4th of July!

We had the funnest 4th of July weekend in Wyoming. We celebrated Carly's 1st birthday for the 3rd time. (hey, you only turn 1 once!!)

Jack wanted to see the dam, so we took a little drive down there. (It is SUPER full by the way, they have those flood gates gushing)
When we got there he was very confused and kept asking, "well, where is the dam?" We kept trying to explain that that mountain of rocks was the dam and he said, "I thought Beavers make dams." We explained that Beavers do make dams, they are just different. So on the way home Jack finally says.. "so, there are 3 kinds of dams. One that people make, One that Beavers make, and One that is a VERY bad word!" Yep Jack, that's about right! (Can you tell what discussions we've had in our house?)

We also went to the 4th Festivities in Star Valley, WY. They had a golf cart parade..

They had races for the kids. ... (Noah is in the blue sweatshirt, and Caleb is next to him in the white t-shirt) They were really concentrating and were soooo excited when they got participant ribbons.Jordan and Ben did the egg toss. And when theirs broke Jordan, in his usual perky way informed us that .. "our chick hatched!"

Ben and Jordan, best buddies.Somehow we even got Rob and Mike talked into doing the baloon toss. They tied for 1st place. whoo-hoo!Noah and Mike 4-wheelin' , Noah's very favorite thing to do.The boys out in the new bonus room, or as we fondly refer to it.. the "ruckus" room. They had a slumber party out there with Rob as chaperone. (thanks Rob)

We had so much fun. It rained every night and was much colder than usual but we loved it. Thanks mom and dad for having such a great "club house"!

Happy Birthday Carly!!!

A simple prayer

Jack always has the most heart felt, honest prayers. Last nights went something like this. ..

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the beautiful, beautiful day, please bless me to have some good dreams. Not wierd dreams or strange dreams, or anything like that... Just help me to dream, because I haven't dreamed for a few days.

In the name......"

San Diego

Loaded up and ready to go...!

Breakfast in Las Vegas

The Beach, seeing the seals. Noah informed us here that he was ready to go and "kick some whales!"

...He decided to kick some pigeons instead.

This was only the 1st half of our load heading into the hotel.

Seaside Village. Jordan kept asking "when are we getting to the wart?" We finally discovered he meant Wharf.
Kaden thought this navy ship coming into the bay was the coolest thing ever.

Day 1: the Zoo

Carly was sooooo tired, she kept fighting going to sleep. Finally the bus at the zoo did the trick.

Day 2: Sea World

Noah was a bit confused how to wear the 3D glasses.

Rob took the boys on the water ride, at the end of the day, they were SOAKED!!!!

Day 3: Legoland (and their FAVORITE!!!)

Rob's been replaced.

We thought ahead and packed their swimsuits for the water park at Legoland.

Mini Lego city.

A lot of the rides were too big for Noah so while Rob took the big kids, NOah and I had a Popsicle.

Carly's swimming debut. She LOVES the water.

WE probably could have spent most of the time at the pool and they would have been happy. We did manage to swim every night we were there. We had a GREAT week and the kids were troopers on the drive there and back. We had minimal melt-downs and aside from Carly being SUPER ornery from not getting enough sleep, we did pretty well. The kids keep telling us they want to do this every year. (sigh) We did however have several comments to us as to how we had our hands full, (you know our kids aren't the most mellow bunch....), we did get a few dirty looks, and at one point a lady at the zoo said , "whoa, that's a lot of blonde coming at me." There were times we felt like we should be on display at the parks.

All in all, the kids were VERY well behaved and we can honestly say we are a bit sad to be home, we had THAT much fun.

THat's my girl!!

This and that

I've discovered that my biggest flaw in blogging is that I'm not very good about doing it frequently. (hey, I do have 5 kids, it's not like I'm busy or anything.) Anyhow, Sorry about the huge posts with tons of pictures, but my free minutes are few and far between so I have to make the most of them. That said.... Here's what's new! Carly finally learned to crawl at 10 months, (at least 2-3 months later than all of her brothers, I guess that's what happens when you are constantly being held!!:) Of course, it didn't take her long to learn her next trick, (only about a week) pulling herself up on furniture. The problem... most of the stuff she pulls herself up on is light, side tables, bar stools, etc. and I constantly find her on the floor with something toppled on top of her. You'd think she'd learn.

As for the boys. Here's what I found my little strategists doing the other day. They had rigged a pulley system so that they could let the wagon roll down the hill and then pull themselves back up without either of them getting out. Genius!!!!

Oh and not to forget, Jack made himself a little camp site. He hauled the rocks from the field to use as a fire pit and later we came out to find nemo (Noah's stuffed animal) hanging from the tree. I gotta say... This is my kind of camping!!!

Carly decided I needed help scrapbooking. She is her mother's daughter!

And then there's soccer...

Here's Carly enjoying soccer....

Noah NOT enjoying soccer...

Jack posing for a picture when he was supposed to be playing soccer...

Kaden really playing soccer well....

and Jordan just having fun!

We also spent a day watching Tanner. Jack thought he was soooo much fun. Carly thought he was a punching bag :( It made for a very interesting day.




And Jack graduated from pre-school. This was his best friend who moved a week later. It was a sad, sad day!!!!!

All in all, we've had a busy month. And that doesn't even include last weekends trip to the cabin, all the end of school activities going on, and this week we started t-ball. I guess they'll have to wait until the next time I have 5 free minutes.

Oh and by the way. I'm tired of hearing how Adam Lambert got robbed of his American Idol title. I totally voted for Kris. I think he is great. That being said, I ought to in full disclosure admit that I am probably the only person in my state who didn't vote for David Archuletta last season. I was and still am a HUGE David Cook fan. And after hearing David Archuletta's new album, (I'm sorry, it's just a little lame!!!) I know I made the right choice. I stick with my choice this year as well. Way to go Kris! (Sorry about that AI rant, isn't that what a blog is for?)

Oh, one more thing... In a previous post I said my favorite store was Gymboree, my kids have informed me that this is NOT true, and they are correct. My favorite store is Lowes/Home Depot (it's a tie) ,I know, go figure. Followed super close by ANY and all scrapbook stores. (Gymboree is my favorite girls clothing store). And the only reason they know this is that I am there FREQUENTLY, and even crazier... All these boys and they all HATE my favorite store. I keep telling them how lucky they are, when I was a kid my mom's favorite store was the fabric store. I can't even tell you how many hours we kids spent in the car outside the fabric store waiting for my mom to come out. At least I'm training them to be good at home improvement projects! :)

Kaden's All Star Video

Crafty I may be, a tech junkie I am not, so when Kaden informed me that for his "All star student of the week" he wanted me to make a video, I panicked. And then, I started scanning.(Kaden was born in 1998, we got our 1st digital camera in 2004, you do the math!!) Anyway, I did a crash do-it-yourself course in making movies and went to work. Here is the final product. Enjoy! (Also starring the many hair do's of Angie, as Kaden's teacher pointed out:))

Catch up pictures

I thought I'd better do a quick catch up on all we've done this month, we've been so busy, and pictures take sooooo long to download that I haven't got the chance yet. So here goes. Most recent first...

2 weeks ago was Jordan's 1st pinewood derby. He LOVED making his car with dad, (which was a good thing because he didn't fare so well in the race) But Jordan being Jordan could have cared less. He was all smiles and had a great time. (Notice it is a shark, named "water runner".

Easter we spent with Rob's family. Grandma and grandpa organized a fun easter egg hunt for all the kids and the weather cooperated beautifully!

Noah needed a little guidance from grandpa.

Carly finally decided she'd had enough and ended up right here on grandma's lap!

We also spent a day at the aquarium. The kids LOVED it. My only complaint... There wasn't more of it. They would have been entertained for HOURS!!!

General Conference weekend we went to grandma and grandpa H's. Grandma organized a fun easter egg hunt for all the kids and it was so much fun to see everyone!

And of course it wouldn't be a weekend with grandpa without a plane ride...

You can see how much Jack enjoyed it!!!!

And In March we welcomed our newest little cousin, baby Tanner. (He is SOOOOO cute!!!!)