July has come and gone. It seemed to have gone just as fast as June did. Summer alw
ays seems to do that. Before catching up to August, let me recap the last couple weeks of July.
Since Nyles enjoyed his first swim lessons so much and he did so well, we figured we'd keep the momentum going and have him take the next level, Preschool 2. He did really well in this class as well. His confidence grew tremendously in his ability to get in and under the water. Like last time he wanted to be first in whatever they were doing, and was always first to volunteer for something. By the end of the 2 weeks he was doing awesome! He was putting his face and whole body under the water and trying to swim on his own. He was also willing to jump off the edge to his teacher and do all the required exercised they had him do. Needless to say, he LOVED it! He passed this level s well. Ironically his teacher changed every couple days, but he still did great with each teacher (we think the original teacher decided to go on vacation). Here are some pics of him during swim lessons.
Nyles sitting at the edge of the pool waiting for the lesson to start.
Nyles racing to the end of the pool.
With his teacher trying different swim moves and loving it!
Nyles w/ his classmates and another teacher (she was the best one).
Nyles jumping in; so happy!
The last day they jumped off the diving boards again.
Steve encouraging Nyles to jump off.
Carter enjoying Nyles' swim lesson. Just snoozing away :)
Nyles went down the slide w/ his teacher.
My cute boys on our way to church.
Carter showing us his cuteness. Nyles enjoying being a big brother.
As I mentioned in my last post, we finally got our windows in! They are making a HUGE difference. Both in the noise we hear from outside and also with keeping the cool air in and the hot air out. Not to mention we can actually see out of them now. Who would have thought you can see out of your windows? We are loving them. Our sliding glass door was also installed the following week. The first day it was installed Steve asked if Nyles left the door open because we could actually see outside now. We're excited to open the windows once the air cools down as well, now that we have screens on all windows and the sliding glass door.
Sliding door inside, before and after.
Sliding door outside, before and after (and now a screen too!).
Old windows outside-when we first bought the place.
New windows outside now.
On the Sunday, the 24th of July, we got together w/ my sisters Pauline and Rose. Rose picked up her girls in Bluffdale then came over to our place a little after 7 pm. We then shared desserts that we all brought and enjoyed the nice evening outside. It was a little warm outside, but still nice in the shade.
Steve and Chris relaxing.
Ava, Rose, Pauline and Carter enjoying the nice Summer evening outside on the patio.
Carter just slept out on the patio while we all chatted. He didn't even wake up after Ezra accidentally kicked a soccer ball and hit the bouncer. The kids played in the yard w/ the soccer balls and petted the neighbor's cats. It was a fun evening for all!
The next evening we went over to Dave and Joann's and had a BBQ w/ them and Stacie and Phill. They're living there until their house is done being built the beginning of September. It was a nice evening. We went out and had a few fireworks afterwards as well. Dave is slowly recovering from his knee surgery he had on the 11th of July, so it was pretty low key, but still fun.
Carter loved the attention from Stacie and London.
Steve being silly w/ my phone.
Nyles holding baby Carter. Carter not sure if he's liking it or not.
Nyles wanted to hold his giraffe as well. He said he was holding 2 babies :)
Steve cut up some 2 by 4 wood blocks we had laying around and make smaller blocks for Nyles to play with. Steve said his grandpa McGrath made him some when he was little and loved playing w/ them. Nyles is loving them too! Here he is building a swimming pool w/ a diving board. Notice Carter is just sleeping away, not even bothered by the noise. Hopefully it stays that way.
Steve holding our boys, Carter and Nyles.
Steve took Nyles out to Zach's house out in Eagle Mountain, where they shot guns. Nyles loved it of course! Here are some pictures of them practice shooting.
Steve helping Nyles w/ his real gun. Nyles relaxing in the shade.
Nyles getting ready to shoot w/ his gun.
Zach reloading while Nyles shoots his gun. Steve and Nyles shooting the clay pigeons.
Nyles and I were playing out in the yard. Carter was just relaxing and snoozing here and there. He's getting bigger that's for sure. He doesn't fit many of his 3 month clothes, so I got out the 3-6 month ones. He'll have his 2 month appointment tomorrow so we'll find out officially how much he's grown in height and weight. I think he's at least 12 pounds. I also recently put him in his crib to sleep at night time instead of in our room. He's done REALLY well thankfully. At first I kept waking up thinking I heard him and then I'd go feed him every 3 hours, but now he's going from about 10:30 pm to 4 am, then goes back until 7 am. I'm loving the sleep! He's even gone a few times until 6 am. This might be a perk to having a bigger baby ;)
On Sunday the 31st Steve and I had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting. The bishopric asked us to speak the week before I was due, but then changed their mind since I might not have made it if I went into labor early. They said they'd ask us after the baby. They didn't give us a topic, so I ended up talking about finances and being prepared, and Steve spoke on being prepared spiritually for promptings and also our food storage. He gave a great experience from his mission when he and his Japanese companion were caught in a huge snow storm and a neighbor luckily followed a prompting to go check on them. The neighbor ended up bringing them back to his place where they stayed the next week and had to rely on their food storage. Great experience!
Since I went first I also got to introduce ourselves a little. I told about how Steve and I met and started dating, according to me anyways. I based my talk from an article in the July's Ensign called "An Eternal Perspective on Personal and Family Finance." You can read the whole thing here but I mainly talked about the 'hows' of finance. There were 6 steps I discussed:
1. Pay the Lord first in tithes and offerings.
2. Create and use a budget.
3. Avoid debt.
4. Prepare for emergencies and build a financial reserve.
5. Save for short- and long-term expenses.
6. Protect yourself and your family through adequate insurance.
I also read the statement's from the August Ensign about preparedness, focusing on finances again. You can read the whole article here. I asked everyone to rate themselves on these statements. 1=Never, 2=Sometimes, 3=Often, 4=Almost Always, 5=Always
1. I seek ways to save money by reducing unnecessary expenses.
2. I regularly put money aside in a savings or investment account.
3. I avoid going into unnecessary debt.
4. I pay an honest tithe and donate a generous fast offering.
5. I take care of my possessions so they last longer.
The Bishop stopped Steve after Sacrament and said he felt we were truly inspired w/ our topics. He said several families needed to hear what we spoke about and all of the families were actually in attendance that day. He said he appreciated us speaking on our topics and mentioning that we weren't assigned the topics, showing that we were really inspired to speak instead of just the bishopric telling us what to speak on. That's always nice to hear. Hopefully someone was touched and it inspired some action. We can all work on these areas of being prepared. Thankfully Joann and Stacie came to sit w/ Nyles and Carter, plus London and Conor too and kept the kids busy and quiet during the meeting. We really appreciate their help and support! Thank you!
That night we played out in the yard.
Nyles and Steve playing badminton in our back yard. It's nice to have room to play outside.
Well another month has come and gone and it's already August. Here's to another great Summer month! Hopefully you're enjoy some fun times w/ family and friends!
