July 2015

Dear friend,

July was heaven!  We had so much fun spending time with friends and family.  The month kicked off with a Sarager (my mom's extended family) Family Reunion at Tober over the 4th of July weekend.  We had a great group and it was a blast to catch up with cousins I hadn't seen in years.

My entire family was there so it was fun to all be together.   

Tober was absolutely gorgeous.  It felt magical. 

We held a family olympics, 

enjoyed time in the pond, 

and caught up with loved ones. 

Summer was on cloud nine, playing with all her cousins.  

They had multiple tea parties, 

and loved going on Tober adventures.  

There are lots of fun swings around the property so all of the kids enjoyed discovering those. 

Smith charmed everyone as he put on every hat he could possibly find.  

 

Boyd didn't even acknowledge anyone else until he discovered a water gun for the first time in his life. 

Then he was the life of the party!  (Elias of course, was quick to join in the fun.)

 We took the kids to the fish hatchery and they each caught their first fish.  

  

I have great memories of fishing (at hatcheries) as a kid so it was fun to take them.   

After the reunion we talked my sister Corie and her kids into coming down to Santa Fe for a few days before returning home.  We had a blast!

We went to a concert in the plaza with a picnic dinner one night. 

 

 My kids love Corie so it was fun to discover that they went to her bed in the morning when they woke up and not mine.  She texted me this picture from bed at 7:30am.   

 And we of course love her kids.  They are such a riot and Summer was thrilled about her first slumber party.  Thanks for visiting Hawks!!!

The fun continued as we got to have Nana come for two days.  It is always so much fun to have her come and Elias treated us to a girls night so that was even better!

 The kids have been a riot lately.  Summer will come up with ideas and rope the boys into helping her.  This was a circus performance they put on called, "Rock Star Summer and her Brothers the Back-Up Drummers".  

 This picture doesn't look like much, but it perfectly depicts these three on any given outing.  Boyd charges full-speed ahead, without care or concern for staying close to anyone.  Summer keeps a healthy pace following Boyd while making up a song and/or picking flowers along the way, and Smith is our Pokey Little Puppy, discovering the world one rock, bug, and car at a time.  

Summer is becoming a big kid and it makes me so sad.  Each morning she still shows me how big she got over night, and still reassures me, "Don't be sad about it Mom.  I'll still be your girl."  She says "headfore" instead of "forehead" and E and I just love it too much to correct her.  

She still loves crafting and doing "big girl" things with friends.  She has started to use phrases such as "I'm sick and tired of..." or "It's super-duper important."  She has been potty-tired for over a year now, but we still wipe the poop just to make sure she's clean.  I've told her that she has to learn how to wipe her poop properly all by herself before she starts preschool next month.  One day while going to the bathroom, she initiated the following conversation: 

Summer: "Mom, I don't want to get bigger."

Me: "Oh good!  Don't get bigger tonight and just stay my little girl forever."

Summer: "I have to get bigger!  I'm going to be a mommy and you will be a grandma."

Me: "I guess you're right.  Why don't you want to get any bigger?"

[She then points to her bum bum.]

Me: "You don't want to have to wipe your poop?

Summer: "Yeah!  It's just much better to have someone else wipe it."

She is getting really good at reading and writing and still loves to call or send letters to people.  This is one postcard that she made for her uncle.

Smith continues to charm the world with his accessories and killer smiles.  

Yet when he decides to be in a bad mood, he makes it very clear.  He has got a serious snarky face when he decides to pull it out, and when he is fed up with walking or doesn't want to go where everyone else is headed, he'll slap on that face, sit down on the ground, fold his arms and slowly pivot around so his back is facing you. No matter what we say or threaten, he'll just stay there with his back toward us, only to turn around every so often to share a slice of snarky face and yell "mo" (no).  

Smith takes care of himself.  He'll climb up on the counter to get a snack, or pull everything out of the craft desk when his artistic inspiration hits.  

He is quite the artist and has done a lot of damage this month.  (You know you've turned the "motherhood corner" when you're most exciting moment of the week comes with the discovery of a new cleaning product that works wonders!)  Speaking of damage...one day Elias came home from a run while the kids were in the bath.  They were getting a kick out of dumping cups of water on each others' heads and since Elias needed a shower anyway, he knelt down, leaned his head over the tub and joined in the fun.  All three kids were fits and giggles as they poured water on their daddy's head so I took the opportunity to go prep beds and fill sippy cups.  Upon returning a few minutes later, I discovered that the fun had only escalated.  Elias was soaked and the kids were dumping buckets of water over him.  And then I saw it...Smith had pooped in the tub.  My man was covered in poop water.  Elias was shocked that a kid would do such a thing!  But considering we have been bathing kids for over three years now, it's kind of amazing that this is the first time someone has pooped in the tub.  It's just funny that it happened to be the same night that they poured the bathwater all over Daddy.  

Boyd has brought a lot of laughs lately.  He is very serious about the toys he deems important each day.  He continually takes inventory and even feeds them.  

I love his aggressive personality.  He is brave and does great on a real swing.

He is often either thrilled or furious

 When he is happy, he is squealing with joy.  When he is upset, he will downright growl at you.  He has the grouchiest "no" that I have ever heard and he pulls it out when he is really serious.  He shows such creativity when playing with toys or Summer.   

 One Saturday we attended Elias' company family picnic.  

 Summer and Smith had their faces painted. (Boyd takes himself far to seriously to do such a thing.)

 Smith absolutely loved it!  He wouldn't let go of the mirror and he announced himself as a dog to every person we saw.  

They decorated cookies

 and each got to ride a horse.  

 

 I don't know if I have mentioned them on the blog yet, but we are so grateful for our neighbors the Beesons.  

 They have totally adopted us as family and we love spending time with them.  They joined us one night for dinner and Family Home Evening and it was a blast.  

The boys are obsessed with cars lately.  All they ever want to watch is "Mickey Mouse Road Rally" and it drives Summer crazy.  The local theater has $1 kids movies over the summer, and after attempting to go to the theater, we found that the car arcade games in the lobby were a bigger hit than the movie.  And we didn't even put money in! 

 

The rest of the month was filled with wresting around, 

 fruit loop necklaces (note Smith's cheesy grin)

 

donuts in the cul-de-sac with Daddy, 

  

goofing around in the backyard, 

making pizza, 

facetiming family, 

 adventures with friends,  

 and days at the park.  

 Elias and I even squeezed in a DIY project and painted the garage.  It was kind of a huge deal for us.  We thought we could knock it out in a day, but within 5 minutes of starting,  Summer wanted to help and the paint spilled, Boyd was riding his bike halfway down the block, and Smith was drilling into the side of the car with the electric drill.  Needless to say, we could only work when the kids were asleep...

 One night I asked Elias to get the kids ready for bed and regretfully informed him that all of their summertime pjs were dirty.  Elias didn't miss a beat and came to his own solution...as surprised as I was, it was a hit with the kids! 

As I said, we had a lot of fun this month!  I hope you all are enjoying your summer and we hope to see you soon!

Always, 

Elias, Brittany, Summer, Boyd & Smith