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We LOVE the Arielympics!!!

My sweet baby sister, Ariel, puts together the Arielympics for our Family Reunion.

The kids have so much fun with this!!!

Ariel thanks so much for putting this all together!

I know it stresses you out...but it is so worth it in the end.

Madi, tossing a water balloon while using her bowling stance.

Love it!
I had to put a picture of this!
This is my little (and only) brother, Andy and my little sister Sara.
We were passing balloon from chin to chin.
It was so funny to watch the awkwardness of these two trying to do it.
Sara could not stop laughing!
It was hilarious!
P.S. If anyone wants to date my brother, please contact me IMMEDIATELY!!!


Thanks again, Ariel!!!

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We LOVE to earn our keep.

I knew Madi was a hard worker.

I knew she liked working with her Dad.

But I had no idea she would stick with him all day long, working.

They got a lot of stuff done on the farm for Grandpa.
Whatever Madi was asked to do, she did.

She is such a good girl.

Cassi even helped for a few minutes.
She starts helping...then kinda forgets what she is doing and goes onto something else.
She must be related to me.
She really wanted to help...but SO MANY other things were calling her name!

Little Elsie helped by keeping Grandma company in the house.

It is so nice to go to bed absolutely exhausted. And there is nothing else that can exhaust you more then working around the farm. There is no better feeling!

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We are LOVIN' outdoor BBQ's

Especially corn on the cob!!!

MMMMM......

It was a little cooler today, and we decided to take advantage and have a little BBQ.

It has been a lot of fun here.

The kids are always kept busy.

*Helping (playing) at Grandpas store.

*Playing in Lexi's new mansion playhouse.

*Lots of coloring and drawing special picture for Grandma.

*Fighting...which they aren't supposed to do!!!

*Lots of long walks, and runs, up and down the lane.

*Visiting with family...

There is always something fun and exciting to do...

Wonder what we will do tomorrow!

Cass...eating with Grams and Gramps.

This little Elsie is walking up a storm. She is starting to get so comfortable with walking on her own. It still amazes me to watch her. She is one AMAZING little girl. She had a little fall, and she was pretty upset (magnified by no nap)...so she laid on Porters Emmy blanket outside and cuddles with that dumb dog of ours. She sure loves him. But we are so proud of Elsie and her hard work.

You rock, Elsie Rose!!!

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We LOVE the County Fair

Today we took the kids and two cousins, Heather and Lauren, to the Uinta County Fair.

We had a whole bunch of fun!

Spent way too much money, on not enough rides...

But that's just how it goes.

The kids got to see bunnies, goats, sheep, pigs, cows...all sorts of farm animals.

They loved it.

It was a hot day, but not too bad.

We all had a lot of fun!

The girls really enjoyed the magic show.

The little ones LOVED the train...I know it doesn't look like Porter likes it...but that is just his normal scrunched up serious look.

This is what we are doing now...

Wish us luck!!!

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We LOVE 'getting there' safe and sound!!!

Not a bad trip.

Safe and sound in good 'ol Wyoming!

Lots of fun posts ahead!!!

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I LOVE last minute V.T.ing!!!

Okay, so it is last minute cause I won;t have time to get it done before the end of the month!!!

So I made a treat, which by the way, I couldn't get it to look really yummy in the picture...but they are so yummy!!!

So my V.T. is done.

As I was putting them on the plate I remembered that one of my families has a little girl allergic to peanuts...yikes...so I stuck some vanilla sandwich cookies in there...hope they work out.

I should be a better Visiting Teacher!!!

No last minute next month...my other family is having a baby mid-month...and you know I will be there visiting then!!!

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I LOVE good friends!!!

This is the last time the three of us {Jenni, Annie and I} will be together, at least until next year.

I miss the old days when we used to go running together...and do everything together...

Scott, move Annie back home!!!

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I LOVE 'getting to it'!!!

Nope...it is not done yet.

I have been so scared to start.

It is such a BIG quilt.

I didn't know how to stitch it and have it still be manly...

Couldn't decide on a thread color.

Finally, I just dove in.

I hope it turns out.

Hopefully soon I will have the finished product to show!

But I can tell you I won't get much done if this little one keeps keepin' these late night hours!!!

GO TO BED ELSE!!!

(By the way, this is my 500th post!!! Holy 'mokes!!! That's a lot!!!)

Elsie ROCKS!!!

She's got it!!!

Today she has been walking everywhere. Just now, putting her to bed, she walked from Madi's room to the bathroom where we brushed her teeth, then she walked from the bathroom to her room!!! She is doing so good!!! It's really gonna happen! Elsie's gonna walk!!!

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We LOVE{ed} Art Class!!!!

Today was the girls last day of Art Class.

I had them enrolled at Bloomin' Art.
They had so much fun!!!
And did some pretty awesome pictures!!!
They chose their favorites for me to take pictures of.
Cassi's is a peacock and Madi's is an Indian.
I believe Miss. Sarah will be having more classes...so check it out!!!

Birthday Picts

Our sweet Elsie.

What can I even say about her.

She has brought so much joy into our lives.

What a perfect little smile.

And she has one for anyone who looks her way.

Elsie has not only touched our lives, but also anyone who meets her.

We had a rough start...then a rough time figuring things out about her.

Elsie has been such a strong spirit, and such a example of patience to our family.

Turning three is a little bitter sweet.

In my mind I thought we would be a little further along.

But she continues to make progress and she always works as hard as she can.

She will get there.

The hardest thing for her right now is speech.

That gap just keep getting wider and wider...

and it gets frustrating for her when she can't communicate.

But we are trying.

She is working so hard.

We sure love our little Elsie Rose.

She is our little ray of sunshine!!!

Elsie 10 days old

Elsie age 1

Elsie age 2

Elsie age 3

8 Month Picts

My baby boy is 2/3 his way to the one year mark!!!

8 Months old...no way!!!

I don't even remember life without this boy!!!

*Porter loves to roll to everything, and he can get across the room pretty dang fast. *Porter is eating all the foods we eat, mostly. And he loves it. *He can almost get his knees under him and I catch him a lot of times trying to pull himself up in his crib, or on chair legs...pretty soon he will be into everything!!! ***We just love having this little guy in our lives!

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I LOVE that our weather is not ALWAYS like this!!!

Cause I couldn't handle that!!!

This may be why our little photo shoot this afternoon didn't go as well as planned...

They were both good...it was just a hot day, later in the day...after we went swimming...not the best choice in times on my part.

Oh well, I plan to do more pictures when we get together for my family's reunion in a week or so...

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We LOVE Birthday Parties!!!

Elsie's birthday festivities continued on today.

We had a little birthday BBQ with some great friends.

Madi gave this camera to Elsie...

She had fun 'taking pictures'.

We have been working really hard on blowing out candles.

Blowing is a hard thing for Elsie to do...

but she blew out two of her candles and had help with the last one.

Great job Elsie!!!

And of course a little water play!!!

Elsie got this new little pool for her birthday...

cause her other one got left out and popped by Tanger...dumb dog!

But as you can see, she loves it.

What a great party with great friends...

Thanks to the Young Family, the Terry Family and the Salisbury Family (minus Scotty boy.)

We had a great party.

And here is a picture of my boys eyes, cause he has great eyes!

And he is 8 months old today!!!

I will take pictures of the birthday girl and 8 month old really soon, hopefully!!!

A couple gifts...

Elsie had such a great day.

She finally got her very own car.

Every time she saw her cousins car...you couldn't keep her out of it.

So I thought it would make a great gift...only I didn't want to pay the full price...of course not!!!

So i found one on Craigslist...got some of the plastic paint...and spray painted it to look like new!

She was so happy, if you can't tell!!!

This is one of the things I made her...a new basket for her walker...
I also made some new tassels for it...out of ribbon...I will have to take a picture of those sometime.
I also made her a few skirts (the one she was wearing today is one I made out of one of my old skirts...cute, right???)
We are gonna have a little birthday party tomorrow night.
So that will be fun too.
It is always fun to spread the birthday out!!!

At dinner Elsie was eating with her hands...Dad told her to eat with her fork, but I had already told her to eat with her spoon...
So she compromised!
What a smarty!!!
Happy Birthday Elsie Rose!!!

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We LOVE (and will miss terribly...) Tumble Time!!!

Today was Elsie's last day of Tumble Time.

This class has done so much good things for her and moving her body.

I am very thankful for all those who were there to help!!!

Thank you so much Miss Mary (the P.T.) for helping Elsie to make sure her body was doing things the right way, and encouraging me to let her try to do things herself.

And thanks so much Miss Etta for always having so much energy for all these little kiddos.

You always made things so exciting!

Elsie always enjoyed you demonstrating the activities for her!!!

Elsie made so many great friends there...I am sad it is all over!

Isn't that such a sweet look she is giving Miss Etta!!!

Hopefully we will get to see these wonderful people again!

Boise River vidoes

Elsie, just relaxing on the beach. She really thought all of this was pretty great!

(excuse the teenagers swearing in the background. In my day kids watched their mouths when little kids were around...but these kids had some major potty mouths!!!)

She was SO TIRED!!! It was even funnier before I pulled the camera out. She kept nodding off, the remembering she had Cheetos, then eating one...then nodding off again.

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We LOVE Floating the Boise River

For Elsie's Birthday we thought it would be fun to go float the Boise River!!!

And boy, it was fun!!!

The girls had a blast...Porter was SO tired...but he stayed awake the whole time and wanted to keep getting his feet wet.

Elsie had so much fun.

She was a little unsure about the big rapids...but after the first time through some, she knew she was safe, and she had a lot of fun.

It took us just under 3 hours to make it down.

Seriously, it didn't seem to take that long.

Time flies when your having fun!

We stopped a couple times to play in the sand and to jump off the rope swing.

Cass was brave enough to jump off of it.

She will do anything!

At the end, Elsie was SO EXHAUSTED!!!
This is my favorite picture!
Asleep...but still trying to eat, or lick, the Cheetos cheese off her hand.
It was so funny!!!


Since I was holding Porter the whole time, Madi was in charge of one of the oars.
She did a great job!!!

I was so glad that Brent had everything under control.

With me holding Porter, there wasn't much I could do to help.

But, Brent was always on the lookout for bad spots...

He gave the girls some rescue swimming lessons...how to swim out to the edge if we happen to tip over.

It is just so good to have him around to know everything is safe!

After we got out of the river, we set the little ones on the ground while we packed all our stuff up...Elsie continued to rest....

But Bubba...

I tried forever to get his attention to snap a picture...but he would NOT turn around!

Then I looked and what he was so interested in...see all the girls in the bikinis...oh boy...I am NOT READY to deal with this!!!