Someone had a birthday!

I will give you just a few hints!

 He loves to play games with his dad...

 He has beautiful hazel eyes...

 He is incredibly smart....

 He loves his mommy...

 He likes Spiderman...

 He loves to swim...

 He is great at building things...

 He loves to jump on our trampoline...

 He helps take care of our chickens and dogs...

 He is SILLY....

...and is the best little boy in the whole wide world!  Happy 9th birthday to our wonderful Nathan Reese!!  We love you!!

It's about time...

I admit to having lost my blogging drive!  So here is what we have been up to for the last few weeks!

On August 11, 2011, Nathan, Aubrey and Emily went back to school.  It just seems to get earlier every year.  When I was a kid we wouldn't go until the last couple days of August!  Although, my sweet kids were more then ready (as was I!).  Nathan has literally been complaining since about three days after summer started about wanting to go back to school!  That kid sure loves to learn!  They have all been doing extremly well so far, and love their new classes.  This is my first year with having kids it two different schools.  Nathan has moved up to Snowflake Intermediate (grades 4-6), and Aubrey and Emily are still at Highland Primary (grades K-3), so that has been a bit of an adjustment, but we have done fine with it. 

Because I am a blond (yes, I was originally blond, I promise!), or lazy, or both I totally spaced getting the common "first day of school pictures".  Sorry about that.  I do feel a little guilty about it, but I figure the kids don't really care, and I take pictures of my kids often, so its okay....  right?!? 

Nathan has started taking piano lessons.  He is taking from a wonderful woman in my ward, and has caught on super fast (not surprising!), and is loving to play the piano.  Here is a picture of he and I playing a duet.  It is fun hearing him play...  =)

In other news, David and I are going to Nauvoo!!!!  I am so THRILLED, and if you can believe it , David is even more excited!  We will be passing the kids out to Davids family (thank you to Eva and Mom!!), and we will be going over the week of September 3-10th.  We will be driving my dads truck back to Nauvoo, spending some time with my parents, who are back there serving a mission, touring the church sites, and then flying home.  We are absolutly giddy about the trip, and can't wait!  Almost daily David will tell me that "the trip is just not coming quick enough".  Hehehe! 

And in some more news, after mopping the floors after nearly a month (no, I am not kidding), Jay just poured himself a bowl of cereal.  Too bad the jug was over 3/4th full and spilled nearly a half gallon of milk on my CLEAN ten minutes ago, floor.  It always seems to happen like that.  Its karma or something.  Like rain on a freshly washed car, or poop in a clean diaper.  But that is kinda gross, sorry... =)

I am busy today getting my house back to livable again.  I spent a few days last week on the couch pretty sick, so I am now working on disenfecting, doing backed up dishes and laundry, and trying to get back on top of things.  Feeling good about my progress so far.  Must get back to it, the dryer is buzzing, and Besty and Jay are begging for lunch.  It never ends.....

We went to Utah...

Our family took one last summer vacation to Provo Utah from July 27-July 31.  We went to visit Davids' family; Ben, Amy, Isaac, Hyrum, Hannah, Anna and Carl.   We had a wonderful time and it was great to see everyone again!  Here are some of the pictures of our vacation:
OUR DRIVE THERE:
David had spent most of the summer working out of town on the reservation.  Because he was not at home I was responsible for getting everyone packed, ready, and the house clean before we left.  The kids and I left at 5:30am.  We met David in Ganado around 8:30am.  We drove for another hour or so and stopped in Chinle for breakfast.  We got the kids changed out of their pajamas and ready for the day here.  We went to Burger King, and let the kids play at their play place for a while.   Here is a silly picture of Aubrey and an ice cream cone.

 We kept on driving and stopped, yet again, at the Hole in the Rock rest stop and let the kids run, play, and of course, use the bathroom. (*side note: With no kids in diapers anymore, it sure equals LOTS of bathroom stops!)

 David and Betsy relax in the grass at the rest stop.

 Nathan, Aubrey and Emily found this HUGE, old tree and climbed it.  It was just moments after this picture that they promptly got down because they found it was infested with ants.... 

 Jay, torturing a bug.

We arrived in Provo early evening on Wednesday.  We had a quick pizza dinner, some visiting, and made our way over to our fancy accommodations...  Amys' parents have a large house that was only about 10 minutes away and empty because they were on and Alaskan Cruise (exact one we took a few years back).  So they allowed us to spread out and use their home.  It was fabulous!  We played games  til the wee hours of morning and crashed.  Thursday we planned a fun, full day touring temple square.

OUR DAY AT TEMPLE SQUARE:
This was our familys' first opportunity to see the Conference Center in person.  It is bigger then you can EVER imagine!!  Here we are as a family waiting for our tour to start.

 Standing on the roof of the Conference Center in front of the meadow. 

 Nathan and Emily look toward the Salt Lake Temple on the roof of the Conference Center.

 A nice picture of the Salt Lake City Temple.  I expect to see it in the next conference issue.... =)

 This is the organ pipes and choir seats in the Tabernacle.  Such a beautiful building.  Sat inside and cooled off a bit.  Also listened to the "pin drop".  It was neat.

 And here is a comparison.  This is the organ pipes and choir seats of the Conference Center. 

 Another shot of the Temple from the roof of the Conference Center.

 My five wonderful kids posing on the steps of the Salt Lake Temple.

 ...and a family shot too.  It was neat to be on those steps knowing that nearly 38 years ago, my parents, newly married, stood in the same spot.  Eternal family's are the best!

 And, because Ben is in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, we stayed a bit later on the grounds, and went for a few minutes to their rehearsal with the orchestra.  It was so wonderful, yet a bit strange seeing the choir in street clothes and practicing, not performing.  Ben is on the right side, third row up on the aisle.  He is usually in that area, for those that want to find him during performances!  It was a spiritual experience for me to witness this.  I have always had a wish to sing with this choir, and getting to see them in person, made me cry.  Maybe after the kids are grown...

 With the Christus.  I love this room, the ramp up to it and the art on the walls.  Such a wonderful place to feel the spirit.  The kids were worn out and tired, so at nearly 10pm we left Temple Square.  What a wonderful day...

 On Friday we had fun going to different museums.  We went to a neat little pioneer village in Provo.  It was a very neat place for the kids.  It was a mini-Nauvoo.  They had fun because it allowed them to touch and play and learn all at the same time.  After the Pioneer Village we headed over to BYU, to a taxidermy display they had set up in one of their buildings.  The kids wanted me to take a picture of the moose, because they love their Gramoose!  How sweet.  But, it really was neat to see all the animals, in all their variety. 

 After the museums, the boys headed back home with the kids, and us girls (that's me, Amy, Anna, and baby Hannah) headed over to DI.  I was in desperate need of some new pants and shorts (literally down to one pair of each!)  I gratefully got a few new-to-me pants that fit me!  Getting older [and wider] is no fun!  We came home and played games again until the wee hours of morning again!

Saturday was a big, full day.  Ben and Amy watched the kiddos, and we got to go on a mini-date to the Provo Temple.  I had never been there,and David hadn't been there since his MTC days.  It was very pretty inside.  We were short on time so we did sealings.  I love being in the temple with my husband.

This was the last picture my poor camera took.  It was needing a battery charge terribly...  But, our vacation continued on.

After the temple, we headed back to the house, and got everyone changed and dressed for a swim park.  I wish I had pictures of this place!!  It was absolutely wonderful and perfect for kids!  Amy, I need pictures!! =)  We played and splashed, and had a great time for a few hours going down the water slides, playing in the HUGE kiddy splash pool.  SO FUN!  We headed home, got situated, and Amys brother came and watched the kids while we went on a double date + one, to a funny comedy show on BYUs' campus.  I have begun to feel old.  We walked into the show and we were quite obviously one of the older people in the room....  It made me wish I were young again.  After the Comedy Show we all headed over to the Creamery and got some ice cream.  YUM.  We then went and played games again til all hours of the night!  (1:00 am was our curfew). 

Sunday morning we packed up, got things together and loaded.  But before we left, we sat down and watched Music and the Spoken Word on TV.  It was fun watching the kids point to their Uncle Ben every other minute.  And really neat to hear the very song they were rehearsing on Thursday, so perfectly performed, live, just a few days later.  After it ended, we gave hugs, loaded into the car, and headed back toward home. 

On our way home we made a side trip to St. George so we could visit my grandma Barton, who we all loving call Gramoose.  She looks great.  It was fun visiting with her, and hearing about all her trips, and plans. She is a wonderful woman, and I wish I could be more like her.  LOVE YOU MOOSE!  The kids had a great time running around, stretching their legs and coloring Gramoose pictures.  So very much wish that my camera was up and running so I could have gotten a picture with my grandma.... 

We loaded back up, and headed home to Snowflake.  It was a LONG drive.  We pulled into our driveway at midnight.  The kids all got carried in, and after a few minutes getting unloaded, I finally crashed into bed at almost 1 am. 

It was a full, fun, wonderful trip to Utah!  Thank you Ben and Amy, and Brother and Sister Hyatt, for hosting us!  If you hung in there and read this entire post, I am thoroughly impressed!  Now, I am just anxiously awaiting school to start.  4 more days!!!!!

The 24th Celebration!

This year for the 24th my sister Heather, her husband Jacob, and their three kids Brenan, Shaylin and Kyen, came up to Snowflake to help us celebrate!  It was a super fun time together and we all enjoyed it!  They got to our house Friday evening just before the Friday Night Rodeo.  We all headed toward Taylor and ran up the bleachers... 

 The kids made it all the way to the top (DANG, it is high up there!) before being ushered back down to our seat.  Here are Betsy, Kyen, and Emily during the patrotic portion of rodeo.  They looked so sweet all standing together with thier hands on their hearts. 

 Just goofing around during the rodeo with some random beer bottles we found....  J/K!!!  Those are IBC Root Beer bottles that had been yummily consumed by all of us.

 The town had all kids aged 3-8 come out to the arena and chase 6 or 7 chickens around and if you caught one, you got to take them home.  All five of my children fit into that age category (yikes, are we crazy?!?!... yes, yes we are!) and so it was fun watching hundreds of kids chase just a few chickens around...  And Nathan got one!!  Okay, not technically, but the kid that caught it didn't want it, so Nathan was happy to ablige and take "Rodeo" the chicken from him.  In the confusion of the hoards of children and gettting the chicken to the car, two of our kiddos got misplaced....  All is well, and they were quickly found!!  It was tense for a few minutes, but everyone was back together at our seat when I returned from chicken delivery to the car. 

 Here is David carrying the chicken.  I should have just had him take the long hike to the car!! 

 We parted ways and headed home after the rodeo.  Saturday morning we met up again in front of the Main Street Chapel for the Foot Races, and then we hurrried over to our float.  Yes, we got to ride on a float this year.  I was razzed pretty bad at church the next day for riding on a 5th ward float, and being in 2nd ward! 

 Here is me and my beautiful sister Heather.  We were waiting in the hot sun in line at the BBQ.  We got our food, some getting more meat then others =), and found a nice shady spot on the lawn where the kids ran and played and ate, and ran and played!

 After lunch we made our way to the golf course to the car show.  It was not easy keeping 5 + 3 curious little childrens wandering hands and eyes from touching the awesome cars.  And did I mention, it was HOT?!?! 

No more pictures of the festivities, but after the car show we came back to our house for some cooling down and drinks of ice water.  The boys settled into a game of Risk, and a few of us girls headed to the Arts and Crafts fair at the park.  After wandering a bit, we headed back to our house and had a simple hot dog and hamburger BBQ on our back porch.  The kids had a great time with their cousins!  Nathan made a new connection with Brenan as they shot their BB guns all afternoon.  And, of course all the girls just had one big loud party!  The Mayhew crew headed back toward Mesa, due to early church the next day, and work obligations.  Wish they could have stayed longer for the fireworks!

After the Mayhews drove away, David and I decided against the Saturday Rodeo, but not against the fireworks.  We parked in the perfect spot at the Centenial ballfields, watched the end of the championship game, let the kids get filthy playing in the mud and dirt, and enjoyed the weather as it finally cooled down.  The fireworks were wonderful, and the kids had a fun time (so did I!) riding in the back of our truck to and from the fireworks.  It was a great time to spend with my sister and her family!  Love them!  Oh, by the way, in the 10 years I have been attending the 24th celebration, we always get rained out at some point during the day.  Not this year....  It was HOT and miserable all day.  Another fun, yet HOT celebration weekend in the books! 

ps- thank you for the pictures sis!  My battery on my camera was nearly dead so it didn't get pulled out very often.  So all photography posted is due to my wonderful sister Heather. =)