Pictures By Kids

Our camera started having issues.  After turning it on, I had to push a certain button a few times before I could see anything on the screen and take any pictures.  I don't know what is wrong with it.  If I take a picture while the screen is black, the picture is just black as well.  So, we bought a new camera, but during the switch, the kids got a hold of the old one.  Here are just a few of the pictures they took.

Nicholas

Mommy and Nicholas.  Obviously, Nick was not behind the camera here. :)

Joshua and Mommy

Joshua - I have no idea what this expression is for, but I thought it was worth sharing

Ardenwood Farm

In July, our neighbors invited us to go to Ardenwood Farm with them.  That's a historical farm on the edge of Fremont.  It was a lot of fun.

Jessie loves to look at animals.  This bunny was perfect, because it's cute, but she couldn't touch.  She doesn't really want to touch the animals very often anyway.  Perfect for my little Jessie.

Josh is petting a goat.  What fun!

Emily is absolutely the animal lover in the family.  I think she would love to live on a full blown farm.

Emily even found a cow to pet.

The farm has a few blackberry bushes that they let people pick from for a little snack while at the farm.

This is as close to the action as Nick gets most of the time.  Well, at least he can enjoy it.  What a cute smile.

July 4th Remnants

On Independence Day this year, we went and watch a really spectacular fireworks display by a family just outside of Bartlesville.  The next day, my mom had arranged for us to help clean up the mess from the festivities, so part of our family reunion was spent on a service project.  I thought that was really great.  It was truly amazing that with all the people that had attended, there wasn't much mess left behind by the spectators. Most of the mess was from the fireworks themselves.  That's awesome that people were willing to take care of their own stuff at the end of the celebration.  Somehow, I ended up with only one photo from the effort.  It is cute, though, so I had to share.

My nephew Wyatt, pulling his sister, Sammy.  Jessie's in the background with her little green skirt on.

My mom had bought some glow sticks for the kids, and we left them at the house that night.  Oh well.  So, we got to bring them back to California with us.  The first Family Home Evening that we had after the kids discovered them, we used them for the activity.

The three kids playing with the glow sticks in the dark.  The pictures didn't come out quite like we'd hoped.

So, we tried it with the flash.  That made things a little too bright.  But they had so much fun anyway.

Camping

We love to go camping.  But we usually don't make it out more than once a year.  This year, we had a chance to go camping as a family the first weekend of August.  It was our best camping trip ever...  or least complicated at least.

The kids all getting ready to go to sleep.  Sleep is so exciting when you are anywhere but your own bed.

Nick was even excited

About the "least complicated" part?  Yeah, that's our backyard.  :)

It was kind of nice not having the travel and all the preparations, and the fire to keep the kids out of, etc.  Oh!  And there was a nice crib for Nick to sleep in.  He was so mad when he had to go to bed in his own bed.  Not so exciting.  :(  Poor little boy.  

Did you notice how HUGE our backyard is?  Don't let the tent filling it up fool you.  It's just a really large tent.  ;)

Voting?

After taking these photos of Emily, I realized she looks like she just participated in voting in Iraq.  (Unless it's really some other country where they get purple fingers for voting)  Anyhow, Emily had a little mishap on her scooter.  She was speeding along, and attempted to make a turn a little too sharp and too fast.  She caught herself with her hands, but somehow landed in such a way that badly bruised the tip of her finger.  I thought maybe she had broken it, but she could bend it and everything.  The doctor's office, when I called, suggested that it was probably just a bruise.  Sure glad I didn't take her in to find out she had a bruise.  :)

Sure is a pretty color of purple

I seem to remember seeing pictures of people like this just after voting in Iraq(?).  Except they were generally not trying to pretend to frown.  It was a good effort, though.

Pushing the Stroller

So, I was going to share a video, but I apparently don't know how to do that.  Instead, you get a picture.  Nick's favorite activity now a days is pushing the toy stroller.  He's getting pretty good at it.  Will he walk soon?  Who knows?  But, to keep up with Josh, he'd have to start walking this week.  I think Josh's Family Record is safe. 

One more try at the video...

 

I hope it works for you

Spiderman

On July 27, Josh's friend had a birthday party for his 6th birthday, and we were all invited.  It was quite an experience, to say the least.  There was pizza, a Spiderman bounce house, and a real live DJ to get it all started.  (I missed the first half of this because Nick was taking a nap.)

After it all got going, a couple pinata's were brought in for the kids.  The first one was Woody from Toy Story for the youngest kids.  Apparently, there were only 2 kids there for that one, and neither of them knew what to do.  Jessie was second, I believe, and got some help.  After a moment, she gave it a real good whack.  Everyone cheered, and she stopped.  She had no idea what was going on.  After that pinata was done, they brought in the one for the big kids.  It was a Spiderman, of course, and it was bigger than Emily.  This was a bit too much for Jessie, and she started crying.  So, Peter got to hold her for a little bit.  When she saw the other kids start to whack this thing, she really started to freak out.  At that point, Peter took her with him to come get me.  She didn't realize it wasn't a real person, and all these people were hitting him.  Poor girl.  At least she got a nap in the car, and we had a talk about the pinata when we got a chance.  But we shall never be able to revive her relationship with the hero again.

Later, the "real" Spidey made an appearance.

Emily was the only one of the three who was willing to go near him

Jessie wouldn't even look at him.  Poor girl.