Grass Castle

One of the "perks" of living in Arizona is that we get to plant grass twice a year. Part of this process is mowing the current grass down to dirt, spreading seed, spreading fertilizer (steer manuer), and watering like crazy. We personally end up spending the rest of the season slacking and not mowing our lawn. The neighbors love us! ANYWHOOO....I mowed the back lawn today and after filling the big black garbage can and 6 big bags with the clippings, I just started dumping it in a pile. Ivy was thrilled and spent the day admiring my "Grass Castle". Evertime I dumped a pile of allergy inducing grass clippings she would clap really loud and say, "Good job Mommy!" She's great with the positive reinforcement!

Week 4: Rexburg, Idaho

The second week at Grandma and Grandpa Powells we went camping at Meadow Lake. It has great fishing and still had a bit of snow on the ground. It was nice and warm in the sunshine, but VERY cold in the shade. The kids loved riding to the campsite in the motorhome with Grandma and Grandpa and all the cousins. It made for a great ride for Mom because she just got to ride with Ed and Rachel. It was a nice relaxing ride...for us at least. Luckily Grandma could just take out her hearing aids and she didn't mind all the noise the kids made either!

This glacier-fed lake made for great fishin', but cold swimming. It didn't stop the boys from going in it though!

Week 3: Rexburg, Idaho

Our time at Grandma and Grandpa Powell's house was definitely our busiest. The kids disappeared for the entire day playing in the ditch, jumping on the tramp and out of the swings, hunting turtles and skunks, and "helping" grandpa with all his projects out in the shop. By the time everyone came in for the night, they had big purple circles under their eyes and swore that they weren't tired and still had more to do before they went to bed.

Grandpa had moved the swingset out of the back yard to plant some pine trees. The grandkids all missed playing on that big swing set so they talked Grandpa into moving it to the front. I didn't realize moving the swing set involved the tractor. Next thing I knew Grandpa and Porter on his lap and they were driving that swing set around the backyard to test the different spots where it would work the best. Once the swing set was settled Grandpa let Porter drive the tractor back to the field. Porter was thrilled and I was scared to death which made Grandpa love it even more! I think he loves his bit of revenge on all the years I spent scaring him to death.

Amber has a reputation with the girls in the family. Anytime you need a little "Princess Time" she will always help you look your best. At 6:00 in the morning the girls all decided that they needed mani/pedis. So they hunted down Amber and pried her eyes open long enough to convince her to help them. Amber got out of bed and spent a good chunk of time helping them look their best. Not only did everyone get to choose their own colors, but they got to put stickers on as well. It was so awesome!

Growing up, we had a small ditch that ran the length of our driveway that we used to water the garden. Sometimes it would flood the driveway and we'd have a "pig party". We'd spend the day building mud pies, riding our bikes through the puddles and just enjoy the dirt. The irrigation ditch isn't there anymore, but Grandma Powell still understands the importance of dirt. Whenever the grandkids come over, Grandma will put the hose in the driveway so everyone can enjoy a good "pig party" just like old times.

We love that we get to spend the 4th of July in Idaho where it is MUCH cooler than Arizona. This year, it was a little too cool...You'll notice in the picture that the Arizona kids aren't the only ones in coats and wrapped in blankets. It was very windy and cold throughout the entire parade. The best part about the parades in Idaho is that they still throw candy and let the kids stand in the streets. In AZ they won't let us do that anymore due to the risks involved. It's nice to have a small town to go enjoy the fun things in life.

Speaking of enjoying things in a small town...we bought some simple fireworks for the kids to play with and all the dads kept taking them and setting them off. We wasted quite a few fireworks throwing them in the ditch. For some reason these brilliant men thought they could light a firecracker and throw it in the ditch and have it blow up underwater...it didn't work so well. We ended up having to take away all the firecrackers from the big boys and let the kids have a turn playing with them.

Of course no 4th of July celebration is complete without a bbq and rides on the 4 wheeler!

Week 2: Rigby, Idaho

After Shaun's, we drove 5 hours to stay with Billie and Russ in Rigby. We were so pumped to spend time with Zach, Christian, and Bleak. Porter was especially excited to get some time in with the guys. After the first day, he was running around with Christian saying things like, "Duuude..did you see that?!" and "Duuude...check this out!" It was so fun to see him pick up on the big kid stuff so fast.

The had their trampoline right next to their deck. So, the kids spent almost the whole time doing crazy tricks on the tramp of sleeping on it.

One night we had to bring the tramp sleepers inside because there was a huge rain storm. Everyone was more than willing to tough it out, but the parents had to give a definite "no" on that one! They still had plenty of fun sleeping on the floor of the living room.

Summer 2010

The last couple of years I have abandoned Dave to the heat of Arizona and took the kids North to visit family and friends. We usually spend 4-6 weeks jumping from one house to another. The kids have so much fun that I feel like I don't see them the whole summer! Here are some pics and short stories of our travels this year.

And we're OFF!

The kids were super excited to be able to fly out this year. We even brought Snickers on the flight. In the middle of take off Snickers nosed the zipper on his carrier open and hopped up on Porter's lap. Porter knew we'd get in trouble so he quickly hid Snickers under Ivy's blanket. Snickers was thrilled and settled down and was great in his little hideout for the rest of the trip. Everyone loved the flight and were so well behaved. I was proud of my little family!

Week 1: Boise, Idaho

First stop was Boise to visit Shaun and Kelly. We spent about a week there playing with our fun cousins Addie and Rachel.

One of the kid's favorite parts about staying with Shaun and Kelly is that they all got to sleep on the floor. Every night was a sleep over party. We'd put them down and spend the next hour yelling at them to quit playing. Sadly it was Rachel and Ivy that were the most disruptive and kept tickling the older kids. Those two year olds are so funny and cute that it made it hard to get really mad.

Shaun just finished his commercial helicopter pilot's license, so we all got to go on a helicopter ride. It was so much fun! Eva and Ivy were a little too nervous to give it a go, but Porter has found a new hobby! Since we've been home, he casually refers to Shaun's flying abilities whenever he wants to impress someone. It's really funny and cute!

The kids got excited when it rained one day. Kelly broke out the umbrella so they could enjoy it even more. Silly Arizonans!

All of the cherries were nice and ripe on Kelly's cherry tree. So for a fun morning activity we sent Porter and Eva up the tree to pick the cherries. It looked so much fun that I soon hoped up there as well. We got a BIG bowl of cherries and made a delicious cherry pie for dinner. The kids were so proud of themselves and so happy to get to climb a tree. It's one of their favorite past times.

Happy Birthday Porter!!

Porter turned 8 years old this month!! We had so much fun! On Thursday we did a little family birthday party and went to the movie "How to Train Your Dragon." It was so good and fun! Definitely one of the good movies.

We went all out for Porter's party and saw the 3D version of the movie. The kids loved it! It was so funny to sit with them and watch them flinch and try to grab at the things on the screen. The glasses were wwaaayyyy too big though! Eva had to hold hers on like opera glasses.

On Saturday we had a party at the splash park for Porter and all his friends. We had a really good turn out and the weather was perfect! It was warm enough to play in the water, but cool enough to enjoy the park toys and not sweat all of us out!

This is just a cute picture of Ivy in her new swim suit. She got especially for Porter's party. I love how her little belly pokes out so cute!

Rockin' It At a Roger Clyne Concert

We went to a Roger Clyne concert a few weeks ago with our good friends, the Housels. It was the first concert we had been to in a lllooooonnnngggg time. It was a lot of fun.

Even though Dave claims not to be a fan of the "Twilight" novels, in every picture he seems to be trying his hardest to prove that he is for "Team Edward".

Helping with the Laundry

The kids love it when we do laundry. They always steal the baskets and play in them forever. It's actually pretty funny. Here they are swinging Ivy back and forth. She loved it. It definitely made me nervous. Porter couldn't understand why Eva thought the basket was so heavy. Her little arms are about to break carrying that basket. So, I told them to switch sides. Porter was quick to want to switch back!

Our Ivy Girl

Ivy's hair is finally long enough to fit into pony tails. She was pretty excited for the first two seconds, then spent the day pulling on them and saying, "Hair, ouch!"

Ivy loves her little piggies. She thinks all stuffed animals are piggies. It's pretty funny. She also loves her backpack that she can carry around and wheel around. Anytime the kids get their backpacks ready for school, she is busy getting her all packed up with her important things (i.e., piggies, balls, blankeys, etc.).

Ivy has also started to love dressing up. Here she is in her pretty dance clothes. She loves to twirl around the living room and sing. She will grab my hands and say, "Mommy, Dance with me." How can I say no?