Summer Days

Oh, summer fun! I have neglected my blog for a few weeks, and I have neglected my camera, so if this is a boring post, feel free to skip it. For posterity's sake I have a bit to write, but it's more so that I don't forget these precious days than anything else.

We have been having a fun summer. I love it up here!! I am so happy that we can be outside and not suffocate in the scorching desert! Right now the boys are running through the sprinklers and I am sitting in the shade quite comfortable. Ask me again in 6 months how I feel when I am snowed in and terrified to drive anywhere, but this is sure nice.

Kaeleb took swimming lessons for two weeks, which was fun because I could take Brennan swimming in the outdoor pool while he was in his lessons inside. My quirky little guy would not participate in a lot of the events in his lesson because he hates getting water on his face or in his ears (which is why I waited this long to put him in lessons) but he had a blast and ended up passing the class so he will move up next year anyway.

We have had a little kink in our house plans and are going to be in Layton for yet another month. The loan co. Richmond Homes uses is a small lender and a week before closing the underwriter had a panic attack about loaning money to people who are self employed... regardless of whether they have perfect credit and make enough money to afford the payment... but whatever... So, we had to move on to a bigger lender who will can "afford the risk". It is ridiculous, but we started over with Chase and hopefully we will close within a month. The house is finished and beautiful, and here we sit.

It is a good thing we like it here! It has been great for the boys to have four grown ups who love them and great for me to have help with the discipline and keeping them busy. They love to be outside helping Grandma in the yard. They pull weeds and dig with spades and even helped her plant two trees.

They also love playing the Wii with Grandpa. Kaeleb insisted on getting him Wii Sports Resort for Father's Day and they have been playing the Swordplay showdown ever since.

I got Kwint a door gym for Father's day so that he could show off how many pull ups he can do and I can whine about how many I can't do.

I have been missing my dad a lot this summer. Father's day is an obvious time to miss him, and his birthday is in July, so when summer hits, with all the fun, I also spend some time thinking about him. His face and the sound of his voice are still so vivid... I guess there are some things that are so familiar time cannot dim them. I am excited because my mom brought me some old pictures of him so I can make scrapbooks for my boys to keep that are all about Papa. I treasure them so much I almost slept with them the night I got them. But I would have wrinkled them. :)

Last weekend we went to a Monsen Family Reunion (my mom's family) in Fountain Green and had quite a lot of fun. I am ashamed of myself for how little I keep in touch with my cousins and I was amazed by all the little kids and how much they look like the cousins I used to play with. It was really fun to match the kids to their parents and in some cases, grandparents... (Hello Hayden!) My cousin Mindy and her hubby put together some creative games, as well as rockets for the kids to blast off and a big water balloon sling shot. So, as you can guess, Kwint had fun too.

I have the most amazing family. My grandma must be an angel sent from heaven to have raised such a family. She had nine children, one of which died as a toddler, but all eight living were married in the temple and of her 45-ish grandchildren, all but 3 or 4 are active in the church. It makes me proud to be part Monsen. As I listened to my cousins talk about their children and the various joys and trials they have been through, I was impressed and grateful for their examples. They have beautiful children and awesome spouses.

Brennan got his first mosquito bite there. (One thing we do miss about the desert-- there are so many bats in St. George that eat mosquitoes and we had narry a bite in 7 years.) He came running to us screaming "A bee is biting me!" with the mosquito still attached to his arm. We assured him that if it was a bee, it would not have been such a pleasant experience. Kaeleb loved the rockets best and had to make one as soon as we got home from church yesterday. We are so glad we went.

Kaeleb is such a good boy. I can always count on him to be obedient. He tries really hard to do the right thing and keep his brother in line. He is also so very smart. I love our scripture time at night because he understands it so well. We ask a lot of questions and he always has an answer, usually well thought out. I am proud of my boy. Speaking of bedtime, he is earning his bunk bed. We told him we would get bunk beds for them if he was brave enough to go to sleep without Mommy in his bed. It took two nights and he was saying "Night-night Mom, Night-night dad!" and hopping off to bed. Miracles do happen!

One more story and I will stop with my ramblings, oh how I do love to ramble... it is so therapeutic. Brennan said his first solo prayer (aka without help from mom or dad)two nights ago. It was very cute and went like this: "Henly Fadder, I'm fankful for dis day, fankful for Jesus, fankful for fam-i-ly, for Daddy, for Mommy, for Me, for Brudder, for Baby Lou's (their buddy dolls), for Bear...." Amen. He is the sweetest little rascal I have ever known.