I'm a big girl now!

So apparently now that princess is almost two, in less than 24 hours :-( she thinks she is big enough to do things all by herself, or as she likes to put it "Do it by Ella's self" in addition to flipping out when I don't have time to let her try and get herself dressed, which takes several minutes, she informed me tonight, with her princess attitude that "Ella brush own teeth, Mommy!" Not only did she yank the toothbrush out of my hand, she did it with a don't you dare try and stop me look on her face. I thought I was the only one around this house that knew how to pull that look! She wouldn't even let me touch her toothbrush, I tried to help her at the end to make sure she had gotten all of her teeth. This backfired. Princess Ella has mastered the art of throwing temper tantrums, and she proceeded to throw one. Since I have dealt with one too many tantrums from my beautiful princess today, I decided to let her have her way. It's a good thing she is so cute!

That's the "Ha Ha I got my own way" look.

Baseball with daddy

Jax: "Hey Dad! Do you wanna come play baseball with me? I even found my glove and my ball from last year when I played T-ball!"
Nick: "Of course I do buddy!" (like he could refuse the sweet look Jax had on his face)
Jax: "Ok Daddy! Lets go outside! Hey Dad, what hand do I put my glove on?
Nick: "On your left hand big guy."
Jax: "Uh...Mom, Daddy said to put my glove on my left hand...is dat right mom?"
Me: "If that's what dad says then it's right, daddy used to play baseball when he was younger."
Jax: (shrugs) Ok mom. Daddy are you ready to come outside with me and play? Mommy I think you better come and watch dis cuz it will be pretty cool."

Could he be any cuter!?! Doubt it.

Swimming update

Jax has been taking swimming lessons since the beginning of the summer and he is doing great! When the lessons first started he was a little apprehensive about putting his face in the water...actually that might be an understatement...he REFUSED to do it! He was afraid, and as his Grandma Bonnie puts it, he is like a little old man, he over-thinks everything! He started practicing in the bathtub and pretty soon he would put a very small part of his face in the water at swim lessons. I decided to make him a deal, there was a "bumblebee" shooting arm (Transformers for those of you who aren't as in to that movie as we are around this house) that he wanted really bad. I told him that if he would start putting his whole head under the water without plugging his nose, then I would take him to the store and buy it for him. Last week Jax decided he couldn't wait for this toy any longer so, he put his whole head under the water, without plugging his nose, and figured out that it's a lot of fun to swim under water! He was so proud of himself! As soon as swim lessons got over I took him straight to the store for his well-deserved toy! Today in the pool he was like a little fish! His daddy and I are so proud of him for being such a big boy!

Nick and I decided to have the swim teacher start working with Ella for a few minutes in the pool. I wasn't sure how she would feel about getting in the pool with the swim teacher, but she jumped right in and started kicking her feet as fast as she could! She even put her face in and blew bubbles! Apparently she has been paying more attention to the kids lessons than I thought. She got a little scared when he had her float on her back, but he is such a great teacher and buy the end she was doing it. She didn't want to get out of the pool!

Family reunion

Over the weekend we had our annual Thomson family reunion, we went to Morgan to stay on my aunt and uncles property. It was perfect because our trailers were on the grass...therefore the kids weren't all muddy and dirty. The kids loved it because they got to run around like monkeys and play on the swingset. On saturday we went to the lake and got to go on waverunners and for rides in the boat. The kids were in heaven playing in the sand on the beach. That night we went to the Morgan County fair and rodeo. On sunday, after a yummy breakfast and some of uncle Todd's fabulously fattening and addicting sourdough scones, we went back to the lake to play around some more. Once again the reunion was a blast and it was fun to see everyone!

Zoo

On Wednesday my bestest friend Janelle and I took the munchkin's to the zoo. Her adorable younger sister's were staying with her for the week and she wanted to do fun things with them, and luckily me, Jax, Ella and Gabe got to tag along! We got there shortly after it opened to avoid the heat....yeah right! Although it was a much more comfortable temperature than in the middle of the afternoon. But it was still rather warm! The kids didn't seem to mind though, they were too busy running around looking at all the animals. Jax was the most excited to see the giraffe's because his favorite animal...that goes EVERYWHERE with him is a giraffe, whom Jax has lovingly named Giraffeee...however Jax was not overly fond of the stench inside the giraffe exhibit. Actually none of us thought it was a particularly appetizing smell, I think Jax was glad that is beloved Giraffeee doesn't smell like that. Ella was content to just sit in her stroller and look at the animals and everything going on around her. That is until I let her get out of her stroller for a minute....BIG mistake! She threw a fit every time I tried to put her back in, surprise surprise. The kid's weren't too happy when it was time to leave, but let's face it, there are only so many hours you can spend at this zoo, it's not one of the more spectacular zoo's, but the kids love it and that's all that matters. Thanks for lettin us come to the zoo with you guys!!

Happy Birthday Gabriel!

Last Sunday was Gabe's birthday party, his actual Birthday was yesterday and he turned 4! His party was a "superhero" party, his cake was even an "Ironman" cake. The handsome birthday boy got a ton of presents...most of the presents revolved around superhero's, because, as you may or may not know, little boy's lives revolve around superhero's! At least Jax and Gabe do! They love anything that has to do with superhero's and they love to pretend that they ARE superhero's. The party was fun and I think that the special little birthday boy had a lot of fun too! I can't believe he is already 4 years old! They grow up way too fast!

Birthday boy checking out all his presents!

Little boy heaven!!

Say CHEESE!!

Fun in the water!

Visiting Family

Over the weekend we went to Southern Utah to visit some of Nick's family. We love it when we get to go visit all of them since we don't see them very often, and the kids love spending the night at Grandma Jane's and playing with cousins. Nick and I had thought we were being smart when we brought our portable DVD player to keep the kids entertained for the drive there, however we forgot to charge it....yes we are geniuses. So instead Jax asked us every two minutes if we were there yet. We stopped in Salina first to visit family that lives there, it was so good to be able to see Nick's Grandma Gwen, we haven't seen her since Christmas (yes I know we are horrible) and it was fun to be able to visit with her for a while. Then we went to Central to stay overnight at Grandma Jane's and visit all of the family that lives there. As usual Grandma Jane had made a ton of food and goodies. The kids got to ride Uncle Beav's 4-wheeler, he took them out to the garden to pick fresh peas and took them on a ride in the wheel barrow. When he asked Jax if he wanted a ride in it Jaxson's response was "Uh...it doesn't look very clean to me." There was dirt in the bottom and Jax was obviously concerned about it. Which was funny considering the fact that as Jax said that he was digging in the dirt looking for worms! Once he got over the fact that he would be sitting on dirt, he didn't want the ride to end. On sunday the kids got to play with cousins and ride the 4-wheeler some more. None of us wanted to come home, we were having too much fun!

Jax is pouting because he has to let his sister

have a turn on the 4-wheeler.