wow.

I forgot how much time I used to spend tweaking my blog.... :)

the REAL rest of June...

My brother and his family came to visit and one of the big highlights was riding the TRAX up to Downtown Salt Lake City...

the travellers
it was really fun when we came back at the 5 o'clock commute and the train was
packed and I had 4 kids and a double stroller to manage :)
THANKS REX for all your help! And for coming to visit!

this kid wouldn't look at me...but he loved the train!

We went up to Temple Square and took the real tour for Lucy's birthday

ahhh Tourists!

{Jake's Baptism}

Jake was baptized and confirmed June 6th and became an official member of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
He is a great example to his brothers and sister

We had a special day with family and friends

Draper Temple Open House

Jim took a sick day the other day but Dr. Melis deemed him well enough to walk through the Draper Ut LDS Temple open house so we printed some tickets, took Jake out of school early, and were off.

We went to a church building first and watched a video presentation on the purpose of temples and the building of the Draper temple, then we rode a bus up to the temple site.

It was freezing cold and the tour guides kind of whisked us from the bus into a covered walkway across the parking lot into the Temple so I didn't take any pictures. We will have to go back in the springtime to take some family pics.

Inside the Temple was so beautiful. As calming and peaceful as any other temple I have been to. The architects used the Sego Lily (Ut state flower) in a lot of the accents and even in the woodwork. And I learned something I never knew, they hand scuplt the designs in the carpet! I had no idea :) The boys were pretty fascinated by the oxen and the baptismal font. They lingered there the longest. I felt like a pretty good parent for giving them the opportunity to feel the spirit and teaching them about temples. And it was a good reminder for me as well.

{all photos courtesy of Flickr*}

Sam is 6!

Today Sam turned 6!

He had his 1st real friend party, with 6 friends...

and

9 cousins and 2 brothers and 1 sister.

Our house was full of food, friends, family and fun!

We had a great day and find it hard to believe that he is already so big!

We love you Sam!

December Recap

A lot happened in December and I need to catch up with the NEW year... here's a recap with

A LOT of exclamation points:

the 1st part of the month we were all sickies and there was pretty much no Christmas Spirit to be found.

Then Sam was Santa's helper in the Jingle Jam at school.

Jim's brother Nathan came to visit on his way home from Rexburg

We made an INSANE trip to INDIANA for Christmas!!

3 days in the car, 4 days to visit, 3 days in the car.

Trip of a lifetime!

Never going to happen again!

Way too much family togetherness!

We found out Kansas is 1 of the worst drives ever!

Who knew that orange muppet was so good??

The midpoint in Kansas is a small town with a BIG name!


and in Abilene Kansas, they like our name and make some pretty good chocolate!


We drove right under this in St Louis

On Christmas Eve I turned 36 and took a pretty bad picture with Max



Max really enjoyed himself with the cupcakes

Our Christmas was pretty good but no pictures were taken to prove it.

We had good weather during the whole trip and no snow which made the drive a little more bearable. We spent a small fortune on new videos for the kids to watch in the car, but totally worth it! I am really glad we have that thing!

We got home to a couple feet of snow in the driveway but were so happy to be out of the car it didn't matter.



Our New Year's Eve was quiet except for the ROCK!

We had to try out the new Guitar Hero we got for Christmas.

Tomorrow is Sam's Birthday.

I am having a lot of trouble with Blogger.

I am CAUGHT UP!

Happy New Year!

Baking Day

{assorted Thanksgiving crafts from school}

Today I am baking and baking and brining and baking....

all new recipes this year...

pumpkin-banana bread

chocolate pumpkin cheesecake

white chocolate raspberry bars

apple pie

and our new this year tradition...

the boys pick a pie and then make it with Daddy

this years choice... oreo

Tonight a new turkey trick, brine. We'll see if we can cook like the pros.

We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and are grateful for you all!

Anyone want to come for pie?? We'll have pu-len-ty!!

37 years ago...

today, these 2 crazy kids got married. Look how young they were! (My mom was only 19!) My dad will love this sentimental post~ Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! I love you more than the other kids do {wink, wink}

Happy Birthday Clay!

We're Aunt and Uncle Again!

***Congratulations!***

to Gena & Troy

"Baby boy" Mattson was born today!

(no name decided yet)

4th of July

Happy Birthday Gena!!

We hope you have a Super Great Day!! XOXOXO

A Regular Summer (So Far...)

We have been so B-U-S-Y! Here's what we have been doing this summer so far...

1st- We finished the 1st session of swim lessons

(no pics of Jake) session 2 starts at the end of June, they are regular fish!

Then, the 1 day that swim lessons got cancelled (because some kid threw up in the pool),

we took the training wheels off and they learned how to ride their bikes in about, oh, 15 minutes

they are regular dare-devils on the road. Watch Out!

Next up, I tried to take a photo of the them for a lovely Father's Day gift that could sit on his desk and remind him that he's a father, like he could forget :)

they were regular monkeys

(and I am not a professionalphotographer)

We also got some super deal tickets through Jim's work to

We left the babies with Le'a and had a good ol' time, except that Sam didn't want to ride the rides or was too short for the ones he did want to ride and Jake got conned into riding a roller coaster with Daddy, that was a lot scarier than it looked. We were all regular amusement park attendees until the power went out in the whole park around 4 o'clock. We get to use our tickets again for free if we go back before the end of the month because of it.

Throw in some old school teaching moments in the garden,

which haven't really happened yet, but I'm sure will, once the veggies start coming up,

a bunch of trips to the library,

yes, this is the 1st stack I got, I started all of these, finished 3 of them, and had 2 other stacks in between with a few finished from the other piles. I was just so excited! There are so many books I've been wanting to read! Now I remember why I never have time to read books. (See above monkeys)

And Jim starting his own Handyman Business,

and you have a regular recap of our last 3 weeks and didn't summer just officially start?

PS! If you happen to live in the Salt Lake valley and need work done around your house, I know just the guy! Very reasonable rates!

PSS! There is plenty more regular stuff coming up!

Spring Sundays in Utah

Last Sunday...

The boys say "Happy Easter!"

Brooke says "I'm grumpy after church"

but I will smile if you play a game of "where's your head"

Jim and Max wore short sleeves and Max had on shorts...

I even wore sandals...

This Sunday...

Stinkin' snow is back...

Next Sunday....

General Conference or as I like to call it...

Home Churchin' Yeah!