Havesting!!!

I know it's terrible, but this is the first year we've ever had a garden.  I've always been jealous of the delicious produce everyone seems to have this time of year.  Now we have a yard with plenty of room for gardening.  We didn't get the variety of foods I would have like this year, but the things that did work out we got LOTS of!  It's been a ton of work to have a garden as large as ours is, but we (yes, even the kids) LOVE the harvesting!  We're so grateful and anxious to try more next year!

2011 Summer Fun Fridays

For yet another year Shauna, Natalie, Kimber, Laurel (Shauna's darling neighbor) and I have continued our tradition of attempting to make the summer fun for our kids.  Every year it gets a little harder and crazier, especially now that we have 21 kids between us.  We're getting a little less ambitious in our endeavors and more and more practical.  Kimber was great to plan it all out this year with a very laid back approach.  I got pictures of some of our excursions.  The kids always look forward to Fun Fridays.  It's fun to have such enjoyable company to do it with! :)

 We went to the Aerospace Museum!

 Pilot Jacob ready for take-off!

 Sarah is ready to soar the skies!

Jonah loved this plane best of all!

 I took advantage of my sister Brittany being in town to spend a Fun Friday with her and her cute kids!  They wanted to do Temple Square.  She wanted her kids to see it ALL so we ran like crazy from one thing to the next with 8 kids under 7 in tow.  It was chaotic fun!  The kids loved the waterfall from inside The Conference Center.

 It's always a great experience to slow things down a bit and feel the reverence of the Christus.

The new children's exhibit in the Church History Museum is fabulous.  We could have stayed there for a couple of hours.  Jonah loved pretending to be a missionary cooking for himself.

 Sarah loved dressing up and dancing in traditional South American clothes.

 We waded through the wedding parties at the temple to get this shot.

 We had to spend one Fun Friday at the County Fair.  Natalie and I braved this one together.  The petting zoo was wonderful!  Here's Jonah with a CAMEL!  I never expected to see a CAMEL in a petting zoo!

 Jacob loved the little ponies.

Sarah loved the petting zoo a little less.  The up close and personal experience with the animals was a little much for her.  I don't have any more pictures of the fair because after the petting zoo things went down hill from there.  I didn't have a chance to pull out my camera with all the chasing of Jonah around I had to do.  Needless to say, we didn't stay much longer.  Oh well.  There will be other years of the fair!

Fourth of July

We had another fabulous 4th of July full of family and traditions! 

 What could be better than starting the day bright and early at The Cracker Barrel?  We went with matching red Old Navy t-shirt this year.  Let me tell ya, red sticks out way more than white did.  People commented everywhere all 27 of us went.  It got to be a little much.  We may end up doing white next year. :)  We sure love having the shirts though!  Thanks, Nanny & Papa!

Next, it's on to the home town parade!  Jacob & Sarah love to ride in the Model A and throw out candy!



We spent the afternoon and evening back at our home this year.  Here some of the dads relax while they "watch" the babies. :)



It's always fun to play on the slip 'n slide!



Papa wants to get his Model A in an antique car magazine.  There can't be many entries with 17 grandchildren all in matching shirts.  I'd say we're a shoe-in for sure!

Jonah's Surgery

As our search for helping Jonah to sleep has continued, we finally came to the conclusion that he needed to have his tonsils and adenoids removed to rule out any obstructive sleep apnea.  We figured we had done all we could naturally to help Jonah sleep and for 2 years he hadn't slept well.  Now it was time to try some new things.  The frustrating thing about tonsils and adenoids is that you won't really know that it will help until they're out.  We didn't know if we should put Jonah through this.  But looking at effects of long term sleep deprivation looked pretty scary too.  After seeing some wonderful doctors and praying we decided we had to do something to try to help him.  Even if having the surgery doesn't help, at least we can try some medications safely.  Sedating a child that needs to wake up to breathe is obviously dangerous.  So we had to do this first.  We were referred to a wonderful surgeon and are blessed to be so close to Primary Children's.  You gotta love the confidence and arrogance of surgeons.  I explained to the surgeon that some of my friends' children had complications from their tonsillectomies.  He told me, "Yes, all of those things can happen.  But, they don't happen to me."  Arrogant?  Yes.  But it actually made me feel more comfortable with him operating on my son.

 Jonah with Mommy in front of the hospital before surgery.

Here's Jonah in the pre-op room getting ready for surgery.  There were lots of fun toys, and he even got to ride back to the operating room in a little coop car.  It was so wonderful how everything was catered to children.

Jonah's surgery went flawlessly.  He was a little groggy at first, but he was drinking slushies and talking right away.  His throat was tender for a few days and he was spoiled with yogurt, pudding, jello and popsicles.  We have wonderful family and friends who brought him some new quiet toys to play with and balloons while he recovered.  Thank you everyone for your support and prayers.

It turns out the surgery didn't help his sleep.  But that doesn't mean he wasn't having any obstructions.  I also don't regret doing it because now we can try some medications safely.  Jonah was one tough little guy!

Nathan's 1st Birthday!!!

I can hardly believe it's been a year since our sweet little Nathan was born!  He's been such a delightful, happy, easy going baby!  It absolutely breaks my heart to think of him going from baby to toddler. 

 1 year old Nathan with a party hat on . . . that didn't last long!  He was screaming for it to come off pretty quickly!

 Nathan with Nanny & Papa!

 Jonah, Sarah & Nathan on his birthday!  Nathan loves playing with this siblings.

Daddy helped Nathan open some presents!  He got a fun new truck to scoot around on, a musical table and a bucket swing for the swing set outside.



Brandon made another 1 year old cake!  He's the master!  Cute, huh?  I never knew when I married him that he had such amazing cake decorating skills.

Finally, one kid that loves his 1st cake!  The other kids were all too grossed out by the gooey mess!  Not Nathan.  He dug in and quite enjoyed himself.  Oh, our little Nathan.  How we love you!  You bring so much sunshine to our lives.  When he smiles his eyes literally twinkle.  He has Sarah's crocked smile and toothy grin.  15 teeth at 11 months has to be some kind of record!  Nathan loves to watch Signing Time, and loves to eat crackers and drink water.  He loves to be standing up, but still won't walk.  He loves to snuggle with his smooth, flannel receiving blankets best of all.  And he loves, loves, loves his daddy!  As soon as Brandon walks in the door Nathan throws up his arms and shouts, "Dada!"  I have to say, it's pretty darn cute!

Family Reunion

We had another fabulous reunion with Brandon's family!  We look forward to going to the cabin every year.  Even though we rent it, the grandkids all think Nanny & Papa own it!  It's a perfect fit for the family!  We had a blast playing games, throwing water balloons, playing soccer, watching movies, eating yummy food, playing Minute To Win It games and visiting lots!  Brandon and I probably got the least amount of sleep we've ever gotten due to Jonah sleeping in our room.  We were pretty exhausted from Jonah's middle of the night play time parties.  I felt like we hardly saw Jacob & Sarah who just ran crazy with their cousins.  Jacob was really into the ping pong and pool tournaments this year.  Sweet Shauna even let Jacob beat him at ping pong, making his confidence and ego soar!  Thanks, Nanny & Papa for another fun year!  We can't wait for next year!!!

 Nathan playing with his sun hat on.  He looks happy now, but this thing drives him crazy!  Sure is cute, though!

 Sarah, Anne & Naomi picked about every dandelion in the field while the boys played soccer.  They had so much fun!

Brett & Kimber came up with some hilarious Minute To Win It games that were SO fun to play all together!!!

The kids all love the hot tub.  There was a new, nicer one this year!  Yahoo!

The kids love to give Brandon a "Santa beard" with the bubbles!  Doesn't it look like he's having fun?

Here's our annual group shot at the end of the reunion!  What a wonderful time we had!

Sarah's Ballet Recital

The culmination of Sarah's first year of ballet lessons was her recital, "Once Upon a Time!"  All of the dances were fairy tales and fables.  It was fabulous!!!  Clytie's does an amazing and professional recital!  Sarah loved everything about the recital:  lots of girls, make-up, fun costumes, music, dancing, she got flowers, and more ballet!  Almost all of her favorite things wrapped up into 1 event!  We're looking forward to more recitals and dancing in her future!  Sarah was squirrel #2 in the Snow White dance.  She was really stressed about the witch being too scary.  I heard about that witch for months!  Then at her performance I finally saw that she wasn't even on stage with the witch!  Phew!  I was stressed she was going to panic on stage and start screaming!  Luckily she knew just what to do and danced beautifully!  Good job, Sarah!

Sarah in her squirrel costume!



Her cousin, Emma, was gold in Rumpelstiltskin!  So cute!

 Jacob with his ballerina sister!

After the last performance we celebrated with Nanny & Papa at Yogo Togo's!  Yum!