Random happenings....

A couple weeks ago Sara hit her toe against the chair. She said it really hurt and started REALLY crying, but sometimes she can be a little dramatic so I hugged her a little bit but didn't think much of it. But, when she really wouldn't stop I remembered all those times I stubbed my toe and how bad it hurt - especially the times I'm sure it was broken. So I got some ice out and put that on and Ben carried her downstairs so she could join all of us. Turns out I guess it really did hurt. I'm not sure if it was broken, sprained, or just really bruised, but here's how it looked. We wrapped it for a week or so until she thought it woudl be okay not wrapped. Poor kid hit again on something a few days later and I could tell it really hurt.

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Miles Again

He's just too cute. Can't get enough of him.

At his 4-month check up, he weighed 17 lbs. 13 oz. and was 26 inches long (95 percentile on both). He is the size of an average 7-month-old. We've got a big kid on our hands. But I knew that all too well beforehand.

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These beautiful flowers have been sitting on my kitchen table for a few days. Ben was recently called as "Assistant Stake Executive Secretary". Thursday the Stake Presidency planned a dinner for the wives of the Stake Presidency (and those who serve with them so that included Ben) and all the bishops. They put on a beautiful and delicious dinner and presented these flowers to all the wives. Since Ben has only been called for a couple weeks and they are giving him a small load of assignments since he is still serving as Elder's Quorum president as well (for the time being), I haven't had to experience him being gone all the time -yet. So, with Ben's two callings and my two callings, some weeks are really busy for us. But somehow we fit it all in.

Let 'em roll

He's been trying for a while now but today he finally did it!

This has been him for the last little while......

Today this was him!

I put him down on his back and went into the kitchen to get the kids' lunch ready. When I came back into the living room he was on his stomach! He rolled over. Amazing how fun it is to see your child learn something new. How exciting!!

Mmmmm....

It's PEACHES season. Yeah!!! I love fresh peaches. They make me happy. Like each year, my grandpa went up to Fruit Heights to get peaches for all of us. We enjoy them for a few days, then we can them. Every other year I've gone over to my parents house and have my mom help me can them (aka - I help her can my peaches). But this year she was in California so I was left to fend for myself. It was actually quite fun. Ben and I peeled and cut them and then did the whole boiling thing. It was seriously so fun and I felt quite proud of myself when I was done and ALL THE BOTTLES SEALED! I was so proud of myself I decided to can another batch. This time I had to do it by myself because Ben had a meeting. I don't know how my mom does it each year by herself all day long. I was bored not having Ben there. It's amazing how doing something so simple by yourself can be so rewarding. I much prefer fresh peaches to canned, but it's nice to have some peaches to eat year round.

Poor Kamri...

No wonder it's hard for "the baby" to welcome a new little one into the home. When Kamri was little, for some reason we called her "boo, boo". It has since kind of faded, but it occasionally comes out and some of her cousins still call her that every time. The other day when we were all looking into Miles' crib after he woke up, Sara or Evan called Miles "boo, boo". Kamri said, "Hey, I'm boo boo". It was cute but kind of sad.

Ben and Rick

One of Ben's friends growing up was in town this past weekend. We met them at the park so the kids could play. I hadn't seen them since right after Evan was born and they moved back to Massachusetts so it was nice to catch up.

The kids

Have to represent - Go RED SOX!

Aren't they just so funny?

Ben's brother, Dan, and his family from Kansas and his sister-in-law and nephew, Candy and Ryan, from Arizona came into town a couple weekends ago. So we got together with them. Although we had seen both of them recently, they hadn't seen each other for years so it was nice to all get a little reacquainted again.

Cousins - minus Ryan. I don't know where he went.

The group of us. The lady who took the picture did a great job, huh.

Miles with his cousin Daniel. They are exactly 11 months apart.

All About Miles...

It's been a while since I talked about Miles so I thought I would dedicate a post just for him. And let's face it, who wouldn't smile when they see this face?

He's learning early. Go Red Sox!!

Miles is 4 months old now. He's still such a happy baby but is needing a little more attention than he used to. He smiles all the time. We "fight" over who gets to go get him when he wakes up because he is just so happy and smiley and gives the biggest grin when he sees you. Whenever he sees his siblings he has the biggest smile for them. It makes them all feel special.

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This week we got some good news. Since he was born he hasn't been able to pass his hearing tests in his left ear. We've been seeing audiologists and an ENT since he was born. He had fluid in there and we were waiting for it to drain to retest his hearing. I took him into the ENT again on Tuesday and they were able to retest him since the fluid had drained. HE PASSED! I've never thought there was a problem because I could tell he could hear and there were no signs that he couldn't but there was always some uncertainty in the back of my mind. So it was nice to have the official diagnosis from the doctor.

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He has his doctor appointment next week, but at the ENT office he weighed 18 lbs. He's a big guy, but my arm muscles are enjoying it.

He's used his Johnny Jumper only once and he wasn't such a big fan - yet. Our other kids absolutely loved this and often tired themselves out just jumping around in it and would fall asleep. I'll try it again today and see how it goes.

Seriously - ADORABLE!

No one can make him laugh like his daddy can.

Miles,

We feel so blessed to have you as part of our family.

You bring so much joy to all of us. Thank you. We love you!!

I ordered this book...

,

...the sequel to this book,...

...a couple weeks ago before it was even released. It finally came on Saturday. I was so excited and ready to spend my night reading, but alas things came up and I didn't even get the chance to start it. I finally got the chance last night at about 11:30 just before I went to bed. I only got through a couple chapters, though. Now I have kids to take care of so of course I can't spend the day reading. Ughhh. It's sitting there taunting me. And I'm supposed to go grocery shopping tonight. Shopping can be put off for one more night, can't it? What's up with me and these series books. This is the second book and I'm told there is a third coming out next year. I have to wait a whole other year?!

Kids are napping. I'm off to read. You'll have to wait until later dishes!

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By the way, for my sisters out there wanting to read it, you better get in line. I've already got one started.

Tidbits...

Over the summer, I had the kids participate in the summer reading program at the library. They accomplished all their goals and did all their reading. As a reward they each got a free book and a coupon for a cookie on a stick from Cookies by Design. This week we went up and got their cookies. They were huge!! You can see below they were almost as big as Kamris' whole face. The kids were ecstatic when they saw them. (The actual price for these was $6.40 each - holy cow) They actually tasted pretty good.

Tonight we were all trying to stand on our heads. I used to actually be pretty good at this. Now I can only get as far as my knees on my elbows. My stomach muscles aren't quite what they used to be. We got some good pictures to make it look like the kids stayed up for a while.

Princess cake

For the family celebration of July and August birthdays, I made a princess cake for the little girls, Sara and Sabrina. Sabrina had asked me to make her a princess cake for her birthday and Sara wanted one for hers, too so I decided to make one for the family party instead of making one for each of their birthdays. This saved me lots of stress (of which I seem to have lots) and time (of which I don't seem to have enough). I made cupcakes for the boys, Evan and Blake, and Trista.

I think the girls liked it. It tasted sooooooo good.

I may have to go whip up a cake just for the fun of eating it.

4th Annual

It's that time again. Labor Day weekend family half marathon. This is the fourth year we've done it, but it seems like so much longer than that. We look forward to it every year. This year, at about mile 9 or so, I was asking my sister why we do this to ourselves and why would we ever look forward to it. I guess we're all just crazy. The first year I was pregnant and only did half. Last year I was pregnant (Very early though. I actually wasn't even sure if I was or not.) and did the whole thing. I was walking with a bum foot this year. It hurt for the first mile or 2 then I think it just went numb. I wanted to stop at mile 11 but Ben and the kids had left the water stop by then so I was stuck. It's a good thing. I would have been upset at myself if I had quit. This year was a little different than the rest have been. It's usually a little hot by the time we're done, but this year it actually rained a little bit and was REALLY windy (and yes we had to walk against the wind).

new name for it this year.....

No more "Cheapskate Half Marathon"

We're looking all lively before we get started

AND WE'RE OFF!!!

We walkers (Trina, Dad, Cameo, Mom, Cassie, and I) are bringing up the rear...

Cassie even makes us our own race numbers

Seriously....what am I doing? I don't know. Just having fun I guess.

Me and my cute, 4 1/2 month-pregnant little sister

Ben and the kids were at one of the water stops. They were so cute handing out the water to us and were so excited to be of help this year.

My favorite part of the "race"...the FINISH LINE.

All the participants with our medals.

The whole family

Everyone who participates has a food assignment and we always have bagels and fruit (plus much more) at the end.

We started this so we could all get our half marathons in that we wanted to do but not have to pay (hence the old and new name). But, next year we're going to start a new tradition and take a small "registration" donation to donate somewhere yet to be decided.

Anyone is welcome to join us. Just let me know.

Thanks Cassie. It was great!!

We always have fun doing this. Thanks Cassie for putting it together

Ben has a wonderful opportunity this coming October to visit Panama with VIDA (a non-profit organization) to help a small Indian community down there with some health related issues and such. This opportunity kind of fell in his lap and he is super excited to go help/serve the people he served on his mission. To find out more about it, please check his blog.

Kindergarten Here I Come...

My little boy is all grown up!! He went to 2 years of preschool so the first day of Kindergarten really wasn't much different. Except now he has what seems like an endless amount of years of school in front of him. He has been anxiously waiting for his first day since Sara started last Tuesday and has been counting down. The first thing he did when he woke up was to run downstairs to get dressed. He met his teacher last week for his assessment and she was super nice and made him feel very comfortable.

The first day of the rest of his life (Isn't that what they say?)

After he picked out his outfit last night Sara chose one to match. They could be twins (I've been asked if they were more than once.)

Then Dad had to get in on the fun, too.

He was so excited today he didn't even want me to walk him to his class door, but I wasn't about to let him go by himself on the first day. But he says there's no way I'm coming tomorrow. He wants to do it himself. Oh well!!

All lined up with the rest of the class.

He's got four other kids from the ward in his class. They're all friends so that should be interesting for his teacher. I wanted to get a picture of all of them together but it didn't happen.

Dinosaurland

This past weekend we took a short trip out to Vernal/Dinosaurland with our friends Scott and Elisa and their kids. We left Miles home with my parents. Thanks Mom and Dad! It was greatly appreciated. We had been planning this for a couple months and the kids have been talking about it and so excited. We stayed at a KOA Kampground in Vernal. We rented a cabin there while Scott and Elisa were in the adjacent campsite. It was awesome. The cabin was two bedrooms. One had a queen-size bed and the other had two sets of bunk beds. I think it is really fun to be outdoors. I just hate sleeping in a tent and not having a real bathroom to clean up in. That's why the KOA was perfect!! We got to sleep in a cabin on a bed and there was a NICE bathroom with showers (I was going to take a picture but didn't get around to it). But we still got to have the outdoor experience with campfires, roasting marshmallows, and dutch oven. Anyway, I highly recommend it. We will be doing it again sometime next summer hopefully.

This is our cabin. We got one of Scott and Elisa's tent in it but it didn't turn out too well.

The campground also had a pool so we got to enjoy it that night

We grilled some hot dogs for dinner

Sara and Evan with their friend Elisabeth who is 3-weeks older than Evan

Dancing to none other than Hannah Montana

Chillin' by the fire

Mmmmmm.....marshmallows

The morning was a bit chilly

Playing in the big grassy field

The best thing about breakfast.......

the guys cooked it

Dutch oven breakfast......can you say heaven?

the nice lady who worked/lived at the campground took all the kids on a ride in her golf cart

getting the air out of the tent

there was also a nice playground for the kids to play on

they thought this slide was the coolest because it was so long and fast

Sara lost her 6th tooth in the car. She's adorable with her missing teeth

We took a hike to see some actual fossils in the rock. The hike was short and would have been okay if it hadn't been so hot. The kids, and the adults, just wanted to be done. I recommend if you are going to do it, make sure you do it early in the day.

One of the fossils of a dinosaur leg. Looks like rock to me.

This is part of a femur I think

vertebrae

Taking a break in the only shade there was in this vast dessert

the kids did some activities to become "Junior Paleontologists". Here the ranger is swearing them in.

showing off their badges

Utah Natural History Field Museum

digging for fossils

fossil of a turtle shell bigger than Kamri

Evan got right to work looking for hidden things in the exhibit. He was taking it so seriously I had to laugh.

The Dinosaur Gardens

Did you know there were 7-11's around millions of years ago?

Scary!!!!!

Then we drove past the Vernal temple. Evan asked where the temple was and I pointed to it and said, "Right there." He said, "That brown thing?" I guess they're not used to seeing temples that aren't white.

It was a great trip. We loved it. Thanks Scott and Elisa for suggesting it.