A birthday and Other Fun July Events

I was out of town on my actual birthday with the YW for Daughters of Faith Camp (for laurels)...freezing our buns off in the Uintahs. When I came home. Brett and the kids spoiled me with my favorite banana cake/cream cheese frosting! 

...and some awesome new shoes I've been wanting for a while... and a gift certificate to go to the spa. They definitely know how to treat a momma right! 

That evening was perfect... I loved sitting back and watching my favorite people play out in the yard. Emri is getting quite good at playing catch! 

 We've hit up the splash pad a couple times... one of my favorite FREE activities! Ike loves the slide and Emri has been such a big helper to make sure he's safe!

 Jet cruising down the slide

 This day at the splash pad was a special one since we got to meet up with some Ohio friends! Annie is now living close by and Heather got to squeeze us into her crazy schedule while she was visiting. 

 During my bday week I got to meet up with my high school besties for dinner... then dessert! The cherry on top of the perfect night was meeting Katie's little munchkin, Grace. Seriously such a pretty baby!! It makes me happy when Katie comes to town from Cali! I miss her like crazy! 

 I had 3 little workout buddies to join me in my exercises one morning that I didn't get up early enough to avoid them! Usually they are under my feet and my workout takes so long... this morning they were too cute and just wanted to join me! 

 I can't believe I talked Brett into this, but hey--I'm all about free food! haha! ChickFila had "dress like a cow night" and we all got free dinner! SCORE! 

 Check-up and cleanings with Dr. Daddy!! Ike went for his first little ride in the chair and let daddy count his teeth! This pic cracks me up!!

Mindy was in town with her kids so she, Ingrid, and I took the kiddos on a little hike here in East Layton on the Fernwood trail. The kids were having such a blast, but dark clouds were looming and lightening was flashing in the distance, so we made them all turn around and head back towards the cars. They were not happy with us. It turned out to be a good decision, as the rain started coming....and literally when we got into the parking lot near our cars it started a DOWNPOUR! I love how much these cousins love eachother! 

Ike @ 22 Months

This little guy is just too handsome for words! 

 He likes his new haircut... and can't keep his hands off the spikes! 

 He likes taking selfies with daddy

He spends a lot of his time on the counter top these days... Mom doesn't care because that's where I can at least get him to eat something! 

 After months of colds turning into ear infections... we went in for ear tubes surgery... he has no idea what we're waiting for here, although by the looks of it, he knows it might not be fun. Everything went great with surgery. He was in and out of there just long enough for mom to have a bathroom break and crack open and read one page of a magazine! So fast! He was SOOOO mad coming out of the anesthesia! I felt so bad, there was nothing I could do to console him. 

 Cute little buddy on a hike in the Uintahs. He loved getting his feet wet at any opportunity he could get! 

 Riding in the Ranger... he was so happy! 

 He's loving Summer activities! I'm thankful he has such a helpful big sis, so I can watch (dry) from the sides! Isn't his new head accessory too cute? He'll be sporting this for a while with the new tubes. 

 He loves when Daddy gives him a "squish face!" haha

At the family camp out with cousin Dex

 hangin' with the babies--ike, nora, and georgia.

 parade watching

 swimming when he clearly should be napping! 

At 22 Months, Ike:

• got his 11th tooth 07-01-29015 (#j)
• got his 12th tooth 07-05-2015 (#a)
• had his ear tubes surgery (June 17) after his 4th diagnosis of infections in about 3.5 months
• is starting to NOT sleep through the night when we are in places other than our home. UGH! He wakes up around 2 or 3 AM and refuse to go back to sleep...like until nap time the next day. Let's just say family trips have been anything but restful lately!
• makes a "slurp" noise to let us know he's thirsty! It's real funny in sacrament meeting at church when the congregation is silent and he's making a loud slurping noise while he waits for the sacrament water! 

4th of July Gathering

 Our Sunday best for 4th of July week!! Yep, I'm THAT mom that dressese us all matchy-matchy for the holidays! 

 Although our annual tradition is to have the 4th of July party/sleepout with the extended Anderton family, it was a bit different this year. With Gma and Gpa supposed to be on their mission, we as kids had just planned a small gathering as our "Summer Get-Together," just with Brett's siblings. Mindy and I were in charge of the plans. We had a Mexican dinner on the 3rd, then the usual Henefer 5K run, cooked breakfast, parade, games and swimming during the day. The babies couldn't wait for water, so they stripped down even before dinner! 

Over the years we've gotten a bit smarter and now most sleep in tents instead of under the stars, so when rain happens to stop by we don't all end up inside on the living room floor at 3am! The only problem this year was a damaged tent due to some fireworks mishap... thank goodness nobody was hurt. It was a wild 20 seconds! 

 Dex and Ike

Em and Jet watching fireworks in jammies...and staying up way late! 

The 4th of July runners! I was a lucky basket winner in the raffle!! woohoo! 

 This picture gives me mixed emotions. Mostly happy ones to see him with that big smile on his face, doing what he loves to do...serve his family. Although health conditions changed up their plans quite a bit, we were all thankful that everything went well and here he is a month after open-heart surgery and recovering ahead of schedule. 

Ready to walk to the parade in town

 Cousins getting their game plan ready for collecting as much candy as possible during the parade!

All the littles that went to the parade... and uncle Marty... who is also kinda little! 

 We did slip n slide races in the field...

 ...followed by a really fun game of water kickball! Each base was a kiddie pool full of water, then you had to slide down the slip n slide running down 3rd baseline to make it to home! We had so much fun! 

 Gma Sugar was able to watch the field games from the golf cart!

Pool time... must have been nap time! 

I love this tradition and am grateful to have married into a family that has so much fun spending time together!!