Four Jingle Bells

Hailey has more personality than ever. A little too much sometimes, but she still entertains us with her singing and dancing routines. She is learning the articles of faith (her memory is a steel trap, unfortunately for me sometimes). Her new favorite song is "Keep bleeding". We have now instated quiet time in place of naps/no naps, and it is working okay. I only have to yell at her to get in her room five times in an hour, but the alone time is fabulous! After much arguing about getting dressed one day, I finally said just wear whatever you want. This is what she came up with. It almost makes my stomach hurt! My mom has a friend with a bunch of animals and we got to see them last week. Hailey really loved the goats, but they wouldn't let her pet them. Blake and my dad put a ceiling fan up for us, so of course, Hailey had to try out the ladder. She has no fear.

Mr. poopy pants is learning how to walk with this toy and can now stand by himself for like ten seconds. Yay! Gook (what Hailey calls him) has recently become obsessed with his dad. It is so cute to see them together. He will give him hugs and kisses. Of course, he is always more than willing to come back and get mom.

We have been doing a lot of swimming, popsicle eating, water playing, anything to keep cool in this awful heat! This $15 pool was the best purchase we have ever made, in my opinion! Spencer loves it because it is just a big bath for him. Some people in our ward "donate" their pools to us hot people. It is great. This is Spencer's first swim. Poor kid. Believe it or not, he did enjoy it. Hailey swam across the pool with her floaties, so she was pretty psyched. About ten seconds after the swimming. He was so pooped!

Last week, we had a great time in Idaho Falls visiting Blake's family. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my camera for most of the trip so there aren't any pictures with grandparents, but we will be back in October for Elder Bell's grand return from his mission...hooray!! I got to say, Idaho Falls might be in the middle of nowhere, but it has the best weather, water, and scenery. I missed a turn and drove 10 miles out of the way. I didn't even mind because it was by all these awesome fields and rivers. Luckily, I had the gps or I might have bee last forever!! Besides all that great stuff, Idaho also has the best sales ever! No joke. We found some great stuff for the house at great prices. Blake and I went to his 10 year high school reunion. It was nice to meet all the people he had been talking about. We were going to a family carnival the next day, but Spencer turned up with an ear infection and Hailey was being a butt, so we didn't go. She was pretty much ...

My cousin, Mathew came and stayed in Vegas for a week. We all had our time with him and we were very much entertained by all of his fun facts, bug stories, and "You might be a redneck" lines. The kid has one of the best memories!! We went to Creative Potter. I thought these little giraffes were $2, so Hailey wanted to make one for each of us. Okay, but come to find out the stupid things were $5 each. Nothing better than spending 15 bucks on a little ceramic giraffe. Oh well, it was fun and now we all have our own giraffe! My nephew, Ethan had a school play. It was the cutest thing. He was a boll weavel. He did a great job memorizing his lines and was super cute as always! Rowr Mathew's bird friends at the dinosaur park. They loved his bread! Not only does he have a great memory, but he's very artistic!! He's made up a super hero named Wonder wing and has a whole world created for him. I think he'll be the next JRR Tolkein.

Saturday morning, we went to the mountains with my parents, Sarah and Mathew. It was so nice to get out of Las Vegas for a few hours and smell (semi) fresh air! Hailey with her walking stick. She is taking after the proud tradition of her dad. When we got married, he had about five walking sticks from different scouting activities. I've reduced it down to two. =) And no, Spencer didn't eat any dirt.....this time. Does this remind anyone of girls camp?

Poor kid!! He loves to bite the table. At least he is resilient.

This week will be crazy with Blake being gone and going on a trip and stuff, so just wanted to say Happy 6th Anniversary to Blake! Can't believe it has been so long. We have been through a lot in such a short time 1) Two great kids who have a lot of your entertaining personality. Helpful to chill me out! 2) One miscarriage 3) 8 moves 4) 1 new house!!! 5) 16 combined jobs (geez, sad) 6) 4 cars (the Subaru will always be in my heart, that thing has over 200,000 miles on it and is still alive!) 7) 4 hospital stays 8) The Army, need I say more 9) One brown recluse bite 10) A few trips, Hollywood, camping, Yellowstone, Santa Monica Pier 11) 3 deaths 12) Many, many books 13) Even more movies.... 14) Lots of laughs, cries, good and bad times. It's been great so far and can't wait for more! Couldn't get the wedding picture to scan in. Probably better.=) Thought it might be appropriate to do this here since I was tagged 6+ months ago. What is his name? Blake James Bell How lon...

I love, love nectarines!!! So, I was pleasantly surprised to find them on sale this week for .79/lb. yay! There is just nothing better than a juicy nectarine on a hot day. Here is a picture for your enjoyment. Of course, I am not opposed to brownie ice cream on a hot day and since Blake is out of town, I am going to enjoy some along with the Beverly Hills 90210 I borrowed from the library. Don't judge me!

So, we have loved being in our house minus the plesant surprise we found Wednesday morning. The kids and I were leaving when Hailey noticed some bees in our tree. The poor tree is already half dead and we are trying to resurrect it, but it didn't help to have THOUSANDS (NO JOKE!!!) of bees hanging out on the saddest branch. I called the bee guy that my dad knows and he said they might be gone by the next day because they sometimes just look for a place to rest. Low and behold, I get up the next morning and there they are. Gross. So, he came and rescued us from the bees for $75 which was worth every penny. Come to find out, they had started to build their nest. I am not against bees in any way, just against them building stuff anywhere near me, my kids, my husband, house, car, etc. So, now instead of a massive clump of bees in the tree, there are a few hundred dead ones in the rocks. Here is a picture of a similar bee swarming. I couldn't get a good enough picture: A. be...