soccer!!

Max has been waiting to start soccer for basically...his whole life! He was SO so excited for soccer to start & he has absolutely loved it! These pictures are from his very first practice, held at his coach's house. She has been a great coach and loves each of the kids. We were up in Provo before his first practice (surprise, surprise!) and I didn't have anything planned for dinner (surprise, surprise again! Gosh, I'm struggling lately!!!!!) so we stopped at Little Caesar's. Max ate after practice and then later that night, decorated the box. How could he not?? He's our little soccer-playing-artist :)

// I love how you can tell Graham is smiling in this picture :) //

shaving cream fun

The kids always want me to take pictures when we're doing something fun, but I tend to forget to take pictures on the days when everyone is grumpy, the house is a mess, and we're all kind of bugging each other :) Like I've said before, I'm trying to do better at coming up with fun things for the kids to do & though they didn't play with this as long as I thought they would, they still had fun building snowmen!

graham collins turns four months!

Graham is the sweetest little boy! My goodness we love him. It's crazy to think about life before Graham. We are all totally smitten. He's almost six months now, but here are his stats from his 4 month check up. Not the biggest baby on the planet, but we think he's pretty perfect!

weight: 13.91 lbs (16.4%)

length: 25.15 (45.55%)

head: 16.63 (66.18%)

On Wednesday I took him into the clinic here in town because his eye was wayyy goopy & everytime he woke up his eye would be glued shut. (It was the saddest thing! He'd be smiling so big with only one eye open!) We got eye drops & he's doing MUCH better. Here are his current stats (taken on August 22nd):

weight: 15.4 lbs

length: 25.75 inches

We love you Grahamers!

pretzel art

My mom watched the kids when I took Graham to his four month check up & they had a grand ole' time. Ninja turtle masks & "pretzel art" (Avery came up with that project all on her own!) It doesn't get much better than that!

payson lakes

After our hike to the grotto, we finished out our adventure by picnicking and swimming at payson lakes. I always forget how beautiful it is up there!! The weather was gorgeous & the kids were really well behaved so it turned out to be a pretty perfect day.

// We LOVE their puddle jumpers & they do too! They swam wayy out in the lake & didn't get scared at all (good thing they couldn't see all the fish swimming beneath them!) //

// Max could live off of pickles! //

// We packed a really healthy lunch as you can see ;) //

// These chipmunks were everywhere and they were not afraid of us at ALL. Annoying little rodents. Seriously! Danny kept trying to throw rocks inches from where they were standing and they wouldn't move a muscle. I was worried they were going to run right up onto the picnic table and join us!! //

// Isn't the view amazing?!? //

// After our picnic we walked around the entire lake and halfway around the kids wanted Danny to throw them into the lake. They were being so brave!! We couldn't believe that they actually did it but it sure was awesome! //

// Sweet baby Graham! //

What a wonderful world we live in!!

the grotto

I'd heard about "the grotto" by payson lakes multiple times, but we'd never made any effort to actually find it. Back in the middle of July, however, we decided to be adventurous & I'm so glad we were!! This hike is SUPER easy & short & besides Avery throwing a tantrum over a stick that she kept flailing around & hitting people with...it was awesome. If you live in Utah or Juab county, go on this hike!

// I was trying to be artsy...didn't work out quite as I envisioned (the dirty windows probably had something to do with that!) //

// Tribal Graham //

// More tribal kids :) //

// Remember that tantrum I told you about? This is what happens when you throw one of Avery's prized sticks far away! //

// God's creations are so beautiful! //

// Danny saved a butterfly's life. It was drowning in the icy cold water but Danny caught it on his finger & then the butterfly didn't want to fly away! //

// Max was SURE that there was some kind of animal in the bushes. (I'm pretty sure he mentioned bears, beavers, and lions.) He found this pointed stick and kept running ahead to protect us from danger. That boy sure is cute when he wants to be :) //