school pics

yes, my baby is starting preschool

my big 2nd grader

love this picture because Mason pulls this face all the time!

My little artist

Mason is such a little artist.  He loves to draw and sometimes will do it for hours.  One time I asked him what something was and he had drawn a ship from top perspective as if you were looking down on it. Amazing! love this kid.

camping trip wrap up

We had a blast at this years "Briggs/Staten" campout.  The grandma's planned a bunch of really fun activities for the kids, such as painting rocks (we'll deny it if the forest service comes calling) and then spray painting them so we could find them in the dark with our flash lights for the olympic games.  We also had our annual Easter egg hunt that the kids LOVED and then we played olympic games in the dark as well as the traditional candy bar games where yes, I stole candy from a little girl (in my defense the red hots looked too good to pass up)
Ethan, as always, got to see Mckenzie and had an absolute blast playing in the water with her (I was not as happy about him playing in the water)
We also had an incident with a pot gut.  Easton shot one with his air soft gun, which injured it enough that it couldn't run away and all the kids were crowding around it to see one up close.  So I told Ethan that I didn't want him getting near it because it could bite him.  Well the pot gut got  a second wind and started running away from the other kids (which happened to be in the direction of where Ethan was standing) so Ethan of course got a little scared and started running away from it, but he ran in the same direction the pot gut had decided to run and Ethan ended up stepping on his head and killing it. YUCK!! 
We also had Mark's little boy fall backwards into the fire pit (luckily only his coat was burned)
all in all it was a really great trip.
I even stayed for the whole two nights and 3 days!! that's a record for me :)

Zach took the rock painting pretty seriously

Rain Rain go away

These soccer cones are so versitile

Annual easter egg hunt

Easter Egg hunt

Mark made a tube slide the kids could toss balls down

Kenzie and Ethan, best of friends

night olympic games

boy 24th of july pics

just found these pictures

I just found this photo of Ethan (not the best photo) but look how much he has changed!!  It's not just his looks that have changed.  In the first photo I see my spit fire toddler that threw some of the most massive fits you've ever encountered and in the second my sweet heart of a 7 year old. 

Zach - isms

New words from the zach department.

"Oh Com On" (embarrassed to admit ... that comes from me)
"Choo Choo all aboard" (even if they are big trucks)
"No" (honestly to every question you ask him)
"ABC"  (seems like every conversation will have some ABC's thrown into it)
"Spence, I thirsty cookie" "Monny, I thirsty tizza" "I thirst chocolate milk" (never hungry, just thirsty)
"Cheeze" (any time he sees a camera) then "I want see" (before you've even taken the picture)
"Dang it"
"Monny, time out ... NOW!"  (yes, this one is from me too, any time I raise my voice at all, even in fun, Zach thinks I need to go to time out)

I think Ethan's the only one that has copied spencer's "Oh dear"

a new school year

I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning with an anxious feeling in my stomach.  Why can't summer last a little longer and why do I have to send my children to school for 7 hours every day!!  So what have I done since 4:00 a.m.??  I have cleaned my house, looked back through this blog, cried because my kids are getting big and I feel like I'm not properly documenting everything, started documenting some things with a new resolution to be better at keeping a journal and a scrapbook, am now I'm going to go back to bed, it's only 5:30 and I might be able to sleep a little longer ... maybe ... if only my stomach butterflies would go away.

overheard conversation

a little while ago we took Mason's friend Ellie to the Mcdonalds playland with us and on the way there I heard them talking in the back.

Ellie: "Mason, what temple do you want to be married in?"
Mason: "I don't know maybe the Salt Lake one"
Ellie:"alright, but when we get married I'll have to keep my shoes on"

another day ...

Ethan: "Who gets to choose who they marry?  The boy or the girl?"
Mommy: "You both choose each other"
Ethan: "Oh (a little down trodden)"
Mommy: "Why?"
Ethan: "Because I would choose Margaret, but I don't think she'd choose me"
Mommy: "You'll find someone even more special than Margaret that will choose you when you choose her."