The Yellow Jackets

Softball season has started again. Emily loves softball and she is excited because her dad is the assistant coach again this season. The coach had everyone on last years team who wanted to play again this year sign up together, So most of the team is the same. They all play really well together. I love going to watch Emily play because, I can tell she loves the game.

Emily's First Day of School

Today was Emily's first day of 5th grade. She is growing up so fast.

We found out who her teacher was last Friday. Emily didn't know her. We asked a few people over the weekend and the only information we could get was that her new teacher had a wooden leg. (that is how people said it.) This made Emily a little nervous because that description sends you instantly to Pirate.


Emily came home from school all smiles. She loves her new teacher. Yes, she does have an artificial leg, but Emily only found out because her teacher told the class. She had a great first day and is happy to be back in school.

An Imagination and a Box

Two imaginative boys

A peach box

A pair of scissors

a roll of Duct Tape

and a bag of markers

equals...........

A cool airplane and hours of fun.

(Walking together took a little bit of practice.)

Don't worry.........

The peaches were also put to good use.

FRESH PEACH PIE

16 small graham squares
1 tsp. flour
1/2 c. melted butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix and line 10 in. pie plate with 3/4 of the mixture

FILLING:
2-3 c. fresh peaches
3/4 c. sugar
1 pkg. unflavored gelatin
1/4 c. cold water
1/2 c. hot water
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 pint whipping cream

Add sugar to peaches (set aside). Mix gelatin and cold water. Let stand until quite hard. Add hot water to gelatin. Add peaches, and lemon juice. Let stand until it begins to set. Whip cream and add to mixture. Pour into crust and sprinkle with remaining crust mixture. Refrigerate until set.

A Big Mile Stone

Joseph lost his first tooth today!

The Red Tornadoes

Joe had his first Soccer game yesterday. He is on a team with three of his friends. Ethan, Cooper and Charlie.

Charlie and Joe are really good friends and are pretty much inseparable these days. They have even decided life would be better if they were brothers.

They named their team the Red Tornadoes. Most of the boys on his team have played before. This was Joe's first time, but he was right in there with the rest of the boys going after the ball.





There were a few moments where Joe might have been a little distracted.......

But once the ball got moving again Joe was going after it.

I could tell that Joe loved playing because..........

His game was at noon on a day where the high temperature was 101 degrees and he was smiling almost the whole time he was playing.

Tour Of Utah

The Tour of Utah is going on this week and Ryan is very excited. Thursday morning the race was starting at Thanksgiving point. We decided it would be fun to go see the start of the race and then go visit the dinosaur museum after the bike riders had left.





We arrived about an hour before the race started, so we walked around to the different team cars and booths to see who we could see. Rock Racing is one of the bigger teams at the race.

There are a few riders who come to Utah for this race who also ride in the Tour de France. So when Ryan says their names I recognize them. Floyd Landis is one of them who is riding in this years tour. He hid in his trailer until right before the race started, but we were able to get this picture of him when he signed in.

Another big name at the tour this year was the commentator, Bob Roll. He use to ride for a team back when lamb chop side burns were big, but now he is one of the top commentators for the sport. If you have ever watched the Tour de France you have seen Bob. He likes to call it the Tour Day France to irritate the viewers. He was very nice and let us take a picture with him. When I told the kids to stand by dad for a picture the kids stood about three feet away from Ryan and Bob. So Bob said "I guess we will stand by them," and he moved over to where the kids were.

This was the starting line. It was in the middle of a parking lot.
With all of the people and photographers there we decided we would get a better view if we walked out towards the road away from the big crowds. When we got to the road we found all of these police motorcycles lined up and ready to go. Josh stood and watched them. When they started leaving Josh rang is cow bell, because that is what you do when the bikers ride past you.

After all of the motorcycles had left Josh told us that the bikers were gone so we could leave. When the real bike race came by Josh was done and did not ring his bell. Ryan was having a great time snapping pictures as fast as he could.

Dinosaurs

After the bikers left we headed to the museum. They were running a deal this month called $2 Tuesdays. My friend and I tried coming for that, but when we arrived the lines were insanely long and the parking lot was full. We both have babies so we decided it was not worth it and took the kids to the park instead. I am so glad we waited.

It was not very busy (because the whole world was there on Tuesday) We were able to spend time at all of the exhibits and the hands on stations were really fun because it was not very crowded. They would have been impossible to enjoy with a thousand kids there.


I was very impressed with how big the museum is. There were lots of dinosaurs and they went through each time period ending with a display of all of the threatened and endangered species that we have right now.

There were three places for the kids to stop and play. The first room had toy dinosaurs, puppets and costumes for the kids to play with.

The second was a big sand and water place where they wanted the kids to use the water and sand to cause mud slides to bury the dinosaurs.

That is how they think a lot of the dinosaurs who's full fossils they find died. The last hands on exhibit was an excavation room where they get to dig for bones.

Joe loved the T-rex's and Josh liked this big shark head. He didn't dare turn his back on it though.

I don't blame him.

6 Weeks Old

Time goes too fast when they are little!

I can't believe Valerie is already 6 weeks old. She is a really good baby and is so fun to dress up and play with. She is very patient and loves it when her brothers or sister play with her.

She has started smiling, especially when the other kids talk to her.

She looked so cute today in her new outfit, so I took a few pictures before she gets any older.

She was a good sport, and let me know when the photo shoot was over.

A short outing

Last spring when my parents were visiting we went to the aquarium by our house. When we got there we found out that a year pass was only $4 more than a single visit pass. So my dad bought the kids an I a year pass.


Yesterday Emily was playing with a friend and the boys were bored and needed some entertainment. So I put Valerie down for a nap and left her home with Ryan while the boys and I went for a quick visit to the aquarium.


The boys love the Jelly fish and the sharks, but their favorite area is the Journey to South America exhibit.

They love to see the crocodiles, frogs, snakes and spiders.

This time they had a few creatures from south America that the kids could touch. One was a Common Boa. Joe worked up the courage to touch it but.........

Josh preferred to look at it when it was safely in it's cage.

There was also a cockroach that Joe got to pet. Josh and I wanted nothing to do with that.
One thing I noticed on our little outing is how much Josh is like my dad when we go places like this. As soon as he sees what is in the cage he moves on to the next thing. There is no stopping and watching the creature. (My dad could do the whole zoo in 30 minutes when we were kids)

We only had a little bit of time because I had to be home when the baby woke up, but I didn't have to worry. Even when we stopped to pet the snake and watch a bird do tricks and talk, Josh was wanting to move. He even started saying to Joe and I "Let's move on!" It made me laugh.

It was a fun little outing with the boys.

Dancing With Dad

Babies are only cuddly for a short time.....

and dads arms are the best place to be

(Ryan and Valerie dancing at Emily's birthday party)

My Little Germaphobe

Do you remember the movie What About Bob? How does someone become so afraid of germs that they can not leave their home?


With the new baby at our house and all of the fun illnesses going around right now. I invested in multiple bottles of hand sanitizer and put them around the house so they would be convenient to use. I even put a bottle in my car which has been very useful.
Josh is very familiar with hand sanitizer because, the first thing they do when he goes to nursery every Sunday is squirt some on his hands. When he discovered the bottles at our house he began bathing in the stuff. He not only put it on his hands but all over his body to "kill the germs"
At first my mom and I moved all of the bottles out of his reach so eventually we had five bottles sitting in the same spot where only the adults could get them. Then after thinking about it I moved all of the bottles back to their original positions in places where I thought they would be used the most. I decided that too clean would be better than not clean.

Then I got a bottle and showed Josh that we only need to use it on our hands and one or two squirts is enough to kill all of the germs.

Now Josh is using it the right way, but he is washing his hands a lot!!!!!! Which in this day and age is probably a good thing. My only fear is that I am creating a Germaphobe.


Now he is always asking me if he needs to wash his hands. Sometimes he says he needs to wash his hands, then he puts hands sanitizer on them, rubs it in and then looks at his hands and says..."Oh I can still see germs. I need to wash my hands again. Mom should I wash my hands again? Do you see the germs?" When he gets like this he usually washes them four or five times before the germs are all gone.

Should I be worried, or just happy he has clean hands?

Donut Falls

My mom had to go back to her house last Sunday and I was sad to see her go. She was so fun to have around and such a big help. It was nice to have help with the kids and not have to worry about dinner and dishes while we were getting use to having a new baby again. Thanks mom for all of your help.


One of the hardest things I am finding about having my fourth baby in the middle of the summer is, that the other kids still need to do things. Sitting around looking at the cute baby gets old really fast for them and they want to go play.

One of my moms favorite things to do is hike. When we go to visit her at her house. We always go on a hike or two. There are a lot of great places to hike by her house and many beautiful waterfalls. Come to find out we also have some pretty good hikes close to our house, and my mom decided it would be fun to take the kids on a hike the last Saturday she was here.


Jon and Jenny came down and we all went to Donut falls. I had never been on this hike before. It was a pretty easy hike and the kids all loved being in the mountains.
They were all really good hikers too. There was one tricky spot on the trail, but Uncle Jon helped everyone get down it. When we got up by the water it was really cool and nice. The kids were excited to see the waterfall.

After the hike we found a picnic area and had lunch.

It was so fun to get out into the fresh air. I need to remember to hike more with the kids. I know there are a lot of fun trails in the mountains. I just need to look them up. If you have any suggestions let me know.