The Other Things We Did in July

Oh July! Here are some of the random things that we did in the best month of the year this year:

 Gabe is NOT normally a crier. He is usually so happy and chill, but occasionally, he does get mad. Here's proof:

 She's just too cool for words:

 After seven and a half years, we got rid of this 3rd or 4th hand sofa and love seat. The sofa went to the dump, this love seat on to DI. They served us well.

 We also had more Gabe smothering:

 And we got kitchen cabinets!!! Yay!

 Some of us rested, and some of us put in lots and lots of work: 

 Our big accomplishment in July is that we finished reading The Book of Mormon as a family. I started reading it to Michael when he was a baby, and we finally made it through! (We only read a verse for each person in the family, so it took awhile). We celebrated by having an ice cream sundae party:

 This is what Gabe normally looks like:

 Gabe LOVES his mobile. I tried to capture the look of wonder and amazement on his face whenever we wind it for him. He gets so excited when we lay him in his crib, looking right up at his mobile, practically begging us to wind it for him.

 One day, Michael tried out his entrepreneurial skills. He cut out paper stars and tried selling rocks. Surprisingly, he made quite a chunk of change. I think most of it came from our Bishop.

 Sweet, sleepy Gabe:

 We moved our TV downstairs, so that left a big, gaping hole upstairs. (It was a thing a while back to have these weird alcoves in the walls.) Our TV covered the hole up. So, until I can get the painting I want to take its place, the kids and I painted a temporary one. First, we made the sky with watercolors:

 Then we practiced mixing colors and made a tree trunk. Michael knew exactly what two colors to mix together to get brown--purple and orange.

 I worked on the tree trunk and grassy, area  and Michael and Rachel worked on the leaves.

 And we put it in my prop frame:

 Brian was so excited to hook up all the speakers. We also got bookcases from IKEA instead of doing built-ins. We love how they look.

 Gabe loves things to look at things hanging down above him. He was really excited when we introduced him to Rachel's (and before her, Amber's) old play mat.

 The remains of a pirate Mardi Gras parade that was held in the basement at one point.

 Rachel was complaining about her ear hurting, so we took her into the doctor. On looking into her ears, he discovered that both ears were infected, and he also found a little popcorn kernel in one of them. I got the bill today--his charge was around $200 to take that little kernel out, and it took him less than a minute to get it out. Thank heavens for insurance. Good grief! Also, how in the world did we not know that was in there?

My grandma was kind enough to part with one of her dad's old milk cans. I filled it with flowers and felt like Joanna Gaines might be proud:

 And I used the lid for a vase as well.

 These two pieces make me SO happy. My parents got me a gift card to Hobby Lobby for my birthday, and Lea gave me one for Michaels. I was in heaven and had so much fun picking stuff out for downstairs.

On the 27th, I got an MRI and CT for my hip in preparation for surgery. I have been waiting almost a year for this to happen, and I was pretty excited and a little nervous. My hip keeps getting steadily worse since having Gabe. They gave me these funny, non-woven shorts to wear.  I'll find out when I'm having surgery hopefully in August. More on that later.

 More chilling with this Handsome crew.

 We also did a little shopping. And someone gave Rachel another dress-up. It has a tutu like skirt that you can't see in this picture.

 Brotherly love:

 We went to a friends house for dinner, and she had a bumbo, so we let Gabe try it out. We decided it was time to pull ours out.

 More Gabe Selfies. Rachel joined in:

 Aren't these two so handsome?

I can't believe that July is already in the rear-view mirror. It was a good month and super busy.