Soccer - Action shots

Miss L is playing her first year of soccer this year and loving it! Here are a few shots of her in action!

Pre school field trip

Little man and I went to our favorite Pumpkin patch yesterday with his pre school for a class field trip. He was so excited that he had his lunch packed and was ready to get in the car and go at 7:30 am when all the big kids in the house left for school. I had to explain that the farmer and all his animal were still asleep and there would be know one to give him a hayride out to the pumpkin fields at that time of the morning.

This is Little Man and his favorite school friend Jacob. They sat in the front of the hay wagon and watched with big eyes as the tractor pulled us out to the pumpkin fields.

He had great time and came home exhausted from his search for the perfect pumpkin!

Swim Meet- July 09

Our girls have been participating on the swim team in the next community over from us. They recently had their first swim meet. It was a lot of fun to see the girl compete. They have improved so much over the summer and it has been such a positive experience. They don't even seem to mind (too much) having to be at the pool at 7:30 for practice! (Miss L above)

Miss E (above) has grown so much in skill and confidence in the water over the past few months. She has developed a mean back stroke in the process.

Miss L thinks that her strongest stroke is breath stroke and does not like butterfly!

Miss E does not like to start from the block and often does a spectacular belly flop!

The happy swimmers ! The end!

Pioneer Trek- A legacy to Remember

We just spent the most incredible weekend at Youth Conference. We got to be "Ma and Pa" to a "family" of youth during a pioneer trek and we had the opportunity to experience life as the Mormon Handcart Pioneers did in the 1850's. We dressed as the pioneers did, cooked in dutch ovens, played games the pioneers would have played, slept in tents, and pushed and pulled our handcart over the mountains for three days. We prayed together, worked together, worshipped and served together, laughed together, sweat together, and had a great time!


We were lucky enough to have Bishop Wheeler join us on Thursday evening and become a part of our camp. He added a lot to our camp! We are so blessed to have him as our Bishop, neighbor and friend!

I was amazed at how quickly our family came together, especially since most of the youth had not known each other prior to this trip. It is amazing how quickly they bonded through working and serving each other. We had the most amazing group of youth and I was so impressed with their attitudes. They were willing to help in what ever ways was needed and were so positive with each other. I knew that we were going to have a great experience on this Trek....But I had no idea how much these kids would touch my heart! I have a tender spot for these young men who pushed, pulled , muscled our hand cart for three days!

I now understand why pioneers always look so serious in pictures taken during that era. I think it was the sun and the layer of dirt that covers everything and makes your face feel too tight to smile!

This is Cali and she was the oldest of the girls in our family. She was always organizing games and showed such wonderful leadership in our family. She is also an EMT which impressed the socks off of me! We were so glad to have her.

Here is the rest of our gaggle of giggling girls! They are such great young women and really impressed me by coming together and working to push our cart while our men joined the Mormon Battalion and marched to war. I didn't hear any complaining, they just all joined in without being asked and got the job done. They even said that they wished it had been a longer and harder stretch of the trail we had to pull on!

I loved every minute of this experience and hated to see it end. Saturday was a really emotional day for me knowing that I would have to say goodbye to this great group of youth. I just wanted to take each of the youth in our "family" home and adopt them. I am so grateful for the oppertunity I had to get to know them and be a part of their lives for three dasy.

Backyard Campout

Cat or Husband

I got this in an email and had to laugh! I too am a cat lover married to a man who has no love for the feline species.

Birthday Get-Away

Wow! I have really been slacking on my blogging these past few months! Sometimes it seems like a lot just to try and keep 6 people feed and in clean clothes and everything else falls to the wayside. It doesn't help that I have been so under the weather this past winter!

I thought I'd turn the calender back and post a little of what I've been neglecting to share....starting with our trip to Newport beach in February for Jordan's 4oth birthday. Now I must tell you that we seldom go on a trip with out taking the kids. But not only did we not take the kids....we went to Disneyland with out them! How nice to go and not have to spend my day pushing a stroller for once!

We stayed at the Marriott Newport Beach Villas and boy is that place beautiful! We had a whole little condo all to ourselves!

We spent some time at the beach, ate lunch on the patio of a cute little restaurant overlooking the ocean, browsed though some little shops and enjoyed some down time. We also soaked up all the Southern California sunshine we could! I think we will be heading to Southern Cal a little more often than we have in the past. If for no other reason than to take the kids to Disneyland and ease my guilt for going without them!