Father's Day

I made pancakes for breakfast today. Jon's order was egg tortillas, so I obliged. After breakfast we gave Jon his Father's Day present. I had made a little book with pictures of him and the kids. Each page has a line to "I'm so Glad When Daddy Come's Home" and "My Daddy is My Favorite Pal." It turned out really cute.
The kids in our ward did a great job singing for Father's Day. We sang 3 songs. I felt like I was playing the piano too loudly that they couldn't be heard (such a small primary), but I guess they did alright and people could actually hear them sing.

After church we went to Salt Lake to see Jon's brother. It was his birthday today. So, our sister-in-law, Debi, planned a birthday/fathers day party for everyone. We had navajo tacos. They were yummy. We also had some good brownies and a big raspberry cookie. We played "Greed", which is another version of "Farkle" only it's played with 5 dice. That was fun, and Lorraine killed us! Caleb was in the lead for the first part of the game...until he got bored and dropped out.
This is a picture of Jon trying to give all 5 kids a piggy back at the same time. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. His idea didn't work out so well and some kids got squished more than they wanted.
There was a dog named Thomas there. Leah loved to watch the dog--from a distance. Once it got close to her she would get a funny look on her face and start running. The whole thing was kind of funny because everytime she would start running Thomas would think she was playing with him and he'd start running with her!
The boys LOVED playing with the dog. They're turning into quite the animal lovers. We had a stray cat in our backyard one day and they played with it all day. I'm glad they're not as scared of animals anymore. This is Alex, Caleb and Darwin playing with Thomas.
Happy Birthday David! David coloring with his daughter, Aylora.Thanks for putting on such a great party, Debi.

10 Year Class Reunion

We went to my 10 year class reunion this weekend. It was pretty fun. They had a huge turn out. Tons of people were there. It was great to see so many people, but the room was too crowded and hot to mingle much. We could hardly move between tables.

On the big map in the background behind Clay and Sara Kappas they had written "A Big Thanks to Our Sponsors" and Creative Cakes by Angela was on that poster! I made 3 cakes for my reunion. They were really yummy and looked pretty cool too.

Darwin and Kiara Deming
Jon and I
Hooray that high school is over. It's fun to see what everyone has done with their life and hear about their families.

Meet our newest niece

Christel and Alan (Jon's sister and our brother-in-law) had their little miracle baby on June 10th. We are so glad that everything went well. It was a long 9 months for them and we're glad they can breath a sigh of relief now that she's here and well...and Christel is doing well too. The baby measured in at 7lbs 3oz and is 19" long. She spent part of her first day in NICU needing the help of breathing machines, but she quickly was breathing on her own just fine.

Eliza Powers is a miracle baby because she has beat the odds at everything so far. Conception was a miracle, and the fact that she was able to go full term (she made it to 37 weeks!) was a miracle. The doctors had never seen a case like Christel's pregnancy make it to full term and they were worried about delivery. Among the other existing problems she also had placenta previa really bad. They didn't want her to go into labor on her own, so they scheduled her c-section for Tuesday, June 10th. Once they had Eliza out they checked Christel out really well and she had NO other problems. What a huge blessing. She did have to have a blood transfusion and has some water retention that we hope will go away soon for her.

Eliza is such a cute baby. Her hair reminds me a lot of what Leah's looked like when she was born. I loved holding her and cuddling her. The smell of a newborn baby is the most wonderful scent in the world.
I think she looks a lot like Christel in this picture. What a cute little round face! Congratulations Christel and Alan (along with big sisters Eve and Eden, and big brother Ezra).

High On The Mountain Top

We've been in the habit of doing FHE on Sunday rather than Monday because Jon used to have his welding classes on Monday night. So, this was our Family Home Evening activity that Caleb picked. We went hiking on Y Mount.

Alex, Caleb and Leah with the Y behind them

Leah

Caleb

Alex

Alex took this picture of me and Jon

Caleb, Leah and Alex are hiking

It was pretty late in the day and we didn't want to be climbing down the trail in the dark, so we didn't make it all the way to the Y this time. Plus, we didn't bring water bottles. The kids really wanted to go all the way to the Y, but we told them we would have to come back and hike to the Y when we were more prepared with water bottles and snacks.

They were content to stay at the trail head to watch the sunset. Alex said, "This is more romantic than the Grand Canyon." Caleb said, "Yeah, because there's a Y here." We asked them what romantic meant. They couldn't explain it. So, Jon told them romantic is when you cuddle up with someone you love.

What a pretty sunset!

Mowing the Lawn Turns Me Into an OGRE!

While I was at my parent's house I thought I'd mow their lawn for them. I took off my shoes because I didn't want my nice shoes to turn green. When I was done Alex came driving past me in the kid-sized Jeep Wrangler and just started laughing. I said, "What is so funny?" "You have Ogre feet!" He said. It was funny. So, Alex took this picture of the bottom of my feet so he can always remember how I turned into an Ogre.

School's Out For Summer

Jon left for a survival trek Thursday afternoon. He'll be gone for 3 days. We got Alex out of school early so we could have dinner together and see Jon off. Alex was disappointed that he didn't get to participate in a party they were just starting in his classroom when we picked him up. We had McDonald's for dinner, so that cheered him up a bit. Plus, I planned a party with them at home too.

Alex decided that for his party he wanted to go swimming. So, we got ready and I braved it alone. I was a little scared taking all 3 kids to the pool by myself, but it wasn't so bad. The boys actually felt really grown-up to be able to go shower and get dressed in the men's room all by themselves. They stuck to the buddy-system which made me worry a tiny bit less about them.

When we were on our way home from the pool Alex said that he wanted to go ride bikes for part of his party too. I told him that there was still one more day of school left and he needed to go to sleep at a good time. There's only so much fun that we can fit into one evening.

Friday we walked Alex and his friend, Byron, over to a park for their last day of school. They had their Field Day for only 2 1/2 hours. There were games, and big blow-up slides and otter-pops. They had a lot of fun. We had a last day of school party at our house to celebrate. Alex and Caleb invited our neighbors Byron and Emily to come over. I invited Trine, Larry, and Leyna to come over too so I wasn't the only adult around. I made home made pizza, bread sticks, brownies, and cut up some cantaloupe. Trine brought a really yummy salad too.

After we ate the kids played water-gun fights while I finished filling up some water balloons. They did a water balloon toss game and Alex and Byron won. Caleb had gone to a lot of trouble to find "prizes" that we could give to the winners of the games. We had a sack full of different things from around our house that Byron got to choose from. He chose an American Idol musical toy that we've had for a while. They were just having too much fun with the water guns, so we didn't actually do any more games. When Larry got involved with the water fight he drenched them with his 2 liter water bottle.

The neighbors and friends all went home and we continued our party inside with a pj/movie party. They got out their sleeping bags and we watched The Jetson's. We all had a sleepover in the living room. I was so worn out from the day that I went to bed at 8:30pm along with the kids. Hooray for summer! I hope the kids realize they can sleep in a little on weekdays now!

Memorial Day BBQ

We had our annual Memorial Day breakfast at the church this morning. It was great. There were pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, sausage, bacon, and cold cereal. Although it was raining, we still had a good time inside the church gym. It's always fun to go to ward activities.

Then, we went to the Krueger's house for a BBQ. It was so yummy and so fun. There were quite a few couples from our ward there plus one of Larry's mission companions and his wife. The kids had a great time playing together while the adults chatted and talked with each other. It's so great to have good friends in our ward.

Cherise Weber and Trine and Larry Krueger

Molly and Vern Anthony, Alan and Miriam Tribe, Leyna Krueger, Cherise Weber.

Cali Anthony and Caleb

Felisha and Amelia Hurst, and Leyna in the back

Leyna Krueger, Katelyn Hurst, Leah, and Josie Tribe

Katelyn and Leah