August 2015

Here's some more stuff from August of 2015 rolled into one blog post...

I've noticed that I have a thing with taking pictures of my kids sleeping. I think it is because they look so peaceful and angelic or because they are doing something that makes me smile. Like in this picture of Corbin where he had fallen asleep holding is toy Hot Wheels jet that William gave to him. It is not what I could call a cozy bed partner. 

Leah was playing with my phone one afternoon and took this picture of me and the two little ones that I thought was cute. (I usually just delete the pictures that the kids take of me because they aren't very flattering.)

One of my favorite things about summer is being able to take my kids outside to play. We often go out to play after dinner when the temperature has cooled down. Here's several pictures from our outside adventures. In this first one they are playing with our neighbor, Parker.

This last picture of Leah riding her bike cracks me up. When we would go out to play, Leah would often want to ride her bike. Corbin has a little "bike" that he can scoot along (very slowly) with his feet. But he wants to be able to go fast like Leah. So rather than ride his bike like her, he just runs behind her as she rides all around the grassy area behind our house. And the funny thing about it is that he does a pretty good job of keeping up with her. When it comes to running, this kid has a ton of stamina. Like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps going, and going, and going!

In August, my Grandpa Putnam was presented wth a Quilt of Valor. There is a group of quilters that comes together and makes hand-stitched quilts for our country's veterans. Since my Grandpa served in WWII, they made a quilt and presented it to him in a little ceremony of sorts. Many of his family members were able to be there for the presentation. The woman in the top picture on the far left was the one who came and presented the quilt to him. I'm glad that we could be a part of such a touching tribute to my grandpa.

Another one of my favorite things about August is that Thanksgiving Point has their $2 Tuesday deal. So I try to take the kids to at least one of the venues during that time. My favorite is to take them to Farm Country because it is the least crowded and the kids really enjoy it. They can see and touch the animals, play with the exhibits, go on a wagon or tractor ride, and ride on a pony. We always have a good time.

Sometimes all our fun activities in August exhausts us and someone ends up crashing somewhere for a much needed nap. This doesn't look very comfortable, but she slept like this for quite a while. 

With Leah gone for several hours a day, the two little ones enjoy lots of time playing together and spending time with mommy. 

Our baby girl just keeps growing and at nearly 5 months old, she is at a very fun and interactive stage.

I love these duck pajamas! All three of my kids have worn them and look oh so cute in them.

This is what Corbin looked like while we were out waiting for Leah to come home on the bus. Yes, those are Leah's pink boots. He's a funny kid!

At the end of August, our baby turned 5 months old. She's a cute and happy baby and as you can tell, her brother and sister just adore her. 

Here's another picture of one of my kiddos sleeping. It is very rare for Leah to fall asleep without one of us being there by her. On this night, she was reading this Jake and the Never Land Pirates Seek and Find book and I guess she was just so exhausted that she just zonked out. I like to get pictures of rare moments like this!

So there's our August of 2015. A month full of fun times and precious moments and big milestones. Life with the Leslies just charges on!

Leah Starts School

On August 26, 2015 my little girl finally started Kindergarten. She was SO excited! The only down side with her starting school was that she was assigned morning kindergarten rather than afternoon kindergarten like we were hoping for. Leah is not a morning person (and neither am I) so getting up early every morning did not appeal to her at all. In fact when I took her to meet her teacher, Mrs. Vasquez, the day before school started, she asked Leah if she had any questions for her. And the only thing Leah asked is why she had to go school early in the morning! But we managed to get up anyway and got her off to school just fine. She even took the bus to school on her first day. The bus stop is right outside our house and she has been watching it come and go her whole life. So she was so excited to finally get to ride on it herself. (And in hindsight, having morning kindergarten was great--other than the getting up early part. There were a lot of great things about morning kindergarten and if I could choose again, I would still have her do the morning schedule.) 

A few weeks before school started, Ross read a story to Leah where the main character got to go out for ice cream on the first day of school. So she asked if she could do that too. So after dinner we went to Subzero to get ice cream. We like to go there because our neighbor and the kids' buddy, Riley, works there. And as luck would have it, he was there that night. At Subzero, you choose your flavor of cream and mix-ins and then they use liquid nitrogen to freeze the ice cream right in front of you. The kids think it is so cool. And Riley shows them all the cool things he can do with the liquid nitrogen, like pouring it his hat to make his head smoke, or freezing the gummy bears so that they shatter when you drop them on the floor. It is very yummy ice cream and the kids love all the entertainment from Riley.

At the beginning of the school year I interviewed Leah so that we could remember what she was like at this age. So here's a little about Leah as she starts Kindergarten:
Age: 5 years old
Height: 40 inches
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Foods: Breakfast -- Toast, Lunch -- Chicken dumpling soup, Sandwiches, Dinner -- Shells and Cheese
Favorite TV Shows: Wild Kratts, Cyberchase, Arthur, Odd Squad, Sheriff Callie, Sofia the First, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Miles from Tomorrowland, Liv & Maddie, 7D, Peg + Cat
Favorite Song: "Rotten to the Core" (from Disney's Descendants), "Like Me" (from Disney's Teen Beach Movie)
Favorite Primary Song: "Nephi's Courage"
Favorite Scripture Story: Nephi gets the plates from Laban
Favorite Thing To Do: Play with friends
Favorite Thing About School: Painting
Friends: Millie Tanner, Ty Hostetter, Parker Brown, McKay Blevins
Favorite Apps: Inside Out Thought Bubbles, the Watch Disney Apps
What She Wants to Be When She Grows Up: A mom
Favorite Animal: Giraffe
Favorite Place To Go: Shaved ice
Favorite Place To Eat: Del Taco
Favorite Book: Junie B. Jones books (series by Barbara Park), Books by Tomie dePaola
Favorite Snack: Milk
Foods She Doesn't Like: Broccoli, Peas
Things She Doesn't Like To Do: Chores
Favorite Dessert: Pie

Van Tucker Family Reunion 2015

In August of 2015 my family was in charge of the Van Tucker family reunion. My parents reserved a campground in Lehi that we have been to several times. It is not actually in the mountains, but it is in a secluded part of the city with several trees and is close enough that everyone can get to it quite easily. 

We drove to the campsite on Friday afternoon. The kids were very excited to get to spend time playing with cousins. Leah was so excited, she could hardly stay awake on the drive there. Actually, this is what happens to Leah whenever we take a drive longer than 20 minutes.

Someone brought these little dinosaur toys and Corbin found them to play with. This kid is so funny. He has this thing with arranging his toys in a line. He would line up the dinosaurs on the bench. Then he would slide them one at a time along the bench until they were all lined up again on the bench on the other side of the table. Then he would start it again.It kept him entertained for so long. And if any one messed up his line of dinosaurs, he would get really upset. He does this exact type thing with cars. He likes to be very orderly when he is playing. Cracks me up. 

When I was growing up, we would go camping as a Tucker family quite often. It is one of my favorite childhood memories. And one of the best parts of camping was always the food. My Grandpa Tucker loved to cook and was an amazing chef. His sons (my dad mostly) inherited his passion for cooking. Dutch ovens were used when camping a lot (and even if we weren't camping, they were used a lot). I remember having a lot of sour dough pancake breakfasts while camping. Another favorite is an omelette bar. Everyone brings an array of their favorite ingredients and several frying pans are used to make each person their custom made omelette just they way they want it. That is what we were having this morning. I wanted to get a picture of some of the chefs working on breakfast that morning to help remind me of all those great food memories.

These are just a couple of cute pictures I got of Taysom playing by a tree. He was having a grand time just doing his own thing.

Here's Paige and Trey hanging out in the pack and play while Trey took a nap.

Later Marcus and Alison came with their kids. So I got a few pictures of Abbi and Paige in the pack and play together. Abbi was totally fascinated by Paige. Paige wasn't as amused with Abbi getting in her space.

On Saturday we mostly just enjoyed spending time visiting and eating together. We even played a a bingo type game using the names of family members in the squares. The kids played and played and played together. You can't tell from this picture, but Leah was so dirty from all her playing with cousins. She had a grand time. 

The trees in the campground were great for climbing and the kids had a very hard time resisting the urge to be in them. So we decided to put the kids in a tree and take a picture. Grandma Tucker even joined in the fun for a picture with her great-grandchildren whom she loves so much. I just wish Grandpa Tucker could have been there in person too. Without a doubt he loves these kids very much too. And because he was such an amazing man, I'm sure the kids would love him also.

At the end of the day we packed up all our camping gear and headed back home. It was a fairly short drive, but it didn't take too long for these tired kids to zonk out. I guess that means another successful family reunion was in the books.

Miller Reunion in Nevada 2015

At the beginning of August 2015, we took Ross's mom and drove out to Reno/Fallon to attend the Miller family reunion. This was Paige's first long road trip, which meant a lot more stops along the way to calm her down and/or feed her, but all and all she did pretty well. 

We drove as far as Elko the first day and stopped at a motel for the night. The kids were very excited to go swimming, but the outdoor pool was very cold and they didn't last too long, but for them it was still super fun! Corbin's favorite part was watching all the cars go by. The pool sat on the corner of an intersection on one of the town's main streets. So there was plenty of traffic. He loved it so much that the next morning when Corbin woke up early and was restless Ross took him outside to the pool area to watch the cars again. He loved it!

We ate dinner at a pizza place in Elko that had several arcade games and little machines to ride. Leah loved riding on this mechanical horse. 

Here's Leah enjoying her continental breakfast at the motel. I sent this picture to my dad because I knew that he would appreciate that her breakfast consisted mostly of a doughnut. "A breakfast of champions!" he would say.

And no trip to Elko would be complete without stopping at our favorite park there.

When we got to Reno, we stayed and Aunt Jeannine and Uncle Don's house. Here's a picture of a double rainbow that appeared not long after we arrived.

Don and Jeannine are great hosts! The adults enjoyed lots of time visiting. The kids spent lots and lots of time playing together. And of course, there was plenty of yummy food!! We all had a great time.

However, I forgot to take pictures of the actual reunion out in Fallon. We had a great time visiting with more of our Miller family at the park. And Evelyn especially enjoyed being able to visit with some of her aunts, uncles and cousins that she rarely sees. We also got to do some swimming at the pool which the kids especially enjoyed.

Here's some pictures I took of my kids playing around one morning while we were in Reno. I love it when they are hugging and loving each other so much. They are just too cute!

Leah loves to decorate pictures on my phone. She decorated this one of  her and Paige.

Ross's cousin, Michelle has two kids that are the same age as Leah and Corbin. Leah and Ryan LOVE to play together and just have a grand time together. Corbin and Brie, however, are a different story. Let's just say that they learned to tolerate each other better while we were there.

Corbin could not get enough of playing on this four-wheeled bike they had in the garage. He was in heaven when riding this thing.

Like all good things, this trip had to come to an end. Monday morning we packed up and headed back for Provo. We stopped in Elko again on the way back. And with Paige, it meant many more short stops along the way. Here's some pictures of the kids playing at a park for one of our stops.

This trip to Nevada was our "big trip" for the summer before Ross had to report back to work and Leah had to start Kindergarten. We were glad that we could take Evelyn out to visit family. There's no way she could have gone on her own. And it was especially good to go this particular summer because it was the last time that group of Miller family members plan to get together for this reunion. I guess the older generation is almost all gone and the interest just isn't there anymore. But Evelyn and her siblings have decided to start their own Miller family reunion. So that will be a lot of fun. We always enjoy spending time with our Miller family!