More summer fun!

We spent some time in Midway this week with aunt Monica and her girls. We crashed the Bauman party and all went to Midway with our kids for some fun. There were 15 kids total, including 4 baby girls. It was a a wild, crazy fun time and everyone had a blast!  

We spent lots of time playing games, and playing at the playground. We went fishing, sat in the hot tub, watched a movie, ate lots of food and had tons of fun! It would have been perfect if Lizzie would have slept better, she was awake a lot of the night, and so was I! We went home tired and happy.

Thanks for inviting us Mono, we appreciate it!

Elizabeth is months old now!  She is the still the cutest girl in the world, and we all love her so much! 
At 5 months she eats 6-7 times a day.  She still wakes up 1-2 times in the night, or more when we are away from home!  She loves to suck on her fingers, hands, and toes.  She is starting to like toys, and really smiles when her older brothers and sister talk to her .  Taylor can get her to laugh really loud when he sings and tells her jokes. 

We all love kissing her fat cheeks, and rubbing her fat thighs!

We went swimming with our cousins this week, and it was so much fun!  Taylor, Emily & Isaac love their cousins.  They all had fun swimming and it felt good to cool off on a hot summer day. 

We had our ward Ice Cream Social this week.  It was a great party complete with home made ice cream and lots of treats.  The SLC Fire Dept. came and sprayed all the kids with their hose.  The kids had so much fun getting completely drenched in all the water. 

Taylor and his friends wore their swimming suits and they were loving all the water. 

It was the perfect ward party!


We are loving our summer fun, and wishing it would last forever!

Week review!

I feel like I have been blogging a lot lately.  I forget things so fast lately, because I am sleep deprived and I am getting old! 

 My blog is my journal, our family history and my way of scrapbooking.  I record these pictures and memories of our family and then put them in a hardbound book every year, and I feel a huge relief about recording the events of our life. My kids are growing and changing so quickly I have to blog almost every week to keep up on what is happening.  They say the funniest things and I use this blgo as a way to record what makes me laugh throughout the week.  

Sorry if these posts bore you.





 This is what I would call potty training  "Isaac style"  We sent him out in the backyard with a hose to play, and he wanted his clothes off.  We told him to go potty outside when he needed to, but it never happenened.  He is so stubborn! 

We had a really big rainstorm on Monday.  It rained with lightning and thunder in the afternoon.  Then the kids went out and rode their bikes in the puddles.  I love summer rain storms. 

We have been working through our "Summer Bucket List" so this week we went downtown to eat lunch with Danny.  We brought "Pei Wei" and ate with him at the Gallivan Plaza.  It was fun and the kids loved seeing Danny in the middle of the day.  All the kids like Asian food, and they gorge themselves on fortune cookies. 

Then Saturday morning we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to hike and fish at "Silver Lake". This lake is one of our favorite places, it is so gorgeous!  We spent several hours fishing in the warm sunshine and then hiked around the lake. 

Lizzie did pretty well, she got a little grumpy at the end, but she is still so cute!

Here are the boys learning all about fishing from Danny. I think Taylor is going to be a fisherman just like his dad.



Danny helped all of the kids catch fish, and everyone had fun! 



Then on Sunday night we went to my Grandma Shields 84th Birthday party. 
We had a delicious dinner and cake & homemade ice cream followed by songs about why we love grandma!  It was a great party, I wish I would have taken more pics. 
I love you grandma-Thanks for being a wonderful example for my family to follow!   

The highlight of the party was when my cousins Trevor and James put little snaps (those fireworks that you throw on the ground and they pop) on the rim under the toilet seat. I was the lucky one to use the bathroom right after their trick. When I sat on the toilet all the snaps went "POP" and it scared me! Once I saw what it was I was laughing so hard! What a great trick!




It was a fabulous weekend, and now for another crazy week!

Lizzie!

Elizabeth is at the best stage right now!  She smiles, laughs, interacts with people and is really starting to get her personality.  She loves to stand on my lap, or in her exersaucer.  She has her mouth open a lot, just waiting for something to drop in.  She is starting to grab toys, and put them in her mouth.  She is very ticklish on her legs, armpits and torso.  She loves to be outside, and seems to like riding in her stroller.  She rolls, and pivots her body around in her bed.  She pushes her fat little legs through the crib rails, and then yells to get them out. She loves attention from her older siblings, and they adore her.  They now fight over who can hold her in church, or FHE etc.. She is really squirmy when she doesn't want to go in her carseat, and she can slide out of the bottom before I can get her strapped in. 

I love everything about her!  Even her middle of the night waking is tolerable because she is so adorable!  She loves when I come into her room to swaddle her around 3am.  She gets all excited and starts cooing, and moving her arms really fast.  Then she gets sad when I don't get her out to play, but just reswaddle her really tight, and put her binki in her mouth, kiss her head and walk out.  Oh, I am such a mean mom!

We sure love you Lizzie! 

This week we went to an indoor bouncy house place called "Jump Around Utah".  All the kids really like it there and it gets all of their energy out. 

Isaac threw a HUGE fit while we were playing, and it took so long that I had time to get out my camera to take some funny pictures. 

I agreed to buy the kids an ice cream treat while they were playing, Isaac and Tayor decided they wanted a fudge bar,  but after Spike saw Emily eating a cherry popsicle, he changed his mind.  I wouldn't but him another treat, so he cried.  It was so funny, and we all laughed, this made him even more angry.  Finally after Emily had eaten most of her popsicle, she agreed to switch with Isaac, which he readily did.  She is a smart girl, and she basically got two treats. 

Isaac says the funniest things.  Yesterday he called Danny to talk to him, and he told him all about his day "I caught some butterflies, rode my bike, Lizzie tooted, and I am really sweaty!"   Danny & I laughed so hard. But he is really a sweaty boy.

Here's his smile after the switch.  Isaac played so hard on the trampolines, that he was completely drenched in sweat!  He gets SO sweaty when he gets hot.  It looked like he had just gotten out of the bath, but it was all sweat!  Gross!

Another shot of the sweaty guy.

Lizzie and I had fun watching all the kids play.  She is such a cute baby, I just love her chubby cheeks!



Last weekend we had another adventure up the canyon.  This time we went up American Fork Canyon for smore's with our friends, the Hall's.  It was a fun night, and the kids had a blast. We got home around 11pm and the kids slept past 9am, which is so amazing!  Yahoo for kids sleeping in!  If only we could get Lizzie on that schedule.

Emily's friend Kate has a hot pink cast on her wrist, and yesterday Emily described her cast as "Boiling pink".  It was a cute way for her to describe the color "Hot Pink".

We are wishing summer would last forever!



Best summer memories

We have had such a fantastic summer so far. Here are some of our best summer moments:

*Cousin sleepovers, and riding in the jeep
*All the kids (but Lizzie) sleeping in past 9AM!
*Having "readthons" in mom & dad's big bed
*Hiking in the canyon
*Learning to cook, the kids have been taking turns learning a new recipe, usually a desert!
*Spending lazy afternoons playing games like "Life", "Uno" and "Phase 10"
*Eating several popsicles every day, and having sticky fingers and faces afterwards.
*Taylor asking to take a nap!  He slept for two hours, he was wiped out from all the late nights from the 4th of July!
*Swimming with friends and cousins
*Summer thunderstorms with cooler weather
*Lizzie learning to hold her toys and having fun exploring her exersaucer.

The best part about this summer is having NO schedule.  I haven't signed the kids up for any lessons, camps, activities etc... and it has been great.  We wake up when we want, have a lazy breakfast followed by chores, reading, workbooks etc... and then spend the day as we want.  The kids are so content to stay home and play with their friends, and I am more relaxed about not having to get out the door anywhere in the mornings! It's been wonderful!
Here's to having no schedules! 

Hope your summer is going great!

A day in Millcreek

We spent the majority of Saturday up Millcreek canyon.  We love this canyon; it's beautiful, full of wildlife and only 10 minutes from home.  We did a hike with all the kids in the morning.  Then we went home had naps, ate lunch etc.. and then went back up the canyon for fishing, tinfoil dinner and smore's.  Everyone had a great day, here are some pictures to prove it!

This is the first hike where Isaac has walked the whole way.  He even carried a little backpack the entire hike.  His backpack had a flashlight and two plastic guns, just in case he needed to protect us!  Lizzie did great, she loves being outside.  She fell asleep in the pack, and took a little nap.
The weather was perfect and it was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. 

Monica & Dave and their girls came to join us for dinner.  The fishing wasn't too good, the water was running too high.  We made a fire took a little walk, threw rocks in the river and ate dinner. 

I just love her little cheeks, I could kiss them all day long!

We are so happy to live near such beautiful canyons.  It makes the weekend fun really easy!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great weekend celebrating the Fourth of July!

We had a fun BBQ party in Provo, at the Forsythe's house to see the Hawkins family and watch the fireworks. It was a fantastic dinner, fun to see aunts, uncles & cousins, and a great view for the fireworks. 

Aunt Jennifer & Chandler stayed with us all week!  It was so fun to have them in SLC.  They were so good with the kids and all the kids love having them around.  They even babysat for us on Friday night, which was so nice!

Here are some pictures of the 4th of July festivities!

Elizabeth looked so cute in her patriotic outfit!  She loved being outside all evening, and wasn't really scared of the fireworks. 

It was such a fun night. Hope you had a great weekend!

Then on Monday we had a nice relaxing day, followed by a fun BBQ at Marcus & Nat's house!  I forgot to take any pics. but we had a yummy dinner followed by a fantastic view of the Lehi fireworks.

Happy 4th of July!





Lizzie is 4 months!

Elizabeth is 4 months old!
She is still such a sweet, mellow, easy going baby!  She had her four month check up this week, and here are her stats.
Weight: 14 lb. 4 oz. (68%)
Height: 25 1/4 inches (89%)
 She is not overly fat, but she definately has some rolls on her legs, arms and neck.  Lizzie is so smily and happy most of the time.  She is really liking her Bumbo chair and her exersaucer, and she is starting to really grab at toys. 

Lizzie loves to stand up while being held, and usually is barfing or drooling all over herself.  She really smiles for her siblings and loves all the attention, hugs and kisses that they are constantly giving her.

Emily and I have fun choosing her outfits with headbands and shoes everyday.  She has such cute summer clothes and swimming suits, thanks to her grandma's! 
Elizabeth is ticklish and starting to laugh a lot.  She is loosing her hair, especially in the back, it's getting rubbed off from sleeping.

We sure love you Lizzie!  Please stop growing so fast!

We went to Liberty Park this week to see my friend, Andrea and her family.  They are here from Australia, and it was so great to see them. I didn't get any pictures of them, but here are few of the kids at the park.  It was a really hot day, so we bought some ice cream to cool off.