Tough Guys and Fragile X's

We attended the county fair just to go see the Ranch Rodeo.

Boy, I'll tell you what! Those guys are TOUGH! It was the kind of stuff they do on the ranch done rodeo-style. The arena had been rained on so it was muddy and if you were too close you got sprayed with mud (My mom found that out the hard way)! I had a LOT more fun than I thought I would! With enough food and treats, the kids loved it too.

Before the rodeo we had to check out this miniature train. Brother and Sister LOVE trains!

Seriously, how did I get such a good looking cowboy for a husband?! Mmm Hm!

Baby was so cute. She wanted Marc's water so bad... she just couldn't get enough, as soon as she was done drinking this is the face she made after to try to get more...

My dad was at the rodeo with us the whole time helping with the kids. Thank goodness, because he was a BIG help. Sister stayed busy using his hea to tell the future... aw, Dad we just love you!

Me, eating my italian ice with custard (yummmmm). My aunts were there with my mom and my aunt Rosanne is famous for taking pictures everywhere she goes...

Some of the Action.

The next day we had our family activity with the Fragile X Association! We went to the local aquarium. It was so cool! Penguins, octopus, jelly fish, stingrays, all kinds of awesome things. We were there for 2 hours just checking everything out! Our kids LOVED it! Here are a few pics of the activity.

Brother was so happy to have found "Nemo" in this display!

Here is Sister climbing on the Octopus display... yes, it's an octupus, see the eyes... yes, there it is. And, yes, all the displays said "do not climb" but, that didn't stop her! (smile)

Brother sat and watched these penguins for at least an hour. He was so intrigued by them.

One thing I learned is how big these emperor penguins are, I had no idea, they had life size pictures of different penguins and here is Sister looking so "happy" to pose for mom and dad!

Brother too.

And of course we had to take the opportunity to get a picture on a frog...

They had a boat for part of the display that Brother and Sister had fun pretending on.

Of course I have to end with Brother's pictures. He asked me if he could take pictures of the penguins with my camera. I was hesitant but as you will see in these pictures his eyes just melted my heart and I let him have free range. Apparently he loves to take his own picture--because there were non of the penguins. Too funny! (Notice even when taking his own picture he won't look at the camera...)

"Ah! My arm's Broken!"

is what Sister exclaimed to me this morning.

Then she bent her elbow back and forth looking at me with very concerned eyes...

So I inform her, "No, Sister, that's your elbow... it's supposed to bend like that."

(smile)

Face ON the mirror

See this mirror?

It's one that Marc made when we lived in our first house. It is an old chicken coup window. It hangs in my front room on the wall before you head out the front door. It's the mirror I use to check and make sure I don't have anything in my teeth before I go do something—like, umm, get Sister from the neighbors... ya, I know, exciting but you don't want to be caught with stuff in your teeth.

Anyway, my Visiting Teacher came yesterday and as we were sitting there talking I noticed something in the mirror... a ghost? No. It was on mirror. A face print.

See it?

There are two of them. One in the bottom right and one in the bottom center.

Brother said, "I think that was me."

(smile)

Floaties in the sink, Fish, Flip Flops and First Day

Yes, she does look guilty doesn't she...

but the only floaties in the sink were her toys.

Baby's stats:
 At 10 months

-She is now rolling over from her back to her tummy and her tummy to her back!! Yay! This was one of her goals to meet before September and she did it!

-She is now sitting up and bending forward to reach for things and lands (not gracefully) on her tummy to get it.

-She is strong enough now to sit up in the sink so that I can bathe her easier

-She sits up on her own for quite a while now without falling over

-She has no teeth yet, or any sign of teeth coming

-She loves to stand up when you hold her hands

-She bangs toys together

-She can switch and object from one hand to the other

-She turns when you call her name

(If you have or know a baby who has not reached these milestones by 10 months call your early intervention specialist in your area.)

Things that we will be working on (her new goals):
hopefully by 12 months

-Positioning to hands and knees from sitting

-Crawling

-Looking at or acknowledging people or objects ie. "Where Daddy?" And she looks to find daddy or "Horse." and she looks at the horse, etc.

-Pushing simple buttons on toys to make them go


OK, Fish...

Marc got to go fishing with some buddies from work and he was the only one that caught one that day! Which is a miracle in and of itself because we gave up fishing a long time ago because we rarely caught anything. But, hey, today was his day!

Flip Flops

Sister loves to put on other peoples' shoes or flip flops (she calls them fip fops). When we went to the pool she asked Daddy to put on her flip flops while she wore his...

First Day of school

Brother and Sister get to ride the same bus together. They go to different schools but, the same bus takes both classes. I was so excited to hear they got to be together! Sister was so happy to be with her big brother and Brother protects her strongly.

Man, I love these kids!

Brother, here, is showing Sister how calm he is about the whole thing...

Sister was wired

 And here is a picture of today's ensemble—just love her socks! And yes, I picked out her outfit! She loved it! (and yes, that is Brother's foot off the the left—relaxing again...

Cabin Fever and a Cook-off

Our friends invited us to their family cabin for the weekend!

Yahoo! We were so excited we talked them into letting us come for two nights!!!

We went from a Thursday night to Saturday afternoon so that I could get home in time to help out with the ward Dutch Oven Cook-off.

I will tell you about how fun it all was with the pictures...

Here is Sister wearing my sunglasses on the drive down. She was so darned excited she couldn't stop kicking Marc's seat.

Here she is still excited when she gets to see the cabin and run around all over the place!

Here is the fireplace that Brother L.O.V.E.D. to have fires in. He called the big ones, bon fires...

You can't tell from this picture but, Brother is waiting for the parachute man to come down from the loft that the girls are dropping down. This gave quite a bit of entertainment for the kids, but it also caused a few quarrels...

Here is what the kids looked like after they would drop "parachute man" from the loft.

These 3 were quite the buddies, they went everywhere together.

This is us on our little hike to go find sheep... no, not cool sheep... sheep... from the farm sheep. Ya, the kids thought it was great when we finally found them!

It was quite a challenge finding them, so we all actually got excited when Brother spotted them coming down through the trees...

Baby hanging out in her Kelty backpack that we used to pack Brother around in on our adventures... that's been a good pack! Someone gave it to us when it was already 10 years old so, it has got to be at least 20 years old and still packin'

Baby was exhausted from being packed around (smile)

cabin

The men being "men" and "chopping" firewood (smile again)

While the men got firewood, the kids made "salad" for their restaurant

Gee... I wonder why Marc took this picture...

I kept telling him to not take my pictutres unless I was sucking in... that little sweetheart said,"Honey, suck in."

So I did.

Tee hee!

We went to a nearby lake before we headed home and it was beautiful...

But VERY muddy...

Oh Brother!

I told Marc to suck in...  just kidding. We were just playing camera tag!

Then we were off back home so thar I could make my three dutch ovens. I made 2 desserts and 1 main dish. Here are the ovens lined up on the tables.

I won 2nd in desserts for my blueberry-peach cobbler!! I won a cool apron that my friend drew a cute character of me on there. I need to get a picture of it...

We also had a bunch of old fashioned games--3-legged race, potato sack race, stick pull...

Sister is sitting on the groud in her sack watching the passersby.That is Peanut in front leaping through the air!

Marc gave it a good try...