Ethan has finished his last year of preschool. He has really enjoyed going to preschool and has learned so much. The last month or so he has asked me several times if I had signed him up for summer school yet. I hope he keeps his enthusiasm for loving school (who am I kidding, right?) So Monday he had preschool graduation. I had planned to video all their little songs but right when I started the video the low battery light came on. I was so sad, I didn't have another set of batteries so I had to conserve what I had left, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. Ethan during graduation. The boy sitting next to him wouldn't hold still and kept bumping Ethan's hat. Ethan was getting a little discouraged. He looked so cute. He did lots better this year. Receiving his diploma. My big preschool graduate. I am so proud of you bud! Ethan and his teacher Lana Lee. The sun was shining directly in their eyes. I should have taken another shot but the stinkin' battery was dying. Me and the kids. Each kid picked a song they wanted to sing for all the Mom's and Dad's. Ethan picked Peter Rabbit. Turn up your volume, it's barely audible. But at least there was sound coming out of his mouth, last year he just mouthed the words. (Sorry the video kind of gets cut short, again, the stinkin' battery)


Congratulations Ethan! On to kindergarten!

Yay! I love girls trip. It's so fun to be able to go a spend a weekend with all my girlfriends from high school. We are so lucky to still be friends and love each other enough to want to spend time together. I am so blessed that I had such wonderful friends growing up to help keep me in line. (Well they tried, sometimes I didn't listen.)

On Friday night we went to Olive Garden for dinner, Heather told them we were there to celebrate her birthday, so they came to sing for her, and wish her a happy birthday.


Our waiter Kevin was quite smitten with Nicole. We had him bringing us anything we wanted. He was trying everything to get her number.


Group shot at dinner. Lisa, Tamia, me, Cyndi (and Nataanii), Nicole, Tara, and Heather. So much fun, so much good food, so many laughs.


Back at the motel for some good old fashioned reminiscing. I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out of our motel room.


We also went to the Desert Star Theater for a play. It was so funny, and scary. Yes, we are all wearing the same shirts, this might be a new tradition.


Thanks so much girls for an awesome weekend. I love you all so much. Can't wait until next year. And thanks to the husbands for watching the kids and making this all possible.

Every couple of years the local farmers and ranchers put on a thing called "Farm Days" to help educate the school children on the importance of farming and help them to understand how much of what we have and eat comes from a farm. We took the kids down to see the animals and check it all out.

We went down to Farm Days with some of Javan's family. Grandma Shannie, Haven and Kellyn, Aunt Cassie, Sarah, and Haley, and all the kids.


Here Clark Grover was giving the sheep a "hair cut". He even gave Ethan some of the wool to take home to show his dad. Ethan put it in his pocket to save it. Now it is happily stored on his dresser and he will not let me throw it away. In fact he was quite upset when he excitedly showed Javan and Javan told him it was gross. (On a side note, we bought our house from Clark Grover, thanks Clark!)


Ethan and Ally by the goats. Ally wasn't very excited about getting too close to the animals.


Ryan and a huge pig. Holy cow, that was one big pig.


Ally and the little pigs. Getting braver.


Ethan loved to hold and interact with the animals. He held some bunnies, chicks and here he is showing Ally and Ryan a baby duck. All the baby chicks and ducks were in this huge tub and Ethan wasn't big enough to reach in there and catch one so he was asking me to help him catch a baby duck cause he had already held a chick. I said "How can you tell which one is a duck." They looked the same from where I was standing. Ethan thought that was a pretty dumb question, "They have longer, flatter beaks, Mom." Thanks for the lesson bud!


Enjoying a quilting demonstration and an ice cream cone. Ethan, Ryan, Ally, Ella, and Jonah.


Then we enjoyed a tractor-pulled hayride. It got really windy while we were on the ride and the kids covered their heads for most of it.


We had a really fun time though. After we left the farm we went to Grandma Shannie's for a picnic. Thanks Shannie!

In our family we have lots of mothers and the kids have lots of grandmas and we feel so blessed to know and love and be loved by all of them. These wonderful ladies make up such a huge part of our lives and we wouldn't want to spend it without them. Thank you so much Grandma Debra, Grandma Shannie, Grandma Lucinda, Grandma Heather, and Grandma Patsy (not pictured) for all that you do and for being such wonderful mothers/grandmas to us. We love you so much.


I am so thankful for the chance I have to be a mother to 3 beautiful kids. I think if you asked my kids they would say I was a mean mom and I probably am, but I love my kids and could not imagine my life without them. I want to give them the world. I love Javan for giving them to me. Families are forever! I love you guys.

Earlier this month we went on our first camping trip of the year with Javan's sister Bayley and her family. As always we had tons of fun. I love the summer and I am so happy that it is finally getting warm outside.

Since Bayley was coming from Moab and we were coming from Blanding we met about halfway and camped near Monticello. It did get a bit chilly in the evenings, but it was nice and warm during the day.

Javan is getting Ryan started off early on the riding. He had a good time. He didn't like the sound of Javan's motorcycle. Every time Javan fired it up Ryan's bottom lip started to quiver and he would cry. He's going to have to get over that or it's going to be a long summer.


Carter, Willy and Ryan playing with the toys. I tried to keep him clean and contained to one area, this worked out pretty well.


Kamron and Ally enjoying some mid-afternoon coloring while the boys were off doing something destructive I'm sure.


Bayley had to run back to Moab on Saturday morning so Javan and I loaded up most of the kids and went for a little road trip. We took the kids to Newspaper Rock. They thought it was pretty cool at first, looking at the petroglyphs and trying to figure out what story they were trying to tell. Then they were hungry and ready to go eat lunch. I hadn't been to Newspaper Rock since I was a little girl when my Grandma Halls took us there, I love remembering our little trips she took us on.


We stopped by the river to have a picnic and the boys tried to build a dam across the river. Ethan was trying to fill in the little tiny holes so no water at all was coming through. It kept them busy for a long time.


Ally spent most of her time throwing rocks into the river. Is she a plumber's daughter or what?


The kids after lunch, dam building, rock throwing, water skeeter catching and ready to head back to camp. Daniel, Ryan, Max, Kamron, Ally, Reed and Ethan.

The "big" boys rolling the ice cream ball down the hill. We made some delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream in this cool ball. I am quite impressed with it.


In an attempt to keep Ryan out of the dirt he played a lot in his walker. Javan couldn't believe I was making him pack the walker to go camping but it worked out pretty good.


Thanks Bayley and fam for yet another fun weekend. Can't wait for the next time.

I wanted to include this video on Ryan's 8 Month post but I couldn't get it to load. I tried about 10 times. Anyway, I thought about just leaving it out but it's too cute. You have to see it.

Bricks and mortar make a house, but the laughter of children makes a home.

Irish Proverb

It's that time again, Ryan is another month older. It's weird how it's taking so long for him to get big but at the same time he is growing up way too fast. I'm so excited for him to start crawling, but I'll miss the days of my little baby boy snuggled up in my arms. Ryan is so busy, he doesn't sit still for one second. He is always grabbing and trying to eat whatever I am holding. So getting my monthly growth pictures are getting harder because he wants to hold the camera. On the last post he had just gotten his two bottom teeth. He has worked really hard this last month and now has 3 more on top. They are coming in pretty quick and he looks kind of funny with them. He does a cute little smile where he scrunches up his nose and shows off his new teeth. I need to try and get a picture of it. He is such a funny little boy. He jabbers all the time and blows out spit with his tongue (I can't think of how to describe that). Javan and I teach Sunday School in our ward and when he hears us talking he starts talking, the louder we get to talk over him, the louder he gets. This kids in our class think it's pretty funny. He's quite a distraction. He is trying really hard to learn how to crawl. He is really good at rolling around to get to where he wants to go. He is doing this kind of army crawl/face plant maneuver that only moves him a few inches, but it's fun to watch him try and figure it out. While I was using the restroom the other day Ryan was playing on the floor in my room, when I came out I could hear him talking and the bed skirt was moving rapidly. He had rolled under the bed and was playing with the cord to the electric blanket. (Safe, I know!) He wasn't crying though, under the dark bed. This poor kid, he can't get a break from his brother and sister. If they aren't laying on top of him and making him scream, they are combing his hair, swinging him in the bouncer, racing him around the kitchen in the walker or taking him for a ride in the doll stroller. At least he looks like he is having fun. I think Ryan has been having a little separation anxiety from me lately. He wants me to hold him at all times. Sometimes I can get him to play on his own for awhile so I can get things done around the house but if I leave his sight he screams instantly. And I am talking about a blood curdling scream. The second I come back and pick him up, it stops. He is a stinker. Well, needless to say, we can't do that all day, so sometimes he gets to scream. And as you can see it wears him right out, but he's going to have to learn, I can't hold him ALL of the time. Every kid has to have the "fall asleep while they are eating" picture. Meal times are one of Ryan's favorite things, so it's pretty rare that he would fall asleep during it, causing him to miss out. Ethan started T-ball this week. I had to work so Javan took all the kids to his game. I guess he forgot to bring Ryan any toys or snacks and he was eating the grass instead. One of the other moms felt bad for him and gave him this delicious piece of licorice. Ryan loved it (a lot more than I did when I saw that shirt). He was so happy to have it though, it kept him entertained for a long time. Right before bed is one of my favorite times with Ryan. After he has had his bottle and is just winding down and getting ready for bed. He is so cute, he rolls around on the bed and plays with my face and gives me loves. I love getting to spend a few minutes of alone time with him after Ethan and Ally have gone to bed.