So if......

start using my blog again....Should I update where I left off or just start with whats happening now?? I can't believe I don't take to the time to update! I'm really going to try hard not to get so behind.

UPDATED BLOG!!!!

Can you believe that I finally updated my blog! Well get yourself a snack if you want to look at all 16.... yes sixteen new posts. Holy cow! I hope it is better now that the girls are in school. I will have some free time during the day!

1st day of school

Seriously what happened to my kids being little? Madi started 4th grade this year!! She is growing up way to fast. How do I make her stop? She is so excited about her teacher this year. I think its going to be a great year for her.

Hannah starts 1st grade this year. She was so excited to be going to school all day. After school I asked how it was and she said "I kept looking at the clock and wondering if we were EVER going to go home." Her teacher is going to be great this year too. I can' tell already! YAY!

They both had their clothes picked out for the week about 4 days before school started. They had them lined up in the bathroom with their hair bow and shoes and backpacks.

Here's to a great 4th & 1st grade year!!

Oh my sweet Connor

This is what Connor looks like 90% of the time! He is either dressed in his full cowboy getup or has something odd on. He usually has some silly hat, boots and goggles on! Could he be any more boy? I don't think so!

Twilight

Geez... back in June....I went with a few friends to see the Twilight movies. There was a Twilight marathon playing in Heber. They started at I think 6pm and played all 3 movies so far with the Eclipse movie premiering that night at midnight. At this point I had NOT read or watched anything pertaining to Twilight. I wasn't interested in them at all. I only went to the marathon to have a fun night out with friends. Well, I loved all 3 movies and can't wait for the last one. We laughed, and laughed until our tummy's hurt. We had a BLAST! We got home at 3am and I would do it again tomorrow even though its not fun getting up early with kids the next day. I came home and read all 4 books in about 3 weeks. I read the first one in one day. My family was really good to just let me read, but that only happened one day. Thanks to all my fun friends for a GREAT night out!

Camping trip

Our 2nd camping trip and probably the last for year was fun but not a fun trip! Makes sense right? It was fun but it was long. We started out with Connor not sleeping the night before we left. I thought "No big deal right? It will get better, he will sleep great in the fresh mtn air." ".....continued"

We get up to camp get every thing set up and having a great time. Connor was having a great chat with Uncle Danny. Connor had gone up with Wes earlier and had gone fishing and had a great time. I stayed behind to go to lunch with friends. Anyway, Connors' clothes were wet when I got there so we got some dry ones ones and started changing him. He suddenly tells Danny that he has hunting (camo) underwear and asked Danny where his hunting underwear are? Danny laughs and says all he has are his tighty whities! Connor was disgusted that Danny doesn't have any hunting underwear. Like who doesn't have hunting underwear. What a kid! He keeps us going!

Ok so the girls want to go tubing in the river, so Wes & I load them up, I grab my camera and we head down up river a bit where its easy to get to. I was having a great time waiting for the girls to get down to me. My job was to get them out of the river after they floated down to me. I got some beautiful pictures of Rock Creek before the girls got down to me. I was on a rock in the middle of the river in flip flops. Can you tell where this is going???? Well I ended up falling in the river, (I saved my camera though)trying to get Hannah and spraining my big toe in the process. I almost lost my flip flops several times as I would slip on the rocks and my shoes would go floating so I would have to run on those damn slippery rocks to retrieve my shoes. I know! I'm sure you are laughing as hard as Wes was a little ways up. It wasn't to bad until I had gotten out of the cold water and suddenly my toe was throbbing bad. I wanted to cry so bad. It was killing me and I was trying to be tough. Well it got to where I couldn't walk because it hurt so bad. I wasn't sure if it was broke or sprained or what. I still am not sure.

We finished letting the girls tub. Hannah and her friend tipped over in about 3 inches of water. They didn't like that at all. Hannah was crying and her friend Kelsy wasn't sure what to do. I'm sure they thought it was worse than it was. I actually had to laugh before I went up to rescue them. Madi and her friend Makall went again after that and Makall was the only tough one of the bunch! She made it all the way with no injuries and no tipping over.

.....Continued from earlier. Later that night we made smores and headed to bed. Connor and I ended up being up all night. His allergies were bothering him horribly and my toe throbbed all night. It wasn't a good night!!! So night 2 up all night again. .....continued again in a min.

I spent the day Saturday with ice on my toe and hobbling around. By the end of the day I could walk better and it wasn't throbbing at all. But I started feeling yucky. I thought it was from not sleeping for 2 night in a row. So I just watched everyone play games. That was fun anyway.

......night 3! Connor didn't sleep again and I ended up running a fever! I was ready to get home! I was done camping!

So it was fun at times but I never want to relive that camping trip again. The only pictures I got were pre- falling and breaking toe accident and slipping all over in river. That was the good times though so I'm glad I at least got those pictures.

I'm ready to go camping again and it can only get better from now on!

Herding cows

We spent an afternoon at papa trying to herd the cows into the trailer to move them to the field. To make a long story short, the dumb cows would NOT get in the trailer. Wes, Papa, Luke and Damian tried for about 2 hours. Kristin finally went to town to get some hot shots hopeing it would help. Which it did, but while we were waiting for Kristin to come back, Connor was sitting in the grass watching the big boys. He looked up and said "Papa just push the cows in the trailer and close the door." I'm not sure what he thought they had been trying to do all this time but it was funny! He just couldn't figure out what had taken them so long.Good thing we have Connor to keep the fun going and making us laugh.

Fishing

We finally made it up on the lake with Wes to go fishing. I can't believe we haven't had a chance yet to go up. The weather was good and all 3 kids wanted to go, so we hurried up to the lake. The girls wanted to swim a little too. So they swam off the side of the boat while Wes fished.

Madison really wanted Hannah to swim to the rocks with her but it wasn't going to happen. Wes, being the tease he is, started to drive the boat slowly away from them and the starting bawling! He only drove off about 15 ft max but they must have thought we were a mile away. They weren't happy to say the least.

Connor loved the fishing and swam for a minute. Connor and Madi caught a fish before it started to rain on us. By the time we got back to the dock we were soaked but it was fun anyway.

Its hard work being a fisherman!

County Fair

As soon as we got home from St Louis we headed down to the fair. We missed most of the week but made it back in time to watch the rodeo 2 nights and Madi was able to be in the parade with the Allstar team. I was able to fulfill my yearly fix of a Texas Twister. The kids were able to get their fill of the carnival. Andrew was in town and took the girls all around the carnival. They just loved every second of it. They love him to pieces. Connor loved the rodeo the first night. The 2nd night of it, I think the jet lag must have hit or something because he just laid on the bleachers and played with his crocodiles. At the parade that day he also just watched and didn't want to go get any candy. The parade was fun to watch Madi. We sat by lots of family and had a great time. "Mater" also came all the way from Route 66 to join our parade and the boys loved it!


Connor did ride the mechanical bull at fair and had the time of his life! This kid is not "wanna be" cowboy. He is the real deal! He kept his hand up most of the time like a real bull rider. This was one time when he was all smiles. The girls had fun on it too. Madi did great and Hannah laid down on it and rode it like you would a sheep. I guess princess' don't ride bulls!

Now we can't wait until fair next year!!!

St Louis trip 2010

Warning!! This is going to be long. If you want to read the whole thing, go ahead but it is mainly as a journal entry for me. This trip is full of crazy, funny, never gonna fly again or leave the house again stories. And I'm sure I have forgotten several by now anyway.

We started off by flying out on August 8th. We went to the airport with grandma & papa. Their flight left about 2 hours before ours did. The kids did great at first considering when we got to the airport, it was FULL. There were people EVERYWHERE. It didn't end up taking us very long to get our bags checked. The kids did great staying by us and not setting their back packs down. They also did great going through security. Then is started.......

Gma & papa went to their gate and we stayed by some windows so we could watch them get on their plane and watch it leave. Then we were going to go down to our gate to board our plane. Well Madison got sick of sitting by the windows watching the planes, she was bored out of her mind, so she said. She started picking on the other 2. Hannah wasn't putting up with it, so she started fighting back. I kept telling them to quit. I finally pretended to call Wes. I "told" him that I was sick of them being naughty and they were NOT coming with me to see St Louis. I said I would leave them in front of the airport on a bench and Wes could come pick them up. I said I would see if someone could keep an eye out on them until Wes could get there. Well, Hannah was bawling, saying she promised to be good all week and not fight. Madison just cried as we were walking "to the BENCH." Well, some lady must have seen most of this because she was laughing hard! I'm sure she must have been a mom she because she just kinda winked at me. We continued down to our gate, I sat them down and said if they fought again, they would be left at the next airport and I would not come back to get them. I was done. I was tired too and wanted to act just the way they were. So not fair!!

Now fast forward a few hours and a flight from Salt Lake to Minneapolis. Our flight leaving SLC was a little late so obviously our flight was late getting into Minneapolis. I knew we had a hour layover but didn't know for sure how late our flight had been so we find the closet screen to see where we need to go next. Ugh...we only had 20 minutes to get from one end of Minneapolis airport to the other and on the picture it looked BIG. So we started running.... and running... and running... and stopping to pee.. and running. We made it to our gate just as they were boarding. I had 2 ladies tell me I was so brave for flying with 3 kids by myself. I wanted to tell the lady that I wanted to cut my own head off. All I could do was smile so I wouldn't start crying. I didn't even think about finding one of those carts to drive us to our gate! My first reaction was to just run.

The kids were starving, it was like 2 in the afternoon and they hadn't eaten since breakfast, besides the pretzels on the first flight. I had planned on getting them lunch to take on the 2nd flight. They were crying because they were so hungry and tired from running through the airport. We boarded the plane and Connor decided to throw a fit and kicked the seat in front of him, sending the lady jumping. I have never been so mortified. Lets just say I told him not to open his eyes until we landed and apologize to the lady, who was very understanding. The 2nd flight was great and fast but no pretzels with our drink. I have never been so excited to see my mom & dad. We preceded to get luggage and find the rental car shuttles.

We made it alive, BARELY but we made it. Connor was a hoot the night we got there. He kept asking gma June why her hair was white. She tried explaining to him that she was old. He finally told her "Well, don't have anymore birthdays then." Duh..It's just that simple right? Well the hair thing kept going and he finally told gma " you need to get in the shower and wash you hair so it won't be white then." I'm assuming he is talking about hair dye! It was hilarious!

It was HOT HOT HOT, while we were there. They were having EXCESSIVE heat warnings the whole week. With the heat index, it was 114 degrees! Whew... now that is HOT! This happens every time we go. It always ends up being the hottest week they have had all summer. I guess maybe we bring it with us or something.

We had a great time while we were there. My dad and Lance built gma a deck in the back of her house and extended the one she had in front. My mom, Crystal and I tried to help with what we could. We mainly kept their glasses filled with tea and water to keep them hydrated. Crystal & I painted to decks when they were done. I didn't realized that you can sweat from your eyeballs!The kids stayed inside because it was so hot. They didn't even want to come outside.

We had a few BBQ's with family. These are the BEST! We don't see this side of the family very often so I love to see how the kids have changed and chat with our cousins. In fact, we haven't seen most of them for 3 years. CRAZY! We always have a great time catching up and letting the kids play. My dad's uncle made a full ham dinner with all the fixings one night! It was delicious! I have never had ham taste so good. And he brought sting beans and potatoes! YUM YUM YUM! Plus a never ending supply of tomatoes and cucumbers. My Uncle Alan cooked for us another night and it was great. Hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, porkchops. He is a great cook!

We missed seeing a few cousins but still had a wonderful time! Nothing better than spending time with family.

We spent a day right in St Louis and went up in the Gateway Arch. And spent a few hours in the Cardinals Store. Connor loved the Arch. He had a blast the whole time. He loved riding up in the roller coaster, he loved looking out the windows, and loved riding down. Hannah loved it too. Just not as much as Connor. Madi was being a chicken and pretending she was scared to look out even though she has done it several times now. Gma June came up with us too. This was her first time in a long time. The last time she went up, is when I was a little girl. I am so glad we got to experience it together again. She said when I was little I asked her "Gma, are you scared and she asked if I was and I said just a little" So she asked me the same thing again this time.

Our flight home on Friday was much better. No fights, temper tantrums or threats of leaving kids by themselves. We had a great tirp even though our first day was horrible! The rest made up for it!!

Thanks Gma June for letting us come visit! We love you!