Hot Dog Roast

One of the things on our "to do" list this summer was to roast hot dogs up the canyon.  It's one of our favorite things to do, but definitely gets harder the more kids we have to round up.  The Monday before we went on our vacation (post still to come) we called our BFFs and made them come up the canyon with us to roast hot dogs.  It helps that they're pretty easy to persuade.

Our master fire maker :)

 Savy was pretty fascinated by the flames for a while

I love sunflowers!

Time to roast!

About the same time we pulled the food out, we started to notice there were a lot of wasps around.  Jared got stung.  It really was pretty hard to enjoy what was supposed to be a nice evening up the canyon with all the wasps flying around.  It became a game to see who could kill and/or trap the most wasps.  Tracee was a pro at trapping them!  See exhibit A, B, and C below ;)

After spending more time dodging wasps than we did eating, we decided we'd make S'mores back at our Aussie's house.  The kids thought it was pretty cool to help put out the fire.


When we got to the house I was helping Dar inside with Aurora (who may or may not have had another potty accident).  When I came outside I found Savy in the swing.  It was her first swinging experience and she loved it! (Hence the need to take a gazillion pictures of her in it.)  Tracee got the closest thing to a belly laugh Savannah would give at that point.  Lucky duck!



Once again, where there's water, there you'll find Aurora (and Mr. P)



And more of Savy in the swing--Oh, how I love that face!

Trying to suck her thumb through the thick blanket. Silly girl.


Thanks for a fun FHE, guys!  Hopefully next time we go we won't be bombarded by pesky insects!!

Squeaky Clean

**This is our 500th post! Seriously?! Woot! Woot!**

A few weeks ago we went on a much needed family vacation (LOTS more to come on that later).  Driving 16-ish hours each way required beginning our trip with a clean car.  We had been borrowing my in-laws extra car quite a bit before our trip while we got our car fixed because it was in and out of the shop several times and we decided to wash theirs too.  It's the first time Rori has helped wash the cars.  She thought it was pretty awesome.

A little side-note: I had pulled that sun hat out for Savannah to wear but Aurora snagged it and was thoroughly convinced it was for her, so we just went with it.  Evidence as to how tiny she is: she can still wear a hats that are meant for babies--oh yeah, and her swimsuit is 18-24 months, she wore it last summer too.  Savannah will probably be wearing it next summer ;)

 She's a great little helper!

Her "cheese" face :)

It was fun to have Rori help out.  Anything with water and she's there!

8.22.13 - 5 months!

Savannah is our little sweetie.  I really can't express her sweetness in words.  She's just our all-around-sweetheart!  We're SO lucky to be her parents!  Our little munchkin is 5 months old and becoming more and more fun every single day!

Our happy little Savy at 5 months

[Don't mind the fingernail scratch on her forehead and the drool mark on her shirt :) ]

At FIVE months:
-Savannah FINALLY got her first belly laugh out--thanks to her silly older sister--on Friday, August 9th at Aunt Andrea's house in Washington.  Priceless!
-She now thinks Aurora is the funniest person on Earth and laughs at her frequently.  Daddy and I haven't had as much luck getting those beautiful laughs to come out.
-She has a smile that melts my heart at any time of the day.  We can't get enough of her precious smiles!
-She started eating solids on August 2nd, and boy! does she love eating her food!
-She's a noisy eater when she eats her baby food.  She does this cute little hum/grunt thing as she eats.  It's pretty cute.
-She already seems to want to feed herself and makes a great big mess when she gets her hands on the spoon.
-She definitely prefers to nurse over eating from the bottle.
-She's usually pretty pleasant, but we've discovered that when she's hungry and I can't feed her right away she gets MAD!  If she cries long enough her face gets red and splotchy and she foams at the mouth.  Silly girl.  Luckily this doesn't happen very often--usually in the car when we can't pull over immediately.
-She's getting too big for the bumbo--her adorable, munch-able legs get stuck sometimes, and she's starting to arch her back in it too.
-She's becoming more and more aware of her surroundings and interacting more and more with the things she comes in contact with.  She's really started to explore her toys and loves the exersaucer, until she gets frustrated with the turtle on it.
-She still sucks her thumb when she feels like it.  It's pretty cute when she sucks her thumb through her blanket.
-She can put her binky in her mouth all by herself when it's in close enough proximity to her hands.
-She really gets her legs going in the bathtub and thinks it's pretty great to splash Mom and Dad.
-She kicks her feet every time we put her in or take her out of her car seat.
-When she's happy she kicks her legs a lot.
-She sleeps with her legs straight up in the air sometimes.  It's pretty awesome.
-She loves to grab her toes and stick them in her mouth.  Aurora thinks it's pretty funny when "Saby" sucks on her toes.
-Her hair is definitely getting thicker--it makes me happy :)
-She likes to hold one of my fingers as she falls asleep.
-Her sleep schedule is a bit off since coming home from our vacation (more to come on that), hopefully we'll get her back on track soon!
-She babbles "mama" so far.  Not very often though.
-She's really content most of the time and we get comments from people a lot on how easy of a baby she is and how great it is that she will let pretty much anyone hold her and be happy about it.

5 month photo shoot pics:

 
 
 
 Happy sisters.  I'm so glad they like each other so much!

Grabbing those cute little piggies!


LOVE that happy face!

August 2nd - First time eating rice cereal



Mmm!

August 6th - First time eating green beans

I love how cute babies are when they sleep :)

August 21st - Newly discovered exersaucer--she loves it!

Can't resist kissing those cheeks!!

Happy five months, Savannah-Wannah.  We love you SO much and we're so glad to have you in our family!  Thanks for making each and every day so much brighter with your smiles and giggles and snuggles.  We love you, baby girl!

Grandmother Jennings

Darwin's sweet grandma passed away July 15th, just 3 days shy of her 92nd birthday.  What a trooper she was!  She was really in pretty good health up until the last year or so.  It's hard to watch loved ones age and prepare to leave this world.  She was always so complimentary to us on our family and she simply adored Aurora.  Grandmother Jennings was his last living grandparent, and she was such a great example to us.  We're both so grateful for her influence in our lives, and for giving us Darwin's amazing mother.  We're so blessed to have such wonderful family members on both sides and we're grateful to have the knowledge that families can be together forever.  What a blessing!

With Grandmother Jennings on one of our trips up to Idaho in 2012 before she moved back to Utah

Grandmother Jennings with Savannah on Mother's Day - the last time the girls and I saw her before she died.  She was too weak to hold Savannah herself, but so glad to meet her newest great-grandchild.  Her health declined even faster after this and we were advised to not take our girls to see her again so this is one of the last pictures we have of her alive.

Four Generations

We will miss you, Grandmother, but think of you often!

Fun Outside

These are mostly random pictures from July.  We really enjoyed being outside together and having our Daddy home more this summer, even though he worked a lot too.  We enjoyed his mostly flexible schedule.  Summer break is the best!

While Rori and Daddy had fun playing at the splash pad, Savy and I got to hang out and have fun together.  I sure love this little sweetie!

Savannah got her first sliding experience much earlier than Rori did.  I guess it helps to have an older sibling who likes to play at the playground :)
I seriously LOVE her face in this picture!


Aurora is big enough she can climb this all by herself now.  And ya gotta love the snow boots in July again :)  Silly girl.


Showing us the slide is a piece of cake for her now

That same day while we were at the playground there was a BIG blow-up slide at the clubhouse, completely unattended by anyone, so we took our liberty to let her play on it for a while.  She loved it just as much as the bounce house on the 24th.

Nice moves, Babs!

What personality this little one has!






Savy snuck in some camera time too

She was having fun until some bigger kids came and crashed her party

Savannah falls asleep better if I lay her on her side while she's falling asleep.  She usually rolls onto her back but we caught her like this once.  Funny little thing.

Aurora frequently asks me to take pictures of them together.  One of these days I'll have to compile a bunch of our "sister" pictures into a nice long post.

Rori was having a hard time with bed time a while back, so I made her a bed on the floor.  She loved it and slept on the floor for nearly a week!  I guess it helps to change things up a bit sometimes.  I love that she had all of her "friends" close by.

And this is her new favorite position for watching TV.  This is a common sight at our house when the TV is on :)

I think that catches me up on July.  Now onto all the fun we've had in August!