First day of school! Yipeeeeeeeeeee!

As you can see today is the first day of school. Don't they all look so adorable? Well I think so. It is going to be great! I think they were more excited than I was though. They were up and ready before my alarm went off at 6 am. They got ready had pancakes and eggs, brushed their teeth and off they go.

I can't wait to have only the two little girls. You don't understand the looks I get when I walk into the grocery store with the 6 chitlins' trailing behind, asking for everyhting under the sun. I could choke the life out of them, in a loving way, of course. I might actually see my house clean for more than 10 minutes at a time and the baby might be able to lay her little head down for a nap without some sibling screeching for mom because someone touched them, looked at them wrong, or was in their room without permission. This could be my heaven on earth:)

Now let the routine begin.

My little clown!

We have been honestly been trying to go through all the $%*! we have accumulated through the years before we start moving. In one of the boxes that we had set aside Elli found this cute clown hair. She is always full of so much energy. Once she got the clown hair on I was trying to take a picture. She thought it was pretty fun game to get close and then dart the other direction just before she would get in reaching distance. She loves to tease us all, especially when it comes to giving kisses.

The perfect surprise

Saturday we threw my Dad his surprise party. It was pretty exciting. My brothers took him out to shoot some of their favorite guns and we all showed up and went to town, setting things up and getting the food ready. We had a lot more people show up and that made the day even better. All but one of my Dad's brothers and sisters made it. My Uncle Bill made the trip from Portland, picked up kids in Boise and went to Logan to pick up my Aunt Susie and his son, Bret and his 2 kids. All together there were over 85 people there for my Dad. I am very relieved that it all came together so well.

Sleep over at Grandma Nora's

Friday we all got together and went to Ucon to see Jared's mom and Billy. We had ribs and lots of other good foods. The kids all played so cute together and we all had fun playing volleyball. My neice Chelle and I have this little competition when it comes to volleyball so we have to make sure we are not on the same team. So far she, her team, has not been able to beat us. She will be trying out all this next week for the team. Hopefully she will make it. She has the perfect body for the sport(tall with long arms). She makes me laugh.

All our kids stayed the night there and Nora and Aunt Michelle took them to Rigby Lake on Saturday and they played in the water. They love to be with their cousins.

Well here is a little more info on my family.

Tyler is 15 and driving. He just bought himself an old truck with some of the money he earned this summer. He loves being in high school, mainly because of the girls. He loves to ride his birt bike, play football and wrestle.He is a great big brother to the other kids. He and Kody are the best of friends.

Kody is 12 and has a side of him that is very mischievious. He loves to tease and sneak up on you to scare you. He did a great job in wrestling and will play football this year. Kody is a natural piano player. He can read notes very well but also has an ear to pick up the tune. He loves to ride his horse, Zeus, and now has his own colt to break. There is never a dull moment when he is around cuz you better be on your toes.

Hailey is 10 and is all girl. She doesn't like to get dirty, doesn't like bugs or anything else that crawls around on the ground. She loves to sing and plays the piano quite well. Her softball team tied for first place this year and she loved being one of the pitchers. She has a little crush and we love to tease her about that. She loves to watch Hannah Montana and hopes to go see her someday. (Really all my girls lover her) She likes to babysit and has done a lot of it this summer. She likes the money she makes too.

Cami is 8 and our little tomboy. She likes to ride her four wheeler all over the place. She and Lexie like to catch bugs and tease Hailey with them. She is a real dedicated piano player. I never have to get on her about practicing so she is advancing very quickly. She very intersted in learning about things in the outdoors and does very well in school. She is an easy child, always entertaining herself.

Lexie is 4 and has the funnest personality. She always has a smile on her face and has the cutest dimples. She wants me to teach her how to read and can count very well already. She really loves being outdoors and catching bugs and playing with the cat, Razzy. She misses her kitten that came up missing this winter. She is mom's little shadow. She wants to go everywhere with me. She has a little bit of the red-head temper though when you get her upset.

Elli is 13 months and the sweetest baby. Our family would not be the same without her. She gets spoiled by everyone. She is walking everywhere. We call her an orangatang. She walks with her arms out and it is so cute. She has the cutest "hi" and says it when she sees someone come home or when she wakes up in the morning. She loves spending time with her Daddy. He needed sweet little girls to soften him up.

Well that is the scoop on the kids right now.

Dutch oven Chicken

Our favorite food to eat in the summer is dutch oven chicken and spuds. This is the ONLY time you will see Jared cooking, only because I cannot lift those heavy sons a guns out of the fire. I know that it is so full of fat but what the heck, we only live once. I have no will power to diet.
Lexie loves to be outside scoutn' for bugs. She found a caterpiller and thought it was pretty fun to watch it crawl all over her hand. She has learned a lot about butterflies and moths. She can actually tell you which one is which. She also can tell you that butterflies come from a crystalis and moths come from a cacoon. She likes to know about that knid of stuff. Pretty smart for a four year old.

Today was the day to set up at our county fair and I got nominated to set up our booth for our ward. I had a lot of great help from Trixie and

Joan. They are the best RS Presidency. I did not realize how small town we are until I realized that most of the displays at our fair are from the ward members in each ward. Our booth turned out pretty cute.

Baby with a cough

Today I stayed home from church because Elli has a bad cough. I am really liking the blogging thing. It will be a great way to keep a journal of things that are going on in our lives, Plus I get to add pictures and I Love to take pictures. I am going to try to get my house clean while everyone else is at church (I know I am not supposed to do that) It has gotten very neglected while I work on the new house till the sun comes up till it goes down. I cannot wait to move in though. I love so many things in our new house but so far our bathroom (the tub and the shower) are my favorite. Maybe you will like them too.

Dad's turning 60

My family is planning a surprise party for my dad's 60th Birthday. I really hope that he hasn't gotten any ideas that it is happening. I made invitations and sent them to all my brothers and my sister, to my aunts and uncles and also all of their close friends and neighbors. I will post pics later.
I am a very lucky daughter. My parents are always very happy to have us around, in fact they beg for time with that they can spend with their grandkids. They are GREAT! It will be good to see them.

Today is a sad day :(

I have been super busy lately. We are trying to finish our house and get moved in before is starts to snow again but I have felt a little under the weather today and stayed in the house to try to get better. While I was killing time I looked at my best friends myspace page and saw that her boyfriend had passed away. She is like a sister to me. I never see her because she lives in Florida and I am here in Idaho. She knows more about me than any one else that I know. My heart breaks for her. She is a very strong girl and I know that she will make it through but she has been handed a difficult deck of cards. I love her and her kids and hope their hearts will heal soon.