beach day

Me and Sophi picked up Sierra from Math Camp and got Jack in the Box and then headed to the beach. We only stayed for a couple of hours, the kids were sad when it was time to go. WE LOVE THE BEACH!
Sierra is so sweet with the babies!

Ashton was wondering why Lincoln's head is so hard!


Rossi wanted to be in the picture too!

The sun was just to bright to take a happy picture so mommy fixed the problem! :)

boys

I was surrounded by boys all day long...I had Blake and Jordan and then my mom came with Nixon and Rossi...What a fun day full of playing baseball, basketball, soccer, riding bikes, swimming, napping, eating frozen yogurt pops...


Lots of changes since I last had Blake and Jordan...Blake potty trained and swimming really good to me even with his face in the water. Jordan crawling and eating every thing in sight. :)

I love munching on my sweet nephews...he did not get that booboo at my house

Then my sweet girl came home...she was at Math Camp and then got to go to Karlie's to finish their ty dy t-shirts, wow they turned out so so cute! They made up a day, BFF day and they put BFF day on their shirts with rhinestones (a day once a week when they get to get together and do something fun and crafty) We've been able to have BFF day 3 times this summer.

She was so wonderful when she got home. She was so happy and so helpful. She was reading a book to Rossi, cleaning up the disaster we had going on with toys everywhere, playing games with the boys, wanting to help me with dinner. I told her that she made my day the moment she walked in the door! :)

Summer Lovin'

Sierra has had Math Camp all week. Not thrilled but at least her BFF is there and I'm thrilled because she is learning great tips and practicing Math skills to ready her for 4th grade.
Ashton, sometimes even boys need to sparkle!
I had to take my ring in to get the prong fixed and Ashton wanted to buy a sparkly ring SO BAD! I told him I had a ring at home he could have...pure excitement! :) (He had to pick out a couple of necklaces too!)

Everyday this week while Sierra is at Math Camp I have taken Ashton out to practice his cycling skills. He knows how to ride his bike but he is nervous and doesn't have confidence. He is gaining confidence as we practice everyday, he is riding long distances, even going down little hills and mom and dad could not be more proud of him! At first he was only comfortable riding on the grass or the dirt but now I have him riding on the sidewalk, still afraid of the street but we are getting there.





Today we finally got to see Ashton's best buddy, CJ, from preschool. We had them over to swim and play...

and Sierra got to meet and hang with CJ's big sister, Chelsea. Sierra had other friends that happened to be at the pool too from Swim Team but she was careful to include Chelsea, sweet girl makin' mommy proud! :)

Did I mention WE LOVE SUMMER!

and Corbin James is his name...

Update from Brett...he's doing better today.

Inspiring!

Last night my mom called at about 9:45pm and told us Briana was in labor and we needed to get ready and come. I left about 10:50pm to get Sophi and our Grannie and we headed down. We dropped Grannie to be with boys and then we headed with mom over to the hospital. We got there about 1:15am, my sister is truly inspiring! She is so strong and so determined. She has now had 3 babies totally drug free. She was totally in control and made it seem doable, made it seem easy. She is A.MA.ZING! Brett was so sweet with her too! He was right there the whole time holding her, leaning over her, talking to her, helping her breathe, helping her focus, feeding her ice chips, showing her a picture of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. The whole experience being there with Brett and Briana, mom and Sophi was emotional and beautiful and I'm grateful I was able to be a part. She delivered at 3:19am. A BABY BOY!

8 lbs. 11oz 21 in.
A big strong boy!
He is a meconium baby. They put him up on Briana's tummy for a few seconds after delivery and he was looking at her. What a sweet moment! Then they rushed him off to the bed and worked on him. They had a tube down his throat sucking out poopy from his belly. Then he started crying, another great moment!
Briana had said after she delivered, "it's Pioneer Day, I had to do it natural! They had their babies in wagons." and then mom said, "and in the dirt!"
Then they took him to the NICU. After further tests they determined that he has a bacterial infection and fluid in his lungs. They want to keep him for a week.
We went back to Brett and Briana's about 4:30am and got lost so we finally got there about 4:45 and in bed at about 5:00am. We got a few hours of sleep and I woke up to my mom telling Nixon and Rossi that there baby was a baby boy and I heard Nixon say, "3 brothers!"
We got to take the boys to the hospital to see their mommy and new baby brother.

Nixon was concerned and had a lot of questions. He is such a sweet boy!
We had the privelege of watching Brett through the glass give his baby a blessing, his brother James was there assisting him. Another sweet moment! James said Brett gave him a beautiful blessing.
Brett and Briana are such GREAT parents! I love them dearly! Congratulations to a beautiful family!

Bible Camp

This week is Bible Camp!
This is our first year doing it and it is so so much fun!
5 families get together and each take a day.
We each do one bible story and one book of mormon story.
With each story we do a craft and a snack to go along with the story.
Today was our day at our house...Ashton was so excited...he was smiling!
Sierra is not feeling well and has had a fever for the last 2 days. :( She is at least not throwing up! However, we are experiencing cabin fever again!
I did the story of Samson.
We made Samson puppets with paper bags and yarn for his hair.
My friend Megan posted this on her blog a while back and I thought how perfect for the snack for my Samson story...

little Samson heads with the long hair...:)

Then I told the story from the book of mormon, Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty...

we had little title of liberty's for our snack...

and the kids made their own title of liberty's...they were so cute! I told them to draw pictures or write words of things that are important to them. Ashton drew his family, the scriptures, and the church and then he made stripes. Sierra wasn't feeling well so she was back in my room laying on my bed.

We love Bible Camp!

NEW SUMMER DO!

Thanks Aunt Sophi! He looks so much cooler and still so handsome! :)

Coach's Award!

The Coach's award goes to a girl that is at practice everyday. She is a great swimmer. She always does her best. She is always smiling. She makes us laugh...SIERRA YOUNG!

applause YAY!

Champs!

Parents Relay; I got a phone call Friday night from one of the mom's asking if I would swim on the mom's relay team. I always get so nervous. I wanted us to do well! We got 2nd, we wanted 1st but we are ok with 2nd. :) I swam before Sierra even got in for her first race. AND we (9-10 age group) didn't have to be there until 9am, we are usually there by 7am. These Championship meets take FOR.EVER!


Sierra's first race was the Medley Relay

THEY got 1st! :)
It was such a HOT day! Jake is pretty much hiding in the bushes. We were trying to find any shade we could. Jake said, "I'm melting out here!"Sierra swam her individual breaststroke and then she swam individual butterfly

So dang cute!

Her last swim of the season was the freestyle relay and one of the girl's was missing from her relay team so the coaches had Sierra swim twice. She swam the 1st leg and totally pulled ahead and her team was in 1st. Then she swam the last leg too and her team was behind, in 2nd place and she was catching the girl in 1st. Her team ended up getting 2nd. I am so proud of Si. She swam twice and both times it was 2 laps so she was tired. She was such a trooper and swam her heart out! She did so so great! What a way to finish the season!

rain?

Today was a great day! After taking Ashton to the dr. yesterday because he still had a fever of 103 (poor guy)! She did lots of tests on him; Xray, urine, blood, she discovered that everything looked normal and he must have a virus and to give it another 24 hrs. Not easy for a mom and dad who have had a sick boy for a good 4 days. He was delirious last night, crying and crying! Oh how grateful I am that...Fever finally broke today and he is feeling better, YAY!
We checked on Herbie, Keil's dog, this morning and when we left to walk home it was RAINING, yes raining in July! A warm sticky rain, how fun!!!!
We finally got to get a couple of errands done, the post office and Smart and Final.
Sierra had a private lesson with Coach Patrick to get ready for Champs tomorrow.
Janelle took Sierra to the Library yesterday and got the kids signed up for the reading club and they are gun-ho, they did ALOT of reading today. I love it!
Sierra went to her last practice.
We ate a good hearty spaghetti dinner so Si has lots of energy tomorrow.
Took Herbie to the park and the kids enjoyed walking with him, we tired him out Heather! :) The kids LOVED taking care of him.
Jake and the kids had a squirt gun fight before and after dinner.
Now watching Ponyo, cute!

Cabin Fever

My boy has had the flu since Sunday night. Fever and throw up. We have been stuck at home for 3 days. It was nice at first because it forced us to slow down. Yesterday we got out just to drive Sierra to swim practice (usually we walk but Ashton couldn't walk that far). Great just to get out of the house for 5 minutes. Sierra loved being at swim practice. She didn't go Monday because she was complaining that her stomach hurt too. (Maybe in her head. :))So Monday and Tuesday consisted of laying around watching tv and reading books. Today I actually lassoed Sierra into helping me clean bathrooms so we actually accomplished something. I finished Work and the Glory #4. We listened to our daddy on the radio today. He was interviewed on 1220 am KHTS about Mortgages. Sierra read 8 chapters of the Book of Mormon. Ashton got to mark off some chapters too on his bookmark. Hope my boy gets to feeling better soon and here's to hoping no one else gets it!

Our first sunflower...

has bloomed! We planted 3 with seeds and so love to watch them grow. This is our tallest and our first to bloom. Isn't it so bright and cheerful! :) The kids have been so thrilled to go check on it every day...to watch it literally unfold.

Have a sunny day!

Jesus is my shepherd...

IM

Today, Waves vs. Dolphins
My Si did her usual races, she swam breaststroke in the medley relay and swam individual breaststroke and freestyle in the freestyle relay. But today the coaches had her try something new. She swam the IM (Individual Medley). The IM is 4 laps, one lap of each stroke.

She was nervous...

Swimmers up, take your mark...Butterfly

BackstrokeBreaststroke
Freestyle

Problem...(don't make it known to her that I put this on the blog) When she did her turn from breaststroke to freestyle she did not do a two hand touch. I saw it and I looked to the stroke and turn judges and I could tell they saw it and I said right out loud to Jake and Janelle,"oh no, she is DQ'd." Her coach said to her as she was getting out of the water, "great race, just remember two hand touch after breaststroke." She didn't seem upset, I went to her and told her what a great job she did. She said, "mommy I forgot my two hand touch." I said, "I know it's ok." She then asked me, "was I disqualified because I didn't touch with two hands?" I looked at her and smiled, brought tears to my eyes that she could not see because I was wearing my sunglasses and shook my head yes. Instantly there were tears in her eyes. My poor baby. I told her to come and sit with me and I held her on my lap and told her how proud I am and gave her lots of kisses. I told her that it was just a mistake and we learn from our mistakes. That was a hard race. She was so tired. SHE DID IT! I am so so proud of her! There were 4 racers and she came in 3rd. She dropped 13 sec. from her time too. Nice racing Si! Love you baby!

Fun in the Sun!

TODAY was HURRICANE HARBOR with GRANDMA and KATE!
Sierra went on Tornado with me and Kate, she was so nervous, she was in tears. She has been on it before but it has been a while and she was terrified of going down the drop backwards. In fact when our raft started moving she grabbed the wall and said please don't make me go backwards. I grabbed her arm and told her to let go. I ended up going backwards so she got just what she wanted. She was mad at her self last time we went because she chickened out at the last second and walked back down the stairs so I made her go this time and she said afterwards that she was so proud of herself for doing it, me too! YAY!
I also went on the Bamboo Racers for the first time and that was so fun. Sierra and Kate went too, I tried to get Ashton to go but he wouldn't. Sierra was in front of me in the race and then I passed her. So fast and so fun!

the weekend

Friday my mom called and said she and Briana would be home about 2 if we wanted to come up to swim. Of course, we ran to Ralphs and did our recycling and then did some grocery shopping. We got up to mom's and swam with Briana and kids and Sophi's kids too. Love it when Briana comes, I feel like I'm on vacation too. We just play! They all went to the track that night so Lincoln and Nixon could race BMX. Ashton got to go too! Jake and I took Sierra to Chili's, she loved that! Then we watched Narnia Prince Caspian with her.
Saturday we swam at mom's and then went to dad's in the later afternoon. We swam there too and then dad bbq'd so we ate yummy food. Boy's stayed to watch the fights and me Sophi and Briana went to mom's to watch "how to marry a millionaire" with Marilyn Monroe. It was cute. Sierra watched "the goofy movie" in the playroom. When our movie was over me and Si walked home and Ashton spent the night.
Sunday HAPPY 4th of July! Sierra ran up to mom's to have blueberry pancakes. Ashton was up at 6am, not normal for him he is a late riser like 9am. Went to church in red, white and blue.

Ashton fell asleep during Sacrament meeting. He is a party animal. :)

After church we went to mom's for swimming and bbq.

Rossi was swimming with Sierra, she loved it and he was so happy! :) Whenever there is an adult in the water he prefers them but at that time Sierra was the biggest one in the water so he wanted her. :)
Aunt Ruth, Uncle Randy and kids came to mom's too! So fun!

Went to Bingham's to do our own fireworks. Pretty fun stuff! :)

Monday =relaxing

We went to the big pool and swam then went to Grammy's and swam. Ate lunch, put Rossi down for a nap (my first time putting him down, he is so sweet, read him a book and then laid with him and he was out!)

Blowdryed Sophi's hair. Kids just played and played. Went on a bike ride with Jake just the 2 of us and that was so fun. Ate dinner again at mom's for Jacque's birthday.

Isn't she so cute, due in 10 days, can't wait! Don't know what it is, I think girl!

The kids swam and swam. Cousin Kate came. Sierra was in heaven!Kate was teaching Sierra synchronize swimming.

Kate had a sleepover. Everyone up late. A FUN weekend!