Happy July 4th!!!

We love holidays, and July 4th is no exception. This year we went with our friends the Chappells to Schertz, TX to be with Joel's family. First, we went to the city's parade. When we got there it was raining, which shouldn't have been a surprise because it has been raining and raining for weeks now. It doesn't make for the best parades, but we did have fun watching it from our car. Payden was also kind enough to dirty a diaper while we were watching, so we got to enjoy the parade to the smell of a poopy diaper. With it raining outside, we couldn't roll down the windows, and there wasn't a trash can in site. We were definitely glad when the parade finally finished.

Lula came along, too, but wasn't impressed with everything, so she curled up at my feet and went to sleep.

After the parade, we went to Joel's parents' house where we played games, ate BBQ (it isn't the Fourth without some BBQ), wrestled (the boys . . . not the girls), played with the puppy, and talked. After some of the kids took naps, we split up. The boys went to Joel's house to play Halo, while the girls and the kids went to Schertz's carnival or "carmel" as Taylor called it. The rides and games were a bit pricey, but we went on a few of them. Shelby and Taylor ended up being scaredy-cats. Shelby at least went on some of the rides, but didn't enjoy them. Taylor refused to go on the rides. She tried, but got too scared every time.

It was actually torture, watching Shelby on this ride. She looked miserable the entire time. She didn't want to spin and, every time she passed the ride operator, he would spin her. Finally on the last 2 times around, he heard her pleas to not be spun. It really was awful to watch, but she didn't freak out and cry and just took it, which I was proud of.

Shelby did attempt the jumping ride, but just sat on the side, letting herself be bounced around by all the kids around her.

Shelby finally found something she liked - one of those things like a McDonalds where you climb a rope ladder, crawl through the tunnel, and slide down the slide.

Taylor did try to go on the spinning car ride, but ended up getting off and just watching. She wanted to try the train ride, but of course the ride operator decided to take a break the moment we got there.

She would only look at the bouncing ride.

She attempted to get on the climbing thing, but chickened out. She ended up not riding anything.

With all the mud (oh it was MUDDY), Payden only got to sit in the stroller and eat, which she seemed content to do.

In the end, they got patriotic fake tatoos from a lady, which brought smiles to their faces. It was muddy and the girls were scared of most of the games, but we did have fun.

Afterwards, we went swimming, which made everyone happy and cleaned us of the mud and the sweat from the carnival. Shelby actually put her face under water, repeatedly, which was exciting. We are having to slowly get rid of all their swimming fears. Oh the life of parents.

Anyways, after swimming, we met up with the boys and went to one of the safezones to try and do fireworks. It was muddy, grassy, crowded, smokey, LOUD, and rainy, so we went home without doing any fireworks. The only ones we saw were the ones we drove by in the car. Not the perfect ending, but it was still a fun day with family and friends.

Our New Member of the Family

We've been debating for a while whether or not to get a dog. Our girls LOVE dogs and have been begging to get one. It didn't help that we house-sat 2 dogs for a week and a half in May. Well this afternoon we went to Target; in the parking lot a family was selling about 9 Jack Russell Terrier puppies. We stopped to look. A lesson in life - if you don't want to buy, don't stop to look. Especially if you have kids. We stopped and looked and now we have a puppy . . . Lula.

She loves everyone in the family, but definitely has her favorites - Tom and Payden. As soon as she sees Payden in the mornings, she goes NUTS licking and jumping on her. Payden lays down just so Lula can attack her. Lula's other favorite is Tom. If she wants to go to sleep, she goes looking for Tom to cuddle with. At night when she wakes up, she desperately tries to be able to sleep and cuddle with Tom. Poor puppy. She'll learn soon enough that there are NO puppies in our bed.

The girls love having Lula around. Shelby and Taylor constantly read to her. They grab a hold of her and make her listen to book after book while she sits quietly on their laps. Their favorite book to read to her is Where the Wild Things Are. They also just love carting her everywhere. She takes it all pretty well. As for Payden, she absolutely loves Lula. Payden is always sharing her toys with Lula and "petting" her, which usually involves hitting and pulling and tugging. If you hear Payden saying "Baby" in the house, you know she's talking about the puppy, and, if Lula goes outside, Payden insists on going, too.

I'll admit I don't think I was fully prepared to have a puppy, but I have been pleasantly surprised. She sleeps in her bed fairly well and seems to be getting the idea of going potty outside pretty well. There's still lots of training to do (for both the girls and the puppy), but we do love having a dog. Most of all I love seeing the girls interact with her and loving her.

Messy Girl

Tom took Shelby and Taylor on a bike ride while I cooked dinner and fed Payden. I gave her some pasta and let her have at it. I looked up for a moment and found her pulling her hair with her pasta covered hands. She was SOOOOOOOO messy, but hey I got to make dinner in peace with all 3 girls entertained.

Fun Pictures from June

Hollywood Girl

Checkin' out who's at the door.

Making cookies. Yummy!!! And one of the few pictures you'll see of me since I tend to be the one snapping the pictures most of the time.


Tom has REALLY, REALLY itchy ears (he's been to the doctor and didn't get much of an answer other than try not itching it for awhile), so this is a common sight of him itching away.

Pouting Shelby

I found Taylor watching TV like this one morning.

When Payden's by this rocking horse and table, she always seems to be up to no good.

Ode to Books

My girls LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to read/look at books. The one thing in our playroom that ALWAYS needs to be picked up is our collection of books. I love seeing them curled up with a book (it was one of my favorite things to do when I was younger). It's funny because Payden doesn't really let me read to her, but I'll catch her "reading" books on her own, just like her big sisters.

Welcome to the Jungle

When we moved into our rental house over a year ago, the yard was pathetic. Only about 2 places grew - the back corner and the side of the house. The front yard and the majority of the back yard were just dead grass or spotty patches of grass. For the summer Tom decided to try to improve the grass. He seeded and fertilized and watered and watered. By the time winter came, we'd seen a little improvement, but not much. Now that spring's come our grass is luscious. It's beautiful and green, and I'm quite proud of Tom's efforts. Unfortunately, with wonderful, growing grass comes the job of making sure to cut it WEEKLY. We missed a few weeks, and this is what we got: Our jungle. It only took a few hours, 1 major blister, and 5 full garbage bags to tame the jungle. Here's pictures of my efforts. Next time, though, Tom gets to tame the jungle!!

Taylor the Tired

Taylor NEVER, NEVER, NEVER just falls asleep. A good car ride might get her to sleep if it's the right moment and she allows herself to fall asleep, but, aside from going to bed at night, she just does not sleep anywhere else or at any other time. Well, she had apparently had a really, really long Sunday. She got in trouble while saying prayers and reading scriptures. After returning from time out, we continued to read books when I noticed my arm was heavy. She had fallen asleep; it was just too cute.

Wrestling with the Girls

I was wrestling with Taylor one afternoon. Shelby had the camera and decided to take some pictures (remember that as you look at the pictures). Payden decided she wanted to join and would just come over to me and flop on me so that I would get her, too. It was too darn cute.

A self-potrait.

The Payden Flop

She does this often. She'll come up and just flop on her back trying to land on your lap, your arms, your back, . . . you name it. Many times she ends up slipping to the floor. She's even done a few flops and missed completely, landing on the tile floor (she wasn't too happy about that).

Can You Do This?

This is what Taylor used to do every time I would change her diaper. It just hurts looking at it. Shelby tried to do it, too, but Taylor's definitely the winner.

Smoothies

Well, we dropped Tom off at the airport today. He's off to Vegas to see his family. His mom had surgery, and everyone's there to see her. Anyway, on the way home from the airport, the girls wanted to buy smoothies, so I told them we'd go home and make them. We had fun, and they were delicious. It was Payden's first smoothie, and she LOVED them!!! Too bad Tom wasn't here to enjoy them as well!

Typical Tom and Joel

Can you guess what happened?

Bye to the Johnsons

Well, today the Johnson family packed up their house to move to Missouri. I offered to watch their boys for a bit, so for the last time Brock, Austin, and Brandon came to play. The kids played, ate snacks (because according to them they were STARVING), and watched "Sinbad." A few of the boys' favorite toys at our house: Tom's transformer, Woody, Jessie, Buzz, and. yes, our 2 Minnie the Mouse dolls. The girls enjoyed having them over (even though they weren't quite sure what to think of Payden, especially when she came begging for food) and will miss them.

I love these photos. The Johnsons: boys, brown hair, and tanned skin. The Ormes: girls, blonde hair, and pale skin. Could they be any more opposite?!?!?

Exciting Times at the Orme House

Payden's cousin Avery, who is about 2 1/2 weeks younger, has been a big influence in her life. Payden didn't roll, scoot, or pull herself up until after seeing Avery do it first. It was quite fitting that on Avery's birthday Payden finally started walking. She'd been taking steps here and there, but finally she decided that she wanted to walk. She now toddles everywhere, and we are loving it!!!

What better fun on the toilet than rolling out the entire roll of toilet paper. We love our Taylor!

Wiggly tooth. Crunchy apple. Works every time. We all love her new smile. She is constantly fiddling with it with her tongue and asking if we can see her big tooth yet. The Tooth Fairy was kind enough to bring a "penny," as she called it - it was actually a Sacagawea dollar, but I guess it doesn't matter if you really don't have much concept of money.

Corpus Christi Trip

Can you see the Jellyfish in the middle?

That sure is a big shark.

This is the parking lot under the bridge. Kinda Cool!

Can you see the seahorses? Shelby and Taylor sure did.

Tom and the girls looking at some fishes.

This is the aircraft carrier we wanted to tour.

Shelby and Taylor got tired of walking, and Tom got tired of the squawking. That's just a funny rhyme. They really were tired, but Tom was happy to carry them.

It's summer time, and we all are excited to get out to the beach!!! (Except for Tom who hates the sun). We decided to go to the aquarium which is a downsized Sea World. It was fun, and we got some stuffed animals for the girls. We also wanted to take a tour of a WWII aircraft carrier, but the price of both would have been tooooooo much. They had a fun "petting" zoo at the Aquarium in which the girls, and Tom, got to pet a shark and pick up some hermit crabs. We stopped off at the beach down the street from the aquarium. The beach there isn't very good, but we got to see some jellyfish washed up on shore. Tom and the girls jumped in the waves. On the way home we went to McDonalds and got some Happy Meals. It was a fun day.