What an adventure July was!
We continue into our second month of staying with family members in Utah while we are waiting to move into our new place. Gerald likes his new job working at Think Architects in Salt Lake.
The month started out staying a week at Jeremy and LeRita's house. Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds were also there for the week, and it was nice to have some time all together before grandma and grandpa leave on their mission to London. Katelee LOVED playing with her cousins and 'sleeping over' in their room each night.
Blake liked to make messes on their big high chair tray.
During our stay there, we celebrated the Fourth of July!
Blake and Aunt LeRita making the same face. :)
I gave all the girls fancy Fourth of July hair-do's.
Lindley got star braids,
Laurinda a fireworks bun,
and Katelee little firecracker buns.
My little firecracker!
The girls!
I love this picture of my two sweethearts!
All the kids in their red, white and blue!
Jeremy and LeRita treated us all to an early dinner at a delicious pizza cafe.
Later that evening, we enjoyed a wonderful fireworks show on the grass of the local school. Katelee and the other cousins loved playing with all the glow sticks grandma bought them. Here Katelee is pretending to be the Statue of Liberty.
Towards the end of that first week of July, we spent a fun day with our friends, the Thaynes. Blake got to dress up in his first superhero cape. Super Baby!
And we enjoyed the swimming pool in the afternoon.
Katelee and Alexis floating together.
Fun sidenote: So, the Thaynes are the people who we are actually renting our townhome from now. So, we spent many fun days swimming in that pool after moving in before the pool closed for the season. :) Katelee has always LOVED swimming, and so I am glad that Blake has followed her example. Few things make him happier than a dip in the pool - he giggles and laughs and splashes and loves it!
The weekend after the fourth of July, we moved to stay with my Aunt Darla and Uncle Scott in their Highland home for a few weeks. We are so grateful to all our family who have so generously opened their homes to us this summer!
We had a wonderful time staying at Darla's. Katelee loved the trampoline, the pool table, and playing in Brianna's 'secret room.' She also adores her big cousins and loves to follow them around. :)
One Saturday in July, we went to Provo to enjoy two of our very favorite things: good friends and BYU Campus! We met up with the Macks, some of our dearest friends from Denver, who happened to be visiting in Utah for awhile. We went to the BYU Creamery for ice cream cones and a park for some fun playtime. It was so wonderful to see the Macks again. Our kids love each other, and Blake and sweet Presley got to meet everyone for the first time! :)
The whole gang!
BYU Campus feels more like 'home' to me than almost any other place in the world. Love that place.
Casey Ann and I holding each others babies.
Another weekend in July brought another memorable experience. It was the annual extended family reunion for Blake's birthfamily. The reunion was being held in Idaho, and they invited us to come along. Gerald had to work, however, so they were kind enough to stop in Utah and pick up me and the kids to come along. It was nice to spend time with Blake's birthmom, Aurianna, her sister, Gretchen, and her mom, Annalee. We love them all so much! It was also an amazing opportunity to meet the entire extended family. They were wonderful. They opened their hearts to us and treated all of us just like family. Katelee jumped right in and loved playing with all the little cousins. We had a fun and inspirational experience, and I am glad they all had a chance to meet us and Blake, and that we got to know what wonderful, loving people they all were!
Katelee enjoying the water slide/bouncy house on our first day there!
Tractor rides!
Blake enjoying the baby swing!
Katelee enjoying the tire swing!
Katelee also had a ton of fun playing at the river, floating the river, and so forth.
Aurianna and Blake (above), wow this picture makes me realize how alike they look!!
Annalee and Blake (below)
Katelee wearing her mayflower pole hair wreath that the girls all made. :)
The maypole!
You know, if you had told me a couple of years ago that not only would I someday have an open adoption, but that I would attend the birth family's huge family reunion, I probably would have thought that sounded...well, crazy! I am so grateful to the Lord for softening and opening our hearts during this whole adoption process. I feel as if we've gained a whole new branch to our family tree, and what a blessing that is! More people in our lives that love and care about us . . . what an amazing thing!
In other July news, Blake started insisting that he feed himself with his spoon.
The only problem with that is that he can't feed himself with his spoon. :) All the food ends up either in his ears, on his head, or on the floor. Exactly 0% ends up in his mouth.
Our compromise. He gets to hold a spoon in each hand while I feed him (so he can't grab the one out of my hand)! What a funny baby!
We celebrated Pioneer Day on July 24th by watching the moving 17 Miracles, which is very touching, and by going up into the canyon with our friends the Nelsons and the Thaynes to enjoy the mountains, dinner and good conversation.
Daddy and Blake enjoying the mountains.
Mommy and Blake looking at the river - Blake thinks it's funny!
Some of the big kids, kings of the mountain!
Oooo, leaves!
I love living so close to the mountains again - 10 minutes into the canyon!
Blake wrapped up the final week of July by getting his first teeth! Two cute little teeth on the bottom! And also by learning to crawl! I can't believe how fast these little ones grow and change. Here he is showing off his brand new crawling skills:
And
finally, to keep myself sane this month, here's a little project I did
for myself. I made this wreath out of book pages to hang in our new
house when we move in. I did most of it while enjoying the Summer
Olympics after the kids were asleep. Good memories! I love how it turned out. Thanks to Tiff, for storing it for me until we could move in in August!
Oh, July, you were so much fun and soooo busy. I haven't even mentioned all the fun we had in July yet.
For
example, I got to see Elizabeth, one of my very best friends from
Denver, while she was in town. We went to frozen yogurt one night and
got to talk the night away. How I miss that!
And
one of my friends since high school, Robin, spent a fun evening
celebrating her daughter's birthday with us and letting the kids all
play.
And we went to The Brick Oven one night with my cousins Micheal and Brianna. Fun times and yummy food!
And
we met the Emery family, friends since our BYU days, one night for
frozen yogurt and a tour of their new house which was under
construction. It was so great to see them again and catch up on all the
new and exciting things going on in their lives!
And I'm sure I'm forgetting even more...July, you were so much fun, but also exhausting!
Good-bye until next year!
