Brenda Visits

Steve's mom came in town to help with the kids just after Kelan was born and she stayed for a week. She was such a big help and I don't know how I would have done it without her! My house was picked up, laundry done, dinner made, and the older kids were happy all because of her. It was so helpful. It was really hard to have her leave when the time came and there were plenty of tears, but I knew that it had to happen eventually!

I always forget to pull my camera out when family is around... I didn't get one picture of Brenda with Kelan and the only time this whole week she was here that I pulled it out was when we had a picnic dinner up the canyon at the park with the kids. I have got to get better about that! Luckily she'll be back in a couple of weeks for Steve's little brother James' farewell and I'll make sure to get more pictures then! We'll probably be blessing Kelan that same weekend if we can.






Cohen thought he was so big and had to do what the other kids were doing. Even if it meant him going down all the big slides by himself. He just turns around and goes down on his tummy like it's nothing!

I've done 4 kids on my own for the last couple of days now and so far it's going okay. I am so lucky to have such great friends and neighbors that have been so helpful to me. I don't know what I'd do without them!

Saturday Outing

We get a little stir crazy these days at home, so we decided to go for a drive up the canyon over the weekend and stop at a little reservoir that we had never been to.


What do kids do near water when they're not dressed to swim?
Throw rocks...
They just can't help themselves. :)

Slip 'n' Slide

We picked up a new slip 'n' slide for the kids on Saturday and they've had lots of fun with it already. It's a Buzz Lightyear one with a tunnel and everything... the kids seem to think it's pretty cool.

Too bad Cohen was sleeping, otherwise he would have been going down it with the other two. He's braver than they are and the cold hose water it's hooked up to doesn't really seem to phase him. ;)

We are loving summer!

A Whirlwind Weekend...

What a fun 4th of July weekend we had!
Just a few of our activities...

- My sister and her family of 6 came up to stay with us
- Went to Seven Peaks water park
- Went and saw Eclipse with my sister
- Took some family photos
- Celebrated my little bro, Troy's, 21st birthday
- Had a Cummings family reunion in Heber City at the park
- Lit fireworks - enough to have the cops pay us a visit (those darn illegals) ;)
- Ordered the UFC fight
- Had a BBQ at our house
- and the guys played a couple rounds of golf.

It was busy and there was just not enough sleep to be had, but so much fun. I should have taken more pictures, but I'm just glad I got what I did. :)

I took Mical and her family out for a quick family shoot on Friday morning because it had been over 2 1/2 years since her last family photo. Remember these? Yep, it had been far too long! Here are just a couple shots...
Maddi - age 9
Caden - age 7
Callie - age 5 (she must catch America's Next Top Model when it's on because she knows what to do in front of a camera!)
and Cole - age 3 (as of next month)
Cute, right? They are pretty easy to photograph now that they are all getting older. I can't believe my sister has a 9 year old. It's crazy to me!

Here is the family reunion from Saturday...
My Aunt Susan and Uncle Shane filling the pvc pipe gun that Shane made with candy to shoot at the kids. I think this was definitely a highlight.
And it's flying... Susan and Shane there with all the kids along with my Uncle Kim with the hat on.
Cohen totally got it and was grateful for his Aunt Alex (my little brother, Trevor's wife) who helped him get his share of candy.

My sister is potty training her youngest, Cole who will be 3 next month and I thought it was hilarious watching him run with his candy while holding onto his shorts for dear life... poor guy isn't quite used to a skinny bum without diapers to hold up his pants. ;)
I was laughing at these next few, the kids faces are priceless as they see the candy coming their way... and then realizing that it might hurt when it hits them, so a few are ducking for cover.

A happy Scarlett with her bag of candy... and wishing for some sunglasses about then.
Cohen ran us tired the whole time, but he had a great time and even got into the water balloons... so much that he was totally drenched and went home in just his diaper.
This picture is from the BBQ we had at our house on Sunday evening. Everyone had eaten and was watching Life on dvd in our basement. Between Planet Earth and Life, I think we had something playing non-stop all weekend when we were home. The kids (and adults, I have to say) were glued.
It was sad to say goodbye to cousins and there were even a few tears over it. I love that they love each other so much!

Now I'm just trying to catch up on sleep and get back to our normal daily life. I'll have a 5 year old soon and he's very insistent on being involved in planning his party at the end of the month. And a couple more family reunions happening soon too. The summer is flying by way too fast!

A gorgeous summer evening...

It was so nice outside one night last week and Kanyon was asking to go on a walk because he wanted to show his dad how good on his bike he is becoming. Scarlett decided to ride her bike too and I couldn't believe how similar in size they looked riding their bikes together and how cute too. I wish I would've taken my camera on the walk and taken a picture of them riding up ahead of us. I'll have to do that another time.

After our walk, Kanyon and Steve played basketball while Scarlett rode Kanyon's F150. She's finally getting the hang of steering and backing up, but still needs to be reminded to watch out for Cohen. Cohen walked around throwing basketballs and rocks while I laid on the grass because I was in pain. I must have overdone it that day because I took a long walk with the kids in the morning too and it's a fast paced walk trying to keep up with Kanyon on his bike while pushing the other 2 in the jogging stroller. Then on our walk that evening, I got caught talking with a friend and had to run (yes, really run - I'm sorry for any neighbors that had to witness it) to catch up with my family. That gave me a major side ache and instant contractions. I learned that even though I can physically still run, I probably shouldn't. haha!

A few funny dunk shots of Steve on the hoop set at 7 ft. for Kanyon to shoot on...


Kanyon shooting hoops. He's really getting good and we've seen so many improvements in him over the last couple of months since we got this hoop put in. He can make it easy now and is dribbling and catching passes... while when we first got the hoop he was too afraid to even catch the basketball. Steve couldn't be prouder.






Looking forward to many more summer nights like this one... minus the pain for me! ;) I'd like to participate more next time instead of being literally stuck laying in the grass. Just 8ish weeks to go before it'll be our family of 6 playing outside instead of 5. :)

Memorial Weekend: Part 3

We always try and see the Temple and Visitor's Center when we go to St. George. The kids love it and the kids even sang "I love to see the Temple" for us on video... I wish I had that ready to share. They were so cute.

Here they are posing for us after hanging out in the air-conditioned Visitor's Center for a while. They got special cards with a picture of Jesus on them and they carried them everywhere.





We went together as a family one morning and did 9 holes of golf. Well... I should say that Steve golfed and we all just were there to hang out. We had 2 golf carts and lots of snacks to help entertain the kids. They saw SO many wild rabbits all over the course, so that was entertaining enough for a while.

Here they are practicing before we took off. I love Steve's tucked in/no belt look he has going. They are pretty strict there at the Entrada course and got after him to tuck it in when he went into the pro shop that morning before our tee time. haha! I'm kind of surprised that they let us take our kids! It wasn't busy though because it was after Memorial Day, thank goodness.
It was a gorgeous course, although the back 9 where we were was pretty tough and I'm not sure how many balls Steve lost. ;) At least two went in this pond pictured below though!

Kanyon had his clubs too and would putt a little bit.

This picture kind of sums up what it's like golfing with 3 kids... not much room for concentration!





Steve also lost a fair amount of balls due to this lava rock you can see in the pictures below. It was really unforgiving.



I think we set a record... 9 holes in an hour and a half. It was extremely hot and the kids were getting restless towards the end, but it was a fun family activity. I think they liked riding around on the golf carts the best. :)

To sum it up... a fun family trip. I think we'll do it again sometime. Far enough to feel like we were really away, but not too far!