What a storm!

We had a storm come through one day that had some pretty good hail stones.  It also put a lot of rain down fast. Our kids love when we get these kind of storms because that means big puddles to ride their bikes in.

 Since we are at the end of the street our gutters are always over flowing when we get rain storms.  The boys love ridding their bikes through it. When I was a kid I would have loved it too.

 Elly thought she wanted to play in the water until she got in and found out that it was cold water.

 Mason going through the water.

 I decided to have them put their swimming suits on instead of their clothes.

 We had their cousins at our house that day too so they got to get in on the fun.  The boys loaned them some clothes so they wouldn't get theirs dirty.

 Tyler and his cousin, Kason, after they had been ridding through the puddles.  This picture makes me glad I had them change out of their clothes.

 Mason and his two cousins, Autumn and Karleigh.

 This crazy girl, Autumn, was laying in the water pretending like she was swimming.

 Kason laying in the water. Crazy kids!

The kids had a great time. They got good and dirty.  When they finished they let me wash them off with the hoes because I wouldn't let them in to clean off in my bathroom.  They were good sports about it.  I know if I was a kid and saw puddles like that I would want to go play in them too and your only a kid once so make some good memories.

Flying

My sister's husband to be, Dalan, made all the kids dreams come true.  From the first time he flew up to pick her up all the kids have been dreaming of going for a ride in his airplane.  Dalan was so nice to take everyone that wanted for a ride.  When my kids heard he was going to take them they had the biggest smiles on their faces.  I went up with Tyler, Mason and my little brother, Ammon.  Elly didn't want to go or I she would have come with us.  As soon as the kids were buckled in you could just see how excited they were.  Mason said a few times, "this is so fun"!  He loved every minute of it.  He looked out the window the whole time. 

 Tyler was in the middle so he couldn't see much, but he still loved it.  All the kids had buckets on their laps just in case anyone got sick while they were flying.

 Mason doesn't look to excited here but the sun was really bright in his eyes.

Here is a view of my parents house from the airplane.  I know tons of grass and there just keeps getting more and more.

A view of my little home town that I love.

Elly decided that she wanted to go when we got back so I sent her up with my little sister.  She was really excited when we buckled her in...

then while they were taxiing and taking off she started to cry.

Thankfully once they were up in the air she stopped crying and they told me she loved it.

So thanks Dalan for taking the time to take us all for a ride.  It was fun to see how excited the kids were and what a great memory.  The kids will remember it for a long time.  They loved it.  I thought it was pretty fun too and really neat to see our beautiful valley from up there.

Homecoming

I took the kids to watch their aunts and uncles play in their homecoming games a few weekends ago.  Part of the fun weekend included a parade.  Uncle Brock dressed as a panther and rode a unicycle in the parade.

 The kids gathering the candy.

 Our tough little football players.

 My cute football boys!

 

My cute little kids! 

 

Between the parade and the football game the kids went up to Grandpa's house and rode a horse.  She was being a stinker so they didn't ride very long.

I have other pictures from the football game but this one has both my brothers right by each other, Tenor is 4 and Brock is 80!  They both had a good game and we won the game by a long way.

The night before the homecoming football game they have a BBQ and all the kids get to write their name on the street.  Then they watch them light the C on big hill.  My kids love this.  This year we didn't get to be their the night before because of Tyler's football games.  Their cousins wrote their names on the street for them.  On our way home the kids wanted to stop and take their picture with their names.

We had a busy fun filled weekend.  Besides Tenor and Brock's football game we watched Ammon, Lochlyn and Wes's peewee football game, we had my sister, Candice's, Bridle shower, my brother's reception and Brooklyn and two volleyball games.  We didn't get to watch Brooklyn's volleyball because of everything else that was going on.  We had a fun weekend.

Sick kids!!

The kids and Jay all had a flu bug a couple of weeks ago.  Then came the coughing and runny noses that never seem to go away until it warms back up in the summer.  Drake was the only kid that didn't get it.  I was so glad, but it didn't last.  He got it one evening and the poor kid just screamed and screamed.  He would be okay if he was held but after a few minutes that wasn't good either.  I did a lot of pick him up, then put him down.  I finally had to leave the room with him so Jay could get some sleep.  Drake and I were up until two in the morning trying to get him to sleep.  I think he finally just wore himself out.  I was dreading the next day.  I was thinking it was going to be like that night, but he was really pretty good.  He had a low fever so he slept most of that day which was nice since I was pretty tired too.

I am so glad he is feeling better.  I hate having sick kids.  He looks so sweet doesn't he?

Temples

The kids learned the song, "I love to see the temple" in primary so we have been singing it a lot lately.  Elly loves this song.  She always wants me to sing it to her when she takes a nap or goes to bed for the night.  I think she was a little confused about what a temple is because she said to me with a questioning face, "a temple is a body"?  I think she has heard people say your body is a temple... so she was confused in the song when it says a holy place.  I explained to her that it was a special building and showed her a picture of the temple.  Now she wants to see the picture when I sing to her.  Whenever she sees a church she yells out, "a temple."  So we tell her no it's a church.  She asked me the other day where a the temple was.  Lucky for her I was planning on going to the temple that week so I told her she could go with me and see the temple.  She was so excited about this all week.  She picked out her prettiest dress and was so good while I did her hair.  On the drive over she kept saying,"I can't see the temple mom."

When we finally got to where I knew she would be able to see it I told her where to look.  She had to tell Mason where it was and ask him if he could see it.  She was so excited about it. 

While I went in she stayed out with her uncles and cousins.  When we got out my sister took her inside the doors so she could see in the temple.  Since I was feeding Drake I didn't get to see what she thought but she must have liked it because she has talked about going to the temple a lot since then.  I hope that she is always this excited about the temple.

All of the cousins that were at the temple that day.

I took a picture of her with the temple so we can print it and hang it on her wall for her.

She is a cute little girl with lots of questions to ask and lots of things to talk about. 

Mason and Drake went with us to the temple this day too.  Tyler stayed to go to school.  Mason would have stayed too but he wasn't feeling good so I didn't want to send him or leave him with a babysitter.

All my family that was at the temple this day minus my dad and brother.  This was at the Manti temple.

Football season is here!

The time has come for Tyler to start Flag football.  This year when I asked if he wanted to do it he told me he did. So we have been doing this since school started and it has been fun to watch him play.  Mason is wishing I would have signed him up to play but the form said 2nd and 3rd graders so I didn't even think about it.  I wasn't very happy when we got there and found kids his age were playing.  Mason wasn't either and he hs asked me about it every game.

 The first night of games Tyler caught a pass and ran it for a touchdown.  That was fun to see.  He is loving it!  It is nice when they have practices too because the field is by our home so he can walk over there and I don't have to hurry and drop everything to run him there.

He is having fun and we only have a couple more weeks to go before it will be over for the season.

Labor Day Camping

We took one last camping trip over Labor Day.  We went with my sister-in-laws family, which we have done before.  The kids love playing with all their kids and they had so much fun together.  These three crazy kids were playing on the trailer singing at the top of their lungs, sometimes it sounded a little like screaming.

There were lots of four-wheeler rides.  Tyler and his cousin just ridding around camp together.

This is a favorite place for the kids to hang out.  They didn't care if they were going or not they would sit on them and pretend they were.

Uncle Dean talking the little kids for a ride.

While we were there the kids caught some little fish in the stream by us and one of the kids caught a lizard.  The kids played in the stream a lot of the time or shot their BB guns. 
One of the many faces this cute guy pulls.

They looked so nice and clean by the time it was time to head home.

Elly and her cousin Porter.  These two are pretty funny they get along pretty good but they can have their moments with each other.

Jay and Tyler after a ride.

You got to love this kid and the faces he pulls.

Drake of course was with us and this was about the happiest he was the whole time we were there, when we were loading up to come home.  I won't lie this camping trip was fun for my whole family except me and I usually love to camp, but Drake was terrible.  Since he slept by me he wanted to eat all night long, which is bad because he has been sleeping through the night for months. Then Elly kicked me in the back all night and Mason woke up crying every night because he was cold, isn't that what happens when you climb out of your sleeping bag.  I wanted to leave every night and go home because I knew I wasn't going to sleep anyway.  I laid awake one morning early just waiting for it to be time to get out of bed. Since I had nothing to do I figured out how many time the material was used in one of the blankets we were sleeping with.  It wasn't fun.  The days were a lot better but night I dreaded.  I don't know why this time was like this because we camped a few times this year and they did great the other times.  It made me glad we were done for the year.  Hopefully next year is better.

Some of the kids by the stream where they were fishing.

Trying to get one of the fish they saw.

Jay had something on him and it was making Elly a little nervous.

When he got a hold of it he put it on her.  She was very nervous about it.

Then Jay was kissing this little guy.  Elly didn't know what to think of this.

She did finally hold the lizard the kids had caught in her hand.

These two sitting in the wholes where the tires for the trailers sat.

Mason taking a seat in one of the holes too.

The kids had fun so I am glad we took them up for one last camping trip.