girl hairdo

I am not the creative type when it comes to doing my girls hair. BUT...I do love seeing the talent of others and how cute they can do hair....like my sister Lori and my sister in law Lacey. But today I decided to try my hand at it. My hands don't move easily at it but I know with practice I can get better and better. Let's just hope they will continue to let me practice. It is soooooooo much fun and all I need to do now is get some cute fake flowers and make some homemade hair pieces to use as well. OH yes and I so wish I could have done Mayah's hair with the under french braid. I tried LORI. I really did. My hands won't turn that way for some reason. :) I still think their hair looks cute. And we even have a place to wear our new hair do's. We are going to a birthday party/BBQ. FUN FUN.

Oh the memories

I am just so grateful for family. It is the greatest thing there is. I have a wonderful family and I have some really great memories from our yearly visits. That is not nearly enough time to visit but we take what we can get. Here is my little niece, Ashlyn. She is 2 and boy is she cute. She is rocking out to some good music.....Party in the U.S.A.

And here we have the boys on their games. BOYS!!!

Caleb and Ashlyn.....oh so cute. Caleb LOVES little kids and he is so good with them too.

This was kind of funny. Not sure Sara would think so but I did get a good laugh out of this and had to take a picture. So sara got in the baby swing and she actually got stuck. I was on my way back in to the house to get some dish soap but her mom was able to get her out......but not without leaving a good red line on her legs. UMMM Sara you do not qualify as a baby anymore. SORRY.

Cute cousins all dressed up for the wedding.

Another adorable niece...Jaeley. SO CUTE. And what a great baby too. I don't think any of my kids were as good as she is. I was blessed with all the busy and fussy kids.

The boys are changing the battery in the rider. Man those are some smart kids.

Oh and here we have Ashlyn again. I have no idea who was supposed to be babysitting her....oh wait I think I was. Can you see all the sun block on her hands and feet? Well you should have seen the diaper bag. I was busy cooking and had Caleb go check on her. At first he couldn't find her. She was hiding in the corner emptying out all the sun block. Little stinker.

And our yearly fishing trip is alot of fun. I have to say it is a lot of work taking five kids fishing but oh what great memories we make with grandpa. Grandma and most of the other crew went to Spokane for the Hoopfest Basketball Tournament. And we stay behind and take a fishing trip. Well....Caleb was the only one that caught anything. I broke my brothers pole in half trying to reel in the biggest fish of all.....Ok so the truth is that the pole broke because the line was caught on a stupid rock. YEAH YEAH...I know. DUMB.






I love this picture of Mayah and my dad. PRICELESS. JUST PRICELESS.

Our flight home

This year we had a red eye flight on our way back home. And my awesome sister suggested we make pillows for that trip. And she SAVED us big time. The kids did great and slept for a good portion of the flight.....and that is all because she made the coolest pillows. She brought over a big container of fabric and let the kids choose. She also sent us with two blankets. AHH what a sweet sister. Sisters really are the best. I am so thankful I have three of them. I wouldn't mind if I had even more.

Here is grandma helping Mayah stuff her pillow. Oh and NO that isn't a super short skirt on Mayah. That is some fabric that we tied around her. :)

Zach is working on stuffing his pillow. The kids stuffed their pillow and my sister sewed them.

Here she is: hard at work. Thanks so much sis. This really did save us big time. There is NO way they would have slept without them. You are awesome. Thanks.

more fun at grandma and grandpa's

These kids LOVE to swim at the canal. I found it funny when I told my 9 and 10 year old primary kids about us swimming in the canal they asked: WHAT IS A CANAL? LOL. I guess we are just a bunch of country hillbillies. Walking to the canal. The older kids were able to go alone. But when these little kiddos wanted to go I would take a chair and sit with them for a bit. And they normally didn't stay too long. The weather this year just wasn't as hot. I wasn't going to complain though. Now that I am back home it has been HOT HOT HOT and HUMID HUMID HUMID. UHHH now I am gonna complain. :)

LOVING IT OK here is Rachel getting ready to jump in.

OH what a jump.

AND under the water she went.

A birthday in Heaven

It is tradition to let off balloons each year on July 12th. On that day, 4 years ago, my sister and her husband lost their baby girl at birth....Allison Hope. WE had a lot of hope but I KNOW that Heavenly Father had other plans and that He knows all and sometimes we just don't understand or realize why some things have to happen. But sometimes really bad things happen to really good people. And it was amazing how our family came together and it was even more amazing how my sister and her husband had such strength. WOW. We were supposed to help them heal but because they were so strong and because they handled this trial with strength it helped to heal us. I know it wasn't easy and I know it still brings tears but I also know that there will be a day when we will see Allison again. I am so eternally grateful for the knowledge of knowing that we can see our loved ones again.

There they go. It was sunny out and very very windy. There had been a fire that day in a city about an hour away so it was a bit hazy. BUT still it was a beautiful day.

Everyone with their balloons ready to be released.

And off they go. Happy Birthday Allison.

I found this poem and I inserted Allisons name:

WHAT MAKES A MOTHER

I thought of Allison and closed my eyes

And prayed to God today,

I asked, What makes a mother?

And I know I heard Him say:

A mother has a baby,

This we know is true-

But, God, can you be a mother

When your baby's not with you?

Yes, you can, He replied

With confidence in His voice,

I give many women babies,

When they leave it is not their choice.

Some I send for a lifetime,

And others for a day,

And some I send to feel your womb,

But there's no need to stay.

I just don't understand this God,

I want my baby here.

He took a breath,

And cleared His throat,

And then I saw a tear.

I wish I could show you,

What Allison is doing here....

If you could see her smile

With other children and say,

"We go to earth to learn our lessons

Of love and life and fear,

but my mommy loved me so much

I got to come straight here!"

I feel so lucky to have a mom who had so much love for me,

I learned my lessons very quickly,

My mommy set me free.

I miss my mommy, oh so much

But I visit her each day.

When she goes to sleep,

On her pillow is where I lay.

I stroke her hair and kiss her cheek,

And whisper in her ear,

"MOMMY, please don't be sad today,

I'm your baby and I am here"!

So you can see dear sweet one,

Your child is OK.

Your baby is here in My home,

And this is where she'll stay.

She'll wait for you with Me,

Until your lessons there are through,

And on the day that you come home,

She'll be at the gates waiting for you.

So now you see what makes a mother,

It's the feeling in your heart,

It's the love you had so much of

Right from the very start.

YO YO

Another project that we did was our yo yo's. My mom and dad ordered a few yo yo's for the kids to put together and paint. It was a BIG HIT. They played and played with them for quite awhile and some of the kids could do some pretty darn cool tricks too. Better watch it.......... that drill is loaded and that mamma is mean. HA....that mamma doesn't have a mean bone in her.

The kids played with their yo yo's so much that their strings began to break so Sue found a site online to make your own homemade strings using thread and sure enough grandpa rigged something up to do just that.
making the rig

still working on it while the kids play in the background.

Hailey painted a really cool design on her yo yo.


Sara and grandpa

trying to figure out the perfect colors for their yo yo's.

Sharing the paint. I was very impressed with how nice and colorful all the yo yo's turned out. I forgot to get a picture of all the yo yo's together. DARN.






Rachel is painting her yo yo black and pink. GREAT COLORS.

Here they all are working on putting the yo yo's together. What a great idea.



This was a very cool project and probably the most memorable for the kids. They really played with their yo yo's and showed us some neat tricks. Once again another great idea.

Don't laugh at me

Something happened during the summer that I won't mention here. So my dad wanted each of the kids to learn the song by Mark Wills....called: Don't Laugh At Me. If you search it online I would recommend you teach your kids the song too. It is a great song and I think ALL kids should learn it. I think it would be a great idea if they took this song into the schools and taught it there. The kids learned it and sang it for their grandpa. I put it on my play list as the first song.

The older boys were a little embarrassed. I think they might have learned a lesson here though.
Good job guys. I hope they will always remember the words to this song because it really does hurt when you are laughed at or made fun of or chosen last for a team.

3rd Annual Talent Show

So this is the third year we have had a talent show during the 4th of July weekend. It is so much fun and so awesome to see what everyone comes up with. Here is the airband. This was great. These kids practiced and practiced. Their song of choice was Eye of the Tiger. Caleb was on Bass guitar. Zach was back up electric guitar. Sara was the drummer. Sami was the singer and Jordan was electic guitar. It was super cute.

A closer up picture of some of them.

Rachel did a dance to Taylor Swifts song: You Belong With me. SO CUTE too. She really loves to dance and it shows. She didn't have any fear at all doing this.
Oh here we have the very talented Mayah. She balanced on this log. And it wasn't very easy either. I wonder how many of you could do this very dangerous and hard act. :)

And here we have the very funny Ethan. We practiced about 4 knock knock jokes and he knew them. It was cute. Rachel and I look on and my little brother is in the chair.........he was the MC. He does such a great job and always has everyone laughing.

Brothers Wedding

No need for a professional wedding cake maker. We have my sister. After many hours spent online looking for ideas for a cake and after many trips to the store to buy this or that and after a few practice rounds they perfect cake was made for my brothers wedding on July 3rd. Lori you are awesome. You did it and it was AWESOME.

Smashing it down so it will stay. :) OHH....my cute mommy in the background. Oh how I miss these people.

OOHHHH check it out.

BEAUTIFUL

TADA.......the finished product. NOW isn't that pretty. I think so. Just wish I could take credit for it. The top layer is a white wedding cake with raspberry filling (heaven). The bottom layer is chocolate with a carmel type filling (heaven....but I liked the top better).

And here we have my handsome brother and his new wife. That gorgeous red head is my niece.

SO sweet.

the bride walking in with her dad. Don't you just love the red ribbon they put through the back of her dress. And yes those are white tennis shoes you see. My new sister in law wanted everyone to wear white tennis shoes. :)

Almost married.

And here he is.............the groom. I love this guy. Congrats Dan and Carla. We love you both and are so happy for you.