If you Give a Boy a Camera

If you give a boy a camera..........He'll want to take some pictures with it.

He'll take a picture of his bedroom.....

 Then he'll see his sister, he'll take a picture of her too. 

 He'll remember that he really likes taking pictures of his sister and he'll take SEVEN more!

Then he'll get tired. He'll lay down. He'll take some pictures of the ceiling.

 When his sister tries to take the camera away from him, he'll take some more pictures of her.

 As he's trying to get the camera away from his sister, he'll see the door mat, it's orange, he likes things that are orange. He'll take a picture of it. 

That will tire him out again, he'll lay back down and take some more pictures of the ceiling. 

 Laying on the floor will make him feel like contemplating life, the universe and everything. While he's not paying attention, his sister will try to attack him again.

 He'll take a picture of the corner of the table

 and then some more pictures of the ceiling.

 and then some more pictures of the baby.

 He'll go find his Mommy, because he remembered

she's making pizza. He likes pizza.

 Seeing the Pizza will remind him that he's thirsty. He'll get a cup, it's orange, he likes things that are orange.

He'll take a picture of it.

 After he finishes his drink, he'll remember that he has a brother. He'll go outside to find him. He'll document his journey with some more picture.

 His brother is playing with some friends.

 The friends have front steps just like ours! He'll take a picture of them. 

 The boys will get thirsty, they'll need some water.

 The water will get spilled. No one will try to clean it up. He'll take a picture of it.

 He'll see a car.

 And then he'll see his feet.

 Wait, is that a bush? He'll take six pictures of it.

 He'll start walking home. He'll document his journey.

It's a long journey. He see's his Dad! 

 He'll take a picture.

 When Dad see's him taking a picture, he'll ask for the camera back.

And chances are, when Dad asks the boy to give him the camera, he'll probably take one last picture with it.

As you can see, Little B got a hold of our camera yesterday. He had the camera for 10 minutes. His first picture was taken at 4:04 PM and the last picture was taken at 4:14. He took 85 pictures. I love that boy. He turns 4 in a couple of days- So be ready to see lots of fun Birthday Pictures (mostly taken by Ken or Me, but who knows, we might just give that cute little kid the camera and let him document his own birthday)

Summertime, and the livin' is easy!

Yep, it's a photo dump :) We've been having fun and you should see!

We've spent time with cousins.

 And then saw even more cousins.

 We discovered that sometimes being on our tummies isn't the worst thing in the world......sometimes.

 Some of us discovered that water is really fun to play with.

 Others discovered that they hate water.....with a passion.

 We found Gandalf!

 We found Rainbows!

 We found cuteness :)

 We found new friends! Joanne and Annie are our exchange students from Taiwan.

 We've had beautiful weather.

 We had fun on the super swing, or just watching the super swing.

 We fed apricots to Horses.

We rode on a Ferris Wheel.

 We SHARED without anyone crying or dying! It was awesome.

 We found even more cuteness!

 We climbed walls

 We learned to fly.

We flew some more

 We played in the biggest play structure we've ever seen.

 We discovered Teeter Totters.

 We got a new watch! 

 We went to space!

 We discovered that you don't have to wear your helmet when you are inside the spaceship.

 We played hard and we slept hard.......wherever we happened to be.

 We discovered that watching the sunrise while we run is actually quite fabulous.

 We decided that we are big enough to feed ourselves. Who needs spoons?!?!? That's what hands are for, right?

This summer has been amazing.

J has been participating in a reading program that the city sponsors at the town literacy center, I am really glad that I signed him up for it, I think he has done great this summer, and I'm scared about this BUT he is ready to start the FIRST GRADE in FOUR WEEKS!!!!!AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

B has been enjoying having his brother around all day, they play outside a lot. In 2 weeks B will turn 4 years old. I can't believe my tiny baby will soon be 4, I also can't believe that he's pretty much the same size as the 5 year old kids in the neighborhood. B will be attending a local preschool this year, as well as participating in an online preschool program that the state offers. One more year and my little baby boy will be a kindergartner.

E is growing, growing, growing. She still hasn't gotten her upper two front teeth, they've been threatening to break through for months now, but that's all they ever do, threaten. Last week E learned to roll. She still is able to sleep 12 hours straight at night, then eat and return to sleep fro 1-3 hours. She is the most awesome sleeper I've ever met. I can not express how much I love this girl!

Really, I can't express how much I love all those sweet babies or mine, and their dad too! I am blessed.

A weekend getaway to Meridian

After J got home from school on Friday I packed up the van, picked Ken up from work and we got out of town! I quickly learned a very important lesson- NEVER give children their own water bottles while you are on a road trip. There will not be a bathroom available. SO, on our drive up to Idaho we had more than a couple "accidents". Thank goodness for leather seats in the van and washable booster seat covers.

We arrived at the home of John and Tiff Wheeler (one of Ken's older brothers) just in time for dinner on Friday night. The next morning I took a run around Meridian and Ken accompanied one of our Nephews to a local gym and had a nice run on the treadmill. We went to visit our friends Mike and Tierra Berg who recently moved from the San Jose area to Meridian. It was a fabulous visit, we hope to see them much more now that they are a little closer, we seem to make it out to Meridian more than we make it out to San Jose.

 Baby E was born last November, and John and Tiff had a little baby boy 2 weeks later.

 The boys had more fun that they ever could have imagined- other peoples toys are THE BEST!

 On Sunday after church we laid the babies on the floor next to each other, and within seconds they were holding hands. I love their expressions in this picture, but E pulled their hands behind her dress.....

 ......so here's another picture to prove that YES they were holding hands, because they are best friends!

 For our boys- it's not Sunday afternoon if they can't jump on a trampoline. And lucky for them, there is a trampoline at Uncle Johns house. Emily and Tony Bradshaw (one of Ken's little sister) and their children were also there for Sunday dinner.

Baby E has been WANTING to sit up for weeks now, at home she'd only ever been able to sit up for about 20 seconds before she would fall over, but being around her cousin Baby J, who is sitting up like a pro, helped her practice sitting up lots and lots. I liked sitting them like this because they enjoyed playing with each others feet.

 John and Tiff needed to make a trip down to Salt Lake City and so on Monday we were able to caravan together for a while. John drove in our Van with Ken and I drove with Tiff until we got to Twin Falls (which was the perfect stop for the two babies to have their lunch) and then we all got back into our own families cars and continued the journey. Ken got this action shot of John telling me not to worry, that I hadn't offended him when I said that "Baby E isn't afraid of strangers, just strange Uncles."

 We were planning on sticking close together for most of the drive but Ken and I got stuck behind a couple of semi's and while trying to pass them we missed a very crucial exit and took a little 28 mile detour. This put us a little behind schedule but it all worked out well in the end. We stopped for dinner at Applebee's in Bountiful- it was fabulous! (I love Applebee's because they have dinners that fit well with my diet)

 The boys like Applebee's because they have crayons, awesome music and yummy food, it's the Kid Tri-fecta!

 We got home just in time for Ken to see the Elders and find out how things went this weekend while we were away- and what help they needed this week.

We had a fabulous weekend.

This is the end.........

.....of Kindergarten!

He was just born, well I guess it has been 6 years and 2 months, but he is still just my little baby boy.....but now he's a Kindergarten Graduate!

He had an amazing year in Miss Johnson's Class. He's done so well, learned so much, and proved himself to be a good student and a good friend over and over and over again.

Graduation was the day before the last day of school, and on the last day of school J got a little taste of what next year will be like- when he is an "early bird" at school. All year he has taken a bus to school at 8:49- but last Friday he had to be at the bus stop almost an hour and a half earlier than that. He was only at school for 90 minutes and then he rode the bus home for the last time as a Kindergartner. His bus driver gave the kids a treat- well two treats, First he drove the bus route backwards- starting with what is usually his last stop (which just happens to be our stop) and Second- he gave each kid an otter pop as they got off the bus.

Oh, the joy of his very first- LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!