Yes it is a miracle. Kaden is going potty!!!! I was just about to give up when suddenly a light turned on for him. Hopefully this time it will last, but he seems to be doing just great. Also as you may have noticed he had a new hair do. I really just did it for a joke, but the kids wanted me to keep it for a couple of days :) I think it is fitting for him, don't you??
Justin's football practice started this week. Here are just a few pictures of it. He's the one wearing the orange shirt. (I couldn't get any closer Dad or he would have seen me.)
Justin received his Bobcat award at Pack Meeting Thursday night. He is loving scouts and has a great scout leader that gets them excited! After the awards were given out they launched water rockets and got soaking wet. Perfect for a hot summer night. Be sure to scroll down. I seem to Blog in 3's these days.
This is one of the reasons that I love July so much. Each city has their own day to celebrate and Cedar Hills does it up big! Saturday was Cedar Hills Days and it started with a parade. Because Brian is on the Fire Department he rides on the Fire Truck in the parade. I don't know what I was thinking this year but we left our house a little late to get down to the parade route and we missed the fire truck by 1 min. As we saw the truck pass by April and I started running as fast as we could with a stroller and Morgan down the parade route (I know, quite the site) We made it to the ambulance, which was right behind the fire truck, and I knew the girl driving it so she had us get in. So instead of watching Brian and Justin on the fire truck we were behind them in the parade waving at everyone on our way. It was actually really fun. After the parade they have a bunch of bouncy houses and games for the kids to play, one of which was a golf game (Jacquelyn made me hit the ball with her so that we could look silly together). They had life flight land and let the kids look inside and every couple of hours the fire truck would spray everyone in the soak zone. Morgan got soaking wet :) Speaking of Morgan, she had some funny moments that day that I would like to say were my "yellow dress" moments (Brittany). I turned off the music to the slide so that you could hear what she says as she is coming down. I don't know what I am going to do with that girl. Feel my pain! The night ended with some awesome fireworks!!! Jacquelyn, Josh, Morgan, Justin,Kaden & I all had front row spots to the fireworks. We had to lay on our backs to be able to see them. We were able to watch them shoot off the fireworks and also see Brian in action putting out all the fires that came from the fireworks. It was a fun and eventful day!
I decided to put both Morgan and Kaden in swimming lessons this year. They both did really well and I would recommend A.F. Rec center to anyone wanting to put their kids into swimming lessons.
Yes it's true. Brian and Justin went to pick up equipment for the upcoming football season Saturday morning. Pick up time for Justin's age group was from 9-10 a.m., so I know that you will surprised to know that Justin was in our room at 7:30 a.m. asking his dad if he was ready to go get the equipment. He is really excited for football season to start, and these people are serious about it here! I wondered when I got the practice schedule if we were talking about high school :) We will let you know when games start, but if you are ever wondering where I am at 5:00 every day you will know now! It's a good thing we like football around here! Doesn't he look cute? (I know only a mother would make that comment)
Our family has had a very patriotic July. About a week ago we got the news that the fire cheif from Saratogo Springs was in an auto accident and was killed. Lone Peak Fire was in charge of some of the presentations at the graveyard service last Friday. Brian had me go to the services to video tape it for the station. If you look carefully when you see the water if you look at the firemen on the right hand side Brian is the second fireman back from the front. It was a beautiful service full of patriotism and respect for this fallen Hero.
I know I have told you before, but I just love to catch the kids doing funny things. And although you might not find this funny, for some reason I did. I think you have to know Kaden. He is crazy. The kid never stops moving!....Unless he finds "Frogs" (That is the name of his blanket). My sister, Jacquelyn made all of my kids blankets when they were born, and although all of them have loved their blankets none have loved them more than Kaden. I think he would die if something happened to this blanket, and as
most of you know he shoves that blanket in his mouth and sucks on it (most of the time just before he goes to bed, or just waking up. Yuck! You can imagine how many times that thing has to go in the washing machine. So the other day I was in the kitchen and thought the house was a little too quiet. So I peeked around the corner and found Kaden just chillin on the floor with frogs in his mouth. I just had to laugh to myself and as soon as he saw me he laughed and rolled right over. He must have needed some alone time with frogs!
This morning our ward had a flag ceremony to honor a member of our ward who is leaving for Iraq. I found out today that he is one of my back yard neighbors. It was a really neat experience to watch these cub and boy scouts present this soldier with the American flag. The flag will be flown until he returns home in May of next year. This ceremony along with it being close to the 4th of July really made me think about how lucky we are to be living in such a beautiful country and how lucky and blessed we are to have the freedoms that we have today.
A couple of weeks ago we saw a picture in the paper of this place called Slippery Rock so we thought it would be a fun place to take Brittany. It was about a half mile hike up to the pool and while we were walking it, we weren't quit sure we were even going in the right direction. We finally made it!! Who would have guessed something like this even existed. I loved to watchevery one's faces as they game up out of the water. It's mountain run off so the water was breathtaking, and by that I mean it takes your breath away. On the walk back down to the car there was a snake in the middle of the road. YUK! I thought April would appreciate this picture:)
This is all that Kaden wanted to do when Papa came to visit. I think he might just be the next Tiger Woods. Although if you ask him who is favorite golfer is he says "Bittnay" "Tiger Woods" and "Papa". Morgan thought she wanted to golf also, but instead used her golf club as a microphone and sang the whole time we were there.
Brittany wanted to go to Cabela's while she was here so we finally took her. For any of you who don't know what Cabela's is, it's a really big outdoors & hunting store. It's really cool and the kids love it.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love the 4th of July. These are just some fun pictures from our fun day together. The day started off with the Provo Freedom 10k Run. It was really fun to run with everyone,John, Emma, Mom, Elza, April and Rach . We then went up to Provo canyon and floated down the river and the kids did some fishing. After everyone had enough of the sun we went to John and Emma's house to watch the big fireworks. I love it! Happy 4th of July!
We started off Monday morning playing rock, paper, scissors to find out who was going to pick what we were going to do for the day. Morgan won so we ended up going to the American Fork pool. Sorry I don't have any pictures to show, but you can just imagine us all sitting by the pool soaking up some rays. Emma, Molly and Christopher were also there with us.
Since Morgan won Monday, Justin got to chose for Tuesday. He chose to go mini golfing at Trafalga. It was really fun. Kaden just kept himself busy by playing the same hole over and over until we made it to the next one. I have to say the both Mom and I beat
Brittany, which we thought was pretty funny :) RightBritty?
I know that it has taken me a few days to make this post, but we have been totally exhausted from this past weekend. For those of you who don't know the story behind this I will give you a quick update.
Last Christmas my parents gave each of us some money to "pay it forward"(most of you have probably seen that movie or heard about it from Oprah). We were suppose to find someone who we would like to help with the money that we were given, and we were suppose to have it completed by the time Christopher was born (January). As January was quickly approaching Brian and I just couldn't figure out what we were going to
do with our money. I called my mom and told her that I really felt like it was truly a blessing for us to have this money, and that I knew that Brian being on the fire department would also help us to know what we were suppose to do with it. So time passed, and in April we were informed that one of the guys on the department's, someone who Brian worked his first 24 with, wife had an accident. She was on a long board and got going way too fast down a hill, jumped off the board and landed
wrong on the ground breaking her back. The spinal cord was not severed,
but she was paralyzed. This lady was 32 years old and they have 6 kids ranging in age frm 2-12. Brian came to me one night and said that this is who we should pay it forward to. So for the last 2 months we have been working, with the chief of the
fire department, in planning a fundraiser for them to raise money to be able to purchase a wheel chair accessible car for this family. And when I say we I really mean Brian. I did help him, but he deserves all the credit on this one.
On Saturday June 30th we held the fundraiser for them in Alpine. We had a auction, a raffle, there was dinner donated to us from two different businesses, a couple of bouncy houses, a live band, and of course all the fire trucks and a clown named Ember. There were so many generous people who donated so many items for us to be able to auction off. We were so amazed at the compassion that people had on someone that they had never met. So with all the items auction and raffled off as well as the food that was donated to us we took our $500 and turned it into $30,000 and there are still donations coming in.
We feel really blessed to live in such community surrounded with people and business that are willing to give so much. It really has strengthened our family by doing this fundraiser, and made us really appreciate what we have been given. Our challenge to you is to do the same and "pay it forward". You never know how it will effect the lives of people around you.
Thanks Mom and Dad for giving us the opportunity to "Pay It Forward" and thanks to all that were there and helped out. We wouldn't have been able to do it with out you and it really means a lot to us for all the support that was given. We love you.
A couple of weeks ago we went over to Chris' house to partake of her garden. She was having to get rid of her vegetable plants because the city was spraying for Japanese Beetles, we think it's a conspiracy:) Anyways Chris was nice enough to let us come and pick out some plants to plant at our own houses. I thought that she would like to see
a picture of how her little foster plants were doing, and of course I am proud at how they are growing in my own yard!
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