Beehive Camp

Alaina had a blast at her 1st year of girls camp.

All of the youth 14-18 yrs old went on the Trek so all of the girls 12-13 yrs. old had a Beehive camp of their own this summer. It was held at the Brook's cabin which is close to Dayton WA.

Alaina's favorite part of camp was the all day hike. Getting lost, blisters and all :)

They were able to shoot BB guns and Bow & Arrows. Another favorite for the girls.

A huge perk to staying at the cabin was the use of a hot tub!

The girl's had a ton of fun together starting fires...

Playing group games...

Learning first aid skills...

And Skit night.

I'm glad Alaina survived her first girl's camp and has a ton of fun memories and pictures to show for it.

Father Son Campout

This year Dan was in charge of our wards Father Son Campout so that meant showing up with the boys early to get the camp unlocked and everything set-up.

The boys loved being up there so early on Friday. They were able to spend a lot of time fishing and from all of the fish stories they came home with it sounds like they caught a ton.

Dan invited some family to come along on the campout this year so the kids were able to hang out with Grandpa Rose, Uncle Gary and their cousins . Uncle Greg and Kayleb also came along and were a huge help with the boys. They're always such good examples when it comes to camping safety. Our boys now know the proper way to light their farts on fire, how to spray insect spray in their cupped hands and light that on fire, and the proper way to chop wood.

As seen below.

The boys had fun hauling rocks out into the river trying to make a swimming hole.

Eventually they switched gears and decided on a dam that stretched across the river.

Dan brought some surgical tubing for all of the boys in camp to make their very own sling shot. The boys picked out a branch on one of the hikes they went on, one with a Y shape in it, chopped it down, carved and whittled it smooth, then attached the tubing and a small square of leather. They had a blast shooting rocks, bark, and marshmallows at each other that weekend. They used some of the extra tubing to make water weenies for water fights. (remember those from the 80's?)

And speaking of water weenies lets not forget to mention one of the best parts to any father/son campout... Peeing in the woods:)

Glad all of my boys had a great weekend and have made it back home safe and sound!

Service Project

Tonight the kids asked if they could play in the backyard before bed. They were actually already in their P.J.'s and everything but I was burnt out and just went ahead and said yes. They were out there for quite a while; honestly I kind of forgot about them because they were being so quiet. Their normal screaming, laughing and fighting was not ringing through the neighborhood as it usually does.

I stepped out on the deck to call them inside for the night and found them all huddled in one corner of the yard by the raspberry bushes. They yelled,"Wait! We're almost done!" "Done with what?", I asked. They replied, "With our service project." They had been working together for an hour or so cleaning up our neglected raspberry patch, which had been sitting there untouched since last fall.

They took it upon themselves to prop some of the raspberry bushes back up into place, they raked all of the leaves from around there bases, they pulled out balls and frisbees that had been trapped back there all winter, and best of all they picked a large container of raspberries for me. YEA!!!

So tonight I turned a few of them into one of these.

My Grandma Rose's famous raspberry pie.

YUMMY!

Thanks for going out of your way and spending time tonight serving your Dad and I.

It was very thoughtful you guys.

Father's Day

Saw this posted on my cousin's blog; thought it was cute and stole it...

REASONS TO CELEBRATE DAD

1 Someone needs to deal with the "some assembly reequired" stuff.

2 Who else would dare face that black fuzzy spider under the basement stairs?

3 His shaving cream comes in handy for rainy-day crafts.

4 He has an amazing ability to cheer up a cranky child merely by tossing him in the air.

5 He's happy to discuss the finer points of old Road Runner and Coyote cartoons with the kiddos.

6 No one else ever seems to know exactly where the bicycle-tire pump is.

7 He insists that you look even better than you did before you had kids. (And if he's lying, he does it really, really well.)

8 Amazingly, macho man though he is, he doesn't mind having his nails painted bright pink by an enthusiastic pre-school manicurist.

9 He doesn't make fun of you when you do yoga in the living room. Well, most of the time.

10 Fatherhood looks sexier on him than you could have imagined.

-Charlotte Latvala

My kids are so lucky to have Dan as their dad. I can't imagine anyone else fitting that job description better. Happy Father's day!

Dan's first day as daddy.

(April 27th 1999)

27 week ultrasound

Here's a few of those creepy looking 4-D ultrasound pics from today's ultrasound.

Flag Day Craft

Made this little Flag Day craft at the church tonight. It was fun to get my craft on but it sure made me realize how rusty I was. It seems like for a few years there I was doing a ton of crafty things but I haven't made anything forever.

I think this summer I will set a goal to do something crafty with the kids each week. I'm sure they would love that and it will give me a reason to dust off a few of my un-used craft supplies.

Send me your fun ideas if you have any.

Kylie's Dance Recital

The girls and I went to Kylie's dance recital for our date night tonight. We had a ton of fun! The Dance Studio had a ton of great costumes and performances.

Hailey decided that she totally wants to take dance again now. During the performances she kept trying to decide what class she wanted to take. Tap... Hip hop... Jazz... Ballet??? She finally decided on Jazz or Hip Hop because they had the most dances where they were wearing pants. She said," I don't think I really want to dance in a little dress and show my underwear." :)

Great Job Kylie!

My kids sure love their cousins, they had a ton of fun!

5th grade graduation

Ky's 5th grade "Hawaiian Luau" graduation party

What in the heck... How did this happen?

I can't believe we'll have 2 kids in middle school next year. Crazy huh!?!

Ky is super excited to be moving on to Middle School, he can't wait for the lockers, switching to the different classes, taking band, real dodgeball in P.E., and the freedom of choosing whatever he wants in the different hot lunch lines. (To name just a few)

During the graduation Shawna Cox played a video that she made of all of the 5th graders. She found all of the kids elementary school pictures and showed each of the kids morphing from a kindergartner into a fifth grader. It was so cool and must have taken weeks and weeks to put together. Here's what Ky looked like in the video.

(video to be posted shortly)

Home with Hudson

The older kids are still in school for another few weeks and Hudson's preschool is already out for summer vacation, so that means Hudson and I get a lot of one on one alone time together.

Here's a few pics from our "alone time" this week.

"Just hanging around."

Hudson with his "thinking cap" on.

A playdoh blindfold.

Ever since seeing the Kung Fu Panda 2 preview Hudson will just randomly yell out, "Staring Contest...GO", and look at me like this.

An underwear or sock sleeping bag for each animal.

"Mom... Does this look scary?"

Arrrgh Matey!

Wicked Weekend

This weekend Dan and I were able to get away with a few friends and see Wicked in Spokane. We had dinner at the Melting Pot first then it was off to the Play.

We ended up buying tickets for over 60 friends, family and ward members as part of our group package so we saw a ton of people we knew there, which was fun.

The play got over around 11pm so we stayed the night in Spokane and came home the next morning. All in all a great weekend. Loved the play, loved hanging out with friends, but most of all I loved spending time with my hubby. Thanks for a fun weekend.

Another one bites the dust

Alaina and Kase have been begging me to take the guard rail off of their top bunk beds for weeks now. Alaina thinks it is totally babyish to have it on there. I wanted it to stay but told them they could ask dad and see what he said. Of course he said, "Sure." So about a week ago, down they came.

I told them the story of when I fell off my top bunk bed, as a kid, and they all laughed. Dan told me not to worry, his logic is that if they've never fallen off of a bottom bed then they won't be falling off of the top one; because a bed is a bed.

Well last night it happened I was laying in bed and at about 1am a huge, loud thudding crash came from the girls bedroom. I ran in and Alaina was lying on the floor moaning and crying while holding her back. YIKES!

I noticed that she had put her ladder in the dead center of her bed, instead at one end of the bed which meant that she had tumbled and thudded her body down the entire length of her ladder on her way down. Everything on her dresser was knocked off because she had slammed her head into that also. Ouch!

Surprisingly enough she was still about 90% asleep so I checked her all out, got her some ice and put her back in bed, with a huge stack of pillows as her guard rail :)

In the morning she limped out to breakfast like she had been run over by a truck and asked if I would send her with a note to be dismissed from P.E.

This is what her back looked like.

She had four other matching ones up and down her legs with a huge goose egg on her shin. Ouch!

Alaina says she still doesn't want a rail on her bed but I'm sure she will be hugging her wall a little tighter from now on :)

Finally

59 doctor visits

57 shots in the butt

22 sticks in the arm

and.... 14 ultrasounds later.... and I think I'm finally in the clear.

My doc thinks that my numbers are high enough to go off of everything. Yea!

What will I do with all of my free time?

Can you believe Alaina is 12!

Last Friday Alaina celebrated her birthday with a few good girlfriends. They got pedicures, had a little DQ treat, and then back home for a little P.J. movie night.

Today on her actual birthday she celebrated with family. Alaina loved getting jewelry, make-up, iTunes gift cards, and a summer clothes shopping spree with mom.

Her birthday fell on a Wednesday (Mutual Night) so later that night the whole Beehive class came by to kidnap her in crazy outfits. They made her the Queen Bee and took her to 7-11 for slurpees and a little embarrassment.

Seriously… Can you believe Alaina is already in Young Women's?

We’re really glad that she’s our oldest, she sets a great example for the other kids. We appreciate that she makes good choices. It sure makes our life easy as parents. Happy Birthday Alaina!