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BUGS: THE GROSS KIND

Dear Blog Followers, I'm sorry we have been absent for most of this year. We have been busy, but now we are back.

I am going to deem this summer, the Summer of the Bugs. Last summer was definitely the summer of the bikes, but this one has turned out to include nothing but bugs (and swimming and other fun stuff, but mostly bugs).

Notice what is in the boy's hands...
I'll give you a hint....they are slimey, and sticky, and stinky, and gross! Jack found these beauties on the backyard fence. He proceeded to keep them in a plastic gatorade bottle until they stunk so bad when he opened the lid that he let them go. Honestly, I throw up a little bit in my mouth when I think about them.
Next, came the grasshoppers, butterflies, potato bugs, and dragonflys. Jack earned that bug catcher from doing jobs around the house (only a dollar at the dollar store), and it has held all of them at one time or another.
Brigham on the other hand would only hold rolly-pollys in the beginning, but has moved on to the sheer bravery of holding frogs.

And there he is. Many potato bugs have died along the way in our garage this summer.

This is Anndi. She likes to do whatever Jack does, which would include the catching of bugs. The girl even let him put a grasshopper on her head, if that's not love I don't know what is!

I believe this one's name was "Hoppy." He lived a short life in Jack's bug cage, but it was filled with lots of jumping and a couple of B. B.s put in there to play with.

I really have never been a big fan of bugs. I am a girl afterall, and being a girl I have never warmed to the feeling of something crawling on my hand or anywhere else for that matter. Bugs are gross. But, I'll be honest, this particular summer of my life, as a mommy of two crazy boys, I have been so ThankFul for bugs. They have saved my sanity!
p.s. pics of frog-holding coming soon

The Fourth

The Fourth of July!! I have come to really love this holiday because my kids are finally getting old enough to stay up late and enjoy the fireworks.

And here we are....not sure how our legs got cut off, but you can see lots of the black sky!
I LoVe this girl.

These are girls in my boy's lives....we have fiery Avery, who Brigham ALWAYS insists on holding hands with, and mischevious Anndi, who will literally do anything for Jack. I'm told that Avery and Brigham guard all the toys in nursery, while holding hands.

Seriously, I can't enough of her.

Brigham was VErY scared of the fireworks. He refused to hold a sparkler and ran away from me when I tried to give it to him! I couldn't get a clear shot of him saying, "wow" over and over again as the fireworks lit up the sky. I really enjoy that he's a little more conservative than Jack.

And there he is, dressed in his favorite oversized Disney shirt and "richard simmons" blue shorts. It has been his choice of attire for most of the summer. Good thing school's starting and I can finally make him dress "cute" again, at least as cute as boys can dress.

We Are Alive!

Alright, here we are again. Can I just say that 3 kids has ROCKED our world! Holy moly. This little girl is wonderful and precious and we totally LoVe her, but January is the soonest after she was born that I have had a minute to finally get some pics up here. So here are few from Christmas, a few from Jack's bday, and a few of the babe. Enjoy!

I wanted to put this at the end of this post, and leave you with a "Peace out" from Dave, but it didn't land in the right spot. So, we'll start with a little "peace", because that is hard to find at our house right now.
I know she looks a little Amish in this sweater, but someone hand-knitted this number and so we must take pictures for their enjoyment. Plus she's smiling, and looks so cute!


THE BIRTHDAY

Jack got a new bike because his old one was getting down-right too small for the lad. Honestly, he's not much of a morning person and walked right past the thing on his way to feed his face. I had to bribe him to sit there and half-smile! Seriously, who wouldn't be happy about this sweet Star Wars bike.

And here is the big birthday cake. I made it in about a 1/2 hour. It wasn't my best work, in fact the back of it wasn't even frosted because I ran out of frosting and didn't have time to make more. Those are Star Wars figurines he picked out himself. Don't judge me too harshly. I'll do better next year!

Here's the loot from family and friends. The Star Wars Guess Who has been a big hit.

And there's the birthday boy. 5 years old.

THE MIRACLE BLANKET

May I introduce you to the Miracle Blanket that truly has brought the "Gift of Sleep" into our home. You wrap the kid up and she can't move her arms one inch. These days she really is sleeping between 7 and 8 hours every night. Bless her sweet soul! On a sidenote, she did NOT sleep that long for many, many, many weeks.

CHRISTMAS

These pictures are in a very random order. Here is Baylee with all her goods. She was super excited about her new clothes and pacifiers. So excited in fact, that Christmas morning she slept-in until eight o'clock.

Jack with his DS. It has been both a life-saver and a hindrance. I had to set up a time limit for every day, but the DS has blessed us with less fighting between the brothers.

Here's Buzz Lightyear with his light saber. He has a laser and he will use it! I do really think that his favorite gift was his new shoes. He put them on and wore them the rest of the day.

Notice our delightful Christmas tree in the background. It was a Wal-Mart special last year. I made the boys ABC books. Brigham likes to read his every night. I think Jack has looked at his once, maybe twice. Boy, I really did a terrible job of Christmas pictures this year. I'm going to blame it on...

BAYLEE

I came home one day to find Baylee dressed like this. She had a onesie under all those layers as well. Dave said he dressed her and didn't want to have to undress her and go through the process all over again! Seriously!!

She's starting to smile people. And it's really cute.

I took her in for her 2 month appointment and the kid is in the 76th percentile for weight! She's a short, chubby little girl, with a perfectly round head. At least one of our kids finally likes to eat. I honestly think that Jack never even made the weight chart.

I love her!! As my friend Jacque said, "They start out like this, and then they turn into that!"

I tell you, these boys LOVE this little girl. They call her "sissy" a lot, and give her kisses all day long. Maybe someday they will get along with each other.

The Princess Has Arrived

Our little princess has finally arrived. Baylee Eva Burns was born at 10:11pm on November 16th. She weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 21 inches long. She has lots of dark hair and even came out with a big pink flower in her hair!!!

Sweet little girly.

She really did fit in this basket, not comfortably, but she fit!

Cute little baby hands.

Love her.

Here's Dave recovering from the whole birthing process. It was pretty traumatic for him. Seriously, he almost passed out!!! And he told me the next morning that he had birthing nightmares. I didn't get the epideral in time....ask me about that sometime!

Aunt Summer and Cousin Hallie came to see her at the hospital. I'm glad we could even out the gender numbers with another girl.

Dave took about 10 different pictures trying to get a good one of us. That would be why I'm not in any pictures ever!

The newlyweds even showed up to hold her. I think she made them a tad bit baby hungry, except for when she cried and then Dusty handed her back over!

I love that smile!

I have to say that this little girl has already brought so much calm to our house. The boys totally adore her. Now if we could just get them to like each other!

Swimming in the Rain

Alright, well we've had a lot of fun this past month. Dave had a birthday and got lots of "work clothes" as he calls them, and P90X. We'll see if he really uses it this go-round!

We did a lot of swimming at the Farmington Pool, including the planning and carrying out of our ward swim party there.
Since that party Brigham asks me every time we go there if we get a popsicle this time!

Notice the fork, which he calls his "sword". He has a "sword" with him at all times, including when he goes to sleep. Silly boy!

Jack got very brave this summer as he climbed his way up to the top of the high dive and jumped off several times.

I really think he was just trying to impress his dad...

...who tried to talk Jack into doing things like this off of the high dive! Dave, he's only four. That's what I have to tell him over and over again.

And then there are the random summer rain storms.

They are just too fun to pass up!

What kid wouldn't want to run, jump, splash, and get totally drenched in that warm rain!

So naturally, all the neighborhood kids had to join in. Good times. I love the summer.

We also ventured to Arizona for a week, and then down to San Diego for two weeks. Someday I'll get those pictures on here.

oh baby

It's a GIRL, and she's coming in the middle of November.

Wa-hoo!