July - Summertime Fun

     July was another fun and busy month for our family. This house building is taking a lot of work but we have made lots of progress. Joel is just slowly plugging away at it. He usually works on our house at least a few hours a day until it gets dark and he can't see anymore. He has been spending all day on Friday and Saturday working on our house and working longer hours during the rest of the week to make up for taking Friday off. The girls still enjoy going to visit dad and bringing him dinner every night. They love building towers out of the blocks of wood they find and they like playing in the dirt outside.

      This month Joel got the trusses put on the roof, he sheeted the roof, and he has all of the tar paper put up. I think we are going to pay someone else to do the shingles. Joel built stairs up to our bonus room, built the front porch, and he put the eyebrows on the front of our house. He poured the concrete and stamped our front, back, and side porches. He found some concrete stamps at a pawn shop so he bought them and decided to try stamping concrete for the first time. I think he did a great job. Now we have the permits pulled for the plumbing and the electrical and Joel started working on the electrical this week. The girls watched him put the electrical boxes in and they had fun helping him by handing him the electrical boxes when he needed one. We have an inspection on Monday and then Joel will wrap the outside of our house. He is putting in the lights and the windows next. Our house is slowly coming together and we couldn't be more excited to have a new house to live in soon.

     We did manage to do a few fun things together this month. The girls got free tickets to the rodeo from the library so we went as a family to the "Snake River Stampede" or what Brynlee called the "Radio." They were beyond super excited to go. Brynlee's friend Josie was there so Brynlee and Anna sat by them. Brynlee talked her mom's ear off and Annalyn kept eating their popcorn. Anna and Kyla got really tired so we had to leave a little early and Brynlee was super disappointed about that. She did not want to leave.

     We also went out to eat one day as a family and we get to spend Sundays together. Joel loves that break from work and we all enjoy a day to spend with Joel. I am so glad he makes going to church with us a priority.

Brynlee got to have a sleepover at grandma Hirtle's house this month while her cousins Celeste and Charlotte were staying there. Madison spent the night with them so they had a really fun time with all the little girl cousins. I told Annalyn she could go next year. They caught tons of tadpoles and played with them for days.

     We went with my sister Heather to a park in Meridian that has this splash pad and my girls had a blast playing at the playground. It was kind of a cold day so they didn't really get to enjoy the water but they still had fun playing on the playground equipment.

  My grandma was gone for two weeks this month so we helped to keep her berries watered and we kept care of the squash and the green beans. We had so much squash and we canned 14 quarts of green beans. I had my mom come and help me because that was a big job. Kyla loved those blackberries and I could not keep her from eating them. She also loves feeding the goats by grandmas house and she loves holding their kitten.

     The girls and I went to the library several times and on the last day they had free snow cones and games. The girls love going to the library and reading books. One day Brynlee spent like an hour "reading" books to Annalyn. I love that they love books.

     My sister Alesha came home for a few weeks and I took her with me to the Nampa water park. My mom watched Kyla so we just had the big girls and they really loved the water. Alesha also went with us and my brother Josh to swim at a pool of my sister Heather's in-laws. Brynlee could touch the bottom of the pool and she did great. She was floating on her back and going all over that pool. Annalyn could not touch the bottom and insisted on being in the little floaty that I brought for Kyla. I guess it was just as well because Kyla refuses to go in that floaty. It was fun to spend time with all of my siblings.

     At the end of this month I took Brynlee school clothes shopping. She was super excited about it and I was looking forward to spending some quality time with her but in the end she got kind of funny about not wanting to try on clothes and she complained about all of the shoes. I think she got worried because she can't tie her own shoes yet and then she didn't want to try any on. We never did find any shoes but we did get a backpack and a new school outfit for her. I don't know what I will do when she starts going to school next month. I tried to convince her to skip school and stay home with me but she is determined to go.

  We really are loving these lazy days of summer. Brynlee swings on the swing whenever she can and the girls still love catching bugs and playing outside. They have been begging to have a sleepover party so I let them sleep in the tent and stay up and watch movies at the end of the month. In the end they slept in their own bed but they are determined to try again. We also played on the slip and slide, took care of our chickens, and played with toys in the house. We did some crafts and enjoyed spending time together.

Independence Day

     Annalyn has been asking me when it would be "July" for weeks because she wanted to go see fireworks and watch the parade. Brynlee remembered all about the fourth from last year and she kept telling Anna all the things we would get to do. Annalyn couldn't wait to put on her "July" dress and go to July. As soon as it was the fourth She was so excited. She got dressed first thing that morning and was ready to go to "July." I tried to explain that we were going to the parade and she got mad. "No, I don't want to go to the parade, I want to go to July." She kept talking about going to July all day no matter how much I tried to explain things to her. She was seriously so excited for it to be "July." I fixed her hair in a fancy July braid. Joel slept in until the last possible second so we made it to the parade right before it started. Brynlee sat by her cousins Celeste, Charlotte, and Madison for most of the parade and she got lots of candy and had fun. Annalyn sat by Janeen and she got aunt Janeen and grandma to help her collect candy so she got lots of candy. Kyla sat on my lap and she got a little bit of candy. She was pretty hot and her little face was looking red so someone from the parade handed her a popsicle. She loved that. My girls love going to the parade every year.

     After the parade and after we stopped to visit Joel's dad, we met my sister Alesha and two of her roommates that came to visit from school and together we went tubing down Indian Creek. My mom watched Kyla while she took a nap. I was a little worried that the girls would be cold but they didn't complain once. Brynlee shared a tube with her dad and Anna shared with Alesha. My brother Josh came with us too. We just did a really short run down the river and we had a blast. Brynlee and Annalyn wanted to keep going and they keep asking to do that again. Some of the tubes had holes so it is probably a good thing it was a short run.

     After tubing down the river we went and got some snow cones. Brynlee loved talking to Alesha's roommates. Then we went to my parent's house for a little barbecue and we feasted on some great food. They had cupcakes with rings on them for dessert. Brynlee asked Alesha's roommate Wendy to read what her ring said. It said "USA." "Do you know what that means?" Wendy asked. "Yeah," Brynlee replied, "like you party in the USA."

     Then my parents lit off a few fireworks in their yard. Bryn and Anna really liked the smoke bombs but Anna didn't like the loud ones at all. She ran to the closest person (Alesha's roommate Brielle) as soon as the loud one went off, and then she sat on her lap and would not move for the rest of the fireworks. We went to Melba for their firework display when it started to get dark. We spent forever looking for Heather and eventually we found and sat by her. She had a spot right next to where they shoot the fireworks off so we got a great view. They set off these balls of fire and we could feel the heat from them. We got some french fries before the show started and we didn't have to wait long for the fireworks to start. Kyla went from Joel to me and she seemed to like looking at the lights. She ate a ton of french fries and enjoyed the show. Brynlee and Anna loved watching the fireworks as well.

     We had to walk a while to get to our van but then we got right into traffic and made it home pretty quickly. The girls were asleep so we carried them to bed. It was a really fun day and a great break from working on the house. As much as the United States seems to be going into some wicked ways, I am still so grateful to live here. Just when I get a little discouraged about the state of our nation, someone will show me a kindness or help me out and my faith in humanity is restored. I am so grateful that I can live my religion the way I want and share all of these fun moments with my family. I love living in the USA. Happy July Day!