Wedding!

Kevin's brother Kurt married Jen in the St. George Temple on Tuesday August 22nd. It was a beautiful sealing, luncheon, and reception, and it was so neat to be there! Congratulations Kurt and Jen!Coming out of the temple.
Taking a few pictures-- while the rest of us watched from inside the air-conditioned Visitor's Center!
Brad, Dawn, Kurt, and Jen at the reception.
The reception was gorgeous! I thought this fruit holder ice sculpture was especially cool. They also had Italian Sodas, which was a fun idea.
Cora's favorite part was this wedding favors table--bag and take candy in the wedding colors. So pretty, and yummy too! This rock candy stick (she asked Kevin, not me!) kept Cora busy for quite a while.
I also really liked this way to display wedding pictures-- hung with ribbons on a wrought iron display.
Violet took a nap during part of the reception-- she was tuckered out from the day's festivities. Lucky for us, some of Jen's siblings got pizzas for the kids and brought a movie, so Cora was entertained and did remarkably well at the reception. We didn't get to stay clear till the end but pretty close.
Cora and Kylee

Zion National Park

We spent last Monday at Zion National Park. A few of us got up early and went to beat the heat. It was actually overcast and quite pleasant temperatures! We didn't stay too long, but did a couple of short walks and got to see a lot of scenery.Kevin and Violet at the end of the riverwalk path. We had planned on walking up into the Narrows a tiny bit, but it was closed due to flash flood warnings. Next time! Cora stayed back in St. George with Grandma and Grandpa.

Uncle Gordon, Sorayah, Kristen, Kevin, Violet, and I-- our group for the morning.

More Firsts

In addition to the girls sleeping in new places, we had more firsts for both Cora and Violet. Thursday night we went swimming at a place we haven't tried before and it was great! Cora loved the beach style entry to the huge pool. And Violet got to swim in a pool for the first time. She loved it, and spent a lot of time just kicking her legs around in the water.
Cora licking her first cookie dough beatter. She helped me make cookies for the YM/YW fireside that will be at our house tomorrow night.
And you can't see it in the pictures, but Violet cut her first tooth this weekend! Kevin says it still isn't visible, but I can see it. It's her bottom front right tooth. No wonder she's been gnawing in her fingers so much! It feels like the bottom front left tooth isn't too far behind.

And as for the new sleeping arrangements, Cora was just fooling us with how well she did the first night. The last few nights we've been up a lot at night putting her back in her bed. Or sometimes she'll just wake up and shriek but not get out of her bed. And she has napped, but it seems to take a few goodnights to get her to stay in bed. I think a bigger nightlight and continued consistency should help us out a lot!

Liberty Park

Heather, James, and the girls and I headed had such a fun outing last week! After not being able to figure out where to hook in to the Jordan River Pathway (it must be more developed further south???) we ended up at Liberty Park, which was much better. A picnic lunch, swings, slides, walking, and people watching kept the girls and James entertained... and Heather and I as well! Cora also loved chasing and feeding the ducks, and there's a lot more playground and water play activities for us to explore next time with swimsuits. It's great to find such fun parks to go to! And to have fun people to go with. Thanks Heather!

First Nights

Tonight is Cora's first night in her new bed. It's been sitting out for a while, and we read books there. Today I tried to get her to nap there, but she would have nothing of it. So she was exhausted tonight and fell asleep in her new bed while Kevin was reading her books. Hopefully she'll learn to go to sleep on her own in not too much time! She looks so little in a twin bed, compared to looking so big in the crib recently.

Saturday night was Violet's first night in her crib. Cora left for St. George a day earlier than Kevin, Violet, and I, going with Grandpa and Grandma, Kristen, and cousins. Our first night with both of us away from her! It was kind of strange, but we did get a lot done... including raising the bed of the crib and fully transitioning Violet out of our room and Cora into her new room. I forgot how much can be done without helpful little Cora around. We packed, rested, Kevin went to see a movie, and I worked on my current quilting project. Grandpa and Grandma said Cora was so busy swimming and playing with cousins, she didn't miss us at all! Although, it might have made her a little mad at us, she did give us a bit of the cold shoulder when we met up with them Sunday morning, but she soon was her friendly self.

Week in Boise

Cora, Violet and I went home from the baby blessing with my parents and spent the week in Boise. Kevin met up with us there Thursday night and we got to spend the weekend all together. Cora loved having so many people to play with and so many new things to do. Her most repeated phrase for the week was 'up and down', which she said over and over. And up and down she went all week! Up and down in the new bouncy house, on the trampoline, in the water at the YMCA, on the fun island at the river, at the two parks, and in the backyard pool. We had such a fun time, thanks Kissie and Pata!Cora, the budding gardener.

Chillin' by the bubble machine.

Throwing rocks into the river. Cora loved the splashes! She also loved being able to 'wash' her hands in the river. She has been very interested in keeping her hands clean lately, and if they aren't up to par, Cora lets us know by chanting "hands dirty, hands dirty!" One of the parks we went to was by the river, so we took a little walk down to see the water.
Backyard o' FUN! Bubble machine, bouncy house, and swimming.
Cora loved the slide on the bouncy house almost more than bouncing in the house itself. Funny thing, because she wasn't interested in sliding at the parks at all.
Playing dress-up. What a princess! I thought she might skip the princess phase with her love of babies, Curious George, and big trucks, but the last few weeks she has become very interested. She dances around the house with her wand! Pretty cute.

Bye-bye Binkie

Nope, it's not Cora, unfortunately, who has said bye-bye to her binkie, but Violet! Last week she stopped taking it, so I washed and boxed them up. It's kind of a pain to not have a sure-fire quick way to soothe her, but I'm also glad to be getting all the binkie attachments out of the way so painlessly. Maybe Cora will follow soon! Once we are done with our summer trips and guests, we'll be tackling that.

Violet's Baby Blessing

The highlight of our Fourth of July weekend was Violet's baby blessing. It was such a neat Sunday to have all our family together to celebrate her birth! Thanks to all who helped with the blessing, the food, the clean-up and for making it special for us by being there. We recorded the blessing on my MP3 player, now I just need to transcribe it for her baby book.

Cora all ready for church. The girls wore the matching dresses they'll be wearing at Kurt and Jen's wedding this week. Violet is 6 weeks older (and a bit further up the growth charts) than Cora, so we didn't end up using the blessing dress from Italy. But now Violet will have her own dress to use for her girls if she wants. We took tons of family pictures of all combinations before church, here are a few of my favorites.





Isn't this picture precious? It's my paternal grandmother with Violet. My grandma and grandpa were so sweet to come down from Blackfoot for the day to be at the blessing.

The whole gang after church and before lunch. We had quite the party going on at our house! It was so fun to have everyone around. We loved it! And the extra space in the basement came in handy too when it started raining right when church let out. It didn't rain for long though, and it cooled off enough outside to be very pleasant afterwards.
The men who participated in Violet's blessing: My Uncle John, Shad, my dad, Kevin, Kevin's dad, and three of my cousins' husbands--Travis, Brian, and Doug.
Thanks everyone for your love and support! We are grateful to be close friends with our family members.

Rolling Over!

Violet surprised us all by rolling over this weekend! From her back to her tummy! It was pretty fun to have all the family around to witness one of her major milestones. She's rolled from her tummy to her back for a while now, but Cora didn't do the back to front roll until 4 and a half months, so I wasn't expecting it for a while yet. Looks like little Violet might just have inherited her father's athletic genes instead of mine totally uncoordinated ones-- I still am such a klutz at step aerobics, and I've been doing it twice a week for 2 months now. Hurray for Violet!

Here's the video footage-- it's the fourth video in the lineup. I decided to spare you all the first three where it looked like she almost had it, and then just didn't quite make it. Now Violet's a pro though, and we have to strap her into her bouncer and swing or she wriggles out!

Family Weekend at Our House

It was great to hang out and relax on Saturday (July 5th). We also did a lot of preparations for the baby blessing luncheon, it was so nice to have help and have it pretty much all done before Sunday.

We also took Cora swimming at the hotel my mom and dad stayed at. She had a lot of fun!

Kicking with Grandpa
Wow! Kevin got her up high!
Too bad I always forget that you shouldn't take the video sideways!

We celebrated Shad's birthday too! He turned 25. Cora loved helping him open his presents!

Shad, Jen, Butterscotch, and Oreo. Happy birthday! And, Cora loved playing with the dogs. She thinks they are the greatest! They were very patient with her too. She was asking were they were after Shad and Jen left, and when she sees pictures of them, she still says 'oo-ee-oo' (r's are hard), so they made a lasting impression.
We took Cora to the park Sunday afternoon. She wasn't as interested in the slides as last time, but loved steering.