July According to Instagram

I feel like this summer is already flying by. Just one more month and it will officially be fall! We did alot this month, from birthdays to campouts to the girls moving into the same room - crazy, I know... It was really great, and it flew by! 

Here is our life according to instagram :)

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28 Weeks & A Picnic

(I am totally back-dating this post because I’ve been a slacker, so this was actually weeks ago but no one will ever know because I changed the date – sneaky sneaky)

I’m 28 weeks (and five days) today. I can’t help but look down and wonder how on earth my belly is going to continue to grow. It doesn’t seem possible that I can really get any bigger than I already am. I looked back a pictures of my pregnancies with the girls the other night and that reminded me that indeed I can (and will) get much, much bigger. This little guy is active 24/7 and especially when I want to relax. My sweet tooth came back with the start of this third trimester which is awesome for my taste buds, but maybe not so awesome for my post-baby-body goals… Good thing I don’t really ever stick to those anyway, right? And let’s just back up a bit, Third Trimester??? What? This is going by waaaayyyy too fast.

I still wonder and dream all the time about what he will look like. For the longest time Mike and I just assumed that all of our kids would look the same, with blonde hair and blue eyes and be big chubby babies, but then our little Emmie Grace surprised us with her tiny frame and bright red hair so now I don’t know what to expect. I joke that this little guy will come out with long dark black hair, but really I still think he’ll be a sweet chunky blonde with blue eyes. I had that dream about him back when I was about 20 weeks and I still remember it so vividly. I think about that dream all the time and it makes me so excited to finally get to hold him – just a few more months.

I took the girls to the park this morning for a little breakfast picnic. It was wonderful because we had the whole place to ourselves and it was still cool enough that we could actually stay out and play. I hurried and ate my food so I could just sit on the grass and watch them eat. It’s strange how cute my kids are when they eat. It’s strange how much I talk about how cute my kids are…    The girls are so fun to watch running around on the jungle gyms (do people still call them that?). They both go for the slides but Ky gets up there twice as fast so she gets in two slides by the time Emily gets up the stairs. This was the first time they went on the big racer slides together, without Mommy or Daddy holding any hands (mostly because I am too protective, they really are fearless, especially that little one). But I still made sure they held each others’ hands just to be safe :) I highly recommend breakfast picnics. They are pretty great.

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Gracie Girl

Emily is our spunky little fireball (and that might be a bit of an understatement).
She is a little dare devil and seriously has no fear.
She is very opinionated and let’s you know exactly how everything should be done.
She adores her big sister and absolutely loves to cuddle.
And she’s bossy too.
She loves to play outside but she hates getting dirty.
She has the sweetest little giggle.
And she has Daddy, Mommy, and even Kylie wrapped around her tiny little fingers.

When she asks a question she furrows her brow, squints her eyes, purses her lips and tilts her head to the side.
She insists on doing everything by herself.
She loves to pull her pink chair up to the kitchen counter and see what we’re cooking (every time we cook anything).
And when that’s still not close enough she insists on sitting on the counter. 
She has an amazing vocabulary and says the funniest things.
She has the yummiest chubby thighs and it still a little butterball ever though she is so tiny.
Her favorite color is pink.
Her favorite animal is a puppy but she is very picky about which “real  ones” she actually likes.
She loves being silly and pushing her toy stroller around the house.
And she loves sitting in her toy stroller and making Kylie (or Daddy) push her around the house.  
 
She asks for chocolate milk and a “big cracker” (graham cracker) every morning when she wakes up.
She loves puzzles and books and making big messes with her toys.
She loves singing the clean-up song but wont ever actually clean-up when we sing it.
She loves dressing up in Mommy’s shoes.
She loves to swim and wants to do that all by herself too but she still hates getting her head wet in the shower or bath.
She still loves to color and has the best imagination in her scribbles.

At her 2yr well check yesterday she was:
31 inches tall & 24 pounds
so she was in the 14th percentile for weight and 7th for height 
but overall, on her own scale she was proportionally 62%
so she’s just little and a bit chubby.

She’s adorable, crazy, emotional, cuddly, sweet, funny, and spunky & we are so blessed to have her in our little family.


We love you Emily Grace!

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The Kirby Family Reunion ‘12

We made it up to the Kirby reunion after years of being too far away! It was such a fun weekend with camping and cousins and all that fun stuff that comes along with reunions. This year we went up to Mackay, Idaho. It was gorgeous. And we even did the tent thing – with two little ones and one big pregnant whiner – Mike was a brave man :) The girls thought it was the coolest little adventure and called our tent the “castle” and went exploring with their homemade lanterns.

I think the girls’ favorite part of the whole weekend was going to down to lake and throwing rocks. We had to do it a few times because they kept asking to go back. Our last night up there we made a sunset trip up there and had the best time. The girls loved the activity and I loved the scenery. It was perfect, watching the sunset while my little girls threw rocks with their Daddy. Life doesn’t get much better than that :)

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4th of July

So, Provo puts on a pretty good party for the 4th of July. We heard that the parade was a pretty big deal and the day before I just happened to be driving down the parade route and saw people already setting out their chairs and tents, getting ready to spend the night to get a good seat for the show. What? We weren’t about to do that, so we decided to take our chances the next morning. Lucky for us, right when we got there (about 45 minutes late) a family was packing up right in the front so we moved right in and got a great view of the rest of the parade. The floats were pretty impressive, the marching bands were “TOO LOUD!” according to the girls, there were tons of beauty queens (aka princesses),  and we enjoyed it very much – but it was HOT! 

They even had those giant balloons! Like the Macy’s balloons- okay maybe not that big, but they were pretty fun!

After the parade we walked through the downtown vendor booths, got some overpriced melted Jamba, and tried to stay in the shade as much as we could. Oh and we got some free ice cream, that was my favorite part :)

Later that night we headed over to the BYU campus to try to find a spot to watch the Stadium of Fire Fireworks that they shoot off at the stadium (or The Cougar Place as Kylie calls it). We found the perfect little spot, munched on some caramel and pink candy corn, and waited for the show to start.

The show didn’t start until an hour after we thought it would so the girls had plenty of time to put on some shows and do some dancing for us and everyone around us. And luckily they were all sorts of hopped up on sugary popcorn so it didn’t matter that it was almost 3 hours past their bedtime… 

The fireworks were pretty awesome. I’m sure it would have been better had we been in the stadium where the performers and music were, but it was still pretty good out on the lawn, especially because it was free :) The girls loved it.

Happy 4th of July! 

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Emmie Grace’s Big Girl Pictures

I was in denial about her growing up until I saw her adorable 2 year pictures. I think this makes it official, her long red hair and crazy personality prove that she’s a big girl now. We drove up to Park City to take her little pictures in a gorgeous field in the middle of a valley. And I had plenty of smarties in hand to make sure little miss would smile for me (shhhh, that’s my little secret :) I am not above bribing my kids whatsoever) Daddy was on balloon, candy and Kylie duty while Em and I trudged through the field, and by trudged I mean I followed her around and tried to get her to sit still.

             
and of course Ky was the special helper picking flowers and trying to get Em Grace to smile for us. She was a great little assistant.

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The Little Birthday Girl

I always make a big deal of birthdays (Mike makes fun of me for it). From the moment Emily woke up on her big day she got lots of extra kisses and cuddles and lots of Happy Birthdays from all of us. After naptime she woke up to her favorite thing in the whole world, A Giant Slide in our livingroom! It took her a minute to register what was different when she walked into the room, but her expression was priceless when she realized what it was.

There were a couple more little presents hiding under the big red monstrosity. Our little artist got a bunch of new coloring goodies and some of her favorite snacks too. She went around the rest of the day telling us, and everyone that called to wish her a happy birthday, about her presents and slide.

Emily was so excited about her gifts and so excited about her day that was all about her. She got really good at yelling “Happy Birthday, Emmie!!!” at the top of her lungs. And big red has found a semi permanent place in our living room – yep, we are officially the coolest house in town with a giant slide in our living room :)

We had a yummy dinner of some of Emily’s favorites, and our picky little eater actually ate it! Hallelujah! After our successful meal we finished off the night with some yummy jello cupcakes and a lovely rendition of Emily’s new favorite song, “Happy Birthday.” (Seriously, it’s her favorite, it’s even become her new bedtime song of choice.) 
Happy Birthday, Baby Girl! I hope it was a wonderful day!

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