Hi

On his way...

Right at home.

Cute Carly

She loves to help me cook. And yes, she dresses herself.

And this one loves to eat EVERYTHING! This time he chose dirt. Yum.

Week recap

There are nothing like Carly and Parker burritos. They love to be wrapped up in their blankets like this. So funny.

We went up for the ward campout last weekend. We missed the actual campout part because of our recent camping experiences... we just didn't want to sleep in a tent anymore. We had a lot of fun though.

At a recent zoo trip. Carly got to feed the Lorakeets. She thought that was pretty cool.

Parker at the zoo.

Us at the zoo.

There are a lack of Spencer pictures because he is currently at Grandma and Grandpa's house spending a couple of weeks. We hear he is having a ton of fun and it sure has been quiet around our house!

Reunion Time

We just got back from a family reunion in good ol' Fishlake. I LOVE Fishlake! It was good to be back there and let the kids experience the fun. Of course, if it wouldn't have rained the whole time, it would have been a little better :)




Spencer caught this fish and was very proud of himself. He even cooked it over the fire and ate it (with the help of Natalie- THANKS!)

Craft time.

Carly and Taylin in front of the lake

At the lodge

Clay, Taylin, Jessica, Carly, and Katie at the lodge.

The rastafarian Grandma and Parker

Parker and Aunt Jodie

It hailed on us one of the days. Spencer wanted to catch the hail in a cup.

Spencer won the reward for the most battle wounds.

Me and Carly at Twin Creeks.

Live and learn

Things I have learned this week... and it's only Wednesday.

1. If I don't stay on top of cleaning up a few "spit-ups" from Parker, our living room looks like a vulture cage after just one day.

2. The employees at Wal-mart are well trained in identifying a lost child and radioing it in to the whole store. They are also great at listening to a lost 6 year old who is saying that he ran away from his mean mom because he doesn't want a brown bathroom, he wants an orange one... apparently kids run away from their moms at Walmart more often than I realized.

3. Rabbits LOVE petunias. Not just the petals- yep, the whole darn thing!

4. My kids behave better when I lock them in their bedroom.

5. Parker gets woken up from his naps at the drop of a dime... on carpet... 3 rooms away...

6. Abraham Lincoln was our 16th president (Oh, have I learned about ol' Honest Abe this week!)

7. Yes, I am THAT mom, the one who yells at her kids at church... (reverent yelling, of course!)

Love this place!

I've been trying to do things with the kids everyday so that we don't go crazy at home. Luckily, there is lots to do here.


We went to the temple and walked around. I need to take them more often. I am SO grateful that we have a temple here!

Spencer wanted to pose himself... super model in the making? Well, I'll work with him.

We also went to the zoo. I love the one here. It is seriously the BEST zoo! Except I got three small ice cream cones and it cost over 10 bucks! And did I mention they were small? Other than their ice cream prices, the zoo is awesome! :)

Posing at the zoo.

Another thing that makes this place fabuloso, is that on almost any given morning, you can look into the sky and see hot air balloons. This one woke us up on Tuesday morning because it was so close to our house. We went in our backyard and this is what we saw; it was landing on the road just behind our house. How cool, huh! We totally didn't mind the rude awakening. We watched and listened as they took it down, in our pajamas.

Driving, Camping, and Hiking

We celebrated our anniversary last night by getting a babysitter, eating yummy food, and then going to an indoor karting place. This is Kyle and I took the pic with the phone- sorry it's such a bad pic, but you get the idea. Fun!

A pic of Spencer and Kyle at the Fathers/Sons campout last weekend.

Yesterday morning we decided to brave the black cloudy skies and go to Tent Rocks. It's a place up by Santa Fe. We had a lot of fun and the weather turned out to be perfect hiking weather! It sprinkled on us a little, but it was great! Glad we braved the weather. Here's the kids on a tree in the canyon we were hiking in.

After the hike we went to Cochiti Lake and the kids got in the lake and .2 seconds later, it started pouring.

On the hike again. One of the slot canyons.

The fam before the hike.

Almost to the top. The kids did SO good. It was a little scary for me to have them so close to some drop offs, but they weren't worried at all.

Summah- summah- summah time!

The kids are out of school and the weather is oh-so warm. Summer is in da house!
We celebrated by going to an Isotopes baseball game last night with some friends. Besides the kids throwing peanuts over the edge of the suite (and getting in T-R-O-U-B-L-E) and catching a baseball by default, it was a fun night at the ball park.





Some of the baseball goers.

The kids had fun eating junk and running in and out of the suite... in and out and in and out and in and out- you get the idea. :)

I took the kids to the zoo too and it was a short excursion due to some behavior that I KNOW doesn't reflect on my parenting skills. Right? But before the hasty departure, the kids saw a few animals and played in the water fountain thingamajingy. This is Carly wondering if she should get wet. Nope she didn't.

Spencer, on the other hand, took mere nanoseconds to decide and was soaken before you could say "don't get too wet".

Good times. for about 15 minutes. until the above mentioned "behavior issue". I'll just end with a favorite quote: A child's misbehavior is not reflective on who you are as a parent." 'Nuff said.

We are excited for the rest of summer though!

Happy Anniversary to us

8 years and we STILL love each other.

What a week

This week started by this little guy swallowing a highlighter lid. It had a sharp clip on it, I took him into Urgent Care. They did an x-ray, but since the lid was plastic, it didn't show anything. So now we are just waiting and seeing what happens.

The next day, Carly was stepping in a drawer (although she is adament that it was Parker). The dresser fell on top of her and trapped her. Poor girl is okay, but was pretty scared and has some bruises to show for it. (Glad we didn't have to go to Urgent Care two days in a row!)

Spencer had a poetry jam for school. He memorized 3 poems and performed them. He did a great job. It was really fun to go watch his class. Only 1 week left of school! Yay!

And as I was taking some cute pictures last night, the laundry room flooded. I cleaned it up and turned off the water, but can't move the washer and dryer by myself. Kyle and Spencer are gone on the Fathers/Sons campout, so poor Kyle will have some work to do when he gets home.

And Carly has decided to refuse to wear anything but dresses. She loves to twirl in them. She has resorted to throwing some major tantrums until she gets her dresses- problem is, is that we don't have as many dresses as she needs :)

So, hopefully next week is uneventful.

Welcome....

to my life.

Backyard Fun!

Man, the weather has been SO nice this week! I am loving it! Yesterday we spent the entire day outside doing yardwork, playing with the bunnies, drawing chalk pictures, and then we broke out the pool! What a great day!






Spencer was chillin' by the pool.

All three joined in on the fun

Parker loves his swing

Ha, we should just leave him in the swing 24/7.

And Spencer LOVES climbing the tree and yelling at our neighbors. I'm sure they love us!

After seeing this, Kyle said, "Should I just go make Spencer an appointment with us now, or wait til he falls?"