Elizabeth and the kids and I decided that we wanted to take the train to Rachel's house to spend the day. The kids loved it, and it all worked out so smoothly, until it was time to come home. We missed the train we needed by 10 minutes, and so when it came time to transfer lines, we had an hour to wait.... We finally got onto our train, and made it all the way back to Clearfield, and then we couldn't get the door on the train open to actually get off! The kids started crying when they realized we couldn't get out. Liz and I had had it by then, and we had to go to the next stop, hop off, get on the next train going back the other direction, and get off there. We finally did, and as we were walking to the car, Gavin fell and bloodied his knee quite badly. At that point what would have been a 45 minute drive home from my sister's house turned into a 2 1/2 hour ordeal, with an injury to boot! Believe it or not, I am still a fan of public transportation, just not with 6 kids in tow!

This was on the 4th of July at the park in Layton. The kids were so amazed by all of the ducks.

Cutest kids around!

Jordan after Rachel and I finished sewing in all of her extensions.

We went to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. The kids loved it.

Sienna is getting so big, and cute as ever!

Fouth of July in Utah

The kids got to run in a 1K race by Aunt Rachels house. They had so much fun. Gavin actually finished in 2nd place in the 3-5 year old category. He was flat out running the whole time!

Mean while, Ethan chose to walk about a third of the race, and took a "Brian Regan" stand on it..."I still get a whole popsicle, even if I only run part of the race, I still get a whole popsicle!"

I got to experience the joy of hair extentions! Who would have thought that I would get to sew in braids? I am sure that most professionals would have been appalled, but Rachel and I thought we did pretty well!

Ruth attempting to make fondant for the first time ever. It didn't quite work the way I had planned, but it was fun!

The kids had so much fun swimming at Aunt Rachel's house. The view there is amazing!

Playing with cousins: Isabelle and Gabe. Ethan didn't want to get wet, so he and baby Greyson stayed behind the camera with me.

Our Newest Addition!
Meet 6 week old "Cooper"! I think we are all in love! He is just like having a new baby! I have been up 4 or 5 times every night! He has been so fun so far... we will see if I still think so in a few more days!

Ethan's pre-school graduation. He told me he needed to look really nice for their ceremony that night. I think he accomplished it.



















After a full day of playing with the cousins, I turned on a show for the kids, and within a few minutes, this is how Ethan, Gavin and Landry had fallen asleep! Too cute.















Ethan is starting to read, and he is so excited that he is constantly reading to Gavin. It is so precious.

My boys are constantly making me laugh. Ethan is on his head 90% of the day, but a picture is worth a thousand words!

Girls Weekend/Boys Campout

Oh what a weekend!!! Matt and I had a gender segregated weekend. He went on the Father/Son campout with Bro-in-law Blaine, and Brother David. They had a great time cooking a dutch oven dinner, and the typical smores! He made sure to bring hot dog buns, ketchup, and mustard for the boys, but neglected to bring the hot dogs! Gavin and Ethan played with glow sticks all day long. At about 8'oclock, Gavin crawled into Matt's lap and promptly fell asleep. Ethan and cousin Christian were so excited to be sleeping in a tent, that they asked to go to bed at about 9. All in all, I would say it was a success!



Meanwhile, Marissa and I went to McKinney to spend a girls weekend with Julee and her girls. We went to Olive Garden for a fabulous dinner, and then went home to watch a movie. The next day, Julee and I got to pretend to be 15, and we went to a book signing with Stephenie Meyer!!!! (the author of the Twilight book series) It started at 2pm, and she spoke for about 30 minutes, and then we waited to get our books signed. There were 1000 people there to get books signed, and we were about number 750. Julee and I entertained ourselves for the first couple of hours joking about how we were probably going to be star-struck and end up bluting out "We're your biggest fans!!" At 5:15 pm, we were still waiting and we guessed we still had at least another hour, so Julee walked up to one of the women in charge and told her that her "breasts were about to explode, and could we please move ahead in the line?" The woman just stared at her, and Julee explained that she was a nursing mother, and there was no way she could make it another hour and half to get our books signed, so the woman let us go with the next group! Thank heaven for Julee's boobs!


When it was finally our turn to get our books signed, I said Hello, and quickly asked her if she would write my name, yes, and then sign the book. She looked at me and asked what she was saying 'yes' to. And I told her that I was having an ongoing debate with my girlfriends as to whether or not "Bella" was going to become a vampire, so if she could just write 'yes' that would be helpful. She laughed, and said that she would hate to write that, and then I might have to "eat crow later if she didn't become a vampire". Needless to say, I didn't get my 'yes', but I at least tried! I am still completely convinced that she will be one! All in all, it was a fabulous time!

We finished up the soccer season on Saturday. Marissa's team lost their first game the whole season, but she had a blast playing.

Ethan's games were a riot to watch. We are happy to say that he is very fast and scored a lot of goals. Sadly, many of these were for the wrong team, but, he loved playing the games. He didn't like practice much (I think because he didn't get a treat at the end of practice!), but he always had a smile on his face when he was on the field. This picture with his coach, at his end-of-season party where he got his trophy!














Marissa and Ethan helped me babysit Miss Wendy's babies one afternoon. They are only 2
weeks apart, and cute as anything. It proves to me that I could never have handled twins! The kids loved it though.





Here are some pictures of the kids hangin' out after church today.