Welcome Home!!!!

Today we got to go meet our new nephew/cousin Will. He is the sweetest, cutest, cuddliest, snuggliest little baby ever! Not to mention the luckiest baby ever. Lucky because he was able to receive two of the most loving people ever as parents. Lucky because he was able to become part of an amazing family. Lucky because he has lots of aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas and cousins who have been waiting for his arrival, and who are so excited to love and hold him! Lucky because he was able to be brought into a home with such a great love of the Savior. But we are so lucky that Dave and Aubree have been blessed with such a sweet, sweet baby. They have wanted to be parents for as long as I can remember. Even when they were dating (before Dave's mission), he would come over for Sunday dinner and we wouldn't be able to find him; he was always in the nursery with the grandkids. He loves kids, and the kids sure love him! Aubree has waited so patiently for her time to become a mother. She has quite the extensive blanket collection which she had made in anticipation of when she would have a little baby all of her own. She has been a favorite aunt, a favorite sister, a favorite friend. I cannot think of two people who deserve this more. They will be the most wonderful parents. (Finally, when we go on vacation they will have to get up at the crack of dawn like the rest of us with kids).
We love you guys a lot, but I think we love Will even more! :) Congrats. Have you ever seen such sweet lips?!

Pioneer Day

Happy 24th of July. I love July with all the fun holidays and birthdays!

This year our neighborhood had a kids parade for the 24th. I'm still trying to get all the tape and crepe paper off my kids bikes! Then we had a neighborhood potluck dinner. It was a lot of fun getting to meet people that I didn't yet know.

Dee had the 24th off, so we took the kids to the new Payson pool. I think Dee had more fun than the kids did (can you believe it!) And I didn't even take my camera for proof that he was actually there with us, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

We let our kids stay up to do fireworks last night-they were so cute and fun. I realized how anal I am about bedtime when Ry asked me "what are those bright things in the sky-are they stars?" Yes, my son has never stayed up late enough to see the stars in the sky-how sad is that. But he was also the one asking to go to bed before we were done doing fireworks, because he was tired.

Ever since Ry got stung by a bee, he has been obsessed with bees, wasps, etc. So when he found this firework called Wasp Attack, he could not wait to do it. (I'm not sure if he thought real wasps were going to come out of it)

It was a fun day.
P.S. Hayden lost 2 teeth yesterday, but guess what, our tooth fairy sucks! He woke up this morning and told me that the tooth fairy forgot to come (oh I suck!) I told him that we probably went to bed too late and that she would come tonight if he would go to bed earlier. Damn tooth fairy anyways!

My Cleaning Secret

So a few weeks ago, Florrie divulged her secret about her clean house...Pinesol. Even if you haven't been cleaning just put some in your sink and it smells like you have cleaned all day. I have a friend who used to put bleach down her drain just before her husband came home so that it would smell clean and he thought she had just finished cleaning.
So my secret is...my vacuum. As long as I vacuum, Dee thinks I have slaved away all day cleaning the house. It works great, especially on days like today. I was tired and didn't feel like doing much, so I pretty much laid around ALL day and read my book (just finished the Kite Runner), watched some TV, played Candy Land and did some puzzles with Ry. Just before Dee got home I vacuumed, and ta da. Dee walked in and said "the house looks great, you've been working hard". Works like a charm. :)

Oh happy day!!!!!

Everyone-go and check out dave and Aubree's blog! I can't stop crying! http://www.daveandaubree.blogspot.com

Flashback Friday...Family Pictures

Growing up in an extremely small town, we didn't have all the luxuries that are available to us now that we live "up north". We didn't have fast food, a grocery store, a movie theater, a mall...we had lots of cows and fields, oh and a little store where I would blow my allowance every week on candy for tea parties with Jill and Julie.

We did not have any place to have family pictures taken, so once in a while a photographer would come in town and meet at the church and all of the families could go there and have their pictures taken. So this picture was taken at the church in 1991. Let me just ask you, what the crap was the photographer thinking?! And why on earth did my mom let him do that to us. As you can tell by Brook's face, he was just sooo happy to wear that hat. I was actually laughing because I thought it was about the dumbest thing ever! Come on, you have kids come in that are dressed in their Sunday best- let's throw some dorky hats and boas on them-yeah, that sounds like a great idea!

Maybe I'll find out who the photographer was and see if I can get him to do my family pictures this year. Wouldn't Dee look great with a beret? :)

Scandalous

One of my favorite things about summer is the tan lines! I love how dark my boys get in the summer and how blonde their hair becomes. They were pretty lucky in the skin department, because both Dee and I tan very easily and very well. I love that their birthdays are in the summer, because they are always so tan and so blonde when I have their pictures done.

Dee told me that I could not post this picture, but since he NEVER looks at our blog I figure that I'm pretty safe. Besides I think this picture is SO CUTE! I'm sorry for those of you who are not okay with a little nudity, but all I can say is, at least it's not me!

Rylan is not nearly as dark as Hayden, but he always has a life jacket on. See I am a responsible parent :)

When my mom tends...

My mom has tended for me every Thursday since Hayden was 6 weeks old. My kids really look forward to Thursday, because it is "Grandma Day". They always are having fun, or busy making a craft, or playing games-I have switched my cleaning day to Friday (the day after Grandma) because I always have a mess to clean Thursday nights. (I'm not complaining mom-we really love and appreciate you, I love that the kids get to have such a fun day with you)

So this Thursday when I got home, before I even walked through the door, my mom said "sorry about the mess" (I knew I had my work cut out for me). Well my house was spotless, except for the dining room table. The kids had talked her into making a hut. They used every pillow and blanket that we own, plus both love sacs. It was actually pretty comfy!

The kids begged me to let them sleep in it. I'm very anal about bedtime and bedtime routine, so normally this would have really thrown me off, but I decided that I could chill out and let them do it (just this once). It only took them an hour to go to sleep and they slept all through the night-they had a great time. So maybe, just maybe, they will get to do it again sometime (but I will remain in the comfort of my own bed).

This picture is very dark, but still cute.

Swim Lessons

Here are the boys underwater pictures from swim lessons...

Hayden's cracks me up, he was trying so hard to do a cute face :)

Our yard...A work in progress

When we moved into our house, we at least had grass and trees in the front yard. So this spring and summer we have been busy planting bushes and flowers in the front yard. Our backyard has taken a little more TLC. We live just around the corner from a place called Rocky Ridge, and I think when they settled it they threw all of their rocks over in our neighborhood. (I know that Jill & Adam can appreciate this).
After clearing out all the weeds with a tractor, digging the trenches with a trencher and by hand, filling in the trenches, having 2 loads of topsoil delivered (who would have thought you have to buy dirt)-which wasn't enough, but we willmake do, and raking the topsoil-leveling it out as much as possible-we were finally ready for sod, yay! We laid our sod last night-I need to give a great big thank you to Dee's mom & dad, Lewis (you're such a good sport-he was sick, plus he is still wearing his cast on his foot!), Todd, Brook, and to some really great neighbors who came to help too--and thanks to Melissa for tending the kids. Thank you all so much!!!

4th of July...The Finale

Fireworks at Fox Field

To end our wonderful 4th, we take blankets and treats and head to Provo High. We sit on the grass and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. (Todd was so gracious to sacrifice and skip seeing Miley Cyrus to come with the rest of the fam)

Rylan and Savannah

Kylie and Hayden

Dave's Cherry-Limeade stand-YUM!

Zach and Claire (happy birthday Zach!!!)

Todd, Em & Claire

4th of July...Part 2

BBQ, swimming and games...

We always have a BBQ with the Last Family on the 4th of July. This year we went to Dee's uncle Craig's house. It was great, but how can you go wrong with a swimming pool! Of course we had amazing food (I think I ate about 10,000 calories-but oh, it was good!), and Mary Ann provided us with fun games (bubble blowing contest, three-legged race, frisbee toss), but the best part was definately the pool (Rylan never played any games, because we couldn't get him out of the pool).

I need to give a great big thank you to Lyman for giving Florrie and I swimming lessons. I can now go under the water without plugging my nose. As for doing a front flip w/o plugging my nose, well, I'll keep working on it! And if Flo would get her act together and swim w/o plugging her nose, then Dee's dad promised he would get a pool (or something to that effect).

Our cute cousin Kelli-she does not look 41 weeks pregnant, I think she looks absolutely darling!

This is wonderful (slightly crazy, but extremely fun) Aunt Mary Ann

Happy Birthday America and Dad/Grandpa!!! We love you!

The 3-legged race, which Florrie and Zach kicked some butt

Would you look at that, we even got the fun hater to join us in the pool :)

4th of July...Part One

Balloon Festival

I woke up "dark and early" (it was not quite bright and early) at 5:00 this morning. I woke my kids at 5:30. I hate having to wake my kids so early, but it's all in the name of fun, right? We headed in to Provo to see the hot air balloons. We left the "fun hater" at home in bed (imagine that).

We got to the balloons at 6:30, they were supposed to start at 6:30, but they were pretty much blown up by the time we go there. We met Lew, Flo and their kiddos there. It was done and over with by 7:00 (that was a little too soon for the effort we put in to get there, if you ask me).

My bosses own a restaurant in Provo called Gurus. They started a breakfast menu and today was their first day, so the boys and I had to go try it out. My kids were already tired and grumpy, so they were a real treat to take out to breakfast. (I am reminded of when I took Hayden 4 years ago. He wasn't quite 3 yet, and I was 8 months pregnant. I of course went without my husband. Hayden was a nightmare. I swore that I would never go again-and now I remember why)

I think this picture is funny, I was trying to take it of me and my boys and I cut Ry's head off. Sorry Ry!

Here's Braden, Lew, Zach, Hayden, Kylie, Savvy and Ry

And yes, Dee was still in bed sound asleep when we got home!!!

Wow!!!

Did everybody watch SYTYCD (hey Dave, that's So You Think You Can Dance) last night? Did you see Will?!? All I can say is WOW! His dancing was nice, but his body was amazing!!! Oh come on Todd, you can admit it-you were envious (yes, you are extremely hot and extremely buff, but WoW!)

On another note...Kelli I look at your blog everyday, and everyday I feel even more sad for you. I pulled up your blog today and it said 40 weeks and 5 days pregnant, I am sorry-HANG IN THERE! Monday is not that far away! :)

It's baaack!

Yes, believe it or not, our little bike that was MIA has been found! Rylan's prayers have been answered (I was beginning to wonder how I was going to explain the whole unanswered prayers thing to him).
He was playing at his friend Ty's house and I walked over to get him. Their garage was open and sitting inside it was a bike just like Ry's, I looked at it. So I proceeded to tell his mom what had happened to Ry's bike. She got this funny look on her face and said, let's go see if it's Rylan's. I was a little confused. Anyways, to make a long story short-Ty has the exact same bike, they were on a walk and she saw it sitting on the sidewalk and got mad at Ty for not putting his bike away, and that it could get stolen (how funny is that!) So she picked it up and put it in their garage, and this whole time they never noticed that they had 2! Both of my boys were so excited that the bike had been found, they really learned a lesson about answered prayers yesterday.
And as for my cute neighbor Kacie, who I think is absolutely darling (even if she is a bike thief!), I also found out that she was a cheerleader at Carbon and was one of the mean people throwing cups and trash at us when we beat them in football at their homecoming game (Cally do you remember that?) So I'm beginning to wonder if I really want to be friends with her-she sounds like kind of a hoodlum! Just kidding-we are just so happy to have our bike back and now Rylan and Ty can ride their bikes together :)