da da da.... another week bites the dust

we had a busy week!  Whats new!

 this is the "princess castle" the girls made last week.  In other words they like to pile all of their junk in one place.  My favorite part was that they put the training potty in there with a dog on it.

 julia is pretty much potty trained.  she loves to go on the big potty without the 9$ princess insert i bought (what a waste).  she hasn't had an accident since saturday....which i know isn't very long......but she is really doing well.

 we watched spencer a lot last week.  both days were nighmarish.  he WOULD not go down and WOULD NOT take any naps.  So it was like a screaming kid all day long.  I gave rachel my two weeks (sort of).  I said if he didn't take naps at my house then I couldn't watch him any more.  It's just not good for anyone.  We have him again today and he is doing great, so I guess we will continue.

 anna is really into making creepy faces.  this one is pretty scarry!

 one of the exhausting days with spencer.  he finally fell asleep one day in the carrier while I was doing stuff.  I laid him down and he woke right back up screaming.  PAINFUL.

 another potty training picture of bopee.  We did a lot of potty training last week.

 richard was gone all week hunting.  unfortunately he didn't shoot anything.  i was looking forward to some elk meat.  he was looking forward to having another elk head to display.

 on thursday i had to work and rachel took the girls.  afterwards we went to wheeler farm (right by rachel's house).  I let the girls ride in this farm animal train (2$ a piece).  They liked it.

 here is rach and spencer.

 what the train was like.

 we petted all the animals.  julia likes the goats and she isn't terrified of cows and horses anymore.

 after wheeler farm we went and picked up virginia's kids for the afternoon while she went to the OB.  She made me a pie.  She is due with her 4th child (girl) this week.

 when she came back we ate dinner and went to the park.  we have a good time together.

 after that richard and steven came home from hunting.  steven bought this little cheerleader thing for miss julia.  she wouldn't wear it at first, but then richard realized she wanted the tag off.  he took it off and now she will wear it.  isn't she adorable.

 she even gave steven a thankyou hug.  and then she teased him by throwing toys at him.

 while we were sitting there something interesting came on the news.  richard and steven both immediately stopped talking, put their hands behind their head (see pictures above and below) and tuned into the TV.  like brother like brother.  hilarious.

 steven was good to the girls.  he read to them and played with them and took them to the store to buy donuts and candy.  julia tripped and scraped up her nose - but she will recover.  we took him to the airport friday morning.

 friday afternoon my dad came over with A LOT of apples and we spent the afternoon and evening making about 60 quarts of APPLESAUCE.  its yummy.  we have already eaten at least 3 quarts.

 richard came home from work early and helped us.  he was the cranker.

 my sister jill also came to help.  she mostly played with the girls, but then we put them to bed and she was great at getting hte jars ready for processing.

 here is a video of julia singing on the potty while going poop,  pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

 we finally finished the applesacue at 11.  We started clean up then finished on saturday morning (i had to mop 3 times to get rid of the stickyness!).  Sunday was my sisters birthday so she called and asked if i wanted to go on a hike (WITHOUT KIDS).  SO WE DID!  its a miracle, we have been wanting to do this all year long.

 We hiked lake blanche up big cottonwood canyon.  it was stunningly beautiful in parts.  sort of dead and boring in other parts.  i am especially partial to the aspens.

 he is amy at the lake. 2.8 miles to the lake.

 perfect day!

 beautiful place!  my phone did this cool thing with my picture.  pretty awesome.

 hiking pictures are not complete without pictures of lichen.

 and other small plants growing in the cracks of rocks.

 here we are!  are we sisters of what?  both in fleecy jackets in coordinating colors.

 sunday was relaxing.  we made tunisian tomato soup, popcorn, fresh bread, cinnamon rolls, puff pancake, went to church, played a lot of piano and just relaxed.

we have spencer today and he is happy again.  hooray.  we can survive another week i think.