A Blast From the Past

I got together Monday with two good friends of mine who used to be in the ward, Stephanie & Candice. Candice now lives in MN and even though Steph lives close, we don't see each other much. It was so great to see them and the kids had a blast! We met at Wendy's and had lunch. Then went to Liberty Park, then to Stephanie's house where we pizza for dinner and just kept visiting & playing. It was hard to say goodbye.

Shaylee, Carlyn, Trinity, Nicholas, Braxton, Easton, & Anneliese
Nicholas & Darren in strollers when they really wanted to be running around. They are about 3 months apart.
Candice & Stephanie
Annie (in the back) at the pond at Liberty Park. They have a concrete waterfall, stream & pond for the kids to play in. Its great!
D loved to splash.
Here we were all melting and just about done. We had a snack and went to a 7-11 for Slurpee.
Carlyn & Trinity are good buddies now. She's 6 and they had a hard time saying bye.

Pioneer Week #3

Friday night & Saturday was our ward camp out. We went to Soldier Creek by Strawberry Reservoir and had a great time. We got there about sundown Friday, which was much later than we'd hoped. Oh well. We got set up and had a few smores. We went to bed really late and even though my kids slept better than the other times camping, they didn't sleep great. I should say the younger kids. Carlyn is the best sleeper ever! Anyway, we woke up, had breakfast, went crawdad fishing, had lunch and packed up. It was great but also exhausting.

A playing in the dirt.

Not a very good picture, but apparently the only one I took. This is at breakfast and that's Carlyn's head at the bottom.

Pioneer Week #2

Wednesday we went swimming with Grandma Linda at her apartment complex. Aunt Teri was there too. D playing with Gma.
Carlyn & Annie swimming with Teri-sorry not the best pic of her.
This is the parade on the 24th. We were sad to miss our neighborhood bike parade, but the girls and I agreed that Daddy isn't going to be in the "Big" parade very often, so we'll miss just this once. It was SOOO hot. We were melting. But we were excited to see Daddy.
Annie was asking to go home about a half hour into it. Poor kid, heat seems to really bother her more.
Me & D. Teri, her roommate & kids went with us and we met Joel & Jess there. We sat at 8th south and 4th east. It was a very sunny spot.

We went to a party at my cousin Chali's house that night. It was a luau and we enjoyed having a great dinner, visiting and letting the kids play. Can you tell how tired Rick is? 2 nights of 3 hours of sleep due to the 2 parades he helped with the float. Ugh. We left and Annie got sick in the car. Yuck! We cleaned up and went to Rick's aunt Charlene's for the fireworks. We had a great view of the Liberty Park fireworks. Annie wasn't feeling well and I held her the whole time and D was scared to death for the first few minutes. Rick finally held him and settled him down. All in all it was a fun day, but very exhausting. We slept very late the next morning.

Float Preview-Pioneer Week #1

I do have the hardest time cutting out pictures. I'll try to keep it down though. Our Pioneer Week started out with the Float Preview Monday night. The floats from the parade are there and you get to vote. As we got out of the car we saw my aunt Cindy and her kids Katie, Jilly, & Carson (no Alex.) When we got inside we saw family from the other side, aunt Emily, uncle Chuck, Grandma Potter, Alicia, Chali, John & their kids. It was so much fun! Here are a few awesome pictures: Katie, Carlyn & Annie after face painting-A was mad I moved her face to see the ladybug.
Darren & Dad
A good close up of the float. If you didn't get to see it, you can't appreciate the size of the thing. It was 14 feet tall, 14 feet wide, & 45 feet long. It has the arch from Murray park, with ants having a picnic at the park, the old smokestacks-which go up and down and have smoke coming out and a fan that makes the "fire" blow out the top-, and the Indian chief head at the park entrance is on the back.
Rick had a blast working on the float and loved talking about it to anyone that would listen, so the preview was fun for him especially. BTW, the sound on our float WAS the best, even if we didn't win the people's choice award.
I never got a better picture. This is Katie holding Darren, Jilly, Carlyn, & Carson in front of the Noah float. Annie was running around somewhere.

Jilly & D (I love having helpers. It was wonderful being there with them.)
Tuesday my sister & mom were here to visit grandma so we went again with them, Grandma White, & Grandma Hilton. Our stake had an awesome setup of the trophies we'd won already, a slideshow & display of building the float and a kiddie pool full of sand that the kids could dig plastic ants out of. It was fun to take some ownership in the float. Our whole stake worked hard to make it so awesome.
The kids digging out ants (Annie's new favorite toy).
The crew the 2nd day. We had fun but we were tired and hungry by now.The kids with Gma WhiteCarisa's kids with Gma Hilton

Playdough & Super Saturday

Anneleise got this playdough octopus for her birthday and I wasn't brave enough to use it with cousins around. I pulled it out the other day though and the girls had a ball. My brother Mathew and I played along with them. It was actually quite stress relieving.




Saturday was our ward's Super Saturday. I made this FHE board. I love it and I am very excited to have it. My SIL Katie went with me and I was so happy to have her there. She made a board too and we had fun chatting and having lunch without the kids. I couldn't wait to hang it up when I got home. The girls love it because the can help assign names.

Dead Battery and Spilled Spaghettios

Yesterday morning we were going to go visit my grandma with my siblings and mom and my van wouldn't start. Rick jumped it with him truck and we left. Then we had to use my mom's van to jump it again. The kids kept begging to go places, but I didn't dare go anywhere else. I got home and Rick hooked it up to a battery charger at our house. Ugh. Frustrating but not the end of the world. Then I was making lunch for the kiddies and the spaghettios can fell off the counter and splattered ALL OVER! It was on the ceiling and just about everywhere in the kitchen. It was more than I could handle at that point and I had Rick come and clean it for me. He thought it was a great laugh. I didn't. Oh well. I should have taken pictures, but I didn't think of it then. Its a good thing I'm not a drinker because I needed a stiff drink last night. I settled for a root beer with dinner. My battery still won't take a charge so we'll probably have to replace it. Oh well.

Birthdays, Parades, & Family Fun

There seems to be one month in every family where there are a bunch of birthdays all together. July is that month for us. Combine that with a visit from my sister's and my brother's families visiting from out of state, plus the 4th of July and its been really busy. I have a hard time leaving out pictures, like my sister, so I've put them in slideshows. Sorry, this is long, but since this is mostly for me...

It all started on the 3rd of July when we went to the Riverton parade to support Rick in his float duties. **(tangent) Our stake has a float this year and its been a lot of work for Rick. He's in charge of the sound and he took his job seriously. He also just helped in general and has been a motorcycle escort to the parades because it is a flippin huge float. (Pictures to follow) We won 1st in Murray and Sandy and there was no judging in Riverton.** Rick's mom always sits at a friend's house on the route and then they have a BBQ afterward. So we joined them. (I should say the kids and I. Rick was there for most of the parade, but duty called.) It was SUPER hot and windy too. Aunt Teri kept buying the kids popcicles and we drank a ton of water too. They called Rick because someone had bumped the mixer and the sound didn't work. He jogged in the heat for a half a mile to flip a switch and jogged back to sit with me and the kids. What a man! Anyway, we had a great time and the kids got tons of candy. Then Rick's mom, sister, and friends came to our house and did a few firecrackers. We got here about 10 and Annie said to me, "Mom, I'm tired. I'm going to bed." I asked if she wanted to stay up for firecrackers and she said "No. I just wanna go to bed." She took herself down and got ready. I just gave her a kiss. Carlyn on the other hand wanted to stay up as late as possible and was up til after 11.

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We woke them up about 8 on the 4th. The days of going to the breakfast early morning are gone for now :) Instead, I made pancakes and we ate them while waiting for the parade to start. We always meet our friends Joel & Jessica and their daughters at a certain spot. Carlyn and Jensyn have done this since they were little and I'll be sad if it ever stops. They are 2 weeks apart and good friends. We love the Murray parade and especially enjoyed the overcast day. Rick took off to escort the float to another parade so we chilled at home. I know they have fun stuff at the park, but we've never made it, and while I feel a little bad, we have a really fun family day starting at 2, so I don't feel too bad. We went home for naps instead. We always go to my aunt Emily's house in Kaysville for my Grandma Potter's birthday party. It is the one family party that keeps going every year no matter what. As many family members come as possible. I have a lot of cousins and most of us have kids now. There are a lot of great grandchildren (70 or something.) We always have a big potluck and my Dad cooks BBQ turkey. Mostly we just eat and visit. Next we headed to my house and were getting ready to go to Murray Park for the fireworks. It ended up that we ordered pizza and watched from across the street. It was fun, but I did miss going to the park.

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The 5th is my other grandma's birthday. Grandma Hilton loves to go out to eat so my Dad took the whole family out to eat at Village Inn for breakfast. That's 12 adults and 12 kids! Thanks Dad! Every one else went to my parents house, but we stayed home for Sunday, spent time with Rick, and prepared to go camping. The first picture is Annie teaching Lindsay to cut pancakes. Then Gma Hilton saying her pie is too much. The last is the 4 cousins that were born within 4 months. So cute!

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The 6th is my mother-in-law, Linda's birthday. We enjoyed visiting with her for awhile Sunday evening and I stupidly forgot to take any pictures, but we had fun anyway!

The 7th is my Dad's birthday. We went camping at a tiny lake called Boulger Lake up Fairview Canyon. It was so cool and nice up there. If not for the mosquitos, the tent ripping, and the kids screaming all night it would have been a perfect trip. (I'm NOT exaggerating. They would take turns crying or screaming all night until 3:45 when I gave up because we were freezing and I hadn't slept anyway. I loaded them in the van and drove to my parents house.) We had a combined birthday party for him and Anneliese. Annie really got all the attention though and Dad didn't seem to care because he got his cupcake. :) She was very gracious and loved each present.

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We did survive the night by finishing sleeping at my parents house and made it back in time for lunch. Then we piled in the cars and drove to Electric Lake where we took turns in the rafts. Annie was the last grandchild to not have a turn and ended up with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa wanted to fish and took his time so she got a long turn and was very chatty, according to Grandma. We had dinner in Fairview and headed home very dirty and tired.

The next day we visited the grandma's with my sister and then she flew home. I miss her already. But I'm really glad she got to come. A year and a half is too long!

We took a day to recover, then went back to my parent's house where all the kids had a "carnival." They had a hose on the slide with a pool at the bottom, a blow up pool, the ladder ball game, and horse shoes set up. It was a blast. The next day we went swimming at Snow College which is always a favorite of mine. Darren was a little fish. He floated by himself in his lifejacket and kicked and splashed. I couldn't believe it. The girls were fish too, but Darren's not done that before.

I came home again for Sunday and we celebrated Anneliese's birthday starting off with pancakes and eggs. At her request we had lasagna for dinner. In the evening, we had Rick's family over and went to the park for cupcakes and presents. The kids had a blast and Darren showed off how well he walked with the walker toy.

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We like to drag birthdays out as long as possible so we had a little friends party for A the next day. It turned out to be sets of sisters at the party. Each older one was 4 and Annie was the oldest younger sister turning 3. She had requested a Brown party, so I put out a brown tablecloth, got pink & brown streamers and balloons and tried my best to have a Brown theme. We played a couple games then had a story about the color brown and had a bear hunt and decorated chocolate cupcakes and did snaps and had presents. The kids all played in the play room at the end and there were no fights so I consider it a success. :)

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Here are a few other pictures of family fun.

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A fun site about Hairdos

I am always fighting with Carlyn about doing her hair. My sister in law emailed a blog to me that has cute hairdos and now Carlyn wants to try new things. Of course, I just cut Annie's hair way off, but it'll grow out. Here is the link. Have fun! http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/ Look to the left for a list of hairstyles.

This is the lattice ponytails.

I couldn't get a good picture, but her hair is so curly in back and very cute.

First Haircut

Be patient with me. I haven't been on in a long time and I'm way behind on posts. I have several here. Thanks for reading and spread them out if you have to :)

Here is baby D. His hair hanging in his eyes and over his ears. You can't see it well, but it was driving me crazy. It flips over his ears like Rick's when it gets too long. So I braved it tonight and cut his hair. Myself. I put him in his highchair and put on the Wiggles. He was great until I started trying to get it straighter. It isn't perfect, but he's 10 1/2 months old. I feel pretty good about what I did! Here is the before picture...And the after picture. He wouldn't hold still for the picture, but you can see it isn't in his eyes or over his ears. Mission accomplished. :) I'm surprised how well he did. What a good boy!
Anneliese had a little mullet going on because her hair grows faster in the back and not much on top. It was driving me nuts so I decided to cut it. I was sad to lose the long curls, but it still curled up nicely. I hope the top will start growing sometime too. She is the one who chose the Wiggles and sat great except when I stood in front of her to try to get it even.

Cousins

My sister Emily and her kids are here from Texas. It feels pretty cool to them, but I think its plenty hot. I'd never met my niece, Samantha, since she was born in February (on Valentine's Day & 3 days before my birthday.) She is so cute and chubby. We are happy to meet her. Because they were at my parent's house, the kids and I went down Thursday. We had fun visiting. They played on the swings, in the water, and we all went to a ward party and to see Wall E. The kids were all getting along pretty well, so we stayed over and came home Sunday evening. We really missed Rick by then. Charlotte, Evynn, & Darren in the baby pool. They had a slip and slide set up too.
Annie, Emily, Samantha, Caleb, Charlotte, & Carlyn reading bedtime stories.

Annie, Charlotte, Caleb, Carlyn, Darren, Jordan, Samantha, & Claire on our porch swing. Its hard to get that many kids happy and smiling at the same time. My brother, Barrett, and his family came from California this week too. They are staying in SL until this weekend and we've seen them twice. Carlyn & Jordan were babies together here in Utah and have a special bond. We did a slip and slide & kiddie pool here today and had a blast.

Daddy's motorcycle

One thing Rick really loves is riding a motorcycle. Its not my favorite thing, however and I really have to make myself be cool with it. I don't necessarily mind him riding, but I get a little nervous every time he takes my children for a ride. I got over that some a couple years ago when Carlyn was little and Rick grabbed my face and said, "Honey, you know that I love her more than anything. More than myself. I'm not going to let anything happen to her. I promise to be safe." I still know accidents happen, but it did make me understand his point of view. He didn't get it out at all last year because it needed a little work, but he pulled it out recently and its running and registered. Darren loves riding it, despite the picture. That was the first time sitting on it and the noise scared him. Annie & Carlyn aren't scared at all and love rides. He goes really slow and stays on our little street. The love honking the horn too. The other night Rick took me to a movie on the bike. We got back and all the neighborhood kids swarmed around on their bikes. It was so cute. Rick gave our kids and their cousins rides and they all were beaming afterwards. Its a fun thing, even though it makes me nervous.

Busy Saturday

Not last weekend, but the one before we had a primary party, visited Grandma, went 4 wheeling with Rick's sister, Belinda, and went to my cousin's wedding reception all in one day. We had a blast. But we were sure ready for bed that night!Here is Carlyn with Aunt Bee. The helmets were so funny because they were so huge on the girls and tight on me and Rick. We weren't very smart and had shorts on too.
Annie couldn't stand up on her own, the helmet was so heavy. :)
I think Carlyn was not wanting to be done and that's why the sad face, because she was grinning the rest of the time. Rick even took Darren out for a slow ride and he loved it. He kept grunting and reaching for Rick when he took the girls out. Rick took me for a ride too. We were really dirty so we stopped at Belinda's house to freshen up for the wedding. You'd never have known we'd just been riding 4 wheelers.

It was really fun to see my cousin and his cute bride. I'd never met her. I also loved seeing his family who is mostly from out of state. Annie really enjoyed the cupcakes and otter pops. She must have had 4 otter pops. It was at a house and they had a toy that spins you around and around. Carlyn came to me and said, "Mom, I don't feel so good." I asked if she ate any of the sandwiches and she said no, just the cupcakes and then spun around a lot. I told her to stop spinning and eat a sandwich and she said, "Yeah, I think that's a good idea. You are so smart, Mom." What a kid!

A Big Step

Ok, so this happened about a month ago, but I promised Carlyn that I would put a post up about her Big Girl Bed. She's so proud and shows everyone that comes over. I had to tell her that the air conditioner repair man didn't need to see it! She was just so happy about having it that without being told, she would wake up and make her bed every morning after she got it. It was so cute. Annie was almost as excited as Carlyn. It was really cute. Where did my little girl go?

Father's Day & Camping

I haven't put a post up for a long time because when I tried to do the pictures of this the first time the pictures wouldn't work and I've been busy since then. I want to dedicate this post to the Best Dad in the World. Argue if you must, but you'll be wrong. :) The kids and I just love him to death and love spending time with him. This is one of the times we had fun playing on our bed in the morning. The kids don't care what they are doing with him, as long as he's there. I know its belated, Rick, but we love you so much. Happy Father's Day!!! Father's Day weekend we went camping with my family. It was fun but crazy. We went to a campground near Huntington, UT. It was a lot of work for a 1 night stay, and we stayed until late the 2nd day. Darren & Annie both cried a couple times in the night and it was a long night for me. Rick slept right through it and didn't hear a thing. :)

This is D just before 6 am. He woke up and would not go to sleep. It is off the highway and everytime a vehicle drove past he'd sit up and say "up." Not fun, but he was really cute. Rick got up about then and I put D in his sleeping bag. He fell asleep soon and it was cute.

My clever Mom made up a song for the kids to sing to their "Pops" for Father's Day and then they gave their Dad & Grandpa soda pop, pop tarts, & popcorn. It was so cute. I don't know if you can tell, but the kids were so dirty at this point. Their clothes are caked in dirt. You should have seen them at 8 that night. Just dirt from head to toe. We washed them off and changed them before we left. It was really fun to go camping for the first time this year.