First Day of Kindergarten

I can't believe Logan is old enough to start his first day of Kindergarten! He is attending Washington Elementary and his teacher is Mrs. Frank. I am so excited to see the progress he will make this coming year.

Idaho: Trip 2 - Yellowstone National Park

So after we got back from Idaho for the wedding, we soon had to be out of our house. The problem with that was that we hadn't closed on our new house yet. So to fill the time while we were homeless for about 2 weeks, we went back to Idaho stay with my parents. While there, we took the kids to Yellowstone National Park. It was a fun trip but a little too long for a 6 1/2 month pregnant mom with twins. :)  But the kids loved it and I enjoyed it too....despite the very swollen legs and sore belly.

Having lunch at a picnic area.

If you look real close, there were some elk hiding in the trees.

Trying to patiently wait for Old Faithful to do its thing.

Drove right next to this massive beast.

Idaho: Trip 1 - Water Fun

 While in Idaho for Trevor's wedding, it was "nice" weather and grandma thought it would be a good idea to play in the water. The only problem with this idea is that "nice" weather in Idaho is something completely different from what we're used to in St. George. Instead of 100+ degree weather that we had at home, it was like 80's with a breeze and the water temperature is A LOT colder than our lukewarm water. The kids wanted to play in the water, but it was so cold to them that it didn't last too long. When they were in the swimming pool they would immediately start shivering and not enjoying it as much as grandpa and grandma would have liked.

Grandma like to "give ya a dollar if...." you put the sprinkler down your shorts! Well, Logan will do just about anything for a dollar. :)

Idaho: Trip 1 - Trevor and Shaelyn get married!

So my little/big brother found such a good addition to our family and asked her to marry him. They were married June 21 in the Idaho Falls temple and we were fortunate enough to make the trip and witness them being sealed. It was kind of a difficult trip since I was pretty prego but it was definitely worth it.

One of my most favorite pictures. Chase and Grandpa at the reception.

Logan was a little tired by this point and time.

Jeff was trying to get all the kids settled down....he did a pretty good job.

While we were Idaho, Ray and the boys took a fishing trip with Grandpa at Brush Creek and had a grand ol' time!

Logan's Preschool Graduation

Logan completed preschool graduation this May and I am so proud of his progress! He had a fabulous teacher, Mrs. Nelson, and had a great friend that we would take to school with us, Abby Gilmore.

Chase's "stitched" forehead

One day at baseball, Chase was playing catch with a friend. Well, his friend (who has quite an arm) threw the ball for Chase and he missed catching it....well, at least with his glove. His forehead took the brunt of the throw and the stitches on the baseball made a perfect imprint on his head.

You can't see the imprint very well, but look closely and you'll see a small section of stitching.

Our Lego Family

Logan loves to play with  Legos and comes up with quite the creations sometimes. Today, it was our family in Lego form.  He had (left to right) Mom, Logan, baby twin, Dad, baby twin, Rylee, and Chase.

Good job buddy, and I love you!

Tractors

This summer down at the city park there were an assortment of tractors brought in for the public to come look at and for the life of me I can 't remember what event was going on for them to do this. :) Each of the kids went and chose which tractor was their favorite.

Logan's Little League Baseball

Now that Logan is old enough to start participating in various sports he decided he wanted to try baseball. We joined the Washington City League and he was on "Mike's Barber and Beauty" team. He had great coaches and I think he enjoyed the experience. He was pretty darn cute to watch and he learned quite a bit. He was able to hit the ball and get on base a few times and learned how to step and throw. He would get a little confused on where to run after he hit the ball but it was still fun.

Fixing/Selling our House

So after discovering that we are expecting twins we felt a desire/need to have a larger home. The housing market was at a good point for us to sell and also buy so we decided to finish remodeling and then to part with our first home. This was quite and endeavor cause I could not help the way I usually do and so a lot rested on Ray. But he pulled it all off magnificently and it all turned out beautiful! We gutted the bathroom and totally redid it and also tackled the kitchen which consisted of tearing off the old counter tops and painting the cabinets. The problem with the cabinets was that we didn't know to use oil based paint......and that discovery was made AFTER we had already painted everything with latex paint. Thankfully Alan was around a lot this summer and came and helped Ray strip off all the latex paint so we could repaint the cabinets the right way.  All of the projects turned out great so we put it up "for sale by owner". We had a few people come look that week and we also had quite a few real estate agents call and ask us to list with them. After about a week of doing this on our own we felt it ok to list with an agent so we could get it sold quicker. Well, it worked. After only 3 short days we had 3 offers and sold it! It was really hard to move this home cause we put so much blood, sweat and tears into it, but we know that we can make our next home just as wonderful and special.....if we can just find that next home. That part is turning out to be more difficult than originally thought.

Trying to catch up

So a lot has happened since the last time I wrote and I seriously want to catch up....the only problem is with 5 kids the time is hard to find. :) But I am going to attempt to recapture as mush as I can and I hope it comes out ok. I'm going to start from the beginning at around spring when we decided to sell our house because of the need of a bigger one with the twins coming.

FHE at Dixie Rock

Our most amazing neighbors, the Turek Family, invited us to go to Dixie Rock with them for Family Home Evening. We love hiking and exploring....and the Turek's so we jumped on that opportunity! We attempted the Narrows (a crack in the rock), but only a few were able to actually squeeze through it. I got slightly claustrophobic and didn't even attempt to get very far. Ray and the kids snuck on through and thought it was pretty cool. There's also an old pioneer house in the rocks that we found and it was super neat. I have great admiration for the first settlers of St. George, they definitely had their work cut out for them and had to have such great faith and obedience.


It literally is just a narrow little crack in the rock. Ray was somehow able to squeeze through with the kids.


In the House in the Rock



The chimney in the House in the Rock

Rylee's 2nd Birthday

Back in March Rylee turned the terrible 2! :) And yes, she has followed the description of terrible 2 quite well. She has now developed quite an attitude and doesn't get pushed around....by anyone. That girl can hold her ground. But as usual, she got spoiled rotten.

 
 Big brothers thought a princess tent would be fun.

 
 Dad insisted that she have this cute little 4-wheeler.







 Her look doesn't express it, but she loved her Minnie Mouse cake.

New Dedication

So for my birthday back in April, Ray was such a thoughtful hubby and got me a most wonderful gift (like usual) and printed off a blog book!  It has been so fun to have the last couple of years in print and the kids love looking through the blog book as well and seeing their pictures. After seeing how fun it is to have record of the happenings with our family, Ray has requested that I keep blogging. I totally agree that it is a wonderful record, so I am vowing to try and post more regularly....especially with the arrival of the twin girls sneaking up on us rather quickly. :) So for the next while I am going to try to get caught back up on the blog as we have been very busy with lots of fun and challenging times.

Splash Park Fun

We went to the splash park a couple of weeks ago with our cousins and had a wonderful time! Next to the splash park is an adorable carousel that we of course had to ride on....a few times. :) I didn't get hardly any pictures of the kids playing in the water cause they would never hold still! But we got some cute ones of the carousel.