July

(My attempt at a holiday jello salad)

July has been such a busy, fun month. Two great holidays and tons of family birthdays have kept the parties going all month long! Happy birthday to my nephews Ryan and Kobie, my neice Emmi, my brother Mike, my sisters Amy and KC, and last but NOT least, happy birthday to my amazing mom! Maybe I better have a shout out for all the August birthdays that are coming up soon--my nephew Josh, Jason's amazing mom and dad, and Jason's brother Corey! Whew! Crazy thing is, with a family our size, every month is pretty much full of birthdays.......and we love it! What would we do without family? Jason and I are so blessed. Our families are really so wonderful. Spending time with them is always our favorite thing to do.

4th of July BBQ with the Family:

Fireworks and water balloon launching with neighbors:

Take me out to the ball game..........

So, as part of my dad's "Father's Day" gift, we got him tickets to a Bee's game. My dad was quite the baseball player back in the day........(the minor leagues wanted him, but so did the Lord. So, it was off to England on an LDS mission instead!) Anyway.....wish we could've taken him to a big game at a big stadium........but, settled on the Salt Lake Bees......I don't think dad minded though. It was way fun to be there with my siblings and their families. We were a big, noisy group. I'm sure we were a sight, especially when it started raining and we pulled out our big umbrellas! So much fun! Happy Father's Day dad! Sure love you!

Summer Fun

This summer is going by WAY too quickly. I can't believe that school starts in just a few short weeks! We have tried to do a lot of fun things and make the most of our summer so far. Some of our activities have included; swimming, running in the sprinklers, picnics at the park, movies at the dollar theater, bike rides (Johnny finally learned to ride his 2-wheeler!), visits to "Jump On It", playing with cousins, going out for ice cream, playing with friends, trips to the library, and I'm sure others that I just can't think of right now.

We changed things up a little this summer by signing the kids up for gymnastic lessons instead of soccer. (We have done soccer for 3 years now.......the kids all love it--it just takes up way to much time with all that we have going on). Here are some pics of the kids enjoying their new summer activity.

The kids are also staying busy with their piano this summer. After earning their "100 point" cup trophies last spring, Belle and Isaac decided that piano might just be "cool" after all. :) In fact, the trophies were so cool, that Johnny decided he wanted to start piano lessons too. So, we now have 3 little pianists at our house.

Disneyland, here we come!

We have been planning to take the kids to Disneyland this year. It has been awhile since we've visited that magical place, and we (mostly me I think) are sooooooo excited to be going! In preparation for the big vacation, Jason came up with an ingenious "incentive" idea. The kids each need to earn the money for their entertainment. They can earn money by doing extra chores for mom and dad. They need to earn $50.00 for Disneyland, $50.00 for Legoland and $50.00 for the beach. If they earn all $150.00, then they can fly to California in an airplane! Since none of my kids have ever flown before, this is very exciting for them. (And for me and Jason too! Anytime you can avoid 12+ hours in a car with lots of kids, it's good for the whole family).

Jason even told the kids that they could earn a little extra $ to buy a souvenir. And I have to say, that over the last 4 months, the kids have earned quite a bit of money. As you can see by our chore chart, we are almost there! Every Sunday Jason updates their progress--and they are always so excited to see how close they are getting to their vacation.

I have to admit though, having all this help with chores has been the best part for me. I love that my kids are becoming more helpful and independent. It is fun to watch them work hard at accomplishing their goals, and to see the satisfaction on their faces at a job well done. I am learning that my kids are capable of much more than I thought--they do a really great job with their chores. They are very proud of themselves and Jason and I are very proud of them as well. I'm just hoping that after the vacation, they still have some enthusiasm for chores--cause their still gonna have 'em! :)

A day at the Zoo.......

And no, I don't mean a day at my own house.........(although I do have 5 little monkeys here daily). Jason's work took all the employees and their families to the zoo a couple of weeks back. My kids absolutely LOVE the zoo and were SO excited to go. It was hot, but we had a lot of fun.

Face painting--we had two eagles, a snow leopard and a princess?!? Would Sabrina be anything but?

Petting a rabbit

Hanging out with the ostrich...(no, not Jason! lol)

See ya later alligator!