Let Freedom Ring

Once again, I realized that I have had this post in my "Edit Posts" section for a long time waiting for me to have time to write about the pictures. It's after 11:00 at night, so I am just going to post and maybe go back later and write a little more. We spent the 4th of July down in Parowan to do the "Small Town" thing, and we had a great time. We slept out on the deck hoping to be woken up by the cannons that go off every year at 6:00am, but alas, this year for some reason they didn't go off. Oh well, just a little more sleep for us. We went to the high school and had the breakfast there before the parade, which left a little to be desired (or a lot) but it was fun anyway. Then we watched the parade and headed over to the park after for some games and visiting. Here's Cooper enjoying his Popsicle.

A family photo at the parade

Friendly 4th of July wave from Eliza

My darling Mom (on the end) playing her Ukulele in the parade

TJ and Addie competing in the 3 legged race. Just for the record, Chalise and I also competed in the 3 legged race, and we ROCKED! Totally won, and had these horrible bruises from the rope around our knees to prove it. Wish I had a picture, oh well. Good times, good times.

A whole lot of Hot Air

I just realized that I have had these pictures in my Drafts for a LONG time. I don't have time to write a whole lot right now, but I thought I would at least post them since they are 3 months old. On July 2nd we took our kids to see the hot air balloons in Provo. We went with our great friends the Fields and the Armitages. It was a little early since we had to leave at 6:00am, but it's totally worth it! This first picture is of the kiddos with the balloons behind them.

Eliza with a few of the balloons that had launched in the background.

Me and my darling friends Jessica and Cindi, who both did their make-up that morning (grrrrrr)

A little family photo with the Coke balloon in the background.

OBX or Bust!

I will come back and write some info about these, but I just need to get them out of my drafts and onto my blog. In June we went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a reunion with Matt's siblings, and we had a fabulous time. Below are a few of the memories we made there.

My Kindergartener

Today was kind of a big day for us here at our house. We now have a kindergartner! TJ's first day was today, and overall it was great. This morning I made him a special breakfast of "First day of school waffles" - a recipe that I got from my sister Paige, along with some vanilla syrup. I originally put the vanilla syrup on the waffle, but then he told me he wanted normal syrup, so I put that on it but told him that I had made him the special syrup, so then he started crying that he wanted the stuff that I had made for him, and that went on for about a half hour. So breakfast was supposed to be a great experience, but it was actually quite annoying. :-) Oh well, we'll look back and laugh at it, right? Then he finished up a few things that he needed to fill out and color before going to school, played legos for a little while, and ate at quick lunch before we headed out the door. Matt was able to be home to come with us, so I was grateful for that. Here is TJ before heading in to his first day.

Here's all of us (except Matt, who is taking the picture). I think Cooper and Eliza are really going to miss having TJ around. I love how Cooper is just hugging TJ in this picture. About 1:15 he wanted us to go and pick TJ up. Hopefully he will enjoy his one on one time with mom.

TJ and Matt being "Tough guys". Looks like TJ is doing a little curtsie with his muscles....hmmmm, not too manly there. :-)

TJ with his teacher Mrs. McEntire. She is wonderful and I think she will be the perfect teacher for him!

I made him a giant chocolate chip cookie for him to eat when he got home (an idea I got from my cute friend Ember) and tell he told me about his day, or as much of it as he could remember anyway, which wasn't a whole lot. Tonight I let him pick what we had for dinner and we had Mac 'n cheese and broccoli and then we went out for ice cream at Cold Stone. Then Matt gave him (and the rest of us) a father's blessing for FHE. I'm really excited for TJ. I think he is really going to love school and do great. There weren't any tears at the drop off, but I did get just a tad choked up as we were walking away. He's such a good boy! Sure love my little school kid!

Looking for a wife

This morning we were up in my bedroom and TJ was playing with Eliza. We then had the following conversation:
TJ: Mom, when I go to look for a wife, I want Eliza to come with me.
Me: Why do you want Eliza to go with you to find a wife?
TJ: Cause she's so chunky and cute. And I think she would miss me when I am gone.
Me: Where are you going to look for a wife?
TJ: Salt Lake.
Me: Why are you going to Salt Lake to look for a wife?
TJ: Cause it's so beautiful there and the Salt Lake Temple is there.
Me: Oh. Where are you going to get married?
TJ: The Salt Lake Temple. And I want Eliza to watch me get married, cause she's my friend.

Sure love that kid. Glad he knows where he should get married. :-)

Just got my "bonus"

Since my "paycheck" with my job of being a mom comes in kisses, hugs, fun memories, etc, I guess you could just say I just got my bonus. Tonight it was a little crazy getting the kids in bed and there was some crying getting there (on their part, and frustration on my part) but after they were in bed Cooper wanted me to snuggle him, and so I climbed in his twin bed with him, then TJ wanted to snuggle too, so all 3 of us were in there and we were singing a little "Herman the Worman" song. I snuggled them for a couple minutes then came down to start on cleaning up the kitchen since it's been a crazy day running around. I hadn't done much before I heard TJ coming down. He has been getting out of bed a lot recently, which is really frustrating, so I was on my way to getting a little mad when he said "Mom, You've GOT to see the moon" and he walks over to the sliding glass door and we look at how beautiful the moon is together. That led to an actually very fun discussion on the solar system with me using visual aids of a big cup, a toy hammer and a small flashlight (random things in my reach, not representative at all) to explain to him how the earth rotates around the sun and how the moon rotates around the earth. I finally sent him back up to bed about 10:00 (way past his bed time) and about 5 minutes later he came back out and I was thinking "what now?" and he stopped at the top of the stairs and said "Mom, I feel like I am about to cry because I am so grateful that you are my mom". That right there made my entire day, week and month. Matthew might get cash bonuses from his job, which are nice, but you can't pay for something like I just experienced. Being a mom is the best!