July 2014 (second half)

 No pictures from Girls Camp from me, but a bonus to Mommy going is Grandma gets to spoil them for nearly a week and the leftover glow sticks are awesome to play with!

 A suitcase cake I did the day after I got home from Girls Camp for a missionary coming home.

 Marky loves Grandma!

 Loving his new carseat

 We fit in plenty of trips to the local school for free lunch with our friends.

 A fun, but windy trip to Rigby Lake with four of our friends

 Why do my kids like to eat dirt?

 Grandma's last day on her first visit was filled with a visit to Squealers

 I don't know who had more fun: Daddy or the kids

 Mark had a pretty good time

 Sam tried climbing the rock wall but would get scared once he got a little ways up and would come back down

 Who doesn't love a ring pop?

 Grandma and the kiddos

 We did homemade volcanoes with the Potters one day.  The kids formed homemade playdough around cups and then we had them erupt, it was fun!

 The only picture I got from the night we went to the drive-in and watched both movies. BAD IDEA. They started half an hour late and the next day everyone was GRUM-PY. But it was cool to see Maleficient. :)

 Aunt Elaine and Uncle Brad teaching Sam how to pop rose petals after Sunday dinner this month.

 Amy loves her friend, Logan. Here they are making bracelets with beads.

 Our stake goes all out for Pioneer Day and the kids loved getting to ride the horses. When the guy leading the pack of horses realized that three of the five kids riding were my kids, he stopped to let me get a picture of all of them on their horses together. It was really cute because Amy was giggling the whole time!!

 Our huckleberry harvest this year. Way better than we have ever done! We tried out strawberry/huckleberry and strawberry/raspberry/huckleberry jam and still had some left over for the freezer for ice cream and such.

 We went to the zoo one day randomly by ourselves. The kids had fun and it was nice to go at the pace we wanted, which this day was a brisk one to get home in time for lunch and naps.

 A minion cake I did for a friend's sister

 The last major project on the yard this year was having concrete curbing poured on the front, side and part of the back of the house for a flowerbed. It looks awesome and was cheaper than buying blocks!

 Marky loves this bike, but can barely push himself in it!

 And we started off August with a really quick trip down to Utah for my nephew's baptism and then hit up the Ogden Temple Open House before we headed home. It was such a great experience to be able to take my children into a temple and talk to them about the baptismal font, the bride's room, and the celestial room!

So that's it! Along with all of this Robert has worked his tail end off putting in the sprinkling system, hydroseeding, and then planting a fair amount of trees and plants. We also were able to have central air installed in our home, which will make summers and especially canning season much more comfortable!! Hope you are enjoying your summer!! Only one more month before school starts, dang it!

July 2014 (first half)

 We started July off right with a visit from some of our favorite people, Uncle Jake & Aunt Stacey! Landon is two months younger than Mark and we just haven't gotten enough of this little guy!

 The first night we went shooting, which is always a fun thing to do out at Daddy's farm! This is Sam trying out my little handgun.

 The next day the boys went fishing on the river and then in the afternoon we headed up to Blacktail and rode Uncle Mitch's jet skis (our first time!). Not sure if I am a huge fan, but it was fun to check it off my bucket list and the kids had a good time!

 The next day the boys went four wheeling in the morning and the girls went shopping in the afternoon. Then we went and watched the iconic Idaho Falls fireworks, which never disappoint. (sorry, no pics)

 We spent Saturday morning going to Mesa Falls, which crazy as it sounds, we had never done! The kids thought it was cool and it was a nice, easy activity to do with all of us.

 These two little guys were like two peas in a pod!

 Sunday we celebrated Mark's first birthday because Grandma flew in from Arizona! So here is his cake:

 Sam wanted to help Daddy grill

 Mark really enjoyed playing in his cake. He tried to eat the board more than he ate the cake :)

 And the kids enjoying two of Mark's birthday presents: a slide and pool to help beat the heat.

June 2014

Man, has the summer flown by! I don't know about you, but I rarely sit down at the computer anymore, especially with an iPhone where it's as simple as a few clicks to take a picture, write a little blurp, and post it. So whenever I DO actually sit down at the computer, I get easily distracted by all that I need to catch up on and then forget the reason why I sat down at the computer. I must just be crazy! :) Well, we have really kept busy this summer, so we will get started on sharing the photos I've taken along the way!

 So I have no idea if these are in the right order or not, but I'm going with it. Here is a pic of my wonderful garden that got put in this year! It has been several years since I have been able to do a garden, so this year I have been in heaven. Except I did have alot of things that didn't do super well like my peas....and my beans.....and my raspberries....etc, etc. BUT, we did get it done and next year it better be super because I will have no excuses! Let me tell you what, though, I just love gardening!! I could stay out there a long time weeding and taking care of things. But as life would have it, I have three crazy, little kiddos that need me and don't do super well hanging out by themselves while I work. So I get up early to make Robert his breakfast and lunch, send him off, settle my early bird Amy with the iPad and can squeeze in half an hour of work/weeding (and sometimes even a shower) before the boys wake up and breakfast is demanded.

 Another Frozen cake I was able to do for a friend's daughter who was turning 8! I didn't do the Elsa figurine, but everything else I did. It was a fun one, although frustrating at the end because the fondant wouldn't cooperate and I was late delivering it - oopps!

 My friend was about to have her baby any second, but she was determined to celebrate her daughter's birthday first, so I went over and put together the cake/cupcakes for her so she could just sit and relax. It turned out super cute I thought!

 This picture is hilarious! I would put Mark in this saucer so I could help with the yard, etc and on more than one occasion he fell asleep! Yep, with his face down in the toys. One time he was even snoring!

 And we finished out baseball season for Sam. He seemed to really enjoy it and the other kids did pretty well at the games. This picture above Amy was chilling and then said very matter-of-factly to me "Mom, it's a really nice day" That girl!

 This day Sam and Daddy were at the Fathers and Sons campout, so I decided to be a cool Mom and took Amy and Mark out for breakfast at basically the only sit down restaurant in Rigby. Big mistake. They took forever and neither kid would eat anything, so it was a huge waste of nearly $20, but there were some fun moments, like this one I captured.

 This one is a cake I helped with, but cannot take full credit for. My friend was trying to ask me for some advice with working with fondant and I offered to just come over and help her with the cake. So we made it together - it was awesome! She got the scale right and I helped make the fondant and cover the cake. It was alot of fun to spend a good chunk of time with this friend, who is now in a different ward, which means we rarely see or talk to each other.

 Amy's hair for church one Sunday. If I give her the iPad, I can get away with doing bigger, slightly more complex hairstyles.

 We made it to the mall one afternoon to play inside. Mark absolutely loved this tunnel!!

 One night I was up and "like" a post that had a wreath like this. My friend saw it the next day and called me and said we should totally get together to make it, so we did. It was way fun to do a project again and they turned out way cute I thought! It is still on my door #1 because I am so proud of it and #2 because I don't have anything else to put up :)

 And of course no summer would be complete without a trip to Bear World with the Potters!

 Marky's happy faces!! This kid is really just so happy and pleasant all the time!

 My mountain of laundry at least weekly (only mine and the kids' clothes, too)

 A cake I was asked to make for a baby shower in my ward. I like the way it turned out. The blocks were much bigger than I envisioned, but overall it turned out great!

 Sam wanted me to take a picture of him with one of his Duplos creations