Father's Day

I have to say that I think my kids have one of  the best dad's around! 

He is willing to do anything with, and for them.

I am truly blessed to have him in my life!!

They think he's pretty cool too!

After church our chaotic day began. We drove up to Pine Valley to be with Colb's family.

The dads' favorite thing to do up there is rest. And they deserve it!

The kids on the other hand, love the hammock, and the swings. We're all hoping they find a spot for both these things when they get the new house built!!

We made all the grandpas these cute six pack bottle treats. Decorated the boxes and bottles and filled them with yummy treats just for them. The kids all helped so they thought it was super cool! Then they each filled out a card about their grandpas. One for each of them, from each of them! They were pretty funny.

After Pine Valley, we came home to visit my dad, then over to see Kent.
Gotta love lots of family!!

Catching bugs

Before summer break even started, the kids and I chose some things we wanted to do to keep us busy. My intent was to make a cute list so we could check each thing off, but that never happened. One of the things on our list was to go to the river and catch whatever we could find. My kids love this kind of stuff, so I knew it would be tons of fun. 

We went to the dollar store and bought some nets; grabbed a big empty container I had been keeping for something, and headed down to the park. 

[I told my kids I used to catch crawdads in this river, but they didn't believe me. It's true!! I was their same age, and we did it almost every day.]

As soon as we got down the hill, Noah spotted some baby frogs, so they immediately started catching those. Even Lexie wanted in on it. I was just fine taking the pictures :)

She did not like the 'swamp' touching her though!!

Noah saw a little crawdad and was determined to catch it. 

And he did!!

They all thought that was pretty cool!

I just realized in this picture, Noah looking at the bushes. 

He kept saying he could hear something over there. I never heard it so kinda just shrugged it off.

A little bit later, Noah was in the water, I was on the side, and we both spotted a snake!

Uh...we tried our best to stay out of the water after that. I didn't know what kind it was, and I wouldn't know if it was poisonous or not. 

We were all a little bit leary of everything afterwards.

Hence the walking on dry land in the open!!

After a while, Lexie and I were done with the heat.

We loaded up the container of about 50 baby frogs, a few tadpoles, a crawdad, and a partridge in a pear tree...and went to the shade!

 But the boys weren't done. They carried that container full of creatures back down by the river and caught a few more.

When it was time to leave, Cutler, of course, wanted to bring 'just one' frog home.

 Before we even got there I said the only rule was that we could catch however much we wanted, but nothing was coming home with us. They all agreed, but when the time came to go home, that wasn't such an easy thing to agree to. 

This really was so much fun. 

I'm pretty sure we'll be doing it again and again!!

Swim Lessons

June 4-14

This year I had all three kids in swim lessons at the same time. I have to admit, it was pretty nice. I searched and searched the schedule for the pool to make sure they had a time where all 3 levels were at the same time. We did them at SHAC. I love that it's so close, it just seems colder because it's indoors. 

I was worried about Lexie. She loved the pool until she fell in last year. I didn't know if she would even get in, but she did! And she loved her teacher Brooke. Every day she would tell me what she did and that she went under water! Even though I watched her every move from the window, and she only really went under the water about 2 times :) It doesn't matter...I'm so proud of her for just doing it!

Cutler should have been born with gills. He is by far my biggest fish! He's not scared of anything, and he picks up on everything so quickly. Last year he only did the Level 2 beginner class, and all the parents kept saying, That boy needs to be in a bigger class! We obviously did the advanced class this year, and it was great, maybe a little too easy though. I was so impressed with how well he could actually do all the things the teacher was teaching them. I watched the other kids too, because everything in this class seemed so easy for him. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just an easy going teacher. But all the other kids seemed to have to be taught exactly what to be doing. Cutler would just jump in, do what she said, then have to sit while she spent more time with the other kids. Then of course he would get in trouble, because we all know he isn't just going to sit there patiently doing nothing!! But he's a pro, and if he needs help he'll let you know :)

Noah hasn't had swim lessons for a couple of years now. I felt like he did really well and just didn't need them. This year, I knew he could swim, but mostly wanted something for him to do while the other two had their lessons. But I also thought it wouldn't hurt him to have a refresher course. He actually learned a lot. He had a great teacher who took the time to really teach them. Their class was over in the lap pool, so I couldn't see him and watch what he was doing very much. Every day he would get excited telling me the things they learned that day. And when we go swimming at my parents, he's always doing the strokes he learned. 

Whoa...that was a lot longer than I had planned on. Sorry : )

On the last day you get to go into the pool area and take pictures. I wanted to get some of each of them during their last lesson, but by the time I got done with Noah's class, they were all done :(

But I did get some of them all playing around.

Lexie wanted to go down the big blue slide so bad! But she had to go down with someone, or let her teacher catch her at the bottom. She wasn't brave enough to go all by herself, but she also wasn't about to go with her teacher. Finally, Noah came to the rescue and offered to take her. 

He made her day!! 

She wouldn't go down with anyone else the entire time. 

Camping with the MacIntosh's

June 8-10


We love camping with the MacIntosh's!! Our kids all play really well together, plus it gives us a good reason to get together with them since they moved out of the neighborhood.
Friday night when we got there, it was nice...hot actually. We got camp all set up and let the kids run wild.

Literally!!

They went on Razr rides, four wheeler rides, shot the bows, the guns, went on hikes, and who knows what else. Amy made yummy tin foil dinners, and for dessert did cake in orange peels. I actually just ate the leftover cake we made on the fire and it was yummy!! It made me realize cobbler isn't the only dessert you can have when camping! Of course we also did s'mores, the old fashioned way.

Saturday was such a nice, hot day. It would get a little windy at times, but for the most part was great. While the dad's went for a ride, I took the little kids on a Nature Scavenger Hunt. **Thank you Pinterest!** It was actually kinda hard to find all the things on our list, but it was fun. Except for the part when Lexie fell on an old dry dead branch and scratched the underneath of her forearm. It was sad :(

These two thought they were pretty studly without their shirts. 

Saturday was our turn for dinner. We did our usual coke chicken, dutch oven potatoes, and watermelon. For dessert, we chose to go into Pine Valley to the Brandin' Iron ice cream shop. It hit the spot!!

That night it started getting really windy, and looked like it was going to storm. We all just hid in the trailers and slept...or not! All night I kept waiting to hear some sort of major damage. I honestly thought at one point our trailer was going to be picked up and blown away. Along with the nasty weather/no sleeping, Lexie got sick in the night and threw up in our bed. It was only a little bit, but that made it so the whole rest of the night, I was worried she would puke more. She had a fever, and luckily we had some medicine for her, but it didn't really seem to help her. 

In the morning we did breakfast in our trailer, easy muffins and fruit, and am still hoping we didn't get any of their family sick!

We just packed up and came home pretty early. Like early enough that we could have made it to church.

Umm, apparently it was my turn to teach, but I honestly didn't know it.

Thankfully Heidi is the best ever, and was able to improvise!

Safety Town

May 29 - June 8

The city puts Safety Town on every year for kids going into Kindergarten and First grade. It lasts for 2 weeks, every day, 2 1/2 hours a day; so you better believe I signed Cutler right up! ;) 

No, it really does teach them a lot, and about all different kinds scenarios of what to do. On the last day they have a graduation, and it was a pretty big deal.  

They had each session get up and sing a song, then asked some of the kids some questions. Wouldn't ya know they called on Cutler to answer one. I was nervous! And then...this was his question: What do you do if you see a gun laying on the table? 

OH.MY...

Do they know this kid? 

Do they know that we hunt?

We don't leave guns laying around...at all! But seriously?!!!

He hesitated for a minute then answered...

Stop...Don't touch...leave the area...and tell an adult!

Ta Da!!

He does listen! 

We have a brand new cousin

 Cade Bryan Heath

was born

June 4, 2012

7:06 a.m.

7 lbs. 13 oz.

20 inches long

We could barely stand waiting for the call that he was here!

As soon as I could, I pawned my kids off and went to see him, and Melanie ;)

Ooohhh, the brand new baby smell...

his noises, and tinyness.

I didn't want to leave. But knowing I would bring the kids back later made it bearable!

We haven't had a baby anywhere in the family since Melanie's last one, Blake. He is now 2 1/2 so Cade was long over due for us!! ;)

We love him so much, and are so grateful he's finally here!!!

Memorial Day

This year the kids and I went to Minersville with my mom. Colby had to work in Cedar, so on our way home, she dropped us off at Kristen's house where all the Labrum's already were! We barbecued, played volleyball, had a water fight, and just had fun talking and still learning new things about each other.
Because of a certain Christmas present I give, I took A TON of pictures. But don't worry, I'll spare you! These are just a few of the fun things that took place

We ate hot dogs and hamburgers. The next day we found out Cutler ate at least 8 hot dogs. And they weren't your average dog. They were huge!! Like 2 inches around huge! 8!

Funny story...Katie, she's a hoot!! Her and McKennah had gone to get a shaved ice. Her favorite kind is cinnamon, which I think is a weird shave ice flavor, but whatever! It's yellow... I think it should be red... it totally turns her teeth yellow! Check those things out!! She really does brush :)

Rigby is my kids new favorite babysitter. He plays with them and they have so much fun with him. Even Lexie loves having him babysit. These two were playing tag and I thought it was so cute.

Kristen's family have now moved. Rob got a new job up north, so they're gone! We will miss seeing them at every family function. Rob truly is the entertainment, and Cutler's best buddy number 1! [that means he's the first best buddy;)]