A Week With My Parents!

So I have been out enjoying the summer instead of blogging about it, and I have a lot to catch up on. Last Saturday my parents came, and we were oh so excited to see them. It was so fun to have them here for a whole week. That in itself is no small miracle, that my father took a week off of work to come to Montana is amazing! I kept him busy the whole time, which was probably the only thing that kept him here all week. He never once mentioned going home early. Everywhere we looked though, there was another project ready for us.




We started off Monday morning hauling away the rest of the gravel out of the back portion of our yard. I had the kids hauling gravel all week before my parents even got here. Addy was grateful to be the babysitter instead of the gravel hauler once my parents got here. They were all pretty good sports. I did have to remind them that their hour of hauling gravel was nothing compared to what little pioneer children had to do at their age. We got the gravel moved, but there was a play house in the way that was such an eye sore, so what does any normal person do? I don't know I'm not normal I decided, so I enlisted the help of my dad, and we tore it
down, which was an awful lot of work. It took all day.
We used the flagstone rocks that were in the gravel, and made a rock pathway. My dad wore a blister in the palm of his hand because he shoveled so much.

If you look really closely at this chicken, (her name is CrackJaw) She has a hairlip, my mom says. Her beak is totally crooked. She needs braces. I wonder how she survives, she is so funny looking, but she has no idea that she is any diffrent from the others, and I have actually seen her eat, so she just might make it.


Much to the disappointment of my kids, the 24th of July is not celebrated here. They think that's grounds for moving back to Utah. This year though, the three wards that meet in our building got together and had a pioneer celebration at the park. There were swimming and games, and the kids had a great time...no fireworks though, and no parade, but still fun.

I made a bunch of flower clips for Mara and Emma. Caleb thought it would be fun to put them all in Mara's hair. Have a flower! She looked stinkin' cute though.
I was amazed how much I was able to get done with Addy here, and then with my parents here... Wow! we did the work in one week that it would have taken me a month of Sundays to do. I am so grateful that they came. We got screens replaced in the sunroom(even though my dad cut off the end of his finger in the process) We got bushes trimmed and grass planted. Gravel hauled and leveled out in the driveway, freezers and fridges scoured. It was great!


I was feeling bad that we didn't do anything "fun" while Greyson was here, but they managed to keep themselves entertained. One day I found them "swimming" in the goats trough. They are "retards" in the dearest form of the word. I couldn't believe that they would actually get in there, but then I remembered... They do come from my loins, and as much as I hate to admit it, that is totally something I would have done as a kid. Maybe not the retarded pose...okay the retarde pose too.




Before my parents came, I told Addy,Sam and Noah that they could go to a movie since they helped me tend when I was at the birth center. Well, it turned into Ryan taking all the kids to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth." They loved it! It was 3D, so they all came home sporting 3D glasses. They all had to tell me all about it. Ryan really liked it to. I loved it because I got to put the girls down for a nap and clean the house in peace...and take a quick nap.
I am so grateful for family! What a great plan to get to come to earth in a group that helps each other out. I truly don't know what I would do without my family, immediate and extended. Ryan and I are totally blessed to have his parents and mine! Thanks Mom and Dad for all the work this week!

~Up~*and at 'em*

Emma was happily cruisin aroud in her walker today, and it hit me! She is cruisin around in her walker. Why? shouldn't she still be laying asleep in my arms?





I can't believe that my baby girl is already in a walker! Where does time go? I know that time is time, and that scientifically, time can't go faster than time, but I truly believe something bigger than us is at work, and time is going so much faster! I swear I just had her. She is truly the JOY in my life. I say that about all my kids though. We are going to go swimming at electric city water park tonight, and the kids are ecstatic!

Illegal Fireworks? What's That?

Happy 4th of July! We had such a great time at the parade. We got there late, so we had to sit on the hot side of the street, but thankfully a cloud cover came, and it was quite enjoyable. They didn't throw much candy, so the kids were sad about that, but they handed out popsicles and pops to everyone. We sat with our friends the Giles and the Cooks and the Cranes. I, of course, cheered loudly for the veterans. That is by far my favorite part of the parade. I love to see the little old men who sacrificed their lives so that mine could be better. Whether you are for or against war, we owe those men a lot, and I think they deserve to be stood up for and shown just how much we appreciate them. No one was cheering for them when they went by, so I of course had to make a fool of myself and be the only one cheering. After I started though, others joined in. It's amazing how after 9-11, everyone had such spirit, but now it is almost all gone. How quickly we forget.

We were lucky to get to be close to some trees, and the kids climbed trees and hid in the shade to keep cool, before the parade started. We are lucky to have a great family that has kids just the same age as ours. Porter and Noah are great friends. We went to the Cook's for a BBQ after the parade. They live right on the Missouri River. We went out to light off some fireworks at sunset, and were amazed at the view. It was georgeous, and lasted for at least a half hour. It would have been perfect if it wouldn't have been for the dang mosquitos. They were horrible.

In Montana, there is no such thing as Illegal fireworks. So needless to say, the bigger the better is the attitude here, and picalo petes, and flowers aren't even sold. Everything flies up into the air. The crazy thing about it though is that everyone and I mean everyone goes to the parking lot of K-mart to light off their fireworks before the city starts theres.

We all went, and it was crazy. I have never had so much fun on the 4th of July before. We never could tell when the city actually started theirs. Everyone had fireworks that shot up into the air like the ones that we see in Utah at the firework shows. It was amazing. There were fireworks blowing up all over, and people ducking for cover. I laughed so hard. The kids were in heaven. All around up there were just massive amounts of fireworks going off.

Mara had fallen asleep in the car, and Emma who had slept through all of the other fireworks, woke up and stared wide eyed at the event.

Next year you all need to come to Great Falls, Montana and celebrate the 4th of July with us. You will never believe it if you don't see it for yourselves. We had so much fun.

Dancin' In the Rain~July 1, 2008

We had a massive downpour come through with tons of rain.

We had been so hot, and when the rain came, it totally cooled down the house.

The kids were so excited to see that much rain come all at once

that they decided to go out in the rain and dance in it.

Dancing in the rain was always one of my favorite things to do.
We had to finally end it when the lightning and thunder started coming.

The rain came so much so fast that it created a huge puddle on our driveway that leaked into our basement family room and on into the laundry room. What a mess. We had to sop it all up and then set the fan going to dry out the carpet. I detest water in your house where it shouldn't be.

Addy(my niece) has been here with me all week, and it has been a dang good thing. I spent 24 hours at the birth center on Monday-Tuesday assisting with the delivery of 2 babies. I got to go home to feed Emma and eat dinner at 6:00pm, and then I came home at 3:30 a.m to feed Emma and sleep for 1 hour, then I was back and didn't come home until lunch time on Tuesday. Then this morning I went back in at 2:30am and got to actually deliver a baby at 3:30 this morning. It was so cool. Loved every second of it!!

The kids didn't even know that I was gone this morning though, because I was back by 5:00 am. So Addy and Sam really only had the kids on Monday from 12:30- 5:30. Emma did awesome. She is an angel baby. She drank a bottle for Addy didn't hardly even fuss at all. This was a rare occasion to do that many births all at once, there are only two more due the whole rest of this month.

At Least ???

At least...

she took off her clothes so that I don't have to wash them as well???


I looked out the window and she was playing in the mud pit...naked!
What ever will I do with her. She had only been out of the
bathtub for 2 hours. So back in she went.
I guess I can say At Least!

The Reception

Max told me the worst thing about this whole night was that he had to have pictures taken of him. He said that was not fun at all. As you can see we had to take a lot. He and Caleb weren't so cooperative. I sure hope that there is at least one good family picture in the bunch.

Garrett and Meredith's Wedding Dinner

Grandma C with Cami and Coulsen

My aunts cooing over Emma!

Addy, Michele, Chloe and Sam eating Hawaiian Ice.

Just a snow cone on top of icecream.

Mara with her bracelet and chapstick that Aunt Michele gave her

Ryan with Mara and Chloe, Maria's youngest.

Mini-Mike(Miles) showing us his right gun! His left one needs some work he says! He was a crack up. He kept showing us his shimmy and then he decided to do a break dance and spin on his head. He put his head on the ground and started to spin, but his head stayes in one place while his body spun. He got up and said "that freakin hurt." I laughed so hard.

The boys got the coconuts from the table decorations when it was all over, and cracked them open. Sam thought it would be funny to put them in his shirt. The only problem was that he put them way down, so it looked like saggy boobs. We jokingly told him he neede a boob lift. So he lifted them.

Who knew that I lookes so much like my mother? I saw this picture and was floored at how much I look like her. Good genes mom! Thanks for giving them to me! I've always thought you were beautiful! Maybe I can look as good as you when I am ... Oh, maybe I shouldn't announce that you are 65 publicly.