July 2011

July was our least busy month during the summer.  It was nice to not be traveling so much as the previous month and a half, but it seemed like the month dragged on.  We still had fun and tried to keep busy.  Here is some of what we did.

Spencer turned 8 months old this month.  Look at those big blue eyes!!

 The girls were playing dress-up, and aquired Spencer's blankets and got daddy to make them fancy headdresses.  I thought they looked unique, but it was cute too.

 Spencer was full-blown crawling by this point.  Ignore the nasty floor (it is actually quite embarassing and made for a pretty dirty baby).  That is one thing I don't miss about that house, how you would mop the floor and it would look pretty gross just days later.  I probably mopped pretty soon after this picture.

 On July 5th, my brother Andrew, was set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He was leaving that day to fly up to Provo, UT, to enter the Missionary Training Center there on July 6th to prepare to head to the Argentina Resistencia Mission.  I was grateful to be there for his setting apart.  This is the first time I was ever able to be present for that, since Jeff and Ryan left while I was in UT.  However that meant I was able to accompany them to the MTC, and Andrew I didn't get to.  Anyhow, it was an early morning.  The mission president got there at 7am, so we just spent the night at my parent's house.  Then Grandma and Grandpa Hale and McClellan joined us.  It was a wonderful morning.

Jeff, Michelle, Grandma Hale, Grandpa Hale, Mom, Andrew, Dad, Grandpa McClellan, Grandma McClellan

 Spencer with Andrew.  My mom has the one where they are looking at the camera, but it was still so cute!

 My little family with Andrew.

 That afternoon, after the setting apart, I found Lydia asleep on the couch like this.  Please notice Mrs. Potato Head's lips almost touching Lydia's.  I can't remember if she fell asleep like that, or if Claire placed them there later.

 One day, Claire and I got dressed and didn't pay attention to the fact that we matched each other.  Claire pointed it out and wanted a picture together.

 Spencer LOVED playing with Claire's leaptop.  And Claire would sometimes really like sharing it.

 Here Lydia is on the phone with Jeff.  He was driving with his brother Jason from Texas to Virginia.  Jason was moving up there and needed some help driving, and Jeff was able to help him out.  Lydia and Claire sent Jeff some pretty funny text messages.  We missed him a lot though!

 While Jeff was in VA, they went to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.

 Jeff got home late one night when the kids were asleep.  The next day he spent some time with us.  Here he is with Spencer in his new onesie from daddy.

 Claire apparently was very tired and fell asleep on the couch like this.

 Spencer enjoyed his food and smiling for the camera.

 Lydia loves giving him raspberries, and Spencer loves getting them!

We were able to attend the Phoenix Zoo's Winter in July.  They truck in some man made snow (which basically turned to ice) and the kids got to play with it.  It was fun, but HOT!

 Notice the snow/ice on her head

 I think Claire did this just to be like Lydia, it didn't last very long.

 Jeff is helping them build a snowman.

 And Spencer hung out in the stroller in the shade.

 With their snow man.

 Lydia turned 5 on the 20th, but we celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa on the 19th.  Here is her cake right after I finished it at 12:05am on the 19th.  The hair is up so that I could decorate it and wouldn't get frosting on it.  I put a pencil wrapped in plastic wrap through the middle of the cupcakes to help hold up the tower, but I didn't give it a big enough base, so the straws are there to help it not fall over.

 In the morning.  Lydia didn't know what kind of cake she was getting.  Rapunzel was part of her birthday present, and she thought it was great!

 After she opened up her presents.

 Our cute Spencer celebrating his sister's birthday for the first time. :)

 Claire being solemn on Lydia's birthday.  I think she was jealous that Rapunzel wasn't hers.

 We should have taken the straws out before we started singing.  The candle started to melt the straws.  It was funny.  It reminded me of the year my mom made my brother Jeff a monster cake for his birthday.  The monster had antenae and the antenae were made with a straw and a marshmellow on the end of it.  We lit the candles and shortly thereafter the marshmellows caught fire and the straws were starting to melt.  I think it was our fastest rendition of "Happy Birthday" ever!  Ours wasn't as exciting fortunately.

 After the took the straws out I was paranoid it would fall over.

 It didn't. :)  However once we started eating the cupcakes surrounding the base of the cake it did.

 With no straws. :)

 As you can see, the tower was leaning, but hey, she liked her cake and that is all that mattered!

 On her actual birthday, wearing her new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa M.

 I took the kids to an indoor amusement park that I had gotten a discount to.  The girls had fun and I was glad we were able to do something fun on her actual birthday.

 I was trying to get a cute picture of my 3 kids, and hope Claire didn't hurt Spencer!  He isn't quite sure what to think of everything that was going on!

 On the carousel.

 This was the best I was able to get of Claire, and these are all from my cell phone!

 Spencer started falling asleep in his high chair around this point in time.  I always think it is funny.

 But he didn't think it was too funny!

 One day Jeff went to put Spencer down for a nap, and this was how I found them.

In a coming post I'll put down the pictures and texts that the kids wanted to send to Jeff while he was gone.  They were funny, but I don't have time to find the text right now!  :) 

We also got to new cousins/nephews July of last year.  Samuel was born to my sister Natalie and her husband Ben on July 1.  Shayon was born to my brother Jeff and his wife Kimia on July 8. So Spencer got two new partners in crime.  And at that point, we knew that another cousin would be making a debut in the beginning of 2012 since Ryan and Rondy announced they were expecting!  Yay for cousins!