June

June was filled with fun and family. As soon as school got out, I took the kids out to Utah. (Brian ahd to stay to work). Miss Maya was getting baptized so we thought we'd surprise her that we were going to be there for her bday and baptism. She was surprised. It was nice to be there for her special day.

 We always love lots of cousin time and summer is the best time for that. We did lots of swimming, trips to the park, several trips to the Trafalga and Liberty Land, a little firework fun and just good ol' being together. One day I took the kids down to Provo. We spent some time at a dinosaur museum, eating at the Cougar Eat, visiting Nana and watching Jayde fly his model airplane. Provo is such a fun place! Every time I'm there I think, "I could live here".

 We were able to get out for a date night, which is always nice and a little more calm without 14 kiddos running around. We went and played some golf frisbee and then headed out to dinner. Funniest part was pretending it was Greg's bday and they were trying to get him to sit on a saddle for everyone to sing happy birthday too. As much as he loves attention (which he does not), it was no easy task for the waitress to get him up there, but eventually he didn't want to hurt his feelings and got on there, like a somewhat good sport. Oh we were dying laughing with tears in our eyes!!! A time for the books. We have Jill to thank for that.

For Maya's bday we had a fun time swimming at their community pool. Wasn't too crowded which made it extra nice. Somehow Jill was able to pull both of Bella's crazy loose teeth, so Charlotte and Bella were twins. At first Charlotte was upset about it and said she didn't want to be twins, but then changed her mind and liked being toothless twins with Bella.

Had a fun time getting together with my high school besties, Josh and Alisa Linton, Dave and Heather(spouse) Sullivan and Heidi and Phil Berry. Such great memories with great people. I wished Brian has been there with me, but I flew solo, with all the kids. The kids had a great time too playing basketball and scooters and whatnot. Good times! I'm glad we still get together every now and then.

 Since Papa John's family is a little funny about reunions, we had a "non-reunion" and whoever wanted to come, could come. It was a good time. We had a big water slide out and just visited with one another. At the end, a few of us "adults" went down the slide. It hurt. Guess we're getting old!

 We had to get back in time for Bella and Caroline's dance recital. Didn't realize it was still going through June, so that was a bummer, but they did fabulous. Such fun spirited girls. It was fun to see all their months of practice show up in their recital.

 Liz and Caroline were able to be part of a fabulous Activity Days camp. They asked me to come take some pictures for it so I was able to get some of the girls with the whole crew. The committee went above and beyond for it. It was fabulous and they had such a good time. So grateful for those who invest time and talent to make a special day for the girls.

 Charlotte asked me to take some pictures of her, so of course I willingly did. She's such a cutie

Brian and I have been investing a bunch of time in making a table for our family. Buying one was way too expensive, for what we wanted, so we made a bold risk in making one. It was still expensive, but probably half the cost, but we got to have a good time doing it together. Luckily our city has a wood working shop just down the street that we can get into 2 days a week, but one of those days is Friday mornings, which Brian only has ever other one available, so some of the progress was slowed down by that, but grateful they had some of the big gun tools there to help us accomplish our masterpiece. We still have a few coats of the sealer to do, but I love it and it turned out great. It was so fun to make with Brian. He's awesome.

As for family time, Brian was able to get in some good mountain biking, which he loves. He's been able to explore a bunch of the trails in the area, which is super fun. We took a hike up Chataqua mountain, which was super fun. Thought we'd have a bunch of complaining criers, but not so much. Cooper and Bella were buddies and did fabulous together. It was a beautiful spot that we will have to do again.

 I had fun doing a wedding at the Denver Temple. First one there. Elizabeth came as my assistant, which was fun. I enjoyed having her with me and being able to see a couple married in the temple and help on their special day. After, she and I went out and got lunch. A fun outing together.

 And that just about wraps up June..... phew!

Oh to play catch up....

I've hesitated getting on to update the blog because I'm so far behind! Getting close to a whole year behind!!! Kind of over whelming. So, just so I can get back on track I'm going to summarize up to where I am so I can get back on track. Here we go.....

May:

 Weemama came out for a visit. It's always fun when she comes out. We love it.

Caroline had her 9th birthday and she wanted to go to Boondocks for our family activity. It was fun and she got lucky because on her turn on go karts, they had a problem with another car so she got to ride for twice as long. I also took her to the store that morning to pick out her favorite cereal and she wanted to ride the horse there, so she got to take a birthday ride. She wanted an ice cream cake, so that was easy enough. One more year until double digits!

 We had a major trauma with Charlotte. We had walked to the school to pick the kids up and were waiting for them on at Bella's playground. Charlotte was playing while I was sitting on a bench. She kept sliding down the handrail on a set of stairs and I asked her to stop. I was reading a book when all the sudden she started screaming. I'm not sure entirely what happened, but from what I can gather, she was sliding down that handrail again, flipped over and smacker her mouth on the bar below and had totally cut her lip and jacked up her teeth. Since we walked there, I had to run around and gather the kids and someone was kind enough to drive us home so I could rush her to Brian's office. She had chipped one tooth to the root so it had to be pulled and the other she had knocked so hard she had jammed it into her pallet and it too had to be pulled. She had a huge fat lip for a few days and a pretty significant cut in her lip as well. It was so sad but she handled it well and was so excited to have a visit from the tooth fairy. Bella, on the other hand, was holding onto her 2 front teeth for dear life! They were so loose that they were starting to cross each other, but she would not allow anyone to touch them.


Moments before. Still with her cute 2 front teeth:

Bella was really sweet and got Charlotte all set up with a blanket and stuffed animals as soon as we got back from Brian's office. She took good care of her.

The next day, Charlotte was back to all her craziness and didn't skip a beat of being happy and silly!

Brian and I were still in the middle of constructing our table. It was a lot of work and I was totally nervous that we were going to botch it with all that expensive wood, but Brian did amazing with all the research and did a great job leading the project. It was great fun to work on together. After the kids were in bed, we'd go out in the garage for a few hours to keep the process moving. Long process!

Brian's office had a fundraiser run for oral cancer that we went to support. Liz did the run with Brian and finished in good time. The rest of us just hung out and enjoyed our time.

We were wrapping up the school year and had a concert from Bella's Kindergarten group. She was so cute and it was fun to see them perform the songs they had learned. Cute!

 Bella and her teacher Mrs. Holley

Then we had Elizabeth's 5th grade graduation. I was involved with putting together the year end slideshow. It was a lot of work to gather all the pictures and put it together, but I think it ended up well and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Hard to believe that Elizabeth is going into middle school next year. Growing up so fast!

Elizabeth and her friends: Grace, Eliza, Kristina, Liz and Sarah

Liz's teacher Mrs. Fields

The kids had their field days:

Caroline was determined to win the tug'o'war this year since she had lost the previous year, but it didn't happen. She was pretty upset and shed a few tears, but she worked pretty darn hard!

And just some other random cute moments:

And of course Mother's Day. Kiki gave me a nice foot bath and foot rub.