We celebrated the last week of summer by. . .

making homemade popsicles almost every day.

Here is Brady's first taste:


He seems pretty unsure but he ended up eating the whole thing.

Let Summer Begin. . .

Since I do not have the desire or energy to go to the neighborhood pool everyday, I decided to find some fun water activities for the kids to play outside at home. I remember having a great time on a slip-n-slide when I was a kid and luckily they still sell them. I am very pleased with my $10 purchase.






Any other cool, affordable water toys out there I should get? Anything to keep the fighting to a minimum- if they are busy they don't seem to argue as much :)

It's that time of year again. . .

that you would think that I would be excited about- back to school. The days that the kids fight and pick at each other I am so excited that school is starting again soon. But really, we have had a nice summer. The kids are letting me sleep in, Logan loves having them home to play with, and they help me a lot with Brady. It is also nice to have someone to talk to during the day. But really, they do better with a routine and I am having a hard time coming up with new, inexpensive, and exciting things to do. I will have good memories of this summer though. We had a great time at the beach and swimming at our neighborhood pool.

Summer Survival

Summer is going by quickly and it is better than I expected. But I did not have high expectations HAHA. I feel like the kids are still fighting a lot even though we go places almost every day. Ross asks me what we are doing that day as soon as he comes downstairs in the morning. I feel guilty the few times that I have told him that we are staying home, I don't know why I feel that way. We spend Mondays and Fridays at the pool, Thursdays at the library, Tuesdays with church playgroup activities (this week was the bounce house which the oldest kids LOVE), and Wednesdays are free days or $1 movies or the splash parks. I would love to know what other people are doing to pass the time. Our neighborhood pool has saved me from insanity.


I do have the cutest little swimmer.

The Best Day in the Whole World

This is what Kaleb said the day we went to Hawaiian Falls Waterpark. If you have not been there, GO, it is so fun.

Here is Logan enjoying the wave pool. He loved this and walked right out as far as he could. It was great because it was not too deep.


Here is Kaleb going down the huge slide. Ross and I loved this one too.


Alanna stuck to the milder slides and she had a blast in the kid's area.


Here is Ross and I on my favorite slide. You go down this narrow slide really fast, then shoot up this ramp, then come flying back down to the bottom. So fun!


The park has many other slides and a lazy river too, it was great for all ages. I'm sure this will be a summer tradition for us.

This Week

We are back to our routine of swim, swim, swim. I can't believe the kids are not tired of it yet, but they still LOVE to go. Last night I had a nice night out and went to a birthday party for a gal that grew up in my same hometown. I did not know her too well in high school but then we ended up in the same ward here for a while. Now we are in different church wards since our area is growing so quickly, but we all get together once in a while to scrapbook or eat (HAHA). She is a really sweet girl and I hope I can continue to get to know her better.


(No, I am NOT pregnant in this picture, it is the shirt and the way I am trying to squat down)

Afterwards we went to our church's bookgroup to discuss the "Five Love Languages" book. This is a great book that all should read. Today I am picking my mother-in-law up at the airport. Kim has next week off so hopefully we can do some fun family stuff next week and I will have lots of extra hands to help me with the rugrats!

Park Day

Some friends and I took our kids to a park today (love that free entertainment!!). The kids were able to have a great time for a few hours before the rain came down! There was a fun play area, sprayground, and lots of shade.

Here are the kids playing on the spray area. I won't mention names since I don't know if that is okay with the moms!


Ross and his friend wanted me to take this picture. Does this look posed? HAHA

Surviving Summer

Summer vacation started 2 weeks ago today. It has been a hard 2 weeks! I am hoping that we are finally getting into a routine and the boys are getting used to having more down-time. I tried to create a daily schedule mostly because Ross does better with that. Every morning after breakfast is chore time (that was a hit, haha). Then we play or go somewhere fun. We have been swimming a lot and having picnics there. The afternoon is movie time and then the early evenings they usually play on the trampoline in the backyard. They have played in the sprinkler once and liked that. I am also thinking about buying a slip-n-slide since the 3 oldest love playing in the water. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are swim days at our neighborhood pool (if mom can survive that for more than a few weeks). Thursdays are library days (they have a great program for school age kids, this week it was a magician) and Tuesdays are playgroup with our church. Several times this summer our playgroup scheduled a bounce house place which the kids LOVE. I am also hoping that we can go to some splash parks also. Kim has 3 weeks off this summer and my mother-in-law will be here for one week so that will help with the kid's entertainment too. Ross also has one week of scout camp which really wore him out last year. If anyone else has any suggestions for some fun things they are doing with their kids this summer I would love to hear them! Here is a picture of Kaleb tormenting the other kids at the pool that my friend took this week.

End-of-Summer Celebration

Technically summer is in full swing here and will be for a while. But the kids are going back to school on Monday so it feels like the summer is over to them. I decided to take them to a pool that we usually visit once a summer. It has a fun water slide Ross went down a million times, plus fountains everywhere, and it is great for Logan because it has a sloping edge. He thought it was great to walk down into the water until he could not anymore (and I had to make sure to follow right behind him to catch him from going under). What a difference from the beginning of summer when he was content sitting on the side of the pool! I thought the summer would go by slowly, but it really flew by quickly. I am a little sad to see them going back already, especially Kaleb who has never been away from me for so long. I will really miss having him around, and I know Alanna will miss playing with him during the day. But he is ready for school, he will be 6 next week and probably one of the oldest in his class! Here are some pictures of my new water baby.

My Sister's Wedding

The Ring Bearer


The Flower Girl watching the Bride get ready. Alanna kept telling my sister that she looked ALMOST as beautiful as she did.

My sister got married yesterday. It was chaotic but turned out really well. She looked so pretty and excited, and the kids had a great time being in her wedding, especially Alanna. And it was great for me because my best friend from middle school and high school was there, and Kim got to meet her and her husband. Great day!

Splash Park

We have finally had a break from the rain, but now the heat is here. Luckily we have some great parks the kids can play at, with water fountains to play in when they get too hot to play on the other equipment.

Independence Day Festivities

The kids before we left for fireworks- when I asked Alanna why her finger was in her mouth she said it was because she was eating a piece of grass, nice.


My attempt to photograph a firework- I have seen some great pictures of them before, but obviously not from my camera.

We had a fun day- we went to breakfast with some friends, took the kids to see Shrek the Third (they liked it, I was out in the hall with Logan, for some reason sitting in my lap in the movie theater is not okay but sitting in my lap out in the hall is great fun), Kim took the kids swimming while Logan napped and I enjoyed the quiet, then we went to see fireworks. We did our annual tradition of getting Krispy Kreme to eat while we waited (Elena, try not to pass out) which the kids really look forward to. By the end all the kids were worn out and grouchy (could it have been the sugar??) and asleep by the time we got home. Fun!!

July 4th Family Night

For family night last night we tried to teach the kids about Independence Day. I found a book at the library and we talked about the history of our country and the Declaration Of Independence. Ross learned a lot but Alanna and Kaleb kept getting confused. In fact, when we asked Alanna who wrote the Declaration she guessed Moroni (they must have talked about him on Sunday at church). Oh well, they did have a great time eating our 4th of July cake and making their own flags.

Take Me Out To the Ballgame!

Well, last night we took the kids to their first baseball game, and that would be the night my camera chose to malfunction, NICE! The game was delayed 30 minutes due to rain, but that's better than we expected considering how much it has been raining lately. The kids said they had fun, but I'm not sure if that is because of the actual baseball game or the fact that we took them to McDonald's beforehand. I know I had fun, the stadium is smaller since it is a minor league team, so you feel closer to all the action, and occasionally I enjoy watching sporting events in person (I am not one that watches them on TV, BORING). I am glad we went, and now Alanna will know that there are more sports than soccer.

Family Reunion

This weekend we went down to the Texas Hill Country for a family reunion. The weekend was warm so the kids stayed mostly in here:
(Ross is on the slide, Alanna and Kaleb are down in the water.)

The adults seemed to congregate on the volleyball court or here where the food was nearby:


They also had lots of fun games for the kids (balloon toss, egg toss, marble race, etc). Here is the stick horse race where even the adults are participating (go, Steve!):


All in all, it was fun. The hosts provided wonderful food, the kids had a great time playing, it was great to have a pool nearby to stay cool in, and it was nice to catch up with everyone that we had not seen in a while. The older kids did pretty well on the 5 hour drive (the portable DVD player helped), Logan was the only one not pleased with the 5 hours he spent confined to his carseat each day. But he was pretty happy the rest of the time.

1st Swim of the Season

Here is where we spend our summers. Free entertainment, just down the street, and all of the kids have a great time. Plus it wears them out so we can have a nice afternoon nap/quiet time when we get home. Gotta love that. Oh, and I love these swim-shirts for babies and spray on sunscreen (a little more $ but worth every penny)- I had the kids lathered up in less than 5 minutes.

Playgroup at the Splashpad

Today our ward playgroup was at the splashpad. I forgot to take my camera so these are the pictures I took last summer when we went. It is such a fun place- fountains and sprinklers everywhere, plus a huge playground to play on too. My kids look forward to going every summer. Logan was not impressed when he tried to crawl on it, he did not like the cold water spraying on him. Maybe next summer he will love it as much as his brothers and sister.

Last Day of School

I can't believe it is already that time of year. Ross and Kaleb are both done for the year and now it is officially summer at our house. I am not sure whether I should be happy or sad. Last summer was very long with a new baby in the house. I think this summer will be easier since Logan is a little older and I am not sleep deprived, but he also seemed to sleep through all our summer activities last year. Logan wants to join in the fun now. Ross loves to have a schedule so there is no sitting around having lazy summer days at our house, I have to have activities planned or he drives me nuts. Luckily we have a nice neighborhood pool, a ward playgroup we can go to on Mondays, and a nice summer library program. On the other hand, it will be nice to sleep past 6:15 and have no homework to worry about. And next year the new school will be completed and since it is right behind our house we can sleep in a little and walk to school. Yippee!