My Little Miss Zoey (almost 16 months)

I haven't written about Zoey for the past couple months, and man is she CUTE! She has such a personality and knows just what she wants. When she is walking around the house, she usually has one hand on her hip and has the cutest run. She slaps her feet down so hard, you can hear her coming a mile away. She says so many words, or at least sounds like words. Dada, is her favorite, mama, pepsi, good night, good morning, milk, candy, no no, bye bye, eat, poop. She knows who we all are and will give us "loves" on demand. (Give Dada loves. Give Wolfie loves.) She even lets Max hug her and she'll go sit on his lap if he is sitting still long enough. She still doesn't like her hair to be combed. She eats everything and drops pieces of it on the floor for Wolfie. She loves her blankie more than anything and has to carry and drag it everywhere. She will wrap herself up in it and just walk around. She takes great naps and will often times sleep in til 10 if we don't have to be up for anything. She gets into things and will make a mess faster than I can catch her. She likes to carry her purse and knows just how to do it. She mimics me when I'm doing something, like putting on make up or wiping the counter or sweeping the floor. She is getting more independent, but still likes to be held by me or Pat. She loves Nana and will go to her freely. She also loves several of my friends. She is quite stubborn and will not give up until she gets what she wants, usually with tantrums or screaming or pulling. She loves baby dolls and baby strollers. She'll steal her friend's and push it all around. When I'm making food in the kitchen, she gets excited if she hears the snow cone maker on or the popcorn in the microwave. She thinks she is a big kid and loves running with all the neighborhood kids and being where they are. Or if we are laughing, she'll start laughing like she gets what we're talking about. It's so funny. The boys love her so much and always want to help her or pick her up. She is such a joy and usually always happy.

First Day of First Grade

Lukas is on year-round school, which means his summer is 3 weeks long. It has gone fast, but we did some fun things! He was excited to start and go all day. His first day went well, he wasn't scared to go and he lasted all day. I put a little note in his backpack to tell him I loved him and hoped he had a good day. The next day, he handed me a similar note and told me if I missed him too much, that I could pull the note out and read it. So cute!!! The hardest adjustment for him is probably that he can't stay up so late since he has to get up so early. There were a few kids that he knew in his class from last year, so that has been fun for him. His teacher is Mrs. Foreman, who is so nice, sweet but firm. He has to learn his lunch code, so he can get hot lunch, and he gets to bring a "sneak a snack" since lunch is so late in the day. He goes from 8:55 to 3:55. It is hard for me to have him gone for so long. With just Max and Zoey at home, we have lots of time to play and get things done (or so I thought...it's still so hard to get things done!)

Legacy Ranch Neighborhood

One of our dear friends (Erin) moved out of the neighborhood, so we thought it would be fun to have all the kids get together for a picture. This isn't even all of them!!! It is great to live by so many fabulous families and such fun kids. It can get crazy at times, but we LOVE it. :)

Pineview Reservoir

One fun thing we did this summer is travel to Pineview Reservoir and stay for 3 nights. Papa and Nana treated, and we all took turns with meals. Jared and Rebecca came with their family and we had such a great time. There was a swimming pool in the complex and we had our own hot tub on the deck. There was plenty of room and things to do. We saw David O. McKay's house, went rafting on the lake, saw the quaint town of Huntsville, went to the Monastery (no munks to be found), swam, and played at a fun playground. It was a great vacation! And the drive was only a few hours! The kids had so much fun with their cousins. Papa wasn't feeling great a lot of the time, so he rested mostly, which is understandable. Zoey was a horrible sleeper :( but other than that, a great time was had by all!!!!

Girl's Night Out-SNOWBIRD

Every 6 months or so, we plan a GNO sleepover with our friends. It seems to grow in number every time-how lucky for us to have such fun friends!!! This will be our second time going up to Snowbird. Whitney, Windy and I drove up early to get things set up. It was Ericka's bday and we wanted to decorate for her. The rest of the girls came later and we ordered Olive Garden and ate it in our room. There were 8 of us. It was SO much fun. There was a hot tub on the balcony (which we used while sipping our snow cones) and we stayed up talking, snacking and laughing. We do secret sister gifts for each other--which is my favorite part of the night. We buy a "favorite thing" to share with each girl then wrap it up and open with each other. Whit, Windy and I went in on something together and made everyone a friend book. It was a lot of work to put together (and just a little drama to go with it) but SO worth it. We made a page for each girl, then wrote what we loved about them in it. We stayed up 'til we couldn't stay up any more and then crashed. In the morning we headed for the pool and had a good laugh at the squirrels that nipped at our feet and the moose sighting. We headed home, but not before stopping at Five Guys and Nothing Bunt Cakes to fill our empty tummies. There is nothing like spending the weekend with a group of girls and pigging out! :)

The Fourth of July

We had a BBQ at Gma Sonia's to start off our 4th of July celebrations. They boys ran around, caused trouble and swam in the pool. We ate lots of yummy food and just sat around and visited. It was a little rainy, but that didn't stop us from enjoying things. After our BBQ, we came home to prep for our big fireworks show. And can I just say, WOW?! We had several neighbors contribute and man was it HUGE! This is the first year that Utah allows aerials, so all night (and week actually) there were booms and crackles lighting up the sky. It was pretty amazing, and the kids had fun watching and running around. I don't know what we'll do next year. There was no topping that show. :)

Fort Night

Pat worked this weekend (nights) so the kids and I decided to build a fort. We had so much fun! We rented a movie, popped popcorn and played games in our fort. Even Zoey had a good time. It's moments like this that I want to always remember. So carefree and just plain FUN! Thanks kids for a great weekend!