My Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to the love of my life. Thirty seven years old today. . . where has the time gone. I was looking at our wedding pictures the other day wow did we look like babies playing dress up! I considered giving you all a side by side of then and now but then realized I wouldn't like to look at how I have aged! Maybe for the fifteen year anniversary!

The best decision I have made to date in my life is marrying this guy. He makes me a better person, and loves me more than I would ever deserve. I love that we still laugh together and enjoy each other. Bret is an amazing father, husband, priesthood holder and man.

I just love that man! I am glad we get to celebrate him today.

Jensen @ 6 Months

(I have misplaced my camera so this is most recent picture of him from our library reading program party about 3 weeks before he was 6 months old!)

SIX MONTHS - where has the time gone? I can hardly believe that it has been that long already- I feel like I should still have a newborn!

He is growing like a weed! He weighed in at his six month appointment at 19 pounds and 8 ounces. To put that into perspective my four year old weighs 23 pounds. He is 28 and half inches long and is in the 97% across the board. He is one big boy and I am feeling it every time I lift his car seat into the car.

He has brought such happiness to our home. I love that kiddo. He is just the happiest and most content little one I have seen. He loves his sisters to pieces and they love him. It is funny with the birth of each child it seems like they fit right into place and I can't remember what it was like to not have them a part of our family. The same is true with my Jensen. I can't put into words how I feel about him and what he has brought to our family. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has given me such beautiful, wonderful and sweet spirited children.

Some fun facts about Jensen:

• his pediatrician says "he's not obese, just fat"
• wearing 9-12 month clothes has been since June!
• Julia can make him laugh so hard by just looking at him funny
• he is a mommas boy- and momma is loving it!
• he continues to nurse like crazy every three hours and is taking no interest in baby food.
• We were at the pool enough this summer that he got a baby tan- pull open his rolls and you'll find they are pretty white inside!
• he just rolled over to his belly but prefers lying on his side.
• when he gets tired he can't close his mouth- it is just too much work to pull those cheeks up when your tired.
• he is number one little boy in the Water's house.

Eve and Anna took a computer movie class this summer. Eve did hers on Jensen here is a little clip from it! He has since added on two more rolls onto those thighs!

Trampoline

Yesterday I finally finished painting the ceiling of our family room. After I finished I laid down on the couch to check for missed spots. I was hot and sweaty so I pulled my shirt up to cool off, exposing my belly. Then my little Anna came along jumped up on the couch looked down at my stomach and said, "how come Jensen gets his own trampoline and I don't?" I asked what she was talking about and her reply was- "he gets to jump on your belly trampoline it is so mushy and bouncy like a trampoline."
Ha Ha. . . thanks Anna.
Now I know I haven't been to the gym at all this summer, we've have eaten out way to much this summer. But isn't lifting a 17 pound 4 month old, strapped into his car seat in and out of a giant SUV four to five times a day considered good ab work out? Apparently not.

Splash

Today we went to one of my favorite places in town. The fountain at The America The Beautiful Park. It is this huge water fountain that is free and kid friendly for kids of all ages. There also a really great park and in a few years when some of the newly planted trees have grown it will be perfect for those hot summer days. I just wish I would have thrown on my swimsuit to- instead I ended up in wet jean shorts. I hate the feeling of wet jeans!

From this picture of the girls at the playground you would never know that this park is in the middle of downtown. I love where we live, I love love love summer and I have really loved spending the summer with my children. I can't believe school will be starting in a month- we have hardly scratched the surface of all the fun things I wanted to do.

Anything for a free meal

My hubby thinks I am crazy but I love a good deal, a free coupon or some kind of gig that allows me to save money or get things for free. So of course we participated in cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a. Dress like a cow and get a free meal. White tee-shirts and some black construction paper dots and a little face paint and the kids get to eat out and I don't have to cook!

LOVE IT!

Eve is 10!

Eve turned ten- I can not belive she is already ten. She is turning into such a beautiful young lady and I love her to pieces. We got her a mountain bike- she loves riding and has unbelievable stamina she will ride for miles and never want to stop. She keeps remind us all that she is in the double digits now. Funny girl.

I LOVE YOU GIRLIE!  

I need a vacation from my vacation

I feel the same way you do Jensen. . .

We took our family vacation a few weeks ago. It was one of those weeks that we will look back on and laugh someday just not today!

We went to Buena Vista not very far away, stayed in a friends cabin, and planned fun cheap and or free activities because this year we were doing a fun, inexpensive simple vacation. Should of gone for the crazy busy, super expensive kind instead!

Let me just count some of the many ways this very random vacation became not a vacation:

• STOMACH FLU. Eve puked the whole way there. So we quarantined her to a back bedroom for the first day, cleaned the bedding, washed down the room in hopes that it wouldn't be passed on to Boyd and Mary (Bret's brother's family). We thought we made it out free and clear but Boyd got sick the last day, and then all of his kids puked the whole car ride home to Utah.
• Everywhere we went we either got lost going or it took twice as long as planned.  I want a tom tom for Christmas! We ended up with a flat tire behind some private lake on a dirt road in the middle of no where while looking for the perfect pinic spot. Four brand new tires after we got back. . .
• Eliza took a major face plant into the tile floor cutting her lip up and making the two front teeth we have invested a great deal of money in very tender and possibly loose. Still a few years before those are supposed to come out.
• Horseback riding was the highlight of the vacation. Eliza was to small to ride but couldn't wait for the hay ride. The hay ride guy didn't show up for work so they offered us a pony ride instead. But when the pony was bigger then her my little ponies at home she was a little heart broken.
• 
  
  Taking the boat out was the big finale. We drove around the lake for nearly an hour looking for the boat ramp (which ended up being 5o feet from the front gate of the lake). Then it was so windy we could not take it out. Bummer hauled it all that way for it to just look good on the back of the car. If you have seen the boat you know I am kidding by "look good."
• Fished in the crazy wind and ate peanut butter and dirt sandwiches. . .
• Upon leaving my exhausion hit all I wanted to do was turn on a movie for the kids and get home. DVD player broken.
• This then cause Julia to cry for a full two hours about everything she could possibly come up with. She missed the cabin already, she'll never see her cousin again, it is raining outside, her flip flop fell off everything. . .
• Last we told the kiddos we would stop at this really fun BBQ joint on the way home for dinner. Two hour wait for some ribs- I was beyond being patient so we did not wait which made the crying to begin again.

I have never been so glad to get back to real life!

But on the bright side- it was beautiful up there and I am so grateful to live in such a wonderful and beautiful place. It was great to spend time with our family and create memories if even for me they weren't so great. The kids had a great time. That's all that really matters.

I recently read a quote/story about a man who took his son fishing and wrote in his journal that night. "Took my son fishing, total waste of a day." Later it was discovered that his son wrote in his own journal that same night and his said, "Went fishing with my dad, best day of my life."

Maybe that is how the girls will view this trip.