Happenings...

Life has been busy, busy...BUSY!!

What we have been up to...

-The last four weeks Mac has had swim lessons every morning and on top of that he has Taekwondo every afternoon. We made some great friends from swimming and played at the park right next to our local pool right after then would come home and play with our neighbor friends until lunch time. You can guess I had some very tired kids and a very tired mom every day.

-Both of my beautiful sisters came to visit, but at completely separate times. And it was so amazingly wonderful to see both of them and to spend some time with both. I hate that it is so long between visits!

- When my oldest sister was here visiting with her family from California we got to go through the Portland Temple with my Nephew when he took out his endowments. He is leaving on his mission to Bolivia in a couple of weeks.

- We had two birthday parties for Oak. One with our families and one with her birth family.

- I got my hair chopped in preparation to get our family photos taken this coming weekend. And as always my hairdresser did amazing and all it costs me is taking pictures of her family.

-Hubs and I have had a miserable head/sinus/chest cold that just will not go away. Mine has been more in my head with mild coughing and Hubs' has been more in his chest and coughing constantly. I missed going to an old friends wedding reception and going to the lake house with the whole family and a cousins wedding reception.

- I was called into the Primary presidency about two months ago and I am in charge of the Sacrament meeting program which is in less than a month. I am totally stressed about it...

- We celebrated Mac's "Chosen Day" and his "Forever Day" (the anniversary of when he was sealed to us).

-We went to a free carnival that our kids' dentist office puts on every year. It was so much fun! And Mac even was able to dunk his dentist in the dunk tank.

-Went to a memorial service for an old family friend who left this earth far too soon and is sorely missed by his beautiful daughters.

- I spent about an hour preparing 5 crock pot freezer meals to use for the next week for dinners. So easy and convenient and yummy dinners too.

-I gave Oak a an owie that made me super sad. She was sneaking water from the dispenser on the fridge and had dumped it all over while over filling her cup. And when she got caught she ran and slipped towards the fridge and her toes went into the vent grate under the fridge. Without me totally realizing this I picked her up and as her toes came out of the grate it shaved off a nice slice of skin off her big toe on top and on bottom and just slightly sliced the other toe. I felt AWFUL! Thankfully it has healed quickly and easily.

-I have picked about 7 huge zucchinis out of our garden. And about 5 to 10 yellow cherry tomatoes every day. Oh man are the tomatoes good!

-I have read 4 books this year! That is three more than last year. And one of them has been a parenting book. I feel like I am finally enjoying reading, and I really love it!

What is still to come...

- A fun ward activity at the lake.

-Visiting Oak's Birth-Great-Grandma.

-Hanging out with one of my best friends who I haven't seen all summer even though she only lives 30 minutes away from me.

-Mac testing for his orange belt in Taekwondo.

-Going to attempt a road trip to Montana to visit Mac's birth family who we haven't seen since he was eight months old and also hopefully see his birth mother.

-Mac starts Pre-K and will again be going to our neighbors house right across the street for it.

-Me trying to get feeling better and hopefully Hubs too.

-Me trying to get our Primary program finished, approved and parts handed out and practiced.

-We are having our family photos taken by the fabulous Kristen.

Just SO Mac...

I took these pics of Mac trying to get a good picture of him while we were camping. When I uploaded them to the computer and was looking at them, they totally made me laugh just because this is just SO Mac. It expresses his personality to a T! Love my goofy boy!

Things Oak at two!

She had her 2 year check up:

Weight: 32 lbs (95th percentile)

Height: 36 in (95th percentile)

Head: 20 in (off the chart)

She didn't have to get any shots because her appt was one day short of the six month mark in between her needed Hep shot. I will take her in next week to get it real quick.

About Oak...

Some words she has recently added to her vocabulary and uses regularly and correctly and it makes me laugh everytime because she is just too young: "maybe", "though", "forgot"

she is really into changing her clothes constantly. I find several pairs of clean and dirty pants throughout the house each day. She also really loves to put socks on.

She wants to get dressed herself. She knows she can't do it sometimes and whines for help and you try to help her then she freaks out because she wants to do it herself and it goes back and forth until the new clothes item is finally on and she is happy until she wants to change them again.

she is a food stealer and really much rather eat the food on someone elses plate. We have gotten her to eat numerous times by sneaking her food onto our plate and telling her not to eat our food.

she is quite the mess maker in every aspect of her cute little self. If she is eating she either makes a mess on purpose or on accident, if she is playing she dumps out anything she can find to dump out, if she wants to change her clothes everything in her drawers is dumped and there will be discarded clothes throughout the house.

She has quite the temper sometimes and has thrown little fits when she doesn't get her way. We have also started time outs with her.

She is very smart and remembers everything.

She is a very busy girl and does not hold still ever.

She can count to 15.

Her hair is getting longer and I have been having fun doing it in something other than a piggies.

She loves her big brother. Every time he gets done with Taekwondo she runs to him and gives him a big hug and tells him, "I so proud of you!" in the cutest high pitched voice.

She hits, pulls hair, bites and scratches her brother alot!

We hear "I do it!!" alot!

She talks non stop, especially in the car. She hardly ever sleeps in the car, so you are in for it when you take her anywhere in the car. She asks question after question and you have to repeat and acknowledge everything she says or she repeats it. It actually drives me crazy sometimes, but is cute too.

She has started asking "Why?" alot...already. I thought that didn't happen until about three.

She pretty much talks in complete sentences.

She loves to help clean or do chores around the house.

She mimics EVERYTHING her brother does, especially if it is something I would prefer children no do, like potty talk and garbage words.

Filling out the 24 month questioneer from the doctor, I was able to mark that she could do everything on the list.

Some funnies from her lately:

She was at the fridge playing with her Leap Frog magnetic letters. She all of a sudden realized they weren't straight in order ( I put them in alphabetical order to make sure I have them all.) and scattered all over the fridge. She started yelling, "Acoy NO! NO!...all messies! NO! NO! Acoy! All messies!!" Then she went into Mac and starts yelling the same thing to him and then wanders back to the fridge and starts straightening the magnets. Hubs and I were dying laughing and thought it was hilarious that she was blaming Mac for something.

Mac just got home after being gone for two night with Daddy. And Oak was so excited that she kept on licking Mac's head. Mac thought it was hilarious!

As i was telling Oak to not stand on the couch, she looks at me very serious and says, "Mom, it's FINE I stand on the couch!" Umm excuse me?! What a firecracker! ♥

TWO

I blinked...and this beautiful baby girl...

grew up to be this beautiful little girl...

who is more precious than words could express.

My heart knew her, loved her and longed for her months before we even knew she would be coming to our family. This little girl is mightily loved by her parents, brother, grandparents, birth parents and birth family. What a lucky little girl...

and what a lucky family we are!

Love you Missy Mae! 

Camping...

My mom had an itch to go camping, and we were all game and it sounded so fun. And it was REALLY fun! Even with my very busy, very much independent almost two year old. The kids had a blast and it was just nice and relaxing sitting in a chair next to my sister and reading while the kids played. It only rained the first night and first morning. The rest of the weekend was perfect and not a mosquito in sight. 

The kids wanted to play in our tent and we happended to bring and extra smaller tent and Hubs set it up for the kids to play in. And the kids actually spent alot of time in it just running around and playing and hurting each other and crying. Ah the memories!

A typical picture of our adorable Oaks and her bear.

This is the golden seat in our family. And Oaks has totally gotten into it. Now both of my kids argue over who gets to sit on daddy's shoulders.

We went on a walk and Mac had gotten "tired" so daddy pushed him back and Oak's couldn't let Mac have daddy all to himself so she had to hold his hand. What a cute "daddy" picture.

The kids spent alot of time digging up the gofer/mole  holes and trying to find treasure. Grandma actually had some pretty stones so when the kids weren't looking we dropped them in their holes and the reaction of them finding them is priceless!

Mac was at a melting point and ended up really needing a nap. Oak was in the tent sleeping and cousins and grandpa were in the trailer sleeping so this was the next option. Mac was so tired he didn't care and was asleep 30 seconds after I layed him down and he slept there for probably about an  hour and a half at least. 

So sweet!

Oak really wanted to help push Mac.

My  niece wrote this in the dirt..."family".

This isn't a good picture but it helps show that Oak got dubbed the food stealer. And she earned that title whole heartedly! She would much prefer eating off of other's plates and not her own. Even if she has the exact same thing. The whole weekend was actually quite comical every time we ate. 

She also would NOT keep her shoes on. We would put them on and they would be off a few minutes later. I finally gave up! 

RIght before we left they found another little gopher/mole hole to play in.

And Oak got herself quite dirty. I couldn't wait to get home and get my kids bathed. 

Sassafras!

Look at the dirt in her hair?!

A little dumping action!

Aunt C was having fun making the kids laugh.

Okay, I wasn't really in to wanting to finish the post, but I was tired of looking at it on my desktop not finished. I am too lazy/tired to correct it or make it sound good or anything else. I guess you get what you get.

these three...

It just so happened that I got a picture of Mac and his cousin C sitting on Grandma W's lap with his recent visit. And it made me think of these other two pics I had taken. I love seeing the change in them from babies to big boys. They are only about three weeks apart.

Mac and his cousin C got along so great! It made me so happy and I just loved listening in on there playing and I loved not having to referee much with these two. They became good little buddies and I love when cousins can be buddies. It makes me sad though that we don't live closer to my sister and her family.