out of her hands and took off like a criminal...little stinker!)

 She wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so we made it together (because this little lady loves to bake!) and she thought it was the most beautiful cake ever.

 We had a little family party and our neighbors Jess and Henry came over to help us eat the cake, (and were kind enough to take a pic with all of us in it.) Cam was too interested in the cake to look at the camera. (Also Brinley and I kind of have matching smiles in this pic. Love my little mini me :)

Cam blew her candles out on the cake Grandma Karen made her at Yellowstone, So this time Brinley made sure to strong arm him during the b-day song so it wouldn't happen again.

 Even as she was blowing out the candles, she still had that arm out blocking the wild man. It worked! And she was very happy.

A week later we had her friend party. She wanted a butterfly theme so we grabbed her some wings at the party store and wa-lah! Butterfly party!

She pranced all around in her wings and was as happy as can be.

 I kept the party really simple. Store bought cupcakes, water balloons and goodie bags. 

 We had the kids decorate butterfly wands when they arrived. 

Then we blasted some music and they had a butterfly wand dance party.

 After that we went outside for a water balloon toss, which lasted about 5 minutes thanks to Cam who ran around stealing everyone's balloons and popping them. Good thing he's so cute...

 Then they jumped on the trampoline with the sprinklers. Easiest party ever!

For dinner we had mac and cheese and grapes at the request of the b-day girl.

Then it was cupcake time.

And present time. 

 After presents they opened up their goodie bags and put on their butterfly tattoos and Sunglasses. 

 Then we passed out butterfly nets, took one last pic, and said goodbye to our friends. It was a great low key easy party and our little birthday girl had a blast. Love our little Brinley Grace and am so grateful to have such a ray of sunshine in our home.