Charts

Caleb had a chore chart for the summer and he finally finished it! His chore included: making bed, cleaning room, putting shoes away, wiping fridge, clearing his plate and cup and putting toys away. His reward was a Rescue Robot, that makes it his 4th Rescue Robot and now he will have enough so when his play group comes over each boy can play with one. Caleb has wanted that for a long time.
We also started potty training for Brynn. I made her a chart, let her pick out stickers to put on it (she picked Disney princesses), and a Rapunzel toy for when she goes 20 times in the potty. So far things haven't been going well. She knows right after she has peed but she doesn't know the feeling yet of needing to go. The only times she goes on the potty are when I put her little toliet in front of the tv and have her sit on it while she watches. Hopefully she starts to get the hang of it soon.

Archery

 

We got Caleb a bow and arrow and he has loved playing with it! It's funny how even the small bow is still big for him. Derrick and Caleb go out in the evenings and shoot at three bails of straw we bought. At first Caleb's aim was everywhere but now he usually hits the hay and we don't have to go searching in the field behind our house to fetch the arrows. We started putting up paper targets and he can even hit those sometimes. We've only hit one neighborhood cat so far, so not too bad. Kidding!
I took a video of him and his face is so funny when he is pulling the arrow back:

Water and Song

The kids both got into the sprinkler one night and I just had to get some footage of it because it was so cute! They had fun and were freezing afterward. I only got video of Brynn because Caleb ran off with Derrick for a bit.

We've been wanting to get this on video for a long time. It is Brynn singing Ten Minutes Ago. You can't really hear her for the first 40 seconds because she is singing so quietly but then she gets really into it. Here's our little singer!

Story: We were at Ken Garff Ford having our tire looked at (had a staple in it). Caleb saw a mustang and said, "That's a really fast car." I told him, "Did you know that car is even faster than Daddy's!" (Caleb thinks Derrick's car is really fast). Caleb asked why it was faster. I told him because it had more cylinders. Caleb looked sad then firmly said, "I want it to have less cylinders so Daddy's car can win!" Derrick loved that.

San Diego Trip

Last week we got back from a trip to San Diego. We flew into the Long Beach airport (cheapest flights) and started off by going to my grandparent's house. We got to meet Jodie's dog for the first time and the kids had fun with her, especially Caleb.

One day we went to the beach. It was cold but we still had fun. Brynn loved playing in the sand more than anything. Caleb did too but he wore out faster than Brynn. James impressed us with his swim out to the buoy, about a quarter mile out, in the freezing water. Caleb and Brynn both rode on the boogie board in shallow water, Brynn actually did a wipe out and we wrapped her up in a towel quickly. 

One day Pop took Caleb to a fire station where Caleb got to see fire engines, inside and out! The cute story from this is when a firefighter asked Caleb if he wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up Caleb got defensive and said that he wanted to work at his daddy's work and work on computers. At the end they put a firefighter sticker badge on Caleb's shirt and Pop said Caleb was worried that the sticker was another thing sealing his fate as a firefighter. Derrick liked hearing that story :)

 
One day we went to the movies and saw Monster's University. Afterward we ate dinner at Souplantation. There was a man there making things out of balloons. Caleb got a sword and Brynn got a kitty. They both loved them. Brynn kept saying that she loved it and, "It's perfect."

Every night we were there Gram would lay in bed with the kids and read them stories. The kids looked forward to this everyday. They love books!

On Saturday we went to a play place called Jungle Gym and Cafe. It was so fun for the kids. They had bouncy houses, scooters, swings (this one in the video Brynn loved and she stayed in there for over a half hour at one point), a little hill with sit on scooters to ride down, an air hockey table (Caleb loved and was pretty good at), a mini airplane with steps up to it and two slides coming out of it, and these cool ride on animals where you push both feet down to get them to go. I would get a season pass if I lived in San Diego. Hopefully they stay in business so we can go again.

I was glad my mom took this picture because Brynn and I do this every so often. I'll play songs and we will both sing.We were doing Disney songs here. We also do primary songs and Ten Minutes Ago from Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (still need to get that one on camera).

On Sunday Andrew had his farewell talk for his mission to Jacksonville, FL, spanish speaking. I was able to play the musical number for sacrament meeting. Aunt Cynthia, Uncle Jim, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Richard and some of their family came. It was nice to have them there and it was nice for us to be there! We took some pictures after. Here's one of us siblings:

Overall, it was a good week. The kids also had fun going to the park and playing with all the toys Gram has kept from when we were little.
On Tuesday we drove back to Huntington Beach and spent the night there before going flying home the next day.
Funny stories from the trip:

• Gram came out after a shower with a towel on her head and Brynn asked, "Who are you?"
• Jenna slept in the family room so the kids would see her their when they got up. One morning when we sat Brynn down for breakfast Jenna was still laying down. Brynn prayed, "And bless that Jenna will wake up." She loves playing with Jenna.

Catch Up

Since I didn't blog last week, I should review. First off, I finished this dress for Brynn. I love it! It is a 3T and she is barely over 2 so it is a little big. She looks adorable!

4th of July we went to Cowabunga Bay and Derrick came with us for the first time. We couldn't believe it but it was actually less crowded than normal. We worked in the afternoon, then at night we went to Derrick's aunt and uncle's house in Orem. Where we talked with family, ate food and launched fireworks. The kids loved it!
On Friday we tried to go camping with Paul, Scott, Julianne, Lisa and Jenna but we heard about heavy rain that night. We still got the campsite in hopes things would look up. The kids, Jenna and I had a good afternoon walking a trail and playing by the water. We started some coals going for dinner just as Derrick got there. One minute later it started raining. Derrick brought a tarp and we tied it over our picnic table and sitting area. We were able to enjoy the hot dogs and smores. Brynn, Jenna and I left around 8:30. When the rain got harder everyone else left. Derrick and Caleb went to Paul and Lynne's house so they could still enjoy being somewhere different and eat breakfast together.

We are just enjoying the summer time. Caleb loves to ride his bike. Did I ever mention he can now ride a two wheeler without training wheels but he gets nervous and only does it when Derrick rides around with him. So, he sticks to his big wheel most of the time:

Brynn loves being outside too!

River Trip

Derrick was out with the scouts all week long on a river rafting trip down the Green River. It was hot but a good experience. Because it was a river rafting trip they had to get dropped off at the beginning and picked up at the end. I helped drive there and Paul helped drive back. Paul actually took Caleb with him because the drivers for coming home spent the night and we thought Caleb would enjoy camping. When Caleb saw Derrick for the first time with facial hair and sunglasses on he asked, "Are you my daddy?"
Brynn and I had fun running errands together for a girls night out. We returned a library book, went to the bank, filled the car with gas and shopped at Sam's Club, which ended with a four berry ice cream.
Brynn was so happy that night. At Sam's Club she pointed at a lady's dress and said, "I like it." I asked if she meant the dress and she said yes. I told the lady what Brynn said and I could tell it made the lady happy. She told Brynn she liked her shirt which made Brynn smile and grab her shirt. It was adorable!
We came home and Brynn drew with chalk. As I put her to bed I told her how much I loved spending time with her and that I thought she was a fun girl.

Snakes and Random

I love how Brynn says "school", I had to get a video of her singing!

 We were at Walmart last night and Brynn was playing with these two snakes. She was telling me it was a mommy and baby. I got my camera out in time to get a few cute lines:
Stories:

• Caleb said, "When I grow up I'm going to work at Daddy's work." A few days later he said, "Will I have scratchies on my face when I get bigger?" I told him he would, just like Daddy. Caleb said, "When I grow up, which computer will I work on at Daddy's work?" I told him we would find him one.
• Derrick has been teaching Brynn that Heavenly Father loves her and He gives her lots of things to make her happy. After a few of these lessons Brynn was listing off things to Derrick that Heavenly Father gave her. "He gave me my eyes, my nose, my hands, my hang nails." Oh funny girl.
• The last song playing in the car before we got out was "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. We got out in the middle of it and Brynn says with a little bit of a worried look on her face, "Finish the Baby song" (Baby you light up my world...). She loves her music.
• Brynn has also been loving me playing "Ten Minutes Ago" from Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella on the piano while we sing together. After a car ride without music, Brynn randomly sang out, "I have found him. He's an angel." So cute!
• For Father's Day Caleb did a great job singing with the primary. I was leading the music and only looked at Caleb a little bit of the time but Derrick told me when they were singing "The Dearest Names" Caleb looked right at him at the end and while singing the last words "I love you" he smiled and pointed straight to Derrick. Derrick admitted to a small tear in his eye.

Birthday, Swimming Lessons and More!

On Monday Caleb started swimming lessons. I found out that day they have a mommy and me class at the exact same time. After Brynn asking me that morning where her swim suit was while Caleb was getting his on I knew I had to sign her up too. They both love the classes. Brynn is the most compliant kid in the class. She does everything that is asked of her. She did not like putting her whole head in the water and almost cried the first time I put her under. Then later on in that class the teacher threw some rings. When Brynn walked over to get one she bent down to grab it not realizing she would be plunging her head into the water. She came up and started crying her eyes out. We tried to be happy and tell her she did a good job but she kept being timid that day. The next day she was fine and did everything again.

My birthday was on Wednesday. On Tuesday night Derrick and I went out to Tucanos, my first time there, and it was delicious! We love having Jenna here for the summer and being able to babysit! On Wednesday Derrick sent me flowers in the middle of the day and that night we had a BBQ at Utah Lake. Derrick had a Young Men activity that night at the lake so we all showed up a little early to eat. The kids loved playing by the water and walking on the dock. Brynn got attached to Jenna and wouldn't go with anyone but her on the docks.

Friday we went to a water park that we got a season pass to. The kids loved it. Caleb had his first getting lost experience. He wandered away while I was helping Brynn down a little slide. He walked away from the kid area and after searching for a while and realizing he wasn't there I started to look in a different place and saw a man holding a crying Caleb's hand. Caleb now knows he doesn't like to get lost.
Saturday we went to a Family Fun Day activity in Paul and Lynne's stake. Brynn enjoyed the kiddie pool filled with plastic fish where she caught a few. She also liked a kiddie pool filled with sand where they hunted for plastic bugs. She just sat there in the sand for a while just playing. The rest of the stuff was a little big for her. Caleb had fun on the bouncy houses and slides, a slip and slide and a rocket launcher. And of course, they both enjoyed seeing their grandparents and eating ice cream!

The kids love playing in the back yard. When it gets hot they love to go in the shade of our new little play slide and platform. This week Caleb even brought out snacks for him and Brynn to eat.

Park and Chore Chart

I always seem to pull my camera out at the park. Well, the kids are the happiest when outside.

Here Caleb was asking me to take a picture of him as "super boy" because we couldn't just let Brynn be the one with pictures taken of them. Not the greatest picture of Caleb, sorry.

This week we also started a chore chart for Caleb. When he gets through all his chores he gets a new Rescue Robot. It is cute that the reason he is excited about it is so that when his 2 friends come over there will be one Rescue Robot for each of them to play with (he currently has 2).

Amsterdam

Derrick and I had our first trip to Europe for a conference Derrick had for work. We went to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We left at 2pm on Sunday flying from Salt Lake to Denver to Iceland to Amsterdam. We got there around 12:30pm the next day (8 hour time change).
Driving from the airport to the hotel I was reminded of Seattle--wet and green. I loved all the trees! That first day was the only one we knew we had to do touristy things because we were unsure about Derrick's time the other days. We started off with the Rijks (rhymes with bikes) Museum. It had Rembrant paintings and objects from Amsterdam's golden age (1500's). There was an old library, muskets, furniture and paintings from other artists at that time.
We then headed to the Van Gogh museum. They had sketch books of Van Gogh and over 150 paintings. It was said that Van Gogh believed in hard work and practice. The museum showed his painting chronologically and I really felt like I could see his improvements. Here's a pic of Derrick at that museum (in the background is the Rijks Museum):

We found a place for dinner and we asked for water. The girl brought us four Heinekens and we said, "No, just water." She left and brought us two Heinekens. After trying to tell her again she brought us carbonated water. It was gross. That was the one annoying thing about Europe, no water anywhere! No drinking fountains, no glasses of water at restaurants. How do those people do that? Water is the most essential thing our bodies need. Crazy Europeans! So we always ended up paying at least 3 Euros for a bottle of water every time we ate out.
After dinner we took a canal boat tour. It was raining that whole day but luckily there was a glass roof on the boat. We learned that there are over 1700 bridges in Amsterdam and more canals than Venice. It was a beautiful way to see the city!

On our walk back to the hotel we saw this huge tree. Did I say how much I loved the trees there?

That night when we got to the hotel I laid down on the bed without getting ready for bed and fell right asleep. I didn't pray, I didn't brush my teeth, I just hit the bed and was out. I guess over a day with no sleep will do that to you.
Tuesday I went on a walk through the town while Derrick was at conference. I saw the flower markets and went to a cheese shop where they gave out samples. I ended up taking Derrick there later. We bought 60 Euro's worth of cheese, 10 Euros of chocolate and some stropwafels (chewy waffle crackers with carmel in the middle--Yum!).
That night for dinner we went to The Pancake Bakery. One of Amsterdam's common foods is a pancake, to us it is like a crepe--thin. I had a pancake with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. No time like vacation time for dinners like that :)

Wednesday I went to a ship museum and got to tour two old boats. The boats were awesome. I walked on every deck, including the cargo section at the bottom. It was like something from a movie. Then in the museum I learned about whaling, fishing, war at sea, trading, how cabin boys could move up to captains because of rampant sickness while out at sea and I even found a present for the kids in the gift shop (plaster of paris with fish molds and paint).

That night was a party for all the people at Derrick's conference. It was on the top level of a Radison Hotel that looked over the whole city. That was the most amazing view we got of the entire city.

In the back of the picture above you can see a white building, that was the ship museum I went to.
Thursday Derrick had a little time so we toured the Royal Palace. Ornate is the best word to describe it. So much detail in every part of the walls, ceiling, floor and furniture.

That night we toured the Anne Frank house. It was crazy that the place she hid in was just another one of the houses you saw all around you. We walked through the doorway that a bookcase hid to conceal them, we saw the actual diary and notebooks she wrote in. And of course saw the rooms where they hid. It was a neat place to visit.
Derrick's conference was at an this old church. It was literally held in the room with the dome you see pictured with a big organ inside and old rickety staircases.

 The whole city was just cool. Every building was old and beautiful. I thought it was crazy that Central Station, for trains, was in use. It is such a pretty building I thought it was crazy people were just walking in and out like it was just that, a train station.

Literally everywhere were beautiful sites: canals, buildings, trees, boats, old churches...I just loved it.

We flew out on Friday at 2pm, arrived back 10:30pm. It was a lot of traveling but so worth it. It was neat flying through Iceland too. There are no trees there. Zero. It looked like an interesting island to visit. We also flew over Greenland which really is ice. It was crazy to see nothing but what looked like iceburgs.
It was so nice to see the kids again Saturday morning. Paul was holding Brynn when I came out in the morning. I said her name and she just starred at me. I really don't think she recognized me at first. I took her in my arms and she just kept staring. Eventually she warmed up to me and fully remembered me. The crazy thing was, I didn't recognize her voice when she started talking, it took me a while to remember that. Now it seems normal again. Caleb was sweet and seemed happy to see us again.
They had a fun week with Grandma and Grandpa. Caleb had pre-school graduation. They went to the park everyday, the library, McDonalds, played with neighbor kids and just had fun!

Summer Lovin'

So, in this picture it looks like Brynn is crying but she was actually loving it. Caleb was so excited to get out our pool. Last year Brynn would stay in for a minute or two then want to get out. This year both kids played for over an hour. They kept saying, "It's a warm summer day." They were so happy to be out and playing.
I asked them to pose for a picture. Caleb came to the edge of the pool and smiled. I tried to get Brynn over but she wouldn't come. I finally pulled her over and she just started leaning into Caleb. They just love each other and I thought it was so cute:

SLC, Park and Song

Last Saturday we took Derrick's co-worker that is visiting from India to Salt Lake City. We went to City Creek Mall, the capital and out to a Thai place for lunch. This picture if at the capitol building. Oh, and the picture is from my phone. The quality is better than the camera I still can't find.

I snapped a few pictures at the park too. They turned out pretty cute. Oh

Paul took this video today with his cell phone. It is a little choppy but Brynn is so animated it doesn't need too much clarity. She loves singing this song and will go in circles like she starts to do at the end of this video. She will sing it over and over. Her favorite part is definitely, "Down came the rain and washed the spider out."

Stories

I have no idea where my camera is, hence the lack of posts lately. I thought I'd jot down a few stories though:

• Derrick was telling us that his work had a birthday cake for him and Alyssa. Caleb looked at Derrick and said, "Is that a girl?" We said yes. Caleb said, "Girls work?" Derrick and I both knew exactly why he thought that. To him, moms are at home and dads go to work. We explained that some girls aren't married yet and don't have kids to watch. We told him that Mommy cleaned teeth at the dentist's office before she had Caleb. Caleb said, "Then you had me. Then I watched you and you watched me." So sweet!
• We got Derrick a football for his birthday. The night before Derrick's birthday he mentioned at dinner that a football player applied for a job at his work (off topic: Steve Young was one of that guy's references--crazy!). Caleb leaned over and whispered, "We got Daddy a football for his birthday." Luckily Derrick didn't hear. Another thing, Caleb mentioned this morning that, "Mother's Day is tomorrow." I said, "Oh, are you making me a Mother's Day gift at Pre-school?" (Pre-school is tomorrow) He said very seriously, "I can't tell you." This little boy can keep secrets!