Due to the economy we held our annual family campout in our backyard this summer. A fun time was had by all, except for the fat pregnant woman who slept in the tent sandwiched between 2 people and being kicked in the back by the third and being woken up (what seemed like every hour) by the train whistles. Now you know why I look so scary the next morning in the photo!

Isn't that a scary looking woman!!
We had a little campfire of coals to roast marshmallows and hotdogs for dinner. Isn't Joel so creative! And the Joker having her morning hot chocolate. And of course the news report for the entire event. Sorry about the sniffles in the video. My allergies are bad in the morning.

"STOP LOOKING AT ME!"

"STOP TALKING TO ME!"

Does anyone else hear this from their two year old?

Here are some videos of the girls during our picnic at the Rose Garden in LA. Pretty funny. They love it when I take videos of them. Too bad that Joel says he loves his children too much to put them in the movie business. A squirrel kept creeping up on our lunch so that is what Adelle is looking around for in the video. He was a very sneaky squirrel.

A few weeks ago Adelle called me a "silly ass." After me looking shocked for a couple of seconds she said, " what? It was in Peter Pan." Oops we've been reading that aloud and I didn't even think about what I was reading to her.

Then last week Adelle was sent to her room for something, I can't remember what, and when I told her to shut the door she said out loud to herself, "shut the **** door." Again after I looked shocked she said, "what? Harry Potter said it." She has been reading the Harry Potter books to herself in bed.

I talked to Joel about it and he said,  " I guess we have to tell her all the words she can't say."

Very funny. Instead we talked about asking what words mean before using them. (she didn't know about those words) and trying to figure out whether the word was a good one to use or not from the context of the reading.

We didn't even have to send her to school to learn to swear. We gave her books to teach her!

Joel worked in LA last Friday so we decided to spend the day there while he was working. Mostly because he needed to be dropped off at the truck rental place to pick up the equipment truck to go prep for an upcoming film he is working on and then needed picked up at the production office when he was done prepping. I decided at least 4 hours driving back and forth wasn't worth it so we planned a day in LA. We went to Exposition Park to the free museums there to start. We went to the California African American Museum where we saw lots of photos of influential African Americans, art work, and displays from Africa and slavery in the south. We saw a necklock and chain that the slaves were marched down south in (the chain gangs) and two dresses that Ella Fitzgerald performed in. After that museum we went to the CaliforniaScienCenter for Space and Aircraft.They got to pretend to fly a helicopter, see a space suit, fly paper airplanes with different shaped wings,and a few other things. We headed to the Rose Garden for a picnic lunch before going to the World of Life exhibit where they got to see how big a baby at 22 weeks gestation is, baby chicks, lobsters, and learned about the parts of a plant, and our bodies. I like the science center because it is free, very hands on, and educational. Here are some photos from the Rose Garden. From Expo Park we headed to The Grove, an outdoor shopping mall that houses the American Girls Store. Adelle was in heaven. She did really good not being able to buy anything. (The dolls alone are
90$!) The store was over the top. They have a hair salon and a hospital for the dolls. We read the books about Felicity when we were studying Colonial American last spring. Felicity is Adelle's favorite doll. Here is a photo with the Felicity dolls. Adelle really liked trying clothes on so we took a few pictures of her trying on Samantha's pajamas

Maeve celebrated her 2nd birthday in June. Joel is the family cake decorater. Maeve is very into Winnie the Pooh these days (thanks to the ride at DLand) so we decided to make her a Pooh cake. I made this lemon cake from scratch that would have been really good except that the kitchen was literally 95 degrees while I was making the cake so the egg whites never really got peaky, thus making the cake a bit thick. It was bearable with ice cream but probably could have knocked you out had I thrown a piece at you! Joel did a great job decorating. When Maeve saw it she said, "Doggy" which was a little disappointing to Joel. He told her it was Winnie the Pooh so she decided it was a Winnie the Pooh Doggy. Before Winnie the Pooh and all his books were called  "Winnie the Pooh ride" and now they are "Winnie the Pooh ride doggy". And here is a little family photo with a pregnant me. We had the table in the living room because the air conditioning unit doesn't reach the kitchen and it was 100 degrees outside (and practically that in the kitchen)We had Maeve's favorite friends over, Fevzi and Gokcen and their new son, Daghan. Mr. Potato Head from Grandma and Grandpa was a big hit. Adelle and Maeve play for hours with them. They especially like to put the face pieces in their mouths pretending Mr. Potato Head's tongue/eyes/nose is their own. No matter how many times they do it they still fall over laughing.She also liked all the clothes, jewelry, and the cute crown that came with Aunt Michelle's card. Thanks for being so generous with the gifts!

A little late with the blog (she was married in the Salt Lake City Temple in April) but here are some of Joel's photos from my little sister Suzanne's wedding. She and Jimmy are happily married now and loving life at Wymount. Wasn't she a beautiful bride?Here are my siblings. Sue was the last one of us to get married.

My sister, Michelle, (in yellow) is due a few days before me but she bought the sweaters and bought me a small and her a medium so I would look fatter! Okay that probably wasn't the reason but that it the result. A funky photo of the bride and bridemaids

My sisters and me. And lastly my cute little family. In keeping with her style Maeve cried a good portion of the time in Utah due to all the "strangers" around. My dad actually got her to be happy with him for part of the time. Joel didn't get a photo of all the grandkids together. It was pretty funny photo with Maeve screaming and trying to run back to me. Our trip to Alaska this past June she really warmed up to Grammy, Pops, Uncle Jon, and Aunt Tara though. She is always asking where they are now. And she calls Grammy on her shoe to tell her she misses her when we are in the car. Funny girl.

is my two front teeth! Adelle lost 4 teeth in one week, including both of her top teeth, a child's dream! At least I remember wishing both of my top teeth would come out at the same time.  She looks so cute! It is hard to believe someone this cute could torture her little sister the way Adelle does. One day we found these notes posted all over the house.

Here are some photos of what we have been doing the last few months.

This is the house finch that nested on our porch. It was so fun to watch the eggs hatch, the babies being fed, and the babies leave the nest. The babies were so loud when they were being fed that we could hear them all over the house with the door shut. One of the babies fell on the porch while trying to fly. We helped it flip over using a piece of paper and it took off flying. I hope they will come back next spring.

We did a Colonial America unit study for history using many library books and the American Girl books about Felicity. Here Adelle is practicing writing using a quill pen. She also built a small Mayflower, made a horn book, sewed a pocket to go under her skirts to carry hankerchiefs (just like Felicity), and many other things that I can't remember right now.

And we visited the Cabrillo Aquarium in San Pedro with our homeschool group. Adelle's favorite thing was seeing the little baby seahorses that were in the nursery area. Maeve was just happy to see fish, one of her favorite things. She isn't that happy in this photo because she is being held up by my friend and Maeve still doesn't like people.

Okay I know that the last time I posted was February but I have a good excuse! It involves a couple of months of that exhaustive, pukey feeling that comes with your first trimester. In fact I have not only not updated my blog but also not returned emails, cleaned the bathroom, mopped the kitchen floor, exercised, dusted, etc. You get the picture. Only the bare necessities have gotten done-feeding and clothing the kids, washing laundry and dishes on an as needed basis. I kept telling Joel one more week and I'll feel better for a lot of weeks and Finally!!  this week I do. I celebrated by cleaning the bathroom, mopping the kitchen floor, and biking 5 miles with the girls. Yeah it is so nice to feel alive again!! Baby Camilla, as Adelle calls the baby, is expected the end of October. We were shooting for Joel's birthday on October 22  to keep it easy for him but now that he will film a thesis project starting on October 21 I am hoping the baby comes before that. The due date is October 27. Now that I am feeling better I am getting excited about having another one, a little sooner than we might have hoped but surely the Lord has a plan for us.

Our friend at woodyswonders posted about what her family was reading recently and asked readers what they are reading so I thought I would write about the great book I recently finished.  My mother gave me the Jane Austen's complete novels a year or two ago and I had read everyone but Persuasion and Lady Susan. Recently I rented the movie The Jane Austen Book Club and was inspired to read Persuasion. I loved it! It is my new favorite Austen book passing up Pride and Prejudice. A friend and I were talking about P and P a few months ago and she hated it.  Just a bunch of people sitting around talking and gossiping. Granted it is a pretty silly life from our point of view now. But I love Austen's characters and how absurd she makes them which makes them hylerious. Like the mother from P and P and Sir Walter and Miss Elliott from Persuasion. They are just so lame that it is silly. Anyway I loved the book. Now I will read Lady Susan and continue reading Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell and Home Education by Charlotte Mason. I am slowly reading those two books because each page gives me something new to think about.

Adelle and  I just finishing reading aloud Pinocchio, Meet Felicity (we are doing a Colonial America Unit Study) and The Courage of Sarah Noble.  We started Constance, a Plymouth Pilgrim the other day but she isn't too into that so we will see how it goes. She read Skippy Jon Jones to herself while acting in Joel's commercial for class on reading this week. She keeps repeating, "the dude just wants his beans back" Thank Jen!

Maeve continues to amaze me by how long she will sit on my lap and listen to me read to her. Her favorite book right now is Mr. Brown Can Moo by Dr. Seuss. I made the mistake of bringing it to church one day and she was "reading" it to herself very loudly. Needless to say it didn't come back to church again. She walks around the house saying boom, boom, boom, and splatt, splatt, splatt.

I don't want to leave Joel out. I think he reads for classes but I've only seen him reading the Book of Mormon in Italian. If he is only going to read one book at least he chose that one! Wait he just told me he was reading a book on camera filters and looked at the pictures in an art book.

Here are pictures from one of the parks we attend with our Liahona homeschool group. It is an island playground filled with imaginary colonial Boston homes and a "Boston Tea Party ship".  The island is surrounded by water filled with all kinds of ducks and turtles. Maeve likes to chase the ducks back into the water and step in lots of duck poop. Lots of fun. You can "shoot" this cannon and water spouts out of the lake, frightening the ducks. Of course both girls love to do that. It seems kind fo cruel to me.

Adelle lost her sun hat for awhile and wore this bonnet that my mother made her. I thought it was pretty funny that she was running around in a pioneer bonnet but it didn't even phase her. After Maeve threw her sun hat in the duck poop I tried to put her bonnet on her but she wasn't too fond of wearing it.

We had two valentine's day parties this week, one with each of our homeschool groups. All together Adelle had to make 90 Valentines!!  We decided to try to be creative this year and not buy the store bought cards. Instead we made 90 hearts out of different colored pipe cleaners and attached a label on it with the girls' names on it. This is Adelle working in the assembly line. Most of Monday morning (our party was that afternoon) was spent making Valentines. But we finished and the girls had fun at the parties and later looking at their valentines. Maeve particularly liked those with dogs or cats on them. And couldn't figure out where all the candy was going. One second it was attached to the cards and the next the candy was gone! I was so fast getting that candy out of sight that she hardly cried. Adelle loved the valentine from her cousin in Virginia. Thanks KT!