Fort Seamons

We moved the crib to clean out from under it: three binkies, two legos, a block and three puzzle pieces. When we moved it we created a little corner that looked just like "an awesome little fort."

With the help of a few blankets and some tape, we built our fort. We even used our cloud blanket for the roof so it would look like the sky!

Just the right size for three little ones and a few toys and books. Ky asked if we could keep it forever, does "until bedtime" count as forever to a 4 year old?! :)

Silliness.

So if the wise man built his house on the rock and the foolish man built his house on the sand what kind of woman builds her house out of blankets?!

Johnny's Prayers

John started saying his own prayers recently. It is really sweet, he prays for everyone in the family, usually multiple times.

"Please bless my mommy, Amelia.

Bless me for my little baby, Leo.

Bless my sister, Kyla.

Please bless my daddy, Steve.

Bless my daddy's brother, Johnny Boy."

He says he is a brother, not a son. Funny thing is Steve's brother is John... he goes by his middle name, Brian. So Brian gets extra prayers from Johnny everyday!

Yesterday, Steve was gone on a work trip and when John prayed, I asked him to remember to pray for Dad to be safe.

"Please bless my Dad, Steve, on his trip that he won't fall and break his whole body."

Funny, SWEET boy!

Monsoons!

FINALLY! We have been reading a book called, Come on Rain, for a couple weeks, and have been thinking come on rain for a couple weeks too...

It is a late start to our monsoon season this year but I think they are finally here! We had a great rain storm today. Johnny and Kyla wanted to put on their swim suits and swim in the rain... I talked them into jumping in the puddles in their rain boots.

John dude.

Ky and some of our mountain flowers. Can't wait for all the new flowers the rain will bring!

PARADE!

Leo refused to wear his hat... I think I always had a hat with a strap for Johnny, might be time for one of those for Leo.

Front row seats.

Kyla's stylin' 4th of July gear.

Philmore. Johnny picked out all the cars that looked like Lightning and his friends, the army jeeps were "half of Sarge."

Leo looks like such a big kid!



Steve's new job, how can he not with a name like that?! We are thankful for these firefighters, they saved our town and mountain last month!

Yep, there he is... CHEWY!

Resident Florist

Miss Kyla is all about flowers! Today we got a flower catalog in the mail and after looking at it for quite some time she told me she would like all the flowers in the book... ALL the flowers! I thought of her Grandma's they both have beautiful yards FULL of flowers! We try to get our mountain desert yard to be full of flowers, it is a bit of a struggle with limited water, and our friend the gopher who eats all the bulbs we plant and has now moved onto eating entire plants, roots and all... (cover your ears) stinkin' gopher!

And then there is our little florist who just can't resist a beautiful flower, it has to be picked and loved and shown to mom... We have been having this dilemma for years, I love that she wants to pick me flowers but I really would like some of them to stay in the yard and be pretty there. So we have FINALLY found a solution. Kyla can pick all the flowers she wants, if she brings them in and puts them in a vase of water AND doesn't pick more until those are done blooming. This is our second flower arrangement by the up and coming Miss Kyla's Flowers. It seems to be doing the trick!

Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!!
We had a great weekend full of fun and sun... here are the highlights.

Parade Saturday morning in Flagstaff. We had front row seats, thanks to Mari who can get to a parade before it starts... we actually did make it there this year before it started but we still would not have gotten the great spot without Mari saving us a spot!

I think I mentioned last year, Flag lets EVERYONE into the parade. We were happy to see our unique favorite, the Star Wars Guild. It makes for a long parade, we left an hour and half into it.

(We took TWO cameras to the parade and left them BOTH in the car! We borrowed Mari's, I'll share some pics when I get them.)

Slip n' slide and water balloons. Saturday was hot enough to play in the water, so Steve pulled out the new slip n' slide. Ky and John wouldn't actually slide, they just ran through the little spray of water. Steve showed them up, he is a champion slider! We had water balloons too, two very unique things about our "water fight." #1 No one threw a balloon at anyone... they just threw them on the ground and thought it was cool to see them break. :) #2 We picked up the broken balloons... I guess Steve has "NEVER" picked up the balloon pieces before... :)

(Please try to ignore our "grass" it is a work in progress...)

BBQ. Saturday night we had some friends over for a BBQ. Steve went all American and got Carne Ranchera. It was great.

Fireworks! We LOVE fireworks!! Flag didn't have any this year due to the HOT DRY conditions. So we drove to Page for their fireworks. They were perfect.

I love the looks on Leo and Johnny's faces!

Johnny and his buddy, they were so cute at the fireworks!

Johnny celebrating with the finale.

I did say this was just the highlights right?!

Ok fine the whole story is that the camp ground was full when we got there so we ended up camping on the beach, not bad but noisy. AND then Kyla got sick. Sickie pukie on her brothers, in the car and in the tent. We pitched our tent at 11 pm, after the fireworks, and took it down at 1 am, 2 hours later. The second round of pukes in the tent which covered Johnny and his sleeping bag was the last straw, we packed it up and drove home. Ky had a bucket but you really can't blame a super tired 4 year old when she doesn't hit the bucket. So at 1 am Steve and I were trying to figure out what to do with a tent full of ickie blankets and sleeping bags. It was one of those things that we had to laugh at, if not I think I would have cried. We came up with this ingenious idea, I say inspiration.

It's our air mattress. It just looked like a nice big present, unfortunately this was not a pleasant one to open... It did the job though, the smell and slime were contained.

I have to give a BIG thanks to Steve who did most of the clean up duty, he came running out of the tent every couple minutes trying to keep himself from losing it too, but he made it. THANKS Beave! Plus he drove home in the middle of the night, getting here at 3:30 am, bright side, no traffic. :) So Page fireworks make the highlight list for the fireworks, for Steve's strong stomach, and for our heaven sent sense of humor.

Monday Movie. After a few hours of sleep and a few more hours of clean up, we went to see Toy Story 3! It was such a fun movie! I was nervous, my kids are such scardy cats and I had heard it was pretty intense, and it was, but they made it through. Kyla covered her eyes and hung onto Dad and Johnny spit at the screen. Thanks Mari and Amanda. No really, thanks, those two taught him to stick your tongue out and blow raspberries at the scary guys on the Disneyland rides, and it has stuck with John. So funny!

Miss Kyla showing off her "fireworks" accessory. This was Monday and she still looked a little green.

It was a great Fourth of July weekend! We love having Steve home from work, we can't get enough time with him!

We are so grateful for the amazing country we live in, the freedoms we have, and the people who have sacrificed so much for us.

Camping: not basement style or even tramp style...

This weekend rolled around and we realized we didn't have a whole lot to do, just the Elders Quorum moving a family this morning... that is where Steve, Ky and John are, and why I am doing this on a Saturday morning...
So what to do with an almost free weekend?! We went camping! The real kind, not sleeping bags in the basement or even on the tramp; tent, forest, the works. Great part about living in the forest, you don't have to drive too far to camp!


Leo's "camp chair." :) And his new trick, pointing. It is so cute, he points, does his sign for want/more and babbles. We usually figure out what he wants pretty quick!




When we pulled up and I saw this log I thought how cool it was, I think it must have been the kid in me remembering...



My silly kids! I have an empty picture frame on display in my living room... yes I do and yes Beave teases me about it. I keep trying to find the perfect picture to go in it, here is another try...




We camped right next to this meadow, Ky and John were so excited to run and play and use their butterfly nets! We got these when we went to Cali, for the beach I guess, probably a case of the "I wants" at the dollar store... When we got to the beach we couldn't find the nets, I figured they fell out somewhere along the way, turns out Steve put them in the storage spot in the back that we didn't open between leaving Flag in April and yesterday... Worked out pretty well, the nets were perfect for our camping meadow!




And in the middle of the meadow?! A POND! We told Johnny we were going to camp by a lake, we didn't find a good spot by the lake and went here instead, we didn't even see the pond until after we were out of the car... Lucky dad!




Leo was so excited about it he decided he would try standing, on his own for the first time!! He made it up, but only for a second. And somehow Steve had the camera on him, maybe it is more than luck...




Awww... I'm getting that teary eye response again... I just love my kids!!




LEO




The area we went to is SO pretty! I love this action shot of our little fam!




"No fire S'mores." Camp fire restrictions meant no fire for us so we made these yummy chocolate covered marshmallows instead.



Leo liked his too! If I didn't LOVE s'mores I might do these all the time, way less mess, at least at the camp... we left the mess at home... :)




Full Moon! It is a good thing we were forest camping and not too close to any other campers... we ALL howled at the moon!




Once they got to sleep Ky and John slept like champs, they even slept in a half hour after Leo was awake and making noise. Leo didn't sleep as well, it was his first camp and he is not used to sleeping anywhere besides his own bed... next time he'll have it down I'm sure!




Thanks to Steve who had the great idea to go for a quick camp, by the way one night is perfect for me... :) I love the beautiful area we live in and I LOVE my sweet family!

Our Own Private Beach

We doubled the size of our sandbox this spring... we needed more space for more kids. Johnny now calls the sandbox "the beach." They love the sandbox! I love that they play in it for hours, I have less love for the sand that gets tracked in, Johnny always gets some sand in his pockets and leaves little piles of it all over the house.

Diamondbacks

Last month we went down to Phoenix to watch a baseball game. We went with friends and met some more friends there and had a great time! Steve said it didn't feel like a real game because they closed the roof... I was ok with it, the temp. outside was 108!!

And the D-backs won! They played the Rockies and according to my Bro who lives in Colorado it isn't a huge accomplishment to beat them this year... but we still thought it was cool!

Johnny thought these hats were super cool, he called it his "watching hat." He is pretty literal, he watched the game wearing the hat, therefore it is a watching hat...

Leo. He did great! We were there for the first pitch and watched the last pitch too. No ducking out after the 7th inning stretch for us! :)

We met some friends there who recently moved to Phoenix, good thing Ky had some silly girls to play with, she wasn't as into the game as Johnny and Dad.

Johnny kept asking to go down to the "gate", we were on the first level and the field was right there... I told him we would go down after and take pictures. After the game I forgot, he did not.

Glad he reminded us, we got some cute pictures.

We went down to Phoenix a couple hours early and played at this fun splash park. Leo was the only one who wanted to get wet... Not surprised with Johnny, but Kyla? She said it was because she didn't have a swim suit on. I tried to explain her clothes would dry super fast in the HOT sun, but she didn't go for it. It was a huge park with lots of fun things, not just the splash part, so Ky and John roasted themselves playing on the other things.

The Gallery

I have been wanting a sign for this spot forever and finally found one I really liked. Steve calls this hall the gallery...

These are a couple of my favorites. Beave got this picture for me from Jackson Hole. Yes it is a barn, I love it!

The Beave and I as kids.

My Mom and Dad. My Dad with his Grandpa on main street in Price, Utah around 1950. My Dad looks a lot like this grandpa! My Mom on her Grandpa's new colt, Cooke City, Montana 1950. The family still owns the ranch land in Cooke City, it is cool to go to the same places my Mom went to when she was a kid. I just love these pictures of my parents.

My all time favorite pictures of Kyla and Johnny! I am still waiting for the amazing one of Leo, lots of great ones but not "the one" yet.

Leo's Party

On Leo's birthday we had some friends over for presents and cake.

Leo's new farm Lego's, Ky and John thought they were pretty cool too!!

A monkey for our monkey. I had to buy two bags of m&m's, there was only ONE brown in the first bag... darn now I have to eat two bags of m&m's... :)!!

I got him close for the picture and he got close enough to get a finger in the frosting... YUM!!

Happy Birthday to LEO!

Leo blew out his candle... on the second try, after all the other kids had a turn blowing out the candle...

CAKE, YUM YUM YUM!!

And what do you do with your empty plate? Wear it on your head of course!

Leo's birthday landed right in the middle of girl's camp... I was so disappointed I couldn't go for the whole time. I went Friday morning after Leo's birthday. I actually do feel bad, our president was the only one who went the whole time... luckily it was a stake camp.

So Leo had his first night away from mom the day after turning one... Steve says he did great! Not surprised, he is so easy going!