My firecrackers

My girls sure keep me on my feet, literally! We only have a few pictures of the 4th of July. Steve has been working so much overtime and when he isn't working, he is at school or working on the basement. It was nice to have him home for a day. We raced up to our annual Tooele 4th of July parade. I love it. I love to see people I haven't seen in years and it is so fun.

It is always a fight between me and all the kids and this girl to see who can get the most candy.... I think I give them a run for their money...haha. We have enough candy to last us until Halloween for sure....we might even have to pass out the leftovers!

After the parade, there is a small community fun at the park with jump houses, games, food, and booths. Kiana loved the jump houses, of course, and she also talked Daddy into playing throw the ball for a fish. She did pretty good, getting a fish on her second toss. Daddy and Grandpa Mullins are suckers and also gave into Kiana getting 2 dwarf frogs and a carrier for them. She proudly named her fish Mama, and the frogs Baby Maide and Nana. Too bad Mama died and has already went to heaven via flush express.

We also visited home depot for the sales, got in a good nap, a BBQ from home, and went to see fireworks from the perfect spot at my parents house. You can see the Tooele fireworks, the Grantsville, and the Deseret Peak ones. It was beautiful, but we got eaten alive!

It was a nice, relaxing holiday that I was happy to share with my family!

Sea Monkey's!

Kiana and her cousin had a blast in this little pool, they looked like monkeys jumping and flipping off the slide! I could not stop laughing, they were so funny to watch.

Her cousins don't come over often, but we sure love it when they do! Kiana follows them around everywhere and cries when they leave.

She wasn't sure about getting spalshed in the face, but she was a good sport. She got to the point where she'd go down the slide upside down and be completely emerged in the water... a good laugh, I tell you!

I was amazed at how long they stayed out there. Thanks for coming boys and entertaining the girls!!

Biker Chick!

Kiana got a new, totally cool, purple bike as an early birthday present from her Grandpa Keith and Grandma Lene!! She has been so excited to ride it, and we went on a family walk a few weeks ago and Daddy helped her on the bike. She has a princess helmet and elbow and knee pads. You couldn't get more awesome than that!

She kept having troubles with pedaling backwards and then the bike would stop and she would need Daddy's help to get going again. She also fell off a few times and we had to coax her back on. She still needs lots of practice, it's just hard when I have to push Maile and Dad is always busy.

Kiana not wanting to get back on, it is kind of funny her explaining that she fell off...

And here is just a cute picture of the girls together.....they sure are beauties!

It's a fish, it's a submarine, no, it's just Kiana!

Kiana has just grown fins and loves being in the water. She recently completed her preschool swimming lessons and loved her teachers. She is so social and daring that she just went right in the water and did what they said, though she preferred the girl teachers to the boy teachers.

I think and hope she learned a lot and we had so much fun doing it. When they have swimming lessons, they also get free swimming passes for the 2 weeks. We would stay afterwith friends and have lunch there and just swim and enjoy the weather. We stayed almost everyday, sometimes for as much as 4 hours. We have been burnt to a crisp and now have rough alligator skin. There were some painful nights and a lot of aloe vera.

Maile has a float tube and spent most of her time doing this:
(swimming just wears you out and she'd fall asleep as the tube rocked her in the water)
or this:
(She's supposed to be sleeping, but kept peeking out!)

It has been a busy couple of weeks, but we had a lot of fun!! Thanks to all our friends who played with us and helped me with the girls.

Baby Maile is 1!!!

I can't belive that Maile is already 1!! It seems like she was born just yesterday.

She was a big shocker at almost 10 lbs. and was born c-section. We stayed in the hospital for 3 days and missed the 4th of July events. She has been such a happy girl, always with a BIG smile on her face. She is our smiley Maile! She sure puts up with a lot from her big sister, but they are the best of friends. We are so happy Maile was born into our family.

Baby Maile is getting so big. She has been walking for a few months, but now cruses all over the place. It sure makes keeping her in one place hard (like sitting in church, I'm ready for nursery). Her favorit foods are eggs and bananas (not together), but she loves most foods. She is a really good eater. It is also a whole lot easier putting her down for naps and bedtime than it ever was for Kiana. She does have to have her soft pink blanket though. I never knew she was attached to it until I put it in the washer to clean it, and she cried for two hours unable to sleep without it. She doesn't like being held much, so anytime I get cuddle time, I take it. She has slowly weened herself from nursing, except for one in the middle of the night, which she also stopped last week. It is sad for me that she is already so grown up, she doesn't need me as much as I feel Kiana did. She is very independent, and already likes to do things herself. Her and Kiana look very much alike, people have to take a double take when they see her thinking it is Kiana.

We had a Winnie the Pooh party, which of course got rained out (come on, it's July). We quickly made a change of plans to a local pavilion.

We celebrated with lots of family and friends and she was so spoiled, toys, books, clothes, and more! She really wouldn't dig into her cake like expected. We gave her her own cake, she would lightly touch the frosting, look disgusted and wipe her hands on the chair. I ended up cutting her a piece and giving her a fork, which she then knew what to do. She chowed down!

Happy Birthday Maile, We love you!!!

Father's Day is so close

Unfortunately, ours was kind of celebrated early. I wanted Kiana to help pick out the gifts, and I had some good ideas. We ran a few errands and then went to go get the Dad's day gift. I explained the importance of Father's Day, that it is Dad's special day, we think of him, and show him how much we love him. We also talked about how it was on Sunday after we went to church. That, of course, went over the 3 (almost 4) year olds head.
Whether it was the lack of desire to take her nap, or whether she was truely hurt, I will never know. We got home, layed Maile down and then Kiana. I always stay close unless she gets up. All of a sudden I hear Kiana's door open, running down the hall, and then Daddy's door open.
Yelling, which is normal, I tell Kiana to get back in bed. Innocently and with tear filled eyes, she exclaims, "But I didn't get to tell Dad Happy Birthday." Me, "Kiana, remember it's not Daddy's birthday, but soon it will be Father's Day and you can give him his presents."
"No, It's his birthday and I didn't tell him Happy Birthday!"
By this time Daddy was awake. Kiana ran over to him, hugged him and said, "Happy Birthday Daddy, I Love you!"
Needless to say, Daddy got his presents early. Hopefully he can put a new tool belt and bag to good use on our basement!!! (I put Father's Day to good use with double meaning, here's your present, now get to work!)

Tuckered Out

Right now we are between building two basements, my fathers and ours. When we go to my Dad's, we all go, and it takes an hour to get home. The girls were so tuckered out last night, I don't think we made it out of the culta-sac before they were asleep.

It sure was nice and quiet when we got home...I got to have alone time with my book!