Linds and Kate Come to Play: Part IV

Weekend #4: July 1-4
(The Grand Finale)

Sadly, this was our last weekend together. But we made it count! Craig heard about all the fun we were having without him, so he decided to join us for this last weekend. He and Lindsay came up to Idaho Falls on Wednesday night so that the boys could go fly fishing. They had a good time; somehow Craig took a dunk in the river at some point (not sure how it happened, but according to Brandt is was very funny). I had to work on Thursday, so Lindsay went shopping and then we headed home to Bur-town for an extended Fourth of July weekend, where we immediately went to the theatre and got in line for "ECLIPSE!" And, yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it (more to come on that later). Here are some pics from the rest of the weekend.

1. Thursday night. Kate eyeing Syd's ice cream (she has an appetite for other people's food); Syd doesn't look too thrilled.
2. Sammy. I have to snap pictures of him when he's not looking; otherwise he pulls some stupid face.
3. On Friday we planned on going to Nat-Soo-Pah, but the weather wasn't cooperating, so we went bowling again. Good job Linds!
4. Me, momma, and Lindsay.
5. Sammy with his Erkel pants.
6. Ta-da! Me in all my glory.
7. Kate in all her glory.
8. Sammy is a weirdee. You know those balls people put on their car antennas? Well, Sammy decided to take the head off a Barbie doll and use it as our antenna. It was pretty funny watching her hair flying in the breeze, then watching her fly off the antenna and onto the highway. Don't worry, we went back and retrieved her off the road and reattached her to the rest of her body. Thank goodness nobody ran her over. She was a brave soul.
9. Brandt and Craig. Friday night we went to the Hellewell family reunion with all of my mom's cousins. We roasted hot dogs and then listened to my Great-Uncle George tell family stories.
10. Syd and Jill.
11. Zach, Brayden, Sam, Wendell listening to the stories.
12. Someone thought it would be funny to have someone dress up in a gorilla outfit for the kids. Brynnlie and Katelyn were not impressed.

13. This is one of my favorite pics. Linds and Kate at Blaine & Lora's house Saturday night (somehow this pic got out of order of the rest, but I'm too lazy to fix it).
14. Saturday was Round 2 of the Hellewell reunion. We went to a park over in Heyburn for lunch, games, and storytime. This is a bunch of my family playing Tug of War (that's a funny phrase - Tug of War - looks funny doesn't it?).
15. Storytime. Anyone who wanted to could get up and tell a story about another family member and then everyone else tried to guess who the story was about.
16. Kalan feeding Jill pudding in a race.
17. Brandt playing volleyball with the rest of my family. He fits right in.
18. Craig is a pretty good baller.
19. Zach trying to save it in the net.
20. Nice block Brandt!
21. My cute momma.
22. After volleyball came football.
23. And after football came water volleyball (back at Blaine and Lora's).
24. Good serving Wendell!

25. Whoa Sarah! What happened?! (Another one of my favorite pics). Blaine makes awesome Dutch Oven chicken and potatoes. Sarah concurs.
26. Brandt and his humungo pile of birthday cakes (yes, cakes-that is plural) and ice cream. Oink.
27. Kalan and Jill watching some fireworks that Ron brought. Thanks Ron!
28. Syd and Nicole - the birthday girl!
29. And now we are on to Sunday (Fourth of July!); Sunday consisted of church in the morning followed by dinner and hanging out at our house. Here's me and Kate after church.
30. I LOVE my family!
31. The Girls.
32. The Boys.
33. I took Kate out to feed apples to the horse. She was too scared to let him eat them out of her hand, so she'd drop them right in front of him for him to grab.
**Ok, I must insert a couple funny stories about Kate - I have the first one on video but wasn't sure if Linds would appreciate me posting it since it involves her daughter being nude (but note to self: go look up the video! HILARIOUS!) Anywho, Kate was sitting on Brandt's lap and I was filming while Brandt asked her questions (are you excited to go home, how are you getting home, etc.) she was being really cute and answering all of his questions, but apparently she was getting bored. I asked her who her favorite uncle was and she says "LOOK!" We look down and she had pulled her panties down without us realizing it and hiked her bum up so it was inches from Brandt's face. It was soooooooooo funny!! He hurried and pushed her off his lap and she laughed hysterically. Brandt got a lot of that girl in a short amount of time - not very long after that (probably 15 minutes later), she peed her pants while Brandt was helping her wash her hands (which I think was the only time she had an accident the entire time she was here; must have been the warm water :) And since Linds and Craig weren't home, Brandt had the privilege of cleaning it up! So funny.
34. Lindsay chopped off Jenny's hair!! I love it, so cute :)
35. This woman LOVES being a grandma.
36. That night Brandt and I went to the Burley Golf Course to watch the fireworks. Good show.

And I just have one video from the weekend to post. The others were a bit longer, so this will suffice; it's Blaine's reaction to seeing Jenny's new 'do for the first time (he was quite fond of her long hair).

"That Your Hair?!"



As you can see we had a great time while Lindsay was here. Lots of late nights, but oh so much fun! Come and play again soon!!

Linds and Kate Come to Play: Part III

Weekend #3: June 25-27

My mom had a reunion with her brothers and sisters in Island Park this weekend and Sam had to work, so it was just Linds & Kate, Me & Brandt, Zach, and Syd left at home to party.



1. On Saturday we went bowling. I'm not very good.
2. Brandt isn't very good either. :)
3. "I'm on a horse."
4. Kate stealing Brandt's pie.
5. "Brandt doesn't share food!"
6. Getting ready for a walk.
7. Rex taking Kate for a walk.
8. Kate and Brandt.
9. Walking along the canal.
10. Kate eyeing the prize.
11. Brandt finally giving in.
12. This was funny - Rex just went over and plopped himself right on top of Brandt.

And again, here are some funny videos from the weekend. They're probably "had to be there" funny, but I figured my mom would appreciate seeing them since she missed out on all the fun - so I'm posting these mostly for her.

"Kate Dancing at the Bowling Alley"



"Waiting for the Beep"
This was so funny - for awhile Kate thought that the light and buzzer were the signal you had to wait for before you could bowl. Little did she know it actually meant she was fouling every single time!



"Kate Helping Brandt Play Scattergories"




"Rex Walking Kate"

Linds and Kate Come to Play: Part II

Weekend #2: June 18-20

My memory is a little bit sketchy on the details of this weekend. And from the looks of it I snapped a total of four pics the entire weekend. Basically we went to Orem to visit family because my cousin, Katie, had a baby shower on Saturday and on Sunday, another cousin, Braden, had his mission homecoming. It was a great weekend full of fun and LOTS of family!

On Saturday a bunch of us younger and more abler ones went to Seven Peaks Water Park. I haven't been there since I was a kid and Brandt had never been there, so it was lots of fun. The Boomerang was intense! I screamed the whole time. Good times. Below is a pic of a bunch of cousins from the dinner at Wendell and Ginger's house after church (seriously, this is probably not even a fourth of us...we are a BIG happy family!

Summer Reading

The Necromancer
By Michael Scott

I just realized I think this is the only book I've read (at least all the way through) all summer. Weird. Although I did spend a solid month with the Girls from Stars Hollow, so I guess the fact that I haven't read much makes sense. Jill introduced me to this series last year (remember this post?). So this is the fourth book in the series and I think my favorite so far. They're getting closer to the end so it is very climatic at the moment. However, I still wasn't completely hooked; I don't know what it is, but for some reason I find the action exciting while I'm reading it, but I forget about it as soon as I put it down. The characters don't stick with me. But still a good summer read.

American Lion
By Jon Meacham

As for the other books that have been on my sidebar for eons now, I'm taking a break from them. I always try really hard to finish a book even if it sucks, just for the satisfaction of completing it. But I'm struggling w/ Andrew Jackson and Wuthering Heights. I should have known with Andrew; it is non-fiction which is not my favorite, but I usually like biographies. This one is just dragging though. It seems like the author spent multiple chapters on the same scandal that the president wasn't really involved in - and it wasn't even that good of a scandal. However, in the hundred pages or so that I did get through I learned some interesting things about the president, so thumbs up for that.

Wuthering Heights
By Emily Bronte

And as for Wuthering Heights, I seriously don't get why this book is a classic. Granted I only made it through part I, and maybe I don't get the full effect by just listening to it as an audiobook, but I don't understand why these characters are so well-known in literature - they aren't very likable. I kind of cheated on this one and looked at some cliff notes I found online, and it doesn't seem like the book gets any better in part 2. However, if anyone out there has read this and thinks it's worth pushing through - let me know. Otherwise, I'm giving up and just watching the movie.

Up Next: The Hunger Games Trilogy!!! I bought the first two books back in February and I'm FINALLY getting around to reading them. I'm just about done with the first one and it is GOOD!

Linds and Kate Come to Play: Part I

Wow, am I behind on blogging? Why, yes I am. This summer has been so fun and so busy; I've loved every minute of it. But since we've stayed so busy the task of blogging has been a bit overwhelming. But since I use this blog as a journal of sorts, I want to get everything on here. So I have vowed not to browse any other blogs until I am caught up with my own. We'll see how it goes...

Lindsay and Katelyn were here visiting from Chicago for about four weeks in June/July. I had to work during the week so I drove down on the weekends so I could spend as much time as I could with the fam. We had so much fun! In fact, the fun is too much to blog about all at once. So I'm breaking it up. Here's a recap of the first weekend:

Weekend #1: June 11-13

1. Friday night we went to dinner with Jill and Nada at Guadalajara. Yum!
2. Kate thought the bean dip was bowl-lickin' good.
3. Syd, Linds, Momma, and Me
4. Mom ordered the steak. Little did she know they whole cow was included.
5. Funny story: I can't remember exactly what happened, but somehow Sydney was startled by something (someone loud behind her?). She was holding her ice water when it happened and ended up knocking a whole bunch of ice water into Bryan's plate!
6. Syd and Linds helping Bryan pick the ice out of his food (way to go Syd!)
7. Me and Kate
8. After Guadalajara, we went back to the house to play games. There's a video posted below where Kate is begging Lindsay for some ice cream. This pic shows who won that argument.
9. Playing "Five Crowns"
10. Kate kept getting in trouble for saying the "S" word (P.S. I did not teach it to her!) Lindsay said "Hell" while we were playing Five Crowns. So Kate put her in Time-Out! She made her go sit on the kitchen floor with her hood on. It was really funny.
11. Lindsay in Time-Out :)
12. Zac and Rex.

13. On Saturday we invited a bunch of family over for Soup Night. I made Zuppa Toscana (the sausage and potato soup from Olive Garden) and Lora made another one that I still need to get the recipe for. Super good food and super good times.
14. Kate enjoying her soup.
15. Jamie and Zac
16. Kate.
17. Zac, Kate, and Jamie playing taxi. Kate has such an imagination. She'll want you to "drive" her to all sorts of places.
18. Jill and Nada. It's not a proper family get-together without games. Tonight: Dominoes!
19. Lindsay.
20. Kate climbing into the fridge all by herself for who knows what.
21. Little stinkpot. Good things she's cute :)
22. Sam surprised us by coming home for the weekend!
23. And of course he brought Guitar Hero with him (I think it may be attached to his hip).
24. By this point Kate was exhausted, but had to stay up and be part of all the action. She'd beat her little drum-sticks while they were playing Guitar Hero, looking so tired.

25. Kate and Stacey swinging.
26. Kate loved having a friend to play with.
27. Grandma loved have TWO grandbabies to play with.
28. Guitar Hero.
29. Rock on Kate.
30. Cheesers.
31. Kate was pretending to wash and style Grandma's hair (see video below). I'm sure she's seen her mom do that a few times :)
32. TWO binkies. Because apparently one just isn't enough.

Very fun weekend! And for those who are interested I posted a few videos below:

"Ice Cream PLEASE!"



"READY! 1, 2!"



"Miss Mary Mack"



"No Running!"



"Kate Running around the Table"
(At first, she was only dancing right by our table; she even got some of the other diners to dance with her. But then it turned into running around all of the tables)



"I Want to Go Outside!"
(This one is just funny because she is usually so happy and spunky. Boy, did she throw a fit when Grandma wouldn't let her go outside!)



"Styling Grandma's Hair"

Finger Puppets

I came across these finger puppets at The Idea Room, one of my favorite craft blogs, and really wanted to make them. Having no kids of my own to make them for, I made them for Katelyn, my super cute niece, as a belated birthday gift and gave them to her when she and Linds were here visiting in June. They were a bit time consuming, mainly because I'm a perfectionist, but they were lots of fun to make. Kate isn't one to sit down and play with toys (she's a bit A.D.D. for that :) but maybe when she's a bit older she'll enjoy them more. Either way, it was a fun project. Brandt and I used it as an opportunity to teach her how to say "Bunny!" like the big guy from "Nightmare Before Christmas." Do you remember that part? It's after the kids kidnap the Easter Bunny and bring him to Jack. Go watch the movie, it's funny :) "Buuuunnieee!" Good times!