Baby Blessing

Last weekend we went to a funeral, but this passed weekend we were able to go to my niece's baby blessing.  It was wonderful to meet her and see almost all of my family (we were missing Glen).  She is such a little cutie.  She didn't want her picture taken, but we insisted it happen anyway.  :)

 It is evident that my niece loves her Mommy and Daddy.  She smiles when they talk to her and as you can see from this picture she enjoys when her Dad plays the guitar for her too.  They are a cute little family.

 Here is my mom with her newest granddaughter.

 Here is my older sister Holly with her first niece on our side of the family.  (Obviously, I haven't produced any nieces for anyone)  :)

 I love how she is looking at her mom like, "This boys is crazy, Mom."  We all think so. :)  P.S.  Tanner has a little crush on my sister-in-law, I'm not sure she knows that.

Tanner wanted a turn holding his cousin.  She didn't care for the little kids trying to hold her.  Thanks so much to my brother and sister-in-law for letting us be a part of their special occasion! 

 A while back Porter realized that my mom had made Vance and Tanner a bear when they were babies, but not him and he was quite disappointed about that.  I sent my mom a picture of him with Tanner's bear via text with a pretty pathetic look on his face.  Guess what she surprised us with this weekend!  A bear just for Porter.  He wanted a green one, not blue like his brothers.  He loves it and his been snuggling and carrying it around since he got it.  Let's face it, the kid is hard to say no to with his cute little face.

And now we lay low for a few weeks and prepare for my little sister's wedding at the end of the month!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!  My kids have been looking forward to going to a parade all week.  Fortunately for us they have a small one walking distance from our place.  It is funny to see the differences in parades depending on where you live.  Definitely a different type of parade than when we lived in Washington, but they are all fun for different reasons.  Here is the picture I got of all the boys.  The sun was in their eyes if you couldn't tell.  Haha.  They were anxious for the parade to begin.

 We took all three of our umbrellas to shade ourselves.  I think it helped.  I put sunscreen on and stayed under an umbrella and my fair skin still got slightly pink.

 Porter was excited.  We walked him down in the stroller, but that was the only time he was actually in it.

 Vance was the most excited of all three and kept asking what time it was because he knew what time the parade was suppose to start.

 Getting some candy.  There was plenty to get too!  Everyone through candy and lots of it.

 They even gave out otter pops.  The boys shared it.  Good idea for keeping cool.

 They waved at everyone (so they could get candy-no doubt).  Their waving got weaker as time went on.

 Here is what we collected not counting what they ate.  Porter would go out and come back with his hands full of candy.  When our gallon zilpoc bag was full he asked if he could eat some.  I told him no because I thought he'd had enough already and he said, "But the bag is full."  The kid has way too much logic for a 3 year old! He also keeps begging for just one piece of candy.  "I'll just have one piece of candy Mom.  I pinky promise." I think they candy needs to be shared with others soon.  :)

Museum and Quick Trip

Things have felt busy for us lately.  I guess that is how the Summer goes.

On Wednesday we decided to visit the Aerospace Museum.  I have meant to take the boys there long before now, but it hasn't happened.  We don't live that far away and it is free.  They loved it.  I am sure we will go back another time.  Maybe when the weather is a little more pleasant for walking around all the planes outside.  Here are some pictures from that adventure.

 We decided that we better go to a funeral on Saturday in Idaho for a former co-worker and friend of Stephen's. (I think I mentioned his passing in my previous post.) My in-laws were kind enough to watch the boys for the day.  Before the funeral though, we were able to meet up with my younger brother Glen who is at school at BYU-Idaho.  I am glad we got to see him and have lunch with him.  He is a great person.  Here is a picture of us.  I think we look like brother and sister.  And now I've been calling my boys Glen...

 I made Glen snap a picture of me and Stephen as well.  Stephen did wear a tie to the funeral. ;)

 Here is the tie proof.  Actually, I took a picture of him because he is wearing a tie tack that his friend gave him while they worked together.

Going to a funeral puts a lot of things on your mind.  Life is short and fragile and you never know how long you have with the people you love.  I want to truly appreciate my loved ones and let them know I love them.  It also is a reminder to me that Heavenly Father is in control, he loves us and also that families are eternal.  I am grateful for the gospel and the peace that comes from my beliefs.

Summer Activities

Life is interesting.  I feel like I have been busy lately, but it is doing the routine stuff.  The boys and I do at least one little activity everyday to keep things fun.  They really look forward to what I have planned even when it is small stuff.  I am posting pictures of what we have done.

We read the Rainbow Fish and made these fish crafts.

We did an umbrella craft.

This activity was probably the  most fun for them this passed week.  They painted on bread with food coloring and milk and we made dinosaur shapes.

Porter, especially got into this activity.

We found instructions on how to draw this little guy from Cut the Rope.

Today Tanner and Vance made up little books.

 As I think on the passed week it has been an interesting one.  I have felt disappointment, sadness, discouragement, gratitude, joy, happiness and probably everything in between.  I am trying to hold my head up high and shoulder all the things that come our way with faith in our Heavenly Father.  Sometimes I feel lost, but I do know that Heavenly Father is there guiding us and blessing us.  I know we I have much to be grateful for.  One of Stephen's former co-workers and friends died in a plane crash over the weekend.  It is a reminder to me that life is fragile and we never know how long a loved one will be with us.  I know I personally, need to stop and truly appreciate the wonderful people in my life and not take them for granted.  As I go through these Earthly trials I want to be able to look back and be happy with how I dealt with them so I know I need to do better.

Stephen's Birthday

This week we did some activities to keep the kids busy.  They included playing board games, making crafts for their grandpa's, this little game where they jumped to see how far they could get, we made magic flutes, and decorated for Stephen's birthday which was Saturday.

 Stephen turned 32 on Saturday.  We had cake and watched the first original Star Wars movie.  That was our excitement!  And since we had all that excitement for his birthday we really didn't do anything extra on Father's Day.  I even forgot to take pictures of him with his kids!  We are grateful for Stephen though and for our own fathers.

Porter was way too cute trying to lick the frosting off his paper plate.

Here are a couple of videos of the kids jumping as well.

Summer!

Vance is officially out of school for the Summer!  I took a picture of him on the last day.  Here is a comparison from the first day to the last.  It is a little misleading because he did have glasses at the beginning of the year, but was not wearing them in the picture.  He has lost and had lots of new teeth come in this year.

 On Wednesday we visited his class.  All of them had animal reports they had done on display so we got to walk around and look at them.  Here is Vance's report on whales.  He loves sea life.  :) He has become a much better reader and writer this year.  He brought home his 1st grade testing scores and did well.  He especially excelled in the various math departments.  He got that from his Dad, not me!

And now we are on Summer Vacation!  Which means I get to find ways to entertain Vance because he thinks that is my job.

Temple

On Saturday afternoon Vance was getting over having a fever and was still being mopey so we decided to go for a drive and found ourselves close enough to the temple to stop and walk around.  The boys love to do that.  It was a beautiful day and it wasn't too crowded outside.  Here are some pictures we took.

 All of my men.

 I had perfect timing taking this picture as Tanner sneezed.  Funny.  But not really what I was going for.

 Yay.  A good picture of all three even though you can see Porter's silly tongue.  :)

I think Vance passed his little sicky bug to me, thankfully I haven't been as bad as him.   Porter also has felt feverish tonight too.  Hopefully it passes quickly without getting worse.