Father's Day

That has the be the longest stretch I've gone without updating! I've sat down a few times to do this, but have been distracted. Now, it is time for me to pledge to get our monotonous lives back up to date!

I'll start with Father's Day. Here is Dave with the kids while he is opening some presents.

CK gave her daddy a very special present. The Monday before the big day, she came upstairs with a gift bag all ready to give her daddy. However, it didn't take long for the bag to get ripped apart and the contents spread around the ground. When I went to clean up, I noticed that she had "given" him B's baseball trophy and football trophy. I got a little chuckle over it and then asked her a few days later what we should give daddy for Father's Day. She excitedly told me she knew what she wanted to give him. "He always wanted a twopee." I do think that she was right... or at least that she has heard him say that when ever B shows off his latest trophy when finishing his latest sport season. Well, she finally conceded that maybe she shouldn't give him B's. She said that she wanted to buy Dad one, but just couldn't find one.

Sunday, when I said it was time to wrap presents, she got really excited because she found something new to give her dad. She ran and brought me the Denver Broncos license plate cover that use to be on my car, but had to be removed because it is now illegal to cover any part of your license plate. Nonetheless, I told her she could give that to her dad. She was very proud. Here she is with her dad and her special present. (B and KL too)

Just a cute pic of KL getting a snuggle from her daddy.

On our way home from church that day, I told each of the kids that I wanted them to think hard about their favorite thing about their dad and we would tell him later. B said his favorite thing was his testimony. This took me a little by surprise to be coming from B of all people... he has kind of hit a "cool kid" phase so he doesn't really like to get to personal. After he said this, D immediately told me about a great spiritual lesson they had when they had gone camping with my dad that weekend. Evidently, it really hit home for B and so he was able to realize what a blessing it is to have a dad with such a strong testimony of the Savior.

We love Dave and hope he had a great Father's Day. We are so thankful to him for all he does for us!

Girl's Camp '09

I got to spend all last week up north enjoying the gorgeous weather at our girl's camp. We had a great time up there! It was only about 10 minutes from my parents cabin and I had to run over there a couple of times to grab things (like pads to sleep on to help replace the air pads that sprung leaks, or sleeping bags whose zipper's broke) so I was even able to enjoy a flushing toilet 2 times! It was certainly a lot of work to do to get ready for it, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. I'm so grateful for the oppurtunity. We have great girls in our stake (all 12-17 girls) and they made the experience even that much better! Here are some pictures from my week:

This year, we decided we wanted to try and do a "jr. staff". Some people do this, but our stake has gone away from it for the last few years. This is for the girls who have already turned 18 and have graduated. They were there to help us. We feel like it was a great success and are so thankful for all the help they gave us. It was even funner for me because my 2 little sisters were there. Here are our girls for our daily afternoon meeting/classes we did with them.
This is my ward. Even though I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, it was still fun to see them all.
Julie, Me, and Carol Ann: 3 of the 4 members of our presidency. Unfortunately, Marlane had to leave early and we didn't get a chance to take a picture of all of us together before she left, so we had to do it in shifts. If I was really good, I'd photoshop it. Oh well!
Julie, Marlane and Me. Carol Ann had gone up to hike with the 4th years at this point.
On the hike. I went with the 2nd years. Here are all the people from my ward on that hike.

When I got home, I found this:

Last year, when I went to my former roommates wedding, I found a similar thing wating for me when I got home. I told Dave next time I leave, I'm hiding the clippers!

Summer School?

The day after school got out, the kids began construction on an extension to the "playhouse" (I guess fort is a better word) in my sister's back yard. They (mostly D and Josh) worked for 2 straight days in the heat and were so proud of their work. They made it into a school and have been holding classes there and even a field trip or 2 (we took them swimming at a neighbors).

Here it is from the outside. The "1 story" section is the school... although I think they have since added a second story, or have at least made plans for it.
Inside, B and Anna enjoy and Otter Pop...the other reason Jill's house is so much more preferable to ours. She always has a ready supply of these.
D taking my nephew Tyton over to a new section of the yard to attend his classes.

Arrow of Light

David was recently awarded his Arrow of Light and he has officially moved on past cub scouts and is now a Boy Scout. Wow. Talk about kids growing up to fast! Here are some pictures of the big event.

His friend Josh also got his that night.

He also received his Weblos award that night. They always have the parents come up and draw things on the boys faces when they get a big award. He was none to thrilled that I took over the markers this time. I've always let Dave do it. D wanted his dad because he said his dad knows how to do it best...he does sports things. I guess he didn't like those big red lips I drew on his cheek. :)

Haircuts

Recently, CK got mad at L and so decided to cut her own hair as a way of "sticking it to her." I still haven't figured out this logic, but then again, 4 year old's don't always have the soundest logic. After I cut hers, I finally gave into L who has been begging me for sometime to cut hers and give her bangs. Here are the final results:

CK

L (before)

L (after)
together

They are both really happy with their new "do's" but I'm already missing how much easier it is to just throw their hair back in a ponytail, than to dry and curl it. Oh well!

Memorial Day

Dave has decided to have a tradition that whenever there is a holiday that falls on a Monday, we take the kids out to Breakfast. Here we are on Memorial Day.

Dave and KL

CK, B, L, D

After breakfast, Dave headed off to work, and we headed off to the Cemetery. We met up with my family. Here we all are at my sister's neice's grave who died last summer.Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera out when we went to my cousin's daughter's grave. I'll have to do that next year. My little sister pointed out how now, there are more and more friends and family graves than there ever were before. When I was little, we never knew anyone who had been buried there, but now that has changed.

L and Katy putting flowers on the grave of a veteran.

KL just enjoyed the day, especially when she got to ride on Grandpa's shoulders.

KL's Birthday

My sweet little baby has been 2 for over a week now. Hard to imagine. Times goes so fast it's scary. I wish I could freeze all my kids right where they are, but since I can't, I'll commemorate it with something of a picture montage.

Here she is bright and early before church in her new little birthday dress.
We had dinner that night at my parents house (as is typical for Sundays). CK insisted on bringing the little camp chair for her to sit on when it was time to open presents. Here she is, but she had found this little baby that she was being so cute with. This picture was taken just as she was getting ready to give the baby a kiss.


Opening her favorite present... bubbles. It's just too easy when they are this age!

D holding her up in front of her cake.

Blowing out the candles.

It was also my cousin Shannon's birthday! Here she is with her cake.

Memories

Here is just one more picture of the kids with Peyton and Spencer.

BR: Vasa, Peyton, Spencer, Tyton, Scottie
Mid: Josh, B, D, Roman, Zach
FR: Sam, L

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a busy and a fun Memorial Day weekend so I will now try and spend the next few days reporting on that! I will start by saying one of the funnest parts was my little sister and her family came down from Denver. They brought with them some friends. Peyton Hillis, who plays with Spence, and his fiance, Hannah. My boys were so excited to hear that he was coming. They have loved watching him almost as much as they have loved watching Spencer play.

I was able to convince my little sister to let me watch her little boy (Gunnar) one day (not an easy task with her). He was so much fun to have around and everyone loved playing with him. In the late afternoon, I had to run to the store to pick something up real quick (don't worry, Dave was home and he was having as much fun playing with the baby as anyone else). When I got home, I saw this:

That evening, we got to go to a BBQ at Spencer's parent's house, but before everyone came over, Spencer and Peyton invited all the boys over to play football. What fun! How many kids get to play football with not 1, but 2 NFL players!?!?! They had so much fun!

B and D were both on Spencer's team. D is 2nd from the right and B 4th from the right (as he wipes the sweat off his face with his shirt).
Peyton is the big guy on the left and Spence in motion on the Right.
It really was fun to watch. They were great with the boys, and really competetive with each other. I know it won't be something my boys forget anytime soon!

While the boys were having the time of their lives, so was KL!

Just because I'm weird... This is Becca... those of you who are big "cutest blogs on the block " people. Becca is one of the 2 founders of that. Of course, I don't actually have a "cutest blog on the block" template, but still... I have used them quite a bit. Anyway, she is a good friend of my sister's and so I had to ad this. :)

Football Party

A couple of weeks ago, the boys had an "end of season" party for football. Here they are getting their trophy's

B

Z

Coach Jay and Coach Eric w/ BCoach Jay and Coach Eric w/ Z