All our kids have a cousin to play with this year and we love it!!!
Esher has a true love for the game. We discovered that he is a very good goalie too!! He absolutely loves it!!! He was goalie for almost every game after trying it out here.
After the first game I never brought my camera again so this is it!
We had another swap today and the girls decided to camp out in the back yard. They were so cute out there talking away eating their popcorn and Sebastian patiently waiting for anything to drop. Yes, Sebastian squeezed himself in with the two girls to protect them and eat with them. I’m pretty sure it is mostly eating that he is really going to do. Once the food is gone he will be back inside next to his daddy.
When I came up to them I heard Aubree say “Paris I just saw lightning!” and after my next picture I heard Paris say”Oh ya, Aubree I saw it too!” I laughed so hard. 
I just can’t believe that the two of them slept comfortably in this small tent.
The boys stayed indoors the whole night and played on the computer until 1am.
We do love having cousins so close!
I absolutely hate calls like this one but luckily it turned out fine. Today the Blanchard Ranch kids were off on their first day of school when they hit some gravel and flipped the car into a ravine. Courtney was driving and was very emotional about the whole thing for the rest of the day, but no one was hurt badly. Hannah had not put on her seatbelt so she ended up on the opposite side of the car, but got nothing more than bruises.
Sorry Mae that your birthday started off pretty crummy!!!
My favorite book in the scriptures at the moment is The Book Of Judges. Today we had Family Home Evening at Gary and Jo Ann’s and it was my turn to do the lesson so, of course, I chose one of my favorite stories. I had the kids reenact the story of Gideon and his 300 men.They defeated The Canaanites who appear to be numberless because there were so many of them. Here they are fighting one another. They were all great actors!!!
The moral of the story was – You and The Lord outnumber All your enemies regardless of their size, strength, appearance and intelligence!
My dear sweet love is the new chorister in primary and he just loves it!!!
Today they had a lesson on modesty and they made this shirt modest using toilet paper. He is so good with the kids and such a great sport I love that he is there with them. I am super sad that two weeks before he was called I was released from my calling in Primary so we don’t get to be in there together. So, I really really don’t like going to classes after sacrament at the moment. Then, I got called to do activities for Relief Society so I really am kind of bitter about the whole thing at the moment. I keep saying “at the moment” because I know I will learn to love it at some point, at least that’s my hope!
Today Tristan had her daddy daughter date and she told daddy it was time to get her earring once again. She talked about it all through lunch. She was so excited, but she had been excited the last 5 times we had tried. It’s when she gets in that chair that she loses all her courage.
Sure enough it happened again just like before. Luckily, mommy wasn’t there because I am not good at dealing with that. She sat in the chair and started crying and saying she couldn’t do it. My love patiently worked with her until she finally said “Okay, do it NOW!” Both workers pulled the trigger and it was finally done.
She gave everyone hugs and even got a sucker for her bravery.
I was so so happy. Not that ear piercing is super important to me but it is to her. It just broke my heart knowing how much she loved her earrings before and how sad she was everyday not to have them. She was the only one keeping herself from so much happiness and I couldn’t stand that. She loves her earring and is planning on keeping them on for a year before we make any changes this time!
She conquered two major things in two days-I’m so proud of my Princess Xian!!!!!
Hilda is having a boy that she will name Ashton. She was about an hour and a half late to her own shower. When she walked in I said “Hey Hilda, What are you doing here? I didn’t know you had been invited.” Everyone but her laughed. Hopefully she knows I was just kidding. Jo Ann was dying when I mentioned that we had worked together on the baby shower game that she won. She was nice enough to share her gift with me. Later I told everyone that I had forgotten to buy a gift and Jo Ann had put both our names on the gift. Jo Ann was laughing so hard about both of my honest moments.
I got a call during the party from my sweet Tristan telling me she actually did it…she got her ears pierced again-I was so happy!!!!
There was no food at the shower so after 2 delicious slices of cake Jo Ann and I went to lunch at Kneaders. I had never been there and it was super grub. Instead of giving her money for the gift “we brought”I paid for her lunch-it was really fun!!! It’s so nice to have such a wonderful mother-in-law that I love hanging out with!!
Tristan is her own worst enemy. She is constantly scaring herself to death about the simplest things. For the last 2 years she has tried to take off her training wheels but has been too scared. Every time she feels her daddy pull away just an inch she starts to panic. Today she seemed a little more determined to make it happen. Last year she had a friend of hers make fun of her and that really hurt her feelings. She is the only kid on the street with training wheels and she doesn’t like to ride her bike because of it. Daddy did his best to tell her she could do it no problem and really helped her feel good about it. He is such a good daddy!!!
She really did it this time 
I’m so proud of my precious girl!!!
It has to be about 60 degrees in the house for Sebastian to be comfortable unfortunately, our AC sucks and it barely manages 76 degrees downstairs. Upstairs it always seems about 5-10 degrees hotter. It use to be worst believe it or not! He lays on the vents to try to achieve this ideal temperature. He is so funny!!!
Paris has definitely inherited her Great-Grandma Dodge’s talent of hoarding and having not problem with it. She is always saving this or that and today we saw it all. She stashes things under her bed and every dresser in her room. She threw out 5 bags of garbage today-wow! Is she really my daughter? I love to throw things out the minute we are done with them-I absolutely hate keeping things I might need one day. I figure if that day ever comes I will have no idea where I put it, so I wont be able to use it anyway!!!
She changed her room around and it looks beautiful with a lot more space!
I have this picture of Esher at the age of 2. He is watching for his oatmeal water to come to a boil so I can pour in the oats. He loved doing this every morning when he was little and he did it again today…so cute!! I remember him patiently waiting for the bubbles and then he would excitedly tell me it was boiling. He is growing up so so fast-let’s hope I’m ready for it!!
My sister, Raquel, Wayne and I went to our last Seven Peaks day. It was so nice just chatting away while the kids ran back and forth. Uncle Wayne swam with the kids and they just loved it!
Yes, it was what we least expected…LICE. It turns out that our little niece Marley got lice in her daycare class in Fallbrook. Unknowingly, Victoria and Iain got it too and brought it here to Provo to us before we noticed. We all had to wash our hair with lice shampoo.
We are so happy for Kourtney but sad that she will no longer be in our ward. She is such a beautiful girl and a wonderful dancer we will really miss seeing her….Congratulations-we love you!!!
This is Victoria’s favorite place to go, so we stayed for 3 hours. While the kids jump all over the place, my sister kicks my butt in Skip-o and Phase 10. It’s a ton of fun for all of us!!
