L-O-V-E

 I love this wild spit fire of a girl. Most days I can barely handle her energy, stubbornness, and conviction. But most days I also look at her and love how loving she is and how girly she is and can't imagine life with out my princess.

 I love my sweet baby boy. I hope he will always stay close to me, I know it probably isn't the best that he is so attached to me, but I would be lying if I said some days I am glad he just wants a good snuggle from me.

I love this boy who is not staying little. He is such a good helper, such a good big brother, and a wonderful example of fun loving. I get emotional just thinking about you being at school all day *sigh*

Jell-o Fight

 So we are frequent Thanksgiving Point Visitors, we have a family pass and to say that we use it a lot is an understatement. I think Thanksgiving Point has so much fun stuff, so much diverse stuff, and just is a really fun place to go. We had been there on a Monday night at the Gardens a few weeks ago when they were doing their family fun night. I had forgotten that every Monday night at each of the venues they do fun activities. We picked up a schedule and noticed the next week there was a Jell-o fight. Carson's eyes got huge when I told him about it and begged to go.
Luckily we had some friends who were going to so we headed over. The kids loved it! Brynn wasn't a huge fan of the actual Jell-o fight, but had fun watching, and would pick up some Jell-o when it was right by her. She had more fun digging in the "whoop" cream at one of the other stations they had.

 Carson was in full form and he was out there running around the second the Jell-o was put out. He did take an unfortunate hit of Jell-o in the eye, but recovered pretty quick. He had a lot of fun running around with his buddies and making a team together.
They also turned the sprinklers on a few times during the night for the kids to run through.
It was a very fun night and we will for sure be going again. My kids loved it and talked about it for days!

This is my favorite pic of the night, best friends, hopefully forever!

S-Slides (Giant Slip 'n slide)

So we were invited again to our friends giant Slip 'n slide party. It has to be one of my kids favorite day's of the year. They love the giant slip 'n slide! We go to a park with a giant hill and we use billboard signs to slide down. This year we brought a few extra things. We brought our kick boards and had a big blow up raft to slide down on. They were big hits!

We took McKay down a few times, but never really could tell if he liked it or not. He would get really excited to get up to the top and he would start crawling up the hill. But he would start to cry as soon as he got down the slide and would cry really hard at the bottom. So I'm not sure if he liked it or not. But I still think he had a good time.

It was such a fun day and we are so glad that the Fenton's invited us in on their fun! Until next year...

BYU football camp

 So my friend told me she was going to put her son in BYU football summer camp. I jumped at the chance to put Carson in. I grew up going to games at the BYU stadium and watching the BYU cougars play. I will be the first to admit I don't pay as close attention as I use to. But I still love cheering for the cougars, and I love all of the memories that are associated with BYU football for me. Carson was pretty excited to be going to the camp with his friends. He was able to do it with Cohen, Dylan, Carter and Collin. They were lucky enough the first day to get to have the first day of camp in the BYU stadium. It was super cool and the boys loved it!

 The other days they were indoors at the practice facility (which is pretty impressive). I think Carson liked being in the stadium more though. There were a few days I was able to go watch for a little bit and it was fun to watch Carson and see what he was learning. I think he could have a future in football, he is speedy! One of his favorite drills was the last day they got to tackle the big bag at the end of the drill. He also enjoyed chasing after one of his team mates and tackling him to the ground (even though he wasn't suppose to) picking up the fumble and running to the end zone. There were good coaches and I think Carson learned a lot.  He is already talking about going next summer.

Z-Zoo

  So it's not a secret that we are big fans of the Zoo. When Carson was little we had a family membership. I didn't renew it because he started school and it wasn't as easy to go. So Kelli decided to get a membership and has ever since then. To say that we have used it a lot would be an understatement. My kids love the Zoo and I feel like it is such a good "favorite" place to go!
It was also our first trip to the new Rocky shores. We have been watching it slowly be built for over a year. So we were very excited to check it out. It did not disappoint! It is really nice and they have great animals there. I was not able to see the whole thing because I got an important phone call from McKay's Neurologist while we were there. So I am excited to go back and see it again!

They had a booster night at the end of June so we took advantage of it and went. it was wonderful, it was cool because it was in the evening, hardly any other people, and some fun activities

 A ladybug princess and a tiger. I don't know what about face painting is so magical, but it is!

 We had such a great time. Sadly it is the first time we have been this summer. Too busy! But we have plans to go a few more times! It was a lot of fun to go with both Grandpa and Grandma this time too! We were sad Daddy was working, but he is coming with us next time!

J-July 4th Hot Air Balloon Festival and 4th Festvities

 We had a great 4th of July! We woke up super early to go down to Provo to go down to the hot air balloon festival. Every year when my alarm goes off at about 5:15 I wonder, "Why are we going?" But it is tradition and the kids do really like it once we get there and wake up a little bit. Sadly it was not the best balloon year, the balloons all inflated and then caught a wind and were all gone with in 5 minutes. McKay was not a fan, way too much for him. It was lots and lots of people and he hated the heaters and the noise they  made when they were filling the balloon. Carson had fun watching the Coke balloon go up, Brynn loved the rainbow balloon and the pink piggy bank balloon.
We decided to for go breakfast at the balloons this year and go to breakfast after. We went to Denny's. For some reason my kids think Denny's is a magical place. Carson and Brynn love it there! Carson got eggs and pancakes and ate almost all of it. Brynn was excited to get chocolate chip pancakes with "whoop" cream.
Afterwards we went with my family and Kyle's parents to a movie, we went to go see Madagascar 3. I was a little nervous to see how it went with all three kids. McKay has never been to a movie. But we planned it out and we brought Grandpa's I Pad and the headphones and he just sat on my lap and watched the Bubble Guppies while the rest of us enjoyed the movie. It was great movie, supper funny and the experience overall went much better than I expected.
We came home and everyone, I mean everyone (except Carson) took a nap. It was nice to have some down time and to get a little recharged.

 After we all woke up Kelli and I stared to get our dinner together. The boys and Brynn went outside to throw around the glow in the dark Frisbee we got. It was big hit!

 We had a super yummy classic 4th of July BBQ with hot dogs and hamburgers, potato salad, veggies, and fruit kabobs. (The kids helped me make the kabobs and loved it, we will definitely be making them again!) We had yummy trifle for dessert!

After dinner I got McKay down to bed and then I took Carson and Brynn over to my sisters. We were not allowed to do ANY fireworks in the neighborhood, basically in all of Utah county. We have had wild fires raging through out the state like crazy. There was actually one in Alpine burning on the 4th which was a little too close for comfort. We made a conscious effort to support the no fireworks. I knew the kids would be disappointed because it is one of their favorite things. But they were really good about it. We showed them the no firework signs and explained why we couldn't do it. Carson was baffled why there will still firework stands and why people were still buying them. So we went to my sisters house to get the cousins together and play and do glow sticks and have ice cream sandwiches.

I am a major firework sucker as well and it just didn't feel like the 4th without any fireworks. So I knew the kids would love to come with me to the Thanksgiving Point fireworks. So it was just the 3 of us but we had a blast. We took some candy and found a good spot and watched the fireworks in the back of the car. It was a lot of fun and I am glad we went.

Cousin time

 So we had a CRAZY busy June, to be honest a little too busy and a little over scheduled (note to self for next year!) So we finally had a free week, very little scheduled or that needed to be done. So we took advantage and fit in some fun cousin time. I had heard about a new park out in Saratoga Springs with a giant climbing pyramid. I had told my sister about it and we wanted to try it out. The kids loved it! Carson LOVED the climbing pyramid, that is him at the very top in the picture below.

 Kate and Brynn were both a little tired, so they were having a hard time finding things to do together. The swings are always a good time though! We had a lot of fun, we went early enough it wasn't too crowded or too hot. We will definitely be going again!

 Later in the week we went to the Manilla pond that we had been to a few times last year. I had actually kind of forgotten about it, so I am glad my sister asked us to take them. It truly is one of my kids favorite places. They could probably play there for hours. Plus with fun cousins to play with, it makes it even better.

 We took a lunch and my sister brought her awning and the Mom's and Gavin just sat and talked while the kids played in the sand, made sand piles, made a giant stream and played in the water.

 We got there early enough it wasn't super busy so we had a nice spot all to ourselves! We will definitely be going back soon. It was a lot of fun to have some time to just catch up with my sister's too. Life seems to be getting busier and busier the older we get. So it is always nice to have a moment to catch up.

 I was hoping Mckay would love this place this year because he liked it last year. But he didn't love it. He would go down and play in the sand for a minute then crawl back up to me crying for something. We repeated this cycle about 10 more times. But I did snap this cute pic of my sand baby!

R-Roundup parade

 We attended the annual Lehi Round up Parade. One of my favorite things of the summer! We went early and met all together to have breakfast. We had yummy Lehi bakery doughnuts again, I do think they are the best! The kids had fun playing around with their cousins before the parade started. The boys were obsessed with the bullet casings they got from the pre parade cowboys.

 This is how McKay spent about 3/4 of the parade. He has a hard time with really loud noisy/people filled places. So we plugged him into Bubble Guppies. I have a lot of people that have said, I can't believe he keeps the headphones on. But for him Bubble Guppies is his calming and coping mechanism. We are currently working with his Occupational Therapist to find some other calming techniques.

 The kids had lots of fun looking at all the fun floats, catching lots and lots of candy, and the girls waving the the Princess's. Brynnley told me she wanted pink sparkly pants like the Rodeo queen, I think she is in the wrong family for that one.

X-Xtreme fun at Planet Play for Carson's Birthday

 So we have decided to switch to the other every year friend Birthday party. Mainly because I can not do a simple easy toned down party. I love party planning, I think I kind of missed my calling in life. So it is so hard, with so many wonderful ideas to make it simple. So we have decided on the even years the kids will get the big friend birthday party and on the odd years we will just do something as a family and they can bring a friend. Carson has been begging to go to Planet Play for about a year. So he had picked where he wanted to go for his birthday months ago. We let him invite 2 friends to come with us, he picked Cohen and Dawson.

 The boys had tons of fun running around from game to game. They definitely spent the most time in the glow in the dark mini golf, I lost track of how many times they played that. After we played for a little while we enjoyed our pizza buffet.

 We sang to Carson and had cake. He had a golf cake, do you sense a little what Carson is obsessed with lately? He also opened presents from his friends and from the Smith's.

 Carson is lucky to have such awesome friends! I am even more grateful he has such good friends and they are such good boys! I really hope they can stay best friends forever!

 We had a lot o fun playing mini golf, bowling, lots of arcade games and so much more. Brynn was so happy that Sadie was there to play with, that way she didn't have to try and keep up with the boys! Carson said it was the best Birthday ever! Always makes me feel better when I hear that!

Life for Carson at 7

Favorite movie: Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakqel
Favorite TV show: Doc McStuffins, Animal Mechanicals
Favorite food: Totino's Pizza Rolls
Favorite snack: Flavor blasted goldfish
Favorite Book: I Spy books
Best Friend: Cohen and Dawson
Favorite thing to do: Go to Planet Play
Favorite ride at Disneyland: Buzz Light year Astro Blasters
Favorite game:Mario and Sonic London Olympics for the Wii
Favorite place to go: Toys R' Us
Favorite sport: Golf
Favorite Sports team: BYU Cougars, Ohio State, Richmond Spiders

 I really truly am in major denial that I have a 7 year old. Because that means next year he turns 8, gets baptized and goes to 2nd grade. Yikes! I can't believe my little baby boy is 7! He truly makes me so happy daily. He has so much of Kyle's personality and I love the wonderful attributes he has gotten from Kyle. Especially his ability to make friends and talk to anyone. I love his ability to find laughter in everything. Sometimes he complains to me if he doesn't want to do something and I ask him why, his response is "It's just not fun". Carson lives for fun!  He is such a good big brother. He loves to play with Brynnley (most of the time) and is such a good helper with McKay. When I ask him to help  with anything with McKay he does it right away. He adores his friends and loves to play with them when ever he can. He loves his Grandparents and loves to read books with them, help them outside, and play games with them. He is growing up too fast!

 He woke up and we took his yearly picture in front of the measuring board and he also got to pop his birthday balloons with his dollars in them for each year of how old he was. He was also lucky enough to get to go to Kneaders for breakfast with Daddy for yummy pancakes. That day he had day camp at Thanksgiving Point with his friends for most of the day! What a great day!