Andrea and the Fridge and Auntie Sharon

Now that Andrea can crawl up things and stand she tries to stand up holding onto everything in the house.  This is a newest discovery. . . THE FRIDGE!!!!  It is now a race to the fridge as soon as she sees mom open it.  Honestly, I'm racing to shut the door before she gets there and she's racing to get inside it before I can shut the door.  I must admit she wins at least half of the time.  This day was her first time winning, so I had to catch a picture.

She was so proud of herself.  She turned around and gave me her little "I'm so proud of myself, look what I just did" laugh.  I absolutely love that laugh. I'm quite proud of her as well.  She's getting fast and strong and has a wonderful curiosity.

We were having ice cream one night and of course we were giving Andrea a few bites.  She absolutely loves ice cream!  The second she sees me pull out these ice cream dishes she gets so excited because she knows what's coming.  Mom and Dad had finished their ice cream, but apparently Andrea hadn't had enough, so she took the ice cream dish and decided she would figure out how she could get every last drop of ice cream left in the dish.  Notice all the chocolate on her face.

She didn't realize that the bottom of the dish didn't have ice cream in it, "Oh man." She was determined to get some more ice cream.  You've got to love her determination.

I think her and Daddy both had a little too much ice cream. I finished doing some cleaning while Steve rocked Andrea to sleep.  I came in and this is what they both looked like. So priceless.

Auntie Sharon came to visit this week so she could go to Education week.  We had dinner together at Bill's on Sunday, so we decided to have everybody over to our place on Thursday.  I made a really yummy pasta dish that I got from my Mother-in-law.  It turned out fantastic. We played several games of Uno, of few of which included "Tausha's rules" which are really rules that I learned from Ken and Lindsi, but I think they are fantastic, so I always make everybody try a few rounds with those rules. After Uno we watched a few home videos.  Everyone loved seeing the slip n' slide at Lake Powell. Some of those jumps were crazy!

I was able to go to Education week with Auntie Sharon for a few classes each day.  I was able to go to a John Bytheway class on marriage.  It was fantastic.  I learned so many neat things that have already improved our marriage a ton.  I was so inspired by the talks that I typed up my notes from the first two sessions and sent them to my family.  If any of you would like them just let me know and I'll email them to you as well.  I need to add a few more things from the last two sessions, but they are fantastic and will definitely make your marriage even better if applied. We had a lot of fun with you Auntie Sharon and as always we love seeing Bill's family. Thank you for a fantastic week!

Lake Powell

Andrea loved to play with Grandpa's hair. Cuddle time with Grandpa.  This year we were only able to go to Lake Powell for a few days instead of a whole week, but it was still a lot of fun.  We were very blessed and protected while we were there.  The kids were protected and the weather and water was perfect.

She's so happy to be free and playing with her cousins on the houseboat.

Kaydence enjoyed playing with Andrea, but as you can see we had to watch her very carefully because Andrea isn't quite old enough to handle Kaydence and her strength, energy, and mobility. :-)  Andrea wanted so badly to be able to walk and play with Kaydence and Casen.  She was able to play, but not as fast as she would have liked. She did learn a lot from both cousins though.  One night we were bathing the kids and Andrea had finished her bath and was getting dressed when Kaydence was getting her hair washed.  She hates to get her hair washed, so she was screaming, "No, no, no" Andrea looked right at her and said, "NO???"  In a question form wondering what does "No" mean?  It was so cute.  We all heard it too which made it so neat.  So, technically No is her first word besides Mom and Dad which she has been saying for a while.  I don't know if it's such a great thing that Andrea already learned the word No.  The good thing is, she doesn't know what it means yet.

Kayla and Tyson helped out so much with the kids.  They played with them a lot.  We love you Kayla and Tyson.

I had to put this picture in because I couldn't believe how similar our eyes looked.  I guess Andrea has her mommy's eyes.

Johnbar had lovely hair when he woke up one morning.  I had to capture it on film.

Steve and Markell chilling on the house boat.

Kaydence showing off her lovely smile.

Tyson chilling with his two girls. I think Andrea is so cute in this picture.

We went for a boat drive one day an went to a really neat narrow canyon.  Of course we had to stop for a minute and let the boys fish.

On our way back from the trip we stopped by the "poopy dock" so a few people could go to the bathroom.  While waiting we had to fish again of course and Tyson caught a huge small mouth bass. It tasted great.

Taking a swimming break on our way back from the boating trip.

We did a little tube riding.  Go Kayla and Tyson.

Andrea actually really liked the boat rides.  She always wanted to look over my shoulder and see where we were going and what we were doing.

The kids loved playing together with all of the beach toys.

Look how cute they all are.  We love cousin time.

Andrea LOVES standing and WALKING!!! We walked all over the house boat and now we walk all over the house.

She loved Grandpa's hat.

Yes, she got it!

YES, this is a bat.  Tyson caught a bat with the fish net.  Scott, Steve, Tyson, and I were out fishing with the green florescent lights on the back of the houseboat when there were bats flying all over the place and right next to our faces.  One dropped down right in front of Steve and snapped up a moth just inches from his face.  So, Steve and Tyson thought they would try and catch one with a net.  And. . . . They did! It was crazy.  I was terrified and kept trying to hide behind the door.  I didn't want to get bit.  I hear it's really bad to get bit by a bat.

Look closely at this picture and you will see it's teeth.

The bat looked so cute, but yet so fierce at the same time.  It was really neat to see a bat up close.  We let it go and it was just fine.

I caught one picture of the boys fishing and playing with the net on the back of the boat.  I don't have a picture of this, but the boys built a huge slip n' slide with a ramp.  We played there for several hours and went down the slide many times.  We have lots of video, but not many still pictures.  It was really fun.  They made it by digging out a trench, laying down black tarp, and using a pump to run the water from the lake up to the slip n' slide.  Lake Powell was a lot of fun and a great way to end the summer.

Kelsey and Josh and Family Reunion

Before we get to the reunion pictures, I had to put this picture in.  This is how Andrea sleeps when she actually does sleep. :-)  I don't know how that can be very comfortable, but she sure enjoys it.

Andrea loved to chase Kayla and Tyson's dog Chancho, well at least she did because until he came up and sniffed her right in her face.  It scared her quite a bit. It would scare me too, he weighs three times as much as her.

This weekend turned out great because we got to see Kelsey, Josh, and Mckade and Kayla and Tyson.  We went up Friday night and mom and dad took us all out to dinner where Tyson works so we could see him.  He was a fantastic waiter and the food was great. It was so nice to see Kelsey, Josh, and Mckade. They are doing fantastic and Mckade is getting so big and cute. Kayla and Tyson were nice enough to let us stay at their home.  All of us fit in their house.  We had two air mattresses and one bathroom for everyone to get ready in, but it worked out fantastically. Their home is decorated so cute. It was a wonderful night and we had a very yummy breakfast in the morning as well. Thank you Kayla and Tyson for letting us come and stay at your home.

I think I'm actually showing them our blog and bragging about the fact that I'm actually keeping it up to date. :-)

The next day we went to the Balling Reunion.  I had to catch a picture of Dad and Uncle Martin with Andrea.

Andrea playing with her beautiful Grandma's watch/bracelet.  Grandma was so excited to be able to see Grandma. We need to get up to see her more often.

I added this picture as well so we could see Grandma and Grandpa Kloepfer.  Andrea was just fine until she saw her mother.  Yes, Andrea is a HUGE momma's girl.  She will go to other people as long as I'm not around, but the second she hears my voice or sees me, she cries.  This is kind of cute sometimes, but not so much at night.  It's difficult when she wakes up in the middle of the night every night and only wants mommy for a long time. But, honestly, even though I'm losing some sleep and we are working on training her to go to sleep on her own, I still enjoy it because I am so grateful to be a mother and have a few more seconds to be with my little girl.

Rebekah and Adaliah Came to Visit

Rebekah and Adaliah Akerman came to visit for a little bit.  Andrea and I were so excited.  They loved playing together.  Yes, Andrea is 4 months older than Dali, but she has Andrea by 4 pounds. :-) I really try to feed my child, I promise.

Playing together with Adaliahs's book.

They not only wanted to play with the toys, they wanted to play with each other, so we had to keep them from poking each other in the eye and pulling each others' hair.  But it was so cute. Andrea reaching for Adaliah.

Adaliah reaching for Andrea.

Andrea standing up holding everything

Andrea loves to climb up everything now so she can stand up and play and look around the house.  Standing is one of her favorite things to do now.

I borrowed this Pressure Cooker from mom to do my canning.  It's sitting in the living room because I don't know where else to put it yet.  It has now become one of Andrea's favorite toys.  She can climb up it really fast and stand and play with all the gadgets on the top of it.  It's like a baby Einstein spinner thing without having to spend any money to get it.

Would you say this baby is photogenic or what.  She'll even stop crying just for a picture and then start back up again once the picture has been taken.  She knows what it means when we pull the camera out.

This is what Andrea looks like most all of the time.  She used to smile with her mouth wide open, but around 7 months she decided she wanted to give a little grin instead, so this is her little smile that she gives people all the time.

I had to get a close up of these cute teeth. She has two on the bottom.  They are coming in fast.

Andrea still loves to play the piano.  She used to let me play with her, but now if I try to play with her on my lap she will grab my hands and push them away because it is her toy.

I had t throw this picture in so I can remember what my garden looks like. From left to right I planted Green Beans, tomatoes, Peas, Pumpkins, and Sun Flowers.

This is a picture of some of my flowers.  I transplanted Stargazer Lillies from our other house.  They made it, but just barely.  They are some of my absolute favorite flowers.

Slip n'Slide

Steve is currently the 2nd counselor in a Singles Ward Bishopric and I serve on the activities committee, so we've had lots of fun this summer with all the singles ward activities. The last Saturday in July we went to Rock Canyon park and set up some Slip n' Slides and volleyball nets and had some water fun.  Steve ran the water up at the top.

Yes, we did take our 8 month old daughter down the slip n' slide that over half of the college girls in the ward were too afraid to go down.  Mostly because one of the first runs down the slide one of the guys in the ward broke his collar bone. We moved the slide a little bit to the side and eliminated most of the danger.  Andrea was a very brave girl.  I took her down the slide twice.  The first time I went pretty slow, but the second time the slide was a lot more wet and we went really fast.  I was honestly desperately trying to slow us down by dragging my feet and one hand, but eventually I just steered us off of the slip n' slide so the grass would slow us down.  She and I were both a little scared, but she was a trooper.

This is the 1st counselor, Brice Crowther and is daughter Claire going down the slide.  They went the most times out of anyone, she loved it!

Steve took Andrea down the slide for a 3rd time.  He went really fast and didn't steer off the slide and took Andrea right through the huge dirty puddle at the bottom of the slide. She really did not like that.

This would be Andrea screaming for her mother because daddy just took her down the slide way too fast and went right through the dirty puddle.  He was very safe with her, but honestly, I was a little worried.  We won't be taking her down any huge slip n' slides for a long time.

Eventually we connected another huge slide and made a gigantic slide.  Yes, seven people went down at the same time.  Crazy, but very fun.

Once everything was turned off, Steve took one last trip down the slide.  Then we played volleyball, ate grapes, and had a water balloon fight.  I got Steve a few times, so he chucked one at me from only a few feet away and it didn't break.  It left a nice red circle on my side.  It was a lot of fun to play in the sun and water with the singles ward.