His Independence

Johnathan stayed home from school today with an upset stomach. He's thrown up three times now. He is supposed to start swimming lessons today, but will have to wait until tomorrow to start. He is very sad and I feel bad for him. His stomach hurts him a lot right around the belly button area. I was bringing Alex home from school and talking to Darrel on the phone discussing the possiblity of Johnathan having something wrong with his appendix. Johnathan beeped into my call and so I hung up with Darrel and was talking to Johnathan asking him where it hurt. I was asking him if it hurt in the middle or on one side or the other when Alex pipes in from next to me, "ya mom, because if it's on that one side, it's probably his independence."

OK it's been a week

...since my last post. I am falling behind. I don't have a whole lot to report. I'm currently in the process of downloading all my pictures off of this laptop so I can free up some space on my D drive. Also, the summer camps are in full swing, tonight I have pack meeting - which means I have to go to the scout office some time today. I was going to go earlier but I decided to wait until Alex and Johnathan get home so I don't have to take Zach with me. He does not like to leave the house and I can't blame him, and when he doesn't want to come he certainly has the ability to make my errand running a nightmare.

Anyway, not much to talk about here. We got to swim this past weekend at a friend's pool (thanks Jen) and it made the heat almost bearable. At the end of the day I thought I had lost my ring in the pool so we had everyone looking, someone diving, and Matt even threw his ring into the pool so we could see if we could see it. I really appreciated all their efforts but didn't find my ring until we left. Silly me, I had it in my POCKET!! Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'm telling you, I felt like a complete idiot. I never take my ring off, but I was lathering sunscreen on a bunch of kids and I guess I decided to slip it off then. A few hours later I, of course, had no recollection of this so I had everyone looking for my ring, which was all the time safe in my pocket.

Yesterday I got to go out to lunch with some friends (thanks Sarah for having a birthday and Erin for the invite). We went and chatted and ate at a local restaurant for a few hours. I left Zach with a babysitter (thanks Sam) and had a GREAT time. We should do that more often. I had my camera in my purse but didn't really even think to pull it out and snap a picture.

Sorry, I have to run, but hopefully I'll get some new pictures up soon.

picture shoot

I took this little baby picture shoot last Thursday and I thought that the pictures turned out darling. What a cutie - patootie!!! The older sister is gorgeous also and that always makes for a nice picture...enjoy!

1st annual trip to Lake Powell

We took our first annual trip to Lake Powell with the Armstrong family this past weekend. We had such a GREAT time. Thanks Armstrongs for bringing your boat down and letting us have such a wonderful time together. Our boys haven't stopped talking about what fun it was to camp and boat with you guys. You guys are AWESOME and we can't wait to make it a tradition.


Here are some of the kids and Darrel enjoying some time in the tube. Zachary DID NOT like the tube or being in the water but being such good parents we "forced" him to do both.
After a fun day on the water Zachary was plum wore out.
This is the view from our campground spot. BEAUTIFUL!!! It's funny though, during the day it was hot, hot, hot, and at night it was really cold. It was cold from the minute the sun went down until the sun came up again, but the minute the sun came up it was HOT...and I do mean from the minute the sun came up.
Walking along the ridge of the rock where we stopped to swim, fish, make sand-blobs and throw them on the rock, jump off the cliff, tan on the boat, eat snacks, etc.
This is the fire ring that Alex made the morning after we arrived at the campground. We left home about 4:30 and got to the campground on Thursday night about 10:00 - Alex woke up at 5am the next morning and put this little fire ring together. He was pretty disappointed when we told him that we were only allowed to have fires in the BBQ area. It turned out to be fine, although a fire when camping would have been pretty fun. We had to roast our marshmellows over the BBQ thing. Oh well, it was still fun.

Some sandcastles that Zachary made with Alyssa. She was so good with Zach the whole weekend. She played with him without being asked and really watched over him the whole time. She is an angel girl.
Here is our campsite. It was a great campsite except for stickers that were everywhere buried in the sand. We had them all over our shoes. They punched holes in our air mattresses, through the tent even. When you stepped on them they were SO painful. Other than that...great view, great place...fun!!!
The little boys went fishing...didn't catch anyting, much to their disappointment, but had a fun time trying.

FUN weekend!!

Playin in the rain

A couple of weeks ago we had some rain - not a lot - but when it came down it came down in BIG drops and soaked everything for about 10 minutes. The boys were in the middle of their homework when it actually began to rain so they decided to get on their coats, ignore their work for the time being, and really enjoy the Nevada rain. I decided that rain is such a "few and far between" phenomena that I would just let them have some fun in the wetness for awhile. They had a blast. They ran in the rain, jumped in the rain, rode their bikes in the rain, I'm telling you it was a rain-fest at our house. I had to get my camera capture this pure rain happiness to share with you. But, you have to promise me that you will ignore my yard and all its messiness. I wasn't looking at the yard when I took these pictures, I was only looking at the boys and trying not to get the camera wet while I took the pictures. So, I didn't notice the yard until I decided to post the pictures. Oh well, cest la vie - you only live once, right?!!

Fun Weekend

Thanks to Amanda I had a fabulous weekend in North Carolina. We got to go out to eat, shopping, get a pedicure, sit around and watch movies, see family, and take Diesel to the lake for a very fun outing. I had a wonderful time, even though my body didn't fully adjust to the time change in the two days I was there. It really did feel like I was getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get ready for church on Sunday. But I would do it again in a heartbeat. I had such a great time and Amanda was truly a fabulous host. I've posted just a few pictures from our weekend.

me and zach

There are so many other things I should be doing right now, and here I am, blogging. Ah well. I have lots of friends here for Zachary today and he is having a great time. This morning I went for a walk and to the park with Zach and his friend, Seth. Later Seth was joined by Will and Owen and now they are all at my house. I have to say, I love having a bunch of little boys around. I know that you're rolling your eyes right now and saying "right" but it's true. Little boys are just a lot of fun and around here it's the more the merrier. I have a house that is just right for little boys to play and I just don't worry a lot about the mess. Zach loves having friends and I love that all these personalities just work together the right way. All these boys get along so well and I hardly ever have to intervene in their playing.

The other night I was laying on my bed watching t.v. and Zach came in to see what I was doing. He noticed that I was holding my little camera and he wanted to take pictures with it. I let him take one picture of me and I took one picture of him and then he wanted a picture of both of us. I put my arm way out and he scooted in close and after a few tries we got some cute pictures of the two of us together. After I uploaded the pictures I was struck with the difference in eye color between us. I have brown eyes and his eyes are green or blue depending on what he is wearing, but more often green than blue. Also, they are so light. Half the time they look see through. I have always loved Zachary's eyes because they are different than mine, Darrel's eyes, and both of my boys. We all have brown and then Zach was born. He is such a fun little boy and we are very blessed to have him in our family.

Happy Anniversary

I know I have pictures of these two together but I guess I don't have any on this computer. So, you'll just have to see the pictures apart. My mom and dad are celebrating their 37th (I believe) wedding anniversary today. They are the best parents ever and I am very blessed to have them in my life. I just wanted to send a shout out to my mom and dad today. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

This post is for Joy

Here are the glasses that Johnathan and Darrel got from Zenni optical. I had them turn to the side because it was really hard to get a picture of Darrel's glasses without rims. You couldn't really see them on his face. Johnathan looks especially handsome in his, if I do say so myself.

just for fun

We're going to play a little game. This is purely for my curiosity so please indulge me. Joy e-mailed me a picture that she needed me to shrink so, since it was such an awesome photo, I commandeered it for my own purposes. (I hope you don't mind, Joy) I know these are kind of small but if you click on the pictures they should come up pretty big if you need more information. Anyway, I buy filters periodically for photoshop and sometimes this is somewhat costly. I do like what they do to pictures, however, so they are (most of the time) well worth the expenditure. I have put the original photo in the top left hand corner and then added filters to the other ones. Here's the game...pick your favorite and let me know. This will probably determine how often this filter is used to enhance pictures by yours truly. Now, keep in mind that some filters look better with different colors, with faces, without faces (in the photos), etc. That means that every so often I will put another picture up for discussion and we will see what you all think. Have fun!

I know, I know

I'm slacking again. I'll get on this afternoon and post something while the boys do their homework.