Brooke's Bragging Moments

 This is Brooke's victory dance!  Yep, she's totally potty trained.  It officially happened awhile ago, but I was holding off bragging about it until I was certain that I wasn't cursing myself to fall back into more frustrations. However, it's done now and I am in no fear of falling back into the Pull-Ups isle for this one.

This was the reaction to a fly in the van.  A normal house fly is the most terrifying thing in the entire world to this little girl.  I get being scared of bugs, but she takes it to a whole new level.

Brooke is also becoming more and more of a "ham" everyday.  Everywhere she goes she's singing and dancing like we're in the middle of a huge Broadway production.  She sings Disney songs and makes up her own with very strange lyrics, but it's always entertaining.

She is also now obsessed with out shining her older sister.  I knew it would happen.  I busted out the camera the other day and it was a fight between these two to see how grabbed my attention more.  Brooke won and she seemed pretty proud of herself for it too.

Eryn's Bragging Moments

Eryn's first day of school this year.  (Yeah, I know, I'm waaaaaaay behind...)

She gets super emotional now over the littlest things and pouts like she's going to be nominated for an Academy Award!

On the school's "Picture Day" we stopped and I took a few.  Mine were much better, but I still bought a couple from the school mostly to include a picture of all of the kids in her class.

The biggest news...

Yep, she LOST A TOOTH!

Then the Tooth Fairy made the first official visit to this McCorristin household.  It was a momentous occasion!!!!!

Auto Drama

To sum up the auto drama that we've had recently goes as follows:

Load up all children and stuff into van to go to Boise for 4 days, turn key, van doesn't start.

Roll van back to jump it, smoke, sparks, jumper cables melted, children evacuated from van quickly, crying & screaming, van won't shift out of park, call a tow truck.

Covered by extended warranty we purchased?  Nope.  Send it to local place recommended by lots of people who we know.

Lots of tests and checks, part of computer coded and needed to be reprogrammed, done, fixed, about $100, could have fried engine and cost a lot more, blessed?  Yes.


7 days later...

Load kids to run errands, van no start again, call back auto repair place, sending tow truck, go try it one more time, it starts, no tow truck, paranoid and freaked out that it will do it again, yes.

The next day...

Load kids in car to take to school, van no start, kids crying, Mom frustrated, call tow truck, ugh...

Several hours later, call from auto repair place, battery dead, battery was fine before now dead, OK, $150 for tow + new battery, again could have been much worse.

There are a few lessons to be learned in all of this.  If the battery isn't totally dead, don't try to jump it.  Calmly trying to figure things out and quickly moving to plan B is necessary sometimes.  Knowing that even though this extra problem wasn't ideal, it could have been a lot worse has made the whole thing less painful.  I am certain of 2 things from our experiences with this little set back.  1.)  Things can always be worse  so be grateful for little trials.  2.)  Going with the gut feeling to just have someone local look at it and take care of it was the best way to go.  If it had gone back to the dealership in SLC they could have run us through the ringer and there would have been nothing that we could do to dispute it because the vehicle would have been so far away and the cost to tow it back from there would be insane.  Not that they would have, but I really feel that it could have.

More of the Visit with Grandpa & Sam

We took a trip to the zoo to celebrate Ian's Birthday.  It was pretty hot, but the kids enjoyed the animals and seemed to have a lot of fun.  As always, I had to take more pictures and show off my big lens while there.  The zoo is so much more interesting with a telephoto lens!!!!!

Brooke loves Meerkats!

Sam saying to Mike, "If we put the kids in here, do you think they can get out?"

We bought the kids some lemonade and Ian drank Brooke's.  Oh well.  At least someone enjoyed it!

The Polar Bear and the Arctic exhibit is new this year and by far the favorite of the kids and adults on this trip!  The Polar Bear was literally doing laps in his enclosure.  The window on the left had a bunch of kids standing by it, so when we came up you'd hear the squeals because he was face to face with a crowd!  I swear he LOVED the attention! 

Brooke swinging like a monkey.

As usualy they had to yell at the monkeys to get them to yell back.  The poor creatures...

Ian was interested in everything.

 Watching the seals doing laps around was popular too.  Sam and I were noticing that they seemed a lot more like dogs than we'd ever realized before.

My "money shot" of the day.  The American Kestrel.  I did cheat just a little.

This happy fellow was holding him.

We went up to the Brigham City Temple's Open House and were able to walk through the temple.  Eryn sat down in a chair in the Celestial Room (representing Heaven) and when I told her it was time to leave she started to tear up and said that she didn't want to go!

The Elmer Fudd face.

Responsible Uncle Sam thinking, "Go ahead kids and jump in.  The water's fine!"

PROOF that these 2 CAN get a long and do LOVE each other!

Sam & Grandpa Visit

MY family came to visit!!!!!!!  Well, some of them anyhow.  Here is the first post of a couple from their visit with us.  I'm still playing catch up on here, so forgive the fact that the normal chronological order is tossed out the window.

Grandpa and Sam posing with the kids for a few pictures right before they went back home to the mitten!

Uncle Sam was a little overwhelmed by the nieces, but bonded with this little guy!

Speaking of Ian...  This was on his birthday!  We went over to Grandma & Grandpa's house here in Utah and had a mini party with them.  The girls were lots of help with the unwrapping of the presents.

Ian and BOTH of his Grandpa's on his 1st birthday!!!!!

This didn't really fit in with anything else, but it made me laugh, so here is a picture of Sam.  Like me, he's all squints without sunglasses.  The beard really threw me.  My LITTLE brother is a grownup?  No way!  

Ian and BYU

Just before football season starts we have this little tradition of checking out the stadium and the excitement of a new football season really sets in!  This year BYU made some improvements to the stadium that included 2 HUGE new video score boards and a ribbon of screens around the tops of the end zone stands.

My favorite picture of the day.  It's like, "Come son, let me show you your future..."

One of these on each end zone now.

The kids were super excited, but not as excited as Mike was!  Ha ha.

The girls love making Y's.

 Someday I'll be IN the picture...  If I'd only brought the tripod!

Ian turned 1!  I kind of skipped over my Dad and brother Sam's visit out here which included a trip to the zoo, the temple in Brigham City, and Ian's birthday.  Never fear!  I will come back to them another day when I have a little more time.  I promise!!!!!!

Ian loves playing with toys more than any other child we've had.  It is normal for me to just find him in his room playing quietly all by himself.  He's such a good little guy.

Eryn took this picture.  She really likes cameras and wants to take pictures.  The Disney Princess camera we got for her for Christmas last year was a huge mistake!  It was total crap.  I need to suck it up and get her a point and shoot that can actually take pictures.  My SLR is just too heavy for her.

On Saturday was have this tradition of cinnamon rolls and Ian is really starting to get excited for them now!

 Fast post for now, but more to come later!  I'm busy taking pictures and doing things.  September is turning out to be far busier than I had thought.