Happy Birthday Joseph & Grandpa Piper!

Joseph is 7 years old!! He doesn't like cake so we just take the ice cream out of the carton and put candles on it.

Joey is my animal lover. He got 3 webkins and a build-a-bear for his birthday.

Grandpa Piper is 67! It was fun to celebrate with him a little late while he and Grandma came out to help with bedrest and the arrival of baby Jacob.

This kids made Grandpa a jar of love notes.

The wonderful life of a 2 year old.

Makenzi has a shoe fetish. She loves to put on shoes, especially if it means she gets to go "bye, bye."

What fun a box can be. I didn't get a picture of it, but Makenzi got the box at the top of the stairs. Then she sat in it and took it for a ride down the stairs. I rushed over there expecting crying, instead she let out this squeal of delight. She thought that it was the best ride.

At our house, even the 2 year old does chores!

August Birthdays, Football and Soccer

Michelle celebrated her 4th Birthday.

Here she is with her new sunglasses and jewelry from Grandma Piper.

She got a princess bike that she loves to ride.

Here's the yummy layered cake that Micah made for his and Michelle's birthdays.

Myla had fun playing soccer.

Jeffery played offensive right guard, defensive left tackle and nose guard. He is a starter and captain of the offensive line. He was about a head taller than most boys on his team.

Jeffery earned his Bear, religious knot, and several other awards.

Joey played football on the 1st/2nd grade Lehi team. He played defensive corner. His team is the top team and still has playoff games.

Joey in his "3 point stance."

Fishing Fun

Micah decided to take the boys up to Strawberry Reservoir and rent a fishing boat to go fishing. They got up at the crack of dawn (and unfortunately so did everyone else). Jeffery caught his first fish and it was a pretty good sized one. They had a great time. Unfortunately, Jeffery got a bit sea sick later on that day. "I still feel like I'm swaying on the boat."

I think Micah caught the "fever" after coming home with a fish, so they decided to go out again this morning. They went to Deer Creek Reservoir at the crack of dawn again. Unfortunately, they only caught snags.

Joey's getting ready to cast out his line.

Jeffery's baiting his line with a wiggly worm. He said that on that pole in the corner of the picture is an eagle or hawk's nest and they saw it fly down and swoop up a fish.

Micah's going to grill Jeffery's fish tonight. Yummy fish dinner.

Happy Birthday!!

Makezni turned 2 years old!!!

Micah decided to bake her a cake. This was his first time baking a cake and he wanted to bake a two layer cake. He made a yellow cake with raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream frosting. He even decorated it. It turned our great and very yummy.

Makenzi got a box of crayons and a pad of paper. She is such an artist and just loves her sharp, unbroken crayons. Grandma mailed her some cute pop-up books that we can look at together while I'm on bedrest. The other day I heard her zooming down the stairs and was expecting a hurt cry after that. When I got to the stairs, she was sitting in the box that her gift came in and she just laughed and laughed. She loved the ride! She had somehow situated herself at the top of the stairs in the box and pushed herself for take off. I caught her shortly after that setting up to do it again--what a thrill seeker.

I turned 33 years old!!!

I had a great birthday. Micah also baked me a cake. It was a double fudge chocolate cake with raspberry cream cheese filling and dark chocolate buttercream icing. Yummy chocolate!

I enjoyed all my visitors.

My friend Ann Russon from Oregon came by. Here are some of her kids (Aimee, Ali, Joshua) with some of mine (Michelle, Jeffery, Myla)

My brother John and his family also from Oregon stopped by for a visit. Here's his two boys William and Adam with some of my kids.

Why I only have some of my kids in these pictures...well I take what I can get. I guess that's why we rarely take family pictures. I have one child that basks in the opportunity to ruin the whole thing and the little ones feel like they're being tortured to sit still, look this way, keep your hands down... My goal after I have this next child is to get a family picture in time to send out with Christmas cards--that will be a first.

Summer Fun.

We had a fun visit from our friends from Oregon--The Balazs Family. Joey was reunited with his best buddy "Eli Balazs".

Myla caught a butterfly or a moth on the way home from church.

Here's Makenzi patiently waiting for someone to take her outside. She is such an outside girl, my kind of girl. Unfortunately, mommy can't go outside and that's all that she wants to do. So she fell asleep waiting for a sibbling to finish chores and school work. Somedays they take all day, and somedays they get it all done in an hour.

Here's chipmonk Michelle with a couple of grapes.

Micah finally got his C PAP machine to help him breath better and sleep at night. The first night I hardly slept because I couldn't tell if he was breathing or not. It was so quiet. I haven't slept without someone snoring right in my ear for over 13 years. I didn't think it would be hard for me to adjust to the silence. He's still getting used to it. Hopefully, he will start feeling more rested soon.

Happy 4th of July!!!

We had fun celebrating the 4th of July at the Andrews pool (Jen, my sister-in-law's parent's house). Michelle and Makenzi only wanted to hang out at the steps.

Jeffery was having fun picking water fights with Uncle Moose and...

Aunt Jen.

Jeffery's all geared up for snorkeling.

Here's Myla relaxing.

Later that night we had a bar-b-que and "the colettium of fire". It was quite the show. It keeps getting bigger every year. Jeffery and Joey were out their lighting fireworks and Myla finally got the courage to do a few. Sorry no pictures of that.