June Randomness

Oh how I love summer.  We bought this awesome $5 pool, and it was a big hit.  The kids would put the slide in it and slide down, and have fun in the backyard.  In this picture we were playing in the backyard and Mike returned from one of his crazy scout hike-in overnighters.  Mike is a great scoutmaster and his boys love all the great stuff he does with them.  Ben is hoping Mike is still the leader when he turns 12, but I'm not sure Mike feels the same way!

Eliza is a silly kid and loves blow-drying her hair.  Whenever I blow dry my hair, she always need a turn too.  Future Cosmetologist maybe?

I signed the kids up for swimming lessons at the Daybreak pool.  I signed up for group lessons, but Ben and Hailey were the only ones in their group.  I was amazed at how well they did with their lessons.  We took one or two a week.  By the end Ben was swimming on his own, and Hailey was doing amazing.  She can swim underwater holding her breath for a few feet by herself.  She is really good at floating on her back.  She got better and better at trying to use her arms, but can propel herself with her feet like no other.  Ben worked really hard at trying to blow bubble through his nose and mouth while swimming.  The instructor started with him swimming a few feet and by the end of the lessons he was swimming across the pool.  They are both learning how to go under the water without plugging their nose, which I still do, so I'm glad they won't be following my example.  Eliza just had a great time hanging out in the shallow end while the kids did their lessons.

On June 27th we took in Hailey for her 4 year old visit.  She was in the 80^th percentile in height which was up from 45% from the prior year.  Weight was the same at 45%.  I think the funniest Dr. visit ever was Hailey's 18 month visti.  Our Dr. was asking me if Hailey was talking at all.  I said, wow, you have no idea she never stops talking.  Just then Hailey grabbed the Dr.'s stethescope, and says "can I see your stethescope?"  Our Dr. started laughing so hard and said well she definetly doesn't have any problem talking!

Daddy Daughter Dance Date

Mike and Hailey before their Daddy-Daughter dance.  Hailey got a cute corsage on a fabulous slap bracelet, it was so cute!  She was looking forward to this night for weeks!

Our Primary Presidency organized this fun night!  They had decorated the tables so cute with pink and purple everything.  They had a great dinner and dessert.  They had a red carpet that all the girls got to walk down.  Then they took pictures and had a dance.  This is Hailey with one of her cute friends, Ava Livolsi, at the dance. 

Father's Day Celebrations

Do these pictures look familiar?  I took similar pictures last Father's Day celebration.  Last June Bri and Jake were dating, now they are the cute married couple.  Everyone else looks pretty much the same!  Happy Father's Day to all the great Father's in my life!

My kids loving going to Mormor and Buddy's house.  They have the greatest backyard, and we have so much fun there!  They added a great hammock this year and everyone loves it!

Eliza walked around all night with corn on the cob in her hands. Corn on the cob has been a big hit this year!

Our family parties are never boring!!  We pulled out the slide and as you can see, Eliza is showing how the slide is supposed to be done.  But, all the grownup kids got in on the action and we had a good laugh.  There were a lot of great crashes!  Jake was the best, maybe because he is the tallest!

My brother Blake and Mike giving it a try!

Got to have the smores!  Nothing ends a great celebration like roasting marshmallows!  My kids love doing this!  Did you notice that Ben is a knight?  My mom made these awesome bags for each of the kids, the boys are knights and the girls are princesses.  Their favorite thing to do is play with all the fun stuff in their bags whenever we play at mormor's.

Mama Mia!

Surprise!!!! Here's where my Mom finds out we are going to Mama Mia in just 1 hour!

Happy Birthday Mom, girls night out style!  Mama Mia is a girls tradition in our family.  We have watched the movie outside on the back of my mom's house every summer since it came out.  Of course we all know the songs and dance along. This time we got to enjoy the Broadway version.
We had so much fun! I couldn't believe how good the play was. The main actors has such amazing voices and made the play so much fun. We had a guy sitting in front of us that was probably in his 50's and he was so funny to watch. He started out by tapping his leg then moving his body to the music and by the end he was dancing and waving his arms. We also had a lady sitting behind us that would snort every time she laughed. It was so entertaining. I haven't laughed for so long and so hard in a long time.
 The best part was that we didn't tell my mom about it. Aly made up a story about taking her to see a concert downtown. Instead we took her to a little Greek restaurant across from my work and surprised her with this present. Inside there was tickets to the play that night and Mama Mia shirts. This was her reaction as soon as she saw what was inside the present. It was so awesome that she was so surprised and so excited about it.

Hailey's 4th Birthday!

Ahh, the beloved pillow pet!  When we were in Disneyland she saw this giraffe pillow pet and loved it.  I asked her if she was going to buy it with her money. The smart girl that she is, said 'well my birthday is coming up soon so I think I will get this for my birthday, and I'll buy a Tinkerbell set with my money'.  So, we successfully smuggled the giraffe home without her knowing we had bought it.  She was so excited when she opened it!  She now sleeps with it every night.

My mom came over and gave her what she asked for - clothes!  She is the funniest girly girl!  Other than the pillow pet, all she wanted for her birthday were clothes.  My mom and sister came over and brought her some super cute outfits!  Then my grandpa Marsh came over with a present too.  My grandpa Marsh is so good at always remembering birthdays, and he always has the greatest handmade cards!

We had Hailey's birthday party at Mike's Grandma Margaret's pool.  I only got a few pictures, but we had a lot of fun.  Mike's parents, sister and her 2 kids, brother and 2 kids, my brother and their 2 kids all came.  (Why does everyone have two kids?) We swam and then had pizza and cupcakes at Grandma Margaret's after.  Hailey got more new cute outfits, so she was a happy little birthday girl!  It's weird, Hailey has always seemed so grown up, but I still can't believe she's 4!  Hailey is such a cute girl and brings so much fun into our family. 

Bowling

We signed up for the 'kids-bowl-for-free' program during the summer.  This was our first bowling experience.  The kids had so much fun!  They were a little disappointed that they weren't getting strikes or spares like they always do when they play wii sports.  But, once they got over that they had fun!  We have gone a few more times and it is quite the adventure!  We went with their cousins Nathan and Maelie, and all Eliza wanted to do was run away, but she did bowl a few good frames.

Hailey was so proud of her first game!  She bowled a 100!

Hailey's First Dance Recital

Hailey is just so adorable!  Hailey worked really hard all year doing tap and ballet every Wednesday.  She loved it when Mormor would take her to her dance lessons.  She always was so good at listening to her teacher, and she did so great her first year of dance!  She was very excited for the final recital when everyone could come watch her.  She wasn't nervous at all.  She did two different dances, one ballet and one tap dance.  All of the girls had to wear their hair in buns with no bangs.  Hailey has short hair and bangs, so this was a bit of a challenge. Mormor did an excellent job with her hair, and it didn't even move when we took it out!  I remember dance all growing up, and I hope she enjoys it like I did.  I asked her if she was going to do dance next year and she said, "mom why would I do dance? I've all ready learned everything I need to know".  So, we'll see what she decides next year.

Daddy, Grandma Kaye Lynn, and Ben with Hailey

Mormor, Buddy, and Aunt Aly with Hailey

Little Princess

Horseback Riding

Snack time with dad!  My mom watches the kids on Friday's when I go to work and they always have make-up snack time.  They get to choose random things and put them together to see if they are good.  My kids love doing this and always ask to do make-up snacks.  Ben's favorite is mixing yogurt drinks and apple juice, and Hailey likes making food look like flowers.  Mike works from home on Friday, so he always gets delicious treats brought up to him.  It is his favorite part of the day.

Mike's mom had some friends with horses, so we set out for a fun horse riding adventure.  Eliza loved chasing the ducks, which was definitely her favorite part.  Hailey and Ben had never ridden horses before so they were super excited.  They both had a blast.  There was this sheep that absolutely loved me and Eliza!  He just kept coming up to us and rubbing his head on my leg, a little awkward, but somewhat cute.

Boy's Only Hike!

Mike and Ben went on a hike with our friends Jon and Carson Bowers.  This is on the wetern face of Mt. Timpanogas, its called the grovecreek hike.  Mike is the scout master and wanted to test out this trail to see if his scouts could hike it for one of their overnighters.  It was about a 7 mile hike. Mike went with his scouts a few weeks later and Ben did way better hiking than all of the12 and 13 year old scouts!

Ben said the hike was awesome!

After the hike the boys went to the Purple Turtle for some shakes!  Mike tells me this is a must tradition, although I have never been there before. I hear it's delicious.

On a side note.  Ben, our deep thinker, came up to us and wanted to know who was Heavenly Father's dad and grandpa and grandgrandgrandpa.  I let Mike answer that question.