Fun in the Sun

Thanks to the wonderful weather, we've been having fun playing outside with our neighbors. Yesterday we went over to my neighbor Rachel's house and swam with her boys Rohin and Murphy and Jamison, our fun friend down the street. What fun, cute kids we have on our street!

Jamison owning the trike!

Rohin making the most of the water and the toys.

Murphy and his cool spikey hair.

Owen, doing his own thing in the puddles on the sidewalk.

A rare smile from Miss Erin. She doesn't smile for pictures much.

Independence Day

We had fun on the 4th. We started it out with a parade our ward does. All the kids decorate their bikes and ride down the street to the church while members of the ward line the sides of the road and cheer them on. I completely forgot to go get decorations, so our kids had the most ghetto decorations ever. They liked them though, so I guess that's all that matters.

We then went to Cameron's sister's house for BBQ and fireworks. Here is Owen's reaction to the fireworks. He wasn't quite sure at first, then wasn't too impressed after that.

Liam liked the sparklers and fireworks, but Erin didn't want sparklers after the first one. She would rather hold her baby.

Here are the Williamsen women and Grandpa Lee in the background.

We swam, ate and had a good time. Thanks Laurie and Greg for use of your home and yard.

Owen had so much fun, he was drooling!

Happy 4th of July!

Mish Mash

I finally got my pictures uploaded, so I can catch up on what has been going on at our house. Father's Day was nice for us. I made Cameron a candybar note from the kids and I. Hopefully he liked it. We found a baby bird near our front door. It was almost dead, breathing only intermittently. I felt so bad for it, I scooped it up on a piece of paper put him in a box and brought him inside. We put a heating pad under the box and in about 30 minutes, this is what we had.

He was hopping around, chirping all over the place. Oh GREAT! What do we do now? I brought him in so he could die comfortably, but nooo! He decides he's too strong for that. This is about 8:00 at night, so I call some animal hospitals trying to figure out what to do. They said to put him outside and his mom would find him and if not, bring him in the next day. Okay. Where to put a little hopping all over the place bird? We decided to put him in our neighbor's flower pot where he can't jump out, but his mom can jump in. Put overexcited kids to bed and Cam and I start watching a movie. Here I am, feeling all maternal toward this little bird, so I go out to check on him, and he's all half dead again. Just laying there, struggling to breathe. My mommy in me felt so sad, I brought him back in. He perked right up after a while and started chirping and hopping again. So we go to bed with this bird chirping all night. In the morning I take him to the animal hospital and they say they can't take him because they'll just euthanize him. Oh man, what now? They suggest hanging a basket in a tree and some bird will come mother him. So we take Erin's old Easter basket, hang it in the tree and wait. And wait. And wait. I go out to check on him while the kids are otherwise occupied and the poor thing had died. What do I tell my eager kids who have already named the bird Nemo? So, I did the only thing I could do. I threw the bird away and told the kids his mom had come and gotten him and taken him home. Poor bird. Hopefully he'll forgive me at the judgment bar.

We also made sugar cookies. Of course, the kids are all over making cookies. All three are big "helpers". We were making cookies and Erin all of a sudden just falls face first into the table. She got up and looked like this...

I laughed so hard. I made her stay the way she was until I grabbed the camera. She was a really good sport. I'm so glad I have these kids!

Fun with Photoshop

Just messing around on Photoshop. Some fun pics I took at "The Valley" a place that Cameron and his family grew up with.

We are still alive. I'll post more when more is happening.

Sigh

Screaming and yelling in our house.
Going shopping with three kids.
Screaming and yelling in the store.
Screaming and yelling with a few "stupid mom"'s thrown in.
Tantrum on the floor of the store.
A big, brand new 3 pound bag of trail mix all over my new, clean kitchen floor....twice.
Laundry still not done from Monday.
Landlord being a major grouch...again.
Fighting over what to have for lunch.
Fighting over who gets to say the prayer.
Looking for houses...no luck.
Looking for jobs...no luck.
Screaming and yelling again. (When I mention the screaming and yelling, it's all Erin baby! Love those "terrible twos.")
Just thought I'd give you a sampling of my day yesterday. In fact, that's been the last couple of months. Boy do we need more space. I love love love being a mom, some days are just better than others. Let's hope for a happier day today right?

Taking Pics

This weekend I took some pictures of the cute Miller family. Just a sneek peek! What a fun family.

Bear Lake Baby!

This past week we got to go up to Bear Lake. We have not been able to take a prolonged vacation as a family in over five years. It was really nice to be able to get away, just us, and relax a little. We stayed in a condo for the week and went swimming every day at the swimming pool there, played card games, X-box games, watched cable TV, (what luxury! We miss cable.), ate snacks, and went on lots of day trips. Poor Owen got off his nap schedule a bit, but where's the spontaneity if you have to plan around naps, right?

We went to the fun park they had there. What an awesome park! It had everything, plus a fence so you didn't have to worry about your kids running in the road. Liam was big on climbing and boy were there things to climb.

Like I said...

Erin, Owen and I liked the swings the most.

On another day, we looked for a fun beach and just hung out and took pictures and played in the freezy, freezy cold water.

Liam liked the mud. He kept saying "Touch it Dad!" Amazing what can entertain.Here is Erin's reaction to the mud on her hands. Not quite the same as her brother's. More disgust than amazement.

Owen LOVED the water. He didn't care how cold it was, he just ran in, splashed, sat down, tried to throw Erin's shoes in and just had fun which eventually led to......this.

He got so cold, he cried, but he didn't want to get out of the water. Silly boy.

On another day, we hiked the Limber Pine Trail. A trail that's 1.3 miles in a loop to see the Limber Pine. It's a tree that looks humungous, but is really five pine trees growing all twisted up together. The kids really had a good time on the hike. It was fun.

Here's the Limber Pine.

It's a really BIG tree.

Here's from further away.

This tree had snow hindering it's growth, so the main trunk died and one of the branches took over the growing of the tree.

My cute family sitting on the stunted tree.

Cameron and Owen on the hike. Owen wanted to be carried, then put down and he would walk about 10 or 20 feet and then want to be carried again. He had a blast.

We had a really fun time. We need to make time for family vacations now that Cameron has the time. The kids got to know each other better and even played together. Liam still wants to live at Bear Lake and convinced Erin it would be a great place to live. Now when we ask her where we should move, she says "Bear Lake."