House Fire (don't worry it was't ours)

Our neighborhood experienced some drama today. Another house in our sub-division caught fire. (The first was last summer and it was hit by lightening.) Well, my friend had asked me to feed her pets while they were away, so I was right there when it all happened at around 3:45 p.m. I had just locked her front door, when I saw a guy just two houses down jump the home's back fence and start pounding on the front door screaming "Is any body home!" No answer, then he opened the front door and ran in. About that time I noticed that there was smoke coming up from the back of the house. I ran over to see if I could help and he tells me there is no one in the house and that he had already called 911 before he ran over. Apparently, the guy said the fire was coming out if the upstairs back bedroom and the bedroom door was locked. Since there was a car parked in the driveway we were glad no one was home. I ran to another neighbors house to see if they happened to have a phone number for the owners. The lady there knew someone who knew the people who lived in the house, but she couldn't get a hold of anyone. The fire department arrived just minutes later and quickly put the fire out. They still don't know the cause of the fire, but estimate that it caused $30, 000 or more in damage. I was impressed by the quick response of the fire department. Last year when the other house caught fire, it took them forever to respond which resulted the house to suffer a lot more damage. It is now all refurbished and no one would know now, but it is still scary when something like a house fire happens so close to our home. We are grateful that no one was hurt.

Anyway, aside from the fire and Jaxton catching a little cold and keeping me up two nights in a row this week everything else is going well. Jaxton is even feeling a bit better. Last night he even let me sleep more and tonight he is sleeping in his own bed. Well, it is time for me to get to bed, too. Good night...

Bananas & One Cute, but Messy Face

This last weekend we went to Bananas Fun Park. They have things like batting cages, arcade, bumper boats, mini race cars, mini-golf, laser-tag, and a jump and bounce play land. We originally we had planed on going back to Palisade for the Renaissance Festival, but decided we didn't want to pay the admission price. So, we took the kids to Bananas and paid for them to play on the jumping playground. Betty and her kids came too. The kids had so much fun, but it was hot and they only jumped for about 20 minutes before they were ready to do something else. I only got one picture before my batteries died. Anyway, Adam is back to work and working. I also got more pictures of Jaxton eating baby food. What a messy face! Oh, and he had learned to roll over now. He rolls onto his tummy and forgets he know how to roll on his back then he gets mad. He is also holding his own bottle which is so nice for me because I can lay him on the floor and he feeds himself. I can't believe that he is almost six months already.

Makayla's First Day of School

Makayla started school a week and a half ago. She loves it so far and the new school is great! Chipeta Elementary is also a 'green' school. The article below talks about the school. Makayla's teacher is Mrs. Masce (pronounced like may-cee) She is in the video clip towards the end of the video in the peach shirt. http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/27078879.html# On the first day of school they had what you could say was an opening ceremony assembly where they invited the parents to join their students to welcome everyone to the new school. One thing that was pretty neat was that they had Roland McCook who is the Great-Great Grandson of Chipeta speak a little about Chipeta and about the new school. The link below talks a little more about the school and features Roland McCook. http://www.krextv.com/videoplaylist.php?playid=3736
This link talks about who Chipeta was just in case anyone is interested.
http://www.museumoftheamericanwest.org/explore/exhibits/lodo/chipeta.htm


Makayla told me that so far her favorite subject is Math. She is not extremely fond of getting up early to go to school. She gets on the bus at 7:30a.m. and gets off the bus at 4:10p.m. Except on Wednesdays which is early release day. Before school the kids have reading classes and other activities which are supposed to help the kids learn better. They are also offering free breakfast to all students which is really nice. Anyway, that is basically all about the first day of school.

Suit Still "Stayin' Alive"...

(Switch on the music player to track #6 for this post)

Today, I dressed Austin in the little red suit that Adam wore when he was Austin's age. They were both so cute! Austin's Nursery leaders thought he was adorable in his little "retro" suit. Check his moves out!

Birthday, Bees, and the Peach Festival

Mt. Garfield

Austin, Mariana, Makayla, Eliza, Jessi, Kelsea

Me & Betty

Palisade had their annual Peach Festival yesterday, so we decided to go to celebrate my birthday. Our friend Betty and her kids came too. The whole bunch of us were excited to get to the park where the festivities were. We had to park and walk a little way to get there, but too far. Just after we crossed a small bridge next to the park Makayla sat on a large rock wanting me to take her picture. Within moments there was a swarm of bees all around Makayla. She started screaming as we hurried all the kids away from the bees. The bees followed us even after we had moved away from them. Eventually, we got them to go away, but not before Makayla was stung three times on her right pinkie finger, her right arm, and her left foot. Mariana (Betty's daughter) was stung once on her finger, but she didn't even cry. And a guy behind us was stung once on his hand. I don't think I have ever heard Makayla scream so loud before. A lady leaving gave us some ice as Adam worked on pulling the stingers out. They had a couple paramedics there so we took Makayla over to them just in case she had a bad reaction. Thankfully, she didn't and we were able to enjoy the festival. We had peaches, peach slushes, and a funnel cake which we split, and we looked at the booths that were set-up. The kids got to ride on some ponies that belonged to Betty's friend. And the kids also got to sit in a homemade kid tractor train although the owner wasn't doing rides anymore. We still took their pictures though. We were there for several hours and had a lot of fun. Just after we got home I met with Shelly, Shelly's mom, and Leslie and we went to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Shelly and I actually went to this movie last week and loved it so much that we decided to go to it again. We really liked it and now want to read the book series. Shelly also gave me a beautiful plant with purple flowers in a really pretty pot. Overall, I had a really great birthday being able to spend some time with my family and friends. (Could have done without the bees though)

Makayla's Lullabuy

Monday Morning Makayla sang Jaxton to sleep. So adorable!

Storm Video

Look at the Waves

Wild Storm & Pizza

Got to wash that pizza down somehow

Last Friday we had an interesting day. Adam was on days off so we spent the day together not really doing much, but we ordered pizza and watched this most spectacular display of Mother Nature. The storm started with a downpour of hail not falling straight down, but rather sideways. Then it turned to rain not slowing down in speed nor angle. Within five minutes we had a river in our street, waves and all. The last time we experienced a rain like that our apartment in Ogden was flooded. Anyway, I got some cool shots of the rain and the road. The actual storm only lasted about fifteen minutes total even though the thunder and lightening lingered another half-hour or so. Still talk about crazy weather! Oh, Jaxton really tried get me to give him a piece of pizza. He was watching us eat and getting mad because he didn't have his own. I finally gave him the crust from my pizza to suck on. He was so intent on that piece of crust. You would have thought he hadn't eaten anything in days. He was so upset when I took the soggy crust away that he was shaking. I don't think it will be difficult to transition him to real food. He reminded me of Makayla when she was six months old and she had her first piece of pizza. She did the same thing. So, our kids love pizza!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Finally, I have finished the first part of our vacation slideshow. It may take awhile before I get the other half finished. Anyway, we started our trip on July 19th and went to Spanish Fork, UT. We stopped and visited with G & G MacPherson. Then we went to SLC and spent the night. The next day after breakfast we went to the Hogle Zoo then to the Children's Discovery Museum at the Gateway. Both places were fun, however, my family really enjoyed the museum. We were there for about four hours. The kids would have stayed there all night. That night we went to Logan and stayed with Lacey & Dan. The next morning we went to Bear Lake swimming. There we found some friends that we know from when we lived in Ogden. After visiting for awhile we met-up with Aimee, Krystian, Sara, TD, Jadon, & Miley (Adam's family). It was so good to see all of them and meet the babies. Poor Jaxton had had enough by the time we got the three babies together for a picture. We spent another night in Logan an went to the first hour of church with Lacy & Dan. Then we headed to the family cabin for the rest of the trip. The pictures end with the windmills in Wyoming. There were actually about fifty or so. They were amazing! Anyway, more on the trip when the second part of the slideshow is finished.