Playing Catch Up

Ok so this week I am finally back into the swing of things, why you ask.?., well, hello, the Olympics are over. I was sucked into a 17 day whirlwind of excitement. I was addicted. I watched from the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony. I did the daily minimum chores, just to get by, and spent the rest of my days watching the games. I was up late, up early and up all the time, or so it seemed. But alas, back to reality. Which means catching up on a few family outings.

Prettyman Family Pictures;

Another day at Lagoon;

Big Thanks to Aunt Kimmie and Franklin Covey for the completely free day!! Kim called the night before they were going to ask if they could take Alec and Chloe with them. She also said she was able to get an extra ticket if I wanted to go too. Of Course I wanted to go. Luckily my mom was off work that day so she was able to watch Kate. I pick up Jackson and Tyson, my two nephews who were also going, dropped of Kate, picked up Kim and then the 6 of us headed out. Michael, Kim's hubby, and Marilyn, aka Grandma, met us a couple of hours later. It was awesome. After countless kiddie rides, all the kids rode The Bat, The Log Flume and Rattlesnake Rapids with us. Alec and Jackson rode The White Roller Coaster and Wild Mouse with Kim and Michael, Chloe and Tyson were too short, and Michael, Marilyn and I rode Wicked, only ones brave enough :) It was a really fun day! Thanks again Kim!

A look at our Nations History;When we told Alec we were going to go see one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence that was being shown at the State Capitol, he was not to excited. I told him he could be like Benjamin Gates, Nicholas Cage in National Treasure, and look for the hidden map on the back and he thought that was pretty cool. He never did ask why we couldn't do it when we finally got up to take a peek, maybe the 2 1/2 hours in line made him forget?? Totally worth it though, I am glad the kids got to see it!

All this before....

Smiling

Laughing

Rolling Over

Sitting Independently

Sitting Up (unassisted)

Crawling

Pulling Self Up

Furniture Cruising

Standing Up (from the middle of the floor unassisted)

Walking (first time 7 steps, no pictures happened at my parents on Aug 11th)

Figured Out How To Go Down The Stairs (about 5 minutes after taking first steps, again no camera with me)

OK, so what's the point. Nothing special right, she is 11 months old...totally normal behavior thus far.

Except for the fact that it all happened before this;

First pony/clippie! 08/25/2008 11 months old, exactly.

I figured I had to do something. She has been mistaken for a boy her whole life, even in a pink dress...Some People, because she is so bald. I know there are tons of cute headbands with detachable clippies, we have them, she won't leave them on! Anyway, on Sunday I noticed that the top was long enough to put a little curl in.

Alec asked, "Why did you make Kate a boy/girl?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Alec's reply, "A dress and a Mohawk?"

No mistaken with the new do, Chloe put it best, "Oh Kate, you are a girl!"

Could we have a normal first day???

We are cursed. We are 1 for 4 on normal first days of school here at Snow Springs Elementary. We moved here a few months into Alec's first grade year. This was the first cursed year. I forgot that in this school district early out day is Monday, instead of Friday like the school we moved from. I got a call about 15 minutes after school let out asking if I was going to come pick Alec up. Whoops!! The first day of Alec's second grade year he insisted that he was big enough to just go to class by himself on the first day. I let him think I thought he was big enough also and dropped him off and let him go merrily on his way. In the meantime I went to park the car so I could inconspicuously watch from afar and let him be the big kid he thought he was but I would know that he was OK. Well by the time I got to the back of the school the kids were lining up to go in....no Alec. I waited and watched....no Alec. I went into his classroom....no Alec. I got the feeling Alec got panicked and might have headed home. I started driving home....no Alec. By the time I got back to our house, our neighbor stopped me and said that she had seen Alec running back home, upset and bawling. She had taken him home, but when I wasn't there she took him over to Aunt Jenna, who lived just around the corner. I told her my evil planned failed miserably. I went and got Alec from Jenna and took him back to school. So this brings us up to last year. Alec's first day of third grade went off without a hitch...curse broken!! WRONG! Yesterday was Alec's first day of fourth grade. Even though he didn't want me to, I walked back with him and made sure all went well, no more evil plans for me! After lunch the girls and I headed grocery shopping. I was hustling around to make sure we got back to the school by 2:30, I no longer forget that Monday is early out day. About 1:45 my cell beeped that I had missed a call. I looked at it and saw 3 missed calls from home. "Weird!" I thought. Then I figured that Eric may have forgotten something and come home. So I called home. Alec answers, "Hi Mom", "You didn't come to get me so I just walked home." I asked him why he was home early and he said that all my clocks must be wrong because everybody left when he did. So I asked him how his day went told him I was just about done and would be home soon. Then I got to thinking about the timing of his arrival home. We have 2 start times for school. He got confused and instead of going out to recess with late start, and left for home with early start...Oh well, all's well that ends well!

Alec's Summer of Sports

Last summer I was very pregnant with Kate so we did not get around to doing much, sports wise that is. This summer we made up for it.

For the entire month of June from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday Alec had football camp. The first hour was strength and endurance training and the second hour was scrimmage. He absolutely loved it.

Then for the entire month of July from 10:00 am to 11:00 am on Tuesday and Thursday he had tennis. After the first week of tennis, he said he liked it better than football, but only because there wasn't as much running. Obviously they were only working on skills and not yet playing any matches.
I told him that as soon as he got to the point where they play actual tennis matches he would be running a ton. I mean come on, in football you run about 2 yards and then fall down....right?? :)

Camping at Wasatch

One of our favorite traditions is our yearly camping trip up to Wasatch Mountain State Park. We try to go every August. My parents, the kids and I, and my brother Jordan and his wife Becca headed out early Friday afternoon, and then Eric drove up after work and joined us. My brother Paul and his wife Eliza stayed at home with 2 week old Annie, but the older 2 boys William and Emery came with us. Thank goodness for this because I think it made the trip much more fun for Alec and Chloe. I was a little nervous to take an active 10 month old, but Kate did awesome! We had a wonderful 2 days. We ate fire roasted hot dogs and corn for dinner both nights, made smores, played games, played in the dirt and went fishing. Chloe was the first to catch a fish this year and she caught 2 the first night down to the pond.

The second day, the guys headed up to Kamas to fish along the Provo river where Becca has a family cabin. They had a great time and both Alec and Jordan caught fish. While Jordan was gutting his fish in the river, he lost grip of it and had to chase it about 45 feet down stream. The cut-up leg picture above is what you get when you chase a dead fish down stream. He informed us that he is the only one ever to ever catch the same fish twice, once dead and once alive that is :) While all this was going on, us girls headed down to Park City to the outlet mall. I got all the school shopping done, a very successful trip indeed! This has truly been the summer of perfect outings, minus our little trip to Moab early in the summer of course. I hope the kids have had fun and are ready to start back to school, since that is only 2 weeks away from today....holy cow (I think I am kinda excited actually!).

Ay-hoy-ye-maties

Once a month we have Sunday family dinner. We do this for both Eric's family and mine. It is a great way to stay close and see everybody pretty often.

This month my Mom, aka Banana (one day I will enlighten you as to why she is called that), held the dinner on the 24th of July and planned a fun theme dinner.It was a Hawaiian Luau/Treasure Hunt.

It was a blast. The kids had to find hidden clues in bottles and follow a treasure map to find the hidden loot. They loved it.

At one point they had to pop balloons to move to the next clue. It created a pretty funny moment!

Just a little update on Opa. As you can see, he lost his hair. We think he looks fabulous. He tolerated the first round of chemo really well and went in for his second round yesterday. He has good days and bad days, but the good have outweighed the bad. He is so strong and such a fighter. We just pray that he keeps enduring so well!

We got Annie!

I feel like a really bad Aunt, but the fact that this cute little addition joined our family 1 week ago today and I am now just getting to the post is not my fault. I was unable to download the pictures due to the fact that the cords, yes both of them, went missing. I found one today so here she is.

Annie Patricia

Born July 23

7 lbs 19 inches

She has two older brothers and so my brother Paul and his wife Eliza are ecstatic to add a little girl into the mix. Annie evens out the grandkids on the Crosby side. There are now 3 boys and 3 girls. So Fun! We are so glad they are all doing well.