Can you Smell That?

Yep, that's summertime! The weather here has been hit and miss, raining like CRAZY! Haven't seen this much rain in years, since I moved from Washington. But we have had some great days, and now here in July, its officially summer. Here's some mid-to late June summer days we had.

yep, that's dirt! she got into my porch pots

This kid could live in the sprinklers. Its his cup of tea.

Kelton LOVES his scooter, and is so nice to share with Chase (since he already thinks he's mastered his "first scooter") Kelton LOVES to play with friends, that's what I hear, "mom, can i go to ___________'s house to play? or can he come here?" wew.

Happy Birthday Chase!

Here is my little sweet heart. This kids' favorite thing to say is, "I love you mom!" He says it all the time. He'll ask for a squeeze...and then he'll just slip his arm behind my neck and say it again and again. He got fun gifts, and actually shared them all really well. He LOVES balls...anything that is a ball, this kid is addicted to! Thanks to a tripod, we got a new family pic. and other than, we are enjoying the semi-good weather. It rains a lot lately, but the sunny moments we are outside! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHASIEPOO!

oopps...End of April, beginning of May

Kimber took her team to state...she's amazing. That girl can throw tons of different pitches, and even take the best hitters in the state staring at the plate and wondering why they just swung that bat, knowing they missed it. The kids have been wanting to go outside...but the icky weather made them get creative. Each day we picked a role to play, tools, the kitchen, crafts, cars, etc. and would run with it. Here's a day with the tools. And, we went to go and pick up Marie we did a Utah weekend and visited the Church History Museum and the Hill Air Force base Museum. We stayed with long time friends Heather and Brison Lundgren and really enjoyed meeting their new baby girl Colette.

MR. & MRS. KYLE CHOFFIN ~ MAY 25, 2009

Surrounded by family and friends, Courtney J. Joy and L. Kyle Choffin

were married in Rexburg, Id.

They are perfect for each other, and we are so excited for them! Their open house is this weekend, June 6, 2009 from 2-4 pm. at my mom's house.

Here's to a great day, for a great couple. Hope you're having fun on your honeymoon! :)

In Loving Memory....

of

Dorothy Elizabeth Johnson

(my dad with his mom)

My heart is aching...so glad that I have the gospel. My grandma passed away almost 2 weeks ago from her battle with ovarian cancer that they found in February. When Marie was here, she watched the kids so Jacob, Lindsay and I could go down and see her one last time. The hardest thing I've ever had to do. As I sat and held her hand, I remember what those hands have done, and I hope to aspire to that someday. She was the most selfless, genuine, unjudgemental person I have ever met. I hold onto her advice to this day, knowing she cared and really loved me. Grandma, all my love. Until we meet again.

Taelin's high heels

May with Marie and Emilia!

the pictures are all in mixed order, but here's what we've been doing the last 2 weeks!

breakin' in the new t-ball gear that we got for the kids to practice on. love the face kelton!

The boys hanging out. The first week Marie was here it was blustery and she said, worse than their tropical storms that blow through Florida. So, we got to play inside a lot.

There was this fake squidy type thingy at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point, Emilia would make this funny grunt sound whenever she touched it. My camera battery died....

The last night in Idaho, all the kids had their bikes, so I stuck Emilia in this dump truck and then they all wanted to play. It was a late night, but sure a fun one! She would look at Kelton each time he would catch her at the bottom of the driveway with a lovey dovey look.

Feeding the birds down on the Green Belt. I'll upload videos later, and those geese were right at the girls' eyes, and would snatch bread from their hands or super super close to them! Chase's nursery teacher asked if he ate the sacrament bread today, and he said, "Yeah, my bread me frow to a quacks....not eat it". he kept calling the ducks babies, "come here babies, bread!"

Why do my kids enjoy this? It drives me nuts when they always hang out of the bars!! I don't mind most things...or at least I've gotten better with the more children I've had..but heights and falling is a NATURAL LAW and won't just happen by chance! Good thing this is only 2 feet high.

My crazy crazy son that has no fear of anything high or dangerous. We went swimming in Utah at the our hotel the night before dropping Marie off and this kid had time outs b/c he kept jumping in with absolutely no fear! Isn't he going to be fun teenager!

My little miss who hates getting her hair done...get used to it girlie!

Me and my best friend, a goofy pic. I love ya Rie!

Emilia Claire, what a sweetie. Her poor allergies...but she loved to be outside.

I am Kelton's coach for t-bal this year, and the kids can't get enough of playing t-ball with the tee we bought. Chase wishes he could play now (which I'm sure he could keep up with Kelton's age kids with his crazy talent and obsession).

These two pictures go together! This wasn't even that bad as it looks, but just so typical of these girls the past 2 weeks. While Emilia was sick, she didn't want much to do with Taelin, and they slept just a little off of eachother each day, so they wanted the other one at slightly diferent times. It was fun to see them be so different. It made us laugh, or say "stop hitting her!"

A long one...HAPPY Graduation, Birthday and Easter!

Well, we had a busy busy month! We started with the 1st, with Jacob's birthday. But we celebrated it when his parents got here. These are all in mixed order: Jacob's parents arrived on the 8th, which was my last day of finals, my graduation on the 10th of April, we did Easter Eggs the next day on the 11th and had Easter dinner and Jacob's birthday on the Easter Sunday. We hid eggs, the kids played a lot with Oma and Opa, we went swimming at the Hotel's pool (where Talea flipped upside down in a floaty and I jumped in the pool fully clothed to get her, picture below of her calling dad to tell him) and overall the kids all had a blast with everyone here.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the kids on graduation day. It was so nice to have everyone's support.

happy birthday to daddy!

grillin' stuff, a computer chair, a bike seat gel pad, new alarm clock

Talea and Kelton helpin' each other find eggs, they do this every year. It cracks me up.

Taelin obsessing over those eggs! She wouldn't let anyone take them from her, no matter how heavy that basket got, so we'd sneak 'em and then put 'em back on the lawn.

Boys vs. Girls like every year. Those sneaky boys.

Jennifer came to hang out with us for Easter. Sooo good to see her again and hang out. Miss ya girlie!

No one wanted to take this photo, so bribs were in order. Kelton, the night before Easter told me that he knew the Easter Bunny would bring him a purple shirt, thank you Wal-Mart.

Sleepy Opa. The boys watching the coloring festivities.

Chase kept double dipping and quadruple dipping those eggs. He kept going and going. And stabbing them before we even got to it. :)

Oma helping Kelton, and keeping clean. He kept saying after they left, "I need Oma to play computer and piano with me! Mom, she needs to be here. I miss her."

Jake and Me after graduation, taken by Chase

Mom and me. Everyone else was headin' out to lunch, it was yummy and fun to be all together.

Me and Lois and Doug. Thanks for coming from Florida. It meant a lot that you came.

My graduation! Yay me! Or at least the cover, we get them later in the mail. Elder Anderson and President Clark came to our commencement departments ceremony and spoke. It was funny to see all the people get all paparazzi with Elder Anderson.

Jennifer Lowe and Me, we took some high school graduation pictures together, so we thought since we were walking together, we should take another one. Geez, 8 years later, with 3 kids under my belt and a mission under hers. Love you girlie!

Talea calling daddy, i wore my swim suit, my sweatshirt and a towel home. But at least she got back in the water 2 days later, so proud of you LaLa!

And this is what I have been doing lately. Kyle and Courtney are getting married on Memorial Day, so I've been in charge of flower stuff. Here are two of the center pieces. The colors are wierd on pictures, all the purples look blue, but they are pretty royal purple and pale yellow.

Our March Madness!!!

DRAPER TRIP

Our Y.W. group went down to the Draper Temple Open House, spend the night, hit the Church History Museum and Temple Square the next morning along with the Joseph Smith Movie and lunch with a bit o shopping at Gateway. I love these girls!!! We had a blast and although Taelin did not want to be quiet in the temple (it was 1 1/2 hours after her bedtime to her defense), she did great! We were pooped when we got home, but overall super fun!

Heather, Mady, Ashley, Mirinda, and Abby


HAPPY BIRTHDAY:

Katey, Dad, Corey and Mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELTON: #5!!!!!

Kelton had a friend party on that Saturday and was SO excited to have his friends there! Kelton here is leading the choir of singers and then danced, "I'm five, I'm five!"

We had a great party, and for those of my friends that are crazy cake makers, try one without eggs and let me know how to do it so it stays together! You have to leave it in the pan...so I made green frosting and added some gushers. Looks kinda ghetto to me, but I had 10 minutes and yeah- here is what you get! Chase LOVES cake, which he kept telling everyone over and over again!

Just some days!

Yes, this is him "boarding" down the couch on a knee pad for the garden. He LOVES to skateboard, and both the boys can now skateboard down the driveway! Its SO crazy. This kid is nuts, he jumps it up on the back of the couch and off the sides! Chase is danger man.

And here is my precious little girl that's been sick, but today got her first full pony tail! I've been working on some new bows...look below and see some of them. She is getting so big!


I made this today. I've had the board for a while, and never had a use for it. I painted it black, cut out cream vinyl that says, "BOWS" and then hot glued three strips of sheer ribbon (left the middle without bows for now so you could see it) and a bow on top. I like the way it turned out. I made one for head bands too...but with hooks on a 1x6x8. not as cute, needs more work. Here are some of the bows I've been making with my friend, some I've bought (the small flowers), some Marie made (a couple small ones) and random ones from friends. But most them I have made, its fun and helps the creative gitters get out.