Summa Time

In some ways I secretly dread the coming of summer, thinking it will so hard to be out of our routines and wonder how am I going to keep the kids entertained when school ends, and all that. But then summer gets here and it is so nice and pleasant to have warm weather and have time to just have fun. We've had a great summer so far. Let's just say I have spent a lot of time sitting on the deck eating popsicles with the kids. In other news, this summer both boys are playing baseball.

Dallin is doing coach pitch. He loves it.

Luke is doing tee ball. He hates it.

Lehi Roundup days were great, as usual. The kids love the parade and rodeo.

Abby got all dressed up for the rodeo, but then I send her with my in-laws after the parade so we could enjoy the night. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed hanging out with her grandma and grandpa more than she would have liked the rodeo.

The boys LOVED the rodeo, of course. You can see from my expanding belly that my due date is approaching. I am scheduled to have this little guy on Friday, August 6. Holy cow, that is four weeks from today. Yikes! What am I going to do with four kids? I'll think about it tomorrow.

We've had one round of swimming lessons at the American Fork pool and are scheduled to begin another one the last two weeks of July. We have been doing evening lessons and they are great. No sunscreen required! Why do I hate putting sunscreen on my kids so much? I swear, I would rather do yard work.

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Dallin's big accomplishment of the summer has been learning to ride a bike. Yeah, he's a little old. But he has always refused to try without training wheels and this summer I haven't really felt like huffing down the street with him in the hot sun, so he has stayed on a four-year-old biking level for about seven years now. Then one night my sisters Teresa and Shayna were here and I asked them to help him learn. About 10 minutes later he was riding all over the neighborhood by himself. Thanks, girlies.  I owe you one. 

We had a fun little fishing trip up to Clear Lake where the boys caught 12 fish. Jason even helped Abby catch her first fish ever. She was thrilled.

And then there's this strange creature. Abby has officially adopted the fake owl from our yard as her new best friend. One day she came running into the house with a huge smile on her face, lugging the giant bird, saying, "She's name Who-Who! She's name Who-Who!!" So Who-Who is now the latest member of our family and sleeps beside Abby in her crib, and usually next to her in the car. Whatever floats your boat, my child. Just take a little nap. I need to go put my feet up for a while...

Timp Archery Range

On Monday night we had a fun little adventure up to the Timp Archery Range in Provo Canyon. We cooked hot dogs and shot bows and enjoyed the beautiful night. It was funny because the wind was so strong down in the valley, and there were thunderclouds rolling in. I thought we were crazy for even attempting to go up there. But once we were there, the storms all headed east and there was no wind. It was calm and perfect and we had so much fun.

Dallin is a little pro. He puts us all to shame.

Abby found a little pair of butterfly wings at the picnic area and wore them upside down most of the night. She and her little cousin Taylor had fun running around and keeping their moms busy chasing them.

My beautiful sisters, Shayna and Teresa, with Taylor. They were both expert shooters with my bow. They will be moving in with me for a few weeks between semesters and I can't wait!!

Even Abby had to shoot a few times. Jason got so excited about her shooting that he went home and ordered a tiny bow just for her. Oh dear. It begins.

Dallin, my brother Ryan's little Katelyn, and Luke. Katelyn loves shooting and running around with the boys. She is so fun to have around.

My brother Ryan and cute little Taylor. I didn't get any pictures of his wife, Christa. She was listening for their little one-month-old baby Andrew most of the time so she didn't get to go traipsing around in the woods. She's a good sport.

Me with my sweet little Abby. I only shot once that night and the string hit my left elbow and I swore I would never shoot again. But I've said that before. I'm still waiting for an impressive bruise to develop.

And there's Luke, with the storm in the background. The rain started as we drove down the hill after 9 pm. Such luck!

Camping at Lagoon

Every year Jason's work has "Lagoon Day" on Memorial Day. This year we decided to pull the trailer up and spend the night at the Lagoon Campground so we would be ready to hit the park bright and early. It was such a good time! The kids were in heaven.

When Abby is really happy, she hops instead of walks. You can tell in this picture that she is just thrilled.

What a nut.

The campground is right outside the little "zoo" area, and the kids loved going out and looking at the animals. Plus, it was nice that we weren't quite close enough for the llamas to spit on Dallin, which has happened in years past. Not joking. What kind of a llama spits on a two-year-old? I mean really, Lagoon. We should have pressed charges. We could OWN Lagoon right now. I know the first change I would make. It would involve background checks at the campground.

There is some kind of rule in my family that at least one person has to be making a weird face in every single picture. I've given up on trying to get everyone to look normal. Sorry. Dallin must be having a flashback of the llama spit in this picture because he looks slightly out of it.

Jason and the kids had a rocking game of How to Train Your Dragon while I read my book. What could be more perfect?

The weather at the park on Monday was so nice. Warm, but just overcast enough that we didn't need sunscreen. I know, I know, you can still get burned though the clouds, blah blah blah. Whatever. No you can't. Or else I would be laying out in my yard right now.

Luke's version of a "smile".

I can't believe these little boats haven't sunk in the 30+ years they have been floating around this ride. I remember riding in them when I was this age.

See what I mean about weird faces? Both of them. Seriously.

I'll be honest. I normally hate Lagoon, and all theme parks for that matter. The lines, the crowds, the whiny kids, the abusive animals... But this day was different. It was actually and truly a good time. I love days like that!

Dallin's Last Day of First Grade

My little Dallin finished the first grade last week! I need therapy to get my through my kids growing up. I can't deal with it. I know it's a good thing, but I'm so sad. He can't be done with the first grade, because then he'll go on to the second grade, and that is practically adulthood. Once you learn your times tables, you may as well just move out of the house because you are no longer a child. I am so proud of him, though. He loved this school year, and he had a great teacher, Miss Oliekan. She was so kind to him, and was a good sport when every journal entry and every art assignment was somehow related to hunting. She told me she learned a lot this year!

He looks so serious. But, he's not a serious child. He is a serious goof. Love this boy!!!

Here's to summer and to all the fun changes it will bring...

Luke's Preschool Graduation

I don't know why preschool graduation always makes me so emotional. It's not like it's a college graduation, or like I'm never going to see this child again. It's just that, well, I'll never see this child graduate from preschool again. Until next year. And by then, things will be totally different. Luke had a great year at Little Learner's Preschool and I will miss picking him up at Mrs. Jensen's house and hearing about all his adventures. He did a great job remembering his lines for the big graduation program and had a shy little smile through the whole ceremony.
On the way to graduation, Luke said, "Mom, we have to sing a song that has a naughty word in it and I don't want to say it." I asked him what the word was. He whispered, "Bottom. We have to say 'Bottoms up'. And I don't want to say it." I told him that he could do the rest of the song, but just not say that part. Well, when it got to that part of the "Tooty-ta", he completely shut down.
The rest of the song was fine, but after that part he just stood there and looked embarrassed. He later told me that he likes to shake his bum, but not put it up in the air. Which is just fine, I told him.

Luke LOVED being in the same class with his cousin Halli. He is going to miss her next year when she goes to kindergarten. He still doesn't understand why it isn't okay to marry cousins. I guess I'll save that discussion for a later date because it always ends in tears at this point.

Jason's mom came to help celebrate the big day. Dallin was at school, so he had to miss out.

Luke and his teacher, Mrs. Jensen.

Oh, my little Luke, don't grow up so fast!!!

HB to me!

So last Friday, March 26, was my birthday! It was the best birthday ever. I had my 20 week ultrasound and everything looks great. And.... it's a BOY! A girl would have been great, too, but we like boys a lot around here. One more little hunter for Jason to train. I always love seeing the baby in the ultrasound and realizing that yes, there is a little creature in there, just waiting to make his appearance in the world! It's so hard to imagine what life will be like with one more child, but I couldn't imagine what life would be like with the other three, either, and now I can't imagine life without them.
I had a hard time getting decent pictures this year, as you will notice, but here I am with the three kiddos right before I opened my presents. Abby is blocking the beautiful flowers that my parents sent me. I love them. They are so gorgeous. Thanks, Mom and Dad!Jason spoiled me this year, like always. I got a new printer, a steam cleaner, some clothes from my favorite store, and a little getaway. I actually wanted all of us to go somewhere and have a fun time, but I didn't feel like going very far, so we went to the lovely Motel 6 in Lehi and spent the night. With the kids. It was so fun. We swam and got Chinese takeout and jumped on the beds... what could be better?
At about 9 pm Jason took the boys to get some treats and they came back with an ice cream cake, candles and a lighter, so we had a little makeshift birthday party for me.We had a great time and the kids were so excited to be at a motel. Hopefully they will always be this easy to please! We woke up in the morning and went swimming again, and then we went to the movie How to Train Your Dragon in 3D. We all loved the movie (really!). Then it was home for a small nap before heading down to my brother Ryan's house for HIS birthday party, since I was born the day before his first birthday. We are the same age for one day, so here we are, holding our signs like our parents have had us do since we were tiny little chilluns. Now we have a small batch of chilluns of our own! These are a few of them, and one extra. Thank you, Teresa for decorating our signs for us. The 3s are snakes, if you can't tell.
It was such a good birthday, and I appreciated all the calls and messages and treats. I feel so incredibly blessed and overwhelmed with how wonderful my life is. It is not perfect, but it is so good and I have so many great friends and a family that loves and supports me. What more could a girl ask for?

Dallin's Seventh Birthday

Well, it's official. Dallin is seven years old. His birthday was on Tuesday, February 2. Groundhog Day. My little baby groundhog. Of course he wanted a hunting birthday again. I am still amazed by how much he loves hunting. You know your kid is well on his way to being a redneck when you search at Toys-R-Us for an hour and can't find ANYTHING for him, then stop at Cal Ranch on the way home and have trouble stuffing it all in the cart. And he was thrilled with every last target and arrow and piece of camo... weird. But whatever makes him happy. Especially when it makes his Dad VERY happy to have a little clone. The best thing about Dallin loving hunting so much is that Jason will do the whole birthday party. All I have to do is make the cupcakes and buy the cake. He decorates them, plans the games, takes the afternoon off work to manage 12 over-sugared six and seven-year-olds... it's great. Dallin's birthday this year started on Sunday with a party at his Grandma and Grandpa Yates' house. Here he is blowing out the candle on the camo cupcakes that Jason decorated:

A close-up of the cupcakes:
It's good that he's turning seven because he only has about seven teeth in his mouth these days.

Seven! Don't mind the Tang mustache. Showing off all his loot with Abby.
Then it was on to his friend party on his birthday. Here he is blowing out the candles on the hunting cake Jason decorated. The theme he chose this year was turkey hunting, so there is Hunter Dan, shooting at a turkey through some trees, a few decoys and of course, the candles. I don't think the turkey stood a chance.

Dallin's little friend Issac, in the bottom right corner, told us he was also turning seven that day. I really didn't believe him, so I asked his mom when she came to pick him up and she said yes, he really was! They were born on the same day. He is our neighbor on one side, and our neighbor across the street, Hank, turned 5 that same day! When my sisters came over later, they said they didn't know which party to attend because there were so many cars parked in the street.Dallin wanted to teach his friends the finer points of shed horn hunting, so he had Jason give them a little lesson on finding sheds and then they went down to the basement to search. Dallin takes it very seriously.Yay, they all found some!Then there was a shooting competition.

Then they played Pin the Beard on the Turkey. Yeah, I didn't know turkeys had beards either. Until one day I found a disgusting, suspicious-looking tuft of black hair in my kitchen, and Jason, upon investigating my screams, told me it was a turkey beard. Lovely. Thanks for bringing it home to share, honey.

And here we are, the whole family on his birthday. Including the new life-size deer target. I'm not sure if he has a name yet. I'll keep you posted. It is unbelievable to me that I really have a seven year old. Dallin is such a good, sweet kid and I'm so proud of the person he is growing into. He is soooooo funny. His first grade class wrote him happy birthday letters and his teacher made them into a book. It was so much fun to read what the kids wrote. Dallin obviously has a lot of friends and is definitely the class clown. Almost every single kid told him they like him because he is funny. A few of the girls said cute things like, "I like your freckles." "I like your hair." "I like your shirt everyday." "Hi, my name is Audrey but I don't think you know what I am talking about." Ha ha. One boy said, "Dallin, will you please be my friend? Please! Please! Please! Please!" What? I never had kids begging to be my friend when I was in first grade! Dallin is also very bright and loves to read and learn. I can't believe how much he has grown and changed in the last year. I wish I could just freeze time. He is at such a perfect age. Old enough to be such an individual but still young enough to need his mama. The house just isn't the same all day while he is at school. I really miss him while he is gone and can't wait to hear him come in the door and tell me all about his day. He loves recess, P.E., computers, basketball, Hershey's chocoate bars, and falling asleep with his ten stuffed animals from Cabela's in his arms every night. Dallin, I love you so much!! I'm so proud to be a part of your life. Thanks for letting me be your mom and learn from you everyday.