Singing in the Rain

We had a small downpour here in Ogden on this Sunday evening. David grabbed the girls, rolled up their pants (well, Hazel eventually removed them completely) and they jumped into the water. They were soon joined by our adorable neighbor girls, Zoe and Sophia.

EFY week

July 25-29
We had the privilege of hosting my younger cousins while they attended EFY here in Ogden. It's been a while since I've seen some of them since they come from southern Arizona and Texas and it was SO FUN to have them in our home.
They are incredible youth.

Two of my cousins were too old for EFY and came to hang out with me all day!
This is my wonderful cousin Josh, who I remember carrying around everywhere with me when he (well, both of us) were little. He is now a grown-up returned missionary.
The girls loved him, of course. He's the oldest of eight, so he had no problem reading books and playing games with them all week.

On Monday, we had a family night activity where we talked about pioneers and told the story of the seagulls and the locusts.

We colored and cut out finger puppets to act out the story...







Of course the boys had to show us how the birds ate the locusts!


Each night these crazy kids would come home and liven up our home. We ate SO MUCH food and played games into the late night. It was such a blast.

On one of the days, David decided to take advantage of a sweet deal and buy a new bike up in Logan. Summer and I packed up the girls and went to the Logan zoo. It was awesome.



It took me quite a while to convince Hazel to feed this friendly duck. She was afraid he'd bite her and then she finally did it.





It was so nice having Summer with me all week. She's starting her second year in college and waits patiently as the love of her life serves a mission. I wish she lived closer.



Isn't this a huge turtle? Or is it a tortoise? Wow.

Cutie tootie.

There was a park nearby where we waited for David to return with his sweet bike.
Little Ellie finished off the snacks for us.


One of the last evenings with Josh and Summer, we introduced them to the Nickelcade.







This was Ellie's first time on a ride all by herself. She seemed to like it.


We try to get Charlotte to raise her hands on anything she might consider daring. I love it; she kept them up almost the entire time on this ride.

We loved having these kids

Pioneer Day

For Pioneer Day we all gathered at Gram and Papa Kevin's as we usually do on Sunday evenings. I cannot express enough my GRATITUDE for the opportunity to live close to my in-laws. I never grew up close to my grandparents and only saw them about once a year. I'm so glad that my girls get to spend time with their grandparents every Sunday and create these memories with them. We live close enough to my mom and her husband that we see them every few months, if not more. I am so grateful for their involvement in our girls' lives.

And Vicki goes the extra mile when it comes to holidays. The food is wonderful (Kevin often helps with this part), the house is decorated, and there's always fun games.

The three-legged race, for example. This was the first time my girls had tried something like this and it was hilarious!

I love that they match.






Charlotte paired up with her Dad and probably had no idea why on earth he was tying her leg to his, but she went along with it anyway.








David and I raced Rod and Josh, and WON.
(I've learned that if I'm going to be David's partner in anything, we better win!)

Then we played "Pin the Nose on the Pioneer"






I think we were cheering her in this picture which always makes her feel shy and a little bit angry.





What a wonderful Pioneer Day, thanks to our wonderful family.

Summer Fun

This has been such a fun summer so far. Here's what we've been up to lately...

(July 20th)
We've been swimming at our dear friends, Ben and Camille, a couple of times during this beautiful summer weather. Great pool, fun toys, and fantastic company.

I love it when they love each other.


Charlotte and my handsome husband.


Look at that baby. She loves the water. Bath time is the greatest part of her day.

(July 22nd)
One Friday evening we decided to go for a hike together. We live in such a beautiful area at the foot of the mountains and we don't take advantage of these trails enough! We packed our dinner and headed out.

This little girl LOVES food. She is always eating something.


Um...I forgot my water bottle so I downed half of Hazel's CapriSun
once we stopped for dinner. She wasn't really happy about that.


Did I mention she loves to eat?


Eloise had a great time too.

We actually cut the hike short right after we ate because Hazel slowly went down hill after the CapriSun incident. She really wanted to hold the Cheezit bag and threw a fit, so she didn't get to hold the Cheezit bag and then she was DONE.

We have it all on video to show her the instant she comes
and complains about her own children.

Eloise

This little pile-o-pudge is so fun to photograph. She is the happiest baby.
She is now seven months and nine days.
She crawls and hums and loves to eat anything she finds on the floor.
She often falls off the single step up from our living room to our dining room.
She thinks her older sisters are hilarious.
Her first word was "mama."
(She is my first baby to say mama first.)
She has a lot of hair. Sometimes she catches a breeze that blows it in her face and she holds still and looks around like, "what was that tickling my face?" Then she reaches up and tugs on her hair a little bit, remembers that it's just her hair, and moves on.

Love her.