Grandparent Week!!!

So this first part of June was the first Grandparent week that my kids could go to!

Grandma and Papa took all the grandkids 3{almost} and up, and spent the week with them!  

Holy cow, did they do a lot and have fun.  

Each day they did a craft, went on a field trip, and had fun with

Grandma and Papa.  Some of the activities were learning to sew 

(James now wants to "needle" something by himself to fix holes in his pants

instead of using patches) where the kids got to learn to sew a button on,

made a pinecone birdfeeder (which are now on our front trees and

the birds are eating the seeds!, James and Jack check daily

how many seeds are left), took the frontrunner train down to Temple Square!!!, 

painted rocks, made these neat tye-dye T-shirts (some of my kids favorite now),

played lots of games, took them all to church!, and over all had a great grandparent week!

All the grandkids at Grandparent week with

Papa and Grandma

Grandkids in order from youngest Jack to oldest Elisa

Silly face picture

I love the wave from Kayla


Eating on the deck

After the week was up Robert and Kortney and Richard and Rachelle

were staying a few extra days, so everyone stayed some extra

days and all the grandkids and parents then

were at Grandma and Papa's house.

We went to the park and had a water balloon fight

Emma meeting Jonathan


We went to the Hill Air Force Museum, and they let us
in the educational area where the school groups go
to make rockets!


"Hmm, what's in there?"


Then each kid got to shoot them off outside!
These things went seriously high, much higher than
the buildings. 


Watching a take-off
Jack's face is awesome


The whole group in front of a large carrier plane


Me with James and cute nieces


Rachelle and Finn

The last night there was a treasure hunt and at the 

end there were beautiful treasure boxes to keep
 

James with his California Cousins

The boys

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

James and Jack loved being with their Papa and Grandma

and all their cousins for so long!  They are asking

when they get to spend the night again, and when their

cousins are coming back :)

Memorial Day

 For Memorial Day we headed to Heber to spend 

some time with our friends Aubreigh, Matt, Quinn and Bennet.  

 

We went on a hike as a family, found some acorns...

 Cute buddies 

All the boys are inspecting something they found

After this we went to a place where all the boys could cast a line in.

Nobody caught a fish, but our kids still thought it was fun.

Later that night us adults were able to go get dinner and we got 2 babysitters

to watch our 4 boys.  We love the Parks'!

A Year Later...

What a difference a year makes!

Last year in May my mom suffered a major heartattack.

She is one of the few lucky to survive the type that she had,

and to celebrate another year of life, we headed out to 

Colorado over her birthday.

At this same time last year we were also hoping to be able to

add to our family, and we have since been blessed 

with Jonathan Carl.

This last year has been good to us! 

We all stayed with Grandma Kitty at Lincoln Meadows,

she is so nice to always let us stay with her, and we love to!

 We got to visit Cinnamon

 Grammies and Jonathan at the barn

 For Christmas Nathan and I got iFly certificates from

Grammies and Boompa to try out indoor skydiving.

It was awesome!

James wanted to try too, and with the new 

Dragon's movie coming out and Hiccup has

a flight suit in the movie, we decided he could try too.

 Mommy flying

 Daddy flying

James flying.

They had to turn the air down for him

or he would've flown through the roof :)

It was lots of fun, we'll go again when Jack is 

old enough to try it!

Grammies, Boompa, Grandma Kitty, and Jack and

Jonathan watched while we had our turn.

 I love this sweet shot

 The boys getting ready for bed

 Night-night sleepy pie.

The next day we had a family dinner for Grammies!

Uncle Dana and Aunt Maggie came up from the Springs,

and Uncle Kyle and Aunt Carol came too to Lincoln Meadows

to celebrate life and family.

 Grammies at the family birthday party holding the sleeping babe.

 Uncle Kyle holding the little guy

I got to see my best friend growing up Heather on the trip too,

and I can't believe that we didn't get a picture :(

We have planned a race together in the fall so I'll get a whole 

weekend with her and I'm so excited for that!

Happy Birthday Grammies!!!

We are glad we could celebrate with you!

Happy Parent's Day!

A combined post for Mother's Day and Father's Day! 

Two different days, same great kids.

 Mommy and Daddy 

with J's ^3

 

Raising Moths

My dad is an amateur entomologist, and each year

he has provided us with cocoons or caterpillars of

different moths to raise.  He brought us some

cocoons this year of polyphemus moths. 

They all hatched one night of a big storm, and 

we were able to take them to the preschool to show

and teach the kids.   

When they hatched, it was late at night, but I was

so excited I woke the kids up to see them :)

Ms. Tami holding a moth

Close up of a male polyphemus

Now we currently have caterpillars that each 

day we have to clean out their containers and add

more leaves.  It is a fun summer

science experiment that we get to share,

and I remember doing as a kid too :)

Preschool Graduation!

 Wow, what a year! 

 James is now officially a Kindergartener!

Baby Animal Days

 This year we went to "Baby Animal Days" again in Kaysville that is put on by the USU extension office.  I personally also love this event, and it was just perfect weather too.

Little train ride

 Old pros at it now

 James holding a chick

Chicks!

Jack was so sweet with his chick, and it even fell asleep 

in his lap!

"Look at his little beak"

 All sorts of things to see and hold!

 Cotton Candy!

Can anyone name that movie quote, and think of it in the right voice?

I'll give you a hint, the character was Gru.

We can't look at cotton candy without saying that quote, in that voice.

Cousin Wedding

In May we were privileged to go to our cousin Jordan's wedding in the Salt Lake Temple.

He married a beautiful girl inside and out, Savannah.

Their wedding was perfect, and it stopped raining in time as they came outside.

Their lunch was catered by Kathy, the food was a wonderful pasta linguini with different sauces, homemade bread sticks, a ceaser salad, and amazing chocolate cream dessert.

Our kids loved it, and we it was special to be a part of their special day.

 Baby J with mommy sleeping after the rain

 Jack runs in the sunshine

 James stopping to smell the flowers

 James, Jack, and Lilah waiting outside for everyone to come out

 The newly-weds!

 Savannah and Jordan make a beautiful couple!

 An edited picture by Nathan 

Our family outside

That's Jack being shy and not wanting his picture taken :/