Pictures from this Spring and Summer

Audry and her friends on her 10th birthday! She had a slumber party this year.

One of many gifts Audry got. This has been fun for all of us!

Adam getting ready to blow out the candles on his birthday cake. What a BIG 2 year old!

Adam opening presents. He LOVES Dora and got many Dora gifts.

Lauren opening gifts on her birthday. What a sweet girl!

Lauren very excited to be turning 4!

She got a pink, princess cake. Perfect for her!

Mother's Day 2010

One of MANY attempts at getting a decent picture with my kids. Unfortunately, the rest aren't much better thant his one, so I will only post the one. Cooper looks thrilled, Audry not so pleased, Caleb... I don't even know what to say about that smile. Lauren is trying. Chunckers... well what's there to say? It was a great day though!

Still working on trying to get her to smile as naturally as possible!

This is Lauren in her dance costume for her dance recital. She took dance during the school year and really enjoyed it. The recital was really cute!

Caleb and Lauren enjoying the view. Caleb wanted to stay and explore some more.

Chunckers was VERY happy to get out of the car. When we went back to the van to drive the last 30 minutes or so he slumped his body and did NOT want to get back in. Poor littleg guy!

Last pit stop before FINALLY arriving at Claudia's. The kids wanted to get up close to the big rock behind them.

Audry enjoying the pool. She was pretty easy going during this trip!

Poor Craig couldn't get away from these two monkeys!

At Yvonne's pool in her apartment complex. Caleb getting a ride from Spencer.

All the cousins at Lagoon. It was a long day but a fun one.

Adam found some trucks and dirt. Enough said!

Adam was finally comfortable around all the animals. He was really leary about all the moving, furry creatures but was coming to terms with them by the end of the trip.

Lauren was very excited to ride the ponies. SHe kept saying they weren't ponies because they weren't quite as small as she had expected. She still had fun.

Caleb taking his turn. He kept kicking the horse to get it to go faster.

Audry having fun on the horse all by herself.

Cooper looking COOL!!

Cooper and Adam taking a ride. Adam didn't want to get off the horse at all and didn't want anybody to have a turn. Stinker! Adam, Presley and Logan getting wet!

Caleb and his t-ball team. Their coach is one BRAVE man!

Caleb is playing t-ball this year. He has a hard time staying focused and not playing with the dirt or goofing off but he's having fun.

Home again, home again

We made it home from Utah and Idaho. It was quite the trip. The drive out to Utah actually wasn't too bad. We stopped in Wyoming and spent the night at a really nice Days Inn. It was 1 room that had plenty of room for all of us. Adam slept horribly the entire trip. So Craig and I are pretty tired. Claudia was pretty surprised when we showed up. We went to Lagoon, swimming, BYU, Diego's and our old apartments. The kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins. We arrived in Idaho Wednesday night. Adam woke up in the middle of the night with a temperature and cough. He was sick the rest of the trip! Had a really bad runny nose and his nose was extremely raw from being wiped. We had a lot of fun there too. The kids got to ride ponies and play with their cousins. We hardly ever saw them. Cooper got to drive a 4-wheeler and thought that was pretty cool. Adam particularly liked feeding the goat and horses. We also went to Ricks and walked around campus. It has changed so much. It's not my little Ricks campus I used to know!! It was good to see it though. We also saw the Rexburg temple. The kids asked if they could touch it. It was so nice to see all those temples in UT and ID. It really made me miss having a temple close by. 2 more years and we'll have ours!!! So even though it was an exhausting trip, it was a lot of fun. I am glad we were able to see a lot of family. The drive home was pretty bad. Adam wasn't feeling well so he cried a lot.

We are hoping to have a reunion next year with Craig's family. It would be nice to find someplace in Colorado so it's closer for those who decide to drive. Having it in WA would be too long of a drive, 3 days there and back. I am looking for somewhere to stay in CO.

So now it's back to the everyday stuff. we really don't have much going on now though. Cooper and Caleb each have 1 baseball game left. That's about it. Kind of nice not having to be anywhere. I think the rest of summer will be spent at the pool.

That's all for now.

Missing My Cooper

Cooper is at scout camp this week and I'm really missing him! It is a little more peaceful since he's not here to tease the kids, but they are still crying even without him around! Craig will pick him up Friday night and we'll leave for Utah Saturday morning.

I am dreading the drive!!! We will have portable DVD players in the van so I hope that helps some. I'm mostly worried about how Adam will be. He doesn't travel well. Maybe it won't be as bad as I'm imagining.

We haven't really done a whole lot since school got out. We've spent a lot of time at the baseball fields. I'm disappointed that Cooper and Caleb will miss a few games while we're out of town. It's been pretty fun to watch Cooper. I'm looking forward to the day when I don't have to watch the kids every minute and I can actually focus on the game. Soon!

A friend from facebook has a summer schedule that I might try. She has Nature Monday, Technology Tuesday, Water Wednesday, not sure what Thursday is and Friend Friday. So Monday they do nature stuff, go on a walk, whatever. Tuesday they can play video games or on the computer. Wednesday is swimming. Friday they can have friends over. I think we will try that when we get back from Utah. Hopefully that will keep us somewhat sane!

This week is also girls camp so there's no activities. I will really feel out of it when I get back since we will be missing 2 weeks of church! I'm sure we'll keep in touch through texting. It's been a lot more work to be in there than I thought. It's been good for me though. I have been thinking a lot of my Kuna MiaMaids and how I didn't do such a good job with them. I really didn't help them in their leadership skills. We planned some fun activities, but that's about it. I wish I had done a better job. I've also been thinking about when I was in YW, and I really don't recall my leaders preparing me to become a future leader. All I remember was showing up for activities and everything was already planned. The girls had nothing to do with it. I don't recall having any leadership training either. We are trying to teach my current girls leadership skills now though. We has BYC this past Sunday for the first time since being called and we got to see how unprepared the girls were. We are planning a leadership training and have lots of work to do but I think they'll catch on fast.

I have also thought a lot of the girls in Kuna that I worried a lot about. I realized the other day that I had my doubts as to who would marry in the temple. And sure enough, those girls did not. I look at my girls now and have the same doubts about a lot of them. Most of my Kuna girls got married in the temple and are still active, but a much larger group now I think will be the opposite. I think about them quite a bit and get sad because there's only so much I can do. I know I can influence them, but if they're not getting any guidance or parenting at home I'm not sure if it does any good. Sometimes I wonder what some of the parents are thinking. But I need to remember that I need to do all I can and then it's out of my hands.

There has been an oil spill in the gulf of Mexico for almost 60 days now. SO much crude oil continues to spill into the ocean and it has been awful. A lot of people have been affected, especially those that make a living fishing. A lot of wildlife is being killed. I feel helpless and wish I could help somehow. So sad.

That's all for now.

95% better

I am almost completely recovered. I am still a little swollen, but my biggest complaint right now is that my taste buds are off. Everything tastes funny. Whenever I have a peanut butter sandwich, it tastes fishy. Craig tasted that once too, so not sure what's happening there. Hopefully my taste buds return to normal soon. But at least I can eat normal food now. It was quite something having this surgery. I hope I am glad I had it later this year.

School is out for the summer. So far it hasn't been too bad. The kids are glad to be out for now. We'll see how long that lasts.

Baseball is in full swing. Cooper had a double-header today. He did very well. His team won both games. They are pretty fun to watch at this age. I really get into them. Caleb is doing t-ball. Those were fun to watch when Cooper first started baseball, but now they can be a bit painful. Still cute, but a bit painful. Thank goodness they are not too long. Adam LOVES baseball. He watched an episode of Dora that was about baseball a while ago and he just thought that was great. Now he's obsessed with baseball. He gets very excited to go to the games. He loves throwing the ball around and hitting it with his bat or anything that resembles a bat. He actually sat there and watched the game tonight.

We finally got Adam off the bottle. He usually had them at night when he went to bed, but he was starting to wake up more than once wanting more. We decided to break him from it last weekend and he's been doing really well. Once in a while he'll ask for "bubba" but we tell him it's broken. We cut off the niple and told him it was broken and that was it. Wish we had done it sooner.

Lauren had her dance recital this past Saturday. It was SOOO cute. We had debated about whether to put her back in dance next year because her teacher wasn't that great, but after I saw her dress rehearsal and how sweet it was, I had to sign her up again. Her class danced to "Round Around Sue." It really was cute. They were the youngest class and the whole audience thought they were adorable.

Audry hasn't been up to much. She did make some signs for a car washing business and put the signs up on the mail boxes but they were taken down. She also came up with a play and put it on for us with Caleb and Lauren. It was pretty cute. I video taped it and it will try to figure out how to post it on the internet. She's happy to just read in her room. She has been really good about playing with the kids though. They come up with all kinds of games. So, she really has done quite a bit, just not sports. She has a great imagination!

That's all for now.