Pioneer day fun

We had our Pioneer Day celebration at Saunders Springs this morning. The boys got to feed the fish and see a bunch of turtles but the best part was this super friendly butterfly wanted to be held by all the kids. I forgot my camera but got a few pics with my iphone... The boys' favorite thing was of course rolling in the dirt- gotta love those brown little faces. Then they had a good wash down in the creek before heading home. So sad to think this is our last ward activity here!

Count your blessings...

I was going through my blog posts adding labels that I've neglected for so long...and I found this draft post from last year! Although my "baby" is almost two now and I can only dream of 70 degree weather the other sentiments are still true so I thought I'd publish it anyway. Better late than never...

The other day I was sitting on my back porch holding the baby, the boys were playing on the swings, it was about 70 degrees, I could feel the warm sun soaking in my skin, and it felt like I was on vacation. I thought back to when I was working full time and going to school full time and would daydream about how much fun it would be to not have to work, to just stay home and play with my kids all day. Of course it hasn't been much of the vacation I planned- I didn't expect to have three kids in three years, live far away from my family and friends, have my husband be a bishop and be gone almost every night, but this moment I realized I am living my perfect dream life.

I've always been a whiner, but when I stop and count my blessings I realize how lucky I am. I've had opportunities to travel the world and have fun adventures, I have three beautiful healthy boys, we have a fabulous back yard they can play in, I have a wonderful husband who loves me, I've been able to get a graduate degree, learn hobbies like photography, scrapbooking and cooking that keep me sane and make me feel alive, have great people here that love my kids like they're their own grandchildren, I have goals and dreams for the future that I know I can accomplish. There have been times in our life when we have been so happy we look at each other and wonder if it could really get any better?

Summer *fun*

Here's how we've been spending our summer:

Lots and lots of building. Whenever I try to get Joshua to do ANYTHING day or night (including eating and sleeping) he says "I can't mommy, I'm building!"

I asked Grant a question the other day and he answered me so clearly I was suprised. Ethan said "WOW! He talked like a HUMAN!" Here's some pictures of the "human". He loves to snuggle with his stuffed animals (this is boomer our dog- probably the only dog he will ever have) and he has a serious obsession with cars. Needless to say his favorite words are "doggy" and "car" which he repeats about a million times a day.

Reading...We participated in our library's summer reading program and logged over 50 hours.

The library had a petting zoo come this weekend to celebrate the end of the reading program. The boys had such a great time petting all the animals. Grant loves all animals and wants to hug them all. He followed this little donkey all around chasing it wherever it went.

And of course their favorite past time...driving mommy crazy! They love to pull ALL the cushions off my couch and either use it as a trampoline or build little forts. It makes me absolutely crazy to see my pillows strewn all over the place. Next couch will have permanent cushions...this one has got to go.

Oh...and let's not forget packing and running. Packing is a never ending nightmare consisting of packing a box, coming in a few hours later to find that it has been unpacked. Repeated several times a day. Running is a different kind of nightmare. I used to love, even adore my treadmill. However, I loathe it when I have to run more than 5 miles on it. Running outside long distance is so much more enjoyable however when you have to run 10 miles on the morning of an extreme heat advisory it's not quite as pleasant. Nevertheless I managed to log 20 miles last week and am hoping to continue to meet my marathon training goals. As long as I don't get heat stroke...

4th of July Weekend

 It was a fun weekend of camping out, splashing in the creek and watching fireworks. The fireworks in Kentucky are amazing. No matter where you live in our town you can see 15-20 different light displays and they aren't firecrackers like we're used to out west, they are full blown fireworks displays like you'd see in the park- only they are being lit off at people's homes. It's pretty incredible. Ethan wasn't scared this year but he did still plug his ears the entire time.

 And no fourth of July would be complete without some fresh sweet corn. This Amish corn is the best, the boys just gobble it up.

Gotta have a little wrestling...(grant pulled ethan's hair and made him scream- I couldn't stop laughing)

   

And of course some bike riding...