A Visit with Grandma & Grandpa!

We were so glad we were able to spend some time with Jim and Lori! The girls were on a "grandparent high" all week! Where Adam's family live out of state the girls only get to see their grandparents a couple times of year, if that. Adam and I tease saying that our children are like glue from the time everyone arrives till the time they leave! Kourtney and Jim had many battleship competitions, Kaitlyn taught everyone how to play Mexican Train with domino's (darn....don't have any pictures), and of course every one's favorite, baseball in the backyard! We love playing baseball as a family so with a few more players we could actually have "real" teams! There were a few mishaps that turned into lots of giggling and laughing! Kaitlyn about took grandpa out with a solid line drive up the middle! Thank goodness it was a plastic ball;)! Kourtney and Lori demonstrated their competitiveness on first base to see who could get the ball and reach the base the fastest:)! Makell went six for six with her at bats:)! Megan almost had a double play against Adam! It was a lot of fun!
A few days later we headed to the mountains! Many years ago Lori would bring her kids to this particular place which has become a favorite for all of us! It was absolutely beautiful! I think we could have stayed there for days! We were surrounded by beautiful wild flowers and the view was amazing! It was so peaceful and quiet. Adam thought it was quite funny to throw rocks up ahead (since we were in bear country) so it sounded like we were some animals next meal. Adam showed the girls how you know if someones loves you with flower petals. The girls loved exploring and seeing the beauty of nature! It was so nice to spend time with each other! I hope they visit again soon so we can do it all over again!

Fiesta Day's Celebration!

I love this time of year! It's a time when we get to reflect on our pioneer heritage and those who traveled and endured many hardships to get here. How grateful I am for them! It's also time for our town's celebration which is packed with so many different events. We were fortunate to have Grandma Lori and Grandpa Jim visiting with us. We figured it had been about seven years since Grandpa Jim had been here so if you can imagine we were all thrilled! I love when they come and visit. The parade is one of the girls favorites! Adam thinks differently. They caught and gathered sooo much candy! Makell was eating it as fast as she could gather it. The girls LOVED that the employees of Macey's that were pushing shopping carts full of candy! Lets just say they were very generous:)! After the parade Matt and Janette held their "2nd Annual" 24Th of July BBQ! Great food and great entertainment! Janette had some fun water games for the kids like the slip-n-slide, water balloons, and of course the hoses for a water fight! Adam just couldn't resist not joining in on all the fun:)! He was definitely out numbered! The kids and Janette soaked him pretty good! He said it was great to be a kid again! Later that evening there were fireworks and Adam and Jim snuck away to visit the car show. Fun times while making fun memories!

Laugh Till it Hurts!

One of our favorite family activities is finding a good book and reading it together. We just recently finished Chickens in the Headlights by Matthew Buckley which is now one of our all time favorites! We started this book a few weeks ago and found out that after only one chapter we didn't want to put it down! The girls looked forward to it every night before bed! The story is about a family raising seven boys and their summer adventures! Our first initial thought was maybe our girls would see what life would be like with a house full of brothers. More than that, it brought back many memories from mine and Adam's childhood! This book is absolutely hilarious! I think Adam and I probably enjoyed it even more than the girls! We found ourselves laughing till our stomachs hurt and tears rolling down our cheeks!


"The purpose of reading to your child should be for the opportunity of mother, father, and child sharing time, sound, and delight with one another".
Elliott D. Landau

East Zion!

Saturday we headed up to East Zion and spent the day with family, playing games, hiking, and dutch oven! The drive through Zions National Park was absolutely beautiful! Adam and I figured the last time we were there was when Kourtney was just a baby. It is so peaceful, quiet, and COOL! We even had a few little rain showers. Grandpa would come up here on a regular basis when he was running cattle on the mountain and made it such a nice place. Shawn spoiled all of us with his magnificent dutch oven skills! The food was soooo good! Shawn has a potato and secret chicken rub mixture of 14 herbs and spices, oh wait I mean 23 or was it 16 that was to die for;)! lol! We were so glad Rayn and Gene came with their kids! They always make it so much fun with lots of laughter! We wished we lived closer so we could hang out more often! Maria also came and brought Kim's two nephews with her(cutest boys ever)! Maria directed the kids in playing capture the flag! The boys also climbed trees while the girls made fairy houses! A few of us adults and Asher went on a small hike;)! Shawn, Adam, and Gene took care of the fire with only a few singed hairs! LOL! I think the kid came out in Adam as he thoroughly enjoyed playing the part of "Smokey the Bear". After we cleaned and loaded everything up we all jumped in the back of grandpa's truck and headed back down the mountain! Fun times spent on East Zion!

Splish Splash We Were Havin a Blast!

We couldn't think of a better way to spend a Friday night than at the pool! Adam's Aunt & Uncle had told us that their ward had reserved the the City Center and invited us to come along! Oh my! It was the neatest place! Our kids saw it and were instantly in heaven! It's a kids dream! It was like a giant play ground in the middle of a swimming pool! Makell was practically running everywhere! I think she was on an adrenalin high! Kourtney and Kaitlyn had a blast swimming with their cousin Aryn! They spent a lot of time in the water tube! They lost count of how many times they went down. Adam and I loved watching the big yellow bucket fill up with water and dump all over the kids! You could hear the buck start to tip and then saw kids scatter in every direction and diving down tubes to protect themselves! Soooo funny! The best part was it's indoors! This is only the beginning of our trips to this pool! After experiencing this, our own community pool is quite a let down! Oh well, that just means more little getaways!

Hiking the Red Cliffs

Friday afternoon we decided to hike the Red Cliffs! It was beautiful and of course HOT! We learned in a hurry that summer is not the time to hike in southern Utah! Besides the heat we had a great time climbing up through the red rocks and exploring! Just off the trail was this old dead tree that looked just like a dinosaur! The kids thought that was the coolest thing ever! Supposedly if you hike a while you will stumble upon a nice little pond to cool off in. After hiking a short while we passed two people that said we should just turn around now and head back. They looked exhausted and said they had hiked the whole way and found that the nice cool pond had completely dried up except a small part that was absolutely nasty and dirty! They told us that they wished they had had someone to tell them to turn around. So after hearing that we turn around and took our time back down the trail. We want to try it again but of course when it is Spring or Fall weather:)!

Grandpa's Barn

After a much needed break we headed down south to spend a long wonderful weekend with family! Shawn, Kim, & Logan had come from Texas which made it even more exciting! When ever we ask the kids where they would prefer to go, their response is ALWAYS great grandpa and grandma's house so they can play in the barn and with cousins. I love the fact that they can spend hours in the barn exploring and using their imagination. This time one of the highlights were the chickens and gathering eggs. Grandpa has six chickens that lay five to six eggs per day. I think these poor chickens were under a lot of stress and pressure:)! When the kids would go to gather eggs and only find a few they would return every five to ten minutes to check for the remaining eggs. No pressure right?! lol! With a smile on grandpa's face he tried to get several of the kids to reach under the hen and grab her egg. Funny thing we had just read a book on the drive down about that exact thing! We read how some boys had their hands pecked which drew blood trying to steal the hens eggs. Our girls were having no part in that! lol! Grandpa never saw the "show" he was hoping for! The kids grabbed a stick and shewed the hen out of her nest before grabbing the eggs! The kids cousin Issac made a tire swing that provided lots of entertainment for everyone! One of my highlights was learning how to bottle pickles! Grandpa's garden is absolutely magnificent! I am always amazed at what he does! It just happened to be that the cucumbers were ready to harvest so grandma walked me through the process! I am excited to try it on my own!

State Softball Tournament

Another successful softball season has come and gone! We have spent the past week as a cheering section for the Cougars in the State USGA Softball Tournament! They went undefeated until the Championship game where they fell short to Mt. Pleasant. I guess you can say it was a repeat from last year where they placed second as well. Before the season began Kourts coaches told everyone that they wanted to see two things happen during the season. The first being that everyone improved on an individual basis and second that they have FUN doing it! As a team they had a great time and it was exciting to watch the team progress to take the second seat in the State Tournament after struggling during the beginning of the season!

Our Softball Girl!

That's my girl! Kaitlyn started coach pitch this year! Her team name was the Pink Sox. She absolutely loved it! As a family we have spent many days and evenings playing ball together in the back yard. Have to say Kaitlyn is pretty impressive! She can smack that ball! We had some friends over that have all boys and their response after Kaitlyn was hitting balls against them was, WOW! That girls can hit! Of course that made her want to keep knocking the heck out of it.
Just like the back yard she was impressive on the field! I absolutely love watching the girls games! Our summers get pretty crazy with games every night of the week, but it is so worth it! I love seeing their enjoyment as they play and have fun! Keep up the good work Kaitlyn!

Celebrating the 4th of July!

We feel so blessed to live in such a wonderful country and enjoy the many freedoms we have.

We had such a fun day! It started off with the kids and I heading to the community pool. It was a great way to beat the heat! We missed dad since he thought staying home and building closets shelves would be more fun! I beg to differ;)! Later that evening we had a BBQ with friends! It was great and we always seem to get in a lot of laughter! After dinner we headed over to watch the fireworks. We all laid out our blankets and chairs and enjoyed the evening! Our friends put on an exciting firework show for everyone while we were waiting for the "big" ones from the stadium! Don't you love the bottom left picture?! I think the three "big" kids loved the fireworks just as much as the kiddos;)! The kids love being able to run around and play with friends! Makell and Whitney loved chasing Jackson and I loved hearing their little giggles and squeals! Kourtney and Kaitlyn were in heaven playing with their friends Nyah and Janae "all night"! They made sure to tell others that they were able to stay up until 11:16 p.m. playing with friends! Quite the special treat! A great holiday spent with Friends, Fireworks, & lots of Fun!

Summer Day Creativity!

It was inevitable! I knew it was coming! Today was the day I heard those dreaded summer phrases: "Mom we are bored! There is nothing to do"! I had a little project in the closet waiting to pull out for times like these:)!

Hair flowers! These are the easiest things to make and right up a little girls alley!
All you need are a few bouquet of flowers (dollar store), large brads, hair clips, and a hot glue gun.

The girls pulled the flowers apart and separated the layers of petals. We used three flowers from each bouquet and made about sixteen different hair clips. They chose the colors and sizes they wanted and fastened them together with a brad. Interesting that not one looked the same as another!
We hot glued the hair clip to the flowers and VOILA !!! Their own hair clip creations!