Family Miracle, I mean Portrait

We had a (miraculously) successful family portrait session! And it was free, unless you count the gallons of gas required to get the Beast up to south fork park. I brought my camera and tripod, set it all up, and my sister did the snapping and the shaking of the skittles bag to try to bribe the kids to look in her direction. I can't believe we got one!


Afterwards I couldn't help but snap a few more..





PS - You'll all be seeing that family picture in your Christmas card, so.. you know, just try to act surprised. ;)

Who says summer's over?

Yesterday it was 85 degrees and gorgeous. 3pm rolled around and we pretty much had nothing to do (ok, we could have cleaned our messy house, but come on..) so we dug out the swim suits and towels, packed a picnic dinner, and headed up provo canyon!
Ok, so by the time we had everything together, swim suits attached to the appropriate body parts, changed diapers twice, had 3 time outs, got everyone in the car, found my keys, got out of the car and went potty, and got everyone BACK in the car, it was 4:30. Still worth it.
We headed up to Deer Creek reservoir and were the only ones there! It was so beautiful, and the kids had a total party. Jason left campus and met us there an hour later, and we had a great little family end-of-summer picnic. Complete with full fall colors. :)

Happy Birthday, William!

One year and ten minutes ago, William was born! He has been the sweetest, most fun baby - just a complete joy to have in our family.

But he had a sad birthday. He just wasn't happy. He's getting molars and maybe a cold and was just kind of miserable all day. He didn't even want his cake, and this boy eats more than I do!



He's just not a happy birthday boy - look how sad!

That picture was from when we took away a toy he had just opened to give him this one.. should've known better - I mean, what is this, our first kid? :)

He didn't want to eat the cake, but he definitely destroyed it.


Good job, William!

It was all I could do to get this smile out of him.





Happy 1st Birthday, William! We love you!

The Beast

When you think about buying something nice that will make your life easier, you probably aren't thinking of a GIGANTIC white BEAST that barely fits in the driveway (forget the garage!)... but that's what we did..


This is the beautiful part:



The AISLE down the middle that SEPARATES our kids!!! That deserves ALL CAPS! It's truly a beautiful thing. But it gets very ugly gas mileage.

With our family, it really was inevitable.

Back to (home)School

After our trip to Nevada was over, it was time to hit the books! And the crayons. And unfortunately, the fingerpaint.

We had a great first day of school - everyone was excited to start.

our school/toy room:


Hard at "work"


While I was helping Lizzie with her math, Micaela surprised me with, "Mom, look, I can spell cardiovascular!" Where does she come up with this stuff? And if she can spell cardiovascular, why can't she spell any words that start with a w-h?


Those off-guard moments are the best part of homeschooling!

Ranch Heaven

Forget Disneyland - we got to go to a kid's paradise in:


Stephanie and her family were so awesome to have us over! (Seriously, can you imagine me descending on them with my 5 crazy kiddos?) :) We got to ride a horse, feed some cows, swim in not one but TWO natural springs, catch guppies, go 4-wheeling, play in the lawn-pool and jump on the giant trampoline for hours on end.







The best part was being able to attend Tyler's baptism. We are so proud of you, Tyler, and of your wonderful family!