More Summer Happenings...

Here are some more pictures of the kids enjoying their summer...

Canyon Park
What is better then a day at the park with cousins!

Painting

It had been a long time since we broke out the paint and paint brushes...its fun to see the different creativity in each child...

Don't we have such a talented family?...hehe



Moving Sprinklers

I am not sure how we inherited a one acre garden but good thing we decided not to plant one of our own. Chris is showing Austin how to move sprinklers. Austin is becoming such a hard worker just like his daddy!

Abigail is spoiled from Great Grandpa...he doesn't let any other grandkids ride his 4-wheeler! I think she gets him everytime she runs to him and says "pa-pa!" Who could resist?!

Swimming at Aunt Stacys and Uncle Ed's in Las Vegas

The kids love to swim at their aunt and uncles house. I wish we had time to go a couple of more times this year...

Austin was so proud of himself that he can finally swim across the whole pool without his life-jacket and he that he can dive down and retrieve objects from the bottom of the pool.

Allison couldn't get enough of jumping off the rocks! She was even doing tricks, like twirls, cannon-balls and lots of belly and back flops (she swore they didn't hurt)...she also tried her first time diving!

Abigail loves the water as long as someone is holding her. That didn't seem to be a problem between me, dad, and her aunts and uncles!

Hope everyone else is having a great summer!!!

Learning to Love Cedar!

I have to admit that when we decided to move back to Utah a little over a year ago I was not too thrilled about it. We had only lived in Las Vegas for about 2 and a half years, had moved already once during that time and I was just not looking forward to moving AGAIN! (In 10 years we have moved 10 times!) I could probably list a dozen reasons why I didn't want to move back to Utah the top two being I am a city girl and we were leaving an AMAZING JOB! I think I liked Chris' job better then he did though...for several reasons, not just for the money! :) But I agreed to move back and so I made a conscious effort to find reasons why that was a good thing. It has probably taken me until recently to fully appreciate the things that Utah has to offer...like great hiking, camping and fishing within an hours drive in many directions! I love the smell! It just smells fresh and clean here (of course, that is when you are not downwind from the sheep or cow farm which for us, luckily, is most of the time)! Although I have to admit I do love the smell of hot dirty wet pavement after it has rained in the summer in Las Vegas. :) But the one thing I love the most and what I think has finally made me realize how much I love living where I do now, is the view from my kitchen window. Every morning, I wake up and get to watch the sunrise above the mountains. When my kids are playing in the backyard with their cousins, or working in the garden with their dad and great-grandpa, I get to view it from my kitchen window. And yesterday after a light sprinkling, I got to witness one of nature's most beautiful creations...a full rainbow! Living in a bigger city would not offer me such amazing views every day and so I am grateful to live where we do...finally!

Allison is such a great example to me of learning to appreciate the little things in life. She sat and watched the rainbow from the porch until it finally disappeared...which was about 20 min.

Summer happenings...

One night for FHE we made "Ice Cream in a bag." The kids loved making it although theirs turned out runny because they were a little impatient. Mine and Chris's turned out much creamier. Either way the flavor was awesome. We added strawberries and peaches to it...yummy!

The kids just got done with their first session of swim lessons. They love swimming and can't wait to show off their new skills in Aunt Stacy's pool when we go visit.

Allison was one of the only kids in her class to jump off the diving board without help. She just walks right off.

Austin did the high dive this year and also walked off like it was nothing. I was scared just watching him. I am so glad my kids don't have the same fears that I do...

Thank you to Anne Marie for being Abigail's "mommy" for one week of swim class. It not only allowed me to get pictures of the kids swimming but I was very sick that week and along with being pregnant really did not feel like swimming. Thank you again!!

My sisters bought the girls Easter dresses (for Easter) and wanted some pics of them wearing them. Here they are in one of the dresses...none of the pics with them in the other dresses turned out so we will have to try again later.

Crazy Hair pictures....

Now THIS IS bed head...

Allison's Slide Hair...

I was just playing in Photoshop with this picture of Abigail....

"Bring Your Own Hoe" DeMille FHE

Chris' grandpa owns a couple of acres behind our house that he planted in corn and potatoes. He SO wants to teach the younger generation self-reliance and hard work which he is an amazing example of. Chris kinda got elected to be in charge of the weeding and decided that one person weeding an acre garden was just not going to happen so he enlisted the help of the whole extended family. Last Night we had an extended family FHE. Chris called it the "Bring Your Own Hoe" night. Of course it caught on and everyone called it that, even his grandpa. We had a great turnout, we got all the weeding done, the kids worked a little and played a lot and then we ended with the "official" DeMille food - watermelon.

The kids workin' hard...

Chris' grandpa making sure everyone is doing it right.

The kids LOVE riding on Grandpa's train.

Especially Abigail...she could ride it all day!

Allison in Grandpa's swing.

Eating Watermelon!

What name do you think suits this little fella?

Here is another 3D pic of our little boy...I am not sure I like the 3D pictures...they kind of scare me. :)
It is getting closer to my due date and once again we have to choose a name for our baby. I am really leaning toward one name and Chris really wants another. Sadly, when we ask the kids which names they like they are all siding with their dad. I think this is the most divided we have been on names yet, although I know Chris would go with whatever I chose. I put a little poll on the sidebar for anyone wanting to put in their own two-sense. I also added two other names that we like...just in case. The middle name we have already picked...Robert. Both Chris and I have Grandpa's that were named Robert so it just seemed the right name for the job. Here are the names...

Aaron Robert
Adam Robert
Aiden Robert
Andrew Robert


The following are some really funny names that we found when looking for more "A" names. However they could be offensive so you may want to stop reading now...(And if any of Chris' brothers and sisters are reading this they will definitely get Chris' sense of humor)


Either the pronunciation or the definition was funny...
Achit or Aashit - (Indian) Navy Blue (we especially liked this one...:))
Aanal - (Indian) Center of Spirit
Adhik - (Sanskrit) More Greater
Abich - Noble
Aswad - (African) Black
Ameil (Hebrew)
Abra - (Arabic)
Ardon - (Hebrew) Roving Fugitive

Echo Canyon Campout

For Memorial Day weekend and to celebrate the end of school, we went camping! The kids love camping, hiking and fishing! They have been asking everyday since it stopped snowing! Allie was telling everyone she would see that we were "going camping and exploring and hiking and fishing and that we were going to play hide-n-seek in our tent!" (We have never actually played hide-n-seek in our tent but I guess it could be fun!) Anyway, Echo Canyon is in Eastern Nevada. We had never been there but found out that the fishing was great! Chris caught 12 fish and everyone else caught at least one! Even Austin caught his first fish!

Abigail helping put up the tent!

Allison is so photogenic and loves taking pictures. Unlike, Abbie who yells "no pic, mommy, no pic!" (I have no idea where she would get that:))

Allie and grandma.

Another lovely pose from Allie! And she learned to cast very well! Dad even ended up putting a real hook in her line after he knew she wasn't going to hook herself or someone else!

Austin with his first fish! It was taken with Chris' camera phone because I had just left to go start breakfast...I was so bummed I missed it! :(

Chris catching some shut-eye!

Grandma and Abigail.

Allie and Austin playing in the dirt!


So tired after getting up at 5am to go fishing! Daddy is an early morning fisherman!




Allie wanted to touch the fish!


Abigail loved all the duckies... that is what she is pointing at!

It ended up raining one night really hard...my camera was in the van and I wasn't about to leave the shelter to go and get it, even with a poncho on. It was raining really hard! The kids loved it but it got cold! Luckily there was a pavilion that we could still cook dutch oven under. We had a lot of fun but it ended a little earlier then we would have liked because I got the stomach flu! That is the third time this pregnancy. Last pregnancy I got it 5x...so hopefully this will be it!