Since the summer past us by with not many blog updates I am going to try and catch up! Starting the first part of June the kids started swimming lessons. I enrolled the twins and Sage in for 6 straight weeks. I know, CRAZY!!! The kids love water and don’t mind a little, but splashing, going under water, floating, and anything like this terrified them. By the end of our 6 weeks they were doing awesome. I am glad we did it, but it was a long 6 weeks! The last two weeks of swimming lessons their cousin Richard was here and they were the only kids in the class which made it very nice.

Towards the end of June the cherry tree in our back yard was finally ready to pick. The kids love to pick cherries although they won’t eat near what they pick. This year we decided not to spray the tree and fruit for bugs, but no worries, all the fruit was perfect! You can tell by the kids smiles they had tons of fun!! We did end up letting other people pick what they wanted since we don’t can cherries and there was no way we could eat them all.

July 4th was a blast for us. The kids were so excited about the fireworks that they were constantly asking “Is it time to do the fireworks yet?” We made sure to set up our bounce house to pass the time which helped a little. When time rolled around we let them do snaps first and then on to the real things. Sage was sad we didn’t do sparklers this year so we promised to get some next year. Abbi and her family came over along with my parents and we all had a blast!

Well, that is all I have time for tonight. More updates of summer, school, and just life in general coming soon so stayed tuned!

If blogging were a job I am sure I would have been fired by now at the beginning of the summer. Life here at been crazy and I will tell you why!!

My kids have taken over life here at our house. 7:00 am is wake up and all kids along with Kip and I have to be ready to leave by 9 am every day. It is crazy. We have to fit in breakfast which is more than just cold cereal and milk. The kids beg for pancakes, waffles, eggs, or sometime any food they see still out from the day before. Breathing treatments with Jayden are a must and take 30 minutes of one parent sitting with her and then tube feeding which take at least 20 minutes. Brushing teeth, princess hair, daddy hair for Braxton, clean clothes, shoes backpacks, jackets, along with anything we need to make sure to pack for the kids to have at school (Extra clothes, water bottle, homework…). Most mornings run smoothly and we are easily ready by 9 am. Some mornings we are rushing out the door at 9:10 to get Sage to school by the late bell at 9:15. Then to run and drop of the twins at preschool and then Caleb and I are off to do errands or come home and clean the house and get ready for lunch. Picking up the kids almost 3 hours later is hard. I usually am still trying to finish cleaning, laundry, business stuff and I am often rushing around while Caleb wanders the house yelling “Kids, Kids!” He is lonely without them. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays have been taken over by soccer practice or soccer games. Other days the kids and I are trying to get in a little exercises by riding bikes around the block. Then dinner at 5 sharp is what we try for although it is more like 5:15. Then bath time, reading, bedtime at 7 pm, and relaxing. WOW!! I don’t know how we do it, but every day is an adventure around here.

The twins celebrated their 4th birthday on Friday! We had a great time! Some friends came over to play in the morning. The kids all got along great and had tons of fun.

This year on your birthday you get to pick a place to eat out. The twins chose Denny’s. We had fun there. Then we can home and opened presents and ate cake and ice cream.

I think the best part of the day was in the morning when I told Braxton it was his birthday and he was now four. This was his response, “Wow, I am now four?” I had to laugh because at this age they really don’t understand too much about getting older and how you can go to bed 3 and wake up 4. He was so cute about it all day. Jayden thought is was great to have a birthday although just today she told me she was three and then had to correct herself.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY BRAXTON AND JAYDEN!!!

In June, Kip and I went to San Francisco for three days without any kids to celebrate our anniversary. It was so nice to get away and enjoy time alone with each other. We had lots of fun going to the Aquarium, Exploratorium, biking the bridge, eating lots of good food, checking out Pier 39, walking around Chinatown, and sleeping through the night. We missed our kids tons but knew they were in good hands with Grandma. Thanks mom for watching our kids! We had a fun time together!

That’s right…Kip and I have been married for 6 years today! WOW, time seems so slow yet so fast. We are still very much happily married and enjoy doing things together although it may not be much. We are not out numbered by kids which is a plus! We didn’t do much to celebrate today or this weekend, but we have some fun planned for this next weekend!Happy Anniversary Kip!!

Last Saturday, we went to Provo to walk for Cystic Fibrosis. We had a great turn out in people and had tons of fun walking, eating, playing, talking, and just having fun! We had 20 people walk for “Jayden’s Team” which is more than any other year although we hope to have more next year! We were also surprised to find out our team got to cut the ribbon for the walk. We had Jayden do the honors and Kip helped her. She was a little shy about cutting the ribbon, but still talks about it.

What have we been up to the past little bit. Well, lots of fun with friends, finishing school, taking a trip, and just trying to stay on top of life.

First off, I never posted pictures from Sage’s birthday party, so here they are!

In early May, I noticed little mouse droppings under the sink one day and realized we better do something about it before the mouse invited his friends to come and stay. The kids were do interested in what Kip was doing with the traps and wanted us to check them every few minutes. We waited until the next morning and that was all it took to get this guy. The kids all had to see for a few minutes before is was thrown away.

On May 7th we celebrated Caleb’s 1st birthday. He had a blast with his present. He though it was to push around and stand on until we showed him how to tear the paper. We had a birthday party for him where he enjoyed digging into a large piece of cake, tried to hit a piñata and enjoyed opening presents and eating candy.

Later in May, the kids helped us pick out flowers to plant. The kids loved playing with the dirt and putting flowers in the pots. They are so pretty. Our flowers grow well since they are hooked to the sprinkler system and get plenty of water.

After planting flowers the kids enjoyed some fun in the sprinklers. We tried out all the different ones we own. The kids we soaked from head to toe, but by the smiles on their faces they sure had fun!

A few days before preschool ended they had a transportation parade. The preschool kids decorated their bikes, scooters, or anything with wheels and rode around the neighborhood. The kids and I went and watched. We had fun waving to Sage and yelling her name.

On the 15th of May, we ventured out of state and went to Wyoming. I know, most of you probably think WHY!! Kip’s dad lives in Wyoming and Denna, his little sister was graduating from high school. We went to help get everything ready and spend time with family. The kids had tons of fun with their cousins. They were sad to leave. The drive was long for Caleb and he managed to cry the last hour both ways. I am glad we have a DVD player for the kids because the kids started asking “Are we there yet?” at the mouth of the Provo canyon which was only 6 minutes into our 9 hour drive. The kids love the twirling swing and zip line at Grandpa’s and Grandma’s house and that is all they wanted to do. This is where Caleb also learned to stand up without holding onto anything. He learned it on the trampoline.

Sage has also graduated from preschool. Caleb is learning to walk and has taken 11 steps at one time, but still uses crawling as his main mode of transportation. Braxton has finished with speech for the school year and will be doing summer speech. He is talking a ton better and I can almost understand everything he says. Jayden is doing well although she has not gained any weight for the past few months. Jayden is eating more by mouth and actually tells me she is hungry sometimes. We are hoping to get her to eat a little more and enjoy food before she starts preschool in the fall.

Well, that is our life for the past month and a half. If you read the post please leave me a comment so I know who is looking at my blog. Thanks!!!

I just want to wish these amazing women a Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Happy Birthday Caleb!!! Wow, how the times flies when life is busy. I can’t believe that Caleb is a year old today. Caleb tried to take one step today on his own although I have seen him take three steps before when I was coaxing him to walk. He should be walking soon. Caleb now has three teeth and they have all arrived in the last month. Caleb loves to be outside playing. He also loves to take baths, eat, play with balls, bug the kids, get into cupboards, make a mess, be chased, tickled, play at the park, climb stairs, play in the dishwasher, wear his dinner plate or bowl on his head, go to Grandma’s house, play with daddy, and just be a little boy.

Words Caleb Can Say:

Mama

Dada

Ball

Hi

Uh-Oh

Uh-Uh (for no and yes)

Nama (grandma)

imitates a monkey and dog

Caleb is such a joy in our family! We are so glad he is ours and we love him so much! Happy Birthday Big Boy!!

There is one month left until we have our “Great Strides: Taking Steps to Cure Cystic Fibrosis” walk for Jayden. We are walking in hopes that one day a cure will be found for Cystic Fibrosis. You can help out the research by dontating to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There is a corrective pill in testing right now and we are excited to see where the research will lead to after this. The pill is not a cure, but it is a start.

Come join us on our walk June 6th at Seven Peaks. Check-in is at 9 am and the walk starts at 10 am. There will be lunch, games, prizes, and fun after the walk. To register to walk with us click on this link: http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/dsp_DonationPage.cfm?walkid=5858&idUser=145165

To donate to Jayden’s Team you can either click on the link above or mail checks written out to “Cystic Fibosis Foundation” to Jayden’s Team, 1054 West 1375 North, Orem, UT 84057

Thanks to all of our friends and family who have dontaed already. We hope to give Jayden more years to live by helping raise money to find a cure for CF.