More bits and pieces!

After the rain had settled a little here is what we did to get warm.

Some of the gang sitting by the fire and getting warm and seeing who can roast the best marshmellow!

Emmy and her prize winning smore! She claims she can roast the best marshmellow!

My sister Sawyer and my niece Kayden getting in on the action and helping the little kids roast their marshmellows

Even the little ones in the family were having a good time. This is my nephew Bentley! don't you love those cheeks!

If you couldn't tell we love to build a fire and roast mellows. We do it quite often when we get together! But we never seem to agree on who can roast the best one!

In Bits and Pieces!

Our 4th of July is going to be posted in bits and pieces, cause you know me, I love to tell a story! To try to cram it all into one post would just be crazy! So here is our fabulous week a little bit at a time!

So this is how our week started off. When we pulled up to my in-laws house in Eagar, the rain started coming down. I had mixed emotions about this! I love the rain exspecially when it is nice and cool outside, but my kids had been dying to go outside and play, they were looking forward to a week filled with lots of sunshine and lots of swimming. So how could I say no when they all ran out to play in the rain! I know it is hard to tell but in all of these pictures it is raining really hard, but that didn't matter they were having a blast!

Emmy stopping to pose for a picture in the rain!

So with in a couple of hours of being there we were already changing out of wet and muddy clothes! But I guess kids will be kids!

Hold your torches high!

Girls Camp 2009

Some how I always seem to be very lucky in the fact that I have been able to attend girls camp for the last 8 years. I was certain that this would be the year that would break that tradition cause I had just got released from YW's. But lucky for me one of the leaders that was suppose to go got injured and I was able to take her place! (Sorry Sara, we do wish you could have been there!)

Heather just relaxing

Rachelle

We had an amazing year at camp, our numbers were small but we made up for it in the fun we had! I was so surprised at the friendship that we have with our YW! There was no fighting or bickering, just girls having a good time! Some of my favorite moments were all the girls squishing into one tent to try to keep warm. We froze!!! It was raining and cold the whole time!but you should have seen them all together in one tent, it was touching! Another fun moment was when our girls come back from taking their showers and they had scouted the whole camp site looking for an outlet to plug in the hair dryers. It was so funny when they found one right next to our camp site in the light pole above the volleyball court.

Jennifer blow drying her hair, Crazy Girl!

Kaylee taking her turn with the blow dryer.

But the best time of all was skit night. Our ward definitely had the best skit. I have never laughed so hard in my life! Our skit was a twist on Beauty and the Beast, and they did an awesome job!

Skit Night

Ashlee as La foo and Rachelle as Gaston, I'm still laughing from that night!

Girls camp took an interesting turn when on the 2nd to last day we were enjoying some games. In one game I took a pretty nasty fall and hit my head. I'm not sure if I hit something or just smacked the ground, but I new immediately that I was going to have a good headache so I headed straight to the nurse. She wasn't available for I think about a hour, so I sat there waiting. As I was waiting my headache did start hurting pretty bad and I started to get a little sick to my stomach. By the time the nurse got there, I was feeling pretty sick, but just wanted to get some Advil and go eat my lunch. She gave me an ice pack and some Advil and had me sit with her for a minute. When I got up to go, I instantly blacked out, and it was like my throat had closed off. I couldn't breath. I could hear the nurse yelling at me to breath but I couldn't see her, and I was getting a little panicky! I remember telling myself to calm down and stay focused and slowly I got my vision back and breathing was getting easier! But then I felt really sick to my stomach and I new I needed to throw up. About this time the nurse is yelling for someone to call 911 and for the priesthood to come give me a blessing. I was humiliated!!! I did not want them to call 911 and I was putting up a pretty good fight, but the nurse kept reminding me of that actress that had just died from hitting her head, and that was a little scary! She wanted me to move over to the bed so I could lay down while we were waiting for the EMT's. Again I think I blacked out or came close (it is all a little fuzzy now) but then I started shacking but not just like shacking when your cold shacking like your having a seizure, and that was really scary, I quit fighting with the nurse and was glad that I would be going to the hospital to get checked out! When the EMT's got there they asked me a bunch of questions and did there normal vital checks, well one of the times they were checking my blood pressure it was spiking and then they pricked my finger and my blood sugar was way off and the next thing I now they are radioing a helicopter to come get me. WHAT? Now I am totally humiliated!

So they strap me down. This has got to be the worst part of the whole thing. The strap me down so tight I can't even move my fingers, and right where they have strapped my head to the bored is right where I hit it. Being on that bored hurt worse then the actual fall. I was gripping the straps so tight and gritting my teeth so tight just to keep from screaming, it hurt so bad! Then I have to ride on a bumpy dirt mountain road out to the highway to meat the helicopter. that was the longest ride of my life! Things at this part get a little fuzzy again, but when we got to the highway the helicopter wasn't there yet but another ambulance was, and I remember talking to them about it but I don't remember why but they just decided to have me switch ambulances instead of waiting for the helicopter. I was glad to just get going the faster we got there the faster I could get off that bored! Well after a CT scan some IV's and other blood work, they just determined that I had a really good concussion. They told me to just rest for a couple of days, no heavy lifting and no sports! They gave me some stuff for the pain and I was on my way. It was quite the experience! And for the next 3 days I did a lot of sleeping! Even with all of that, I am still so glad that I got to go. The spirit that you feel at camp is unlike any where else! And of course I love being with those girls! I have missed them so much since I got released and I felt like I got one more adventure with them! I love you guys!

Stephanie painting her nails.

Sis Neild was famous for her notes, they all looked they had been professionally done!

Kaylee and Sis Neild doing what we do best a camp, Be silly!

Sadly I didn't get any other pictures, my cameras battery died, but there is always next year!

A weekend in the rain!

Watching it rain!

For Memorial Day we got to spend the weekend at Grandma and Grandpas house in Eagar, (I know Memorial Day was forever ago, but I'm just getting to this post). We were able to take Sugar Cookie and Jesse up for the summer so they can graze in the pastures, and we won't have to pay to feed them! So we spent the weekend fixing fences and playing in the rain. Yep, it rained all weekend long, don't get me wrong I love the rain, I was just kind of getting sick of cleaning up after muddy kids, but they had a blast! Every time we go up to Eagar this time of year my kids never come in the house! Even if it is raining. They even eat all their meals out side. They are up when the sun comes up and crash in bed at bed time! And when ever it is time to go home I always ask myself, why am I going home, to all that heat?

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

Working hard? or Hardly working? Looks like were taking a break and going for a ride!

Getting out of the rain and playing in the tree house!

This tree house is really cool, Josh built it underneath this big huge pine tree, the branches hang down and touch the ground all the way around, so the kids have this cool secret tree house in the middle. Perfect for getting out of the rain!

Enjoying each other! And where was Haydenn during all of this? Fast asleep!

Haydenn's growing up!

Well maybe or maybe not!

Haydenn as a new baby!

She has not been my fastest at doing things, but that is ok! This past week we took away her bottle. I was not looking forward to this one, I had tried a couple of weeks ago but she was putting up a good fight. None of my other kids ever really cared about giving up the bottle, and I would not have pegged her for the stubborn one. I decided I had better wait since all my kids were going to go spend a week a grandmas while I was at girls camp. I didn't want my Mother-in-law to have to deal with that. So I gave in for at least a couple of more weeks.

When I got back from girls camp I was ready for the challenge. So that night she went to bed with a sippy instead of her bottle. Now normally my kids just get a sippy of water when they go to bed, but I thought we should ease into this slowly, so for the first day I gave her milk. She didn't do to bad, a little crying when I first layed her down but nothing to major. Now she is bottle free!! Yea! No more bottles to pack around, I'm so excited! Now if we could just get her to walk.

She is 15 months old and wants nothing to do with walking. She has just barely started to stand and let go of things. I work with her everyday, and have tried everything, from bribing her with something, to giving her something to hold in her hands. She knows how to do it, she has taken a couple of steps, she just won't! I think she is just scared. Normally I would just let her figure it out when she is ready, but at the end of the summer we will be going camping a couple of times, and I do not want her crawling around in the dirt, that would just be silly! She is perfectly capable of walking and she would have so much more fun if she would! So for now Haydenn is gradually growing up, at her own pace and I'm am just going to have to deal with it! One thing I am sad about, this last week I have started to notice that she is loosing her baby chub! We went from a size 5 diaper to now a size 4. Pretty soon she won't be our chub chub, or Alaska, or chunky monkey, or any other of those things, and that does make me a little sad!

for now, here is our chub chub at 15 months! Love those big brown eyes and that dark crazy hair!

Let me know if you have any good ideas for the walking thing!

Womens Conference 2009

Check out my new suit case I picked up at Women Conf. So cute Ha!! They have little booths all around campus with things to buy, who ever thought of the things to go in them this year was a genius! I came home with a suit case a duffel bag and 3 adorable new totes. All very much a "need" of course!

Every year my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law go up to Women's Conference at BYU and if I'm not huge pregnant or have a new born then I usually go with them. We have a blast and look forward to going every year! We have so much fun spending endless hours in the car together making fun of each other and making countless potty stops (we have seen some very interesting bathrooms along the way).



Once we get there we never stop going. We love attending classes at Women's Conference during the day and getting our spiritual lamps filled. Every year I try to go with a question or a thought, or a prayer in my heart that needs to be answered. Sometimes it is something major that is going on in my life that I really need an answer to and sometimes I just need my testimony strengthened. This year I was feeling pretty good about life and counting my blessings! Nothing to major in mind! Then in the middle of one of the speakers and answer came to a question I had been having, a question I hadn't even come prepared to have answered. It wasn't the answer that I wanted but one I needed to hear. Even though it wasn't what I wanted it lifted a huge burden off of my shoulders to not have to think about it any more to know that Heavenly Father is aware of our desires and that at this time in our lifes that is not the direction he would have us go. That along was so comforting, I felt like I could deal with it knowing it was what my Father in Heaven would have us do.



After a day filled with the spirit the night is filled with shopping and good eating! We have our traditional places that we like to go eat. And this weekend is all about us and enjoying each other! One of our favorite places to eat is "Out Back". YUM!!! We go every year on the first day we are there, it starts us off on a good note. Shopping is also at the top of our list. We know that we are going to be doing a lot of it so we usually start saving our money way in advance so we don't have to worry about where the money is going to come from later, we have our budgets and we stick to them. We are always the last ones out of the store, and the store clerks are waiting by the doors to lock up after us.



A couple of the other things that make our trip so memorable are, BYU mint brownies (I could live on them!), spending hours on end in the BYU bookstore looking at pointless stuff (We are ASU fans so buying anything in there is strictly forbidden), getting star struck when running into one of the amazing speakers, eating squeaky cheese till you are sick, staying up late giggling, but most important we come away with the desire to be a better mother, wife, sister, friend, our testimonies are strengthened and our faith has grown. I hope every one gets the opportunity to go at least once, you won't regret it I promise!



Thanks for a wonderful weekend at Womens Conference!

Happy Birthday Tucker!

Tucker with his football hat, he had a football birthday!

Just around the corner from my birthday is my favorite little boys! This year Tucker turned 5. Now he is ready for kindergarten. We always told him that he could go to big kid school when he turned 5, now he is just upset that he has to wait out the summer. He is so ready for kindergarten, I will miss him a ton when he goes. He is a huge help around the house and him and Rylenn have gotten to be really good friends. It use to be that Emmy was making Tucker do all the things that she wanted to do, like play dress up or barbie. Then this past year the roles switched and it was Tucker making Rylenn do everything he wanted, playing bulls or football, or watching old John Wayne movies. It's a good thing Haydenn doesn't fall to far behind Rylenn cause I'm sure Rylenns turn is coming soon! I know they are going to have a blast together!

Anyway for Tuckers birthday he opened gifts with just us. It was on a Sunday morning and lucky for Tuck we don't have church till 1pm. So the morning was spent playing and enjoying all the new birthday stuff. That night we were suppose to go over to Me ma and Papas for cake and ice-cream but my little sister Lexi had her seminary graduation. So at the last minute we improvised and had some of Tuckers best friends Jay and Joanne Wahl come over and help us celebrate!

Tucker with his good friend Jay getting ready to blow out his football candles on his Ice-cream and cookie dessert

That next week we invited everyone and went to the pool at Basha High. We love that pool! We have lived in it all summer long. It is kind of hard to keep track of 2 little ones and take pictures so no pics from the pool!

Every year me and Tucker go out to breakfast together to celebrate both of our birthdays. He always chooses IHOP, and he always licks his plate clean! Our waitress was shocked at everything he had eaten! My kids love that place, and I enjoy the one on one time I get to have with Tucker!

Opening one of his favorite gifts a WebKinz horse! Thanks Me ma!

Besides being so excited for kindergarten, Tucker loves football, he plays all day long. This time of year when there isn't any football games going on he slows down just a bit, but he and Josh keep talking about how they can't wait till football season is here again! Right now he is also loving his WebKinz, he just got some new ones for his birthday and he and Emmy like to play them together. And of course Tucker will forever love our horses Jesse and Sugar Cookie. Even though not to long ago he was bucked off of Jesse, it hasn't fazed him one bit, he got right back on no problem! Both of the horses are in Eagar for the summer so it is an extra treat to get to go to Grandmas and get to see them as well! Tucker also enjoys reading books and doing puzzles, Grandma got him a cute cowboy puzzle for his birthday that is going to keep him busy for awhile! Tuckers personality is very fun loving. He loves to be around other people and other kids! He hates that he has a room all to himself and will often times sneak into Emmy's room or mine and fall asleep on the floor. I love Tucker so much, sometimes I just can't get enough of his beautiful dark brown eyes and his adorable freckles. Look out girls he is going to be a knock out! (at least I think so)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Tucker We Love You!!!!!