Summer Fun--upside-down and backwards :)

Alright it has been a long time! I realized that because I forgot how to use this STINKIN' program! I'm in the middle of this post and everything is upside-down and backwards. And there isn't a way to cut and paste so it looks right. It is all screwed up but I'm going to have to post it the way it is. Hope you can make sense of it. Sorry!

Nice intro...but this is our trip to Utah all upside-down and backwards. My first comments are on the bottom. Cute, really cute!

Jakey taking an up-close look of the giant turtle creature.
My favorite shot! The creative mastermind is Matt, my nephew in the sharks mouth. Notice in all of the pictures he is having as much fun as the little kids! He is a hoot!

Steve's favorite shot. I think he takes the same shot everytime we go to the Dino Museum.

Building some kind of mutant.

Afterwards we ate at JCW's burgers -- Yummm!!

One moment of the 50+ hours we spent in the car - a calm moment at least!

We love this picture of Tyler in Kindgom City MO where we stopped for breakfast the first morning. (notice he's still in his jammies...and the cape of course!)

Part of the reason we came--Becky and her new husband Georg had a mini-reception in beautiful Heber City. We missed the reception but came wheeling in just for the picture. Notice Steve and I look so fabulous after 29 hours of driving and hardly any sleep.

My kids had to get a picture in front of the "clam-shell fountain" on Temple Square. They always remember this fountain for some reason. Here they are with Aunt Stephanie, cousins Becca and Scott who we spent a LOT of our time with in Utah.

The Heritage Park mini-train. We had such a GREAT time here! My kids and I had never been and they had all sorts of fun extra activities that day including free popsicles, candy and Native American dancing. It was awesome!!

We're back! Oh, did you not notice we were gone?! Probably not. Did I fall off the face of blogger-world? Well, kinda. You kind of understand, I guess that I have 5 kids and it has been summer. So what is it that you do with 5 kids all summer when your husband has classes everynight? That's a good question! I solved it by packing my family up and going to Utah for several weeks. I figured Steve wasn't really around anyway and he wouldn't miss us. The way it worked out though we finagled it that he drove out to Utah with us and then he flew home to his grinding schedule. KUDOS to him! He really is the hero of this story. Poor guy has to drive across the country with us 28 hours; spend only a few days in Utah seeing everything and everyone and then getting back to his work, school, homework, (repeat, until exhausted) while trying to do his laundry, cooking, and taking care of the dog, cat, fish and hamster. Can one man really do that? (well, one woman can, but a man?!) Well he did. The best part was that he missed us like crazy -- and we missed him too; while we were swimming at the pool, boating at the lake, visiting Heritage Park, Liberty Park and Wheeler Farm, hanging out with family and friends and eating at Cafe Rio.

I'm trying to be like Jesus.

Our little boy is a big boy now! He's 8 and he chose to be baptized. We are so proud of him and he was so excited! It turned out to be a lovely day, eventhough we were sad to be missing our families that live so far away. It would have been nice to share it with them. Hayden has really surprized me with his mature attitude about choosing to follow Jesus. I think he really understands to make that covenant. We are really proud of him!

(did I say that already?)



The baptiser and baptisee...


The Clan -- minus Tyler, he got tired of waiting for all of us to look the same direction.

Here he is talking to his best friend, Hyrum.

Enjoying root beer floats after the baptism.

The closing song we sang is one of my favorite Primary songs. I even typed it in the program. I thought I would share the words:

I'm trying to be like Jesus, I'm following in His way.

I'm trying to love as He did, In all that I do and say.

At times I am tempted to make a wrong choice,

But I try to listen as the still small voice whispers,

'Love one another' as Jesus loves you.

Try to show kindness in all that you do.

Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought

For these are the things Jesus taught."

We have a graduate!

Miss Linda
Miss Jody

Aubrey is a big graduate! Pre-K graduate it is. Aubreys birthday falls 2 days after the school cut-off, so I had a battle with myself at the beginning of the school year (well, at the end of last years school, rather) She was SO ready to go to kindergarten but I couldn't bend the rules to get her in. A preschool in town was recommended to me and I'm really glad we figured out the finances to send her. She made some great friends (and so did mom!), had 2 wonderful teachers and she loved being able to go to school too. She excelled in everthing she did and is thrilled about learning. We are proud of you, Sue-bee-doob!!

The Miscellaneous Nature of May

One awesome kid!
"Hey, where we goin'?"
(Boy, the Accord's trunk is bigger than I thought!)

Corny People

The Victory GardenYummy!!
Our answer to a rained-out Father-Son Campout.

"37!"
My Mothers Day Present! Love it!

Ooops! Mommy's fault...eeek

The Balloon Festival (notice Charlie had to be part of the action)

May is such a busy month around here. The last few weeks before school gets out is crazy with parties and whatnot. Steve has his birthday in May and Hayden had his 8th birthday this year! We won't say just how old Steve is...probably because he'll just rib me about being older than him. Its a short lived victory. Oh, back to topic...Anyway, because I have 200+ pictures for May I'm just going to choose a few pictures with short captions. If you'd like a longer explanation, just make one up :)

Pinewood Wonderland

As we all know I am WAY behind on posts -- funny but all my journal entries start the same way too! Anywhoo, the Pinewood Derby was so long ago I can't even remember if it was really in May. I think it was late April. I have a million pictures but these are the keepers. Alex did like most the boys -- ended up somewhere in the middle but I think he enjoyed more this year. His expectations weren't quite as high (for some reason the 1st year wolves always think they are going to win) and his car actually did better than last years'...he actually won some races this year. It was fun!

Singing along..

As you may have noticed I added 'My Playlist' to my blog. Several of you...my fellow bloggers.. have playlists on yours and I love to hear your selections of music. As a matter of fact, I have stolen some of your songs. Thanks, by the way.
Some of the songs I have chosen have some sentimental value to them, like Boston's 'More than a Feeling' Steve and I listened to on our first date and he thought I was cute/crazy for totally getting into it and playing the air guitar to it. How could we not include "Aubrey" by Bread? Come on!! And I think "Why Georgia" is pretty self-explanatory.
Other songs I just love the beat and want to dance to it or excersize to it. If you know how much I love to dance and excersize (a fact that my figure does not reflect) - almost as much as I love to play the air guitar - you would understand. I'll have to add some more of those.
I have also added my favorite artist category. I just plain love Chris Daughtry and Josh Groban. And Steve's new addiction is Dean Martin. He listens to his best of all time album ALL THE TIME! It kind of cracks me up. I would have never pegged him for a rat packer back then when we were rocking out to Boston and Depeche in his GMC Jimmy. Oh, those were the days.
Then there are other songs that as soon as I heard it the song moved me. Those are the songs that inspired me to add the playlist to my blog. It was the song 'Lucky' by Jason Mraz that really pushed me into adding it to my blog because I do feel lucky to be in love with my best friend. Steve and I love to be together. We laugh over crazy people he meets at work and debate plot lines in movies. We discuss gospel doctrine, watch Jeopardy together ('cause we are nerds). We pull our hair out about the kids and sometimes we fight. But I always feel lucky.
The other song in this category for me is 'Small Wonders' by Rob Thomas. The kids always tease me when that song comes on because it makes me cry. I realized after I looked up the lyrics that they don't say what I thought they said, but the song always says the same thing to me..."our lives are made in these small hours...these little wonders still remain" It reminds me that eventhough my life is hectic and crazy right now that the little things, the everyday things are forming their lives. And Rachel, don't forget, they are small wonders! They really are!! I hate to lose sight of that sometimes but that song always reminds me how wonderful and what a blessing my children are. Remember to cherish every moment!
So sing along and enjoy... you know I will be!

April Happenings

Yes, I understand that it is May now...almost June. I just have one question..."where'd my life go?" Holy Moly! I'm sorry all, I am extremely behind. So I will try to be brief...one of my greater struggles, just ask Steve. Anywho...April brought spring showers, I refer to my previous post about showers. We have finally received some water here in Georgia. We've been in a 'drought' since we've been here but I think thats about over with the amount of water we have gotten this year. Anyway, it makes us happy that we put that cement slab under our deck. It has at least pushed the mosquitos back from our back door a few feet. I fear they will find us anyway.
April also brings us Tyler's birthday, which if you can believe it was his 3rd. I remember it being a wonderful day. The weather was getting warm, Steve took the day off, we went to lunch together with the little ones and then we had planned to take them all to Chuck E. Cheese but the weather was so nice we went to the park and flew kites instead. Talk about reliving your childhood. That was fun!!
One of my favorite rememberances of Tyler's birthday, besides it just being one of those perfect days, is that when we sang 'Happy Birthday' to him he was so thrilled with joy that he started waving his arms conducting our singing. It was so cute. He is truly a boy full of joy and quite a blessing.
We also enjoyed a lovely Easter. Steve and I have been trying over the years to separate "bunny Easter" from Easter Sunday. Saturday we usually dye eggs, (Grandma Alice's tradition that we are keeping!) have an Easter egg hunt, and search for baskets. Then that leaves us Sunday to really focus on the importance of the resurrection.
As we left church on Sunday I asked the kids what they learned in their classes and Tyler said they talked about Jesus and 'rolling the stone away'. Wow, it really floored me how early they can learn. It was a good moment for me to realize I have to teach eventhough I think they aren't listening. I'm pretty sure Tyler's teacher didn't think he was listening. I'm really grateful for wonderful dedicated teachers. I can't do it all but there will be others there to help teach. Lovely, blessed Easter!