A Little Catching Up!!

This summer has been so fun and busy, that I have missed out on doing something that I really enjoy. Blogging!!
But I finally had a moment to do a little catching up. So sit back and relax, this is gonna be a long ride :)

May
This year I turned 30. Honestly, it doesn't feel that much different. We celebrated my birthday by going on a church service project camping trip. We went to Ensign Ranch, where we all (actually I mostly played with Lyla) cut, split, hauled and stacked wood. It was pretty cold during the night, so we ended up ditching the tent and sleeping in a cabin. Glad we did. During the day, the weather was nice, and Lyla and I had fun exploring.

 She ended up falling asleep on the swing.

The weather started to get warmer, so we spend more time at the park...

...and bought a little splash pool for Lyla to play in. 

She loves being in the water. She always has. I think she's gonna be a swimmer when she's older. 

And this happened...

June

Father's Day.

Lyla helped me make some Father's Day cookies for the fathers in our ward. She loved helping add the ingredients into the mixer and watch it all blend together. She is a really big helper in the kitchen. 

 I think her favorite part was sampling it at the end.

We love going to the park on Sunday's after nap time. And this was a beautiful day.

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Lyla participated in a 2 week 'Mother and Me' swimming class. She loved it. The first couple days was rainy and cold (51'), but she still had so much fun. It's hard to keep this girls out of the water. She learned to kick, blow bubbles and safely get in the deep end of the pool. We mostly played a lot. I think we will do it again next year for sure!!

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Allsop Family Reunion!

This year, the Allsop (Daniel's mothers side) Family reunion was in Rexburg ID. We were really excited, because that is where Daniel and I met, fell in love, and lived for the first 4 years of our marriage. We love Rexburg. 

We camped while we were there. We found this great air mattress for Lyla that was hollow in the middle, so the could sleep in it. The first night she wasn't so sure about it, but the second she was so tired, she didn't complain as much. 

 There were 110 people in attendance at the reunion. It was a lot of fun.

 We stopped by our favorite ice cream place while there. Not much beats G's Dairy!!

 This is Daniel's grandmother, and the head of the Allsop family. She is an amazing women, and such an amazing example of someone who carries the light of Christ with her daily.

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And some other fun random pictures from June.

Waiting for story-time at the library.

  We found this giant chair at Big 5.

 Stories with Grandma Creviston

July

We bought a giant roll of butcher paper, so we could have all the fun we wanted to for the summer. 

We did lots of grilling with family...

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Creviston Family Reunion!

We headed to western Washington for the next reunion. This was actually the first time I got to meet the Creviston side of the family. It was really fun. 

We camped again, and spent the day at a large park near this beautiful stream. 

On our way home from the reunion, we took a little detour to visit our dear friends, the Brooksby's, whom we hadn't seen for over a year. We were so excited to see them, and it was really nice to catch up. 

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Lyla in her new Sunday Dress

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And a few more random pictures to wrap up the month of July.

Being creative.

Splashing in the water.

Reading herself a bedtime story.

Picking flowers with daddy.

She climbed in her toy box. Not a whole lotta room in there. 

Hanging out with the girls at Daniel's work. Amy and Sandra.

She found a hat.

Reading with Grandpa.

We stopped the ice cream truck for the first time. YAY!

Water Day

 We went to the park today just in time to watch the sprinklers. Lyla loves water, and so she had a blast playing in the water.

She would wait in this spot for the water to pass over her head. She thought it was really funny. (Click to enlarge. You can see the shine of the water getting closer in each picture)

All wet

It was fun having a new experience at the park.

Daniel's Birthday

For Daniel's birthday, we went to tri-cities for some shopping. We have been on a weight loss journey for about 7 months now, and Daniel has lost quite a bit of weight. So we went to buy him more pants, so he looks a little more presentable at work.

His parents came over for brownies and ice cream (no cake), and we finished off the night with a game of snarf. It was a really awesome day . . . . I thought!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!!

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful time celebrating Easter with our little girl. She was able to really get excited this year.

Prepare for lots of pictures!!

We started with opening her Easter basket, which consisted of a ball, side walk chalk, bath toys, washable markers and mini M&M's.

 Then we went outside for a little egg hunt. It only took a second for her to figure out what she needed to do, and then she was off. She had so much fun.

 We ended with a little slide show Daniel put together explaining the meaning of Easter. It was a great presentation even though it lasted only 7 minutes. Just long enough to keep Lyla's attention.

This is Lyla's easter dress I made. I was really nervous, because it was only the second dress I had ever sewed. The first was her blessing dress, and that was really hard. Since I am more of a quilter, I'm not used to following a pattern. But this dress was a lot easier then her blessing dress, and I had so much fun making it. I also sewed the little jacket to go with it. I LOVE the way it turned out.

Yay For Sun!!

Yes, you are gonna see a lot of pics of us at the park. . . . . . . 

That's just what we do these days now that it's getting warmer. This little girl loves being outside, so we are so happy it's warm enough that we can actually stay out longer then 10 minutes. 

She found a tiny little mud patch that fascinated her.

Popsicle to cool us down.

Morning At The Park

I am loving this spring weather. We have loved spending time outside. 

This morning we went to the park, and had a blast. 

 She loved watching the ducks from the dock,

. . . Running as far as she wanted, 

 . . . And sitting on this bench.

 She also discovered her sweater had pockets.

 Thank you spring for coming back!!

Hair Cut

About a week ago I got my hair cut. Usually I go to one of those walk-in places that don't cost very much. And I had no problem with that. But this last time I decided to fork over a bit more and get a really good hair cut. And it was worth every penny.

Most people don't know this, but I have terrible hair. It's really really frizzy, and hard to manage. I usually just put it in a pony, because that's the easiest. But if I want to actually do my hair, it takes over an hour. Like I said, my hair is terrible. Which is what I told the hair stylist when I first sat in her chair. I could tell she didn't believe me at first,  but the more she worked with my hair, the more she believed me. And she didn't hold back when she told me how terrible my hair was. No, not damaged, or anything I did wrong . . . . just the way my hair is. Frizzy and hard to manage.

And then she changed my hair life forever. She introduced me to . . .

the round brush. Who knew such a simple thing could make such a difference?

I am so glad I spent the extra money to go to someone who was willing to spend the time to help me. I am in love with my new round brush. Yay for awesome hair!!

Sunday Outfit

My little girl is getting way too big. I just love my sweet Lyla.