Blog catch up June Summary

Again, there are a TON of photos, some are hard to see and you'll have to click if you want to see the image in it closer.  Enjoy!

Luke is a horrible sleeper and he wakes up super early or in the middle of the night.  This is what we found one morning.  A jar, lots of candies, a dollar, and a paintbrush.  Who knows what he does when he's up?! 

More pics of the lovely mohawk

Luke's very temporary mohawk

Again, styled himself

Jake was playing baseball and his mom, dad, and sister came out to watch with us.  Luke had them all wrapped around his bossy little finger.  They were all pretending to drive on cue, and doing whatever he told them.  It was cute, but it makes it harder for Jake and I do deal with him. :)

We made it to Utah to visit family and here Luke is chillin' with his cousin.  So cute!

My little helper

My sister and my dad talking with the newest addition to the Pierce family

All the cousins put on a show, also pictured is my pretty nails that my friend had done for me!

This is the autograph session

We got to check out the house my sister was hoping to buy (they got it) and Dad and Luke tried out  that green stuff whatever it is

The boys and I made it to Grandma's farm. 

My Uncle, who is the one who really grows on the farm now

Showing us this "grass" that grows wild. It's asparagus.  They just cut it and take it in to eat it. Cool. 

These pictures are the progression of JJ eating a gooseberry.  

Insanely sour. 

Grandma and my uncle

This is at one of my other favorite places in the world, Stone Drug.  It's just a small town convenience store with a bar where you can eat food at.  It's always on my to do list when I go to Utah. 

I let Luke entertain himself with my camera.  There were a million shots of random stuff.  Here's a stool. 

Here's his crotch. Nice. 

My sister and I checked out a really cute store right next to Stone Drug that was for cake decorating.  Made me want to be all domestic. 

More of Luke's entertaining himself with my camera pictures. And his favorite boots!

JJ and Grandpa at their favorite rock store.  I took this road trip with just the boys and my parents.  It was a fun trip besides still feeling really nauseous.  I never realized before how windy those roads are on the way to Utah. 

We went to Peter Piper for a cousins birthday party

My friends threw me a kind of surprise birthday party/baby shower the day we got back from Utah. The pics are really bad because it was dark and we didn't have flash.  

I'm blessed with amazing friends!

We met at the airport to see my mom when she came back from France, she was visiting my brother and his fam, and we told my parents what the sex of the baby was with a box of cupcakes.  It was fun to see their reactions!

JJ went to his cub scouts day camp and had a BLAST!! He is still talking about it! His opinion of the best part, shooting guns, of course!

Another thing found early morning after Luke had been up for a while. 

I won free tickets to see one of our favorite bands, fun., through a radio contest.  They played before Panic at the Disco.  It was really fun to go out with Jake.  I felt old though, not only because of all the 13 year olds, but also because I got tired and was ready to go home before the end of the concert.  We got to see our favorite band though, so I still felt somewhat young and hip.  

We acquired some nice sturdy shelves and needed to get them into our garage....

which meant taking everything that was still in there (a ton of boxes and junk) and pulling it out onto the driveway and then once the shelves were in putting it all back in.  I'll have to get a pic of the "after" shot. 

I made these cupcakes again to tell a few friends one night.  It didn't really go as planned because one of the children there opened the box and loudly read the tags, "It's a boy. What's that about?" It was a little frustrating and deflated my big moment, but at least only a few people heard.  

This is us waiting at the airport for my mom to tell her the "boy" news.  

Jake went out of town this summer on a hunting trip (kind of) and so last minute, the boys and I decided to tag along with my best friend to California to her bagpipe competition.  She is a firefighter, and in case you didn't know, bagpipes are kind of a firefight/police thing to do.  They play at ceremonies, funerals, and also in huge competitions.  This particular one was being held at a Scottish festival and it was really fun to be able to go for a weekend trip, the boys and I, and see/try all sorts of new stuff.  

They had a lot of different events for strong guys like throwing logs, big rocks, things up high, or things far away. 

I asked JJ to take a pic of Teresa and me and this is the ONLY pic that we have.  :)

This is the beginning ceremonial parade through the tents of merchandise.  

I got to lay down and bask in the sun while waiting for their turn to compete and thought I'd get artsy with a photo. 

Luke took this pic while I was trying to keep him busy with my phone.  I was reading up on different symbols and what they mean so I could get a stamped necklace I wanted. 

There was a scout troupe there that had mini strong man events for kids.  

Teresa is right in the middle of the pic facing my camera. 

She let us try out her bagpipe.  It's really very difficult, not that I ever doubted her skills. 

Here's the booth where you can choose a couple of symbols and with  an old timey machine, a weight that drops, it presses a metal coin with the pictures you want and you can wear it as a necklace.  JJ was dying to get a new "bling"!

Just like on Babe, they had sheep herding competitions.  It was pretty fun to watch.  

There was a playground and some random teenage pageant winners came to play with the kids. 

Luke kept following "the princesses" around until one of the would talk to him.  He was driven to have some time with a real princess. 

Finally got a chance. 

This part of the playground cracked me up! This things just  kind of hang down and are connected with a chain that make them really wiggly to stand on.  

JJ like usual had no problem being daring and I even had to reign in his confidence, like always. 

Luke on the other hand, wanted to be brave and cool, but was gripping on for dear life and wouldn't fully let go of the sturdy playground structure.  So Luke. :)

Finally brave enough.  This was as far as he got though. 

Luke loves doing "workings".  He loves tools.  He loves to help Daddy.  Here he is working on hammering which he calls, "knucking" (the beginning of the word almost sounds like "knuckle" but ends like "knocking").  It's one of those words that we feel we should correct, but it's just too cute, so we let him call it that. 

JJ with his bling from the festival 

There was this band at the festival that was REALLY popular.  They are called the Wicked Tinkers.  I guess they  kind of play modern/rock bagpipes and stuff.  Don't know how to explain that one, but they were good and fun to listen too. 

The group also has a few drummers, and all of Teresa's friends were so wonderful and accepting of me and the boys being around.  They let the boys try the drums out too. 

I did't want to buy Luke this bow and arrow.   It was too overpriced, and I felt I could make him something.  The thing was, he was so insistent to the lady at the booth that his one penny would pay for it.  He just didn't understand that one penny wasn't enough.  He kept telling her he had money, just like mommy's, and that he wanted this toy.  I gave in to the cuteness eventually.  It was a splurge, but it was worth it.  He never took it off, he slept with it, and I could barely get it off him to baths for a few weeks.  

Classic grumpy Luke face

I've mentioned he's a bad sleeper, right? We always find his room in a mess and him by the door. 

Um, these pics are just lovely of me, but I never put that many on of me, so here you go.  This one is really gross, I don't know why I'm putting it on. 

This is at Jake's work when he and his boss had to take apart all of their displays to move out of the building they were in.  What a mess, huh?