Leah turns FIVE!

Leah celebrated her 5 year old birthday today, August 12th! She had a family party with my side of the family on Sunday. We had a nice dinner together. Here is Leah blowing out her candles at the BEGINNING of the "Happy Birthday" song. We tried explaining that you blow them out after the song, but she just didn't listen.

Leah's presents:

All the boys snuggling with Papa while Leah opened presents
Leah had her first birthday party with friends.
Here they are playing a game of duck, duck, goose
The wind was blowing too much outside for her to
practice blowing out the candles AFTER the song is over
Yummy flower shaped sandwiches were served for lunch
I think everyone had a good time playing in the pool, slip 'n slide, and sprinklers.

Leah's Turn!

Leah is so excited to have her turn doing swimming lessons. She waited so patiently through the boys' swimming lessons, and now she finally gets to be the one in the water. She is in the duck class and loves that her teacher's name is Katie ("just like Aunt Katie" she told me). Her teacher is very impressed at her abilities. One more week left of swim lessons--then school's almost ready to start!! :)

Child Labor Laws

Alex has been BEGGING me to let him mow the lawn so he can earn some money. I finally let him try it out. It was a lot of hard work for him, but he earned enough money to buy himself a new Lego Bionicle. Nice work, Alex!

Adoption Fundraiser

I wanted to invite everyone out to come support my brother and sister-in-law's adoption fundraiser:

Date:	Saturday, August 1, 2009
Time:	8:00am - 4:00pm
Street:	413 N 550 W
City/Town:	Orem, UT

***Craft Sale (go to www.handmadesweetsomethings.blogspot.com to see the products for sale)

***Bake Sale

*Cupcakes (chocolate, vanilla, carrot, etc)
*Rice Krispy Treats
*Cookies
*Yummy Treats!

***Scentsy Products (www.scentsy.com/katierogers)

***Silent Auction for some great items!

***and a HUGE multi-family yard sale

*Sofas
*cabinets
*exercise equipment
*toys
*infant, children and adult clothing
*entertainment center
*Camping equipment
*and TONS more!!

Come check it out and bring all of your friends!

To read more about my brother and sister-in-law's adoption go to www.shaneandkatiesadoption.blogspot.com

Summer Fun

We have had a busy summer. It has been so much fun spending a lot of family time together. Here is a quick re-cap of some of the fun things we've been doing:

Going to the Open House for the Oquirrh Temple

I went once with my brother, sis-in-law, nephew, and my mom
Then I got to go AGAIN with Jon's brother, sis-in-law, and 2 aunts.

We were volunteers for the Freedom Festival Parade

Hiking to Timpanogos Caves

Inside Timpanogos Caves

Lots of Fishing!

Jon surprised me and bought me a fishing license so I can do more than just watch!

Swim lessons!

Alex and Caleb both did 2 sessions of swim lessons this summer.
Leah starts her swim lessons on Monday.
She's really excited.

Swimming at the Veteran's Pool

Camping at the Cabin and
Building a Playhouse There.

The roof is now on and the tin siding has been put up on 2 sides of the playhouse
One more weekend of work will finish it off.

Jon bought a boat for $200!
It's taken a LOT more than that to try to get the thing running.
It will be ready for water SOON!

Springville Art City Days Carnival
Caleb talked me into going on the zipper with him.
I hadn't been on that ride for more than 15 years!
I think I'm good for another 15!
(my cell phone also flew right out of my pocket during the ride...oops)

Caleb, Alex, and Leah are on the far left of this picture.
Their faces were so fun to watch,
Although it was funner to watch the people NOT paying attention
walk right through a pile of PUKE on the ground in front of this ride.
Oh, the joys of carnivals!

FHE Hike

We had planned to hike to the Y last week for FHE, but the weather was rainy and cold. So, we decided to hike to the Y today (even though the weather was threatening to rain). It made for a perfect hike. It was breezy and cool while we hiked. The kids did great. We're trying to get them conditioned to hike to the Timpanogos Caves this summer, so we'll be hiking to the Y a couple more times in the next few weeks.

This is a picture at the bottom of the Y. We actually kept hiking until we reached the top of the Y. It took us an hour to hike to the top, and only 20 minutes to hike back down to our van.

The "Y"

Go Cougars!

Growing Up

Our chickens aren't babies anymore. Our kids call them "toddlers" because they aren't full grown yet either. Leah isn't afraid of them anymore. In fact she LOVES to pick them up and play with them. She kind of reminds us of Elmyra from Tiny Toon Adventures. She'll love those chickens to death if we're not careful with her.

After Leah has played with the chickens she'll wash her hands,
then continue to sniff them and wash them until she can't smell chickens anymore.
She'll shove her fingers into my nose and ask,
"Mom, do you smell chicken poo?"
YUCK

Jon did a great job on the chicken coop. It's way to posh for chickens. Crazy how our kids have wanted a playhouse for years, but the chickens get one first! LOL