My baby is TWO!!

Has it really been two years already since this little monster joined our family?!  Hard to believe!  It's been a crazy but fun couple years, and I can't imagine my life without this active, mischievious, loud, energetic, cute as a button baby girl!  She has really learned and grown a lot over the past few months, she is trying so hard to talk now, even though she's definitely still lagging, but it melts my heart to hear her mumbo jumbo!  She is absolutely amazing at observing what everyone else does and wanting to copy it and do it herself.  From doing her makeup, to making herself a piece of toast, to going "potty", to wanting to ride a bike and waterski!  She tries it all and has no fear!  She is also the toughest little girl I have ever met... she barely makes a peep when she bangs her head or skins her knees!  As long as it doesn't deter her from what she wants to do.  She's got to be the most determined toddler ever when she decides she wants to do something.  She is such a cute little dancer, loves music, loves smoothies, and LOVES her Daddy.  Her greeting for him is the sweetest thing ever every time he comes home from work - "Da-EE!!  Da-EE!!" And he can't even kiss me without turning around to see her lips all puckered up expecting a kiss too!  She is very possessive of him, and wont let anyone else sit on his knee.  Scarlett, we love you, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

We didn't really do a whole lot to celebrate this year, we just had my parents over for dinner, as well as the Nally's who happened to be visiting from England.  We had a lot of fun actually, and Scarlett enjoyed all the attention!  She actually really liked her gifts this year too!  A baby, and a stroller, crib, and highchair for it, a Cookie monster toy that eats cookies, and a bear that you dress and undress.  She was totally into it.

A HOT week at Ashley Lake!

We were lucky enough to get to spend a week at Ashley lake from July 1-8, and the weather was AMAZING!  I don't ever remember the weather getting that hot there!  It was in the 30s the whole time.  We got to spend a day with my parents before they went home, but then we were on our own.  It was a little trickier to do the boating and stuff without them there, but we managed.  Mason and Dakota both actually learned to get up on waterskis on their own, without one of us helping them in the water, so that was WONDERFUL!  I love watching them do things behind the boat, it's so much fun.  Mason even tried wake surfing by himself this year, and went a little ways.  And this year, Scarlett was a LOT easier than last year. In fact, I don't think that I've ever seen her this happy!  She really liked the boat, she loved playing in the water with the rocks, and wanted to actually do lots behind the boat just like her brothers and sister!  She loved the play house a lot too, and just being able to run around a little on her own!  She got brave enough to go down the ladder to dip herself in the water whenever she felt like it!  A little scary, but we kept a life jacket on her the whole time!  And then she slept all afternoon, so we had a little freedom to do stuff on our own!  It was great!
We did have some friends join us for some of the time while we were there... the Davidson's came out for just a day to check out Ashley, since they were staying at a campground not too far away.  The kids had a blast, and we just loved showing them around and teaching them to do stuff behind the boat!  The kids really liked quadding too!  It was hard for them to peel their kids off of those things when it was time to go home!

We did have some friends join us for some of the time while we were there... the Davidson's came out for just a day to check out Ashley, since they were staying at a campground not too far away.  The kids had a blast, and we just loved showing them around and teaching them to do stuff behind the boat!  The kids really liked quadding too!  It was hard for them to peel their kids off of those things when it was time to go home!

 And then for a few days near the end of the week, we had Pam and Quasie Hamidi, (a super nice family Lee met through work) and their two kids stay with us.  Dakota is the same age as their daughter Yasmine, and they became VERY good friends!  They had so much fun.  They also have a baby girl, which unfortunately Scarlett would NOT stop attacking!!  We felt so bad for her.  Scarlett must have felt threatened or something!  But we had a lot of fun - they definitely hadn't done a lot of water sports, in fact Quasie is very scared of the water!  But we did manage to get him on a tube ride, and wake surfing - he was so proud of himself!  We had fun by the campfire, had great meals, and enjoyed just hanging out too. They also taught the kids how to crack open and eat a coconut. One of the highlights for sure was doing Fireworks on the 4th of July!  We bought a bunch and lit them off on the dock.  The kids had a BLAST!!  We had lots of good laughs as Lee and Quasie tried to figure out how to get some of them to work, and a lot of them really weren't very good!  Especially compared to all the good ones people were lighting off all around the lake!  We definitely lagged in the competition, but it made it all the more funny to laugh at.  I think the kids enjoyed being allowed to stay up so late too for once, although we definitely paid for it a little bit the next day... worth it though!

We also had to make our trip complete by going to the duck pond after church on Sunday to feed the ducks!  It was HILARIOUS to see Scarlett's face this year! She just thought it was the neatest thing.  She loved throwing bread at them, and off the bridge, and fearlessly tried to walk towards the big ducks!  The kids all loved it actually, even though Dakota got a little bite on her finger when they ate out of her hand.  Those ducks are certainly not tame!  They want food, and they want it bad!

Flood!!

I am really behind on my blogging, so I will do a few posts to catch up!  First of all I wanted to mention the crazy Floods that happened here in Calgary at the end of June... I believe it was June 20-21 when the real damage hit.  Downtown and a lot of other communities in Calgary were completely flooded out, as well as High River which seems to have received the worst damage of all!  It is absolutely insane how much water filled up these areas.  The worst recorded flood in the city of Calgary for sure!  We felt blessed to be living on higher ground so we were not directly affected, but we definitely watched the river near us getting higher and higher!  Here's some pictures we took of it while we were out driving, even though everyone was told to stay at home, there were sure a lot of curious people out there!  The river looks pretty dangerous, and the water was creeping up to Chaparral Valley.

 

It was actually kind of an interesting day just watching the news and hearing how many areas were evacuated, and just how high the water got.  The Zoo was wiped out and the animals were evacuated, the Stampede grounds were totally destroyed, and the Stampede was supposed to start in a few weeks!  I was supposed to run in the "Color Me Rad" run a week or so later, but that was cancelled.  School was cancelled for the remainder of the year - so they all finished early! The damage was terrible in many areas.  And people were getting nervous about food and water supply.  We went to a few stores, and everywhere was sold out of water and the food necessities!  Esso was selling water for $100 a case!  It made me feel really at peace that we at least had our food storage!  Kind of a wake up call for everyone, since you never know how fast life can change!

Once things settled down, there were many opportunities to serve and help those who were affected!  I never actually got out to the sites, but I donated a lot of food, and hygiene items, clothing, toys, did flood victims laundry, and cleaned the "Command Center" in Okotoks.  I was completely amazed though at how much everyone put into helping out.  What a great opportunity.  I was so impressed with how the church ran things so efficiently.  They even encourage people to attend a short Sacrament meeting on Sundays, and then head out and work at the houses the rest of the day.  We were away on vacation for a lot of that time, so we felt bad missing out.  There are still things to be done, but not nearly what there was before.  I definitely feel bad for all the people that have been out of there homes, and some are still not able to return and will have to build again from scratch.  It's very interesting though that a moment like this brings out the good in humanity, and shows the power of God!

Cute things kids say...

We had a family home evening the other night where we were talking about feeling the spirit, and asking the kids if they've ever felt it.  We said that sometimes it felt like you were about to cry, but in a happy way!  All of the kids said they had had that feeling, either during their church lessons, or listening to songs, or at the temple.  Mason said he had just had that feeling at church when he heard Lee bear his testimony.  We were both touched by that
Then we were reading some scriptures about Satan making you follow him and be his slaves, and that he wanted to bring you down to live with him where we will burn forever!  Griffin said he was NEVER going to do another bad thing because he didn't want to burn with Satan.  We told him, it was okay to make mistakes sometimes, because we can always repent.  But he said, "No, seriously, I'm never going to do a bad thing again.  I'm just going to sleep forever!  Just wake me up for breakfast and lunch". Ha, we got such a good laugh at that, what a cutie!  He said he was going to start the very next day!