July 2015

July has been another month full of family fun! We went to Wyoming for the 4th of July (but for some reason didn't get many pictures together!) We had a BBQ with Rob's family at his parent's house, and then watched the city fireworks with some of the Henderson's neighbors, and enjoyed watching them light of the big fireworks that they had.

We spent Pioneer Day with my family and had a BBQ, then went to the Sevy's house to view the Thanksgiving Point fireworks, and did some of our own fireworks too (but much smaller than the Wyoming fireworks!) We did manage to take some pictures from our firework fun on Pioneer day with my family; I think Kallie and Gavin's favorite part was playing with the sparklers:

Kallie loves being able to play with friends and doing play dates or going to the park. We got to go to the park for Caleb's birthday party, and the kids loved going down the same slide over and over! Kallie gets so excited to play with Gavin, and they are pretty silly together. Kayden was able to come and play one day too--they were little explorers together in the weed maze outside of our backyard!

Our good friends, the Cutler's, were in town for a little bit this month, and we felt privileged to host them for one night! We sure miss this cute little family, but we're glad we got to spend some time with them before they went back to Arizona!

Kallie and Jenna continue to be best of friends. They laugh together all the time! They keep me busy and entertained, that's for sure! They love going to Costco the best, because the shopping cart is big enough for them to be able to sit right next to each other. I hope they are always best friends!

Pool days are always a favorite! We are so grateful that Pappy and DeeDee got us pool passes! The girls love the water, and they love seeing Pappy, DeeDee, and their aunts/uncles/cousins that we often meet up with there! Jenna is getting pretty mobile now, so she doesn't like to sit and float for too long, she prefers to crawl around and check everything out! Kallie is getting a little more used to the kiddie slide, but is still too hesitant to go down by herself; she mostly loves to float around in her new fishy floaty.

Kallie loves any excuse to be outside, and is always happy to "help" daddy in the yard. It was really cute watching her help Mike plant some new flowers in the yard.

Our dear friends, Abbey, Alex, and Carson Roll are moving to South Carolina! We are super bummed that they will be moving so far away; so we had to have them over one last time before they go! Carson and Kallie are always so cute together, so I'm sure she will miss her little buddy!

It's been fun having Grammy and FaFa be able to be with us so often this summer! They've been doing a lot of driving between Beaver and Wyoming/Salt Lake, so they've been able to stop and see us, and sometimes have been able to stop and stay with us for a couple of days. We especially loved going to the Aquarium with them. We got to touch some of the Rays, walked under the shark tank, and saw lots of different fishes and animals! Thanks Grammy and FaFa!

Here are some fun things about Jenna:

• July 6th: 9 month checkup: 17 lbs 3 oz (30%) and 28.5" (80%). Poked her toe to check her iron levels and had one shot but didn't cry!
• July 7: started saying "mama"
• Started pulling up on things, at first just to her knees, then to standing
• Has started trying to climb the stairs.
• Will crawl short distances, but mostly army crawls
• It was a rare morning for us when everyone was awake before Mike went to work. He was snuggling the girls before he left, when Jenna started spitting up. Since he was all dressed and ready for work, he aimed Jenna so that she spit up mostly on Kallie instead. LOL

 Kallie:

• Jenna dropped her sippy cup off of the table and Kallie said to her "oh my gosh Jenna! Why did you do that?"
• Kallie managed to lock me out of the house (right after I had set my phone and keys inside). Thankfully I got her to come to the back door, and I managed to walk her through pulling a chair to the door and how to unlock it....
• Likes to tell us "you're the best, dad/mom"
• We started potty training! I've been asking Kallie every once in the while if she wanted to start, and one morning she actually said yes! So we went straight to the store and she picked out her princess potty chair, and then we went to the dollar store and she picked out some potty prizes and stickers for her chart!
• Kallie pooped in her panties, somehow got it out onto the floor, sat and looked at it and said "uh oh mommy! Come get it!" After it was deposited in the toilet, she told me many times, "no pooping on the ground mama!"

I think the highlight of Kallie's month was going on a special Daddy-Daughter Date with Mike. He took her to the new movie theater by our house and they saw Minions together. She had a lot of fun playing with the cardboard cutout minions in the lobby too!

We had some family photos done this month too. I couldn't resist posting some of my favorites:

June 2015

June was another busy month for us; but we enjoy having stuff to do, people to see, and places to go! Our first big event was for Mike's cousin, Lauren--she got married to Grant this summer. They rented out this amazing cabin up Spanish Fork Canyon, so they invited a small crowd (Mike's parents couldn't make it for the wedding, due to Matt's graduation, so we got to go for them!) They had a great party the night before, and Kallie loved playing on all of the toys/blow up slides that they had. Mike was able to attend their sealing in the Manti temple the next day, and all of us attended the ring ceremony and reception at the cabin that night. It was such a beautiful event, and it was so great to see part of the Merkley family.

 The Hanke family was able to get together for almost a week down in St. George this year! We all stayed at Sports Village, so it was easy to get together as much as we could each day. We had fun swimming, playing frisbee, playing games, and visiting. Kallie had fun getting to know more cousins, and it was fun to hear everyone's family updates from the last year or two.

The four of us went on one hike while with most of the family while we were there, to The Crack. It was much to skinny for me to hike with Jenna strapped to me, so Mike made Kallie go up with him! She kept telling him how scary it was (we got a cute video of her talking about it), but she really did a great job! And Mike was able to go with a big group to hike Angels Landing (there was no way I was taking the kids on that hike!). He got some beautiful pictures of Zions!

It was such a great reunion. We took some family photos while we were there! We are sad that not everyone made it to the reunion, but it was great to catch up with everyone who could make it!

We were lucky enough to have Grammy, FaFa, Matt, and Jess come and visit us after the reunion. The kids love having the extra attention! They got to read lots of books with them, we went on lots of walks, took a trip to the Provo splash pad, and Kallie loved taking Matt and Jess out to the trampoline with her. One of Kallie's favorite things to do was to sing and dance to the Hokey Pokey with Grammy and FaFa! We love you guys!

Its so fun being able to go and visit my Grandma! Kallie thinks it's so fun to see Great-Grandma. The girls like to take a ride on Grandma's walker to see all of the fish tanks they have in the home. Kallie was feeling especially outgoing this day, and put on a balancing act and dance show for Grandma!

We love being able to do fun things with our friends, so we went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo with Tanner and Shar (thanks Pappy and DeeDee for babysitting!) We had a great time watching the rodeo and motorcycle shows, and of course we enjoyed some delicious Strawberries and Cream!

And lastly, we loved being able to celebrate Father's Day with my parents and some of my siblings. Thanks for being such a great grandpa, Pappy! We love you; Happy Father's Day!

Mike is such a wonderful dad! The girls love to play with him every day, and get so excited to see him. We love when he has days off of work and we can play or go to the pool together. We love you Dad; Happy Father's Day!

Some fun things about Kallie from this month are:

• I just told Kallie that if she will go potty on the toilet I would give her an Elsa doll, and she told me "not today". Later in the day, I asked Kallie if she wants to go on a walk to the mailbox, she responded with: "not today"
• If Kallie is really excited to do something, she says "okay--lets do it!"
• I took a nap with Kallie on the bed (she was watching her iPad) and I kept getting woken up to her stroking my hair and telling me "I sowwy mom"
• OBSESSED with stickers
• Started to curtsy (lifts bottom of dress up and bends her legs) when wearing a princess dress
• "I love you princess mommy/princess daddy"
• If Mike calls Kallie, "Kallie-ballie", she will call him "Daddy-ballie"

And for our little Jenna:

• Started sleeping without a swaddle!
• Down to 2 naps a day, and 3x being nursed
• Would eat all day if we let her
• Started babbling, said "dada" on June 10 and I caught it on a voice recording
• Also on June 10, forward progress, kind of like an army crawl
• June 29--waved bye bye to DeeDee