Happy Father's Day!!!

Since it is Father's Day.... I decided to thank the father's in my life. I have the great privelage of recognizing 4 fathers today!!!

To the Father who brought me into this world....

Thank you for passing on your good genes to me!! And especially for all of the fun memories over the years!! I am thankful you have passed on your love

of the great outdoors to me!!

To the Father who was there for me during all of those difficult 'growing up' years and ever since!!! Thank you for teaching me many valuable lessons and putting up with my teenage wonderfulness!! Also, thank you for always cooking us such yummy food and always making us laugh!!!

To the Father of my Husband....Thank you for raising such a fine son that has turned out to be an especially fine husband. He loves and respects you more than you know. I have so much respect for your quiet goodness!! Thank you for also being a father to me that I have admired and loved for the past 14 years!!

And lastly... Thank you to the Father of my children... Never in my wildest dreams did I know what a wonderful father you were going to turn out to be!! You have exceeded my highest expectations!! Also, thank you for being the love of my life! Our children are so lucky to have you as their Dad!!! I love you!

I hope you all have a wonderful Father's Day!!! We Love You!!!

Slide Fun and 'Other' Frequent Movements!!!

Since I have been spending 6 hours in the pool everyday teaching swimming lessons.... I thought I would post a video of pool fun!!! Our number 5 is the star of this one... her and her cuteness!!! She LOVES the water.... and the slide!!! But, if you listen closely- you will hear the ever present call of number 4... He is on the 'potty' yelling one of his numerous daily calls, 'I'm Done!!!' He still hasn't become proficient in 'wiping' his own 'behind' yet.....so...we get the 'I'm Done' call at least a couple times a day.... isn't one BM/day pretty standard for most people??? I swear he goes at least 2 or 3 times EVERY DAY!!! At least we know he is getting enough fiber..... If no one comes to his call he gets louder and louder and keeps at it... anyway... how great it will be when he can wipe himself!!!! Hope you enjoy the video!!!!

IT'S OVER!!!

School's out for the summer.... whhoooohoooo!!!! I am sure it will be great until about... next Wednesday... then I will be wishing it was back in again. Here are some of the 'end of year' treats that we got to enjoy because of our FANTASTIC KIDS!!!! We are so proud of each of their accomplishments!!!

This is #1's band concert-- he has become quite the trumpet player!!

.... This is #1's award ceremony

This is #2's award ceremony....

This is #3's award ceremony.....

This is #4's preschool graduation song.....

More preschool graduation.... the pledge of alligence!! He thinks he is suppose to repeat everyone!!! Ha Ha Ha!!!

Had to put a video of #5... we are teaching her to carry the family water supply!!! Ha!!

We have a few FOOTBALL videos to show you next time!!!

Muscle Rub Anyone???

While I was at an awards ceremony for #1 on Thursday, Miss Boo (#5) was being her mischievous little self at a friend's house, getting into cupboards and drawers and making messes. Evidently she found some 'muscle rub' and decided to taste it. She has been known to eat strange things in her day, like desitin diaper ointment, chapstick, makeup, ect. etc. After reading the label, we decided to call poison control and see if we should be worried. Well, after about 15 minutes of waiting... they told us to take her to the ER and have her checked out. Not knowing how much she actually ate, if any, I was hesitant to take her... Well.... not just hesitant.... I had a preschool graduation for #4 that started immediately... so being a bad Mom... I went to his graduation and then after much deliberating and persuasion by my own Mother... I took her in to the hospital. After about an hour of waiting... so much for this being a big emergency.... they gave her some charcoal... yum... yum... !! It was awful--- I have never seen anything so black-- and to force at least a 1/2 of a cup of it down her was nasty. I was surprised she didn't puke it out all over me. After that they took her blood... next, they said they would be back in TWO HOURS to take her blood again..... what was I suppose to do with Miss Busy for TWO more hours in that hospital room???? At least they could have given her a sedative... just kidding.... anyway trying to keep her on a hospital bed is like trying to keep a wild animal on your lap ---- IT DOESN'T WORK!!!! So I decided to walk the halls of the hospital until she fell asleep in the stroller. About a 1/2 hour after I got back and she was peacefully asleep-- the pathologist came back and said... "It's time to draw her blood again!" BUG!!! Oh well... she was nice and peaceful for a minute. Somewhere in the midst of all of this I talked Shane into coming to the hospital to hang out with us... it was nice to have his help!! Anyway... the end result was after yummy charcoal, two blood tests and five hours...... she was fine... no toxin's in her blood-- We did, however, get a lecture on 'child proofing' our home!!! Let that be a lesson to you to keep your MUSCLE RUB out of reach!!!! Fun Times!!!

Girls Weekend!!

Last weekend I had a blast hosting the second 'girls weekend'!! Shane's sisters, his mom, his aunt and two cousins came down for a weekend free of chores, responsibilities, and MOMness in general!!! We had a great time together... Here are a few of the highlights...

We got all dressed up for a night on the town to see La Reve-- It was so great... in describing it to my kids, I said, it was like a high class circus with water, dance, acrobatics, music and drama....fun, fun, fun!! We all really enjoyed the show!

Here is my favorite mom-in-law!!! Since she was hiding in the above group shot... I thought I would show proof that she was with us!!! She was nice enough to fill up her suitcase with scrapbooking supplies so we could make a cute craft--- this made her get 'flagged' by airport security and she had to have her bag opened and picked through, apparently an 'eyelet setter' looks like gun parts, ha ha ha!!

Here are Kay and I striking a pose..... nice try, eh??!!!

Here is a much better pose by Carrie and Mindi!!

We decided to go hiking up at Red Rock... since mostly everyone only brought flip flop's and sandals... I supplied all of the shoes in this shot except two pairs...not too shabby, hun?? Notice Aunt Mary's nice combo of mint green socks with my cool black tennis shoes!!!

The only person missing here is Polly-- she decided to hang out in the shade with her little growing bambino!!! (She is due in September!!!)

Jamie and I were complaining about not having anything to carry our water bottles.... alas... we improvised and put them in our pants... after that we decided we need to buy smaller pants!!

There was a Memorial Day mile, 5k, 10k, fun run for our stake on Monday morning... (clothing provided by 'Jaycee's Closet'!!!) We decided to give it a try... watch out... here we come!!!We survived!!!! Between all of us, we ran a total of 22.4 miles...!!!! (It would be 28.8 if we include my friend Jenny's miles-- thats more than a marathon!!!) And we are still smiling in this picture!!!
Here is where we get a little silly... we had a little too much fun acting like our kids!!!

How old are we????

Oliver decided to come and catch some rays with us!!!

All in all it was a great weekend.... we laughed and laughed and laughed until we cried!!! Thanks for coming everyone... can't wait until next time!!!

NOW... what my family did for the weekend.....
Shane took ALL 5 kids up to a cabin at Panquitch Lake.....HE DESERVES THE 'HUSBAND/FATHER OF THE YEAR' AWARD!!!! Lucky me!!!! And he even brought them all back in one piece!!!

Number 2 on his 'thrashed seat' dirt bike!!!

Here are all five kiddos with uncle Levi... he is headed to Mongolia for two years to teach teachers how to teach (try saying that five times fast).... we will miss you Levi!!!

My handsome husband and his cute little girls... #5 is all tuckered out after their ride!!!

Now there's some fine looking boys!!

Watch out--- she's driving!!!

They had a great time with the exception of a few snags.... they didn't pack for winter weather and didn't even have jackets or anything, it rained a ton and was pretty cold all weekend, they forgot the main 'food' box with the cereal, PB & honey, cans of soup, boxes of mac and cheese, chips etc. etc. So, Shane had to ration food and they all go their fair share of hot dogs!!! They also had to jump the suburban because the battery was dead on Monday morning.... other than that.... it was a SUCCESS!!! They came back all stinky and dirty and tired... but they had a blast!!!

Happy Birthday Bubbee!! (aka #4)

#4 IS 4!!!!

I decided to do something 'exciting' for a birthday cake this year. Over the years I have made some pretty fun cakes... but this year was just going to do a boring old cake... then I got to thinking about how much #4 LOVES CARS.... he not only loves the movie 'Cars' but he LOVES matchbox cars and trucks and bikes and anything that has wheels. He probably has about a hundred or so and he also takes a couple of handfuls of them for show and tell EVERY WEEK at preschool!!!! I figured he would appreciate a FUN, CAR birthday cake... so I got online and looked up 'cars cake' and this is what I came up with... It all went pretty well until spoiler started to fall about 15 minutes before the party started. I guess it was too heavy with all of the gobs of frosting I had to put on to cover it!! Lucky for us... the clear tupperware container was able to hold it up pretty good!!

Needless to say he LOVED it!!!

It kindof resembles LIGHTNING MCQUEEN.... right????

He even helped me make it... a little....

He is all ready for his swimming party... not naked....

SWIM TIME!!!..sorta
We decided to have a swimming party because it was suppose to be in the 100's... who wants to play games outside in that heat??? It was interesting having 8 three and four year olds in the pool at the same time...for a party..... especially since only two of them know how to swim without a life jacket and only a couple more are even comfortable in the water in a life jacket!!! It looks more like we had a life jacket parade!!! Here are a few of them....Notice our cute little fish without his life jacket-- he is such a great swimmer... he LOVES swimming without it.. but we only let him take it off if Shane or I are in the pool!!


PINATA TIME!!!

Nothing like beating SPONGEBOB with a BAT!!! Wish I could have gotten in a couple swings.... I can't stand him!!!! They didn't even feel bad hitting the poor yellow spongey annoyance a million times.... it was GREAT!!! They all just wanted the candy afterwards...


CAKE TIME!!!

Look at that face.... PRICELESS!!!!

PRESENTS!!!!!

It was a great day.... he is such a joy to have in our family... he always makes us laugh and is constantly doing big kid things!! He is such a cutie!!! We LOVE you BUBBEE!!!

His fun filled day ended like this....

(you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the page and turn off the music on the player...)

Happy Mothers Day Mom! Happy B Day Dad!

Mom, thanks for liking me so much!

The old fogies (60 year olds) in their younger days with their little people.

Thanks for hanging out with me Dad.

Mom--thanks for sewing on my badges--I now have a better idea how much of a pain that was

And keeping us clothed in the latest styles (hand sewn with love)!

I love you both, thanks for being such great parents!

And now Grandparents!

From Shane