SURPRISE Baby Shower!

My sister-in-law, Susan, hosted a surprise baby shower for my sister, Linda and her 5 week old baby, Jane.

Boy, was she astonished when she walked in as we all shouted, SURPRISE!

She got a little teary eyed and was so appreciative of everything that everyone did for her.

She received lots of diapers, wipes, some clothes, and other things that she needed for her 9th child.

The cousins all had a blast hanging out together.

 Lots of memories were made.

The food was absolutely delicious.

 Susan does such a good job preparing and making a fun party for all of us, even when she's struggling with some challenges in her own life.

Cousins Galore!

Joyanne had fun today with her cousin, Bree.

The rest of the boys had fun with their cousins who came over today.

Between playing marbles, playing tennis, and running around together, our was a day full of lots of fun.

Noah was so sweet as he rocked baby Jean to sleep and sang sweet lullabies to her.

I really enjoyed visiting with my sister and love the relationship we are trying to build.

Shopping with My Buddy

Hiram was my buddy as I went BIG time shopping.

I went to Costco for our last time for a while.

Our membership expires so I went to but the things I really like that I'm gonna miss.

Grapenuts are my favorite to buy from there because you can get a super big box for just $6.

Their whole wheat bread is good and we enjoy their sausage patties too.

I spent far too much and had 3 shopping carts full of groceries.

Glad to be done shopping for a while.

Laundry

Laundry waits for no man.
No matter what we do or where we go, we still have laundry.
I finally made it through the laundry today, realizing that it never ends.
With dishes you can just use disposable ones to give yourself a break.
But, have you ever heard of disposable clothes?
 Maybe that's something someone should invent.

 Besides all the laundry I had to do, the day was rather relaxing compared to what we have been doing this last weekend and yesterday.
 This summer has been one of the funnest, if not THE funnest, summers we as a family have ever had.
 Between going to Lagoon nearly every week and visiting family, we have rarely been home and having the time of our lives bonding as a family and creating deep connections with others.

Miller Motor Sports Park

We woke up at 6:15am to travel to Tooele for a work party at the Miller Motor Sports Park.

We were fed a delicious breakfast and lunch.

The kids, including Daddy, LOVED racing around the track in their motorized Go-Karts.

There were about 10 different kinds of bounce houses the kids enjoyed trying out.

The face painting was fun.

Noah and Joyanne dominated the rock wall.

Grant and James weren't able to go on the raceway, which caused A LOT of sobbing, whining and fussing from Grant.

But Grant and James were thrilled with the mini bike course, and they spent about 45 minutes just riding around the course over and over again.

We so enjoyed the work party.

On our way home we spent a few hours at Lagoon.

We were all pretty tired from the early morning, so we didn't stay very late.

The day was fun-filled and exciting.

Grant's Prayers

Grant said his night time prayers all by himself tonight.  Yay!

After talking about what he could pray for, he knelt down and repeated what we talked about.

It's fun to see my kids grow up and on the other hand, I'm a little sad not to have anymore babies.

Bear Lake

Besides being an amazing cabin, being at Bear Lake was a fun and beautiful place to be.

The water wasn't that cold, and the shores are so shallow that you can go quite a ways out before it gets deep.

One of the best parts of our trip was going with the Richard Family.

They were so nice and fun to be around.

The kids loved building and playing in waterpools.

We definitely want to come to Bear Lake again.

Hopefully we will come sometime soon.

Happy Pioneer Day!

We spent our day at a cabin at Bear Lake with friends.

Joyanne just can't be anywhere without a piano of some sort.

The funnest part about the cabin was the swinging ropes hanging from the loft.

 The kids were on these ropes for hours every day.

 We finally had to tie them up just to have a break.

Downstairs in the basement of the cabin there was a pool table, foosball table and the ping pong table.

 The kids played on these for quite a while too.

What an amazing cabin!

Thanks to the Richards for hooking us up with a great place to stay.

Fun Time with Fun Cousins

We visited my sister and her kids.

 They had so much fun playing at a nearby splash pad.

As you can tell, we sure love spending time with her and bonding with our cousins.

Linda and I love exercising together.  

 We have been doing Jillian Michaels and getting more fit everytime we get together.

 Linda convinced me to get some ankle weights to give me a little bit more of a workout.

 We'll see how this goes!

We are sure loving this summer and all the time we get to be with family.

Having the freedom to do what we want and not be restricted to a schedule has been wonderful.

 But, having the kids get to bed a little earlier and get a little more sleep at night might be a good thing when school gets in.

 We'll still enjoy the rest of this summer while we can.

Stratego

Stratego has been the game of the day.

Noah and Jaden played it a few times, while Hiram and Joyanne played once too.

Joyanne came home from Girls' Camp today.

It was a short 2 night, 3 day camp.

Because it was raining on Monday, instead of going paddle boating, the girls went to the Fun Park and went skating, laser tag and arcades.

They also did karaoke while camping.

At least they slept in tents.

Their style of camping is definitely different from when I went to Girls' Camp.

Lagoon Day Fun

It's fun to go to Lagoon, but it's far more fun to go with cousins.

Amara and James enjoyed riding several of the rides together.

Grant and I really liked Rock-O-Plane and rode it twice, but Grant was insistent that we NOT rock upside down.

Noah loves watching "America's Got Talent" and so we came home early enough to watch it.

Have you seen the news lately?

I think we are in the last days.

Snuggles

Grant came up to me and said, "I want to snuggle with you."

I love snuggling with my little snuggler.

He likes to snuggle when he wakes, when he eats, when we watch movies and whenever I sit down.

Snuggling and hugs release stress.

So find someone and snuggle with your snuggler today.

Pioneer Primary Program

Primary was so much fun.

We had a Pioneer themed program for a combined sharing time and singing time.

The children sat on blankets around a fake campfire.

We sang Pioneer songs interspersed with Pioneer stories.

We had an amazing guitarist who played along with our singing.

The spirit was strong and helped draw us closer to our Pioneer ancestors who went through so much to give us a great life here in this wonderful state of Utah.

A special thanks goes out to the primary chorister from Vernal who shared this great idea with me.

Becca and Bryon's Sealing

I felt so privileged to attend the sealing of my sister, Becca, and brother-in-law, Bryon.

They were sealed in the Bountiful Temple.

The ceremony was wonderful and the Sealer had inspiring and spiritual words he shared.

We all enjoyed looking on as they came out of the temple, glowing with happiness.

It was such a glorious day!

I love that we can be sealed in temples as husband and wife for time AND eternity.

I definitely want to be with my Prince Charming for all eternity.