Major Catch-Up

I feel like every post I write is either a pregnancy post or includes something about "Catch-Up."  Welcome to real life, I suppose!  Since things are going to be busy the next couple weeks and then I'm having a baby, I really needed to get these pictures up so I don't fall behind with Pyper and her birth story and pictures!

Just because my girls are cute, and I LOVE that they're so close in age and are best friends!

Our driveway is a 2.5 car width driveway, but only 1.5 widths of that is paved, the last portion is gravel.  Unfortunately, that means weed grow up through that section of the driveway.  The girls have taken to calling it "the woods" and like to go sit under the tree in there.  Since this picture was taken, we have sprayed the weeds and invested in a weed whacker.  Ha!

I found Lex reading the Bible one day:

We bought Lex a little golf club set and during golf season DJ would take her out during practice (he's the head golf coach) and let her hit around.  She loved it so much!  

I bought the girls goggles for summer, and naturally they needed to wear them around the house.  Which was awesome.

And Mia needed to wear hers to the store.  Also awesome.

Just the cutest 1-year-old around!

I got the girls new beach towels, which happen to be HUGE, so they use them to lay on and to cover up with:

We went out for ice cream after the Payson Temple open house, and Lex insisted she wanted pink ice cream.  I was not interested in anything but chocolate, so her Daddy, being the awesome guy he is, chose a pink ice cream to share with her!

A little cousin Play-Doh time!

For my birthday I made a chocolate and regular swirled cheesecake with chocolate ganache and Oreo's... it was divine!  My mom was a little put out with me that I made my own birthday dessert, but there you go.

In May, Mia moved from her crib to a toddler bed.  I never planned on moving her out of a crib this young, but one night she figured out how to climb out and fell to the floor (while DJ and I were gone and Ranee' was home with the girls, which is kinda funny), so we decided for her safety to take the front rail off the bed.  Lexsi moved to a toddler bed when she was about 17 months old and had zero issues with the transition.  Mia is a little more adventurous than Lex, so it took a little bit for her to get used to it.  The first night she fell asleep in the middle of the room, but the second night she only had to be put back in bed once and then stayed there.  These days, she sleeps under Lexsi's bed or her own bed at least half of the time.  It's a little weird... I think she wants to be close to Lexsi, and likes the feeling of being closed in, so she just crawls under a bed to sleep.  Whatever makes her happy I guess!

The girlies reading books to each other:

My sweet tiny girl:

We went to Lovell the last week of May, which was awesome!  I was worried I wouldn't make it there this summer since I'm having a baby right in the middle, but luckily DJ got done with school before Memorial Day, so we got to make the trip!  My girls had an absolute blast with all the family there!

We took Lex to visit Mammie's parents' and sister's graves, and she thought it was the coolest thing ever!

We gave the girls ice cream cones for the first time ever... they ate the ice cream off the top and then stopped.  They didn't seem to understand that they could eat the cone too.

Lex shared a room with Savanna, and developed an obsession with covering herself with pillows (???):

When we got back to Brigham, my mom came up with Josh's 3 girls to visit and we went to the pool!

The next weekend Josh and Kristen got married, which was great!  I went down on Thursday evening to help my mom get everything ready (the wedding was in her back yard on Saturday morning), and DJ came with the girls on the day of the wedding.  It was a big job to put it all together in a day, but we did it and I think it turned out well!  I'm just glad these two and their 6 kids got to be together!

Mia sharing a drink with Grandma Kaiser:

Meg came in for the wedding, and she and her kids stayed for about a week in Provo.  Lexsi and Annie had such a great time together!  They played together nicely for hours every day without fighting or being bossy or mean... it was awesome!

Since my girls love being outside so much, I bought them a water table to play with this summer!  So far it's been a hit.

We spend time outside in swimsuits playing with water nearly every day.  And of course we need frozen treats to help stay cool!

Mia is my fruit girl, and will try any new fruit I give her!  It's awesome having a child who loves fresh produce as much as I do!

Mia and Cosmo:

Girlies cooling off with popsicles:

We went to Bear Lake last Monday, and it was the perfect day for it!  There were less people there than I've ever seen before, the temperature was awesome, the water was warm, and the girls had an absolute blast digging on the beach!  They didn't want to leave!  We'll go up one more time before I have this baby, since after she's born I won't be able to get in the water up to my incision, because it will obviously need to heal more before I'm submerged in water-- particularly lake water.  But we'll probably still go back after she's born at least once and I'll just be careful to stay dry.  We love Bear Lake too much to stay away! 

These girls are the very best.  They have their moments where they fight (like, wrestle each other fight), but generally they are the best of friends!  I love how close they are in age, and I love that Pyper and Mia will be just as close in age!  Having babies so close together is wild, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

For literally at least 20 years, I've wanted a covered swing.  This week, my dream came true!  We bought a swing and put it on our back patio, so now we have a super comfortable spot to sit and watch the girls while they play in the yard!

And that's it for now.  Hopefully I'll stay caught up a little better, but I'm not holding my breath... haha!