Swimming with friends

The brave award of the day goes to Dani. Sam is our little fish, and Taylor enjoyed experimenting with new things. Some good friends of ours invited us to their family pool for a swim and boy did the kids love it. They haven't been swimming much this summer (in a real pool anyway). I was surprised that Dani climbed right up the slide and decided she wanted to go down. She has always been the one afraid to do things like this. After her attempt the other kids decided they might enjoy it too. I was also surprised that Taylor would try it after her near death experience earlier this year with slides. She still didn't like the water in her face so after a few times I couldn't get her to do it again for the camera. Dani also decided to brave putting her face in the water, so we were proud of her today. Sam was scared of nothing. After jumping right in several times he wasn't even affected by his mom having to run in and save him after having his face in the water for several seconds. You have to keep an eye on that one. Thanks to our friends for the invite and it was good to see you Sheri and Jen.

Family Fun Night

Our community held a Family fun night filled with free pony rides, inflatables, magic shows, dancing, etc. We went to check it out. Most of the lines were way too long to bother standing in, but the kids had fun looking around at everything. They loved seeing the princesses advertising the costume shop, jumping inside Clifford, going fishing, watching the clowns and getting free bottles of milk. Any time we do anything together as a family it is a treat for the kids.

Twin Falls Temple

Twin Falls Idaho (about 2 hours from us) was fortunate enough to have a temple built in their city. For the past month or so the temple has been open to the public for tours. I hadn't intended on going because I figured I could go another time, but the more I thought about it the more I realized what a great opportunity it was for the children to see where it is that mom and dad go and get some of their questions answered as to why we go and what we do there. Unfortunately by the time I made this decision there were no times available when daddy could come along. We invited my sister in law and nephew to come along with us instead. We all loved the temple, the children's favorite being the baptismal font. It is very beautiful inside and as always a very peaceful atmosphere. It was a long day driving, but I think well worth it.

Sunday

For a lack of anything else to post, I snapped these pictures today because I thought they were cute. They have several previous pictures in these outfits, but that's because they love them and they look so coordinated when they all match.

Picture in the Idaho Press Tribune

16-month-old Sam Jepson walks around the grass at the Nampa Civic Center during a celebration for graduates of the Nampa Public Library summer reading program “Catch the Reading Bug” on Monday.
Charlie Litchfield/IPT

My kids love to mop

Every time I get the mop out (which is more often than I would like) the kids get real excited and beg to help. Sam chases after Dani and slips a hundred times. When he actually gets the mop he bangs it into every wall, so luckily I found a little pretend mop and he loves to follow Dani around as if he's mopping. Of course, I have to finish up the job, and it's ready to be done again tomorrow (or after breakfast depending on when during the day I do it).

We've been know to keep it a secret before, but this time it's come out. Both Mark and I had the intuition it was a girl, but were pleasantly surprised to find it to clearly be a boy. It will be fun for Sam to have a playmate and not be outnumbered. The girls are excited too so they don't "have" to entertain Sam as they say. So 76% of you were correct on the baby survey.

My ballet woes

The girls have always loved dancing, so I thought I would try out a summer ballet camp to see if it was something they would actually be interested in taking long term. I signed them up and they were scheduled to start tomorrow. Last week I received a call that made it sound as though the camp may have been canceled, so all week I've been trying to get a hold of someone. Tonight I finally got the call to say, no they had not been canceled until the other children called the night before to drop out. So now with my girls the only ones in the camp they decided to cancel. Now it's too late in the summer to find another camp. My dilemna is should I just put them in classes for the fall or forget it? The trouble (besides price and not knowing whether they will enjoy it or hate it) is the inconvenience of driving to classes and busying up a schedule that I was hoping to simplify with baby on its way. These insignificant decision shouldn't be so hard to make, should they?

We have a pig

Taylor was explaining to Grandma on the phone that she is a country girl and that we have a pig and she made me take pictures for proof. So Grandma - here's your proof, we have a pig.

Happy Birthday Kari!

We helped Kari celebrate her 24th birthday. Hope it was a good one for you.

Memories

Here are the directions:
1. In the comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Lake Lowell

For their last adventure together we took the children to Lake Lowell. It was a very warm day and we had almost the whole beach area to ourselves. The kids loved the water, but the mom's (and cousin Trevor) did not like the sand. That was a pain. We were sorry to miss Masen and his mom who were sick most of the week. Goodbye to our cousins! We love having you here.

Chuck E Cheese's

The children were spoiled this week with movies, parks, lakes, and Chuck E. Cheese. Sam loved the cars and anything with balls. You can certainly tell he's a boy.

Settler's Park

We went to Settler's Park with the cousins. The kids had fun playing in the Splashpad for a short time. They were excited about the new additions of the sound garden and climbing rocks. Taylor spent most of her time climbing to the top of these rocks which made mom pretty nervous. I wish I would have gotten pictures of her on top.

Warming up to dogs

My kids have been deathly afraid of dogs since they were little. This has really made Mark sad and although he wants one of his own - he knows this won't be happening soon. He always tries to get the children to warm up to dogs, but they usually run and scream the second one comes anywhere near them. Recently Taylor has decided that some dogs are actually okay. This includes a total of three dogs and she will play with them for a considerable amount of time. This dog, Sadie, Taylor spent a lot of time playing with. By the end of the day we even convinced Dani to pick up the toy she brought and throw it for the dog. That seemed to be a miracle enough, but then even Sam decided that the dog must be alright and stopped screaming every time she came around. He would pet her as long as she wasn't running up to him and liked throwing the toys, although the dog would never bring it back to Sam since he only threw it 2 feet.

Baseball - the American game

Taylor found a new sport that she is interested in. She was begging Uncle Jeff to keep pitching to her and got the rest of the kids interested as well. Don't ask me why she is pitching left handed. We were pretty sure she was right handed, but she insisted that this way felt better to her. Don't you love her inventive and patriotic outfit? She had to get all the colors in some how. Dani liked swinging too, but she prefered to do it one handed and it didn't work out so well.

Happy Independence Day with cousins

We were able to celebrate the 4th with Mark's brother's family who came up from Utah. The children loved being able to spend time with their cousins. Trevor and Sam tried to take the jeep for a ride, Dani tried helping Kara into the tree, they spent some time swinging, and Sam tried pushing Trevor on the bike. They had a great time and get to spend the rest of the week with them as well.

Canada Day in Canada

Today is actually Canada Day and we're busy celebrating if you can call it that. We were going to join all the festivities at the park, but it is pouring down rain so we're enjoying our time indoors. My grandma has been having chemo treatments this week so she's spending a lot of time sleeping and resting. I'm just glad to be here to help her and give her company, but she might not be so grateful. I'm sure we're wearing her out. We managed to get some family pictures in before the rain came down. Can't wait to get back to the states and celebrate on the 4th.

Happy Canada Day July 1st

So I'm a little early on this one, but I'm actually going to be in Canada on Canada Day! Many of you may not know that I am half Canadian. My father was born in Canada and is still a Canadian citizen. I am going up to visit my grandma who is fighting liver cancer. The kids are going to have the time of their life without mom around. Thanks to grandma and grandpa for filling in while Mark stays busy.