Wedding Bells

Jennifer and Ryan were married on July 10th in the Idaho Falls Temple. They are so cute together. It was a great day.



Here are just a few random pictures...

The boys with some of their cousins (Kylie, Garrett, Josh) and Keith's aunt Janet.


Connor is so cute wearing his little tie!

Kate and me with Janelle and nephew Spencer (Spencer is not her child, btw, she is just the helpful aunt...)

These last few shots were taken at the wedding luncheon. I especially get a kick out of the one where Kate is doing that cheesey squinty smile and she is missing her front teeth, it looks so funny! She LOVES her big brother Connor, if you can't tell from the pictures.

Let Freedom Ring

Gotta love the Provo Freedom Festival. We've been away for several years, so it was fun to make it back for some of the festivities. We checked out the hot air balloon launch the morning of the 3rd, it was neat to see all the balloons taking off...

My favorite balloon....

Off they go!

On the evening of the 4th we watched the fireworks from the roof of the office building where my dad works. It's adjacent to the hospital and about 5 stories tall (the hospital is 6 I think??) but anyway, they are two tallest buildings anywhere in the vicinity. So right before the fireworks are going to start the wind picks up and we start seeing lightning out to the west of us. It kind of made me feel like a sitting duck on top of the building, so we were kind of nervous, but we managed to stick around for the fireworks and then we were out of there!!

I didn't get too many pictures on the roof, I was busy taking pics with Molly's Nikon D5000. We're considering getting one like that, or similar, but I don't know about all that $$$ for a camera, plus they are just kind of big and bulky. But I LOVE taking pictures, and it's been on my mind for years.

Another fun part of our trip was the swimming pool by my dad's house. We spent a lot of time out there and it was so much fun.

My dad playing in the water with Kate. She floated in her little lilypad for hours it seemed like.

Part 2 will be up soon!!

Star Wars and Surprises

OK, so I am a few weeks late on this, but we've had a lot going on - parties, a funeral, a wedding, missionary farewell, travelling, etc. Cameron turned 6 on June 25th. (It seems like a long time ago because that was the day Michael Jackson died and doesn't it seem like he's been in the news for MONTHS already??? ) Anyway, we had a little family party.....

(Kate looks like she is trying to strangle him here....)

And then on Saturday he had 9 (yes 9!) of his friends over for a Star Wars party....

We made light sabers from swim noodles we bought at the dollar store. The kids loved them, and it was great because they could whack eachother pretty hard and not get hurt.

Making their own spaceships.....

Eating cupcakes and drinking Yoda Soda. It was a Perfect Day!

What made the day even better was the SURPRISE graduation party we had for Keith. I have absolutely no idea how I kept this secret for several weeks - I am HORRIBLE with secrets/surprises. Our friends the Sullivans had a BBQ at their house and Keith thought it was a birthday party for their little girl. It was SO hysterical to see the look on his face when he saw all the people from work and then the big balloons with "Congrats Grad" written on them and realized the party was for him. I loved it!!!

I cut up Keith's graduation cake before I got a picture of it (argh!!) but here is a shot of several of the group outside eating....

Next time I get a minute I'll put pictures up of ourUtah/Idaho trip :)

Girl Hair 101

I have been so excited to see Kate's hair grow longer over these last few months, and at the same time kind of freaked out because I don't know how to do little girl hair! I can barely do my own hair for goodness sake! So we have been experimenting a little bit.....

This is the standard fallback hairstyle we resort to most of the time. I just stick a barrette in to get the hair out of her eyes. It looks cute and Kate doesn't fight me on it which is a plus.

Lately I have been doing a lot of the one little pony tail on top. I have usually about 15 seconds before Kate starts squirming and/or running away, so it gives me very little time to practice or get the part straight. And then she inevitably pulls the elastic out and her hair sticks out every which way and looks crazy.

We just barely pulled off pigtails for the first time the other day.....I love them!

Any advice for me? How do I get her to sit still, how do I get those elastics to stay put in her hair? Help me!

Hooray for the MBA!

I NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD COME. Ok, I did know it would come, it just seemed so far away, like this unattainable goal off in the distance. Keith is done with school!!! It has been almost 3 years of night classes two nights a week. This means that Keith would usually put in a 15 hour day on those days (going to work at 6am, home from class by 9pm.) And then whenever he was home, there was the constant pressure of homework that needed to be done, papers that needed to be written, tests to study for, etc. At first I really enjoyed Keith being in school, it was kind of like me being in school vicariously and re-living my MBA experience. But that got old real quick. I wish I could say I was the wife who never ever complained, but sadly that is not the case :( Oh well, the great part is that it's over and Keith has his MBA. I am so so proud of him, not just for the accomplishment but for the crazy life he's had to live to get there.

Here are a few pictures, one from Keith's first day of school, and then a few from his last. I don't know why Connor isn't in the first picture, he was a year old at the time.....maybe he was taking a nap?? Amazing to see how much things can change in three years.....Cameron is now six years old (as of today!!) That means I am REALLY old.

Where's the fun?

SUMMER IS SO BUSY. I think I went through the same thing last year......the first few weeks are just crazy busy, and then things should settle down (I hope.) The weirdest stuff has been happening this week.....on Tuesday we went to T-ball, and Cameron absolutely refused to participate. This is so bizarre because last year he LOVED T-ball, and he has been talking about it since last summer (???) So then the next morning I take the boys to swimming lessons. Connor has been talking about swimming lessons for a long time, and anxiously awaiting the day he could go. We show up and he proudly struts over to the pool, but then he freaked out or something and wouldn't get in. So I watched him for an entire half hour and he NEVER ONCE GOT IN THE POOL. I just don't get it. Here I am, trying to plan fun activities for my kids....it's not like I am taking them to the dentist...these are FUN things, right?!

Tonight is T-ball again and I have my fingers crossed that Cameron will have a change of heart. We'll see!

What the.....

Cameron had his Kindergarten program and afterwards he played out on the school playground for a little while. I was chatting with some of the parents while Keith took a few pictures. This is what I later found on our camera:

So THIS is what goes on at school when I am not around!! Who is this girl and what is she doing with my son?! And why does he seem to have such a big smile on his face?! I thought the girls-have-cooties stage would last much much longer than this. Help!

I guess I should include a few pictures of the actual program. The kids sang several songs about bugs and it was really cute. In this first picture, Cameron is on the front row in the middle.

I still want to know who that girl is.....