Halle's Birthday

Halle turned 2 last week. She is sweet and nice most of the time, but she shows us quite often that she is definitely 2. She is such a fun little girl. We are working on potty training and most of the time she does pretty good.

Moving Stinks!

Our good friends from across the street just moved to Denver this last week and we all think it stinks! We miss them a lot. They had 1 boy and 2 girls and they were best friends with my kids. They were over at our house or my kids were over at theirs almost every day for the last 3 years, except for Sundays. It will be a little bit of an adjustment for awhile.

However, it is nice seeing the kids play more with each other. I overheard Karli and Kate saying that they are best friends. Maya seemed a little bit bugged by this, she seemed to think they should just be sisters. I've been seeing a lot more of things like this picture lately.

Planet Play

This last Saturday we spent the day with my family at Planet Play. My little brother leaves in 2 1/2 weeks for his mission, so we are trying to see him a little bit more before he leaves. We ate some yummy food and then played; and then we ate a few more times :) And if you notice from the pictures, we are color coordinated because we had family pictures taken before Planet Play. My kids thought it was great that they got to have a buddy. Kate went with my mom, Maya went with my dad, Karli with Jessica, Jarren with Jason and Halle with me. Maya stuck to my dad like glue, it was so cute.

Jarren especially enjoyed the video games, Katie liked the go carts, and Halle enjoyed the merry-go-round and the little car. We all had a great time, except for poor Kate got a really bad headache towards the end, and unfortunately I didn't have any medicine with me.

Karli thought it was great being able to swipe her own card to get the merry-go-round to go. And as you can see from the picture, she enjoyed being a little bit silly too.

Idaho Family Reunion

It was time to visit Idaho again, but this time for a big family reunion. Almost all of Jason's extended family was able to come, and so we were able to enjoy 4 fun filled days with lots of family.

Aunt Sheila brought over a kiddie pool, it was never filled up with water, but the kids thought it was great fun anyway.

The pool was so much fun that Kate even decided to have a nap in it. I tried to find her one afternoon after church and couldn't find her anywhere. I had to laugh when Jason found her laying there.

We of course had to visit Big Jud's, one of our favorite burger places. And of course, I once again forgot to take a picture of the 1 lb. hamburger that our family shares. One of these times I'll remember. This time we had lots more kids outside of Big Jud's, thanks to Jason's brother.

We went to Mesa Falls again. We thought we were going to be eaten alive by mosquitos. I think we all got a few bites before we could get the bug spray on. Thanks Laurel for providing the bug spray!

We can't wait to get together again!

Parades and the 4th of July

Our family went to a couple of parades either on the 4th of July or close to it. The kids all enjoyed getting as much candy as they could. For the parade on the 4th it sprinked for most of the parade, but at least it kept it cooler.

Kate showing us how to enjoy 2 suckers at one time. Pretty smart thinking Katie!

Auntie Holly made us the cute 4th of July bows, which all of the girls loved, except for maybe Halle, she's not a huge bow fan, but mean mom makes her wear them anyway.

Enjoying some nice ice cream after the parade.

Southern Utah Trip

Jason and I both spent most of our growing up years in Utah, yet neither one of us had ever been to Southern Utah. We decided it was time to take our family, so that our children wouldn't have to admit to the same thing.

None of us knew what to expect on this trip. But we had so much fun. We are still finding sand at our house, which I guess shows how much fun we had.

We started the trip by going to Goblin Valley. This was my personal favorite! None of our pictures even do this place justice. You really have to see it for yourself. Karli cried most of the time we were there because it was really windy and the sand kept blowing in her eyes. The sand blew in our eyes too, but the rest of us didn't mind. In fact by the time we left all of us were completely covered in sand. It didn't help that we put sunblock on right when we got there, so the sand totally stuck to our faces, as you can see from some of Halle's pictures. I think the sand on my face looked like that fake suntan stuff, where you turn kind of orange if you don't rub it in right. Anyway, to look out and see all these "goblins" was just amazing. Goblins are what they call the rocks that look like chocolate that is melting. The kids loved being able to climb without mom and dad telling them to get down. And, Maya kept telling me to "take a picture".

The kids were so excited because the condo we rented had a pool, but the weather was too cool, so the pool was closed the first day. Quite disappointing to little kids. Luckily for us our condo had it's own private hot tub, so the kids thought that was the next best thing.

On our 2nd and 3rd day we went to Arches National Park. It was a ton of fun too. We hiked a lot and were pretty tired by the end. Jarren wanted to hike more, but his little sisters didn't. Maybe next time. Our favorite arch was Sand Dune arch. Underneath the arch there is tons of fine sand. We all sat and played in the sand for quite a while. It was very relaxing. (Of course I didn't get any pictures of it because I was having too much fun just sitting there).

Jarren's Birthday

Jarren turned 9 this month. He was so excited for his special day. His grandparents all gave him money, and he thought he was so cool with a pocket full of money. He wanted to spend all of his money on Pokemon cards, but I wouldn't let him. I told him he could buy Pokemon cards, but he would have to spread it out over a few weeks, to make sure he wouldn't rather have something else (I'm a mean mom, huh?).

I was nice though to let him have a friend birthday party. He wanted a sports party. So we went to the park and played basketball, football, and soccer. All the kids seemed to have a great time.

I love you Jarren!! Happy Birthday!