Jury Duty, Dinosaur Museum, LSU football, & Family FUN!

Monday, 8/26: My day started early (for me) with being at the court house by 8:15 for jury selection.  I was there for 5 hours and wasn't chosen.  They chose 9 people out of 47.  It was for a 3-day trial for a guy being charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, and domestic violence in front of a child.  Scary!  I was relieved not to be chosen to sit through that trial and hear all the details!  The whole process was very interesting and thorough, though.  And I didn't know who was gonna watch the girls on one of the days, anyway, so not being chosen solved that problem.

That night, Kiki had her graduation from the Utah Institute of Healing Arts.  The girls and I went with her family and Timmy to Magleby's for some chocolate cake afterwards.

Wyatt is CRACKING ME UP in this pic, ha ha!!

 

8/27: Since I ended up not having jury duty on Tues., I brought the girls to the dinosaur museum because it was $2 Tuesday.  I won't be doing that again.  It was really busy and not worth saving a few bucks.  There were so many kids in the quarry (where the kids can dig for dinosaur bones) and Avery got a whole fistful of sand thrown in her face.  :(  They had fun for the most part, though, but it was a little too stressful for me with that many people.

 

 

 

 

They have started holding hands more and more and I love it. So cute.

 

 

We then went and ate at Culver's with some friends, who we then brought to the airport. The girls slept all the way there and back, worn out from the museum.

FB post on Wed., 8/28: I looked high and low this morning for one of the girls' sandals before going shopping and finally just had to put a different pair of sandals on them. Evidently, I didn't look low enough because, come to find out, the sandal, along with about 60 wooden puzzle pieces and some play food, was all shoved into an a/c vent in the floor (they had taken the vent cover off). I'm pretty sure it was Avery. Thankfully, I was able to get it all out but I sure was mad!

Makenna is always saying the phrase, "Don't be shy." I don't think she knows what it means.

8/29: Makenna: "Squishy fish needs a check-up." Then, "Mommy, my pet fish is better." We've watched a few episodes of Doc McStuffins lately.

8/30:

Makenna lines up her fruit snacks before eating them. Avery just eats them.

I need to print this and pass it out to all of my neighbors. :P

8/31: Makenna is acting like a kitty, meowing and all, and she said, "I don't have a tail. I don't have foot paws." She so cute and funny!

8/31: We went to a neighbor's house to watch the first LSU game of the season.  We beat TCU (ranked #20) 37-27; we were #12 (jumped up to #9 after that game).  It was so fun to watch the game with other LSU fans and a Louisiana native.  He made gumbo and I made jambalaya.  So good!  The game didn't start until 7 here and, by the time we got home, it was 11:00; Avery practically ran to her bed to get into it, poor baby. 

I put the girls in their tiger suits and took some pics in my LSU rocking chair on the front porch before we headed to the neighbor's house

My nails for the game

9/1: After going to bed so late the previous night, the girls woke up at 6:45 (about an hour earlier than usual), of course!  We were all so exhausted for church.  We spent almost half of sacrament in the hallway and they were a little crazy during my lesson in nursery.  I was planning on taking a nap when they took theirs but Timmy texted me and wanted to come over.  So that's why I uncharacteristically feel asleep on the couch that night and didn't do the blog last Sunday.  Timmy brought some bubble machines from his job for the girls and they had a blast playing in the bubbles that evening:

9/2: Silly girl!

 

9/3: My favorite Daddy phrase of the day: "Don't stand on your sister!"

Avery didn't really feel well most of the day, probably from being constipated--it had been close to a week since she had last pooed so I gave her a couple of suppositories, lots of prune juice, and some Dulcolax over the next two days and she finally let loose, ha ha.  Poor thing.  She uncharacteristically fell asleep on the floor before naptime that day, with Daddy snoozing on the couch.  Notice the bells still tied to her ankles.  :)

9/4: We had yet another weenie/s'mores roast in the back yard, then played with the bubble machines Timmy brought the girls earlier in the week.

This cracks me up!

Trying to eat the bubbles?

That night, Jared decided to have a camp-out with the girls in their train tent in the living room.  They loved it!

This is how Jared slept all night, ha ha!

9/5:

Creating masterpieces to send to Uncle Jason in Scotland.

I made eggplant-crust pizza for dinner and Makenna cried for at least five minutes before she would even try it. Then she liked it. Little stinker!

9/6: That morning--another example of how Makenna organizes stuff, this time by color.  :)

 

One of Jared's sisters just adopted a baby and the sealing was in the Salt Lake temple and the blessing was in one of the theaters in North visitor's center.  We took the girls.  Jared went in the temple for the sealing while I stayed in the waiting room with the girls and some of their cousins.  We then went to the blessing, after which we took photos with everyone.  We had a snapshot taken of us:

Everyone went out to eat at Chuck-A-Rama afterwards.  The girls had fun hanging out with cousins all day.

The next day, we drove up to Grandma's house to play with everyone.  We all drove to Jared's grandpa's house and hung out there for a while.  We were just planning on playing outside at his house but a storm blew in.  He was saying that he hardly got any rain all summer so, of course, it rained while we were there and wanted the kids to run around outside!  They still ran around the porch and a little in the light sprinkles.  We got home at 11:30 last night.  This time, the girls slept until I woke them up for church.  They did OK in church today but were ready for their naptime, once it came!

Jared left for another trip this afternoon after the girls went down for their nap today.  Timmy came over again this evening and hung out for a while.  We played with the bubble machines again out on the deck.  We are looking forward to hanging out with cousins some more this week, since they will still be in town all week.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of photos to share next Sunday! :)

Oh, and I didn't get to watch the LSU vs. UAB game last night, since we were at Grandpa's house, but they won 56-17 and are now #8.  GEAUX TIGERS!!!

Happy New Year

I figured I'd better go ahead and post this month since there are only 2 days left in it!

Jared had to work on New Year's Eve (his new operation in SLC started fueling trains that night) so we didn't go out and do anything.  Kiki and her gang and Tim came over to watch the LSU bowl game with me.  Kiki and them left before the game was over, the girls had gone to bed, Jared had left, LSU lost, shortly after which Tim left and I was here at home by myself, having a pity part about LSU's loss, ha ha!  Not the best NYE ever.  But at least I got to spend it with family, instead of working, like I use to when I was in business management!  Kiki made pizza for everyone except for me and herself--we made spaghetti squash "crust" pizza for ourselves.  We had fun up until LSU lost BY ONE POINT in the last few seconds!

Makenna and Uncle Timmy

Sweet little Avery

Makenna playing in their "new" kitchen with Wyatt

Makenna havin' fun in the (newly) pink cardboard house (thanks, Daddy, for painting it for us!)

We didn't really do too much most of the month because it was terribly cold for several weeks in a row--in the single digits and even dipping into the negatives some.  BRRRRR!  Grandma came over and stayed the night on 1/19, the girls and I went to a Relief Society potluck playdate at the church on 1/22, and I had Bunco on 1/17.  Oh, and we met with an adoption counselor on 1/11 to get the whole process started again.  Please keep us in mind if you hear of any possible situations and prayers are needed!  We are busy filling out tons of paperwork and answering hundreds of questions and hope to be on the list in the next couple of months.

 

 On 1/26, the girls' birth mom (Jared's cousin, Katie) and her mom (Colleen) came and stayed with us for a night and came to church with us the next day.  Jared's mom and grandpa also came over for most of the day.  We had an awesome visit.  Katie and Colleen brought presents for the girls; they could hardly wait to open them once they saw them.  Ever since their birthday, they LOVE opening presents!  The got some cool princess coloring books and Twistables Crayons, plus some squishy balls.  It was all a big hit with the girls.

Katie and the girls before their nap on Sunday after church

We got 11" of snow today (1/29), on top of all the snow that is STILL on the ground from Christmas Eve!  After the girls woke up from their nap, we bundled them up in their coats and two pairs of mittens each to go play out in the snow in the front yard.  We haven't bought winter boots for them yet, so Jared took some plastic shopping bags and taped them over the girls' shoes and most of their legs.  Redneck snow boots, ha ha!  They had a lot of fun but they were cold and ready to go by the time we finished playing.  We gave them a warm bubble bath as soon as we got inside.

Avery

Me and Avery

Makenna eating some of the snow--no yellow snow!

Avery liked eating the snow

This is how much snow Jared has shoveled of our driveway in the past few weeks.  He put the girls on top of the mound and let them slide down, which they loved!

 

Makenna especially got a kick out of the "slide"

 FB posts from this past month:

January 1

During lunch, Jared and I were talking about buying a fake Christmas tree and Makenna said, “Christmas tree? Open presents?” Ha ha!

 

January 1

So glad I don't have to go anywhere right now--we're in the single digits (7 degrees right now)! BRRRRRRRR! Good thing, though, is it has been too cold for the snow to melt. We've had several inches all around us for over a week. So pretty!

 

January 10

At the dr. with Makenna--another ear infection. :( I had them give her a shot this time so we don't have to fight with medicine.

 

January 11

Makenna chillin on the LoveSac, sucking her fingers and rubbing her lip with her lovey; this was all her idea.

 

January 11

Avery opted for her little chair.

 

January 12

Makenna's favorite phrases right now: "What's that sound?", "Mmmm, smells like cinnamon!" (everything smells like cinnamon), and "Two [fill in the blank]!"--whatever she can find that consists of two.

If a word ends in "t", Avery ends it with "k" ["feek" instead of feet, "bak" instead of bat]. She also does not like the snakes and spiders in our box of various bugs and stuff--she whines and actually shudders if you put them on her, ha ha.

I love my two funny girls!

 

January 16

I can't get mad when I have to search the house for my tennis shoes and find them in a pile of toys in the playroom because I think of how cute Avery was walking around in them. She even put one of my socks on by herself but then came and asked me to help her with the other one.

 

January 17

I crossed my eyes for Makenna last week and now she asks me to do it all the time. They both think it's hilarious.

 

January 20

I love how Makenna asks me what something is and, after I answer, she says, "Yeah!", like she was just testing me, ha ha!

 

January 22

I heard the girls chatting with each other after their nap today, so I turned on the video monitor; they were standing up in their cribs, facing each other, having a total conversation about apple sauce and saying, "Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!" So cute!

 

January 24

How cruel is it that, when I let our dog out this morning, I laughed my butt off because she was slipping on the ice. She made it up the first two steps but decided "to heck with that" and just peed on the concrete. I stopped laughing then.

 

January 25

The girls had a blast at Story Time; we went and did the Mommy & Me story time--songs, actions, music instruments, playtime, etc. I think we'll go back next week!

 

January 26

The girls' new obsession: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Makenna was arguing with me at lunch that it's Nickey Mouse, not Mickey Mouse, ha ha!

 

January 29

Avery came up to me out of the blue and said she had to poop and asked to sit on the potty (I bought a Minnie Mouse potty this past weekend and showed them how to sit on it on Sunday). We sat there for a while and nothing came of it but at least she's showing interest, right? I definitely need to buy some pull-ups if we're gonna potty train soon 'cause putting diapers on and off all the time is for the birds. The girls are now watching "Elmo's Potty Time". :D