June 16, 2013

 Father's Day! :)
We got up and made some breakfast and the kids all made their dad cards of course. I asked them all those cute questions and traced their hands.
 
  I think the funniest thing was that Ari answered the question- "Daddy works hard ____" as "at the post office" lol.
One thing they all said that Dad says all the time is that he loves them which is true.
Whenever Kevin says, "Did you know I love you?" Hailey always says, "I know DAD! You say that all the time!!" lol
Out of the crazy bunch I would say that Jay and Hailey got their dad's eyes and great smile. I think Scott and Ari look like him too, but they are more mixed with mom and dad.
We went to church and just hung out (I think we even let Dad take a nap which NEVER happens :)
His dinner request was dutch oven pizzas! Yum! We were going to do dutch oven cobbler too, but I think we were too stuffed.
It was a fun day. It's just always nice to have a day for the kids to honor their Dad and tell him how much he means to them. And they do LOVE their dad! And for good reason, he's the best one around!!! :)

June 13, 2013

Official first 2 weeks of summer!
I caught Scott and Hailey lounging on the patio playing "I spy" on a nice warm day. That's what summer is all about right? Love it!
We have also been doing swim lessons! Scott, Hailey and Ari have been. Jay joins in at the end when we go outside. His first time in the pool was June 4th
 Take a close look at the wreath on my front door. It even took me a while to notice, then one day I was coming in and did a double take! This is one of 2 Robin's nests we have! This one has 3 eggs in it and every time someone comes to the door the mommy goes crazy flapping around lol. The other one is in the shed Kevin is building and those ones hatched. Scott keeps saying, "Can I pleeeeease go see! They are just soooooo cute! They are all snuggled so close and soooo cute" lol
 Speaking of Scott- he got some new digs! He went in for a checkup in May and what do ya know, the boy failed the eye test so we took him into see the eye doc. He had perfect 20/20 vision last year, and this year he is extremely near sighted and has a astigmatism. I said, "Scott why didn't you say something!?" He was like, "Well I can see just fine! It's just blurry!" Even when the eye doc said, "Can you see this line?" He'd say, "Yup!" and confidently name all the wrong letters. lol When he got them on the first day he just laughed and laughed because he couldn't believe all the things he could see! 
Last Saturday they had "Free Fishing Day" and had a fishing festival at the park. It was soooo much fun! We even took the canoe out to first dam that night, but no luck catching fish.
 The kids got a bag with a map on it and went around to all the different stations and got a stamp. So like for the fly tying station they had to make their own fly to get a stamp. It was just a blast! If they got a stamp from ALL the stations they got a free t-shirt. They were so close and we only had an hour before it was over, so I ran with Ari and Jay to get some lunch while Kevin finished up the last few obstacles. Worth it for sure though.
Rubber fish paint rubbings
A little screech owl. :)
 Face paintings of course (with chip lips to boot)
 Our typical day has been: get up and go to swim lessons, hang out afterwards and swim til about noon, come home and eat lunch outside, play out in our new swing set  go for nature walks, ride our bikes or go to the library. Every night I throw a blanket down out in the backyard and we just play or read books. 
We also had a really quick visit from Grammy Wednesday-Friday last week. She got to go with us to the absolutely CRAZY opening social at the library for the reading program. Just picture 10 bounce houses and ALL the children of Utah crammed in. Grammy was a great sport for a crazy day! lol But of course the kids loved it.
Jay is so close to crawling! He gets up now and rocks back and forth on his hands and knees. He's also getting really good at feeding himself too!
MUCH progress on sleeping too! He has been sleeping from about 7:30 until 3 or 4 am now- hurrah!

June 4, 2013

Kevin wanted to get out of the valley for his birthday, so we went up to my parents house in Idaho Thursday after school and spent the weekend relaxing.
Kids swinging at a little park we had a picnic at near balance rock. 
 This is how Ari likes to swing and I think it's so adorable. I totally remember swinging like this all the time, but Scott and Hailey never did it like that. Maybe it's the third child thing lol
 Cutie Jay swinging with me
Scott was a grump in this picture because he hit his head on a pole when he got off the swing. He was crying and I said, "You need to just go right over to that pole and punch it with your fist for hitting you." He was like, "Uh no cuz then that would hurt my hand!" I said, "Okay just checking your head, you are okay then!" :)
 We went shooting up there too and that was really fun! Kevin made me shoot his new AR, but I am more of a hand gun kind of girl so I just kept his gloc. The AR was pretty fun though, I have to admit. We just left the kids in the car watching a movie so it wasn't too loud for them and a fun little date for us :)
Kids playing in the beloved sandbox
 Every time we go up there the highlight for Scott is fishing with his Dad. They had a competition and Scott caught 7 and Kev caught 9
 We had a little party for Kevin's 35th birthday!
Scott decorated the german chocolate cake
So Hailey and I picked out the trick candles that don't blow out. Kevin is too smart though as soon as I lit them and they sparked he knew...brat!
Still it was pretty comical to watch him blow them out over and over again!
Scott thought it was hilarious!
 The birthday boy!
 We really never left the house except for a few canoe rides. We just enjoyed the beautiful weather and the beautiful yard. The kids played in the sun and the pool and Kevin and I relaxed! Even caught a few snoozes lol
Scott caught some kind of bug and wasn't feeling good, so he just lounged around. Kevin did teach him how to throw a pretty awesome spiral with the football though while we were there
Ari doing her famous pose. 
She insisted that the visor went on this way and wouldn't do it any other way...pretty silly. 
 Jay Bug
 We went on a really short walk around the ranch road to a lookout for the rapids. Kevin got this shot of us walking, thought it was pretty cute. Jay was in the front carrier so you can't really see him.
 Hailey brought her little notebook and pen and drew all the animals and trees we saw on the way. She is such a good artist, especially with animals.
 water fights in the lawn of course, that's a must out there!
I LOVE the river out there! We packed up the family and all smashed into the canoe for a little ride. 
No, this is not legal, but hey-it's a ranch :) I told Kevin when we were all piled in the truck, "Wow, we have quite the brood now don't we!" Crazy

While we were out we could see a big swirling spot. Kevin said there must be a big crowd of fish so we went over there and there were TONS of fish fighting and jumping around. Most of them were over 2 feet long and I even saw a big sturgeon! So cool! Hailey was getting majorly freaked by all the squirming. She thought they were going to tip the canoe.



Sadly this was our last time out at the Idaho house since my parents sold it. We sure are going to miss it!

 Scott posing by his favorite rock
 While we were packing up to go I gave Scott my video camera and told him to go take video of the outside of the ranch. Okay so NOT the best at holding the camera when walking so if you get sick easily don't watch lol. I thought it was pretty cute though. He has been coming since my parents bought it when he was around 10 months old. So that's almost 7 years of memories for him.