He's not so sure about this

I didn't notice this till now, but that's Kelly's FRIED ARM in the picture too!! (my poor kids)
Noah's face in this is priceless though :) He's so funny when I put him in this box- he really doesn't seem to mind.

First time for sprinklers this summer!!

Okay, so I totally went overboard with how many pictures I'm posting- my dad likes to see lots, so we'll blame it on him :)

we justified using the sprinklers with how dry and yellow the lawn is. Eventhough we're technically not supposed to water on Mondays.


This poor disturbed child is telling me that the water got on him :( We're gonna have to work on getting him back into the sprinklers- he liked them so much last year!




these kinds of things totally take me back to when I was younger- I think I spent the whole summer in my swimsuit, calling the Time and Temp number to see when it got up to 80 degrees.



I just think Charity is so pretty



He's got such the Superhero stance when he's running around :)



laying on the driveway to get dry- love that


now he's a little happier- still not in the water though


Here's a "Bad Mom Moment" for ya- I completely spaced the sunblock yesterday when we were walking Charity to school, so my kids got fried!!! I hate it when I forget that!! But I do think there is nothing cuter than sandal tanlines on little kids' feet :) HOPEFULLY this turns into a tan quickly.




bumb prints










I didn't want Noah to feel left out of the camera-happy-ness



Kelly is seriously so flexible

What a crazy day!

Yesterday was such a CRAZY day!!

At church on Sunday, we got a flattire as we were leaving to go home. This guy that was going back into the church to teach a lesson saw us and offered to get his air compressor- he actually had to drive back to his house to get it (we had no idea, we assumed it was just in his car, but nope- he hopped in his car and brought it back 15 minutes later) how's that for service! We were grateful for his help, and then also grateful for Jared's help- our car didn't come with a good enough jack to get our hunk of metal up, and then it also didn't have the right thing to get the tire off! So thank you Jared! (yeah, if that's not enough, they invited us over for a bbq after- talk about LOVE!)

So anyway- I have back-tracked quite a bit- but what I was getting at was that we had a flattire. I planned on just walking Charity to school, and then playing at the park with the other kids while she was there, and then going and picking her up when school was out. Somewhat of a crazy idea, but that's me. So anyway- we started on the trek- Charity and Kelly rode their bikes (which they were totally excited to do), Bradley and Luke rode in the stroller (we've gotta get Brad's training wheels), and Noah was in the little carrier on me. (I had contemplated using the rollerblades, but realized that wasn't such a good idea with Noah on me- kinda dangerous)

Okay so we're going- we left WAY later than I had planned, the girls needed lots of reminders about how to ride their bikes in the road (forgotten from last year apparently), the boys were bugged at every little thing, Noah screamed for the first 5 minutes. My stress level was starting to get up there, not to mention the heat- which by the way- I am not going to complain about :) because the air conditioner is NOW working!! yay!! So anyway- it was a lame walk. LUCKILY an angel was sent to us!!! My sweet visiting teacher pulled up along side us and offered to take Charity to school (now doesn't that sound like the perfect story for the Ensign about Visiting Teaching :) ) unfortunately Charity was so excited to be riding her bike to school, thanks to my pumping her up so much with that- that she was really devastated when I told her to get in Sandy's car. So I actually turned Sandy down for the ride TO school. (we were halfway there, and I do need some exercise) Then she offered to pick her up and that totally made my day!!! The walk seemed a little better from that point on- I seriously almost cried when she stopped just because it felt like the Lord was answering my prayers and that he knew I was there and needed a little help. I guess I should have just called her to begin with, but I wanted to get out. SO ANYWAY!!! Sorry, I talk a lot.

So we got Charity to school- found a shortcut home- and then it was time to rest.....sort of. When I got home we had a message from the Landlord that someone was coming to fix the leak downstairs!!! YAY!! I was SO HAPPY!! (If you don't know about the leak, then we've probably never spoken to one another :) it's kind of consumed me for the last 4 months) The guys came and looked at the wall, tore up the carpet a little, they pulled off our family room door, put two huge square holes in our wall, and realized that it could possibly be a plumbing problem. They were completely entertaining my kids through this all by the way- the kids were totally crowding them out and I'm thinking- sweet a break! So anyway- last night when we ran the washer we could hear it leaking out right there in the hole in the wall. HOORAY!!! We finally know what is causing the puddle in the carpet (and the stench in our house!!). So anyway- that was one of the many highlights of my day.

Then around 5:30 Charity realized she hadn't asked me what the temperature was outside for a few days, and found out it was over 80, so she begged me to let them run through the sprinklers (I'm a sucker for running through the sprinklers).

Then for Family Night last night we had our Talent Show. It was SO MUCH FUN!! We told the kids last week that we were going to have a Talent Show and to think of a talent that they want to perform for the family, and they were really cute with what they picked. I will post pictures. I had no idea it would turn out to be such big hit with our family. We are going to make it a tradition.

And last but not least the kids got to solve their word puzzle, and then reveal the message in invisible ink on their papers from the Primary. This was quite the event for them! I don't know if I have told everyone yet how wonderful this program is that our Primary has instituted for the ward. They challenged each family to read the Book of Mormon, and they made these little maps for the kids to mark off when they read a chapter, and then after they get through with each map (each book) they turn it in for a clue and invisible ink message, and then they will get their treasure chest when they follow through with the challenge for that week. Our's this week is "Sacrifice something you want to make someone else happy". My kids are good at this- I think it will be fun. So anyway- once they finish the Book of Mormon, they will have gems with letters on it to make the word that will tell them what the treasure of the Book of Mormon is. SUCH A NEAT PROGRAM!! I can't tell you how good we have been at reading since they started the program. And the kids have been WAY excited as well. I was a little bummed to start over, since we were already to Alma 37 (which has taken us about 2 years now :)), but now we are reading at least a WHOLE chapter every night which we didn't do before, so it's exciting. ANYWAY!! The whole day had it's ups and downs, but overall I felt REALLY good about it. It's nice to have those days where you don't feel like everything was wrong, and you totally screwed it up. Felt good. It was a blessing. I'm done rambling for now :)

Tuesday Tell All

This is Bradley just before he turned one.

Answer the following with only one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? don'tgotone

2. Your significant other? Thoughtful

3. Your hair? Ponytail

4. Your mother? Mom

5. Your father? Pappy

6. Your favorite thing? Laughing

7. Your dream last night? Sleeping

8. Your favorite drink? Refreshing

9. Your dream/goal? Exaltation

10. The room you're in? Kitchen

11. Your children? Loving

12. Your fear? Judgement

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy

14. Where were you last night? Home

15. What you're not? Bored (HA! jk)

16. Muffins? Yummy

17. One of your wish list items? Organization

18. Where you grew up? Sandy

20. What are you wearing? Pajamas

21. Your TV? Off

22. Your pets? None

23. Your computer? Hobby

24. Your life? Unpredictable

25. Your mood? Swingy

26. Missing someone? Nate

27. Your car? Flattire (that's one word right?)

28. Something you're not wearing? shoes

29. Favorite Store? Target

30. Your summer? Starting!

31. Like someone? Everyone

32. Your favorite color? Red (today)

33. Last time you laughed? 1 minute ago (seriously, Kelly was pretending to be a horse, Charity was "riding the horse" holding onto Kelly's shirt and clippety-clopping through the house. Kelly kept stopping and Charity would nudge her on and then finally Charity just bursts out "QUIT GOING TO THE BATHROOM KELLY!" Kelly was pretending that she had to stop to poop- how funny is that!!)

34. Last time you cried? church

Follow-up on the "Antelope"

These are the pictures I pulled off the website- does it not look exactly like the one we had in our yard (scroll down and then back up really fast- I couldn't get this to upload the one I took for some reason)

Okay, so I really googled that animal we were seeing around our neighborhood (and we've seen a lot of them, not just that one, but that was just the first time I got a picture- I forgot to mention that :)). It was interesting because we found out they aren't really antelopes! (Here's a little biology lesson for ya)

Entirely unique on this planet, the Pronghorn's scientific name, Antilocapra americana, means "American antelope goat." (which is funny because the first time Nate and I saw them we kinda thought they looked like Goats) But the deer-like Pronghorn is neither antelope nor goat -- It is the sole surviving member of the ancient family Antilocapridae (order Artiodactyla) dating back 20 million years. (how cool is that!!) It is also called the Prongbuck, Pronghorned Antelope and American Antelope (so I guess we can keep calling it an Antelope, just to fit in with the locals though :)). It is not related to the Old World antelopes. The Pronghorn weighs between 90 and 125 pounds, and stands about 3 1/2 feet at the shoulder. It has large, protruding eyes and a white or buff, 4-inch tail.

The Pronghorn is the only animal in the world with branched horns (not antlers) and the only animal in the world to shed its horns, as if they were antlers. (kinda makes ya wonder why they don't call them antlers don'tcha think? apparently they are the same formation as a horn though- that's why)

The Pronghorn is the fastest animal in the western hemisphere, running in 20-foot bounds at up to 60 miles per hour. Unlike the Cheetah, the Pronghorn can run for hours at quite a fast pace.

The Pronghorn inhabits open plains and semi-deserts, living alone or in small bands in summer and forming large herds in winter. Being highly mobile, the Pronghorn may cover a large area during the year. Pronghorn can survive a temperature range of 180 degrees, from 130 in the deserts to 50 below zero (brrrr).

They are active night and day, combining alternate snatches of sleep with vigilant feeding (sounds like Noah :). Pronghorn are selective, opportunistic foragers. They feed on forbs, shrubs, grasses, juniper, chamiso and sometimes cacti and domestic crops. In winter, desert populations are said to favor Sagebrush.

Pronghorn have amazing eyesight. They can detect movement up to 4 miles away. When alerted to danger, they contract their rump muscles causing their white rump hairs to stand on end, which other Pronghorn may detect from 2 miles away (seems like such a strange "defense" to me- I'm surprised that works!). At the same time, they exude a musky odor, which can be detected for more than a mile (gross).


They usually produce twins (Charity maybe you could become a Pronghorn :)), and their gestation period is about 250 days (I don't know why it's always important to me to learn the gestational periods of animals :) makes me glad I'm not an elephant).

It is estimated that in the mid-1800s, Pronghorn numbered in the many million, second only to the American Bison. By the 1920s, the U.S. population had been reduced to about 20,000. Since then, efforts to preserve the Pronghorn have helped revitalize the general population. Pronghorn are still a highly prized game animal, and limited hunting is permitted in some prairie states. Then it went on to say that there are 5 species and where those 5 species are located, but never mentions Utah or Eagle Mountain. Funny but it said that "Pronghorns can be seen (with a pair of good binoculars) in a number desert locations" then named a few Wildlife Refuges. Kinda cracks me up that people are out there buying "a pair of good binoculars" to see them when all they need to do is come sit in our backyard and have to move out of their way!

(side note, I just heard my daughter tell my son "when a woman falls over a man has to come running over to help her up" how awesome is that!! I'm so happy she is teaching him that :) I think they're playing house :))

So anyway :) (if you actually read this far- then well done- you learned your something new for today!- glad I could be of some service :)) I thought it was pretty darn cool that we have such an unique animal right here in our backyard. Kinda puts those Alaskan Meese to shame doesn't it! (not really, I'm just trying to make myself feel better- nothing beats having a massive moose in your backyard! :))

Wind! YAY!!!

We took my dad's really cool airplane kite like 2 weeks ago since there is so much wind out here we figured we would get more use out of it than him :) And yesterday was the FIRST DAY we actually had enough wind (and not stormy clouds) to actually get it up! It was really fun though- The kids went nuts! We think it almost bumped into the other airplanes up in the air, but luckily Charity steered it away :)

Sorry for all the lame posts lately- we'll get out and do something one of these days :)

Brad found a few new uses for the tall laundry basket yesterday- I let him enjoy it for a little before I wrecked all the fun with new rules...here he is enjoying it....


and luckily the towels weren't folded yet or it wouldn't have been such a nice, soft landing...


(this action photo is for you Sherry)

Okay so Luke's latest..... He likes to drink his milk ("drinky miwk") in this orange cup with the green lid. Then for the ENTIRE day he tries to keep it in the pantry!! This is one of the few places he can keep it where he can get it out whenever he wants and where he's not worried about someone else drinking it (I think he thinks that anyway :)). It's so funny to me. He's just so particular.

And then, another funny thing Luke did yesterday- I was clearing the table from lunch- we had had Ramen Soup, and Root Beer (thanks Dad), and as I was going to pour Luke's bowl into the sink I realized that the broth was bubbling- it was weird at first but then I realized he had just dumped his Root Beer into his soup!! Charity and Kelly confirmed it later, and said that they had "told him it would be gross, but he just ate it anyway!" He's seriously nuts! But at least he is comfortable with being nuts :) Ya gotta love the kid.

(the Crisco vegetable oil was on sale, just in case you were wondering why I have so many :) same with the cake mixes :))

7 years down, just eternity to go...

Yesterday was our 7th Anniversary! It was such a GREAT day!! It all started with a rose on my pillow and a sweet note, and then 11 more hid around the house each with a different little note. My husband is so sweet!! (It was way cute because I guess Bradley and Luke had helped him hide them, so after he left Brad comes in and wakes me up saying- "Mommy, you wanna come see your surprise!!? Get up!! Come see!!!" He was way cute about it and made it really special for me too) I sent Nate on a little Treasure Hunt which went really well by the way- thank you Sherry! He was funny because for part of it one of the clues was that he needed to count the telephone poles between the SR73 and our house, and then use that number later- well, I forgot to specify what kind of poles, so he actually counted EVERY kind of pole!! He had a little tally sheet he had kept on his drive- he said he had to drive a little slower to get them all- I was totally laughing when he told me! What a sport! There were like 50 telephone poles, 50 light poles, a flag pole.... he's so thorough! Too bad it didn't even matter- it just had to be a big number :) I didn't even know how many telephone poles there were. But anyway- it was fun. I was seriously on a cloud like all day!! Took way too many pictures too as I'm sure you've noticed :) But anyway- it's been 7 years!! Hard to believe it's been that long, but it's also crazy to realize how much has happened in such a short time. What a great life. And who better to share it with than my eternal companion. I love you Babe!! Happy 7th~!

I just love it when my girls are like this with Noah. Kelly makes him a bed with like 50 blankets and then she just sits there and kisses him to death :) Way cute for me!


Charity put this lid on his head and then sat there making faces while Noah just laughed his head off- so funny! Noah didn't seem to care about the lid....way cute!


I just thought these were funny :)

Frame worthy for sure!

I just had to show off Sarah's latest masterpiece of my cute girls. I'm loving this picture, I think it's going to have to go in one of my new frames!

It's no moose, but Antelope are pretty cool right!

Yesterday after taking Charity to school, the kids and I were playing outside. We had only been outside for about 20 minutes when I noticed this antelope in the empty spot across the street! I hurried and grabbed my camera, and started walking toward it to get some good pictures.


So of course the kids followed (such a terrible example am I). So he was just over there eating the weeds, minding his own business, I talked with a girl in the ward who had followed him with her camera as well, and we all just sat and watched him. The kids were now playing in the rock pile that is next to our lot (I think it's just considered an empty lot next to us), and all of a sudden the antelope just starts walking (quite briskly) across the street TOWARDS US of course, so I start trying to round everyone up and get them to run back to our back yard. Unfortunately the kids were not too motivated- and I'm still not sure why, but it took a lot of convincing to get out of his path.

So then he just stayed in that spot next to our house for a few minutes- he had to go potty as you can see (Kelly keeps asking me why I didn't get a video of him going potty? weird :)). At this time I was quickly trying to grab all of our stuff that we had laying down in our backyard, the blanket, noah's seat, the umbrella, NOAH! I took it all in and got the kids rounded up AGAIN and into the house where we could just watch the antelope from a safer distance. I mean I really have no idea how dangerous these animals are, but I just didn't want to find out anything crazy firsthand- time to google Antelope I guess :)

He was just right there! That's our driveway- I'm standing on our little porch in the backyard.


He came up even closer here-

had some grass

and some more grass- I totally had to keep pulling Lukey back into the house to keep him safe- he wanted to go "pet it"

here's the classic shot

And there he goes- he kind of just walked through our yard and went down into the flood park- that's "our bench" (as the kids call it) in this picture- they were pretty fascinated (so was I as you can see :)) Funny too since they're nowhere near as big and fascinating as a moose, but still!! Kinda fun for us!! Anyway- just thought I would share our fun with everyone :) Hopefully we'll see some more and not while the kids are out by themselves :) We don't have our big 3 foot fence around our yard like we did in AK to protect us (wink wink).