Happy Birthday Kaeleb

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY KAELEB!!

We love our Kaeleb! We have a tradition of opening presents in the morning...

...after blowing out a candle in pancakes
He wanted a ninja birthday... So, ninja he was!
He got the Lego Ninjago Spinjitsu Dojo

and a ninja costume, which he wore ALL day in spite of the 90 degree weather.

I made ninja cupcakes (with tootsie roll swords)

and we played ninja games at the park with his friends and cousins.
They threw cardboard Chinese stars through the eyes of a cardboard ninja, played "Crazy Samuri", freeze tag, and dodge the Chinese star. Thanks to Daddy for knowing some ninja games. I had nothing to contribute on that one.

Then we opened presents and ate cupcakes.
All in all he had a very happy birthday and loves being 7.

We have had ourselves a busy month! Here are a few of the fun things we've done this summer! We had a company retreat with 3 of our TGY coaches for a week here in the Wasatch mountains.

These next few pics are the Timpanooke trail on Mount Timpanogos.





In Midway there is a fun experience called the Homestead Crater. It is a hollow mountain dome with a natural hot spring underneath. It makes quite a large swimming pool that is as warm as a bath. You literally swim inside the mountain and when you look up you can see the sky through the crater on top. The kids came with us and had a blast!

This is Melissa and Leah
Matt swimming- I know it's fuzzy but I wanted one with the water in it. :)The boys and I in the little fenced off hot tub portion. Brenny went crazy swimming back and forth across it.
This is a hike we took near the reservoir at Smith and Morehouse
Matt and Kwint
The boys and I


In addition to busy business days, we finished up the main part of the yard. I don't have pics because it is not quite lush enough for photo ops. It has been fun to watch the grass grow and plant trees.

I also got crazy and decided to refinish some furniture. This is our new dining set. I love it!!
This is a desk Kwint has had since Jr. High which I sanded and painted and got new handles for. I had a lot of fun with it and love what it did for our little office.We celebrated Talan's 8th birthday at the bowling alley! We also had a BBQ at their house and went to his baptism yesterday. We are proud of our cousin!!
We have been swimming a lot. Here are the boys out just for fun...
Here is Kaeleb at swimming lessons. We've spent two full weeks at the pool this summer... glad they are over, but he had a great time and was really brave.

I know this is a weird picture to end with, but it's a memorable story I can't forget to blog. If you look closely to the right of the garbage can you will see what we affectionately refer to as the blasted whistle pig. Yes, aka woodchuck, aka, marmot, aka massive groundhog.


This little buddy moved into our garage, unbeknownst to us one Saturday night. He was locked in and shredded the seal on the bottom of the garage door, trying desperately to get out. The next day we wondered what in tarnation had happened to our garage door. Until I spotted his big fluffy tail behind the garbage can and thought "That is one big squirrel..." Upon further inspection and googling "large rodent with fluffy tail" we discovered the beloved marmot species and narrowed it down to a yellow-bellied marmot, also called a whistle pig, because of their high pitched squeal when they are scared, which we heard plenty of. We called animal control to come get him. By the time the guy came, the marmot had climbed up into the engine of my car where the blasted whistle pig shredded every inch of the insulation under the hood of my car. It cost me 100 bucks to get my car fixed.

My boys have a bad habit of leaving the front door open. I used to yell, "Close the door before the wasps fly in!" Now I yell, "Close the door before the woodchuck gets in!" Not a big fan of that particular rodent. Not so much.

4th of July Celebrations

This 4th of July was quite an event. Here are some pictures of various activities... Once again I posted them backwards. You'd think I'd figure it out and start at the end. Oh well!

So, the end of the day brought us fireworks. Here is everyone's all time favorite: Tank wars. They light two tanks and whichever one catches on fire first loses.
The ever popular sparklers...
This year Utah made aerials legal. Everyone went to Wyoming to buy illegal fireworks, so this year they decided to keep the revenue by making them legal.
Cera and Brennan... of course, this is totally posed.
Next, here is the Sheriff. He was in a play written and directed by his cousin Anna who is almost 8. Brennan played Mr. Brown who owned a horse farm. Mr. Sheriff didn't like the 4th of July and his daughter Anna tried to convince him that fireworks were fun.

We played a hundred and one water games during the afternoon. We sported: Water Weenies (blast from anyone else's past?)
The Shark Slip and Slide (Kaeleb)
Brenny splish splashin'
Brenny slip slidin'
and Super Soaker Squirt Guns. We had a lot of wet fun.
Not to mention, bubble swords from Aunt Tam.
Earlier in the morning, some of the family hiked Adam's Canyon, one of our favorite pastimes. Kwint and Kris enjoyed some time with Tam on this hike while Barbi and I stayed with the littles.


Earlier this month Kaeleb went to a birthday party. When I went to pick him up I could not find him, but this scary guy got in my car so I brought him home.
We sure love Heber. The weather is perfect! It has been a wet spring, and here is one of the rainbows we found in our front yard.
All month Kaeleb has been on a neighborhood T-ball team called the Blue Bombers. We've all had a lot of fun with it. All his friends are on the team and all my friends are in the bleachers. He even played his cousin Saige's team, the Grasshoppers. Here he is playing catcher. He also had some good plays this season as short stop.

Every sunny morning, this is the view from my kitchen window. I love Heber!!


This is my cute nephew Ben. We had a really fun weekend with him and his family (My brother Gerritt and his cute wife Melissa came to visit with Abby, who is 4 and this cute little guy.) He won't let anyone hold him, but he smiles like this constantly.

When I'm a Grown Up

Oh, another funny. Yesterday Brennan was playing with his friend Isaac and when I picked him up he came running up the stairs with a pile of broken pieces of an electric bubble gun. He was holding the motor and several wires. He loudly & enthusiastically said "MOM!! Isaac and me broke this and he said I can keep it! I am going to light these wires on fire--when I'm a grown-up."

Boy, am I glad he remembered that kids should never play with matches! He has an elaborate plan to save the wires until he is a grown up and then he and Isaac will own an "electric company" where they will stand inside a cage and use a computer to light the wires on fire and make lightning all around them. (Sound familiar to anyone who has seen the Sorcerer's Apprentice?) He drew a picture of them inside the cage with lightning all around them and asked me to label it "Lightning from the Electric Company of Isaac and Brenny Guy."

I love these funny boys. Kaeleb wants to be an inventor when he grows up and has already started drawing rough plans of his inventions and deciding which materials he will need to make them. So far, the favorite ideas are a real light saber and a flying car. He said "I will build my company in Heber so I can live close to you, but you might see me on the news sometimes, too."

Someday, when my children become a physicist and an engineer I will remember this day.

How Buff is Kaeleb?

So, we have been digging & throwing rocks around getting our yard ready for topsoil. The rocks here are incredible. Awful. Huge. But most of all, PLENTIFUL.

So, Kaeleb has a friend over right now and I just overheard him say "Riker, do you see how buff I am? I used to be skinnier than this until we started working in our yard."

Ah, yes, a fringe benefit of yard work. Soon we will have grass and I will post pictures of us lounging lazily on the green, rock free grass.

We love our little monkeys.

It's official-- Summer break is here!! We have been living it up, and here is a backward itinerary... I am always too lazy to post the pics in reverse order so that they show up in chronological order. Sorry.

Friday & Saturday Kwint and Kaeleb went to karate camp. They played steal the flag and had Tron disc wars, training stations, target practice, roasted marshmallows and more. But, they didn't take any pictures...

Last Saturday we went to the zoo to reward Kaeleb for his good grades on his report card. I will spare you pictures of the animals... it was really crowded and they were all hiding or sleeping. I don't blame them. The kids were not as impressed as I had hoped they would be, but I can't blame them either. Our zoo is really not very impressive. But.... there was something new-- dinosaurs!! The zoo placed animatronic dinos throughout the exhibits and the kids loved them!

When I asked Brennan what his favorite animal at the zoo was he replied "T-Rex!" Mental note: next time skip the zoo and go to the dinosaur park.
My guys and the scary king of the Jurassic period...

I can't remember the name of this guy, but paleontologists theorize that one of their offensive weapons was spitting at their prey. So this dino sprayed water every few seconds at passersby. As you might imagine, we spent a long time passing by.
And, of course, the ceremonial trip to the gift shop to complete the grade prize. Happy First grade Kaeleb!
The night before, which was the last day of school, we took the boys for a hike at Dutch Hollow. It was pretty fun! We are always finding new reasons to be glad we moved to Heber!

This is Buzz Lightyear. Brennan got this idea from Andy, the boy in the cartoon, who at some point makes cardboard wings and pretends to be Buzz. He colored the other side.
Now we are back in time to Memorial Day. Kwint got a new BBQ for an early Father's Day present because I wanted to grill, and then we wanted to make S'mores in our little cute fire pit which was a gift from his parents for our up & coming back yard... but it was crazy windy! We couldn't build a fire.
So, we improvised. We roasted marshmallows over the gas burners in our warm, wind-free kitchen. We really know how to rough it!

Kaeleb learned to ride his bike with no training wheels two weeks ago! The video won't load so I will have to take more pics another day, but he was pretty excited. I was at a RS meeting and in the short 3 hours I was gone, he figured it out! He waited up to tell me all about it.

Yesterday Brennan watched part of a cooking show. He was determined to make the dish. Unfortunately, we didn't have cabbage, kielbasa, and pierogies on hand, so he improvised.
This is the soup he made. Special ingredients included one celery stalk, 4 baby carrots, mushrooms, ketchup, ricotta cheese, basil, lemon pepper, and rosemary. He actually ate it and exclaimed "MOM! I'm the best cook in the world!" so I assume he liked it.



Kwint has been learning a lot from his Mr. Mom experience while I am serving in RS. It really has not been bad-- I am amazed. I was so nervous about the time commitment and the weight of the responsibility but the Lord is providing and we are feeling very blessed to be able to juggle it together. So far, anyway. :) I love so much about it-- the ladies I serve with, the amazing women in our ward, & the way the Spirit guides us. I have a whole lot to learn.
On to the next adventure!!!