New Haircuts

 The girls got their hair cut today.  We chopped off at least 8 inches from Sarah's and 5 inches from Kathryn's.  I think they look so cute!!

Father's Day

We had a wonderful Father's Day yesterday!!  I love a great excuse to make people's favorite food and Sam picked a wonderful menu.  

Since we are done with church at 11am we always have lots of time to hang out together.  After church we made some yummy food while Sam took a nap, opened presents, took a bike ride, played games, and ate some amazing homemade ice cream.

I am so grateful that the kids have such an amazing father (Seth is at his grandparents if you wondering where he is in all the pictures).  They love to be with him and they light up everyday he walks through that door.  I could not ask for a better man!  

I have been blessed with an amazing father and my children have been blessed with an amazing father also, what a joy they are to me.  Thank you so much Dad and Sam for being good men!

Here are some pictures from our day:

The kids bought him this shirt because he LOVES to play this game.  Silly boys and their games!

 Kathryn doing a dance for Sam with her rice krispie treat.

 We laughed hysterically over the cards the kids had made.  So funny!  Seth drew Sam on a motorcycle and then drew him dead.  Isn't that nice!!!

In Kathryn's card she drew a picture of her and Sam with a line pointing to her legs that said "leggings" (okay thanks for that :) and then she said, "Dear dad I love you very mueh mugh much I only eat yours and moms homemade pancakes I don't like them if they made with that yukky stuff happy fathers day love Kathryn"

So cute!

Teacher Appreciation Dinner

Instead of taking our kids fabulous teachers another something to put on their desk, we invited them over for dinner.

We made our own invitations and the kids gave them to their teachers the last day of school.

We had lots and lots of fun.  The kids gave them a tour of the house (I'm sure their teachers were thrilled:), we ate a great dinner, and then had a photo shoot.

Kathryn's teacher this year was Mrs. Crider.  This is our 3rd year in a row with her and I am so grateful that Kathryn was able to be in her class.  Kathryn has loved every minute of school and that is in most part to her amazing teacher.

 Sarah's teacher this year was Mrs. Archibald.  There are no words to express for this lady.  She is amazing and loves each one of those kids individually which I think is the best thing a teacher could do for her kids.

 Seth this year had Mrs. Stanger.  Let me just say that this woman is a saint to put up with all those boys in her class (mine being one of the ring leaders).  She loves to read and would pass on books to Seth which he thought was pretty awesome.

 I am so grateful that my kids had wonderful teachers this year.  What a blessing they were!

And just for kicks and giggles, this is what we made them for dessert.  So delicious (plus you can get the recipe on my site!).

2nd Annual Burning Party

Last year we started burning papers.

Not ordinary papers but school papers.  

We start a fire in the backyard and go to town.

Why you ask?

Because school is done!!  

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Miriam--a niece--thinks so too)

The kids love it.  Especially the boys, plus it gets out all their pyro tendencies.

This year Sam's brother Chris, his wife Sariah and their two kids Sam and Miriam joined us.  

We all had a grand time wadding up papers and making the fire huge.

Of course a party wouldn't be complete with a little music, especially burning school papers music like "We don't need no education" by Pink Floyd.

(Thank heavens no neighbors were peeking over the fence because with papers burning and that kind of music playing we just might of been turned in the FBI)

After awhile the kids got bored so the girls and Luke started making up their own dance moves (to much more "appropraite" music) and little Sam did whatever came to mind.

After the flames calmed down we roasted marshmallows and took showers (one can only handle the smoke smell for so long!)

What a fun party!!

Our New Addition & a 50's Dance

I don't if most of you know but Sam has been infatuated with Motorcycles for years now.  He would ask me or send me listings from Craig's List every couple days about a motorcycle he could buy.

I always told him no way and would ignore the emails.  It's not that I don't like motorcycles it's that I would rather have him around than his life insurance money.

Last summer he bought a scooter.  He loved that thing even though it went 35 mph at top speed.  He drove it every day to work come wind, snow, or sunshine.

Well several weeks ago he asked me yet again for another Motorcycle and I "thought" we had a great heart to heart conversation.  It went something like this:

Me--"You know Sam I'm not your mother.  I am your wife and I don't need to be telling you what you can or can't have.  You are a big boy, you know where our finances sit, you know what we are trying to pay off (dang student loans) and what we are trying to save for (laminate flooring in the house, braces for Seth, trip to Germany, Disneyland for the kids, and the list goes on).  Stop coming to be about this.  You are the one that brings home the paycheck so you can make an educated decision."

Sam--"Okay."

Not quite a conversation but I thought we had gotten somewhere and were past the motorcycle issue.

Well I guess I was wrong.

He came home with this 3 days later.

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(and no he wasn't dressed like this when he came home, that was for our 50's dance)

So I guess we own a motorcycle!

I'm happy to report there was no fighting, yelling, or screaming.  I mean what is there to say?  I already gave him "the talk" so I try to smile and I let him enjoy it.

By the way here is both of us.

Memorial Day

Over Memorial Day weekend we were lucky enough to have Sam's youngest sister, Jessica come for a visit.  

We had a grand time playing games and seeing the sights.  We say Shoshone Falls, walked along the bridge and watched BASE jumpers, and hiked behind waterfalls.

We also got to celebrate her birthday which was yesterday.  We had some amazing Teriyaki Burgers and she picked cream puffs for her "cake".

Don't you love this picture of Luke.  He discovered that I have several cases of soda in the garage (some for me and some for everyone else) and he wouldn't leave them alone.  He asked constantly and was always sneaking drinks.  We finally got him to put down the pop so we could take a better picture.

We had lots of fun, thanks for coming Jessica!