The rest of August

The last part of August was really busy and amazingly wonderful.  Now that summer is about over I remembered I had body paint soap type things.  You can't submerge them so I figured letting Mia play with them in the tub was a bad idea.  Instead we pulled out the slip and slide and let the kids have at it.  They didn't work as well as I thought they would but the kids still had fun.

 They painted themselves like super heroes.

 Mia started preschool the end of August.  She is really enjoying it but never remembers what she learns.  Now when I pick her up and ask her how school was she says "Fine, don't ask me what I learned I don't remember."  It's pretty funny.

 Ellie loves bouncing and jumping.  She gets her exersaucer going like crazy.  It gets pretty loud but it doesn't seem to phase her.

 It took her a while to learn how to bounce in her jumper but she's getting pretty good at that too.

 My cousin got married the end of August.  This was a picture my brother took of Ellie at her wedding reception..

 Mia found some little boy at the reception and had a blast dancing!  It was so cute to watch.

The biggest and best news of August was finalizing Ellie's adoption, taking her to the temple, and having her baby blessing.
When we went to court to finalize Mia's adoption the judge was really kind of a pain.  He was long winded, pretty much told us we don't love each other and don't know what love is (crazy story), and just drove us crazy.  My only hope for Ellie's adoption was a different judge and WE DID!  This judge was awesome.  He included Mia in things and was much more personable.

 After we were done he even let Mia come and sit in his chair and bang his gavel.

Our little family getting ready to go to the temple.

It was truly an amazing experience being in the temple as a family. I'm so grateful that we get to be a forever family.  We have amazing birth moms who sacrificed so much so we could be a family.  It really is a miracle.  Of course Mia was drawn to the water immediately.

It took us a few minutes to round up our family and friends.  Ellie was asleep when we went back to the youth center to pick her up and actually stayed asleep for a little bit.

Our Forever Family!

We had lots of family and friends there to support us.

We had both of our families and even had Ellie's birth mom and her family there with us.  (Those pictures are just for us though)

Just the girls.

We were sealed in the Ogden Utah Temple.

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the two girls but Mia was about done at this point and Ellie was wanting to go back to her nap.

The next day was Ellie's baby blessing.  We had so much love and support from family and friends.  It was truly a wonderful weekend.

What a cutie!

July and the first half of August.

Once again I haven't been real stellar at keeping up with this.  Life is definitely busier with two kids. I can't necessarily tell you what we are busy doing but we seem to be busy non stop.  This year we had our annual 4th of July breakfast with Monty's family on the 3rd.  It just seemed to work out better for everyone's schedule.  Breakfast was followed by fun in the water.

 The morning of the 4th Mia did a good job keeping Ellie entertained.

 Mia had a blast with fireworks.  Her favorites are the sparklers and the big ones that go up in the air.

 I had fun playing with my camera getting pictures of her.

 The 4th of July Baby!

Aren't these guys a cute trio!

 Ellie is such a happy easy going baby.  She is always full of smiles and laughs.

 We had some pretty crazy lightening storms in July.  I headed outside during a few of the and tried to get some pictures.  I got a few that turned out kind of cool.

 A large portion of July was spent working in "the pit."  Once it was dug out then Monty had to put up the wall and get the ground cover down so we could start on the jungle gym.

Ellie would hang out under the tree in the shade while we would work.

 Getting closer.

 Every year Chick-fil-A has a cow appreciation day.  If you dress up like a cow you get a free combo meal.  Of course we made costumes and went and enjoyed our free food.  We didn't make Ellie dress up seeing as she wouldn't be eating the food, it was 100 degrees outside and she would have probably just eaten her paper costume anyway.

 Ellie has really started playing a lot with toys.  She's at such a fun age.

 Toward the end of July Grandpa and Grandma came down to help so we could get this stupid thing done finally!

 Grandma and the girls watching intently.  It just killed Mia waiting until she could play on it.

 Finally SUCCESS!!!

 Mia LOVES LOVES LOVES playing on her jungle gym and I love that she is no longer climbing her closet.

 I even got in on the action a bit.  It definitely made me feel old though.  I just can't swing and flip like I used to.

 July 24th we always have a big water party, BBQ, and firework show at Monty's parents.  Not only is it Pioneer Day, it's also Grandpa's birthday.  This little pool is barely big enough for two :-)

 There were sprinklers, a couple pools, and of course water guns.

 After singing happy birthday, the grandkids attacked with silly string!

 On July 28 Ellie was hanging in her usual spot under the tree while we were in the yard.  One minute she as on her back and the next...on her belly!  This girl is rolling all over the place now but sadly can only roll to the left.  It's pretty funny when she gets stuck.

 This girl loves to eat!!

 Mia really likes that Ellie is old enough to play with her even if it's just a little bit now.

 This girl is becoming quite the acrobat in bed.

 How CUTE!

 

Sadly I sold our swing because Ellie is just too big for it and now were pulling out the big baby toys.  It took her a few times but she's figured out how to use her jumper.  I don't know the weight limit on this thing but hopefully it's made for big chubby babies like ours.



 Mia is such a big helper.  She likes to help feed Ellie...as long as she gets her food first LOL.

 This summer our neighborhood did a party.  We pulled out grills, rented a bounce house and a huge water slide, and just hang out together and had a blast.  I think Mia probably spent 3 hours straight on this water slik

 Even Monty got in on the fun!

I guess it's just life that keeps us busy but we are having fun and enjoying it.  The rest of August has been and will be great but since this is the end of my pictures I will end here for tonight.  Stay tuned for more of our crazy life!