Past Bedtime

We should have been in bed.  Eight o'clock is bedtime, after all!

But then again, it's summer, and despite a few mishaps today, there was too much goodness to pass up and nobody seemed to want to end the day.  Picture overload....


I can't pick JUST ONE....she's growing up too fast, and her personality is starting to shine!  Keetley is such a sweet baby....she's always so happy and chipper and content.

 ...unless I hit a big curb in the stroller....

 ...but it doesn't take long for her to return to her happy self!

Can you guess what a little boy got for his birthday???  He LOVES his new hat!

Now, this is a hat that fits, and it fits well!  He can rock climb without it falling off....and those boots.  They melt me.

and then there's this handsome fellow...it was his idea to come to the park...

 ...and if I didn't know any better, I'd say he wanted to show his boys how to have a little fun!

Tanner is our other climber.  I'm not even sure he put shoes on to come to play....hmm...

 This boy loves to collect rocks.  Don't tell him I've thrown away all the rocks in his pockets....and shells, and air-soft bb's, and other mysterious treasures.  Today he and Taylor pulled the legs off a grasshopper....I have to close my eyes and hold my breath every time I dig through their pockets for fear of finding bugs!

Taylor was moving so fast I only snapped one picture of him this evening.  He got a little pink from playing out in the sun....and his hair is going blonde!  He's a firecracker, this one.

And once we finally got home, we STILL wanted to play!  Bring on the tic-tac-toe tournament....one of those 'pinterest' crafts that actually worked out...and I'm happy I took the time and put in the effort.

I'm pretty sure I'll be washing sheets in the morning as nobody got baths.  We read library books and went straight to bed....I don't even want to think about how dirty their hands and feet were when their eyelids shut, and their hearts slowed down.  Come to think of it, we didn't brush our teeth, either.  *sigh*

Tomorrow will still come.  And we'll start over then.

Live a little

I am a high strung mother.  I've been told by numerous strangers (this is totally embarrassing!!!) to 'ease up' on my kids....I think it was a 'nice' way of saying 'chill out'.

Each day I try to do something fun and unexpected with my children.  Sometimes they have to remind me that I promised, and I have to focus REALLY hard on not taking that 'fun' away as a means of punishment....I know.  I have a long ways to go, and lots to learn, but I'm trying.

Tonight, I decided I really needed to live a little...and so did my kids.  I grabbed the three kites I was 'saving', for who knows what, and asked if Ryan would mind postponing his reports to help me.  He happily obliged, and who knew we could 'live a little' after bedtime?

Getting some instructions...

Run for it!

This is one very determined little boy. 

SO happy that mommy decided to "Live a little".

Finally got it up and flying!

We had so much fun, till daddy had a little unfortunate crash landing....I think he tried to fix it with duct tape while I untangled the other two kite's strings.  

Lesson Learned:  it's always fun to live a little.   

Sweet Blessings

Ryan gave Keetley a beautiful priesthood blessing in our Sacrament meeting today.  She has already proven to be a light in our lives, and to those around us.

The beautiful dress that my aunt Camille knit for her fit perfectly!!!  And she was pretty much an angel all day.  

My mom made this blessing quilt for her, and I am in love with it!  It's so intricate and delicate and spunky at the same time.

We had so much support and felt the love of our families on this special day.  They all joined us at our home for a luncheon after our meetings, and it couldn't have been a lovelier day.  The weather was warm, but not too hot, and the kids had fun playing with cousins!

I'm so blessed to have these beautiful blessings in my life!

4th of July Celebration {2013}

Ryan and Tanner got up at 5 to put out flags in our ward....while I got the rest of us ready for a BIG DAY!

We made it up to Rexburg in record time, partially reclaiming our seats that Grandma saved, but somebody else moved...

While we waited for the parade to start, we played at the park.  The weather was cool, and perfect, and the kids were excited to get some energy out.

Afterwards, we headed back to the house for a fabulously simple meal of Pizza Hut and salad and watermelon....seriously, best idea ever!

After naps, we broke out the slip-n-slide....and quite honestly, I'm surprised this loved slide is still holding it together....our kids have been pretty rough on it!

We finished up our day with some day-time fire works, which the kids LOVED!

 We even stuck it out in a 5 minute down-pour....lovely Idaho weather!

By the time we got home it was about 7 pm...we were all exhausted.  Ryan gathered up a few remaining flags, and we all hit the sack...I'm certain we were all sound asleep before 10 pm...we totally skipped out on the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration fireworks, but were sure to thank our Heavenly Father for such a beautiful day, and the many blessings we have been given, including our freedom.

Happy Independence Day!

Heaven Help Us

While driving to my mom's this weekend, I overheard the following:

Tanner:  You know, Taylor, we can really do anything we want.
Taylor:  Um, but then we'd be on the "Naughty List".
Tanner:  That's impossible.  Wanna know why?
Taylor:  How is it impossible?!
Tanner:  Because every single year, Santa brings me presents.
Taylor: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... *thinking*

Heaven help us!  I'm in for it now....they have us figured out.

*sigh*

Encampment

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America program being utilized within our church this year.  There were seven Encampments in the United States, one of them being right here in South East Idaho.

Ryan, my dad, and brother Clay attended this amazing experience in Firth, Idaho, and they had a BLAST!  All three earned the Thomas S. Monson Award.  My dad had the privilege of presenting the award as participants earned them.  Clay participated in EVERY.SINGLE.ACTIVITY that was offered.  He had a punch card with about two dozen activities, and made great use of the opportunity.  Ryan traded off his set of trading cards to collect one of each!

While the 'boys' were off having fun, I packed up the kids and we went to my mom's.  While there, the kids had a great time playing in the sprinklers on the trampoline.

My mom and I started tacking a project we've been wanting to do for at least 20 years.

For three days, we sat at the kitchen table with cook books and *the box* of recipes and typed.  We typed, and typed, and typed, and typed.  Some of the recipes were written on scraps of paper, quickly jotted down.

Other recipes are so well loved, they looked like they had been through the wringer.

The two recipes are my mom's favorite bread recipes....the ones we grew up eating because she made half a dozen loaves each week.  We were SO blessed to have such delicious bread!!!

When I left, we had a good 80 pages of recipes typed, and carpel tunnel. And we're not even half way done.  We had only compiled the recipes we like and use from various books, and one file-folder in *the box*.  We have many more to type up!!!

Deseret was a great help once she got home from Girl's Camp...Every time she'd hold Keetley, they'd both fall asleep.

And the boys loved on auntie Katelyn while watching a movie in the FREEZING basement...which was much more cool than the 100* weather outside.

Ward Campout

I have very fond memories of camping as a child, and I'm telling you, my mom and dad made it so much fun!  I never realized how much work it was to take kids camping until I had my own.....

Our ward held a camp out for families near Roberts, Idaho.  We'd never been to this particular site before, so we were not sure what to expect.  While there were some nice port-a-potties (can there be nice ones?!), their fire pits were a tad puny....but we made the most of it!

I didn't get many pictures as I was trying to console a baby girl who wasn't having a very good attitude about the bitter cold.  LOL!  It had been warm all week, then this particular night, it was in the 50's, and got to freezing through the night.

We all slept snug as bugs in rugs!

The following morning, our R.S. President confessed that she prayed for us at 4 am when the birds started chirping, because she hadn't heard our baby cry during the night; once I got her to sleep.  She was afraid that maybe Keetley had suffocated in our sleeping bag or something terrible...but it turns out that if mommy sleeps with one eye open and can hold the binky in baby's mouth, that there isn't any crying.  And everybody sleeps soundly.

We're hoping that maybe we can do one or two more camping trips this summer, and look forward to the wonderful memories we can make along the way!

I must mumble

My mother is constantly telling me to "stop" because I talk too fast, and often mumble.  Guess this proves her point:

We were in the van, with the AC on high.  I was telling (lecturing) the boys that if they wanted to go camping with the ward this weekend, we needed to work together to keep the house picked up.

Tanner asked, "who are we camping with?"

I responded, "the ward".

And we went back and forth with the same question and answer four or five times.

Then Tanner said with frustration, "HOW are we going to go camping with Heavenly Father and Jesus?!  That just doesn't make any sense!!!"

"WHAT?!"  I responded.  "What are you talking about?!"

Tanner said, "HOW are we going to go camping with the Lord?"

.....

I must mumble.

And I'm pretty sure that Somebody listening in had a good laugh.  :)