Our vacations (Utah and Florida) Plus more!

One off Friday (Kevin has every other Friday off at work), we went to the Botanical Gardens down in Vero.  They aren't very big, but it was a beautiful day.  The jasmin smelled divine.  We took some fun pictures too.  Kevin and Jane went there right after Alice was born.  It was fun for them to go back and for us to go with them this time.

Jane on the fallen tree

This is what happens when you don't strap the baby in and then don't pay attention to what she is doing.  She almost scoots her way out of the carseat!  Good parenting, I know!

pink pineapple

Cute picture of Kevin and Jane

We have one of her on this rock at 2 years old.

Me and the girls

Jane's little friend Sami decided and begged her mom to have a fashion show.  So they sent out invitations and it was too fun.  Jane was super excited to go.  Sami did a great job hosting the whole thing.

Sami as announcer

Morgan and Jane in the background, with Mattie up front.  Such pretty girls!

We finally devoted a whole day to finishing our bookcase.  It turned out fantastic.  And once the paint dried, the decorating began.  It's still a work in progress (as is everything in my home), but I love it!

the newly painted bookcase and window seat

Alice playing with Kate.  Love this picture!

This is what we did while Jane was at school, take pictures

Jane graduated from Pre-school on May 19th.  Such a big girl.

Jane and her amazing teacher, Mrs. Rutherford

Another temple day, but this time we watched the kids at our house.  Seeing that the girls all love to sing, the karaoke machine had to come out!

Alice, Sami, Jane, and Kevin all serenading baby Kate

Jane, after 2 previous visits to the dentist, finally let them clean her teeth.  My baby is growing up and getting brave.  If you look closely though, her face still has a bit of fear in it.

Ok, so at the end of May we headed out to Utah for a little visit with the Terrys.  I didn't take too many pictures, but we had a great time.  On the sunniest day of the week, we headed down to Provo to visit one of my most favorite people, Hermana Wilson (Well, Lindsay now).  She has 2 adorable girls and soon to have a little boy.

Alice and Adele, the 2 curly Sues

Ella and Jane, the 2 oldest

Kate, Jane, Ella, and Adele (Alice was done taking pictures)

That evening (after we fried ourselves in the sun) we headed to temple square.  They have some awesome new updates.

Miniature of the Salt Lake temple.  Shows you all the interior details.

Jane and the temple

Jane and Alice with the Christus.  You can sit in this room and listen to Savior's testimony of His work and mission.  It's powerful.

The next day we headed to Wheeler Farm (loved it last year).  And it was fun again this year.  We met up with another one of my favorite people, Chamaine.  Who also has 2 little girls and another one on the way.

Maizy and the ducks.  The babies were too cute.

Ansley loved baby Kate

Thanks, Chamaine for visiting with us.

The next day we headed up to Ogden.  First we went to the dinosaur park.  Pretty fun.  You walk around a big park and look at dinosaur statues throughout.  My nephew Morgan would have loved it.  Jane and Alice thought it was pretty neat.

Kevin and Jane with the big bear

Alice asking "Why" is he blue?

Jane and Papa Terry enjoying a snack at the playground

Then on to visit Great Grandma Belnap

Kate meeting Great Grandma for the first time

Love this picture, too bad it is blurry

Sweet picture.  Kate was still a little burnt.  Once again, good parenting!  She's also wearing Jane's shirt for some reason.  Poor neglected third child.

Valene (Grandma), Ora Jean (Great Grandma), Kevin and Kate

Then on to Antelope Island (the Island in the Great Salt Lake)

Kevin's Aunt Lisa puts together a cowboy fair there each year.  It was pretty cool.  I'd never been out there.  The drive was really neat.  And then they had an activity at each tent for the kids.  Jane was in heaven.  Alice slept most of the time.

Jane and Kevin having a barrel race

The outlaws

"Don't mess with me, I know where to find you"

Kevin trying to rope the cow.  It took him quite a few tries before he did it.

Jane got it on her first throw!  She's got skills!

Buffalo on the drive.  Katie's poor little blistered face.

The Wasatch mountain looking south at point of the mountain.  Gorgeous view across the Great Salt Lake.

Princess Kate!  We celebrated our niece Ella's 2nd birthday.  Kevin took a lot more pictures and videos on his phone.  Sorry I was a slacker.

Our trip home.  We flew home at 1am.  Hence all the sleeping.

Well, at least Kevin was sleeping.  Alice played with her dinosaurs and...

Cute picture of Kate taken in Florida (I'm too frustrated with this program right now to fix it's location)

Jane colored pictures and asked me to take a picture of her and each page.  Too fun.

Another cute picture of baby Kate in Florida

Sophia and Alice in the cabinet at Lisa's old apartment

Kevin went flying with a friend from work.  That's our house down there.

From the four way intersection you can see in the bottom of the screen, go south (the picture is actually pretty accurate NSEW.  And our house is the 2nd one on the right.  We have a bunch of trees in our backyard.

We had fun waving at the plane as it passed over us.

Shot of Satellite Beach (where my parents live) and Melbourne Beach

So a week after we got back from Utah, my sister Kim and her family visited from Alabama.  We spent a lot of time at Gramma's.

Jane and Kate in front of the mirror at Gramma's

Sadly enough I didn't take any pictures until Beth showed up 2 weeks later.  Anyway, here is Pepper and Kate.

Mikayla and Jane falling on pillows.  Kevin is always full of fun ideas (dangerous at times), but tons of fun.

Mikayla, Morgan, and Ben, with Alice watching in the background

Ben and Morgan showing off their jumping skills

Alice was so excited that everyone would be at her birthday party.  She and Jane had been talking about it for months.  She wanted a blue and yellow castle cake.  Daddy did a great job, again!

Jacob, Alice (the oh so excited birthday girl), Jane, and Mikayla

Kevin decorated the cake at our house and then drove 30 min to my mom's house with no A/C in his car and the poor cake melted.  It was so sad, but luckily he saved it and even let all the kids help decorate it some more.  The most important thing was that Alice loved it!  You rock Kevin.

Alice blowing out her 3 candles.  Such a big girl.  She gets to take ballet now this fall, which she is also very excited about.  It'll be fun to watch.

Opening some gifts.  The chlorine from the pool just makes her hair form perfect ringlets.

The highlight was the Cinderella card.  She danced and danced in the store looking at it.  And even though it said, to a niece, I had to get it for her.  She can't read anyway!

A new barbie

The happy face for the card!

Kate and Daddy

Saturday, my parents, Kim and Mike, Nathan, Beth, Kate, and I all went to the temple to do work for my grandparents and their families.  It was awesome.  Very hot and sweaty outside for Nathan, Kim, and Kate, but good.  While we were there, Jane got to go to a birthday party at Snip-Its.  She got to get a princess hair do, make up, dress up like a princess, and then walk down the red carpet.  All very exciting.  Kevin and Alice got to go along and watch.

So excited about the hair and makeup.

Fun picture in the mirror

Jane and her friend Kayley (At least I'm pretty sure it's Kayley, she's an identical twin)

Princess Jane

All the pretty princesses

Then they came back home and hung out till we got back.  Kevin took the girls out in the rain.  Alice never goes, but this time Pepper was with them too, and she joined in.

Pepper and Jane

Pepper looking oh so happy

That Sunday I chopped Jane's hair.  It is too cute, not perfect, but cute.  I need to take some classes on how to cut hair correctly.

Alice in the tubes at Gramma's

Pepper in a tube.  This picture always makes me laugh.  How did she get in that?

Cousin Sophia

Pepper in the tubes.  (Pepper and Alice have similar hair, so it caught me off guard sometimes as to who was who).

All the grandkids and a proud Gramma on the side.

The whole clan, minus Cody, who we're going to photo shop in later.  Oh, and plus Sophia.  She can be one of ours for now!

One of our fun trips to the zoo.  Jane feeding the giraffe.

My uncle Larry.  He and Pat come each year and we always enjoy their visit.  The kids all love him too.

mom and dad hard at work

Pat relaxing in the shade

Alice in her floatie, Morgan in Jane's old floatie, Larry with his own little floatie, Jane with her goggles and Beth in the tube on the side.

Caught in the rain at the zoo

Beth

Morgan playing in the rain (Jane took all of these pictures)

Alice and Kate (Alice is showing you her little baby elephant)

The gift shop.  Always fun to put big glasses on little babies.

My finished window seat.  Enjoying the view on a rainyish day.

Jane and Morgan at the zoo.

The rest of the bookcase.  I love it, I love it, I love it!!!!  Now I need to plant some flowers along that fence!

Morgan showing us his Jedi skills.  The girls always wanted to play house and Morgan always wanted to play Star Wars, so they called him Jedi, and he played with them.  Perfect!  Alice became Leah of course too.

Morgan in the pool.  Disregard the purple, it made him float better.

Jane in the pool

Zonked out on the way home.  Playing with cousins all day will wear you out!

Kevin taking the challenge to crawl under the chairs at a ward 4th of July activity.  Only one big rug burn on his arm to show for it!  The little kids excelled at this challenge.  The grown men, not so much.

Another fun trip to the zoo.

Gramma and Jane

Alice and Jane on the train

Happy kids!  Alice, Kate, and Morgan

Oh, and if you noticed, Alice is wearing panties.  She is potty trained now.  Her 3rd birthday came and she said, "I want to wear panties."  And since that day she has.  And so far, no accidents.  Smooth sailing when it's their idea!  My philosophy (unless your kid is tearing off their diaper all the time, or smearing poop on the walls, or you need the extra cash), let the kid tell you when they are ready to pee on the potty.  Kind invitations to use the toilet and cute panties sweeten the deal.  Hence, I have no good advice to a mom struggling with potty training because my kids do it themselves (so far).  We'll see how Kate goes!

Pepper, Alice, and Kate.

We had a blast visiting with all of our cousins this summer.  And we are sad that the summer is almost over.  We still have a lot of playing left to do!  We love you Beth and Kim and your families.  Thanks for visiting us!