JULY!!! Almost done!!!

July was a really fun month for us as well!!! Not nearly as many pictures though, so no worries!

Mary started out July with tripping and hitting the couch. Nice bump, huh? It was huge! Poor girl really struggles with staying on her feet.

One day when we were playing outside she came and gave me a flower or the closest thing to a flower in our backyard. It was pretty sweet of her. She's never given me a flower before.

These were the only fireworks we got to do or see on July 4th, but Mary had a blast with them. She kept begging for more.

Then it was road trip time!!! She loves Lion and Sheep! She takes them everywhere! She did AWESOME on the road trip! She's so great!

We stayed with Jake's grandparents the first night. Mary had a good time with them. It's fun to watch them interact.

I wish this picture turned out better!

After the trip to the grandparents Mary and I went down to my parent's house. Jake had to work in Salt Lake City to he stayed with his grandparents. We went out to the pizza factory. Mary thought the breadsticks were pretty cool.

My mom has the monkey that is one that you'd see sometimes with old fashioned organ grinders. It plays music and hits the symbols together and when you hit it's hat to makes monkey noises at you. Mary thought he was pretty funny! We had to hide it from her at one point.

My sister's kids came over and played for some of the time. Mary LOVES her cousins! She had a great time with them!

She learned the joys of a slip 'n slide. I happened to find one at Walmart for $3 and bought it. Mary, unfortunately saw it and now wants me to put it out everyday!

Love that smile!!!

She might not look happy, but she was having a good time snuggling with Dad and her cousin.

On the road trip home we stopped at this old railroad area. Mary loves trains and was in heaven. She would tell us the names of all the trains...Thomas, Percy, Gordon, etc.

I finally bought her a bike. She's not great with it, but she's learning. $3 at a garage sale, not bad!

One of Mary's friends has some awesome toys and one of her favorites is this Jeep. She loves Jeeps anyway, thanks to her dad, but this one is her size. She thinks it's amazing! It's pretty fun to watch these two ride around in it. I have visions of what dates are going to look like........

JUNE!!! Silver Dollar City!!! And lots more!!!

So much fun!!! And so much to tell!!! This month was full of SO MUCH FUN! 

We're on our way to Branson, Missouri home of Silver Dollar City Amusement Park! Jake's family wanted to do a family trip before Kaden graduated and went off the college and then a mission. It was really fun! I'd never heard of Silver Dollar City before this trip. It was a great family amusement park. Mary had a BLAST!!! I was a little worried about how she'd do and we had our moments, but for the most part she was great! I love my little girl!

This was Mary's first plane ride, that she can remember. She was SO excited! Jake has instilled in Mary a love for airplanes so this was awesome for her. She was SO good on the airplane too! (Sorry the camera lens was a bit dirty from a little girl I know.)

They had this huge area with balls EVERYWHERE! There were ball guns, ball vacuums, ball conveyer belts, etc. Mary liked the ball gun best, go figure.

There were a bunch of little kid rides and Mary was BARELY 36" (the minimum to ride the rides). She loved them all! But her favorite was the carousel and the swings.

I think she rode the carousel about 20 times, no joke! She never got off when it stopped and no one seemed to care.

She still needs her nap to be happy...and for me to be happy. They had this train that would go on a ride for about 20 minutes or so. Everyday I would take her on it around nap time and about 10 minutes into it she would look like the picture below. 

Then I'd carefully get off and she'd sleep for about 30-40 minutes and wake-up and be ready to go again. Not the best nap, but better than nothing and I took it! Plus, the snuggles were awesome!

She had a great time in the tea cups. She kept wanting us to go faster!

Mom, Kaden and Jared came and joined us for a bit.

She loved riding all the different bugs and animals. It wasn't very comfortable for us sitting in the back, but it was fun to be with her.

Not the greatest picture of her, she really liked this ride I promise. She could do this one by herself with she thought was cool.

Can't resist these type of pictures...so ugly!

  

Mary rode these swings at least 20-30 times. She never got off this ride either...until it rained and they kicked her off.

Her are the big swings that she could ride with me. She was scared at first and hid her head in my lap, but then she kept begging to go back again and again.

She had a great time on the elephant rides. She was so fun!

At the hotel room she thought it was so fun to talk on the phone...heaven help us when she's a teenager!!!

Don't know how Jake felt about her stealing his drink, but she sure liked it.

On the way home the Pilot let Mary go into the cockpit...Jake was EXTREMELY jealous!!! It was funny! Mary on the other hand was extremely shy. (And my camera wouldn't focus! Grrr!)

Back home the ward did a park day and it was really fun. We went to a nearby park to play and run around the splash park. Mary loved it.

We went out to eat one day and had peanuts at the table. Mary had a blast cracking the shells open and finding peanuts. I think she could have eaten that for dinner.

We also went to a concert in the park and Mary had a great time dancing to the music. 

And yes.....we did potty training.....again. This time I was a little more prepared then in the past. It is still a battle, but she's doing MUCH better! YAY!

My little helper!

Our nice neighbor gave us this slide that Mary loves! 

I made this dress for Mary out of one of Jake's old shirts. I had never done anything like this and it turned out...interesting...but she liked it.

Our little cowgirl. And dancing in the rain with Daddy. Now every time it rains she wants to go dance in it.

Mom's little helper, helping herself to some cookie dough.

We did some yard work and Mary was very helpful to her Dad. It was pretty cute!

Phew! This post is done! Sorry, lots of pictures and info. We had a great June! Hope you did too!!!

MAY!!!

May was a pretty normal month for us, which was nice. The weather was beautiful and we had some good times!

One of the highlights of May was Jake's brother, Kaden, graduated from high school! YAY! That was fun celebrating that. Jake's grandparents came down to celebrate with the family. While they were here we took a little day trip to Pike National Forest. Jake LOVES going down there in the Jeep!!! We had a great time.

Mary doesn't look like she liked being on top of the Jeep and she didn't. She wanted to be up there until she was actually up there.

It's so pretty out there! I wish we lived closer!!!

Mary's being a stinker with pictures...I have no idea where she got that!

Grandpa had a great time!

We found a merry-go-round on our way home and had to introduce Mary to it.

In other events this month Mary and I went to the mall and she had a great time, obviously.

Picnic time in the backyard with Daddy.

The library had this set-up for the free book they were giving away this summer. It was really cute and Mary didn't want to leave.

Due to Mary's new love of snakes we made her this giant snake one morning. It was really fun and she was really excited.

Zoo again...and again she wouldn't look at me or smile for the photo.

Mary sometimes likes it when I do her hair. She calls it her princess hair. She won't let me do her hair unless I say I'll make her look like a princess, it's pretty funny.

Mary loves to shop, she did not get this from my side of the family. I blame this on Mom Beckstead :). Mary gets excited every time I tell her we're going to go shopping.

Mary's new found love this month is ice cream or frozen yogurt. We went out one day and got some and she loves it! I new she was my daughter! We had a good time together!