July 2015

July was a big month for our yard.  Our neighbor Mike and his crew finished our landscaping in the front and backyard.  Mike chopped our tree down and mom and Andrea dragged individual pieces to the road for bulk trash to come and pick them up.  It was pretty tricky because there were thorns about every inch or two.  Tausha tried to shovel up the gravel by hand, but Mike told her to stop and came over and used his bobcat and started to level things in no time at all.  Things were going great with his bobcat until he ran over a Chinese throwing star which completed shredded his tire. It was a star made out of 4 knifes. So, Steve had to go get a new tire before Mike could finish.  Mike scrapped up the grass and the gravel. We used rakes to separate the trash from the dirt and level it off.  Then Tausha got to pick out all the plants she wanted in the front and back.  Steve borrowed a truck from work and got a dump truck of dirt, we ordered sod, picked up all the plants including an orange tree, and his men put in sprinklers, curbing, planted all the plants, and laid sod in two days.  They went the extra mile and put pavers back by our shed.  We were so pleased with how everything turned out.  It was absolutely beautiful for our staycation!

Then it was time for our staycation.  Everyone ended up staying at Grandma and Grandpa Bentz's house and then each couple was in charge of a day.  They got to choose the event and food for their day.  Mom and dad had obstacle games, french toast, glow golf, and pizza.  Matt and Melanie had a day of games at the church which were tons of fun and subway.  Then we rented wave runners for a day and went to the lake as couples while Grandma and Grandpa took the kids to the aquarium. It was so much fun being on a waver runner again.  It brought back a lot of childhood memories.  We even saw a herd of big horn sheep come down to get water.  Our day was a day of swimming games and a Just Dance tournament.  Melanie won all of our games. It really was a fun day! We had our quinoa tacos for dinner. I think everyone wished we had meat, but it was a good break from the other fattening food we had. Mooker and Emily wanted to go to a pool, but it was closed, so we came back and swam at our house and had burgers. Each night we had a spiritual thought as well.  It really was a fantastic staycation!!!

Andrea had her broadway camp and was able to sing a solo in Little People and do a talking solo in Lolly Pop Guild.  She had an absolute blast and was really fantastic! She's a natural performer and singer.  It made her mommy proud.

The fourth of July was at our house this year.  We grilled brats, hotdogs, and hamburgers and swam in our pool.  We also celebrated Rachel's half birthday.  It was another super fun day with lots of yummy food.  We love our pool, we just struggled to keep it clean and not green all summer.  After spend a ton of money on chemicals to get the algae to go away we finally realized we needed to change our pool filter sand (Which we did in October) and now it looks fantastic!

Highlights from the month:
Rachel had strings hanging from her skirt and said, "Look, I have tentacles."  Incredible!
While swimming with Grandma Bentz Rachel said, "Grandma, push me to the shore."
Jessica loves blueberries.
Jessica says, "Shoe"
We had a schools year's eve fashion show, pancakes in the shape of a "K" for kindergarten, and a candy poster to wish Andrea luck at school.
Jessica screams all of the time now. She has a really strong will. It is starting to get to mom.
Jessica says, "na na" when she's hungry and, "that" when she wants something.
Rachel is fearless in the swimming pool.  She swims well, we just need to work on kicks.