A GIRL!!!!!!

Don't be fooled by the title. Ha Ha! We have a new niece who is super cute! And naturally I spent every second I could holding her when I met her ;)

See, can't you tell how natural we are holding a little girl?! It makes Cortney look soooo good ;)

Cortney took this and it is the BEST picture EVER!! LOOOOOVE IT!!!!

So, sigh, I got my girl fix for now! ;)

The Most Beautiful Morning

Yesterday I had the most beautiful morning. It was seriously amazing. I used to hike a lot before I got married, but unfortunetly haven't done much since. Well these past few months I have been determined to try new and different things, as well as do some things that I used to do and love. For one, I got a bike (pics to come in a different post). I did not realize how much I would love to bike. It has been so much fun. We also have a bike trailer that I put Keaton in and pull it behind while the older boys ride through the neighborhood. Its been great.

But I have been wanting to hike forever. So my friend and I went to Adams Canyon yesterday morning. It took us about 2 hours to get up and down the canyon and it was the most beautiful hike. It was hard. Switchbacks the first 1/2 mile or so, rock climbing along the way, but it was soooooooooo peaceful. I can't wait to do it again!

Almost the entire way we are following a stream.
The first of three waterfalls. This one you can't see really well though.

The second waterfall.

And the Grand Finale Waterfall at the end of the hike. Beautiful!! And because of where it sits on the mountain, it traps in moisture and the wind, so it was so nice and cool there.

This is the view of the city on our way back. This canyon literally took 10 minutes to drive to from our house. It's so amazing to be so close to something so beautiful and calm.

Of course the rest of the day was just crazy and I was seriously so exhausted by the time I went to bed last night that I thought I was going to be sick...but it was such an amazing morning and I just can't wait to get back up there and do it all over again!!

Oh BOYS!

This summer has been really REAAAALLLLLY busy and crazy. It has been a lot of fun, but so busy! Sooooo, here's the latest and greatest. My boys are TRUE Blue BOYS. They love tools, working in the yard and doing boy things. Case in point: there is a repair man in the neighborhood, my boys are following him around with their tools. They have done this so many times, we have set rules. Obviously, it can only be where we can see them and we are with them. They are not allowed to use any real tools or bother the repair men. They are mainly allowed to watch. And they can pretend fix things with their tools as well. So this past week there have been several AC repair men in the neighborhood, as well as Bug Spraying companies and Dish Network. No doubt, Brayden and Kyler were there. So I decided to get out my camera and take a pic of Brayden this week:

This first shot is far away so you can see I am on my back patio and this is the house behind us to the side (we dont have any houses directly behind us, just two backyards that face each other, this is one of them...we really like this so our view is still nice!). And if you look closely, in the orange shirt, there is Brayden with a Dish Network guy.

Closer. This is when I yelled "Brayden, don't stand directly by the ladder. Give the guy some room!"

And here he is actually helping, although I know you can't tell that from the photos.

Anyhow, I think it's cute!!

This week I helped throw a baby shower for an adorable friend of mine who is having Triplet BOYS! That's right, start praying for her cause she is having 3 BOYS all at ONCE! The shower was so much fun, she got a lot of great stuff and I had a blast being there and participating in it. I absolutely LOOOOVE throwing baby showers! Here we are!

Here is one of the tables set up. Her colors for the boys are red, light blue and brown. SO CUTE! One of the ladies who helped throw the shower made homeade suckers in those colors (strawberry, root beer and pina colada flavors). She attatched little bells to them and put them in a cute basket (far lef hand corner). So fun!

Can you believe all that yumminess with food! Seriously! Veggies with dips, fresh fruit, and lots of goodies! Plus, in the background, cute pics of Kate and her hubby as little kids. Her hubby is an identical twin, so he is a little more prepared for these babies....

We held the shower outside (there were 80 invitations sent out and probably at least 50 people came). The weather was perfect and it was especially nice under this nice ramada. This just shows you some of the cute decorations. All three boys names were made into an adorable banner (3 separate banners). Sooooo cute.

This was the 4th banner made. All of them were made with the same colors/style. So cute.

So this weekend I am hiking in the morning, running a few errands then off to see Toy Story 3 for Cort's and my neice's B-day (it will be interesting taking all three boys to the movies...hmmm.we'll see), then pizza and cake. Then I am trying to go see Savior of the World (my stake is doing it, so amazing can't wait!). Then it's a nice, peaceful relazing Sunday and onto another busy week with more swim lessons, more teaching aerobics, more craziness. Did I mention I mde 10 wipey cases last week for different orders! I love being busy but this is craziness!! :)

Oh! And I have now officially lost a WHOPPING 32 pounds total. And Eclipse comes out in 4 1/2 days. I. can't. wait. Happy Weekend!

Summer Loving

It has been a fun summer so far. We spend our days going to the pool, planning camping trips, campfires with friends, and just being more lazy. I also got a new bike (pics to come later) and have been loving riding around with the kids. So last weekend on Friday we went to Mueller Park and had a campfire with friends. We roasted hot dogs and marshmellows. It was fun!

The kids were all sad they could not ride their bikes here (which they have done in the past), so I took them on a little hike through the forest. It was fun!
Me and Keaton, who quite frankly barely left my side!

Just some of the beauty...

Cortney got Keaton laughing so hard. It was so cute!

He is covering his face because he is laughing so hard!

We didn't need bears to come clean up the spills...we just needed some kids to do it. ;0

Kyler was determined for me NOT to take his picture...

Keaton was actually really good about not touching the campfire or even getting too close...

Some of the kids in action playing frisbee...pretty fun!

So here is to many more fun days of summer!

Swim Lessons

The boys started swim lessons this week. Last year I found this girl who teaches in Kaysville and she is wonderful! She is young, she knows how to get the kids to listen and she teaches them the entire time rather than letting them play around in the water. She is great! So we went with her again this year and first I have to tell you about the surroundings and convenience of these swim lessons. The property has a huge house in the front, a pool behind it with a preschool- and tons of land with a playground. There are horses and bunnies and kittens running around and it is perfect when I have other kids to take care of while the boys swim. Their lessons were 1 hour long so a few of the days I ran home to finish getting ready or fill up the car with gas, etc. But usually we still spend most of the time on the grounds running...or Keaton running and me chasing....

So here he is playing around.

This is a view of the house.

The preschool with the horse stables to the left...

The playground...

Behind these trees and the white fence is the pool.

I know you don't need to see all these pictures of the boys swim lessons and the house, etc. But I just think it is brilliant the way this property is set up and it really made me a little teensy bit envious of the land. I have 3 boys afterall, so they want to RUN all the time. And this kind of property makes that possible. Anyways...onto the lessons!

Kyler dunking...

Kyler swimming across the pool...

Kyler swimming across the pool with NO HELP from the teacher!

Brayden swimming across the pool...

Brayden swimming across the pool with NO HELP! (by the way, Brayden was moved up into Kyler's class within 5 minutes on the first day...although he is 2 years younger, he is a fish!)

A game they play where the teacher drops a toy on the steps and the kids have to dunk and pick up the toy.

All in all, it was a great week! Both boys can swim so much better!

Service

Okay so my eyes have been opened big time tonight. There was a "Relief Society Meeting" tonight on service. I knew I needed to go. It was a stake thing, so there should have been tons of people...but there weren't. It was a hard night for most ladies to come. But I just knew that I needed to go. I went. I listened. I cried. I laughed. I had such an awakening in many ways to what really matters in life. We are the Lord's hands- we need to give service in our lives. The sweet amazing woman who spoke has been through cancer twice (the first time at 15 years old), was told she could never have children, only to now have 5. She has had so much service in her life and now gives service in return. She inspired me. The amazing things she is able to do for others and the blessings that she recieves from it--I think the biggest thing that I think of when I hear the word service is "Blessings." Blessings arent just for the ones recieving the service, they are for the people giving the service. I know that every time I give service, I feel so completely refreshed and renewed. And now I look at my life with how much service I have recieved, and I know that I am not doing my part in giving back to others. I need to be more aware. I need to be asking the Lord who I can help. It can be anything from a phone call to a meal. It is amazing how little acts, sometimes things we think are so small they would not matter, that make such a big difference. Anyhow, I'm sounding off for tonight, I am just so glad to have gone tonight. So glad to have heard what I truly needed to hear. And so incredibly renewed and refreshed to what really matters in this life. I am happy to give in any way that I can. So now I will go and get moving to do my part! :)

Lagoon...alllllllll day

Once a year, we get access to purchase passes to Lagoon for very very cheap, so we take advantage and go for it. We stay from sun up until sun down and have a great time. The kids were really good, even Keaton, dispite his 20 minute nap for the entire day. Lots of our friends have summer passes to Lagoon, so they joined us and we had a great time!!

The kids rode their hearts content out on rides, and I even rode a ride or two myself while my friends watched Keaton. Cortney met us there after work...and he watched Keaton while I rode WICKED! It is a wicked roller coaster that I cannot even believe I rode, but my friend talked me into it...and surprisingly, I am glad she did! I was scared speachless and couldn't even scream at one point, but it was AWESOME!

So here are the boys on their first ride...

You can't really see them on this ride, but they rode this roller coaster about 5 times throughout the day.
Can you see Brayden's white head in that airplane?

There is Kyler in the back seat.

A bunch of the kids/our friends kids and mine waiting for the train to come!

Now they can't sit still even though it's two seconds later.

One of the sweetest moments of the entire day...Kyler with his friend's Jaydie-Bug and McCoy. At first Kyler and Jayden were holding hands, then McCoy came up and grabbed too. SOOOOO SWEET!!!! Best buds!

All in all, even though we were exhausted by the end of the day, and quite frankly all day yesterday too, it was a blast!