We went to a nephew's baptism at the beginning of the month in Ephraim, Utah. We barely got there before our van had some major problems. After the baptism, Jacob and some brothers in-law tried to see what they could do to get it starting again. My brother, Daniel, and his oldest daughter, Rachel, walked 8 boys 5 and under home while the women drove and started getting the lunch ready.
We had a couple of people take a look at the van to diagnose what they thought was wrong, everyone agreed it was the engine. We had about a 25% chance of making it to Provo, where we could get it looked at (since we were still under warranty). We made it about 20 minutes out of the 2 hour drive we had ahead of us before it died completely. That's when this happened.
Luckily for us my sister just bought a bigger vehicle and was able to tow us to Provo. This is what we looked like on the way.
In really hot weather. Thank heavens the boys were pretty well behaved because Jacob and I were concerned about being towed going 65 miles an hour on I-15. Luckily Nate, our brother-in-law, is a master tower and we made it just fine. But we didn't have the van for the rest of the month...4 weeks!
The day was Utah's free fishing day, so while I put the other boys to bed and cleaned up. Jacob took Steven and Christopher over to our little creek in our park and went fishing. They didn't catch anything other than an old boot, but they had a great time. Which is really all that matters.
The next day we had planned to visit Jacob's mission president, but with our van being in the shop we didn't think it would happen. Jacob was telling a friend in our neighborhood about this and he offered his car to us. It was so nice! It was great to visit with them, as this is the first time we've seen them since we've been married. We always meant to visit but never did, which is why Jacob was so bummed that it wasn't going to work out the ONE time we actually made it happen. President and Sister Cushing are great people and we had a good time.
When Steven was just little we found these cute outfits on clearance and pretty much bought all of them some in 3 month sizes for him to wear then and some in 2T sizes for when he was bigger. Well it just so happens that we have matching outfits for our matching twins. And I couldn't help but dress them alike and then take their pictures. They really are SO cute. William's holding Spencer and Ryan's holding Max.
A week after the baptism my brother from Arizona was coming up, so we had a fun little get together with my siblings in the area. There were 6 of my siblings there and luckily we were able to bum rides with some of my siblings so we could join in on the fun. We met at the splash pad then came to our house for pizza. I know it's rare, but Jacob and I really love both sides of our family a lot. So it's always a good time when we all get together.
Af first William and Ryan didn't want to go near the splash pad, but they were won over and had a blast.
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| Ryan after splashing and in the middle of a giggle. |
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Christopher's hand me down swim suit was a bit too big and we saw his swim diaper A LOT.
Which I only put on him so we wouldn't see his behind. |
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| Cousin love |
June also brought fun playing outside with daddy.
Cute boys going to church with matching ties.
A celebration to this amazing father. Aren't they all just adorable!
A profile contrast
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| Spencer |
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| Max |
One morning I told Jacob I just couldn't take getting up in the middle of the night any more. I was pretty sure Spencer and Max would sleep through the night if they were in their own room where I couldn't hear every little noise they were making. So we decided then and there it was time for William and Ryan to get big boy beds. I've been trying to decide the best way to go about it: have them both in one room with the door locked and a camera in there to make sure one didn't hurt the other, leave the door open and every time they got out of their bed silently put them back in, or split them up and have one with Steven and the other with Christopher. Jacob made final call and it has worked out pretty well! Steven is with William. The first couple of nights William would cry, both he and Steven would end upstairs crying because of William's crying. But by the third night he's just fine. They usually sleep in the same bed. Christopher now shares with Ryan and they are really cute and just play really well with each other before finally going to sleep. Ryan oddly enough will start on Christopher's bed but then sleep in his own. The big boys have twin beds and the little ones now have their toddler beds. We did have to switch around the door knobs so we could lock it from the outside. William can now open doors and apparently get the white child locks off as well...talented kid.
And these boys have their own crib. Steven and Christopher have both voiced concerns that we have two cribs, yet Spencer and Max are sharing one. I've reassured them when they get a little bigger they will both have their own cribs. And what do you know; they've been sleeping through the night ever since...
Spencer has started the first steps to mobility. He will arch his back and turn until he's like this.
Once I put them down and left for a minute and came back to Spencer talking to Max and Max just smiling at his brother. It melted my heart right on the spot.
At first I was okay with our van being in the shop. I wasn't used to going anywhere during the day with all the boys, so it was okay to be in there for a week or two. But by the 3rd and 4th week, I was done. It was hard for me, a lot harder than I could have imagined. We had to catch rides to church; our car only fits 5 out of the 8 of us. We couldn't go anywhere as a family, which was really the hardest part. I may have called up the servicing team and shed some tears begging them to hurry and give us something. BUT we have it now and I suppose there was a lesson we learned. Anyway since we didn't have a car to go anywhere we spent a lot of time outside, which the boys adored.
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| Spencer |
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| Max |
Their favorite is our neighbor's driveway. William and Ryan would go up and ride their bikes down, then drag them back up the top and go again.
Occasionally, some neighbors would come and let them play with some of their cool bikes. These boys LOVED them. William may or may not have tried to steal one from another neighbor's garage.
And of course there were bubbles that had to be popped with big sticks.
