Slip n' Slide..

We have grass to play on here in Hurricane, Utah ....
This is cousin Carlaya who is 4 months older than Maddie.


What more needs to be said then the slip n' slide was a big hit.

Bridal Shower

This weekend we went to LasVegas. My brother Travis who is stationed in Iraq is home for 2 weeks. He and his wife Chrisina (whom we have never met) was able to meet us in Vegas for a few days. My sister Sheri is engaged so she and her fiance Jason also met us in Vegas for a big family picture. We had 17 in all. I have tried posting this picture but for some reason it won't post.

With my sister getting married in 19 days (I'm not counting but she sure is.) we have something everyweekend. I didn't want to miss out on all the fun so the kids and I are now in Hurricane, Utah for the next 3 weeks.

While in Vegas my sister-in-law and I threw Sheri a bridal Shower.
Many friends from Henderson, Nevada came to support Sheri.












Sheri is doing her kitchen in red. She was so excited to recieve a baking set in red.












Whats a shower without a little lingerie.



















Future husband Jason was overlooking the shower. His favorite???? The blue silky nightie.

Swimming Day 1

Last thursday 2 friends and I took all 11 kids between us to the Chino Valley Pool.

I had no idea we had something like this in our area. Madelyn had the most fun. She really enjoyed swim crawling through the water.





Emily learned pretty quickly how to crawl through the water with her big sister. My two girls had a blast.












Hunter had fun running around with his friends. He's a little to daring for me. I lost track of him for what I thought was just a second. When I spotted him he was ready to join the crowd to slide down the water slide. Luckily a life guard saw what he was about to do and pulled him aside. To Hunter's disapointment you have to be 48'' to go down. A parent can not go with him or be at the bottom to catch him. My big boy is only 38". Oh well. He had a good time anyway.

This is my sister Hanna who has been staying with us for almost 3 weeks now. She's been a great help with the kids. It was great having another pair of eyes trying to keep track of the other 10 young children.

More swim pictures from the Chino Valley Pool...

Swimming Day 2

Friday we had a Lunch n' Mingle on the church grass. What fun my little munchkins had.

Once again the water slides where up and running. These are Hunter's favorite. Everytime we tell Hunter it's time to go to church he goes looking for his swim suit (even of on sundays).



It was quite warm outside and made another perfect day for water play.













Besides the water slides there were plenty of water guns to go around. Hunter being quite the tease enjoyed shooting at the girls.







Even Hanna had a great time. There was plenty of water and food to go around.













Emily enjoyed stuffing her face with all the watermelon she could eat.

Swimming Day 3

Satuday morning we all headed to Mesa. Kory and Matt wanted to check out the new Bass Pro Shop and then on to Uncle Richies for an afternoon swim.

Kory doesn't care to much for swimming but eventually he joined the rest of us.








Hunter loved his new .99 cent floaties. He's like a little fish. He was all over the pool. Maddie wasn't quite so brave but she to enjoyed not having to be carried around.






Even Emily enjoyed her time in the water.









As long as Mommy or Daddy was in sight she did good in her little floatie device.

Monsoon Season

I love the monsoon season. I enjoy playing in the rain with my children. Yesterday I looked out the window and discovered that it was raining. I called the kids and told them it was time to go play in the rain. I opened the front door and remembered that all we have is dirt. We don't have a driveway or any cement we can play in the rain on. So what is usually a bunch of wet clothes that will dry, became a big muddy mess.
Maddie didn't want to get her hair wet. (What a girl !)
Even little Emily enjoyed the rain. This is my sister Hanna who is staying with me for a few weeks. She wasn't to sure about playing in the rain but we were able to talk her into joing us.
I do believe that Hunter had the most fun.

Madelyn's 3rd Birthday

Maddie celebrated her 3rd birthday yesterday. I tried to make it a special day for her. It started off with having french toast for breakfast (her favorite). After breakfast I did her hair in big braids (another favorite). We then painted her toe nails sparkly pink and then her finger nails sparkly red (her choice of course). For lunch she had good ol' Mac & Cheese. Maddie has been asking for a flower cake so after lunch that is what we made. It was a fun cake to make. She got to help outline the flower with cookies and of course her favorite candy M &M's for the face.
When daddy got home she opened her presents. This dress up skirt was given to her by her Grandma Christensen. After dinner we headed to the park where we had cake and ice cream. Overall Madelyn says she had a very fun birthday.
I had to take this picture. Ever since Maddie could sit up we put the two of them in the same infant swing. It was great only pushing one. Last night they were complaing that the other was squashing them. I'd say it's probably the last time they swing together like this. Being one is now 3 and the other is 4 it's time to move on. Hunter's been swinging on the other type of swings for some time now and does a great job. Maddie's still a little shaky but she's catching on.

4th of July outfits.

Yesterday I realized that the 4th of July is in 2 weeks from today. As I mentioned a few weeks ago I was going to make matching 4th of July outfits for my kids. I started on Maddie's almost a month ago but then got side tracted on helping the Young Women sew their bonnetts and apron's for the Pioneer Trek next month. Last night realizing I only had 14 days to get my big project done with Girls Camp this week and a family reunion next weekend I decided I had better bust a move. I am very pleased to say Maddie's outfit is finished. All I need to do is make her some bows to go with her outfit. One down two more to go.

G.G & G.G.Pa

To avoid confusion my Grandma decided to call herself GG (for great grandma) and GG Pa ( for great grandpa) for the great grandchildre (my kids). This past Saturday GG and GG Pa were passing through. We were blessed with a wonderful visit with them. They brought us a cooler full apricots, zuccini, and squash fresh from the garden. Along with 5 trees to plant around our house. We fed them lunch and had a great visit. My children loved having them at our house. Madelyn is our cuddler and loves to sit on laps. GG endulged her lovingly.

Hunter is old enough now that it is very rare for him to sit on anyones lap. However he sat on his GG Pa's lap for quite some time. GG Pa doesn't remember Hunter ever wanting to sit on his lap so this really made his day.

This was our first visit from family since we've been living in our new house. It was great to show it off and have so much more room to visit. We hope this is just the start and hope to see more family this summer.

Strawberry Jam

Strawberries went on sale this past week at our local grocery store. I bought 2 flats of strawberries, 8 boxes of Pectin, and plenty of freezer containers. We ended up with 20 containers of freezer jam and 3 canned jams.

Dirty Faces

We recently were given a few loads of dirt. We are trying to build up our front yard. We have about a 3 foot drop between the road and our front porch. In order to build this up we needed to move all the rocks around the house. These rocks were placed per Flood Control because the hired contractor didn't want to haul dirt in himself to build it up. The rocks look like decorative rocks so we want to use them later. It was cooler outside than usual but the wind was really blowing. By the time Kory and I were finished for the night this is what the kids looked like.
Emily ate more dirt last night then ever before.
Of all of them Hunter was the cleanest. He was helping mom load the wheel barrel with rocks and helping dad move dirt with his little shovel.
Maddie said she wasn't eating dirt.
Rub-a-dub-dub...

Wiped Out!

I put Emily in her"Johnny Jump Up" so the kids could help me entertain her. She is cutting tooth #4. She was happy and laughing at the kiddo's running around her. I was sitting at the kitchen table working on a project and realized she had gotten awfully quiet. This would be why.

Forks

About a month before we actually moved we started eating off of paper plates (thinking we were moving earlier than we did). We had paper plates and cups but continued to use our regular siverware. We very quickly discovered that both Hunter and Madelyn were throwing their forks away along with their plates and cups. Apparently Kory and I didn't do a very good job rummaging through the trash looking for forks as we are down to possesing 6 forks. Before every meal we are having to wash forks. While in Utah I went to D.I and searched their forks but I could bend them quite easily which is one of Kory's biggest pet pieves. So I didn't buy any. We haven't been able to find sturdy forks by themselveswith out the spoons and knives.


This past Saturday after having the dilema of not having enough clean forks we headed off to Stepping Stones (thrift store) as it is just down the street. They had containers full of knives and spoons but when it came to forks they had 3. They were flimsy and different designs on all of them. Not buying them we then went to Good Will.

Good Will had a tub of forks. They had even taped matching designs together. They were grouped in 4's and were .99 for each set. To top it off it was 50% saturday meaning everything in the store was 50% off. We came home with 12 matching sturdy forks for $1.50. YEAH!!!!

A trip to the park

This past weekend we went to Fain Park.
Fain is my favorite park. They have grass, benches, grass, ramadas, grass, barbeques, grass, water and ducks. They have grass!! We do have many other parks with grass but the one nearest our house is surrounded by weeds, rocks and dirt. Absolutely no grass.

There aren't any play sets at Fain Park but the kids manage to find other things to occupy themselves with.

This is the favorite rock. It's just big enough the kids can climb up it and then jump off without hurting themselves.

Emily is most definitely one of ours. Just like the first 2 kids she prefers to be outside. She doesn't care to much for the grass on her bare toes but sitting on daddy's lap she is quite content.

There are always so many ducks to feed at Fain Park. After searching for quite some time we finally found 2 ducks. After throwing 1/2 our bag of bread into the water these little featherly friends made it over to us.

We all had fun spending a few hours in the great outdoors. Next time we've got to pack us a lunch.