Random June

We've been bus with lots of yard work around here. Emily loves to watch Jeff mow and trim. I love this cute photo.

The boys have been in swim lessons this summer and have really progressed well! Jacob can swim by himself all over the pool, and Caleb has done well too! Somehow I managed to only get a picture of Emily in her swimsuit. Probably because I was busy trying to keep Emily and Matthew out of the pool during the actual swim lessons!
We've been working on finished the basement. First up was the downstairs bathroom. The plumbing was the first thing. We have the bath/shower in and the toilet is also in now too. Jeff did part of the drywall and the tile. The electrician also came out to wire the whole downstairs. Now we just need to get the rest of the drywall/mudding done and go from there! I can't wait to have it all finished.
Another project we've been working on is the boys' room downstairs. I'm not sure whose idea it was to put bright red paint in the downstairs bedroom- talk about cherry red- it literally made my eyes hurt when I looked at it too long. This color took about 3 coats of primer to cover up! I decided to let the boys have a part- they had fun doing a little painting. I finished up and the room is now painted a nice and much lighter shade, Behr's 'Russian Blue'. More to come on this project later!

We had a fun BBQ/get together with some families in our ward. It was nice to let the kids play together and get to know a few families better. I'm learning we have lots of potential babysitters! Emily is great at winning over the hearts of the girls in our ward. Good thing we have her to reel babysitters in, hopefully they'll be hooked before the boys scare them away! :)

Just for fun. My baby girl is growing up so fast!

Cheap Friday Night Thrills

Back in January, the boys and I came up with a game we dubbed, "Hunter & Prey" in which one person is the hunter with the nerf gun and the others are the animals. It's pretty self-explanatory- basically the hunter chases after the animals and tries to hit them with the nerf arrows. Yea...we're cool. :) So Friday night rolls around and Jeff & the kids started up a great game of Hunter & Prey out in the yard.

Emily was happy to run around the yard and watch

Hopefully our neighbors don't think we're too crazy. It's probably a good thing the neighborhood is pretty much dead on the weekends- everyone seems to take off.

After all the running around and laughing, we were all pretty tired by the end of the night. We even had a great sunset to watch from the deck. I love that the kids are old enough that we can go out and do so many fun things together. I love our sweet little family.

Happy Father's Day

It was fun to celebrate Father's Day this year, even though the day didn't go quite as planned. We did learn that our ward is a great one to be in on the holidays- I think Jeff ended up getting a couple different Father's Day gifts from the primary kids, and the Relief Society- not to mention the fact that the ward put on a donut social after church for everyone. Jeff was feeling pretty loved!

I had a nice dinner planned after church, but Jeff ended up getting called in to the hospital for an emergency. Actually the kind of call that no one ever wants, especially on Father's Day- the type where he has to be the one to rule out child abuse for a toddler. He ended up being gone until about 8pm- which is why the kids are all decked out in mismatched pj's for the Father's Day pictures. I didn't want to put them to bed until they could see him and say goodnight.

We played outside together until he got home. Everyone was so happy to have him back. Emily even came running over to him in her soon-to-be-sandbox that Jeff built, to give him a big kiss. This little girl loves her daddy!

Happy Father's Day to our wonderful, thoughtful, kind, loving, incredible father and husband. I don't know if we can tell you enough how much we love and appreciate you. You are the most wonderful father our children could have ever hoped for and I ask myself daily how I ever managed to be so lucky to have you. Happy Father's Day Jeff!

June Temple Trip

We were able to take a trip to the temple in June. When we lived in Philadelphia, we were about 2.5 hours from the nearest temple, but when we were in Washington we lived about 4 minutes from the Columbia River Temple- it was amazing! We could go on week nights & mornings, and both of us could easily do a session on a Saturday. Once again we're far away from the nearest temple, but it does give us the excuse to take a fun road trip each month.

We took off at 7am Saturday morning- it took longer because some roads are under water due to flooding. Our Relief Society was so thoughtful and provided babysitting at a nearby church house so that couples could go together. It was so nice to be with Jeff and it was wonderful to be at the temple.

I was hoping Emily would do well while we were gone, but I don't think any of the kids even missed us! They had so much fun playing with friends at the gym they were sad to see us back so soon.

From there, we went to see the Winter Quarters visitor's center. The kids enjoyed seeing all the neat displays.
I have a picture taken in this exact spot about 6 years ago. We were living in Nebraska during one of Jeff's away rotations. Jacob was 18 months old and I was 8 months pregnant with Caleb. I'll have to see if I can dig it up out of our old files. It's fun to see how much things have changed!

The train display was one of the boys' favorites.

The visitor's center also has on display, a really amazing exhibit of statues depicting various times during the Savior's life. There were probably 15 or so bronze statues and each one was simply breathtaking. It's a traveling exhibit that will go around to various places in the country, and I was really excited we were able to see it.
We didn't get home until about 8pm Saturday night, and everyone was a little tired, but it was a great trip.

When It Rains...

We've had some pretty decent rainstorms this summer. One thunderstorm in particular was crazy! Poor Emily was out on the deck when we heard the first round of thunder and I don't think I've ever seen her move so fast! She jumped and grabbed a hold of the closest thing she could find- the deck railing-and held on for dear life until I rescued her. She's definitely not a fan of the loud thunder! For the next couple hours, the kids and I watched the torrential rain and the lightning flashes. It was a good thing Caleb and Jacob checked on one of the garden boxes- I didn't realize there was a stream of water like a full-running faucet shooting out of the drain pipe, completely flooding the garden box. Not too long after the storm started we noticed there was a river going through the neighbor's yards. It was crazy! There are definitely advantages to being at the top of the hill during storms.

Hot Air Balloons

A couple weeks ago there was a big hot air balloon festival. After a busy Saturday filled with yard work, lawn mowing, garden tending, house cleaning, chores, and a 9-mile run for me, we thought it would be fun to take the kids out for a fun family outing.
It was a blast and the kids loved seeing all the balloons flying up into the air. It was a perfect way to end a beautiful day. We sat back on the grass together and had fun watching all the different balloons.
It was really laid back and although there were quite a few people there, the kids had plenty of space to run around on the grass. I loved seeing all their reactions especially Matthew and Emily. They were both so excited. Emily just kept pointing at all the balloons and squealing with excitement.

The favorite balloon was this big blue dragon balloon. It was pretty fun to see the creative designs.

Phone Fun

I'm not sure who's more excited about Jeff's new phone, him...or the kids. This has been a familiar sight over the past couple weeks.

And this cracks me up. Emily comes running to daddy, acting so happy to see him and give him a big hug. Really....she just wants the phone!

After many years of cheap, beater phones, (I'm talking the $15 Walmart special), and poor or no reception in the hospitals & offices, Jeff finally got a new phone. He researched for months and finally decided on the iPhone when it went on sale for $149. He's been so happy with the change, it's made life much easier in those regards. Our kids-who have no video games, nintendo, or television are pretty enthralled too!

Watermelon

There's nothing like a slice of watermelon for a tasty summer treat. This little girl will just about eat her weight in watermelon. Not minding the juice dripping down her face and tummy, she doesn't waste a single bite... she eats it right down to the rind.

Random May

It's been so fun having a 'summer vacation.' Although they're busy sometimes, I love having the kids around. They've helped me come up with some fun ideas of things to do together. For the longest time they wanted to do sugar cookies- and although it's only May, they wanted to break out the gingerbread cookie cutter too.

We've loved playing outside, especially when we can go to different parks. There are many of them around, and they do a great job of burning off some of the kids' crazy amounts of energy!

These two are swinging machines! Good thing I had Jacob and Caleb to help me push them.

Don't be fooled by this picture. It looks like the boys pulled Emily up the playground and put her down the slide. In all actuality, she ran up by herself. The boys were all trying to get her to go down with them- each of them wanted Emily to sit on their laps, but Emily wouldn't have anything to do with it. She wanted to go down all by herself! Repeat countless times...

More projects. I love Michaels- they have all sorts of fun, cheap things that kids can paint. We got some gecko lizards for $1 and the boys had a blast painting them all sorts of fun colors. You know, I love the granite counters for their looks- they're beautiful, but I really really love them for the functionality aspect! Especially with kids.