Come on Owen you can do it....

...put a little umph into it!

He was really working hard on this one poor guy!

Our New Trampoline

Our neighbor Jose has a trampoline and he told the girls they could jump on it anytime. The problem was that they always wanted to go ask if they could jump and I was afraid that it was bothering him. My brother Troy has a tramp for his kids and they have gotten a lot of good use out of it. We don't have a lot of backyard space but decided that on one side of our house if we hired Jose to knock out a couple of bushes and build something to go up against the cement to balance the tramp then maybe we could get a smaller tramp. So we did!

Here is the space after he got rid of two bushes

Here is Jose working hard. Steve helped him (or supervised) a lot. Jose is our handy man. He can fix or build pretty much anything. Whenever something needs fixed at our house the girls always say, "Jose can fix it!"

They went and got some sand to put under the tramp in the space where he built the wood enclosure. In this pic are our other neighbor boys Angel and Adolfo.

Steve told me to take a picture of him so everyone could see that he was working too.

It wore him out!

This is Jose, he is such a nice guy.

They love it!!!

A Dress Up Party

The girls went to a Dress Up Birthday Party for their friend Evangeline. The dress that Audrey is wearing my niece Sara wore when she was a flower girl in my wedding 8 years ago. It was a little big on Audrey so we pinned it in the back but she loved it.

This was the top of the pinata that was still hanging from the banister. It was an ice cream cone and the cone was torn off so Olivia stood under it and it looked like a hat.

8 Months Old!!

Owen, you are 8 months old now! Here is what is going on in your life right now:

• You weigh 19 lbs. (oops, when he went in to Dr. a few days later he was 18 lbs. 11 oz.
  
• You wear size 3 diapers
• You wear mostly 9-12 month clothes.
  
• On 6/15, just a few days after you turned 7 months you started crawling.
• On that same day I noticed you were getting your top two teeth and BOY are they HUGE!
• On 6/20 you started pushing yourself up from a laying down position to sitting up.
  
• On 6/28, about 7 1/2 months you got up on your knees and peeked at me from your crib.
  
• On 7/5 you started clapping. If you click on this picture to make it bigger you can see his top two teeth.
• Then on 7/7 you started pulling yourself up to standing so we lowered your crib down.
• And on 7/7 you would hold your hands up when we say "How big is Owen?" "So big!"
• You will go to other people if you are rested and have been fed but you do have some separation anxiety and cry when I hand you to others sometimes.
• You drink out of a little sippy cup and you do a pretty good job.
  
• 
• You got to swing for the first time and you loved it.

"No Mom! I don't want my picture taken!"

"Dad help! Mom wants to take more pictures of me and I don't want her to."

"Mom, I just can't smile one more time."

"O.k. fine, here you go, here's the last smile for this post, but that's it o.k."

This month there were a lot of milestones that happened and it made me realize how fast he is growing and changing.

Swimming Lessons

Olivia and Audrey started swimming lessons this summer and were in the same class. These pictures are from the last day of class of the first level. The picture above is of their class. Their main teacher was out for the last week because of a knee injury so she had a substitute teacher and then the gal on the right helped a lot in their class. They both did a good job. John, their teacher, said he has been teaching for years and this was the best Level 1 class he has had.

Sliding down the water slide was a treat on the last day of class. Olivia did it but Audrey would not. I don't blame her. She is so little and the slide was very big.

My girls last summer wouldn't get in the water most of the time unless they were wrapped around an adult. They wouldn't put their faces in the water. Now, they will go completely under water, jump into the pool from the side to the teacher, etc. They both passed to Level 2. I think Audrey could have repeated Level 1 but he thought that if she was with Olivia in Level 2 and she had a girl teacher that she would be fine.

I get so tickled watching them. New things they accomplish make my heart swell with joy. I fell giddy and I sit their with a huge smile that no one can wipe of my face if they tried. I'm so proud of them.

Audrey with her teacher's helper Katie. Audrey and Katie had a special bond. The first few weeks Audrey's teacher John was her only teacher. She has a harder time warming up to guys rather than girls. So initially she didn't want John to hold her and help her swim. He then brought Katie on board and Audrey just loved that. Katie knew that Audrey wanted to be with just her so she took Audrey more than the other kids who would go with John.

Casa Bonita's!

I used to LOVE coming to Denver when I was little and we would eat and play at Casa Bonita. I found a description of it on Wikipedia: "the Lakewood restaurant features strolling mariachis, flame jugglers, and a 30-foot (9.1 m) waterfall with cliff divers. It also has a small puppet theater, a "haunted tunnel" called Black Bart's Cave, an arcade with a large skee-ball room, and a magic theater." It's basically a big fun house inside a restaurant. And the inside of the restaurant is just so unique. It is multiple levels and parts of it you feel like you are in a cave. My cousin Jason and his family were on vacation and they stopped by to see us and experience Casa Bonita. We sat really close to the cliff divers this time and got splashed a little. The kids loved it. But the food STINKS. Except the sopapillas, those are yummy! Most everyone that has been there goes for the ambiance and the fun for the kids but not the food.

A picture of all the kids is above and here is a pic of my cousin Jason, his wife Jenny, and us.

These two could be twins they look so much alike. Vanessa and Christoper, such cuties.

More 4th of July Weekend Fun

We were supposed to go to my Uncle Craig's cabin for the 4th but we drove half way out there and it was raining and hailing very hard so we decided to turn back. The second half of the trip would have been on dirt road that is very bumpy and difficult so we were thinking we might get stuck and not make it. We ended up spending the day at my grandma Thompson's house and it was so nice to visit with my relatives. BUT I was very disappointed we didn't go to the cabin. Steve has never been there and it holds many memories from my childhood there and I couldn't wait to show him. It is very rustic with no electricity, a wood stove, an outhouse, etc. but it is so beautiful and peaceful. I love to go on hikes and I wanted to take my family on a hike up the mountain to a spring that comes out of the mountain where we drink fresh water. Oh well, maybe next year.

Olivia did not know what to think of the sparklers, she was a little scared to hold them.

Olivia and Faith had so much fun together this trip.

Audrey loves her Sara

Several times I would look back to the back seat when we were traveling back to Colorado and this is what I would see---

He would just stare at me for the longest time and then I would look at him and he would get the biggest grin ever.

Boating

We went back to Wyoming for the weekend. We haven't been back there since Christmas so it was a nice trip. On Saturday we went to the Flaming Gorge to go boating on my brother Troy's boat.

My cute nephew Jason. We bonded more this trip than we ever had and I loved every minute of it.

My brother is so good at taking everyone out on the boat. He really enjoys stuff like this and I'm glad he does because if he didn't I don't know that we would ever get to go out on a boat. The bigger kids and my brother tubed and wake boarded and the little kids tubed. They had a lot of fun.

I caught her right before she came down from a jump. That black lump is my parent's dog Ollie swimming.

Look at that fat belly, I could barely keep that shirt down over it.

She was eating cherries and got them all over her face and chest.

What is it with Grandpa and kids falling asleep? He is so good at getting my kids to sleep. Owen was so tired and he just went for a walk with him and he came back and Owen was sound asleep. He is a kid and baby whisperer I guess.

The girls with their cousin Jason

The pit stop on the beach. Can we get one more cooler please?

Audrey loves her Uncle Mike

That night we went to dinner for my niece Sara's 11th birthday. Olivia and Faith were cold so I wrapped Steve's coat up around them and it fit them both zipped up.

Grandma feeding Owen his first lime. He liked it.

The waitresses came by and sang a Birthday Tune for Sara and she was beat red.

I can't believe my niece is 11. I remember her so well when she was Audrey's age. Her and I were best buddies. I spent so much time with her at that age and we had such a special bond. She has grown so fast and now she is verging on her teen age years and it's freaking me out a little bit. I love you Sara Bear!!