Utah Summer Trip

 We took the worlds longest trip to Utah and did seriously a million things while we were there!  Okay maybe not really, but we really did do a ton of things while we were there.  I'm not sure we ever had a lazy day.  It was fun to get time with both sides even though it also made it really crazy.  We spent an afternoon up in the mountains with the Richey side and had such a great time.  We rented a camp site for the evening and had a blast just hanging around.  Kevy and I made some really amazing dutch oven food (if I do say so myself) and then roasted yummy smores over the fire. It was a great day!

 Grammie and Papi with a bunch of their grandkids.

 The kids had fun skipping rocks in a little creek.  Annie didn't quite understand how you skip rocks.  Haha!

 Clara really loved eating her smore.

 Nellie really didn't want to get the smoke in her face.

 I dont have too many pictures of Russ Bear because he spent a lot of time off exploring with his boy cousins.  He loved having some boys to play with.  He was super sweet to Jordy and loved playing with him even though he is younger. That the thing about Russ.  He is nice to everybody!

 I love sitting with my man.  I'm sure glad he is mine!

 The kids love hanging out at Grandmas house!  They feel right at home there

 She just looked so sweet, I couldn't resist!

 We went to Cowabunga Bay, which the kids really enjoyed a lot.  I think they may have really liked it because they have never been to another water park before, because it really wasn't that great, but they didn't have any expectations, so that was good.  Clara really liked chilling in the Lazy river, but it was seriously so warm, all I could think about was all the kids peeing in it. Yikes.  Russell was really into going off on his own, and the fact that he was only six was kind of freaking me out.  I am not a helicopter mom at all, but he was just too little to be going by himself everywhere.

 We hadn't taken any of the kids to Temple Square since I was pregnant with Russell, so none of them really remembered it so we wanted to take them again.  We met up with a good portion of the Hansen side and went. It was a really great day! I think the kids really got a lot out if it.

 I just wanted to eat up this cute Neal baby!  He was so cute and sweet!

 These kids sure love being with their cousins. I think that may be their favorite thing in the whole world.

 This was a picture of us as we were walking to the Conference center.  I was in the back, and I took this picture.  Even though you can't see everyone, that whole giant group was us and it was so cool to see us together like that!

 Here is a bunch of us on the top of the conference Center. It was really neat to go up there and see the views and also see the gardens that are up there.

 We also took a trip one day down to BYU and went to the Bean Museum.  Its a place the kids always love and it was also really cool to see the special room they have for all of the artwork done by Boyd K Packer.

 We went to Tibblefork Reservoir with everyone, it was so cold, but fun.  Grace had a bunch of floaties to play on, so we started floating around on them, but it was a little nerve-wracking because if you got out too far there wasnt really a way to get back to the shore.

 The big kids decided to go out and swim across

 Lizzy and all the big kids were going to swim across to the other side but luckily they decided it was too cold and they just walked around instead.

 Kevy decided he didnt wasnt any part of the water, haha! So ha just laid on the shore.

 We had a big dinner with all the Hansen side, it was pretty awesome.  By that time Bryce and Mel had gotten there and so we had almost the whole family there.  It was great.  We always have a great time with everyone.

 Tom and Kevin visiting. Just like old times!

 Janae is so great and she always has fun games that she does with the kids.  It was so fun to see them all togheter

Lizzy and Nellie were loving the baby snuggles with the twins, June and Henry.  These girls are so good with little kids and babies.

June Fun

We started summer off with a bang of lots of swimming. One thing my kids are never going to be able to say I never took them swimming, haha!  We are so grateful for amazing friends that let us use their pool whenever we wanted.  We got a swimming pass to the aquatic center but rarely used it because it was just so nice to not have to worry about all the people, and after we went once and we couldn't get in for a half hour because someone had vomited in the pool, I pretty much said bubye to the community pool. 

Clara and Annie really made huge strides this year in their swimming.  They loved it so much and were really brave and wanted to swim a lot.  I should actually just say Clara because Annie has been a little fish for a while.  She is so brave and shows no fear.

We decided to have a little picnic and eat on towels because they kids had used up all the tables and chairs to make a fort.  It filled up our whole front room and the kids even slept in it a couple of nights.  It was really fun and they loved it.  They even cleaned it up pretty well, at  least for kids haha!

Russell's Kindergarten Graduation

Our cute Russy boy graduated from Kindergarten.  He did such a great job this year at learning and growing.  I am so impressed with him and how well he makes friends and has a great time at school.  He was funny in the songs that they sang because he just will not do any actions.  He finally will participate int he singing so I guess I should be happy with that.  But there is no way he would do the actions that go with the songs.

 One of the Dads took everyones pictures so it was fun to see our cute smiley bear up there.

 Clara was really upset when we were trying to take pictures and we just couldn't get her to settle down, the thing that kills me though is just how Russ and Anne were just smiling away the whole time she was freaking out.

 It's nice that Kevin was there with me,  I love that he has a job where he can come to things like this.

Downtown Splashpad

 Park Day was downtown at the only splash pad our city has.  Oh how I wish they would get a decent one. We thought some friends might come but it ended up being just the two girlies and me.  We had a good time though.  They liked just going and standing in them, well Annie did,, Clara just would kind of back her bottom up into them.  It was a fun activity to do to pass some time and keep the girls busy while the big kids are still in school.

Rivercats Game

The Oklahoma City Dodgers were in town to play, so of course Kevy had to make sure we went.  It was too much money for everyone to go. (Hello it's minor league!) so we decided to just do it as a date night.  We went downtown before the game and ate out since we never get to do thing like that.  We went to Cafeteria 15L.  It was actually really good. It was fun to try something new.  After we went to the game.  It is always fun to go to a baseball game wit Kevin because he just loves it so much!  It was more fun than going to another Rivercats game because we actually had someone we wanted to root for and we also got to see some players that sometimes play for the Dodgers. I also just love being with my guy, no matter what we do!  The Dodgers ended up losing, of course.  It seems like we don't exactly have the best luck.  But it was still super fun to have a date night to a ball game. 

Memorial Day

 It was a fun Memorial Day with the our friends the Taylors. We didn't do a ton, but we got together at the park late in the day and had a picnic and played kickball.   The funniest thing that happened that day was we had all moved down to the far end of the park to play kickball after we had eaten. After a few minutes I looked around and realized that we were missing Annie and Clara. So I started walking over to the other side of the park to look for them. As I was getting closer I could see them and I saw Annie looking around like. " I guess we are alone,"  So she gathered Clara and Nellie's ripstick that had been left and started to head for home. It was so sweet that she was trying to take care of Clara, but I felt bad too that they thought they had been left. Poor little girlies.

Annie's Aloha Program

Our Annie girl is the silliest and spunkiest little girl around!  I am always so in awe at how much self confidence she has.  She is never shy or nervous about things that she should be nervous about.  It impresses me so much and always makes me wish I could be more like her!  She did her preschool program at Miss Patty's at the end of the year and of course sang her heart out!  She didn't have any reservations and I love it!  I cant believe that our Annie girl is done with preschool and will be heading to Kindergarten.  She is ready though, I cant wait to see her as a kindergartner.

 Annie was a little sad to say goodbye to her two good friends Liv and Grace.  These three had both years together in Miss Patty's and always had a great time together.

 It was fun that she got to sit next to her friend Joey.  He was a new student halfway through the year and Annie was the sweetest and really made him feel included Miss Patty said. I love that about my Annie girl!

She is the best!  I just love this little gal!

Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day each year.  Not because I think I am the most amazing mother, I know I have so much room for improvement. But I love it because I get to celebrate the fact that I am a mother to these amazing kids.  I grew up with a mother that hated Mother's Day.  So bad in fact that it was so dreaded because she was so depressed and hard to be around on that day because she felt so inadequate. It makes me sad just to think about it. I am glad that I don't feel the same way. I love this day because even though I make so many mistakes I know I am giving it my all.  I know that I literally put everything I am into being a mom.

  Its no secret that it's all I ever wanted to do. When I was in second grade we had a big program and spent a lot of time on what we wanted to be when we grew up.  Everyone made these large self portraits of themselves as what they wanted to be and then our parents came and we had a program and each got up and talked about our picture.  I drew myself as a mom holding a baby. Nowadays little girls would probably be shamed for that, but luckily I wasn't.  So everyday I try and find that joy in my life because I am living out my dream. 

 I loved getting to go to Annie's preschool mother's day tea. It was such a fun little thing, she sang cute songs and made me the sweetest present. I have had many mothers day teas in my day and each one is just as special.

 I just adore my life and these kids that I call mine. It is sometimes completely soul crushing and beyond difficult but at the same time it is the most wonderful and rewarding thing.  It's crazy how it can contain both the highest highs and the lowest lows.  I still wouldn't have it any other way. I am loving it more every day too with my kids as they are getting older. They are just so fun to be around and we have so much fun together.

I was so lucky this year because I got to go to a Mother's Day Tea for Russ as well. I am so grateful that they didn't fall on the same day so that I could go to both. I loved seeing my boy sing to me. I am so grateful that I have these great kids that I get to call mine.

Fairy Tale Town

There will come a time in a couple of years when I will no longer have a post about Fairytale town, and that will be a sad day!  I love this place. Its so fun to go every year with Miss Patty's place and get to see the silly puppet show and then have fun on all the slides and play equipment. It was fun to take Clara and Annie one more time because next year it will just be Clara left!  They had a lot of fun together.  I love seeing the relationship that they have together. 

It was nice because this year they weren't terrified of the slides and had a good time going on all of them and I didn't even have to help them! Progress! 

I love this sweet little face!  Their favorite and mine is the crooked mile and this was taken in the little crooked house.

It was fun for Clara to see her friend from the ward Rachel on the field trip as well!  They had fun playing together too!

Clearly I suck at Selfies. I dont even know how to take them well.

Thankfully we found someone to take our picture.

They were having a craft day that day so it was fun for the girls to make some crowns.  They always love things that they can make and color.

I know I post about this every year, but its truely one of or favorites. I catn help it. We always have such a fun time here.