Busy Britches!

Russell is SO busy!  He is just like his biggest sister!  I swear he is just the boy version!  He is so much fun, but he is getting into everything!  He can climb the stairs and he climbs into everything, just like his toy box.  He is a monkey too!  Just like Lizzy was.  He gets into every cupboard he can, the toilet, drawers, you name it.  He is like a little tornado!  But the cutest tornado ever!

Nellie's 6th Birthday!

For  Nellie's 6th birthday she decided to go to Discovery Kingdom, what a lucky birthday girl.  Unfortunately Nellie seems to think that she can still be a little punk on her birthday, we just can't punish her for it.  We had thought that maybe she would want to go to the Tiger show and some of the other shows since she seems to like animals so much, but no, she did NOT want to go to the shows and she made that very clear. So we just did rides that day, which was a little hard because it made for no breaks, but that is Nellie for you.

 Nellie got some money from Grammie and Papi and decided to buy a cute little tiger she named snowy, and she just loves.

 I got the girls a sucker and Lizzy had to do her usual pose.

 I did make the girls go in the Butterfly Garden, where you got to walk around with all these butterflies flying everywhere, it was really cool.

 We gave Russ the rest of Nellie's sucker and he just went to town.  It kept him so entertained it was nice.  He did really good though that day.

 He got so sticky, but it was worth it.  He loved that thing.

 We had a family party the next day.  Nellie was so silly and went and found the crown she got on the last day of school for her summer birthday and put it on.  So cute.

 From Grandma and Grandpa she got a cookbook and cooking stuff.  She was sooo excited.  She wants to be a chef when she grows up and she gets super serious about her cooking.  And she is actually really good!

 I made her this apron.  I procrastinated and had to stay up until midnight the night before sewing it.  But she had already gotten her present from us (an MP3 player) and I really wanted to have something from us for her to open.

 She was really excited about this dress that Aunt Judy gave her.  She does love Hello Kitty.

 Russ enjoyed the birthday cake.

 So for Nellie's birthday cake she wanted Strawberry Shortcake.  She even made her own cake! She made it for her cooking lesson that week.  It was really good!

Here is the birthday girl enjoying her cake.  Nellie does love her sweets.  We love our little Nellie Belle and are so glad she came to our family!

The Rest of Utah

The day after the 4th, the guys decided they needed to do more fireworks so they went and bought even more then the first day.  You do not want to know how much money was spent.  It was crazy, but it sure was fun.  The best part about it is how excited the kids get about it.  

 We had to get a picture of the big box of them.  Crazy!

On Friday morning Erica invited us all out to Eagle Mountain for a dutch oven breakfast and for swimming.  It was so much fun!  The food was so good and because it was early we were the only ones at the pool, but with all of us that is quite a group.  We had almost everyone there for this trip and we were only missing Austin's five kids out of the grand kids.  So much fun.

This was a picture of the grand kids.  We were only missing six since Chandler had to work, so it was so much fun for the kids to get together!

Kevy and his little buddy.

The last day we were there we went out to Herriman where there is a very small reservoir that has sand around it.  We thought it would be something different than just going swimming.  The kids really loved it.  It was fun for them to play in the water and in the sand. We didn't have any life jackets, so we were very nervous about the kids going in the water.  And of course Lizzy thought she had to be with all the big kids way out in the deep part. We made her wear her arm floaties the whole time.  I wasn't about to get in myself.  I am no fun anymore, but all I can think of is how gross the water is.  When the kids got home their swimsuits stunk so bad, so I rest my case.

Thankfully Janie and Jack spent most of the time out of the water, so we didn't have to worry so much about them.

 Russ was really good and sat on the blanket the whole time.  He did enjoy eating the oranges we had for lunch rind and all!

 Kevy and Tom were good sports and held up the umbrella for us.  They had fun just sitting and visiting.

   I just love those little bunnies!  I had to get a picture.  She was so funny because she needed to go pee and we didn't want to take her in the nasty port-o-potties. So we told her to just go in the lake. (I know bad of us) Well she didn't get it and she ran in there and started taking off her swimsuit to go.  It was so funny.  I went and got her and took her and they ended up being pretty clean, all things considered.

 The kids had fun making a river.

Russell decided that he liked eating the sand. Silly boy

 Oh my goodness what a cute group this is.

 The four oldest cousins decided that they had to swim all the way across the lake and back, and they did, it was really cute to watch them out there chatting with each other. I love it!

I really like this picture.  I think it is so cute!  We had such an amazing trip to Utah this summer.   We love spending time with family, it is the best! We wish Kevin's family could have come up to see us, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Independence Day

 We had such a fun time in Utah for the 4th.  No one does a celebration for the 4th quite like Provo.  We got up early and went to the parade and walked and fought the crowds and all that jazz that we do for the kids, and I just don't know if I will do it again.  I just don't think it is worth it.  They don't seem to enjoy it that much so why make all the effort.  Who knows.  After that we went back to Chanelle's and everyone came over and hung out.

We had to take a picture of the silly kids in their cute clothes. Someone gave this outfit to Russell from Kevy's work so I am glad I remembered to bring it on this trip since it is really the only day for him to wear it. I really love this picture of the kids they all look so darn cute in it.

Janie and Jack really had such a good time together.  I am so glad the kids have cousins their age to play with.  It makes it so much fun.  We made an easy dinner of subs since we were going to the Stadium of Fire and we wanted to leave early enough to park sort of close.  I was so worried about taking Russell because I knew we were not going to get home until midnight or later, and he goes to bed around 7.  And he will not fall asleep anywhere but his bed.  But my awesome sister-in-law Kristen watched him for us so that we could enjoy the show.  It was so wonderful of her.

The kids waited patiently (or not so patiently for some) for the show to start. 

Lizzy wanted us to take a picture of her in this pose.  So cute.  She was pointing to the Beach Boys.

Nellie was not too thrilled with us this day. She threw a giant fit because she wanted a drink of water and them an even bigger fit because that is all we would buy for her. I hope that one day this little gal will figure things out and choose to be happy, but she really struggles a lot right now.  She is one of those kids that is looking for something to be unhappy about, and as we all know you can always find something to be unhappy about.

She did try to smile for the family picture but it was a little bit forced.  I appreciate her trying though!

We waited so long for the Beach Boys that the girls were getting pretty restless.  The show was freaking amazing but there was a lot of stuff at the beginning that they could have done without.  The fireworks were beyond my wildest expectations, they were so so good.  I don't know if I would ever take that small of kids again though.  It was just too late for them to stay up.  The next day Nellie threw up and had a fever, so we sent her back to bed. She slept three hours and woke up fine.  I think she was just so tired that it made her sick.

It was so fun to watch the Beach Boys,  and let the girls learn some of the songs I listened to growing up.  We had a beach Boys tape that we listened to in our car on road trips as a kid, so I have such fond memories of them!  It was fun to have the girls come home and get out their CD and sing and dance to it!

Utah Trip part 1

We arrived on Saturday evening.  After our crazy night trip over spring break we vowed that we wouldn't be doing any night driving ever again. So we had a long day in the car where Russell was not very happy to be strapped in the whole day and barely slept and cried a good portion of the drive.  So we were just a little happy to finally get there.  We had a nice Sunday with Tom and Chanelle and their boys and then Monday is when the family all started to arrive.  On Monday we took all the kids swimming and of course right when we got there they had their 15 minute break.  So the kids were pretty anxious to get in the pool.

 The kids just chillin waiting for the pool to open back up.  Russ was so cute because he absolutely loves to hang out with the big kids, and he does.  He must think he is big just like them.

 It was fun to finally get to go swimming with Kevy and have some help with the kiddies.

Tuesday we planned a big dinner up the canyon, but since there were fires we couldn't do that so we had it in Erica's backyard.  One great thing about when we get together is that we really plan stuff out well so we know what we are doing and when.  It helps to have Erica around to do that because she is so good at it.  That day we took the kids out to a big hill in Eagle Mountain and took them ice blocking.  They thought that was pretty weird at first to be sliding down on a block of ice, but they had SO much fun.

 It was pretty hard to balance on the ice, but Lizzy and Nellie managed pretty good.  Maybe it was just hard for a big person like me while the kids did it with ease.

 Daddy helped Janie

 Always the poser.

Even Kevy got in on the action!

 Here are the cousins.  Well some of them anyway.  Jerry was too busy ice blocking to join.

 It was such a hot day that we HAD to get shave ice afterward.  It was so yummy too!  It is so funny because we don't make these kids sit by each other, they just naturally do it.  They love their cousins!

 Janie and Jack!

 Me and my sexy Man!  I sure love this guy!

 After the ice blocking we went back to Erica's and made dinner. While we were cooking Janae had done a bunch of Water balloons for the kids to play with

Here they are all trying to get the water balloons.

Love this little goosie!

I love this picture of Kevy and Russ!  They are even making the same face! SO cute, these two boys of mine!

 We made smores afterward for dessert.  Nellie love Chocolate as we all know.  After the dinner we went  back to Tom and Chanelles for some fireworks.  They guys got a buch of awesome ones for half price out in Eagle Mtn. because they weren't selling very well out there with the fires.

 What did I say about the posing?

The kids always love the sparklers, but I am not sure Janie will ever want to do one again.  She got burned on her toes and got all sad about it.  Luckily it wasn't bad, I think it scared her more than anything.   Everyone enjoyed the fireworks so much that they decided that on Thursday we needed to have another firework show, so we could have three full days of fireworks.  Lets just day there are a lot of pyros in the family.