Fun in the Sun!

This summer, like last summer, we got passes to a pool that is pretty close to our house. I finally remembered to bring the camera yesterday to the pool. We like this pool because it is very kid friendly. Lizzy likes jumping off the side and climbing the poles on the umbrellas. Ali likes to play in the shallow end and enjoys eating the snacks we bring. Aiden loves to crawl around in the pool and thinks he can go everywhere. We are sad that the summer is coming to an end. This is the last week the pool is open so we will probably go everyday. Preschool starts next week. I can't wait! :)

Boating

For my birthday present my brother Michael took us boating on his boat. I took the kids so Shae could study for the MCAT. My mom and sisters came as well. We had a ton of fun. I tried wake boarding, surfing, and tubing. My brother Michael even got Lizzy up with him on the surf board. We stayed out all day and the girls weren't ready to come home yet. They really loved swimming in their life vests. I liked wake boarding and tubing. We want to go again soon!

ALL ABOUT SHAE

My wonderful husband Shae is turning 31 on August 12th!
Things you might and might not know about Shae:
He was born in Ohio
He is the oldest of 4 siblings
He has always liked his name
He played high school baseball, soccer and golf
He wears a size 11.5 to 12 shoe
He served a LDS mission to the Philippines
He likes to use a fork and a spoon to eat rice
He graduated from BYU in Exercise Science
He works in the operating room, assisting Surgeons
He is very competitive
He has good fashion and decorating sense
He will eat most vegetables if they are sauteed in butter
He does not like canned green beans
He loves to ski, especially telemark skiing
He loves Ebay
He has had many surgeries for his ankle, shoulder, tonsils, and forehead
He loves body pillows
He has a very high IQ
He has better than perfect vision
He is a hottie
He is a great father and husband

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAE! WE LOVE YOU!

AIDEN

Aiden is now 9 months old! Time is sure flying by. So Aiden now crawls all over the place. He likes to bear crawl a lot. He also pulls himself up to stand up. He follows his sisters around the house and can't wait until he can really play with them. Aiden is getting so many teeth in right now, I can't believe it! He will soon have 6 teeth, 3 on top and 3 on bottom. I think I might see 2 more that are about to break out. Even though Aiden is pretty miserable because his teeth and gums hurt, I am kind of glad that he is getting so many teeth right now because he has recently decided he no longer likes baby food and wants to eat what we are eating. He also likes feeding himself. So I try cut the food that we are eating up really small. I just hope he is getting enough calories. Luckily he still likes baby cereal. As 9 month old boys go, I guess Aiden is on the small end. He just had his 9 month appointment. He weighs 18 pounds now, which is only the 13th percentile. For height he is in the 25th percentile. The only thing that matters is that he is healthy. He loves to smile a lot and he still thinks his big sisters are hilarious.

Dinner in Provo Canyon

We have been trying to maximize our summer by going hiking more and enjoying the outdoors, so we decided to have dinner up in the canyon with our friends Gen and Ashton. Shae has known Ashton for many years, they grew up together in Ohio. We enjoy spending time with them, be it playing games or just hanging out. So we built a fire and roasted hot dogs. We also had yummy strawberries, chips, and ice cream. The girls loved the fire, watching the water, hiking, and getting super dirty. That was a fun outing!

The reason I haven't updated our blog........WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!!

So the past couple months have been a little crazy because we bought a house and moved in! It all happened so fast. Shae was always looking for a house off and on and he found one that looked promising on KSL.com. We hurried and made an appointment to go and look at it and a couple days later we put an offer in. They already had a couple of offers, but they liked us as a family the best and probably our offer the best. So it was accepted and we started the process of getting a loan to purchase the house. Luckily everything went pretty well. In our duplex that we were renting we were only on a month to month contract, so that was perfect. Our landlord found a new tenant quickly. So I hurried up and packed the whole apartment up and said goodbye to our old ward and moved. We still live in Orem and it is pretty close to our old place, but in a nicer neighborhood. So to tell you about our house, it was built in 1991. It has 5 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms. One of the rooms we use as a playroom. It has 2700 square feet. We love the big fenced in backyard! It has a new master bathroom, new hardwood floors in the kitchen and living room, new kitchen counters, and new fixtures. It has a sprinkler system and a two car garage. No work needs to be done on the house. We are excited to be here. Now we just need to save up some money to buy some more furniture to fill the house. We also love our new ward. Everyone has been really friendly and we have gotten quite a few treats from neighbors welcoming us. So along with a great house, the old owners left us a trampoline, patio set, tether ball pole, lawn mower, air hockey table, stainless steal refrigerator with ice and water on the door, and a flat screen television mounted in the master bedroom. All for free!!!!!!!! So we are excited to be here. We just got Comcast hooked up so I can now update our blog. We also got a home phone number, so call our cell phone and we will give you our home phone.
backyard

kitchen

playroom

First official family camping trip

Last weekend we went camping with our ward to a reservoir. We went because it was a free fishing day on Saturday. You didn't need a fishing license and some men in our ward were going to let everyone use their fishing boats and fishing gear to fish. So we headed up after Shae got off work on Friday. We got there about 8:30 pm and luckily enough it was light still to set up our tent. The other thing we noticed right away was how cold it was. It was freezing. We layered the kids as much as we could with all the clothes we brought for them. We made a couple smores and went to bed. I brought Aiden's car seat in the tent thinking that would be a good place for him to sleep. He woke up a couple times and I nursed him, but I could tell he didn't like his car seat. So I put him in my sleeping bag with me. As soon as I did that he was happy and slept the rest of the night. I think he was cold in his car seat. It was so cold and windy and it even snowed on us. You could see your breath in the air. As long as we stayed inside our sleeping bags we were warm. The girls slept through the night just fine. Shae tossed and turned a little because we forgot to bring pillows and he couldn't get comfortable. In the morning we didn't want to get out of our sleeping bags because it was so cold. The kids and I went in our car and turned the heat on full blast. We ate breakfast inside our car to stay warm while Shae put away our tent and sleeping bags. We then waited in the car until we could go out on the boat and try fishing. But it turns out that the fish weren't biting because they had a lot of minnows and fly to eat. (That is what the fishing experts told us). But we still decided to go for a small boat ride. We thought the girls would like it even though it was super cold. We bundled the kids up and Aiden had a warm quilt around him and we went on the boat. While we were on the boat it started to snow on us. We didn't go fast because it was so cold. Aiden actually fell asleep on the boat because he was warm and covered. All the rest of us were cold, but the girls didn't complain. The girls enjoyed the boat ride and enjoyed watching these birds that sit on the waters' surface and then dive down to catch fish. After the boat ride we left for home. On the way home a ton of sheep were on the road, blocking our way. We were home by 11:00 am. For our next camping trip hopefully it will be warm and we will be able to take some pictures instead of focusing on staying warm.