Give-a-way site

This is a great site. Right now they are giving away awesome facial cleansing and moisturizing products. Go to: http://www.simple-finds.com/2010/08/wash-your-face.html

And they have a giveaway closing on the 2nd for an etsy account that makes cute girl dresses! Check it out here: http://www.simple-finds.com/2010/08/just-knot-it.html

Summer 2010

Braden's first day back to school

Today is Braden's official first day of school - starting at 7:30 this morning! We have had so much fun this summer and have loved having 3 months off of work! This summer has been full of relaxing, little trips and lots of yard work. Below are some pictures to illustrate.

My mom, Arrie, and I went to Gardner Village one day

We made some adirondack chairs this summer!

Arrie's first time in the pool!

24th of July in Mapleton - it's a BIG deal!

She always grabs my face like this, but usually she gets my glasses!

Arrie's first boyfriend. He is in our ward and is 11 months old.
She attacks him every time she sees him.

At the end of a LONG morning/afternoon!

Braden and his dad finished our walkway that morning!

At the beginning of August we got to all go to a friend's cabin in Heber - it was SO fun! Braden's parents, my parents, my cousin Amy Kagel, and us.

While Amy was here the girls took a day to spend in Park City!Chowin' down! She loves to eat whatever we are eating!

This is our "Super Girl!" You say that and this is what Arrie does!

Lone baby in the road!

Arrie's first car

She was not happy here - I had to capture it, she has the saddest sad faces

Her 2nd time in a pool this summer, this time with her swimsuit!

And for the biggest part of our summer....Braden put in an entire new sprinkler system! Here is our house one year ago when we bought it:

The lawn might be green...but our water bill was HUNORMOUS! The entire system, we found out this year, was run with funny pipe, there was no pressure.

So, he dug trenches (involving the trencher falling over, and then having to dig deeper by hand afterwards anyways) and laid the pipe, hooked up the heads, and then we found out we had to replace the water main! :) So he dug another trench and got that all hooked up. The grass is only green around our flower beds but here is a pic of the progress so far.

And here you can see our new mailbox!

And this is the new system! :)

The grass is starting to come back - I will post another picture when it is all green and beautiful. Oh, you can also see that we got rid of the railroad ties.

Arrie's walking!

Hey, so Braden and I have been working on getting Arrie to walk by herself. Today she has done really well. This is the first we got her progress on video tonight at Dairy Queen with the family! I can't believe how fast our little girl has grown up. She will be 10 months old tomorrow! I love her so much - I still can't believe she is my baby sometimes.

She is testing the waters more and more lately to see what we will let her get away with - kids are so smart. She has been extremely defiant with eating the last two days. It is cute (now that I am not in the moment but reflecting on it) when she doesn't want something, she will turn her head as far to the side and up as she can, almost seeming to say - "NOPE, you're not getting that in my mouth if I have any control over the situation!" She does love to eat whatever we are eating though - and the good thing is that includes broccoli, beets, fruits, pasta, bread, you name it - she wants it. I think, about her baby food, she thinks: "If this stuff is so good, why aren't Mom and Dad eating it?"

She loves hide-and-seek. I will run behind the wall and she will scoot her way over to find me. She pokes her head around the wall and squeals when she sees me. She loves her grandmas and grandpas so much. She saw DeLanea and Kathy at DQ tonight in the parking lot and got the biggest smile! I swear she thinks, "What the heck! - where did you guys come from? I see you in the strangest places Grandmas!"

Arrie loves Pogi. She will try and get his toys from him and he is very good with her. When she succeeds she holds it up to show us like "look - I got it!" She LOVES ice cream - you can't feed it to her fast enough. If ice cream were dinner we would have no problems. Arrie LOVES her Daddy. Braden has had to work the last two days (Summer has ended) and today when he came home she was taking a nap. So when she woke up, I went and got her and said, "Where's Daddy?" She was looking all around. I took her downstairs to "Daddy" and when she saw him she got the biggest smile. I brought her over to Braden and she just laid her head on his chest - she was so happy to have him home.

Well, that's all coming to my mind about how Arrie is doing at this point. Enjoy the movie clip. I gotta say - it's pretty dang cute! :)