Paradise

Anatomy of a perfect day, 11 year old style. . . You get to sluff school ( your mom is a sucker for a big smile and those baby blues) and you go fly fishing with your Mom and your Grandpa. You spend the whole day in waders and you get to eat lots of junk food. You get to hear all about Grandpa when he was a kid. On the last cast of the day you and grandpa hook the biggest fish of your life ( with a little help) and, after 25 minutes of fighting and gentle coaxing, YOU LAND IT!

That is the face of a very happy little boy. He worked hard for this one!

Anatomy of a perfect day, Mom style. . . You get to leave the little kids home (because you have the coolest Mom in the world and she volunteer's to keep them the whole day) and spend the whole day fly fishing with your dad and your oldest son. You get to turn off your cell phone, drive through 3 canyons, spend the whole day outside, and see over 15 birds of prey in one spot. You get to catch lots of fish, listen to pheasants, watch a red tail hawk ride a thermal with your son (who happens to be as excited about it as you are) and best off all, you get to have this view, and snap this picture. My parents are the greatest. Look at Hyatt soaking it all in.

Spooky.

Happy Birthday Hyatt!

I can't believe he is 11. It really feels like about 3 years ago that we brought him home and wondered how in the world we were ever going to be able to take care of a baby. This kid is the greatest. It is so fun to have him around. He has turned into such an amazing guy. He is brilliant, speaks two languages and is a straight "A" student. He is funny, totally sarcastic and mean. He is a great big brother, he helps with everything, and now even babysits. He is so good looking that I am slightly worried. He is a well rounded kid, a great athlete, and a talented outdoors man. He is just the perfect kid, if I do say so myself. Now, someone remind me that I said all of this when he turns 16.
I love this picture because it shows something very special about Hyatt. He is very gracious. Look at his little face. The only thing he wanted for his birthday this year was a long board. That's it. If you will look at the presents on the counter you can see that there is nothing that looks like a long board. He has that cute look that says " Well, they didn't come through this year, but I love them anyway, and I will try to smile and be thankful." He is genuinely like this all the time.

This is the face he made when Matt told him there was one more thing we forgot in the garage.

And this is the face he made when he remembered that his Dad ALWAYS hooks him up.

Happy Birthday Hyatt, we love you!!!

Mama Said There Would Be Days Like This

Does this ever happen to you?
You spend the whole morning running back and forth from school because someone forgot something, or someone needs a clean shirt because they spilled white-out on theirs. Then you run to the grocery store and end up forgetting the one thing that you really needed, so you have to go back. Then you run home because you have to get the stuff ready for the Young Women's activity ready, and you only have 30 minutes before the older kids get home from school. Then you go back to school for the 4th time to run the carpool. Then you help with all of the homework, get the stuff ready for scouts, do 4 loads of laundry, run someone to football practice, and cook dinner. Then you go to mutual, and when you come home all of the dirty dishes are still in the sink, so while your husband puts the older kids to bed you clean up the kitchen for the 3rd time that day, and when it is all clean you take the baby up to give him a bath. Then you come back down stairs to make a bottle and send 2 quick emails. Just as you have finished up the emails you hear a happy squeal coming from the kitchen. "How sweet," you think to yourself, he is all clean and happy and playing quietly with his toys in the kitchen.
WRONG!!!
He is clean, he is happy, he is playing quietly, BUT NOT WITH HIS TOYS!

So you let him play. For way too long. Because you are too tired to argue, and in your delirium, it is sadly funny that someone left the lid slightly ajar on the top of the huge canister of flour. How can a face like this be anything but adorable. So when he is done you give him one more bath, clean the kitchen one more time, and after you tuck him into bed you take a deep breath, and pray for the strength to do it all over again tomorrow. The funny thing is, I wouldn't trade these days for anything.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Brady and Cole have had the best time this year in Flag Football. They have two great coaches that are so much fun. They are the smallest kids on the team, it is so weird! They are the only first graders though, all the other kids are in second grade, but still, I am so used to having Hyatt who is always the tallest no matter what age group the kids are. Cole scored this week, and I wish I would have captured the look on his face, he was so proud of himself! I wish football season was longer. ( Don't any of you tell my husband that I just said that!)

Look Who's One Year Old!!

Baby Griffin is One Year Old! I can't believe it. This has been the quickest year ever. We had the whole gang over (and I mean GANG, the boy cousins are all like a little wolf pack when they get together) for the traditional destruction of a cake and presents. Griffin was very timid about the cake, but he figured it out eventually.

Look at that face. I swear, I sometimes think I could have four more.

We had two cakes, one for Griff, and one for the rest of us.

Lots of cute gifts. Thanks everyone for coming, and for being such great Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. We love you all.

This little guy has been the sweetest, most adorable little thing. He is so mellow. I am sure by this time next year he will be as crazy as the rest of the group, but today he is just an angel. We love you Griff Monster, Happy Birthday!!

No Girls Allowed!

This is why Griffin was born a boy, and I will never have a girl. How would a girl survive this kind of chaos? The boys (of course) had to get in on the cake destroying action. Coleman started it off with a face plant into the cake. . .

Brady wanted to try some too. . .

Then Matt pushed Hyatt's whole face into the cake. Little boys, big boys, it doesn't matter, they are all BOYS!

Then my mom leaned over to try and save Griffin from all the chaos, and he reached up and got her too! You have to be brave to hang out with this group.

Meeting With the Bishop

When I was younger, a phone call from the Bishop's house meant one of two things, and they were both bad! Times have changed. Our very good friends the Cluff's invited us to go up the canyon for some family night fun this week, and it was a blast. Bob happens to be our Bishop, but he is still willing to hang out with us. See how grown up I am Mom and Dad! No, actually, we have been friends with the Cluff's much longer than Bob has been our Bishop. I first met Jill when we had just moved into our house. I was invited to a baby shower for a woman that I had just met, and barely knew. I felt kinda weird about the whole thing because I did not know anyone there. I sat across the table from Jill and listened to her talk, and I immediately knew that I had to make friends with this woman, because she was my kind of girl. We have since become very close friends ( she was called as my visiting teacher shortly after that baby shower, so she really had no choice but to talk to me) and I consider myself lucky to spend time with her and her cute family.

Side note here: After Jill and my other great friend Natalie had been my visiting teachers for about a year and a half, I leaned over to Natalie in the middle of a lesson on visiting teaching in church one day and asked her who she was assigned to visit. She looked at me like I was some kind of an idiot, and it took me a full 30 seconds to figure out why. I wanted to die, I was so embarrassed. I am always saying stupid stuff like that before I think. All the treats, all the long talks, all the laughing, and I just nullified it all with one comment. We laughed so hard in the middle of that class I almost had to leave. Jill and Natalie still spoke to me after that, and for that I will always be grateful.

This is the gang, they all got in the river the second we got there, and of course caught a snake. Maddie is Hyatt's age, and Will is close to the the same age as the twins. They all play together so well, I love it.

Jill is the best kind of friend, she is tons of fun, and super thoughtful, AND she lets me gripe to her about anything, and she still likes me the next day. Griffin loves her! She is also the best cook I know. She brought her "secret" lemonade (as Maddie called it) to dinner, and it was delicious. You know you are a good cook when you even have your own special lemonade, the stuff I brought came in a 2 liter bottle.

Here is the latest addition to our wild animal collection. It is starting to look like an episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom around here. Just once I would like to go on an outing and NOT come home with a new member of the family!

Bob and Matt cooking the grub. By the time we got around to dinner it was dark, and the kids were freezing. We made a valiant effort though, and the food was still delicious, even if we couldn't see what we were eating. I like THESE meetings with the Bishop, I think we should have them more often.

Blue Blooded

How are my children so blue-blooded, when I am a genetically predisposed, die hard Runnin' Ute? It is simple, they love their Daddy! They want to do everything he does, and I just simply can't compete. I think I am softening a bit however, because it is starting to be less and less fun to cheer for the Utes with four people booing and hissing at me. You know how rotten those BYU fans are,(wink, wink)
try living with some!

I think this will be the new weekly tradition, they had so much fun. Brady asked me if we could do Griff's hair blue too, I of course laughed and said no. It was when Matt said "Why not" that I started to think my family is seriously demented. What's a girl to do?

Labor Day Catch Up

I took the boys up to the cabin over Labor Day weekend. We had to leave Matt behind because he had to get caught up at work (that is the lie that he told us, but I knew it was because of the BYU season opener. . . he has a sickness). It turned out that all of my siblings except Clay came too, so it was a blast! We always have so much fun up there when everyone comes. The boys love their cousins, and it is so fun for me to get to spend time with my siblings, especially Cam and Traci who I don't get to see very often. We crammed as much as we could into a weekend, I even got a little kayaking in with Kris, Mom and Kristalyn. These are just some random pictures of the weekends festivities. My cute mom got up early one morning and hid "treasures" in the forest for all the kids to find later that day. They loved it, and they loved the loot they scored. The zip line is always a favorite activity
Brady and Cole with Carson and Chase on our way to do a little fishing. It turned out to be very LITTLE fishing, see 2 pictures below. . .
My little man in his waders, he looks so cute, like a small giraffe in a pair of hip boots. Those legs, oh to have legs that long and skinny!
This is why the fishing was nixed, the water behind the boys is the dam below Hebgen Lake. They had some kind of problem and couldn't get 2 of the gates in the system to close properly, so the water level in the Madison rose several feet in a few hours. It was kind of exciting actually, the fish cops were telling everyone to get off the river because it was so high, and they were not sure if the dam was going to hold. We thought it was exciting anyway, but the boys just thought it was lame because we couldn't fish, and they couldn't get down by the water.

Cousins on the back steps. Look at all of these boys and poor Kelli in the middle of it all. She is such a good sport though, she puts up with all of them, and they LOVE her! Some kids just don't want to grow up. Even if they are 6 foot 7, and have legs that drag down on the ground when they ride the zip line.
The kids ride this thing in the back yard all day long. It is so much fun, they never get tired of it.

Mantis Moment

Cole thinks he is Jeff Corwin. He spends his days catching bugs of all kinds, his favorite being BEE'S! He played with this praying mantis all day, and was showing off just a bit by letting the little critter climb up on his shirt. While I was taking the picture the mantis went on the move, his face in the next picture says it all!

Apparently he needs a little more practice before Animal Planet will give him his own show! He was screaming and flipping out, and he was sure that the praying mantis was biting him. Hilarious!

Why is Brady pulling this face, and laughing uncontrollably?

This is why!