Our July

July is mostly full of birthdays.  Nathaniel's birthday, Brigham's birthday, and the birth of America.  It was a fun month.

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We did our fireworks that night, of course.  It had been raining but it stopped just in time.

 The boys like to watch Dad light them and then they run away.  It's fun to watch.

 These big smiles are rare, I'm happy I caught one.

 More often we see these slightly awkward smiles.  I love them all though.  Nathaniel decided he didn't want to watch the fireworks and stayed inside.

 Jonathan enjoyed the sparklers but Brigham didn't want to try.

 So pretty!

 At first we left Suki inside but she was freaking out and pooped on my new rug so we brought her outside with us.  She still freaked out but calmed down a little when I held her tight.

Poor dog. :(

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Suki took a trip to the groomers and came back looking fabulous and ready for the holiday!

So cute!

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Nathaniel turned 15 this year and we celebrated his birthday a day early since it fell on Sunday this year.  He had been at Youth Conference for the last few days so I left it up to him to decide what we would do.  He decided he wanted to go see Inside Out for his birthday so we went that afternoon.  We loved it.  He also chose to eat at the food court downtown so that the boys could eat at McDonald's and Jaaromy and I could eat at Panda Express.  It's win-win!

 Then we opened presents.

 He emailed me links to what he wanted so I knew I wouldn't let him down.

Then we blew out candles and ate cookie brownies.  It was a good birthday.

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Birthday Sunday fell right on Nathaniel's birthday this year.  We had our party at a park by Kim and Darrin's house.

 I didn't think to take pictures until after we sang to Brigham so we're actually singing to Dallin in this picture.  It still works because they are the same age and they were sitting right next to each other anyway.

Then we sang to Nathaniel.  I remember when he was the only July birthday.  It's getting pretty full now.

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Brigham did horses this year.  I've been kind of hesitant to sign him up the last two summers and we would only go when someone else canceled.  This year I decided to just do it.  It was at a new ranch this year.  He loved it.  The weather was so funny this summer.  We had a few days that were super hot and days when we needed jackets.  At least two days were canceled because of rain.  Good times!

I even got him to smile for me.

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Speaking of Brigham...

 He finally warmed up to his new space shirts I got him and since then has even added a few new(to him) shirts into his regular rotation.  Thank goodness!

Jaaromy got a cool hat from his work and Brigham looked pretty cute wearing it.  Sorry about the closet shot, he was looking at himself in my mirror which is on the inside of the closet door.

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Brigham's birthday also fell on a Sunday so we celebrated on Saturday by going to the planetarium.  Of course!

 He was good to put his hands down for me.

 I think he looks kind of thoughtful here.  That's what you do when you're all alone on Mars.  Think.

 Luckily, he wasn't alone, Jonathan was there too.

 Jonathan was super excited to see the new Pluto model.  Once the new pictures of Pluto came in the planetarium got right to work on a new model.  Jonathan was frustrated that it was taking everyone so long to update their models!  Luckily, the planetarium was on it! He loved it.

 This is a fun exhibit.

 Pretty cool, huh?

After the planetarium we went to the food court for McDonald's and Panda Express and then came home for treats.

 We sung Happy Birthday to Brigham and he even sang along, he's never really done that before.  It was so cute!

 Then he opened his presents.

 This is something that Jonathan was actually really excited for but I just didn't know what else to get him.  He likes Kirby and occasionally plays Kirby's Epic Yarn so I thought he might like it.

I also got him all the LEGO city early readers.  He loves them and we read one every day.  I don't know how I'm going to get him to move on to more challenging books.

I let him stay up a little late to try out the new game and he had so much fun with it.  He was so excited!  He had a great birthday this year and enjoyed it so much, it makes it all worth it.

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So, last year our summer projects revolved around the cool green screen I got for the boys to play with.  This year I was all about the LEGOs.  There is a website that I do jigsaw puzzles on and my favorite puzzles to do are LEGO scenes so I decided that I wanted to make my own.  They were so fun to make.

 I was having a Girl's Night Out with some friend in the ward and we were at the mall and I decided to look in the LEGO store.  When I saw this kit I had to have it.  This is pretty much the kit that started it all.  It's still one of my favorites.  Emmet is the best!  I would say "Introducing...the double-decker couch!" about ten times a day for about a week.  I was annoying my boys even.

This was Jonathan's idea and it worked out great because it got us to use backgrounds.  Nathaniel was so nice to do the technical work for us.

Except how can you pick favorites when they're so awesome!  This one is a favorite because the kit itself came with so many fun little elements.  We've had it for a while so some pieces were missing and broken but we worked it out.  I love the color too.

This was a really fun month now that I've gone back and reviewed it.  I miss it already.  Thanks for sticking around to the end of this super long post.  I've decided it's easier for me to keep up this way.