Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday.    So just wanted to take a minute to add him to the considerable number of Birthday posts.

My Dad is:  

hardworking

        thrifty (in the good way)

        generous (he always helps out his kids, he was the BEST to have 

                   school shopping or grocery shopping.

        a good example (served a mission, worked hard, etc)

        a great outdoorsman  (makes flapjacks with the best of them)

        a lifelong reader

        a backpacker at heart (and now so are the kids)

        a collector (better not elaborate this one)

        a great DAD.

        a great GRANDPA

Nick says:  I love my grandpa.   I like to call him Papa Dell.

Ben says:  He eats my ears,  What's going on?  I love him.  His clothes are so painty.

Good Friday!

Tagg has himself a new Go Kart!  

He asked Uncle Erik to come help out with it, since his Dad was out of town.   We all went to check it out.    It was very fun and my boys are not getting one!  Erik was a crazy driver, I was a great driver and Tagg and Alec did quite well themselves.    At least no one hit the neighbors car.    

We then decided to go bowling which was a blast.   Mom, Erik and Trish are all great bowlers, but Tagg had the high score of the night with a 148!   (To make myself feel better, I had to add that he was using the bumpers) :)    

Olivia even got in on the action.  Although she much prefered to dance like crazy all over the place.  Good times!!

July 24th!

We had a very fun, but very busy 24th.  We were at Lagoon all day on Wednesday, which I still love to do.   None of us are sick of it yet.  (of course, Zach can't talk, but he doesn't complain much)  Then at the last minute we decided to head to Park West for the evening.   Thursday morning while Erik was playing on Utah Lake with his work group, we went to the Uintah Mountains. 

I spent lots of time here and it reminds me of all the great memories with my family backpacking in these mountains.   I hope my kids will learn to LOVE it like I do.  

It was absolutely beautiful, but quite chilly, so no one really went in the water, but throwing rocks was pretty fun for the "kids"  (Vance and Brandon).    I would have loved to stay and hike to one of the beautiful lakes around, but we had a baseball game to get to.

We got back home with a little time to spare, so the kids talked me into taking them to the Pioneer Days celebration at the local park.

The boys had fun riding ponies (another step in overcoming Ben's fear (often disguised as love) for animals.   He is riding Peanut, and Nick is riding Snowflake), and the train, got some prizes and a snowcone and it was off to the game.

Erik's fellow work mates were all at the game, our boys, how should  I say it... were up too late the night before.   We did have fun, however.    

Ben quickly began flirting with the girls in front of us, and was on their laps for most of the game.  I don't think he stopped talking the entire game.    They also gave Zach a bit of attention, which might explain the look on Ben's face.

The fireworks after the game were spectacular.   Zach stayed awake the entire game, but didn't quite make it through the fireworks.    The boys made it until they had been in the car for about 2 minutes.    It was a great 24th, and we still had the entire weekend ahead!!!

Zach or Zack

Ok, I am putting it up for a vote:  Erik and I have been discussing the spelling of Zachary's shortened name.   I told him that it would be weird to spell it Zack because Zachary is with a ch not a ck.  Stupid Me!   My oldest son Nicholas, is called Nick everyday!   I have been spelling it Zach since he was born, but Erik likes Zack better and I might also.   Although can you change your child's name at 6 months old?   Anyway, what do you think?

The Best Mom ever!

Today is my mom's birthday.   What can I say to do her justice?    I am very grateful to have been born into the family I am in. 

My Mom:  is hilarious.  It is always a good laugh to have her around.

                   is generous.  She shares everything.

                   is a great grandmother.  

                   babysits, and totally loves my children and my husband

                   is beautiful!

                   

She is my best friend and I love all the time that I get to spend with her.   Thanks for being such a great example to me as a mother.    I Love You!

Ben says: She made me so handsome with my hair!  (I think he means she gave him a good haircut)

Nick says: She is kind to me and does lots of good stuff for me.  She came to my soccer and t-ball games and she let me sleep in her yard.

Family Vacation

Erik and I were glad to finally take the kids on an actually family vacation.  It has been a long time.  Our original plan was to take them to California to visit my Grandma and then do something like Legoland.  Unfortunately we found out that our car needs a new engine, so to keep expenses down we decided to go to St. George.  We love St. George.  I get to go there a few times a year with my sisters and the cousins, but the boys were thrilled to have Erik there with us.   Thanks to my parents for letting us use their condo!  

We had a great time.  We were especially glad to see our friends Paul and Elayna.  They looked great.  They are also really good friends.  We won't let some much time pass before we see them again.

We went to the "sprinkler park", of course, lots of swimming, played racquetball, saw "Kung Fu Panda", saw "Wall-E", ate at the pizza factory, played at the park, went for a nature walk, (we saw some more frogs, ducks, birds, rabbits, horses and more) went to Sandhollow where Nick picked up a mild case of swimmers itch! (yuck), we did some shopping, hiking etc...

We had a great time, were happy to be home and I was completely exhausted.

Good Friends!

I am way behind, so I am going to catch up this week.  It has been a busy summer.  I was happy to hear that me friend from high school  was in town from California, so we decided to have a little get together.  We met at Tolman Park (Rocket Park to most of us) and had lunch.   It was so fun to see my friends, I felt like I was 17 again.  Not for long though, once I saw the pictures of myself!  It brought back so many fun memories.   We had some really great times together over the years and years that we have known each other.  I love these girls so much and hope to see all of them more often.   

Our kids had a great time together.   We have 10 kids between the four of us.  I would love for our children to be good friends, so I hope this was just a beginning for them!

Happy Birthday Joey!

Joey had a birthday yesterday!   

He is also a great Uncle.   We are so glad he married Britta!   The kids love to be with him.  They love the songs he makes up for them all the time.   (I will have to see if I can get the Zachary song from James to post on here)   I love to play games with Joey and hang out at Grandma's house.  He is so smart and talented.  I don't personally know anyone who can write a song like he does.

Nick says:  He is so good at writing songs and singing.  He is so nice to me.

Ben says:  I like his guitar and he is so funny!

I will have to round up some pictures of Joey!

1.  Joey

2. Fun Uncles

3. Great music

Happy Birthay Ryan and Hayley!

July is birthday month in my family.   I know if you keep up with my blog, you probably thought it was June, nope, there are even more in July.    Today is dedicated to Ryan and Hayley.

Ryan is such a great older brother.   He is so talented.   He is a very caring person and would do anything for me and my family.   He exceles at everything that he puts his mind too.   (Extreme sports, emergency medicine (whatever you call it), fixing anything, he is super athletic, scuba diving, and a million other things.)  He is the best dad.  He is the definitely the FUN uncle.   The minute he walks in the door, all the kids are yelling for him to do something crazy to them.  (tickle, flip them around, hold them in a vise, atomic elbow...)   I love when he is around,  Everything seems just a bit more fun.   

Nick says:  He is a great uncle.  I love to wrestle with him.

Ben says:  I love when he plays with me and throws me.

We love you Ryan!   Hope you have a great birthday.

Hayley joined our family four years ago today.   What a sweet baby she was and what a wild and crazy, sweet girl she has become!   I love that Ben is the same age as her and that they have a good relationship.   She takes great care of him and luckily that is just what he wants in a friend.   Hayley always makes us laugh and smile.   

Nick says:  She is a good cousin and she is a good friend for my brother.  She is so nice!

Ben says:  I love to play with Hayley and swim with her, and finding Katelynne with her??.

Have a great Day Hayley!  We love you.

I have lots of stuff to post, coming up.  (I accidentally sent my camera to California with Amy!) so more coming soon!

1.  Ryan

2.  Hayley

3.  More Birthday cake

Happy Birthday Amy!

My sister Amy had her birthday yesterday, so I wanted to do a quick post in honor of my big sister.     Some of the things I love about Amy:   

1.  She is the queen of organization, I could learn this from her.   

2.  She is a great decorator, she could have been an interior designer.

3.  She is so much fun, and so funny.    We always laugh when we get together.

4.  Friday night, husband out of town.   Love these rare occasions.

5.  She is an expert photographer.   She took our family portrait even before the photo class.

6.  She is so athletic, she seems to be good at every sport.

7.  She is crafty (I was going to say in the making things way, but maybe both??  J/K)

8.  She is always there for me, to tend my kids, keep me company through labor, bringing me frosty's, to talk to, and a million other ways.   I haven't even gone through a pregnancy without her literally doing it with me :)

She is a great sister, wife, mother and daughter.   (kind of sounds like a eulogy)   I couldn't have had a better example  to look up to.

The boys wanted to add something too:

Nick:  I love Aunt Amy because she is your sister and she lets me come over to her house to play.

Ben:  She likes to talk to me.   I love her baby.   She gives me spaghetti.  (What???)

I didn't ask Erik, but he probably would just think of running hands through her hair or vice versa!

1.  Amy

2.  Being a sister

3.  Movie Night