Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate Independence Day, our family had a BBQ with Jason's brother, Travis, and his family and some neighbor friends of theirs. Travis just bought a new BBQ and was excited to try it out...he did a great job on the burgers and hot dogs. Along with all the normal sides for a BBQ, my sister-in-law, Trudy, introduced me to strawberries dipped in sour cream then rolled in brown sugar. It sounded a little strange to me, but I decided to try it...let me just say...SO GOOD! Yum! We also made homemade ice cream which was delicious. Later we let the kids play with sparklers and pop-its. Jason and Travis and Travis's friend thought it was hilarious to use a water-balloon slingshot and tell the kids to sit on a rock across the street while they tried to launch the balloons right at the kids...the kids LOVED it! They were screaming and laughing hysterically. As it started to get dark, Travis and Jason lit off some fireworks while the rest of us sat and watched from the edge of the garage.
Fun with the sparklers.




Poor baby Aidan didn't make it to the end of the firework show...one minute he was watching them go off...the next, I found him like this! So sad, but cute! He was obviously really, really tired to be able to fall asleep even with all the bright lights and noise of the fireworks!

Gavin's Star Wars Birthday Party!

On July 2nd, Gavin turned six-years-old! Crazy! He requested a Star Wars Party to celebrate the occasion, so that's what we did! The kids all got to pick out which Star Wars characters they wanted to be and put masks on...there were quite a few other characters to choose from, but for some reason, most of them wanted to be Storm Troopers. We played some games with some Star Wars music playing in the background. The biggest hit was when we killed the chalk Death Star by bombing it with water balloons...the kids really loved that!
From left to right it's: Taylyn, Gavin, Taydem, Connor, Taylor & Alex

Thanksgiving Point Splash Park

The other day, we went to the splash park/children's gardens at Thanksgiving Point with my cousin, Corinne, and her two little boys. The kids all had a ton of fun running around wild with their shirts off, splashing, jumping, being loud, and well, just being boys! It's so great when we have the chance to let them have a day to just run around like this.
As I was looking at these pictures I noticed how funny it is that my kid's individual personalities really came out in these shots:
Determined...

Adventurous...

Sweet...

Not that that's all there is to each one's personality, but some dominate traits anyway! So funny how they can all be brothers and all be so different!
Here's my attempt to get my one-year-old to hold still long enough for a picture with Mommy! HA!

Here's baby Aidan at the park we went to later that day...sure, he looks sweet here, but he was MAD when it was time to go and I took him out of the swing!

Makes my Heart Melt!

Okay, I just love, love, love this little baby smile. Aidan makes me laugh all the time...it's such a goofy little smile, but so sweet...wouldn't you agree? Aidan is finally getting his teeth in next to the top front ones, so his little gap there will probably start closing up a little bit, and I must say I'm going to miss it when it does!

Of Nightmares and Lights...

So, a few nights ago, I heard Gavin get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom...which is awesome...it's taken us a long, long time to get him to this point where he can get up on his own to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and wake up dry in the morning...yea!! Okay, I got a little sidetracked...now back to the reason for this post...After hearing Gavin get up I fell back to sleep, then noticed that Gavin left the hall light on, so I got up to turn it off. Then I noticed that the downstairs light was also on, so I go downstairs and find Gavin sitting down...watching TV...at 2:45 in the morning! I was like, "Gavin! What are you doing? Go back to bed." He looked kind of sheepish and with his head down walked back to bed. I turned the TV off which had a commercial playing and went back to bed myself. About a minute later I hear Gavin say, "Mommy?" "What?" I say. Then in a tear-filled voice he says, "I'm scared! I accidentally watched a scary movie!" So I run downstairs to see what he was watching and it was some old black and white zombie film with the scary music and all. It was the same channel that his cartoons normally come on at 7:00 am...not the middle of the night. Apparently, he thought it was the morning and almost time for his cartoons to come on. So, feeling bad for the poor kid, I let him sleep in bed with Jason and me for the rest of that night.

The next night, he could swear that the zombie from the movie was just hiding in his closet waiting to get him. He could even quote from the movie that the bad guy said he could "read his mind." Which really freaked him out. So, Jason told him he could keep his bedroom light on that night. Unfortunately, that made it just a little too bright, so Jason came up with the solution to let Gavin keep the light on and wear his sunglasses to bed! Are we awesome parents or what! Luckily, it was just that one night that Gavin was scared enough to need the glasses and lights on, so now we're just back to his nightlight and good night sleeps. I told Gavin he is not allowed to turn the TV on until the clock says 7:00 am, and he agrees that that's a good idea. I don't think he wants to get scared like that again!

The Sweetest Thing...

Connor decided to pick some "flowers" for me and came inside to show me these (weeds!). Of course, I told him thank you and smiled at him and gave him a hug and told him that I loved them. The next thing I know, he's filling up a glass with water and carefully places the "flowers" in the glass and sets the glass in the middle of the table. How sweet is that?! So cute. I couldn't have had a better bouquet of "flowers." What a little sweetheart. I love these moments as a mom!

Back Online!

We're moved into our new place in Utah, but not totally unpacked yet. We finally got the internet hooked up a couple of days ago...you forget how much you rely on the internet until you don't have it for a while...like with electricity when there's a power outage...you think, "no big deal, I just use some candles and flashlights" until you--out of habit--try to turn on a light switch or blow-dry your hair or microwave something only to realize you can't! That's how it's been for me not being able to pay bills online or check my email or blog. But, now we're back and starting to settle in to the new place. It's been a crazy time with moving, Jason starting a new job, and taking a quick trip to California for my sister's wedding last weekend! Wow! But, we're loving all the fun adventures.
Here's Jason making a funny face like "what do I do with all this stuff I'm supposed to unpack!"

Here's my little helper, Connor.

Here's Gavin's contribution to unpacking! Playing video games, and no I'm not even ashamed to say that was one of the first things we hooked up to help us keep the kids entertained and out of trouble while we unpack!

Sherri's Wedding!

My sister, Sherri, got married last weekend in Sacramento, CA. Here are some pictures from that day!
Here's my dad and me at a BBQ the night before the wedding.

Here's the beautiful bride!

My Mom and my sister.

My step-mom, Laurie, with Gavin and Connor.

My dad with Gavin & Connor.

Okay, so I know I'm their mom and all, but I just think these two made the cutest little Ring-Bearers! When we lined up before we all walked down the isle, Gavin turned around and looked at Sherri and said, "My mom said DON'T PICK YOUR NOSE!" My sister just laughed. It was just so funny the way he said it and obviously the only advice that I gave him that he remembered! It was also the most important advice for that occasion, don't you think!

Gavin kept peaking around the groom to try to see his Auntie Sherri which won him a few chuckles from the audience! Connor was just really nervous and only went out there if Gavin promised to hold his hand which Gavin did for most of the time, but when it came time to go back down the isle after the wedding was over, Gavin just took off without Connor. So, Connor got about halfway down the isle before he started to panic (probably not knowing where he was supposed to go) and just starting crying! It was so sad, but so cute too!

Sherri and Pat during the wedding ceremony.

First kiss as husband and wife! Whoo! Whoo!

Sherri and me.


The bride and groom's first dance!

They played this really funny game at Sherri and Pat's reception. The DJ called up certain couples that the bride and groom had told him to in advance without that couple knowing it! The first couple called up was my brother, Aaron, and his fiance, Lyndsi. The different couples called up had to "teach" the new bride and groom different types of kisses. For example, the "make-up kiss", the "I've been dying to get home all day just to see you kiss!", the "morning breath kiss", etc. The couple that was called up to give an example of the morning breath kiss just gave a quick little peck, then the DJ said he and his wife had been married for 23 years and they'd also like to demonstrate the "morning breath kiss!" They met half-way on the dance floor, gave a high five and said "MORNING!" It was really cute.


Sherri and Pat had a really fun wedding. Everything ran smoothly and everyone just had a great time. As a maid-of-honor, I didn't think about the fact that I'd be giving a toast, but luckily I had a few minutes to think about what to say because they did an "open mike" first. One guy was hilarious. He said something along the lines of this, "Pat, having a wife is a wonderful thing. If you give her food, she'll make a nice meal with it. If you give her a house, she'll make it a home. Whatever you give her, you'll get way more back. So...if you give her a little bit of crap, she's going to give you a whole bunch of s___!" Okay, a little vulgar, but really funny, and SO TRUE!


Here's Connor with my step-sister, Elyssa's, daughter, Sierah. In case you didn't follow all of that, no they're not blood related, and Connor was totally smitten with her. Once he danced with Sierah, he didn't want to dance with anybody else, he'd just say, "I only want to dance with Sierah!" A future match maybe?! They were SO CUTE out there! Doesn't Sierah just have the cutest little face you ever saw!

Bear World!

Yes, it's true...I lived in Rigby, Idaho for three years and never went to Bear World until now (For those of you who don't know, Bear World is in Rigby!) It's pretty pricey to get in, but they were having a half-off day, so my good friend, Donna, and I took our kids for a fun adventure. Donna's kids, Ruthie and Rose, call my kids their boyfriends ever since Gavin "proposed" to Ruthie when he was three! So cute!
In this first picture you can see how close there bears are when you drive through. The people in the truck ahead are feeding the bears.

At their petting zoo, they had a couple of little deer that were not afraid of people, so Connor actually got to go up and pet and feed the deer. How cool is that?! It's not very often that you can just go up and pet a deer! He really liked it. Gavin was busy feeding the ducks. I was like, Gavin go look at the deer, you can feed ducks any day, but Gavin wasn't very impressed by the deer! Go figure!

There's Donna on one of the rides with baby Aidan. Aidan LOVES Donna and is really going to miss her now that we've moved! So am I. She's been a great friend. Luckily, we'll get to visit their family fairly often when we go to Idaho to see Jason's parents.

Here are the kids on one of the rides...just disregard the kid on the right...don't know who he is! He just ended up in the shot.

Here's one of the cute little baby bears the boys got to look at and pet. It was a really fun day, but only worth it on the half-off price day! It's normally $75 per vehicle! Crazy! But on half-off day, its a great way to spend your day and keep the kids entertained.