Random August pictures

A man who lives in my ward invented a line of children's dress-ups called PretendWear.  They are dress-ups made out of a paper-y fabric that you can color yourself with special paint markers.  Then, you can wash out the paint in soapy water and color them again!  Wow.  I was helping him out with a project this August, and when he saw Maggie he said, "Oh, I just have to bring her one of my dress-ups!"  Maggie LOVES it.  Well, to be honest, she doesn't enjoy wearing this dress nearly as much as she loves coloring it herself.  It has occupied her for hours and hours. You can buy these dress-ups online at his website, and he says he will soon open a Kiosk at University Mall in Orem to sell them as well.

Evelyn had fallen asleep with both legs hanging out of slats in her crib.  I thought it was so funny.  However, when I was trying to take a picture, of course the noise of the camera woke her up.  

Maggie really wanted me to take a picture in their matching jackets.  These were Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa Stout last year, and it's fun to pull the out again with the chilly mornings/evenings.

First Days

 By the way, never lose a library book.  It is the most grievous of sins.  We had to pay for Jared's lost book (see previous post), and it cost $24!  Seriously?? It was a skinny little chapter book, not a beautiful, colorful picture book!  I mean, I know they have to buy a new book and pay to re-catalog it and put the computer chip thingy in, but really?  Just saying...

Here are pictures of a few firsts:

Jared's first day of 2nd grade!

Maggie sometimes like to have curly hair--she slept in braids

Maggie's first day of preschool!  She looks a little sad because we had to take about 15 pictures until she finally would look at the camera...

Maggie's preschool shirt to wear on field trips.  Today was her first field trip to the library for story time.  (She tripped on the sidewalk a couple of days ago.  Hence, the cut up lip.)

I signed Maggie up for a little beginner ballet class once a week in the mornings.  Here she is before her first class.  Even though she doesn't know anyone else in her class, she was very excited and will really like it, I think.  She loves to pretend to be a ballerina here at home.

I love this sweetie!

The No Good, Very Bad Week

Ok, we have actually had a lot of good things happen this week.  1) Alan just got a promotion at work and started his new position this week.  Yay!!  2) Jared started 2nd grade and LOVES it.  3) Maggie started preschool and LOVES it.  Pictures to come of the kids' 1st day of school.

However, as I was trying to go to bed last night, I was just so churned up about all the LOUSY things that have been happening this week.  All of the following have happened in the last three days:

1) Jared lost a library book, and I have probably spent two hours of my life looking for it with him, because I JUST KNOW IT'S IN HIS ROOM SOMEWHERE!
2) Maggie spilled milk ALL OVER our kitchen floor.  I know, not that big of a deal, but with the week I've had...
3) Evelyn figured out how to take the lid off of my Vaseline and got it all over her hands, hair, and my bedroom floor.  Evelyn has since had a bath, but my carpet is still all greasy.  At least it doesn't have a color.
4) Jared was doing some vacuuming for me and accidentally started sucking up a throw pillow from our couch.  It totally ruined the pillow by chewing out a big chunk of the material. We have only had this throw pillow for about a month and I had gone to THREE different stores to find two matching pillows!  Grr... Also, our vacuum stopped working and smelled all burned as a result of this incident.  I spent all day thinking that our vacuum was broken for good and that we were going to have to buy a new one.  (Turns out that it only needs a new belt or something, which Alan can replace for me.  Whew!)  It is usually quite helpful that Jared is big enough to vacuum a little bit, but we had to have another talk about why we have to be really careful not to run over soft toys or blankets or pillows.
5) I accidentally left a giant bag of frozen mixed berries in the back of my van for 2 days, and it melted ALL over.  I had bought them at Costco, so of course they were not in a grocery sack, so there is a big purple stain the size of a football on the carpet.  I have spent some time spotting it with carpet cleaner and pouring boiling water over it, and it has gotten a bit lighter, but I don't think it's going to get any better.  Not to mention the waste of the giant, expensive bag of berries...
6) Yesterday I was running late to Jared's soccer practice (not my fault) and backed our van into our other compact car that was parked on the driveway. (We are so good about not parking our cars on the driveway, so this has never happened before.)  That just HAD to happen to be the icing on the cake, didn't it?  Now our "new" van has a big dent under one of the taillights and a big scratch to go with it.  Our smaller car has a few little dents above one of the tires, and I also knocked the sideview mirror around (it is starting to fall off).  We probably won't get either car fixed because it is just aesthetic and won't really be worth the cost.  So now I have to be reminded of it whenever I see those dents.

I am usually such a calm person who feels like my life is under control, but I just can't believe the rotten luck I've had this week.  Seriously.  I feel like crying.  Maybe I will.  Do you ever have weeks like this????

Yellowstone Vacation

Upper Mesa Falls (outside Yellowstone National Park). No, I am not pregnant.  Do I look preggo in this picture?

 This July my entire side of the family rented a big cabin in Island Park, Idaho and spent a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park.  We had a blast!  It was fun to spend so much time with our family.  The kids LOVED the waterfalls and geysers.  (Sorry this post is travel-logue-ey.)

More Upper Mesa Falls

My cute mommy, who rode with us in the car the whole way and put up with my sometimes-cranky kids

 All of the rest of the pictures are from inside Yellowstone National Park:

Mammoth Hot Springs.  They are kind of dried up nowadays.  

By the river where we picnicked one day

In front of Tower Falls.  You can't actually see the falls in this pic.

Ah, here is Tower Falls!

In the background is Upper Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

 This picture above and the one below are taken from the brink of Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It made me so dizzy to see all the water falling down!

This picture is of Lower Falls taken from Artist's Viewpoint.  This place reminds me of my dad...he loved Yellowstone!

Hot water flowing into the river at Midway Geyser Basin.  My sister and nephew are in the picture, too.

 The pictures above and below are taken of the Grand Prismatic Pool at Midway Geyser Basin.  I loved how the steam rising off the pool was rainbow colored!!

Oh, yeah, of course we had to see Old Faithful.  We spent so long at Old Faithful Geyser Basin that we actually saw it erupt twice!  It was spectacular.

The next three pictures are of pretty hot springs at Old Faithful Geyser Basin.

Lion Geyser (before it started erupting)

Heart Springs

This geyser erupting is called Lion Geyser at Old Faithful Geyser Basin.  It erupted for like 7 minutes straight or something!

The following pictures are from Lower Geyser Basin.

Spasm Geyser seemed to be constantly erupting

Precious Evelyn, almost falling asleep.  It was a chilly morning.  

Evelyn did NOT sleep very well on this trip (and consequently, neither did anyone else in my little family...)  She sure loves her own crib in her own room!  

Pretty pool at Lower Geyser Basin.  Can't remember its name.  Seriously made me want to take a dip.

Firehole Falls

Gibson Falls

Me and my oldest niece. She is now taller than me!

 The following pictures are a few "selfies" my sister took of my extended family. I thought they were funny.

We are looking forward to our next Curtis Family trip!

The Buddy's Birthday

Jared had a fun birthday weekend.  On his real birthday we went to the new aquarium (see a few posts ago).  Then we had a yummy pizza dinner (Jared's request: Little Caesar's with breadsticks.) Grandma C and Grandpa S and Uncle Mason joined us for dinner and dessert (Grandma S was on vacation). 

Mason showing Jared how the microscope works!

Cookie ice cream pie (a recipe from my roommate Caroline).  Jared often does this face when posing for pictures.  Weirdy.  :) Notice Jared's classic Star Wars shirt.  He loves it.

The traditional song my side of the family always sings for birthdays.

Happy birthday, Dude!  What an awesome, wonderful boy I have.  I feel like in the past I have struck-out somewhat in choosing the right presents for Jared at his birthday and Christmas.  I will sometimes choose things that he doesn't really end up playing with. However, this year he got the PERFECT things for his interests: a Star Wars character encyclopedia, a microscope, binoculars, a wristwatch, an animal encyclopedia, rubber band airplanes, a book about the Periodic Table (not kidding--he's totally into it), and this amazing Snap Circuits Jr. board.  (Seriously, if you have a somewhat nerdy kid like mine who loves to put things together, this is the PERFECT gift for them.  It has kept Jared busy for hours!) Score!!!

We didn't have a friend party this year, but I think Jared had a great time anyway.  The Saturday after Jared's birthday, Alan and some of Alan's siblings took Jared to hike Timpanogos Cave.  Jared LOVED it.  He had a lot of fun spending time with people he loves. 

Vintage dress

It is fun to dress up my girls in old dresses I used to wear.  I'm so glad my mom saved several of them.  Here is the latest photo shoot of Evy:

Looks like she's waving!  Ha ha.

Evelyn at age 15 months

Maggie at 17 months old

Me at age 2