The Last Half

Before writing this post, I felt like we didn't do a whole lot during the year (yet I never feel like I have a spare moment). After looking through all these wonderful memories, 2014 has treated us well.

Warning: Photo dump from not posting for 6 months. I am pretty sure my sister might be the only one to endure this whole post ;)

July

Fourth of July complete with water balloon fight (Jared getting tossed in the pool twice by Mike), good food, good company, and of course, fire works.

August

Scarlett was my partner in crime to bottle 20lbs of tomatoes and 3/4 bushel each of pears and peaches. I have never canned anything by myself, it ended up quite a success!

 

September

We went fishing up Cold Creek. It was smaller than we expected and people said there are fish (we didn't see any), but still nice to get away from the city.

  

It was also fun to swim in the wild horses' water hole.

The day came when Scarlett was finally able to go to preschool. Scarlett said she missed school as soon as we got home. Then asked me why she can't stay all day and sleep at school! I told her I would miss her. "But, Mom. You can just have another baby. Like a girl one and name her Scarlett."

We went to Wyoming. On the way, I got my wisdom teeth out. Not so bad until I got sick from the medicine. It was a horrible trip...for me. The kids and Mike had a great time! 

We went to Gilcrease Orchard's pumpkin patch with Scarlett's preschool. They each got to pick a pumpkin and Scarlett picked the smallest one she could find! I made August pick a bigger one to make the $5 I paid for him worth it.

October 

We got a new friend! Bubbles, the guinea pig. She even got to go to preschool for "G" day.

Lisa and I threw Bethany a baby shower. Chelsea was in town from Canada (our husbands were all in Chiropractic school together in Portland). It was such a fun reunion! That night we went to Mystere, Bellagio water fountains, and double price smoothies at Jamba on the strip.

 Ward trunk or treat. Ursula, King Triton, Ariel, and Jake (pirates and mermaids totally go together). I could not convince August to be Flounder or Sebastian.

Halloween!!! Potion juice, veggie cat, breadstick bones, and cuties decorated like pumpkins.

Ariel and Jake (from Jake the Neverland Pirates). August got a free sword at a house! Those big brown eyes will get ya every time.

 November

Scarlett learned to ride her bike with no training wheels!

Meanwhile, August can't keep up on his balance bike :(

Mike's Grandma died right before Thanksgiving. We drove to Wyoming Monday through the night. Wednesday was the funeral and I made the 11 hour journey back to Vegas with 2 kids to see my family who was in town from the East coast. 

Before we left, the kids got to play in the snow!

August could not get enough!

Thanksgiving with the Nishimotos. (Hooray for making it back to Vegas in one piece!) Great Grandpa was a good sport and took a funny picture with his great grand kids.

It was so nice we had to take advantage of the beautiful weather!

December

Making our gingerbread house!

Scarlett's preschool Winter Program. It was adorable! 2 weeks to prepare with Thanksgiving being so late...they did great!

Curtsies and bows to finish it off!

That's our last half of 2014 in a nutshell. 

Well, the good parts, anyway. :)

'piderman!

August is now in his terrible 2's! 

Accept, how terrible can this face be? I mean really?

We celebrated with a double "piderman" birthday party. My brother happened to be in town so Kevin got to be in on the party too!

Two and six. Blowing out the candles.

August couldn't wait to play with his own Spiderman toy.

Could. Not. Wait.

 Obligatory snap shot with Great Grandpa. We probably should have put a shirt on August, but take a gander at the look on his face. Lucky to get him in the photo at all. Wouldn't even sit on the couch, that stinker!

Happy Birthday, August dude!

August-isms at 2:

-This kid can jump! Even off the arms of our couch (which are as tall as August is).

-Pro climber. Other moms at the park will always help him or ask who's baby he is because they think he's doing something dangerous. At 18 months I helped A up a playplace and a lady thought I was crazy..."usually kids that age don't like that and being up that high..." Well, you just don't know August. 

-Likes to eat salad. And meat. And RICE. He's so Asian.  -.-

-Always gets out of the tub before Scarlett because he's cold.

-Super cuddly. Loves his ducky blanket and Steve (Deseret Book alligator).

-Loves to punch, kick, or hit anything. Including Scarlett.

-Knows what McDonald's looks like (recognizes the golden arches) and will shout "fench fies!" if he sees one.

-Says, "Uh huh." Never says "yes." The more excited he is the more the "HUH" is emphasized.

-Spills something at least once a day. I finally broke down and put plastic over our table. 

Mom van and now plastic covered furniture...life is wonderful.

Playhut hut hut

Vegas is hot. 

If we go outside in the summer we swim. 

If we don't go outside, I look up "rainy day" activities.

Or watch Netflix. 

Mostly just Netflix.

Oh, too much Netflix....

This day, we got out our giant playhut house!

August thought the grapes were more fun to roll than to eat.

Whatever keeps them busy!

Awesome Home Away From Home

We try to make it to Wyoming (Mike's hometown) at least once a year. When we lived there for the summer, I never wanted to live there. But now, after every time we visit, I wish it was an option.

There are awesome bugs...

but there are also mosquitos. On our drive Scarlett had to go potty so we stopped. We couldn't even get out because Mike let it 5 mosquitos. Eaten before we even got there...

Awesome hiking up Strawberry...with snow! ....in June!

Awesome views.

Along with awesome faces.

This is our city folk hiking gear...

Deanne and Jerry plan to sell their house. We have yet found a way to transfer the awesome willows in the back.

Although it was rainy and overcast a lot of the time we were there, it was nice to get out of the Vegas heat.

This pile of logs and branches Michael had made into forts many moons ago. Kyle helped the littles rebuild a pretty cool Eeyore house.

Meanwhile, the rest of us enjoyed a bonfire at the "camp ground". Thanks to Brandon for his awesome go-pro pictures :)

More snow on the hike up to the intermittent spring which obviously was a raging river this time of year and not so intermittent.

We all made it down and no one got washed away in the river!

Making ice cream!

Collecting chickie eggs.

More wilderness adventures up Grover Park.

One last swing.

August had to spend his actual birthday in the car. We didn't have cake, but luckily Maverick had ice cream!

On our way out, we visited Great Grandma. She is over 100!

Some conversations to remember.

Zoey shared a sucker with Scarlett.

S: I'll give it back when you count all those trees.

Z: 1, 2, 3, I can't count all those trees!! Scarlett won't give me it back!

Jana found Scarlett and Zoey walking down the road carrying some chicken eggs.

J: What are you guys doing??

S: Well, you know........we were just going to throw them....

If you're not pictured out...there are more on fb ;)