Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Do you remember that primary song? I always loved that one.

Here is what were have been doing for the summer.

Making crafts....

Playing in the backyard when it is not to hot....

Organizing our bedrooms and game/movie closet...

We did do plenty of swimming. At least once a week thanks to kind friends and neighbors. However, I did not get one picture of us swiming this summer. A camera is just not something I think of when I am swimming.

We watched lots of movies, read lots of books, made lots of new recipes, and played tons of games. Not to mention all the little trips we had, new places we got to see and all the family and friends we visited. It has been a good summer. Now it is time to get back to school on Monday. I don't know if I am happy or sad about that. Maybe a little of both.

I know my colors!!

Brandon has been learning his colors for quite some time. He likes to tell me the colors of the things he sees and when he is done he always says "I know my colors." I hear this about 5-6 times a day and I love it. He is also trying to learn to count. That is taking a little longer than the colors. He counts "1, 2, 3, 4, 9" and then just keeps repeating the same sequence. So I tried to teach him to count to 5 with his fingers and then give me 5. So we would say "1,2,3,4,5, give me 5." We were in Utah last weekend and I told Brandon to count to 5 for his Aunt Randi and he held up his hand and said "1,2,3,6,11, give me 5!" What? Not sure where that one came from. So cute though. He does know some of the letters of the alphabet but right now he has no interest in learning the rest and gets mad when I try to sing the alphabet song. The letters he does know are B for Brandon (which he can actually draw too), D for Dad, E for Emma, J for Jake, M for Mom and S for Summers and of course Superman. It is a good thing he has 2 more years before he starts kindergarten, we have a lot of work to do. Love this kid!!

Last trip of summer vacation

For our last trip we went to Marysvale, Utah for 5 days. 3 of the 5 days there was a UTV Jamboree going on and 2 out of the 3 days the town of Marysvale was having its annual Miner's Days celebration. (For those of you who do not know what a UTV is... it is an off road vehicle)

We didn't have much to do with the UTV jamboree except watch the tug-a war contests and help out my dad who was basically in charge of most of it.

For the Miner's days events they had gunny sack races, stilt walking, log sawing, atlatl throw, tomahawk throwing, 3-legged race, and archery to name a few. I took pictures of as much of the excitement as I could. The first picture is the kids running after the candy as it was thrown from the "candy cannon". Brandon ran with all the kids to get the candy however, he grabbed one piece and apparently that was all that he wanted so he ran back excitedly to show me.

You can't really tell from this picture, but they are throwing a hoop back and forth to each other while trying to catch it with the 2 long sticks.

The "mountain man" showing Matt how to throw a tomahawk properly.It took the kids 2 minutes to saw through the log. As you can see from the picture they needed some assistance.
The kids were also able to help out in the Coca-cola trailer selling soda pop, water and snow cones. They thought this was too awesome.
There was also a karaoke machine at the park for Miner's days and Emma sang 3 times. All of the songs were Taylor Swift songs, not much of a surprise. She sang one of the songs with her cousin Monroe who is almost 8 years old.

Monroe's mother, my sister-in-law, Michelle and I decided to do some karaoke too. We sang "I wanna dance with somebody" by Whitney Houston. Here are a few things I learned from my first time singing Karaoke.

1. Don't sing with someone who can sing better than you.

2. Nobody should sing Whitney Houston songs except Whitney Houston

3. Make sure you sing in front of strangers and people you will never see again in your life. Thank goodness I followed #3.

We had a fun trip visiting all the family we saw over the 5 days we were there.

Bye Bye Summer it has been nice knowing you.

Jake's primary talk

Jake was assigned to give a talk in primary on Sunday. The topic was temples. He basically wrote the talk himself with very little help from me. The talk was only 1 mintute long and that was long enough for Jake. Here it is:

This summer my family was able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house in Draper, Utah.
I liked to see the big font for the baptisms for the dead.
I liked the celestial room with the big chandelier.
I thought the temple was a very special place.
I was glad I got to see the inside of the temple and see all the neat rooms.
I have heard of the sealing rooms in the temples where families are sealed together forever but it was really neat to actually see one.
In the sealing rooms there are 2 mirrors that face each other. My family stood in front of one of the mirrors and we saw our reflection go on forever. Just like my family we be together forever.
Temples are built so people can be sealed and have families together forever. I am thankful for temples and for the blessings it gives to all of God's children.

Lawn mowing 101

Since the weather was only 95 degrees one evening (sad I know). Matt decided to mow our little lawn and teach Emma and Jake how to use the lawnmower. Since the lawn is so small they were not able to practice much but I am sure they didn't care.

As always Brandon wants to get in on the action. So we got his bubble lawn mower out of the garage and filled it with bubble solution and he was on his way with a huge smile on his face.

I have to say I am actually surprised at how well our lawn looks after going through this Las Vegas heat so quickly after being planted. The best part though is we have had this lawn since May and we have only mowed it twice.

Emma's family birthday party

After Emma's big slumber party I was not about to do anything extravagant for her actual birthday. So we made homemade pizza and I made Emma a double layer cake which she insisted she decorate. So I frosted the cake and she decorated the cake. I have to say I was a bit bummed out about the cake because even though I don't decorate cakes fabulously I still enjoy doing it. I told Emma this and her reply was "You have had 9 years of decorating my cakes, get over it." Nice huh? (It actually didn't come out as rude as it may sound)

Emma did let me do the writing on the cake and she did the rest. She did a great job considering she only had a ziplock bag with the tip cut off to decorate with.

Matt attacked Emma with the whip cream bottle.

Emma is very excited about finally being 10 and told us all numerous times during the day. We all had fun hanging out, eating pizza, eating cake and ice cream and playing Ms. Pac Man on the playstation.

Happy Birthday Emma!!

Today is Emma's 10th birthday. I can hardly believe I have a child who has reached double digits in age. Where did the time go? Better yet, where did my little girl go? I have enjoyed every age with my little Emma Kaye. Oh yes, we have our few moments as mother and daughter when we don't see eye to eye but, for the most part we really enjoy each others company.

I have posted some random pictures of Emma since 2005(that is when our digital world began). I have no pictures of her as baby to post but, trust me she was chubby and beautiful.

Here are just a few of the reasons I enjoy being Emma's mother.

1. She is very thoughtful of others.

2. She is a great student. I do not have to push her to do well in school she does that all on her own.

3. She is beautiful inside and out.

4. She is very creative.

5. She has a great contagious laugh.

6. She loves her family and shows it in many ways.

7. She loves to read.

8. She likes to cook and bake and eat with me.

9. She loves the gospel and likes to teach people about it.

10. She is a girly girl who doesn't mind getting dirty.

This next picture was just taken a year ago and already she has changed so much. Not just in her appearance but in her personality and maturity.

We are so blessed to have you in our family. Happy Birthday Emma!! We love you!!

Emma's 10th Birthday Party!!

For Emma's 10th birthday she had Hollywood Slumber party. She invited 4 friends and asked them to dress up like they were celebrities. Aren't they all cute? As a side note, Emma made the big poster behind the girls.Emma wanted pasta for dinner so pasta she got. Each chair had a gold star with the girl's name on it so they knew where to sit. Emma with her awesome gifts from her friends. She was very pleased with the gifts.

For dessert she wanted bite size mint brownies. How was I suppose to put 10 candles in a bite size brownie? I ended up cutting a regular size brownie and cramming all the candles in that one. Here she is blowing her candles out. I wonder what she wished for?

They played a celebrity guess who game, movie charades and then played High School Musical Sing it on our playstation A.K.A. Karaoke.

Later in the evening they had a P. J. fashion show. The girls were really working the red carpet. This is their red carpet fashion pose.Getting comfy watching a movie and eating treats.
The girls took a SHORT 5 hour break to sleep from 2am-7 am (UGH!) and then got back to playing around and hanging out. After breakfast we had an awards ceremony complete with certificates for "best game player", "best joker", "best morning hair" and "best pajamas." We really should have had one for "best snorer" because we definitely had one!!
While the girls were waiting for their parents to pick them up they decided to do each other's hair and play more karaoke.

Emma has this to say about her 10th birthday party. "A party is not a party without friends. Thanks for coming and making my birthday rock!"