Special Moments

So this weekend was my cousin Kenny's wedding. On Friday night they did a party in Alamo and of course we went. The kids had a blast! Neil played in the backyard all night I don't think we saw him except for food. But Ember wanted to dance all night. She begged everyone to dance! She even got great grandpa to dance with her. Mom got these great pictures of them. I couldn't help but almost cry thinking how lucky we are to be so close to them and to get to see them everyday! Grandpa and Grandma are such a great influence in my life and I am so glad my kids will have the opportunity to know them and have special memories with them!

Neil turns 6!

Neil and Ember

Dad and Jessie- she loves the water.
The sweet Ben 10 cake Michija made.
The birthday boy!

I can't believe it. Neil has turned 6! For his birthday we had a pool party at the rec. center. It was a lot of fun. We had lots of family and friends to share his special day with. His party was on Saturday and his real birthday was Monday so we had a little get together with grandma Janet and grandpa Darryll and the girls on his real day too. Spoiled kid! But thats what happens when you have so much great family around. He got lots of fun presents... DS games, art stuff, new clothes, and a trampoline. What more can a kid ask for? Happy Birthday Neil!

Casey's Garden

The Garden!
Can you see the squash?
Ya baby!
One of the five tomatoes...
And the winner is?

So Casey has been very good about the garden this summer. It's his baby. I would try to claim some glory in the growing process but watering the garden twice all summer doesn't really justify claiming any part. He planted tomatoes, squash, zucchini, peppers, carrots, radish's, cucumbers, corn, and WATERMELON!
The squash, and zucchini grew well as always and made some yummy zucchini bread, but the corn (which never got bigger than a foot) carrots ( I don't think I saw a carrot?) tomatoes (maybe 5 grew?) cucumbers (bitter blah!) peppers (burnt before ever picking) radishes (I ate one before needing the fire hose) all had their issues. BUT the watermelon has found its glory growing days in our backyard. We have watermelons growing like crazy. Just today Casey picked three and there are several more coming. They taste so sweet and delicious.
I can't be too disappointed, it is our first garden in the backyard and the ground needed some nourishment, but next year I can't wait to see the produce appear! Good job babe! You have a watermelon growing thumb! (Stay posted...I think pumpkins are in the growing schedule soon so be watching for them around Halloween!)

Summer Backpacking

This past week Casey went on a backpacking hunting trip with one of his friends Kameron. They went to the Ruby Mountains in northern Nevada close to Elko (i think?). The hunt was unsuccessful but everyone had a great time and they got away from the heat for a few days so I would call it a success. Casey said the hike up kicked his butt and he barely made it. He had been kinda sick the week before so he was worried that he might not survive. But he did! Here are some pictures of what heaven in Casey's eyes will be! (Except maybe a deer or two in the pictures!)

Cake Time!

Jalee is the up and coming new cake boss. She let me play with her Saturday and we made a awesome creation. We made a tie dye cake. We named it flower power. It was kinda for Dad and BettyJo's birthday but we just took some ideas and ran with it. Sorry dad it was a little girly but the size was manly and the taste was delicious. Jalee decided when she moves home and is done with school she wants to make cakes for fun. She will do awesome at it! Thanks for letting me create with you Jalee! I can't wait till you move home for good we will have a blast!

Family Home Love Hour

It's not fun unless your dirty.

Casey won!

Our big kids.

Soappy fun!

Casey & Neil raced Paige & Ember who do you think won?

For FHLH our ward did a water slide up at the ball fields. We all had a lot of fun. Words can't explain so just check out the pictures and videos!

Family Time!

Look at Neil go!

Lark and Emma have skills!

He was trying push me over. I was holding on for dear life.

Grandpa was trying to see if no skates on his feet helped her balance. I'm not sure?

So this blogging thing isn't good to me. I just deleted a whole post! Blah! But I'm gonna try again but only once. So Saturday I wanted to do something fun with the kids so I made Mom, Dad, BettyJo, Lark and Emma come skating with us at Pirates Paradise. We had a great time. Casey has some great moves and managed to stay on his feet most the time. I didn't fall but I'm still not confident in my skating skills. Neil was awsome! He fell time after time but kept getting up and refused to hold my hand or anyones for that matter. Ember was a recking ball. She just let her legs relax and let whoever would pull her around. She almost had me on my face a few times. Casey and Emma had only one collision in their teasing endeavors. Emma forgets Casey can't stop as fast as she can. Opps! I think we all had a pretty good time. After skating Emma and Lark watched the kids so we could go to the movie. BettyJo's choice: Charlie St. Cloud it was pretty good. Thanks everyone for playing with us! Love ya!

Our Soccer Star!!

This week was Neil's last week of soccer. He had a great time playing. He is a super soccer star. He scored lots of goals and saved lots of goals from going in the goal for the other team. His team was the Hawks.

Family Pictures

I think this is the one of the first pictures we have taken alone since engagments.

I love my kids!

This was my favorite. Everyone just looks so happy!

I love feet pictures!

Aren't they cute!

Neil James

Ember Paige

Jessie Dawn

So...this is for my many many followers. I know you are all gonna be shocked to see me post but I just thought you would want to see my super cute children. So here are the family pictures we took the other day.

We got some color!

What an artist?
The support crew...
The finished product!

On the walls that is. Casey decided after two years we should paint our plain white walls with some color. On a whim we took a trip to Wal Mart... we had a definite idea of color but picked a few strips just to decide. After deciding it would be a $100 dollars for paint I decided to check the mistint isle. And AHHH there the color was for $30 for 5 gallons. We hit the jackpot. Casey painted like a pro and the walls look awesome!

New Traditions

So the past couple of weeks has been the start of some new traditions for the year. I hope we keep them up because they are a lot of fun and keep me from going too crazy!
The first is our Sunday night card game or whatever game. Lara, Bryan, Dad, Mom, Casey and I all get together after tradition at grandpas and play games. It gets kinda loud and crazy but we have a lot of fun. We usually play hand and foot but the guys like to change it up and play other games too. We even can talk BettyJo into coming down every once in a while too. We've been getting some hassle because we have been saving the good treats for cards. What can we say?
Second we have been having Tuesday night dinner trade off. We have been rotating houses from Robin and Lonnie's to Abigail and Walters to ours. It has been so fun. It is so nice to not have to worry about dinner that night except for on our turn. And the company we keep makes it even more fun. The kids do so good together. We sometimes throw a round of games in too. Last night we learned a new game called Swap! It was pretty fun. Much funner than Scum. (I actually don't mind scum but I always lose so it gets old fast.) Casey has class Tuesday nights so he thinks we do it just because he can't be there but we miss him when he can't be there.

Ice Fishing

Casey, Neil, and Bryan went ice fishing at New Castle this last weekend. Neil and Casey were up and ready before daybreak. Neil was so excited he jumped right out of bed as soon as he heard Casey move. They tried to get to Panguitch but the roads were closed once they got up the mountain, so they turned around and went to New Castle. They had a great time. They made three holes and caught two fish. Casey said there was 4 inches of slush then 6 inches of ice. Neil helped Bryan reel in the BIG fish. They all said it wasn't even cold till they started walking back to the car. By then Neil was soaked from head to two from playing in the water. Casey said Neil was so good and didn't even complain until his fingers were frozen walking back to the car. Neil got to bring Robbie the Rhino from preschool on his ice fishing adventure.

New Year, Another try!

So.. I'm trying this again thanks to Robin. For New Years we went over to Juniors house and played games with the usual crew-Robin, Lonnie, Walter, Abigail, Chad, & Karlee. We played spades and scum. We had a great time. The kids all had new DS's or DS games so they were very content to play all night. I don't think we even heard them once. Well maybe once but only because they wanted something to eat. We had so much fun as always!