9 Months

 This little lady is 9 months old now and I must say is completely wonderful.  She's happy, she's healthy, and she's into everything, including the toilet.  That's only happened once though, so I feel pretty good about that.

 

Home

"Where do you call home?"  A question posed to me by Bryce recently.  Virginia of course is the answer.  Our home is here in Virginia.  It won't always be our home, but for now it is and there's lots I love about it here.  But Utah will always be home and every time I go back I'm reminded why I love it there so much.

We spent three and half weeks out there and I'm not sure it was enough.  We filled out time with mostly fun things. 

Time with cousins in Fairview was spent playing in the grass, picking raspberries, camping, and hiking.

And it wouldn't be a trip to Fairview with out taking a ride on Grandpa B's lawn mower.  Connor loves it and Grandpa's lawn was well trimmed while we were there.

 

The timing worked out so that we were there over the 24th of July.  Fairview's the best place to be for that.

The older kids went camping one night while Lindsay and I stayed home with the babies.  They sure had fun.  We met up with them the next morning for a hike. 

 

The main reason we went out when we did is to celebrate my Grandpa Paxton's 100th birthday!  Isn't that amazing?  Look how cute he is.  Connor loved the horn on his scooter.

Connor also loved playing with the Wisan cousins, but it was mostly Zach, Kate and Liv. A poorly timed case of hand foot and mouth prevented him from playing with the others when everyone was in town for Grandpa's birthday.  It was real sad. 

We went to the zoo which was lots of fun.  My dear friend Brinn and her cute little girl joined us which made it even better.

Other highlights of the trip not documented on camera include Apple picking in Great Grandma Bench's back yard, four wheeler rides, a day at the resort in Park City, mountain biking, family parties on both sides, hiding kit-kats from Wade (a personal favorite), watching pup chase sprinklers and just being with family.

Summer fun!

What's not to love about summer?  The easy answer in Virginia is humidity.  It's awful and I hate it.  Other than that though summer is wonderful and I love it.  We are enjoying it as much as possible.

We found a fun new "hike"

Can you find a little boy in these magnificent trees we have on the east coast?

We love going to the pool

Sierra loves it as much as the rest of us.  And yes, Sierra is wearing a pink swimsuit that I bought her.  Maybe she's softened my heart towards the color.  Just barely though.

Connor's loving his new scooter.

Sierra seems to have no sense of caution and wants to climb on everything within reach.  Shortly after she had both knees on the small box and was trying to get on the tall one.  I'm finding things are a little harder to get done with Sierra that they were with Connor. 

Connor still loves walking to the water and now loves to walk in it too.

I thought this picture captured their personalities perfectly.  Connor is such a silly boy and Sierra is just happy to be happy.  Unless she's eating her veggies, and then she's real sad. 

We went to see fireworks for the 4th.  Here are some cool pictures we took.

Laughing

Bath time!

Lately we've been...

cooking

sitting

getting really close to crawling

eating strawberries

and picking them

playing on the swings

which is extra fun with big brother

Connor wanted to ride in the wagon with Sierra.  He's a good brother and holds her tight so she doesn't fall out.

His latest Home Depot project

Connor was lucky enough to lick the brownie batter bowl.  Which, by the way, were the best gluten free brownies I've made yet. Yum!

This is how we found him asleep.  He didn't even wake up when we turned the light on for the picture.  Or when Jared dumped the basket onto his bed.

Sierra wants to be Jared's helper

She's quite happy about it as you can see

She just mastered the army crawl and is already rocking on her knees and forearms.

A face this sweet couldn't get into mischief though, right?