Alpine Days

Two weeks ago we Celebrated Alpine Days.  I haven't been to Alpine Days in years. It took me back to simpler times,  that is for sure.  It was really great to have my Kids enjoy the festivities for the 1st time.  Alpine Days is a very small town Celebration, with a simple parade, talent show, and movies in the park.  It's always been rather quaint, and I think Alpine City tries very hard to keep it that way.  I can testify to that fact because it's been over 7 years since I have been able to attend and it still remains about the same.  It's nice, I remember going as a teenager and loved going to the lip sync concert, now a talent show, and the Saturday morning activities.  In high school I was in the parade playing in the Drum line for the Marching Band.  Good memories for the most part, minus the over 95 degrees and having to wear a polyester hot band uniform.  That's another story all together. 
The kids had a great time at the parade, you know it's a small town when most of the entries are from Ward primaries in the area.  My niece Julia is a parade pro when it comes to collecting all the candy they throw.  She leaves no candy behind, she really gets into collecting candy.  She showed my kids how it is done.  The kids ended up with two huge Costco bags full.  Nice advertising for Costco I might mention, clever, hand out bags to kids that need something to collect their candy.  The parade was filled with bands, floats and horses.  Oh and lots of CHEER Leaders,  Kate couldn't take her eyes off of them, she said mom I love the cheerleaders, oh no is all I can say, we might be in trouble, maybe it's just a phase.
After the parade they had all kinds of food booths, and jump houses for the kids to have fun on.  They had a main street park filled with jump houses, it was a little crazy, but they did have a section for kids 5 and under that wasn't so crowded.   We stay in that area and had some food for lunch on the park lawn and then headed home.

Later that evening we sat on my parents side yard and watch the fireworks go off in the park across the way.  My parents live right off the gully so we had a prime spot to watch the fireworks without having to deal with the massive crown at the park.  The fireworks were literally right in their backyard.  It was interesting what my sister and mom said, that once you seen the Alpine days fireworks it means it the end of summer.  It's the last summer fun to happen before the school year starts and all the summer vacations have ended.  It's true you get a sense of the summer ending.  I have to say it's a nice way to end the summer if you ask me.  So Alpine day, was a fun and we all had a very enjoyable time.

Splish Splash Summer Time Fun

The sun is so bright it's hard to smile without squinting

Mommy and Jane

Kate being her usual self, performing her shows and singing

Julia loving the water

Toddler pool park at AF Rec Center, nice butt shot eh right when I took a pic the lady bent over

Julia and Kate running threw fountains

Caleb going down his favorite slide

Caleb trying to avoid the splash

Aunt Amy holding Jane, enjoying the water

Grandma and the two oldest Grand Babies

Grandma and Jane look at Jane's rolls on her arms, to cute.

         
I found these pictures from last month and forgot to post about it.  We had a great time at the American Fork Rec Center pool.  They have all kinds of slides and buckets and fountains going off for the kids to play in.  Caleb really enjoyed going down one of the little slides they had.  He still doesn't like to get his head wet, he cried every time one of the big kids splashed him.  I do have to say, we did go again to the splash pad and Caleb finally started to really play in the water and with the fountains.  He is showing some improvements.  Kate and my niece Julia love swimming together and going on all the slides and running threw the squirting fountains at the rec center.   Jane even joined the fun, she was so relaxed she end up almost falling asleep.  Jane is constantly kicking her feet and trying to splash everyone.  It's been fun being able to visit all the different pools in the area, it's helped keep the heat at bay some days.  It was a great time and the kids really enjoyed themselves.  We just went last week again and poor Caleb, it was so hot in Aunt Kasey's Car so of his sunscreen melted off into his eyes, so we didn't have a great start, but he soon felt better and was splashing around as normal.  I was nice and relaxed after we got done, must have had some tight muscles, I along with every one else slept like baby that night.  I guess it wore us all out.

Gardening with Poppi

Kate is so excited to do a little gardening

Just Love this picture, so sweet.

We are all squinting because the sun is to bright.

Planting Green Beans

Poppi showing Kids how to plant the seeds

This entry is a little late, but fun to talk about.  A couple of months ago the kids Helped Grandpa or as they call him Poppi plant vegetables in his grow box.  They really enjoyed digging in the dirt and planting mainly the marigold flowers to help keep little critters out.  Since it has been a few months I am now able to post an after picture of how well the grow box it doing.  The deer around here get into everything, so some of the vegetable did not survive, but the kids marigolds did to funny.  The kids had an exciting time learning about gardening and all the things a plant need to grow.  Kate said we need sun, water and soil for the plant to grow.  She remembered from the first time I told her how things grow a couple of years ago.  So there is proof that she is listening even if she seems like she's not.  Caleb liked digging the best I think, he soon lost interest after that job was done, so sister took over and planted the seeds.  Kate liked planting the seeds the best anyways so it all worked out.  There is just something about planting your own food and watching it grow, there just something so satisfying about it.  We have only tried the lettuce in a salad so far and it's really tasty.  The Kids loved to go out and watch Poppi water the grow box and see how much there flowers have grown.  Kate a few weeks after they started to spout came and got me and said you need to see this mommy is a panic, I thought something was wrong she was so out of breath from running.  She pulled me over to the grow box and screamed "Look Mommy they are growing, the plants are growing!"  It's neat to see her excitement about gardening.

Jane is 8 Months old

Jane and her two bottom teeth, poor little girl and her runny nose.

So as you can tell I am a little behind on Jane's Monthly happenings.  She turned 8 months on the 1st and it's now what date, I don't even want to look.  Poor Jane, it's not been a great month for her.  She caught a really bad cold 2 weeks ago and it finally cleared up for maybe 3 days and then she caught some other nasty cold. So taking a picture of her without a runny nose has been near impossible, and you can tell by the pictures that she doesn't feel good because she isn't her smiley self.  So this months pictures are for documenting her size not her smile.  Jane growth wise is doing rather well.  She is wanting to be more mobile but hasn't figured out how to get her legs and arms to work for her and not against her.  She leans over with one knee looking like she might crawl and then blops down on her stomach and just winds up rolling around the floor to get around.  Jane loves the water and her bath especially.  She can be a light sleeper at times, but others she sleeps like a rock.  I can't figure that one out.  She now dislikes carrots and peas, it was all over once she tried sweet potatoes and corn.  She loves loves loves fruit.  She is struggling to want to drink water or juice out of a sippy cup or even a bottle for that matter.  So that probably explains the one extra feeding  during the day she is wanting more than my other two kids did.  We need to work on that.  She is learning Sign language.  We started with more, and all done, Jane seems to be getting the hand of it, needs more work though.  Jane is so easy going, she loves to just being content with what ever is going on.  She just sits in her seat, or someones lap and just seems to melt into their arms and sit back and relax.  She is very observant of those around her, she love to watch people.  She has the cutest smile and sometimes when you laugh at her she will laugh back at you without you having to tickle her to get her to laugh.  Her Hair is so out of control, it a fine, fuzzy, doesn't know where it's going hair.  I think it might stay brown the verdict is out whether it's going to be curly.  I think it will probably be straight.  Jane loves to sneak a smile at you when your not paying attention, it so cute, you catch her looking over at you with the biggest grin.  Jane still just  has her two bottom teeth and to many baby fat rolls to count.  I love her baby fat.  Jane really enjoys riding in the grocery cart all by herself. When I have an extra pair of hands with me we let Jane and Caleb sit in two different carts and they both get to ride on top.  Jane loves to roll and moves her toes and ankles in circles, I call her my little twinkle toes.  She has mastered every toy on the saucer and loves to play with Caleb's cars.  Jane is such a sweet, gentle easy going baby we love having her little spirit here with us.  I know this entry is kind of all over the place, I just wanted to list everything Jane is doing right now in no particular order.  We love you Jane !

Come What May & Love It

Sleepy Baby

I came down stairs and found Jane Like this, apparently Kate was singing and swaying Jane back and forth and she fell asleep in the saucer.  So cute, it looked very uncomfortable, she must have been super tired, because she is not one to fall asleep just anywhere.

Summer Splash-Amy's Work Party

Cool Dude, Caleb loving his new Ball Poppy won him!

Love the shades

Jane having a good time sitting with Gramma listening to music

Love that smile

Just couldn't get enough of this little guy with his shades and ball

Kate and her Rose Face Paint...Oh so cute

My sister Amy and Kate just arrive back from Craft tent

Amy and I trying to take are own picture, Amy laughing as the camera is about to fall

Ok, that's a little better picture

Kate and her Sand necklace

Last weekend my sister had her annual summer work party and she invited the kids my parents and I to go this year since we where here. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast! My sister works for 1-800-Contacts so when they do something they go all out. The theme was made to make you feel like you were on a Cruise with the different decks with different activities. It was held at Thanksgiving point Electric park. It was not off to a good start, it down poured rain for an hour and everyone was crammed into the pavilion trying to eat a very pricey buffet meal they provided. It wasn't mean for everyone to eat at the same time, but the rain kind of forced that to happen. I was a little worried because the kids were getting antsy and didn't want to sit at the table any longer. After is finally stopped raining we quickly before the crown noticed the rain had stopped went to some of the other decks or areas for the kids to play. They had a swimming pool area and bouncy house area. Kate loved riding the Huge, I mean HUGE Shark blowup slide.So wish I had gotten a picture of it. As she was coming down you could see a look a worry for a moment as the slide began to make her pick up speed. Then we played some carnival games and Poppy won a soccer ball for Caleb, you would have thought that it was the best prize in the whole wide world the way he played with it all night. Everyone got tickets to get treats too, you could either get a cookie, snow cone, curio, or drink. We had some many ticket we didn't even use them all because Amy's work gave some to Jane even though she is a baby and can't use anything. Kind of a waste of money if you ask me. We then went to sit and listen to Tonic Sofa an A Capella group, they were actually pretty good. They clam they have been on Letterman and got a Grammy for one of their songs. While we were watching that Amy took Kate around to the Craft tent and made Sand layered Necklaces for her and her brother. Kate also got to make a picture out of paint and it some how spins itself onto the page. After that Kate got her face painted. Amy said she went right up to the lady and told her I want a rose on my face. I don't know why she wanted that but she did, it was super cute. Kate had a great time in the craft tent with Amy. Then once the night was winding down they had a prize drawings for all the guests and employees. You had to be present to get the prize. They of course had the drawing at the end of the evening so you had to wait. Kate was a little sad because she put her name in to win a set of Disney Princess babies and she didn't win. We had to explain how a drawing works and how we don't always win, but it's fun to try. We didn't win anything, we had over 15 tickets in various prize boxes, it was kind of disappointing, but the end made up for it all. At the end they had an employee Grand Prize winner. The winner could win a cruise to Alaska, a fully loaded Mac computer or a 55 inch 3D LED Sam sung TV with Blu-Ray player a set of 3-3D glasses and a movie and oh yeah a box of popcorn. For some reason I had a feeling Amy might have a chance at this, so did my mom. They first announce what department they work in, which was call center and that is where she workds. We started to get a little excited and then.......They called out AMY MOTT oh my goodness, we screamed so loud, we couldn't help ourselves we kept chanting Go Amy and screaming everyone was looking at us but we so didn't care. The odds of her winning this was so slim, there were so many people there. Amy was in total sock she was shaking. She picked the TV package. I was so excited and happy for Amy, words can't seem to express it. She works so hard at her job and does such a good job doing it, she so deserved this. The best part was her birthday was the day before, and she sat down and said "Wow Happy Birthday to me, what a good present." Wow the whole family couldn't believe what just happen to Amy. After the prizes where done we got to watch some Hawaiian Dancers and Fire Dancers preform, while Amy claimed her prize. Kate loved the pretty head dresses the girls wore and Caleb really got into dancing along with the fire dancers. It was a late night for the kids but they really seem to enjoy themselves, as did I. Everyone was so excited that they didn't seem like they could go to sleep. The sock, surprise and sure awe of this huge TV sitting in the front room was just to much to take in. After we finally calmed down form the excitement we finally made it to bed. Congrats Amy, we are all so excited for you! It's been about a week or so and we finally got it set-up some may wonder why we waited so long. Well the size and overwhelming amount of cords and hook-ups to different various device simply put intimidated us. So yesterday we all had the attitude to just jump right in and figure this thing out. Boy was is so worth it. This TV is so impressive. It is so clear you feel like your in the room with the characters on the screen, it kind of a sure real experience. This for me is definitely a never go back moment, everyone else felt the same way. If you read in one of my past entries I talk about never go back moments if your not sure what I am trying to say. Kate woke up today and we put in the Chipmunk movie in to watch and she kept saying" Mommy Mommy it is so clear", even a 5 year old notice the difference, so you know it has to be impressive if Kate even sees it. I am trying to get a picture of Amy in front of her new TV put I haven't yet so I just took a picture of it to show. Wow is all I can say WOW!!!!