4th of July

For the 4th we ended up camping about 15 minutes from home. That works out perfect for me because then I can run home and do some wash or pick up things I've forgotten, or take a shower. It was a fun time 4-wheeling, playing games, eating LOT'S of smores and just hanging out. We got to see some very late night fireworks from a town close by. They had to shoot them off at midnight, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to see them! If you look closely you can see the mosquito bites all over the babies faces. They must be really sweet for the mosquito's to like them that much.
Enjoying smores. A nightly tradition.
Ryder in dirt heaven.
Nancy Newell, Katie Russell and Robyn Newell. We are enjoying a game of dominos while the men are out 4-wheeling with the older kids.
Peyton's first bloody nose. It seems we have always documented all of our boys 1st bloody encounters. Why? I don't know, it's a guy thing and I am out-voted!

This isn't from camping, but it sure is cute! It doesn't matter how slowly I open the dishwasher they can hear it and they speed crawl to it. Just recently they figured out how to get up onto it, or maybe they helped each other up.

lil girls hairdo's

My youngest sister Jessica has the cutest little girl, Adde, and she always has her looking so cute. She's had a lot of people stop her and ask how she did Adde's hair. So she started a blog. If you have girls and have the time to try some cute hairdo's, then check out her blog: cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com.

Suicide Run!

The other night Greg took Hunter and Austin, along with our friends Randy and his son Hunter (our Hunter's are only 1.5 months apart) on a suicide fishing run. They left at 3pm and got home at 3:44am, according to Hunter. Greg caught nothing, only Tim who I swear is a professional fisherman caught anything. Not only did he not catch anything he broke both of his poles and sprained his ankle. I woke them all up at 10am for church and they didn't complain the whole day! I thought this picture was cute of them in their bibs.
It looks like Austin has had a rough night, soaking his feet. He's probably seeing if his waders really are waterproof or maybe he's checking out the black bear across the river!
See the black blob, that's the bear. Good thing he didn't come swimming across the river.

Peyton & Ryder turn 1!!

Peyton & Ryder getting ready for some cake.

Our friends all came to help celebrate the babies big day. Thanks guys!

I made a baseball cupcake cake. I only had the babies dive into one cupcake each.

This Summer...

Austin started soccor. So far he loves it.
Hunter is playing flag football with some friends.
Jessica (my sister) and her husband Kelly came up for a visit. It was a lot of fun having them.
Jessi and Kelly. We went on a glacier cruise. It was fun.
The Newells (Kent & Robyn) moved up here last week. Robyn ran the 1/2 marathon with me. She is a trooper, she had only been here for a day and then her knees were killing her, but she kept running anyway.

I'll miss my childhood house!

I think all the girls in our family are very sentimental, this proves it. My dad retired this past January and they are ready to move on to missions and smaller sqft. The house I grew up in was the funnest house for a kid to live in. My parents got it as a bank repo. When they first bought it nobody had lived in it for years. People had climbed the back balcony and graffitied the inside. We did a lot of painting and cutting down trees. My mom has been renovating the house since we moved in. The house is 7300 sqft, it started with 9 bedrooms, 5 baths, secret passageways from closets, dumbwaiter, entercom system and all that great stuff. All of which were removed from the house, except the entercom system. That way we never missed any conference no matter where we were hiding in the house, oh, and we could ask our friends who we knew were coming over if it was really them at the front door. Since we've lived there my parents have changed every part of the house except the living room walls. They have added an apartment upstairs. They have added a big family room where a patio used to be. My brother landscaped and it is now so beautiful. As you can see they are stuccoing the outside and getting ready to sell. It's all very sad. So many safe childhood memories are there and it was the center gathering for when all my siblings were in town. It's the best thing for my parents, they don't need that much space anymore. I guess I always thought my parents would live there forever, like my grandparents did in their houses. Just like the way I thought we'd raise our kids in Utah, but here we are 3000 miles away. Life changes, even when you don't want it to! Thanks for the pictures, Jess.

It's official, my parent are moving!

Bragging moment...

This is why I have a blog...to BRAG! Greg bought me a treadmill for Mother's Day and it has been an awesome tool of motivation for the boys. If any of you know my boys, you know they love to play x-box. We never could figure out a way to let them play without feeling like it was a waste of time. We have now come up with a way! The boys walk on the treadmill and earn x-box minutes. Minute-for-minute. They have to walk a minimum of 30 minutes, but after that they can walk as long as they want. One day Austin called me when I was away from home to tell me how proud of himself he was because he had walked for 50 minutes! He told me the other day that he feels so much faster when he gets off the treadmill. They also value their x-box time now. They don't just ask to play every second of the day. We will sometimes catch them outside walking on the treadmill without reminders from us. They are benefiting from the exercise and we are benefiting from them understanding the value of earning something. I must say this is one parenting technique that Greg and I are very proud of ourselves for doing. Oh, and I am proud of the boys for picking up on it so quickly!!

The last few weeks...

Our future "Rock-band" participants.


The boys taking a spin on thier new 4-wheelers.


Big Aust graduating from kindergarten. They look so happy, but little do they know that they still have TWELVE more years of school until real graduation!


Hunter at scout camp with Greg.


Aust and Hunter on last day of school.

So the last few weeks have been a lot of fun. Greg took the boys to the Father's and Son's outing, Aust graduated from kindergarten. It's a big deal at his school. They get gowns/caps and have a big ceremony. Greg is the Scout leader and took the YM on a campout. Hunter got to go with him. Greg bought the boys little 4-wheelers and they have been having a ball. Hunter has started flag football, Austin starts soccor next week and we are making a trip to Utah in July. It should be a fun summer!

So I have this cute friend, Julie, who was in our primary presidency (until our ward split) and she has just introduced me to a new website that is so great. It has all sorts of great helps and visuals for all church auxilaries. The website address is www.theideadoor.com. It has been a great help for me, as I am the secretary of the primary. I am adding this website to my favorites and adding it onto my blog. Enjoy!