Get it right!

sigh.

Nicole. The girl loves music and loves to sing, but she can't carry a tune to save her life! Even worse is when she puts headphones on and the sings along, loudly, with the music. Quite painful and frustrating for the rest of us in the car with her. :) Ellie was quite certain that she didn't have the words right....oh my, if that was her only problem...in her defense, she was a little more in tune than an earlier song that we didn't catch on video.

Or how about this one:


Jared joins in and really helps out the beauty of that one!

We love Nicole. She keeps us on our toes!

Birthday Fun

Favorite game at the birthday party: DodgeSponge. DodgeBall with a twist....no balls used, just wet sponges. No surprise that it was the favorite, considering that it was over 100 degrees out! UGH.



The cake was supposed to look like SpongeBob's home, Bikini Bottom.....hmmmm....didn't turn out exactly at all like he pictured it!



He was SO HAPPY to get what he asked for....as he called it, "a big boom"!



The gift I was talked into...an airsoft pistol. He was excited about it, once he figured out what it was! The one rule that is already being drilled into his head is that this is a gift that he only gets to use with parental supervision. We also found one that shoots at a much slower velocity, and we are putting it away in a secure location so he can't break the rules! :)



Birthdays and the passing of another year usually don't signal "losses" until you are older. Unless you are Jared! He decided that a great way to enter into a new year was to lose his 1st tooth! What are the odds?

The big 6

It's Jared's 6th birthday today! Happy Birthday son! I couldn't ask for a cuter boy. He calls himself my cuddle-bug, and he is! He is a fun brother, and can be nice to his sisters....when he wants! ;) You have so much ahead of you Jared! Stay happy, try hard, and there's nothing you can't do! We love you Jared.

*Thanks to Heidi for the picture!

It might be worth a try.....

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

I must say that we Utahns have been a bit spoiled this year, as we have had two new temples in the last year, along with their accompanying open houses and dedications. It's so fun to watch the temples being built, and then especially fun to be able to take our children to the open house before they are dedicated. After years of singing, "I love to see the temple, I'll go inside someday", they finally get to, even if it is just a look around. :)

Ellie and I missed our tour of the Draper Temple, since she was sick that day. So the older kids went with daddy. But today we were all able to go together as a family to tour the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. (A little trivia: this temple is located in South Jordan, Utah, as well as the Jordan River Temple, making South Jordan the 1st city in the world to have 2 temples.)



I thought it was a beautiful temple. I was pleasantly surprised as to how well my children behaved there. As I walked in, I was holding Jared and Ellie's hands, and Jared pulled his away so he could fold his arms. :) Of course, later, Ellie went running to an overstuffed bench and bounced her tummy off it while loudly proclaiming, "Bouncy!" Oh well....she's 3, what can I say?

As we left, all the kids were very excited to go get their cookie and water bottle.....when did the Church start that at temple open houses?! I personally think it's hilarious! I highly recommend taking your families if you are at all able to. The tours are very open, in fact, we were able to park right in the temple parking lot, which really surprised me! It's well worth it for the wonderful experience of visiting the temple and teaching our children about it.




I'm glad Ron had his phone with him, as I didn't feel like lugging the camera with us! :) Do you like Jared's hand?! He wanted it too look like he was holding Jesus' hand.....

Am I the Only One?

Am I the only one that has a purse cram-packed like the above photo when we are taking the family to a movie, or am I just cheap?!

We do buy a bucket o' popcorn there......

We saw Ice Age 3. Cute. Pretty much like the others, with the added feature of 3D. Although we didn't see the 3D version.....but everything was all close up and lots of stuff coming at the screen anyway, which I found irritating. Definitely not Disney, but we enjoyed it. :)

Family Fun & Fotos on the 4th

We had a fun weekend celebrating the 4th. We tried to take it easy, for Ron's poor eye. Yesterday we took a walk on the trail near our home and stopped by the river to wade and throw rocks. Then we headed to a new public pool in our area, which received an A+ rating from the kids. We'll definitely head back there.

Today, after dropping Riley off for her 3 hours at work, we went up to Alpine to Moyle Park, hoping we could find some good backdrops for pictures. It worked, we got a few good shots, when I could get the kids to cooperate! Jared wasn't in much of a smiling mood, and Ellie couldn't hold still even for the camera to catch her with a fast shutter! We got some cute shots though to commemorate our day. I even set up the camera and let Jared take a picture of mom & dad, and it turned out better than I expected! Then off to home for a nice dinner of chicken fajitas and homemade ice cream....I need to work on my ice cream making skills a little more....it was more of a soup than a set up ice cream!(What was with that?!) Ended the night with the "Sidewalk of Fire". No pictures of that...I was manning the punk to light the fireworks as Ron couldn't see well enough to do it. Happy Independence Day!

They are so cooperative....try to get a real smile, and you just get goofy laughing! I do like this picture though, it shows their true selves!

Mom set up the shot, Jared pushed the button! I'm pretty pleased with what he got.

My favorite shot of the day. Love her eyes.

Carry On

Four years. In some ways, it has flown. In other ways, it's been forever.

Four years ago my dad left this mortal existence. I'm glad he has moved on, and doesn't have the trials his mortal body was giving him. I am certain that my dad still exists. I know I will see him again. I have been privileged to feel his presence with his family since his death, and it was a beautiful experience. I hope for future times such as those. I am excited, although I'm sure it is a long time off for me, to be wrapped in his strong protective arms again and feel his love for me. My dad was, and is, awesome.

I love you Dad!

Unofficial "Pirate Day" at our house...

Ron has had a couple incidences of "Vitreal Detachment", which is when the vitreous humour(the clear jelly stuff in your eyeball) pulls away from the back of the retina. In alot of people, this doesn't cause any problems. But sometimes it can cause large "floaters" to become present in your vision. Unfortunately, Ron had this develop. His 1st detachment was about 16 mos. ago, in the right eye. He was dealing with the "floaters" okay, since his left eye was still fine. Until last Tuesday, when his left eye had the same thing happen, and it's all cloudy and has floaters now too....needless to say, impaired vision wasn't working too well with what he has to do for work! So we met with a retinal surgeon, and determined that he was a good candidate for a vitrectomy. Basically they stick a suction tube in your eye, suck out the gunk, and replace it with nice clear stuff, and viola! You have clear vision again. Ron thought about it for about 5 minutes, and scheduled surgery! Right eye was done today. The procedure went very smoothly, and we'll go tomorrow and have his patch removed. We have little doubt that his vision will be much improved. As soon as he knows how well this procedure went, and his left eye stabilizes for 3 weeks or so, he'll most likely have the same thing done to that eye.

For your viewing pleasure....a little video clip I took in post-op recovery so he could see his eye patch! :) (It was fun playing with his new iPhone to take this video....easy-peasy! Posts right to youtube with a touch of the screen. He heard youtube has been slammed with iPhone video uploads since the new ones were released.)