SLC with friends

We took a fun trip to Salt Lake with our friends the Guerrero's.  The trip was basically to get out of Logan and do some shopping.  It was a very hot day but we had lots of fun.  Shopped around City Creek for a bit while the kids had fun playing around the mannequins and clothes.  Walked around Temple Square and saw a bunch of brides and grooms.  The girls loved that one.  Then we cooled off at the Book of Mormon exhibit and let the kids play around.  Lots of cool things to do there.  We are so grateful to have made friends with such a fun family.  Can't wait for more adventures with them.

 Our crew in front of the reflection pond.  I love Max and Matthew looking so big.  And of course my cheeser on the bottom.. Jacob.

 Nephi's boat he built.  Jacob loved this boat.  He could have played here all day.

 Max and Matthew building towers to knock down.  Ok, maybe just Matthew was knocking them down.

 Jacob's favorite truck.  I had to drag him out of it so other kids could play in it.  He takes after his father!

 More stuff to play.  I caught Stephanie... hahaha

 Max and Matthew being great buddies.  Glad they found each other to play with.

 Kimberly and Ashlie showing off their dancing skills.  We could not get the boys to put on the boy outfit and dance.

 Two peas in a pod.  These girls are the cutest!

Ended our hot day at the splash fountain at City Creek.  The kids got so wet but it felt so good after our hot journey.

Dinosaur Park

This summer we decided we needed to do more things with the kids.  One of the first things we thought we would try was the dinosaur park in Ogden.  The kids love watching Dinosaur Train so I knew they would love to see the dinos.  Kimberly was a bit scared until she realized they were not real.  Matthew and I were naming all the dinos we saw from Dinosaur Train.  Jacob really loved the playground.  It was a great way to beat a few hours and it wasn't very hot the day we went so we didn't sweat to death.  Lots of fun.

 I wish you could smell Kimberly fear in this picture.  It was all she could do to sit under this fake dino and take a picture.  She can be a little scaredy cat sometimes.

 Jacob didn't want to stand for a picture.  He wanted to crawl in it and see what was inside.

 This slide was a hit for my children.  If you can't tell, it is a dinosaur.  But it was fast and fun and they all loved it.

 Even Jacob wasn't afraid of it.  He loves the slide and this one was so much fun.

 Kimberly looks like a giant on it but she enjoyed it too.  I love Brian in this picture cause he is laughing at how much Jacob loved this slide.

 Aren't they cute... I mean the family, not the dinosaur!

This picture has a story behind it.  We went up to this one to take a cute picture and it started making noise.  Well Kimberly and Matthew thought it was scary but funny.  Jacob freaked out.  He wanted far away from this dinosaur.  In this picture you can see he is dragging me away from it.

We had a great time here.  Just one of our many adventures this summer.

Reasons to love summer

Here are my reasons for loving this summer:
1) I don't have an infant this year.  I have a toddler that loves to play outside.  We are going to be outside all summer long.
2) Kimberly is old enough to watch Jacob and Matthew outside without me being out there.  Today she took them outside for an hour and went for walks all while I cleaned up the house.  LOVE IT.
3) It is warm already.  Which means we can already break out the pools and play in the water.
4) We don't have a lot planned for the summer.  That means we can do a lot more spur of the moment things.
5) Brian and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year (11 years together).  WOW where has the time gone.
6) Resort wedding in Crested Butte CO in July just for Brian and me.  4 days without the kids!
7) My 20 year (yes I said 20 year) class reunion happens this summer.  I honestly am excited to see some old friends.  They are planning a dinner for adults in the high school on one night and a summer picnic for families the next day.  Should be pretty fun.  Kind of excited to show Brian my old high school.
8) Exercise.  Exercise.  Exercise.  I am so a fair weather gal when it comes to exercising and I started running and walking but only like to do it in good weather.  My goal is to be in a 5k.  Might not happen this year but definitely next year.

That should about do it.  I love summer!

Last day of school

Here is Kimberly on her last day of 2nd Grade.  She was happy but very sad to be leaving her friends for the summer.  Maybe I was sad when I was her age but I only remember being happy for summer.  She sure has blossomed this year.  She is an amazing reader and an all around smart kid.  She loved Math (struggled a bit with speed tests), especially learning multiplication.  She loves to write and has some goofy stories.  I can't believe she is going to be in the 3rd grade next year.  Way to go sis!

Matthew is 5 years old!

On May 30th, Matthew turned 5 years old.  He was so excited to be a 5 year old.  He knows that 5 year olds get to go to school.  This fall he will start Kindergarten.  He was set on this birthday having a Lightning McQueen birthday so that is what he got.  He was pretty happy all day.  He was so excited for his birthday that he couldn't go to sleep the night before and woke up pretty early birthday morning.  We did all his favorite things on his birthday... eat out for meals, play wii, open presents, play baseball, and enjoy his grandparents.
This handsome kid came into the world and gave us a hard time for a couple of weeks.  He turned blue his first night on earth (scared the life out of me) and was pretty jaundice for a few days.  After the first couple of weeks he turned into this sweet cuddly boy that was very strong.  I was able to stay home with him and loved every minute of it.  He is a joy to our lives.  He is truely the sports kid Brian always wanted but he does put on a dress every now and then to please his big sister.  haha.

We love you so much Matthew.  Happy Birthday!

2nd grade award

Here is Kimberly getting her 2nd Grade award for Most Awesome Student.  That is her teacher Mrs. Wright behind her.  She said that she is awesome in every category and she has told us she wishes she had more of her in her class.  We are very proud of Kimberly!

Kimberly's Dance 2012

What a fun year of dance at LaShars!  Kimberly's 5th year of dance was a biggie. She really wanted to perform more than just at review.  So we put her on a performing team.  What a great experience for her.  She performed a bunch of times in many different situations.  Her dancing improved so much.  I was amazed at the things she was learning.  She got a few trophies from her competitions (see above) including a 1st place medal in drill down.  Her teachers loved her so much.  We can't wait for next year.

Jacob

I need to blog about this cutie.  My sweet little Jacob Lewis is now 16 months old.  He is a blessing to our family.  He is such a joy and a complete stink all at the same time.  I am so glad he is with us.  He is funny... a born comedian.  He will crack himself up with just the littlest noise.  Then he will do silly things to get me to laugh... like climb into an Easter basket (see above).  He loves to give kisses and hugs.  He loves his daddy more than I expected.  He enjoys playing and tormenting his siblings.  They love him so much.  He loves our dog.  Duke and Jacob are best of friends.  Especially now that Jacob calls him Dukie instead of ruff ruff.  He loves to play ball and loves the outdoors.  He is all boy.  But what a doll. 
I love you Jacob!

Easter 2012

Easter this year was a quick Easter morning when you have to be to church at 8:30.  The kids were pretty excited though for the Easter Bunny so Kimberly and Matthew woke up early to see if he came.  Poor Jacob had to be waken because his brother and sister were just too eager.  The older two knew the routine and off they went in search of their eggs.  Jacob was new at this so after a few minutes, he finally picked up on the idea that he picks up eggs and puts them in his basket.  The candy threw him off though.  He thought he could eat everyone he picked up.  We had a nice morning, a great day at church, and a nice rest of the day.  I love to cook Easter dinner and we filled our bellies full.  One of our special treats on Easter Sunday is corn on the cob.  We love it and it just makes us hungry for summer when we can have it every Sunday.  We also indulge in deviled eggs.  They don't always agree with us but we love to eat them!  Ah we love Easter Sunday.

 The stash the Easter bunny brought for the kids.

 Kimberly hunting eggs and candy.

 Matthew hunting eggs and candy.

 Jacob finally hunting eggs and candy with the help of mommy.

 After they found all the goodies (note Jacob's goofy smile)

After church the kids got to try on their new outfits.  Good thing it was a nice day on Easter!

We love all the treats and goodies but we also remember the true meaning of Easter... our Savior Jesus Christ.  There is just something about Easter and Christmas at church when you feel the spirit of Christ so strong it brings tears to your eyes.  We are so grateful for everything Jesus did for us.

Bless you all!

Kimberly's Baptism and 8th Birthday

We had a special day on March 24th this year.  Kimberly turned 8 years old and was baptized.  It was a special day.  Kimberly had a lot of family come to support her and afterwards we had a nice brunch.  Then we enjoyed birthday presents and just the day with us as a family.  It was very nice. 

 This is how Jacob smiles for the camera now.  Silly kid!

It was a great day.  She shares a special thing with her daddy now by being baptized on her birthday just like he was.

Kimberly's 8th Birthday Party

For Kimberly's 8th birthday party, she wanted a dog party.  (Secretly I was grateful we didn't have a girly party)  We invited 16 kids (I know, insane) because this might be the last birthday party with all these kids together with everyone moving and what not.  The party was a hit.  The kids seemed to have a great time.  We started the party with some coloring pages and word finds then moved to games.  We blew up a picture of our dog and played pin the ear on the Duke.  Then we had presents and then played Feed the Dog.  This bean bag toss game was a lot of fun.  Then we sang Happy Birthday and ate dog bones (sugar cookies).  We then went out in the garage and busted up a pinata.  They make them pretty tough nowadays and Brian had to rip it apart after the kids all had a good turn beating on the dog bone.  It was time for a craft while they waited for their parents.  We found a cute craft online with clothes pins where they make a dog that holds their pencil.  The kids had fun decorating their dog I think.  I know one thing... it was great to do this for Kimberly but afterwards, I was tired!

I love birthday parties but I need to adopt some ideas from my friends and only hold parties every other year.
:-)

Happenings

So it has been awhile since I have posted on here.  I guess I have been busy.  It feels like lately we have at least 4 things going on every day.  I literally fall into my bed at night and give a big sigh, not for relief but knowing I am going to bed with things unfinished but too exhausted to go on.  I know it is just going to get worse as the years go on and our kids get bigger and bigger.  But we are living each minute and enjoying all we can.  I will tell you right now... I am going to look forward to the days were I get to think of things to do each day!

Here are some of the things that have been going on in our lives:

 Kimberly ready for a ballet performance.  She is loving her performing team.  She has been doing a lot of performances and each time I can see her improving.  Dance is her forte!  A girl after my own heart.

 Jacob experiencing his first valentine cookie decorating.  He enjoyed every bit of the icing but I am not sure he even tried the cookie!

 Kimberly and Matthew enjoying icing and decorating their own cookies.  Sprinkles overload!

 Matthew is the Lego king this year.  He got a bunch of Lego sets for Christmas and he has enjoyed them.  I will say, Daddy and I are having just as much fun playing and building Legos as Matthew.

This is part of our girl scout troop #1001.  This was our investiture night where the girls get their membership pin and are officially added as a member of girl scouts.  Pretty neat night.

So March will be filled with more girl scout cookie projects, birthdays, and most important... Kimberly's 8th birthday and baptism.
As always... more to come!

Girl Scouts

This year I signed Kimberly up to be a girl scout.  I was a girl scout growing up and loved it.  There was so much we did and I loved earning badges.  So I have always wanted Kimberly to be a girl scout.  This year at her school, they started a troop.  I was so excited and so was she.  The first day we went, they mentioned they needed help like leaders.  I don't know why but I knew I wanted to be a leader.  Maybe it was because my mom was my leader... not sure why.  So I signed up to be a leader.  Within the first couple of weeks, I also signed up to take on the title Cookie Manager.  I didn't really know what this entailed but it sounded fun.  UGH!  I should have read all the details of Cookie Manager.  Just kidding.  It has been very stressful but a good challenge.  Our troop consists of about 45 girls.  Yes that is a lot but the first year of a troop is free to the troop.  It is called a Discovery troop.  I am sure when the girls have to pay next year, the numbers will drop.  So as Cookie Manager I am in charge of 45 girls' cookie orders.  Yes it is insane.  Just trying to get all the orders on time was a nightmare (some of the familes don't speak a lot of English).  Then I have to proof each cookie order to make sure the additions are correct.  Then I have to enter them into the cookie system.  That doesn't sound so bad, right.  But then we have to guess at how many cookies we might sell during booth sells.  When we make this guess, we have to divide it up among the 8 kinds of cookies.  This is basically a crapshoot.  You never know how many cookies you are going to sell.  If you get too many, you are stuck with them as a troop and have to pay for them.  If you order too little, you might run out before all your cookie booths are done.  A complete joke for a Cookie Manager.  Then you have to take all these booth cookies and divide them up among your girls in your troop.  They say to be fair and equal... a little hard when you have 45 girls.  So much stress!  Oh and to top it off, you are on a time-line and have to have all this done by a certain time and date.  Luckily I was able to get it all done with 6 hrs to spare.  I think I have done an ok job.  I hope so anyway.  For now I am on a cookie break.  Until the end of the month when all 5400 boxes of cookies arrive and I have to figure out a way to get them to my house, divide them up among the girls, and deliver them.  Not to mention during all of this... my sweet Kimberly girl scout sold 265 boxes of cookies (most of them door to door).  I am so proud of her.. and honestly a little happy with myself too!

Not sure if I am going to take on this challenge again next year.  (I do have an advantage having done it one year... don't tell my hubby I said this!)

Family Pictures

So we finally had some family pictures taken.  Seriously our last ones were when Matthew was 1.  It was due time.  You never know how your kids are going to react to having their pictures taken.  When Kimberly was little, she was a doll and so good taking pictures.  Then Matthew was a bit of a toot.  Not really crying but all our pictures have him with his mouth wide open.  So I was curious how Jacob would react.  WELL... he started crying the second we got in to take pictures.  Man it was a struggle getting him to smile.  I was mighty surprised at what cute pictures we ended up with because of his meltdown.  Matthew still has a silly grin and Kimberly still is easy to get her picture.  But all in all, I am happy with what we got.  Here are just a few of our favorites:

Hopefully we won't wait as long to get a new family picture next time.
:-)