I Want to Be Baptized

We are SO excited for Morgan's baptism on Sunday! Wish we were closer to family and friends so we could share this special day with all of you.

It's Great to be { EIGHT }

My baby girl turned 8!

We celebrated by going to Pizza Hut. Morgan got a free birthday meal!

We have celebrated all month but I managed to hold back a few gifts for the actual day.

I tried a different design for her baptism towel. It turned out SO cute!

Morgan was thrilled to have her own complete set of scriptures. And orange is her favorite color these days so I could not pass up the adorable scripture bag.

She wanted a rainbow on her cake. I made it a really girly rainbow and she loved it.

Zane surprised Morgan by putting balloons all over her bed. She thought that was pretty cool. I also helped him put together a beaded bracelet for her. She LOVED it too.

Happy Birthday sweet Morgan!

Third Grade Here We Come!

I can't believe my little Morgan started 3rd grade yesterday! Sometimes she seems so little and other times she seems so grown up.

(It was a little breezy.)

She said lots of girls, including her teacher, asked her where she got her new bag. "Everyone loves my bag! I told them I got it from Kid's Place. Is that right?" Haha... close enough.

Zane was feeling left out. "You think Morgan is cuter than me. She's all pink and cute and I'm just me. And I don't even get to go to school." He pouted all the way to the school. And then we spent the morning playing games and he talked my ear off and kept asking when the bus would bring Morgan home. I'm anxious to start preschool again in a couple weeks. ;)

Finally the bus brought her back home. Still all cute and pink. She loves her teacher and loves that her friend Lexi is in her class. It's gonna be a good year!

Who is the Real Hero?

(Morgan insisted that we take pictures and blog this event. I prefer to forget it but for her... here is the story.)

We sat at the table eating our peanut butter ice cream, enjoying our last summer day together before school started. I watched the cattle out the window and thought it was strange that they were all moving to the right side of their pens. There was no feed truck. Why did they all decide to move that direction at the same time?

Then I saw the wall of dust and heard the roar of the approaching wind. I announced to the kids that a storm was coming. Morgan jumped up in a panic, worried about their swimming pool they had been playing in earlier.

We have had this inflatable swimming pool for almost 4 years. It originally had a whale slide that was also inflated and attached to the pool. (After our first time inflating I was ready to be done with it. Glad I got it on clearance.) After the slide got a mysterious hole, the kids insisted on continuing to use the pool. Even with the tie-down things on the bottom, it has been a fun little wading pool.

The kids told me they had opened the drain when they were done and Zane was sure it was blowing away. To fulfill my need to be hero-mom, I slipped on my flip flops and rushed out to save the pool! (By this time we had 60 mph wind gusts!)

As I picked up the pool I realized that not all of the water had drained so it probably would not have gone too far. But lifting it, I emptied it. So now what?

I knew I had to get it to the storage shed at the back of the house. It was a bit difficult to maneuver in the wind but hey, I am super-mom, the hero. As I rounded the corner of the house, I realized that I was now sailboat-mom, about to set sail across the field.

The pool completely wrapped around me and I could not see where the wind was taking me. As I tried to dig my feet into the ground to keep from going completely airborne, my right flip flop broke. (I think this is what actually saved my life. I was then able to dig my bear foot into the ground and stopped flying.)

As I tried to carefully pry the wet, plastic pool off my face to see where I was, the wind ripped it from my hand and sent it soaring. I had missed the storage shed by only a few feet but at this point I DID NOT CARE.

I picked up my shoe and limped inside to tell the kids I would buy them a new pool. (I thought they would be happy about that but no.)

Through their tears, they looked out the window to see where the pool had lodge in the weeds.

(Ignore the fly on the window. See the blue speck out there?)


There was no way I was going out there, even when the wind stopped. I no longer felt the need to be the hero so I assured the kids that Dad would rescue the pool when he came home. I nursed my brused foot and begged the kids to STOP crying.



Not long after, Scott came home and saw the speck of blue in the field. He knew what it was. He tromped through the weeds (not afraid of the snakes) and rescued the wayward pool. He safely secured it in the storage shed before coming in the house.



The kids fought back tears as they told Dad the story and took him to the window to see... no pool. Then Scott assured them he had already retrieved the pool and their tears quickly turned to shouts of joy!



Dad was the true hero of the day! And I'm okay with that.

[ FIVE ]

Zane wanted a white cake with red Spiderman web for his birthday. Easy enough. We had lunch at the park with a group from church the day before his birthday and called that the party. On his birthday, we celebrated all day at home.

Spiderman games and Legos... what else could a little boy want.

We made a deal at the beginning of the summer - Zane learned to ride without training wheels so he got the Spiderman bike for his birthday. It's a little bigger but he did really good riding it. (Morgan is a little jealous cause his bike has a hand brake and hers doesn't.)

We spent the afternoon playing those Spiderman games!

Happy birthday to the sweetest 5 year old I know! As I tucked him into bed that night he said, "I'm almost 6 now." Don't grow up too fast little boy!

August 11th

Morgan did a photo shoot for Zane on his birthday. She is quite the budding photographer and he is... an interesting model.

Someday, he may not be excited that I shared these pictures with the world.

[ Road Trip ]

It's been a few years since we were able to go on a vacation together as a family. No. Moving to Nebraska did not count last summer.

Our destination...

Mt. Emily will always be home!


We did a lot of driving!


A LOT of driving! Fortunately, we only had one instance of car sickness. But this little boy used that to his advantage. Any time Morgan wanted to ride in the center seat he quickly reminded her of his car sickness. Morgan wants a new car - with a third seat.

Maybe Zane should have slept more. Morgan put in her headphones and closed her eyes to make the miles go by faster. (The dvd player died early on day two which made the trip a little rough at times.)

We took the scenic route around Bear Lake and through Logan canyon. It was beautiful!

In Oregon, we camped out in the trailer at Scott's aunt & uncle's house. It was fun to have our own little space but still have the shower & big screen in the house.

(Thank you Rick & Sharon!)

The weather was actually pretty warm. (I was prepared for cool temps this time.)

The kids had lots of fun swimming with lots of cousins.

We paused for haircuts at the beauty shop.

(Thank you Mom!)

Happy birthday Zane!

Happy birthday Morgan!

We HAD to celebrate birthdays while we were there.

Then we went back to Brittany's and took over her apartment. Brit and Levi were so good to us. We ate good food, watched fun movies, did some shopping (the new tires don't count) and went on a quick hike. We didn't want to leave.

The trail was pretty gentle and had some fun little bridges. Some spots were a little steep but the kids didn't give up.

They wanted to pick all the beautiful flowers and had fun chasing the cattle off the trail.

We found the waterfall! That is Levi standing up on the side of the mountain. We stayed down at the bottom while him & Brit climbed to the top. The water shoots straight out of the side of the mountain so they filled our water bottles there for the hike back down.

Back at the trail head was a large rock. The kids still had some energy so Levi helped them climbed on top of the rock and pose for a picture.

And no road trip would be complete with out a visit to our favorite rest stop. The kids always want to pose with "Air-o-ton" Lincoln.

We came home exhausted and with TONS of cherries and wonderful memories!