Western Idaho Fair

We tried out the Western Idaho Fair this year.  It was definitely no California State Fair, but it was the perfect size for our family.  After three hours we had seen everything we wanted, Sienna was spent and my pregnant self was more than happy to be done.  I loved that there was tons of fun things for kids through out the fair including a fun puzzle that when you finished not only did you get a stamp,but also a smaller puzzle to take home.

Sienna dug through dirt in the agricultural center and found all sorts of treasure (marbles)!

Daddy and Sienna enjoying the horses...

...and the very mischievous goats! 

Future Farmer?

I kind of felt like a giant potato at this point with my big belly. :)

 Nick was so excited when he saw that not only did they have a working iron lung machine, but that he could actually try it out. (Seriously, only a respiratory therapist...)   

While Daddy was in the iron lung machine, Sienna and I got our faces painted, played a tossing game and enjoyed free otter pops.

 

 

We also ate corn dogs and funnel cake, drank the best lemonade, saw lots of other animals, visited the vendor booths and rode the Ferris Wheel.  We will definitely have to go again next year.

Our New Home!

On August 8th we finally signed paperwork and closed on our brand new home!  We were even lucky enough to get the keys that same day, which is fairly uncommon despite what all of those shows on TV show you.  We are loving our new house even with the few hiccups we have experience along the way.  We are so grateful for our friend and realtor, Janie, who helped us and stood up for us through out the whole process.

 

  

  

  

 

  We are slowly getting things into place and are excited to eventually bring Shelby home and welcome some much anticipated visitors in November!

A Fun Visit!

All the way back at the beginning of August our friends came up from California to come and visit us!  We absolutely adore the Volp family and we were so happy that they were able to make the trip to see us, especially Sienna.  Sienna loves their son so much she calls him her cousin.  Here are some of our adventures in no particular order:

  We visited the temple...

We threw rocks in the river...

 We played at the Settler's Park (aka the Pirate park)...

Saw the races at the Meridian Speedway...

and ate giant shaved ices...twice!

We also visited the Boise Depot, went on a candy hunt, ate delicious burgers and were able to show off our new house.  

I'm a little sad that we only have one picture with the grown ups, but so happy that we were able to spend a few days with some of our favorite people.  We are already looking forward to when we can see each other again.

Random Summer Fun

Fun things we have done this summer:

Celebrated National Donut Day

Spent a fun Sunday afternoon at Dave and Janie's house, swinging, chasing the cat and trying out fresh vegetables from the garden.

 Being silly at the Dollar Store.

Played at the splash pad.

 

Ate giant sno cones.

 

Did a little more bowling.

 

I promise Nick was there for most of the fun, but he was taking the pictures.  We are looking forward to the rest of what summer has to bring including friends visiting, a new house and hopefully more sno cones!

Fourth of July Weekend

...Because you know, that was only a month ago.  

We had so much fun that weekend!  The Bacchus Family and the Peterson Family came up to Idaho to visit and celebrate with us.  Here are some highlights, which I'm pretty sure are not in order, but are relatively close:

We went to the Boise Fourth of July Parade.

 

We decorated cookies.

 

We spent some time hanging out in the backyard, which included water balloon baseball, the trampoline and tons of other water fun!

 We went to the Pirate park!

The grandkids got a treat at Fast Eddys! (Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!)

We went to Big Al's for bowling and arcade games.

We, of course, did Fireworks!

We loved on Wade.

 On our last night together we made woof 'ems and smores!  We also hung out and played some more in the Esslinger's backyard.

I LOVE spending time with my sisters and their trip was much too short.  My favorite part though was watching the cousins play together and seeing how much fun they were having.  We did miss having our whole family there, but we definitely enjoyed our time together and I for one can't wait until we can do it again.

Fourth of July Prep

Fourth of July was a big weekend for us!  The Bacchus Family and the Peterson Family were coming up to Idaho to visit and celebrate with us.  Among the many things that we did in order to prepare for their arrival and the upcoming holiday was make cookies with Andi and make a fourth of July shirt.

 There isn't much that Sienna loves more than baking with her Aunt.  Every time I watch those two together I always get the feeling that maybe Sienna was actually supposed to belong to Andi.  Seriously, it's probably just the blond hair and blue eyes and girly personalities....  Anyway, they did a great job getting all the cookies baked and ready for decorating, while having a good time in the process.

I found this cute and easy tutorial for a eraser stamped shirt and just knew that Sienna would love it.  I was so right too!  She kept saying how she couldn't believe that I was telling her to put paint on her shirt.  I was very impressed with the final product and she loved getting to wear it on the fourth and telling everyone that she made it herself.

After all the prep work all that was left was to wait for our family to arrive!

A Pony Party

I can't believe that Sienna is old enough to go to friend's birthday parties!  I suppose that she has been to parties before but this was the first time the invite came in the mail and she insisted on choosing the perfect gift for her friend so it seemed pretty official to me.  One of her friends from Primary turned 4 and hosted a super fun My Little Pony party!

Sienna LOVES My Little Pony so this was like a dream party for her: friends and ponies equals best day EVER!  

They got to paint their own ponies, go on a hunt for Rarity's jewels, played pin the tail on Rainbow Dash and eat ridiculous amount of rainbow cake and ice cream.  All of the little girls were in heaven and had such a good time.  I was a little apprehensive about the party at first because Sienna tends to get really shy and withdrawn in groups of her peers (i.e. the park, music class, etc.) but she did great.  She did need some encouragement to hop in with the group every once in a while in the beginning but she found her stride and by the end she was sad to leave.

Sienna's favorite part was pinning in the tail on Rainbow Dash and mine was how much thought she put in when it came to picking out the perfect gift for her friend.  It was truly the first time that I knew she was picking something for a friend and not secretly something for herself.  In case you are wondering, she insisted on finding a Wonderbolt (which for those of you not in the know is a special pony who is part of the best flyers on My Little Pony) because they have a blue uniform and her friend's favorite color is blue. It was such a fun day!