The Olympics 8/8/08

I LOVE the Olympics! I love to watch them and no matter what event is on could sit and watch all day. So as the opening day approached I decided to throw a little Olympic Opening Ceremony Party. We invited a few of the neighbors over, learned some Olympic Trivia and had some yummy treats. I figured with all the kids we had we should do something fun for them so I made a Torch Pinata. This thing was solid, but all the kids enjoyed taking turns hitting it and they really loved the candy and prizes inside! Here's Grace taking a swing.

And Nicole doing her best to hit it.
I missed most of the artistic portion of the Opening Ceremony but it was so fun to have our friends over and talk and play with them.

Potty Training

I decided I wanted to Potty Train Grace this summer before this baby came. When I looked at the plans for the summer I decided I had to do it in June before my sister came, because by the time she left in August I wouldn't want to do it and it wouldn't give enough time for Grace to master the skill before the baby came in September. So I picked the 16th of June to start. My Mom and Mother-in-law both swear by the "Pottty Training in less than a Day" method. So I borrowed the book and read and re-read it a few times. Got a potty, a baby doll that pees, training pants, and all sorts of snacks and drinks..... I was prepared! So I thought.

The initail potty training day went pretty well. Grace thought it was fun to teach the baby to pee, but had no interest in sitting on the potty as long as the book suggested. She had a few accidents that day, and I finished the day feeling like I hadn't followed the book at all and there is no way a child would be as cooperative as the book describes. But still she now understood the concept. The next day I made the mistake of having a Dr's appointment. So I had to leave her and she wasn't ready to go potty at someone elses house. We had several accidents that day, but she successfully pooped in the potty which was exciting. On the third day I almost gave up. I don't know if it was me being pregnant or what but I was getting way to emotionally involved and frustrated about potty training. Grace has a bladder of steel. So I was thinking she should be going potty at least every 2 hours since she was drinking a ton, so I would make her sit on the potty and that would turn into a fight because she didn't want to sit there and go potty and then I would get frustrated and then eventually she would go. Ben called me that day and I broke down in tears and told him I couldn't do it anymore. Then he wisely reminded me that I needed to listen to Grace and trust that she'll give me the signs or tell me if she needed to go. So that's what I decided to do. She went a long time, but eventually she had to go and we made it to the potty successfully! After that afternoon she went almost 5 days without another accident! Since then she has been doing awesome. She has only wet the bed a handful of times, and besides a few setbacks (like camping) she hasn't had many accidents. So it's been almost 2 months now, but she was mostly only going potty when I reminded her or made her because we were leaving the house. So I kept wondering when she was going to take the initiative and go on her own. Well, over the past week and a half she has started doing that. She'll say she has to go potty and run in, take her panties off, climb onto the potty, go, wipe and flush. She has even started to attempt to put her panties back on. (for some reason she cannot go potty with her pants around her ankles!) Well, on August 4th she did this and refused any help from me. She even pushed me out of the bathroom and shut the door. When she was done she proudly came out like this....

Yes, her shorts are on UNDERNEATH her Panties, and her panties are on inside out! She was so proud of herself she wouldn't let me change it until she got dressed for the day.

So I am so proud of Grace for doing so great at potty training! It was not something I enjoyed doing at all! But she has done awesome and I do have to admit it is wonderful not to have to change a diaper anymore.....even if it does require cleaning up an accident every once in a while.

Hogle Zoo

July 21st we took a trip to the zoo with Heather & Kurt and their kids, and Kim and her kids. It was a fun day with lots of walking around and not to much fighting between the little girls. (They are all completely obsessive of their belongings) Grace LOVES all the animals and has such a fun time at the zoo. I think this is such a cute picture of Grace and she was even cooperative and wanted it taken.

Elise (with her bandaged arms from the fire accident), Abbie, Kurt, Micah, Spencer, Sydney, Heather and Grace.
Cousins! We love our cousins!

The Hardy Family Reunion

We had a fun family reunion with my mom and siblings July 16th through the 19th. We kicked it off a little early by having dinner with the siblings on the 15th at our house. No family reunion would be complete without some Papa Murphy's Pizza. The next morning we got all packed up to go camping and got ready to have our pictures taken. So we started out the day with some family pictures in the park. Then we headed to Provo for some lunch at the Cougar Eat and a friendly family bowling competition. All the little kids did awesome thanks to the ramp, and I did quite aweful. Normally I'm a pretty decent bowler but it took my till the 7th or 8th round to get a strike. So frustrating! Grace was on Ben's team and she had a great time picking out her ball and rolling it down the ramp!

Then we headed up to Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway. We set up camp, had a yummy dinner and smore's and had a very successful day of our family reunion. Unfortunately it went downhill from here.

Thursday we woke up and half of us headed over to Deer Valley for some boating. Grace and Ben were able to have a ride on the tube together and I am sooo sad I didn't have my camera! They had a fun time, but unfortunately about 1/2 hour into our ride the boat broke down. So our manly men started rowing us into shore, that lasted about 5 minutes before they gave up and waved someone down to tow us in. Boy were we grateful for them! So the other half of our family met up with us and we had some lunch while Kurt and Ben tried figure out what was wrong with the boat. Then my brother Scott and his family had to leave for a funeral in Idaho, so we were sad to see them go. The boys gave up on getting the boat working so they pulled it out of the water and we all headed back to camp for some rest and dinner. What a bummer it was to have the day ruined by the boat! But it only got worse....

We had a yummy dinner of Hot Dogs cooked over the fire (there really is nothing better than that while you're camping!) Then we decided to cook up some more Smore's. While we were sitting around the fire my little neice Elise who is 2 tripped on the cement and fell into the fire! She was only in it for like a second, her mom pulled her out so fast, but it was aweful to watch her fall and try to catch herself. They ran her over to the water faucet and tried to get some cool water on it, but they decided to take her to the hospital. Luckily Ben had his consecrated oil on him so they were able to give her a blessing before they headed out. Luckily the hospital wasn't to far away and her burns were just on her arm and were mostly 2nd Degree. But it was a very awful traumatic experience!

We put the kids down for bed shortly after that and the adults cleaned up and played a few games waiting for Rob and Kim and Elise to come home from the Hospital. Elise was a little drugged up but happy as can be when they got back. What a little trooper!

The next morning after breakfast my little nephew Logan took a swan dive off the picnic table and got a good little cut in his forehead. So we decided to take the kids fishing next because it seemed like a fairly safe activity to do. We were having a fun time when Heather was helping her daughter cast a line and they caught a Duck! It was awful. The poor duck was so scared it kept turning in circles and tried to swim away so it was choking itself. Just picture a very pregnant Heather running down the side of the lake chasing after a duck attatched to her fishing pole. Anyway, they finally reeled the duck in and cut him loose.

Here is a bunch of the family by the lake.

Well, as we were sitting on the grass recovering from the Duck incident we all decided that we had had enough trauma on this camping trip and they we should pack up and go home before a birth of a baby happened or something. So we headed back to camp for lunch. But before we left we had to try the park's Geochaching activity. Half of the family had done this while we were boating so Ben and I got a chance to do this with Kurt, Sydney and my mom. Here we are with our "treasure" that we found.

We packed up fairly quickly, and then headed out of town stopping at Granny's for some shakes on the way!

Since the family reunion was supposed to officially go until Saturday we decided to do some fun things at home that day. So we went swimming at the AF Pool which was sooo fun! And then us girls left the kids with the men and headed out for some Pedicures. Boy that felt good. Then the boys went golfing. It was a great relaxing way to end our family reunion. Some people's reunions are ruined by family feuds. We had a wonderful time together it was just one accident after another for us! Thanks to Heather for planning such a great reunion! It was fun even if it didn't go exactly as planned!

Lagoon!

July 14th was such a fun day. My Dad and Deb sponsored all the Grandkids for a fun day at Lagoon! Grace and I were one of the first to show up. She was sooo excited to go on the rides, so while we were waiting for the others to show up Grandpa took Grace on a few rides. Here is her first ride of the day on Bulgy the Whale. She was seriously bored to death on this ride. She sat there with her finger in her mouth the whole time with no reaction. It was hilarious.

So Grandpa tried a ride with a little more thrill. I don't remember what this one is called but it's a mini version on the Rocket and Grace Loved it! She wasn't scared one bit and was laughing the whole time. She is our little Daredevil. Soon everyone else showed up so the bigger kids got to go on most of the rides. Grace had a minor breakdown when she was told she couldn't ride the Bat, but she did get to go on the Odysea, the new family ride.
Then off to the bumper cars. There was hardly no line so the kids were able to ride a few times without a wait. Grace mostly spun in circles the whole time. Then Grandpa headed off with all the bigger kids and all the non pregnant adults.
Heather, Grandma Debbie and I stuck with the little kids and had a turn on the carousel and all the other kiddie rides.
Elise, Grandma Deb, and Avery
Abbie and Heather
Then my favorite ride of the day was good ole' Puff. Debbie braved this ride with 3 little girls. Grace loved this one and copied the bigger kids in front of her by putting her arms in the air. It was so cute, but I couldn't get a picutre of it.
By this time we were all dying of heat so we headed to Laguna Beach for a few hours and then had some delicious hogies for dinner. We left around 8:00 and poor Grace was so wiped out she didn't even make it out of the parking lot before she was asleep.
Thanks Dad and Deb for the fun day!

Oakcrest

One of the funnest summers of my life was spent working at an LDS girls camp called Oakcrest. It is an amazing camp and I made so many great friends that summer. We had 13-14 year olds from all over the Salt Lake Valley come up each week. I was the First Aid Specialist which basically meant I passed out medicine and comforted the homesick girls. My camp name was Owie. It was so great to be surrounded by such great people, the spirit, and have the chance to be goofy and not self concious for 3 whole months! Well, this summer Oakcrest turned 50 years old so they threw a huge Reunion for all past Oakcrest employees. My sister Heather was a counselor one summer too, so we headed up together. We stopped in Heber for some dinner and shakes at Granny's, then made it to Oakcrest in Woodland which is just south of Kamas. There were quite a few of the girls from my year that were able to come and it was so fun to see them!

Here is Vanilla, Tiki, and I and our pregnant bellies. We are all due within 2 weeks of each other.

And here is a bunch of us with a few of our kids thrown in.

(Roxy, Lashes,Vanilla, Tiki, me, Coach, Cricket, Speedy, & Cloey)
They had a wonderful program with a fun video and lots of Oakcrest treats! It was an awesome night!

My Princess

Grace has started the "Princess" Stage. We were playing in her room one day and she saw her princess dress from last Halloween hanging in her closet. So she wanted to try it on and surprisingly it still fits! She loves wearing it around and she thinks she is Sleeping Beauty. I also finally broke down and bought her some Princess shoes. She loves wearing them around!

Big Belly's

I have several pregnant sister/sister-in-laws right now, but my sister Heather is due almost the exact same time as me and is havin twins! I am so excited for her, and it has been so fun to compare pregnancies so far. I was anxious to see her belly when she came out for a visit. I was feeling big, so I know she was feeling huge. So even though this pictures is taken in a dressing room while we were trying on clothes, I had to document our big belly's. Looking at this makes me glad I'm not carrying twins. This was around 28-29 weeks for us I think.

The 4th of July

My sister Heather from North Carolina came into town at the beginning of July for a whole month! It was so fun to have her in town and to play with her kids. The 4th was the first real day we got to play with them. We decided to brace the crowds and go to the Provo Parade since we haven't been to it before. We got a great illegal parking spot and showed up just in time to see the beginning of the parade at the end of the route.

Grace loved seeing the Curious George Balloon.
After the parade we headed home for Nap time! Then went shopping for our BBQ. Thanks to Ben we had some perfectly grilled Hamburgers and Hot Dogs. We also had Corn on the Cob, Watermelon, and chips. How much mor American can you get than that?

After dinner we headed outside for some fireworks. We were to excited for it to get dark, but fireworks in the light are almost just as fun. Grace loved the Sparklers.
And Ben was the perfect firemaster for the night.
What a finale! We had such a great 4th, and I am just so grateful to live in our wonderful country. I've been feeling ultra patriotic this year. I guess living outside the country makes you realize how great we really do have it and what a wonderful place we live in!

Another Wedding

Ben's best friend Mike got married on June 10th! We were thrilled to be invited to attend the dinner and ceremony! The lucky girl is Heather and she seems to be perfect for him. We've waited a long time for this guy to get a girl so we could hang out and we are so excited for you two! I LOVE Mike's brown tux and Heather's beautiful dress!

Ben and Mike, to replace the picture of them from our wedding day over 5 years ago!
The reception was beautiful, and my favorite part? The Cold Stone icecream they served. Yummy! Grace loved seeing Heather in her dress. She thought Heather was a princess and wanted to give her loves.

Cabella's Fishing Day

I hadn't ever been to Cabella's, so on June 7th when they had their free Children's fishing day we decided to go. The fishing was less than fantastic, but it was fun to walk around the store and see all the animals. Grace loved being with her Dad and trying out the fishing rod, and I'm glad they didn't catch anything!

While we were there we got some lunch at their restaurant, and Grace got some new crocs. (she lost hers at Furniture Warehouse, the little stinker)

Honey

The first few days of June were trying for me and our little Princess. She was loving being home, and so was I, but with such a big house I lost track of her a few times. One day I was outside and came in to see Grace enjoying some honey. She was squeezing it onto her leg, rubbing it around and licking all of her fingers. Mmmm! Just like a little Pooh Bear. She knew she was in trouble when I walked in by the looks she gave me!

The next day I left her upstairs for like 3 minutes to come back and find her in a tube of paint. ALL OVER the bathroom floor, and again her legs. Luckily she only got a tiny bit on her dress and my white pants! AGGHHH!

But the first two weeks of June were fun because we did some Mommy and My swimlessons! We have missed swimming whenever we want to, but these swim lessons were fun. Grace's only complaint was that she couldn't wear her floaties and do whatever she wanted to. It was a struggle to help her understand that there was structure to our lessons and we had to follow the teacher. She got it by the end and we learned some fun things!

Ben's Work Party

On June 23rd I was finally let in on a big secret- where my husband works. Security is pretty tight around there, but they finally decided to have a friends and family day so we were able to visit him on site. They set up a small carnival for the kids, so I called up my good friend Jenny and we took our kids to the carnival. They had a bunch of little games, and gave out tons of candy!

Ben helping Grace push the bowling ball.
The "fish" pond. Grace loved trying to catch the turtles.
Grace, Nicole and Matthew. We had a great time playing.
Ben's Dad and brother also came. We had a yummy lunch catered by Goodwood, and then sent Grace home with Jenny while the rest of us took a tour of the plant. It was a lot of walking, but a lot of fun to see what Ben is always talking about. It was fun to meet more of his coworkers and see where he works. So Thanks IMFlash for a fun day!

The Wedding

Ben's little brother Jacob got married on May 22nd! Congratulations Jacob and Alyssa! It turned out to be a cold rainy day, but the sealing was beautiful as was the reception. Here is Grace enjoying the pretty tulips at the temple.

Snuggling Daddy trying to keep warm.
Our little Family at the Temple.
The Happy Couple.
Grace and Ben dancing at the reception. She was so ready for bed, but had to have a dance before we left. I didn't get a picture of us all in our wedding attire, but Grace's dress was adorable thanks to Grandma Harper, and I ended up with a HOT pink shirt and black skirt. Thanks for all your suggestions!
It was so fun to have him get married and spend time with all of our family we hadn't seen in so long!