Party Time

The Saturday we were there, we went and met Jeremy's family at a lake by his brother Jim's house and had a big birthday party for his nieces. At the party we played in the water toys and had a very yummy barbecue. Jeremy has a very nice family! We really enjoyed our visit with them.

Happy Feet

Bryson's happy little feet. He had such a fun time playing in the sand with his sand toys. He is old enough now to entertain himself without me being by his side.

It was nice to see Travis kicking back and having a good time! He didn't work or use his cell phone the whole time. It was a nice break from his busy life.


Here's proof that I was on the trip with my family. Because I'm the one taking pictures all the time, I'm not really in a lot of our vacation photos.

I'm So Bummed

I have more to post on our trip with the kings, but I can't post any more pictures because I have exceeded my total photo upload quota. I had to go in to Google and buy more space. I can't post any pictures for 24 hours. I never thought I would have to pay to blog :(.

Our Last Day at The Beach

This was our last day at the beach. The kids had so much fun chasing geese, playing with their sand toys and splashing around in the water. I think this was the most relaxing trip I have had with my kids. The water at the beach was shallow for a long ways out, so I able to relax and let them play. We are planning to go back and play again soon.

The Old Bank

When we were heading out, I made Travis stop by this old bank in Redding. I wanted to get more pictures of it with the family but we were in a hurry to get back home.

Dirt Magnet

I don't know how this kid gets so dirty. I found Bryson outside in his underwear today making dirt angels. He looked so happy sitting there with dirt all over his legs and in his crevices. The funny part is that the shirt he's wearing explains it all.

Fun At The Fish Hatchery

Travis got off work early yesterday so we all went to the fish hatchery to feed the fish and enjoy the pretty weather. Bryson had so much fun feeding the fish! Every time the fish were fed they would go crazy and splash those who were feeding them.

As we were walking around looking at the fish, Bryson was playing with his shadow and having a great time. I thought it would be fun to get a picture of the kids and Travis with their shadows.

Here's the family standing under each stage of the Salmon life cycle.

After the fish hatchery we went and had lunch at a really pretty park by the river. The kids had fun playing with puzzle grass, crossing the stream on two big logs and exploring around the park.

Flashback Friday

I was looking through old photos and saw so many cute, messy pictures of my kids. I don't have these pictures printed so I thought I would add them to my blog book. This is a picture of Lexie when we were living in Logan Utah. I think she was four years old. We had a huge back yard and Lexie was always outside playing in the dirt.

A couple years ago Lexie was missing and I couldn't find her anywhere. After awhile of looking, one of my kids told me that she took off in the Jeep. I didn't believe it at first because Lexie would never do something like that, but when I found that the toy Jeep was gone I went searching for her. She drove east on McAndrews going towards traffic on the busy street to Seversen's and down to our friends (the Wilhoits) house. I picked her up and was very upset with what she had done. I told her that she could have been hit by a car and to never do that again. Ethan was in the car listening to our conversation and he said. "Lexie, that was bad! You don't even have your license. You can't drive a car."

Ethan at our home in Layton Utah. I have always loved this picture! He made a huge mess while eating his Popsicle. I remember telling him to smile because I wanted a picture of how messy he was and he gave me his cheesers smile. For those of you who don't know what chessers is I will tell you. Cheesers in when you smile with your whole body. Everyone of my kids did it when they were little and we loved it!

Madison eating a jelly doughnut on her first Birthday. This was a couple months after we moved to Oregon. The other picture is of Madison with shaving cream all over her face. She and Ethan were in the bathroom shaving their faces. They had toy razors so no one got hurt. Even with a messy face, Madison's still irresistible!

Allison has always had so much hair! When she was born she had really thick, black hair. The nurses told me that they had never seen so much hair on a baby before. When the nurses brought Allison back from her bath she had two pink bows in her hair. Every time I would do Allison's hair when she was little, she would take it right out and this is how it would look.

I think out of all my children, Bryson is the one who gets into the most trouble. He loves to make messes and get into things he's not suppose to. Bryson is very smart and very persistent. He'll scale walls, move furniture, and try to sweet talk his way into getting what he wants.

My Busy Day

Today was a pretty busy day. I woke up this morning and got the kids ready for school. After dropping the kids off, I came home and organized the book shelf in my family room, cleaned the house, and did laundry. Then I remembered while doing all this that I promised Lexie some Cinnamon rolls. I made the dough and then mowed the lawn while waiting for the dough to rise. The Cinnamon rolls turned out so yummy and the kids were very happy to find them hot and ready for them when they came home.

I also decided to go out and make a little area for my pet turtle Faith. She was getting to be too big for her aquarium and now that the weather is nice, I thought she might like being outside. I went and got these heavy brick stones from the top of my long driveway and hauled them to the front yard. It was so hard and my hands are all scratchy now from the stones, but I think it turned out pretty nice. I hope that Faith likes it!

Allison

Before braces, Allison had a bad under bite and very crooked teeth. Dr. West told us how important it was for her to have braces. He said that if we didn't correct her teeth now she would have to have surger later on to correct her under bite. On Oct. 9th 2007 Dr. West put a pallet expander into Allison's small mouth. He also put in her upper braces and wear a head gear every night for two months to pull her jaw forward. She went through so much getting her teeth fixed and never once comlained.

Today Allison's braces were removed. She also got three retainers put in her mouth. One retainer was put on the roof of her, the second on the back of her front teeth and then the bottom retainer she has to wear at nights. Dr. West said that was the most retainers he has put in any ones mouth at once.

After Allison was done with her appointment today, Dr.west gave her a big cup of yummy goodies (candy she couldn't have while she with braces) to eat and enjoy now. Allison is one happy girl and now she has a pretty smile to show it.