Summer Happenings

We've had lots going on this summer and not much time to blog about it so here are a lot of pictures to summarize a little of what we've been up to!

Birthday Fun!
The day before my birthday I ran 10 miles. On my birthday, Luke had to run 10 miles so I got up and biked next to him. After that we went to breakfast with the kids then hit the local farmer's market that they have every Saturday but this was our first. It was a lot of fun with a live band and lots of good stuff to look at. That afternoon I got the best gift...Luke took the kids swimming while I took a 2 hour, uninterrupted nap followed by a clean house! It was awesome! That evening I met up with my sister Jill and her family in SLC. We played in the water at Gateway Mall, and then rode tracks to Temple Square. It was a lot of fun. Here are some photos from the day!

Jaylee and her cousin Katie at Temple Square. They were holding hands and having a great time together.

Oliver was having so much fun in the water. He was soaked! He had found an empty paper cup and started putting it upside down on top of the water holes. When the water would shoot out it would send the cup into the air and he would catch it. It was very entertaining to watch him. He's such a cute kid!

Oliver and cousin Tyler

Mandy's Baby Shower
We're so excited for Mandy to have her baby girl the end of August. She is Luke's brother's wife (Eli's wife). We had a family baby shower for her. It was fun to see everyone.

Amy (sister-in-law) was in charge of games and did a great job. One of the games was to paint a onsie. At the end, Mandy chose her favorite and the winner got a prize. Melissa was the winner and the onsie was adorable. Mandy got to take home several cute shirts!

I was in charge of the party favor! It turned out really cute. Everyone got to fill up a gift bag of 10 different pink candies and take a cupcake ball. It was fun!

Around the house

I thought this was a cute picture of Sabree!

With all of the running and working out Luke has been doing, his muscles have been really tight. He has had the kids stretching him out. Oliver is always the first to offer to help his dad out. Luke is his hero!

Baseball Game with Friends!

We went to a baseball game with a group of friends. It was a lot of fun! I wish I had gotten a picture of the Geddes family. My friend is 7 months pregnant and volunteered to run the bases during a break in the game. So far she holds the record for the fastest time running around...even pregnant! She's such a great sport and so fun to be with! The Lorz family. We love these little twin boys! Their dad has been staying in SLC during the week for work and only coming home on the weekends so we thought it would be fun to take the twins to the game and meet up with their dad.

Cherie and family!

Jaylee, Sabree and Ollie

After the game the kids crashed! We took the twins home and this is how it turned out!

4th of JulyFirst things first, you have to paint the fingernails! Of course, red and blue!

Getting ready for the Fillmore parade to begin.

These are the kids at the park after the parade. There are have lots of food, activities, and friends!Sabree with a few of her Fillmore friends. We miss everyone!

It was a full day...parade, park activities, sprinklers, Grandparents, Barbecue and of course the fireworks!

Addie and Jaylee getting ready for the fireworks (picture above)
Addie and Julie below

Pickleville Playhouse
We have some of the greatest friends here! We were invited by our friends to Bear Lake to stay in their cabin at the Pickleville Playhouse. We had soooo much fun. After a little hanging out after we got there we had dinner, played and then saw the show Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. It was so good! Jaylee was just as entertaining as the show. She loved it! I think she thought we were going to watch a movie at a theater so when she saw live people singing and dancing she was shocked and so excited! It was a blast. That night we did fireworks.

Oliver, Carter, Tanner and Sabree. Oliver has become such good friends with Tanner and Carter. We love the Davis boys! They are moving, only 5 minutes away, but it is sad that they won't be in our same neighborhood. Regardless of where they move, we have become great friends with the family and love the time that we get to spend with them!

Local Transit System
One of the best things about kids is that they are usually pretty easy to entertain. One day we decided to take the kids on a free bus ride by our local transit system. We rode the bus to the mall where they played on the toys there, then we walked across the street to Wendy's, then caught the bus back home. BLAST!

Once again, Jaylee was so entertaining. She was giddy the whole time! Who knew that a bus ride would be so exciting!

The Lorz twins love Oliver and he loves that they love him!

One week with 7!
My sister-in-law was the assistant girls camp director for her ward this year and had to go to girl's camp for a week. Since my brother had just gotten a new job, he couldn't take the week off of work so they needed a little bit of extra help. That's where I came in. They have 4 kids and I brought my 3 so I had 7 kids for the week. It was tiring but tons of fun! We went swimming one day, and Extreme Air Sports another day.

Extreme Air Sports is a gym with lots of trampoline's, foam pits, rock climbing wall, and bouncy gym mats. It was sooo much fun!


Max, Zak and Sabree on the rock climbing wall. They were doing back flips from the top! It was CRAZY!

This picture is one of my favorites. Jaylee always gears up for her runs. This is her pose right before she goes!

Lots of Pool!
We've been spending lots of time at the pool. Oliver and Jaylee have improved so much in their swimming skills.

Sabree and her friend

Carter, Tanner and Oliver...good little buddies!

Preschool Camp
Jaylee is so excited about going to preschool we decided to give her a little taste of what is to come! The theme was bugs and this is a shirt that they made.

Tonsilectomy and Adenoidectomy

Due to obstructed sleep apnea, Jaylee needed her tonsils and adenoids removed. We went to the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist on Monday the 11th and her tonsils were so big there was no question that they had to come out. So we scheduled surgery for just 3 days later. She went into surgery on July 14th. The picture above is leaving for the hospital at 7:45 in the morning. She knew she was getting her tonsils out and was really excited to not snore anymore but she definitely didn't realize the extent of what was going on!

The nurses at the hospital were awesome. They all spoke to her, on her level. They explained to her that most kids get scared when they are out of surgery because of the big bandaid on their arm that covers the IV. So they gave her an ace bandage to play with and practice wrapping on herself and everyone else. It was entertaining to her.

Jaylee is a daddy girl. She loves her dad! I love the picture! 2 people that I love so much!

Out of surgery. Jaylee was guzzling apple juice right away, which surprised me but it also caused her to get a stomach ache and she threw up quite a bit. It was sad. She did pretty good post op though. She was so brave and strong. We had to stay a little longer than most because her oxygen levels were a little low, but not for long. She's a tough little girl!
After getting a little anti-nausea medicine she was out cold. She looks so sweet in this picture cuddled up to her daddy!
Grandma Oliver came in town the night before to help with the older kids while we were at the hospital. When we got home Jaylee was showered with gifts from Grandma including this cute table and chairs that she made dad put together immediately. Jaylee loves this table. She didn't leave this room for 2 days straight. We played play-do on it, painted, colored...it was great!

Grandma also made us spaghetti and a roast and then took the 2 older kids home with her to Orem. It was awesome to pay 100% attention to Jaylee for several days and not have to cook! Thanks mom! You are awesome!

Jaylee is doing so well, in fact, the first day she ate spaghetti and has continued to eat pretty solid foods since. The mornings have been quite hard because her throat is dry and sore but other than that, she has been an awesome little trooper! We love you Jaylee, you are going to sleep so good now and be a perfect little angel :), right!!!

Parties, Parties and more Parties!

Cinco De Mayo Party
We had a fun party of Saturday with a bunch of friends...Cinco De Mayo on the 7th! We had a great time with lots of Mexican food, lots of laughing, and lots of GREAT weather!
Birthday lunch!
We had a fun birthday lunch for my friend Julie last week. Ironically, with Mexican food (Cafe Rio take out...YUMMY!) I love getting together with lots of girls through the week. So much fun! GIRL POWER!
Luke is getting OLD!
Luke recently celebrated his 34th birthday. Seriously, we never thought we would get this old...and yes. he is older than me!

He put 3 of his clothes presents on top of the clothes he was already wearing. It looked funny. He has 3 shirts on! Our funniest present though was nose hair clippers! He does sometimes get longer nose hairs...comes with old age, so we thought that it would be a funny gift. LOVE IT!
Cousin Party!
We got all the cousins on my families side and had a little party after my brother's graduation then we took them all to a 3-D movie. The kids looked so cute with their glasses on. GOOD TIMES!
Tyson's Graduation!
My little brother Tyson graduated from UVU! I'm so proud of him! College is sooooo much work. Anyway, he graduated in Aviation Science, Professional Pilot. He has all of his pilot's licenses including his commercial license. Now he just gets to fly all summer long and get enough flying hours to get hired with an airline! He's a smart kid that has worked really hard for several years. Way to go Tyson! Isn't he CUTE!

One of my favorite Easters

We had such a great Easter! We always do the Easter Bunny stuff on Saturday so we can focus more on Christ on Sunday so our Easter Egg painting and festivities started on Friday. It was our ward temple night on Friday so we were going to paint eggs on Thursday but thought that Skylar and Maben might have fun painting eggs with the kids while they babysat on Friday. Sure enough, they wanted to paint eggs so we left it for the babysitters. The kids had a great time with them! They had pizza for dinner and that sneaky bunny ate a piece of pizza and left a note!

I wanted the egg painting to be a little extra special since we weren't coloring eggs with them so I got a bunch of different candies for them to snack on while they painted. Apparently the candy is really exciting...maybe more so than the eggs!

I love this picture of Ollie. You can tell he is really concentrating and his tongue is out a little bit. This is what Luke does when he is concentrating too.

This is Skylar with the kids. Skylar and her husband Maben are going to school here at USU. We've had them over a couple times for dinner and stuff. They are from Fillmore area though. It was really fun to have them over to babysit.

And now the hunt begins...all the kids needed new bikes so mom and dad bought new bikes...not the bunny!

This picture was taken at about 7:15 a.m. but Jaylee had been up since about 2:00 a.m. She was up all night so sick with a horrible sore throat. We got through the Easter Egg hunt and called our doctor (luckily they have Saturday office hours). She ended up with Strep. Aside from the doctor visit, Easter was great and it didn't take long before she was feeling fine...just had to get some medicine in her.

Late that afternoon we had a barbeque and Easter Egg hunt with some friends. I have never seen a better egg hunt in my life. My friend Kristi loves egg hunts...it's almost like Christmas to her so she put the hunt together with so much stuff! The kids filled 2 baskets of candy, eggs and toys. We had so much fun with our friends! It really made it a fun, memorable day...Thanks guys!

And finally, my favorite part...After the temple I was talking to some friends that told me the best idea. You make rolls that represent the Resurrection. Here's what you do...you buy the creseant rolls and fill each roll with a large marshmallow that has been covered in melted butter then rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Then you seal the roll over the marshmallow and sprinkle the top with cinnamon and sugar. You bake the rolls as directed on the can. When the rolls come out the marshmallow appears to still be inside but it has melted, of course. The roll represents the tomb and the marshmallow represents Christ.

So the kids assembled the rolls, which was fun for them. Then we had a really spiritual talk about Christs purpose on this earth. We talked in detail about the Garden of Gethsemane and the crucifixion. Then right as the rolls were finished we talked about the Resurrection. We were able to open the roll and see that the marshmallow was gone. Just as Christs body was gone after 3 days. It was a really neat object lesson for the kids. Jaylee and Oliver were shocked that the marshmallow was gone. That, along with the gospel art pictures really made the story come to life for them. It was a really great experience.

I'm so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It brings so much peace, happiness and hope into my life. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and the atonement that he provided for all of us. Most importantly, I am grateful for the Resurrection and the assurance that we will all be ressurected someday and live together forever with our families, friends, and loved ones as perfected beings because of the atonement of Christ. We are all so blessed to live in this dispensation with all of the knowledge of the gospel.

Newport Beach, California

We drove to California on last Friday and went straight to the beach. Right when we pulled in the parking lot we saw dolphins jumping in the water. It was so awesome and a great start to a fun trip. We walked the pier and saw sea lions also. The kids were in heaven! Of course, we walked in the sand also and the kids ran from waves and got wet! Then we watched the sunset...and that's just the first day!

This picture is Jaylee running from the waves. She was so cute, she would put her arms in the air and giggle as she ran away.

I thought this picture was precious. Jaylee stood watching the ocean, with her hands in her pockets for quite a while.

Jaylee spent most of her time digging in the sand.

One of the days at the beach there were dozens of sail boats. It was so fun and picturesque to watch them.

The last few times we have gone to California we have spent most of our time at one particular beach in Newport Beach. It's beautiful, has great waves, and also has a park for the kids to play at. It's such a fun place!

Our sand sea turtle. Ollie even decorated it with sea shells.

Sand dolphin! These were really fun to create.

The kids LOVE Conference!

Every conference weekend we print the awesome conference packets and we make edible peanut butter play-do. Between the packets and the play-do the kids have the best time. They sit in front of the TV and listen to conference while they are having fun. Here are some of their peanut butter creations!

The rest of France!

These are some pictures from the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is so much more impressive in real life. Pictures never do it justice. Mom and Dad at the middle of the Eiffel Tower.

One of my favorite things to see in Paris was The Catacombs. It holds the remains of about 6 million people and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris' stone mines.