Almost Two Month's Later...

September 17, 2010

We finally celebrated Daxton's 14th birthday! His birthday is in July, but we were in Tennessee. Then when we got home there was so much going on, that we just got around to his party. For his party we had a BBQ, and showed an outdoor movie. They watched Nacho Libre. He had about 12 friends come. They all had a great time!!

(Aubrey, Dax, Sabrina and Josh)

There was lots of good food, and tons of candy...

(Dax, Sabrina, Nick, Kresten, Josh, Brayden and Aubrey)

Good times...

Dax was such a good brother, and let Jada, her friend, and Dawson all come to his party. I was so proud of him!
We hung a white sheet between windows on the house, and used Becky's projector. It worked perfectly!!

Wow... I can not believe our oldest is 14,
Time goes way to fast:(.

I am so glad that Dax has such a good group of friends :)

Dax is such an awesome son! He is a great student, and is amazing on the guitar. He really is very talented. He is polite, and kind (well to everyone but his siblings...ha...ha). We never have to worry about Dax, which is so nice for a parent! I am so grateful for Dax, and what a great kid we have been blessed with. Luv ya Dax. Happy 14th Birthday!!

The Newest Member Of Our Family...

September 16, 2010

Here She is... Lacy, the guinea pig :?. Yes, Jada finally got a pet. Jada has begged us for years for a dog. Unfortunately for Jada, both her parents hate pets. I have felt so bad for her that a few times I almost gave in and let her get a dog, but in the end I just could not say yes. So, when Jada's friend told her she was giving away her guinea pig, Jada started in on the begging. It took her almost 3 weeks to get us to say yes. As you can see in the picture above, Jada is very... very happy!!

Our new family member created quite a stir in our neighborhood.

I could not believe how many kids, and parents came over to see Lacy :)

When Jada told me she wanted to get a guinea pig, I was thinking of an animal that you hold in the palm of your hand. I just about died when Jada brought home this animal the size of a rabbit. I had no idea that guinea pigs were this big :(. Oh well, Jada is in charge of this creature. Not me :).
Our neighbors have guinea pigs also, so they brought theirs over to have a play date with Jada's. It was pretty funny. Jada's friend gave her 2 big cages, an outdoor fence, food etc. all for free :). That is the best way to get a pet.

Here is the play date :). The kids were loving it.

My baby girl with her new baby!

Jada's best friend Savanna with Lacy

This is how we have Jada hold Lacy so that she doesn't pee or poop on her :)

The other night I went to tuck Jada in bed, and there she was watching tv with Lacy. It was pretty cute!

I must admit that so far it has not bothered me to have Lacy in our family:). In fact, I love the cute little noises that she makes. I still won't touch her though. Jada follows me around and says just pet her mom, but I just can't touch her. Maybe one day.... I am very happy that Lacy has made Jada so happy!!

Camping.... Or Should I Say Freezing At Strawberry

September 10 - 12, 2010

We have not been camping for about 2 years, so we decided to finally go... in fall :(. What were we thinking? Lets just say we froze! We went with my sister Becky and her family. I was so glad they came with us, because my nephew James is leaving on his mission in October. It was so great to spend some time with him. We went to Lodgepole campground close to Strawberry reservoir so we could fish. Well, we woke up the first morning to thick frost on everything. Wow... I have never been sooo cold. My poor kids, I couldn't sleep worrying about them freezing. The lack of sleep was also due to the fact, that the main road through the canyon was right next to this campground :). Who knew there was so much traffic all night!

Don't ask me what it says on this window... I don't know,

I just wanted to document the frost!

Notice the frost on the arm of this chair...

Also lots of frost on the tent...

I thought it would be cold, but I never imagined it would be this cold :(.(James, Dax, Becky, Taylor, Elora and Jada)
Trying to warm up. The key word in that sentence is TRYING...

Poor Malibu and Franklin

(Brayden, Dave and Elora)

(Corey, Dave and Elora)

(James and Dax)

I love my nephew James... He is always wearing something interesting, like this Panda nightgown! I luv ya James!

(Jada, Me and Dawson)

Fishing at Strawberry!

(Taylor and Elora)

This is how Dave let Jada fish... He would cast, and then told her not to touch the pole. Just to watch it. If she held it and moved the pole alot, the fish would not bite. Jada did not think this was very fun :(

This is probably why we were not getting to many bites...
Dawson is very loud and crazy!

(Dawson, Dave, Brayden and Taylor)

What a great Dad!

Okay so I didn't really fish,
but I wanted to look like I got in on the action :)

My cute family :)

Jada still getting to watch her pole :)

My guys :)
That is Taylor farther off in the picture

She finally gets to hold the pole... Now fishing is getting more fun :)

(Becky and Corey)

My awesome nephew James!

Becky out on her pontoon.
She is quite a fisherman, I mean fisherwomen :)

Dawson noticed a whole bunch of ladybugs on this plant. He was very excited, he tried to count them all. I think he got to about 12...18...9...16... That is how he count after he gets to 12. I love my baby, he always makes me smile :).

Taylor kept himself busy catching crawdads!

Becky finally caught a fish. It was a cut throat.

She was pretty excited!

Unfortunately it was not big enough to keep :(

We finally decided to each lunch in the car while the die hard fisherman kept fishing. Becky thought it was funny to document our kids fighting in the car :(.

Wow... look at the look on Dawson's face

Becky was so enjoying herself. She thought this was pretty funny to watch since her kids are older, and she does not have to deal with constant fighting. Thanks Becky!
Brayden and Jada really got in to a bad fight, so I made them each get out of the car and go sit by themselves. I told Becky to watch Brayden because he will always look to see if I am watching him. If I am watching, he will put on a more dramatic show for me. Sure enough a few seconds later he slowly looked over to see if I was watching him... Becky was laughing so hard :)

Becky actually caught him looking over :) Here he is hoping I am noticing how upset he is trying to act.

Here's Jada Babe... she won't look at me. She just ignores me, and bides her time. It is so funny how different our kids are.
Here I am putting my finger gun to my head :). I had had enough after about 5 hours of fishing, and my kids fighting.

Finally the last of our group finished fishing!

Malibu found herself a comfy spot

Aunt Julie bought these little ceramic animal for the kids to paint while we were in Illinois this summer. We never got around to painting them. Dawson has been dying to paint his, so I told him when we went camping, he could paint his. I told him that hoping he would forget. Lets just say, Dawson never forgets :). So here is Jada and Dawson painting...finally!

Dawson was so happy

All the boys went back to fish while Becky, Elora, and I made dinner. Brayden caught a big rainbow troat on the second round of fishing.
He was pretty happy :) Uncle Corey kept the fish, since we don't eat fish. Poor Dax... still no fish for him :(.
Here we are trying not to freeze the second night. Elora, Taylor and James were smart and went home that night.

This is Dax trying to get me out of my sleeping bag the next morning :(

We went for a walk in the morning to gather up some wood for the fire. Dawson was a big help... only he would not let us put his special pieces in the fire. He freaked out when Dax threw one in, so Dax had to go for another walk with him to find him a replacement :)

Here he is with his special pieces of wood.

Dawson is such a good helper! He would not let anyone help him take the poles apart. He is such a big boy!

Finally home... Is camping really worth all this effort?

Yes, it is worth it! We had a great time, minus the freezing part. I am so glad we finally went camping.