Ancestors

Lately, I've really gotten excited about learning more about my ancestors. I've visited my grandma to try to get her to tell me stories, I've spent hours exploring my family tree on the familysearch.org website, I've taken the kids to pioneer villages to see how our early ancestors lived, and I was even assigned to give a talk in church about family history, which led me to do lots of research about the importance of family history in general.

So I was pretty thrilled last week, when my grandma told me about a small cabin-turned-museum in a nearby town that had once been the home of her grandfather. Monday just happened to be one of the few days of the year that it's open for tours, so we loaded up the kids to go see where their great-great-great grandfather had lived.

Here's my good ol' great-great grandpa, Ezekiel:

The kids ran and ran back and forth through those two doors. Brian pointed out how crazy parents must have gone back then, living in a ONE-ROOM house with energetic little ones. Yikes!

What a blessing to find such a big piece of my personal history so close to where we're living. 

June memories

I take tons of pictures on my phone that don't necessarily need a whole blog post written about them. But these are the little things that make up our lives and I don't want to forget all the little memories that prompted me to pull out my camera. So get ready for a picture overload. Here are some little things from June . . .

 Rooftop Concert, sporting the free t-shirts Provo City gives away at the event each month. They are a huge hit and we love them more than anyone because these kids' daddy designed them all.

Here he is, giving his shirts away at the booth. I love when I'm out around town and I see people at grocery stores, museums, etc. wearing his shirts. He's a pretty awesome designer, if you ask me.

The books the kids choose from the library each week go into the car seat pockets for the kids to read whenever we drive anywhere. I think it's one of my more genius ideas. It gets them more reading time AND it keeps me from losing library books and paying late fees. Win, win.

 Dance Party in the Trunk. While I cleaned & vacuumed out the car one day, Porter and Lucy wanted to play in the back. Porter turned music on with my phone and they seriously danced back there for over 20 minutes. Apparently, Porter took some funny videos and snapped a few pictures too. This is the least blurry photo he took.

Lucy took off her pants before we left the house. Mommy didn't realize till we were already out. Oops.

Failed attempt at snapping a photo to send to Grandma. But I'm including it because this shows our life. I feel like we're constantly running errands. My kids spend way too much time in grocery carts. 

 First swim of the season. Cutest swimmers in the world.

I bought the beach towel and swimsuit at separate times. I did not plan for them to match. I guess I just really like navy stripes. 

Provo Temple. Awkward Selfie. Rare pic of the two of us together. 

 Porter & Lucy helping Grandma plant flowers in Great-Grandma's flowerpots.

Touring Grandma's old elementary school (now a museum).

 We actually went because of the quilt show taking place at her old elementary school (museum). This was a classroom. My mom explained that the little door on the left was a garbage chute that took their trash down to the basement. Convenient? Dangerous? I don't care. I want one.

 Porter found his favorite quilt. Everything is awesome.

Brian surprised me one day with a fancy, new picnic basket. He told me he thought I would like it because it seemed Anne-of-Green-Gables-ish. Was he ever right! Of course, we had to pack it full of pb&j sandwiches and sparkling lemonade and go try it out. Perfect evening!

 Lucy, being cute. As usual.

Lucy loves babies so much, she often tries to act like one. Actually, this is probably because she likes swings so much . . . and bouncing. Either way, I'm not sure how much longer this thing will survive if she keeps doing this. But she loves it so much, it's hard to say no.

Porter sleeps with 3 stuffed animals every night. Hop, Rockwell, and Big-Head-Bear. It's a pretty crowded bed. And every morning, he comes into our bedroom carrying all three. He drops them on my floor or on my bed. It drives me crazy that I have to pick those up and put them back in his room every day. But I love how stinkin' cute he is with his arms full of stuffed animals every morning.

this girl is two! . . . a month ago

Last month, this little girl doubled her age. I finally got her birthday post up on her journal blog. I'll just share a few highlights here . . .

We strayed from traditional cake & ice cream and had BYU mint brownies and BYU sparkle sherbet for her dessert. She refused to get messy last year . . . we had no problems with that this year!

I love traditions. And we have more than a few of those for birthdays. On Lucy's first birthday, all of her pink balloons got loose and floated into the sky just before her party. Porter cried and cried and still talks about the sad day when all the balloons floated away. This year, we made it a tradition by sending them off on purpose. But when we went back into the house, we found Porter hoarding 4-5 balloons in a corner! Poor kid. Some of our traditions may be a little traumatizing, I suppose.

A few things about you at this stage . . . {from Lucy's journal blog}

• weight: 27 lbs (65th percentile)
• height: 36" (96th percentile)
• at your 2-year check-up, you screamed and sobbed when the nurse took your temperature and measured your height but didn't even flinch when you got a shot
• you have the cutest, sweetest voice I've ever heard
• you can recognize the color pink
• you are a picky, picky eater
• you LOVE to dance 
• your favorite bedtime lullaby is "Twinkle, Twinkle," you call it "Toink, Toink"
• you sleep from 7:30pm-7:30am and you nap around 1:00-4:00pm
• you like to sleep on your tummy
• you put yourself in time-out when you do something wrong
• you like to snuggle
• you love to jump
• you want to be held all the time
• sometimes you go off by yourself and play quietly or read books on your own
• you are a perfect little mommy to your dollies- you feed them, give them naps, and take them on walks
• you love being outside
• you don't like to watch television
• you can say prayers all by yourself
• nicknames: Loose Goose, Lucy Goosey, Sweetsie Lou, Lucilia Gracious, Sweetheart, Lula Bell, Lucy Lou Who, Sweetie Pie, Sweets (we use nicknames a lot around here!)
• you love to wear jewelry
• you love friends and like to say hi to everyone (except when you're feeling shy)
• you always say "thanks" when you get something
• you say "helpful" when you're being helpful
• you climb on everything- you are fearless on playground equipment and stubborn about climbing into your carseat or onto the changing table all by yourself
• you love doggies
• you often refer to yourself in the third-person, and you call yourself "see" (the last syllable of lucy)
• when you want to go outside, you always ask "see side?" (see for lucy, side for outside), and mommy and daddy always make a joke about you going to the seaside instead, we think we're pretty funny
• you love to wear sunglasses and you call them "eyes" . . . "see's eyes"