Sad Times for Spencer...

Spencer has no more Binky. The other night Mike snipped the top off of Spencer's binky. Spencer felt that this completely ruined it. He was in utter dispair. He wanted nothing to do with it once it was snipped. It has been very sad times for the past couple of days, but last night was much better!

On a happier note... we were having Sunday dinner at mom and dad's and the kids found a baby grasshopper. They were in heaven. Spencer was sooo excited. He has a hard time saying the first sounds to his words so he ran around telling everyone that they found a baby "asshopper." It was pretty funny!

OH WHAT A 4TH!!!

We love the 4th of July. The kids look forward to it every year. This year did not disappoint! We were so excited to get a package from Grandma Dunn and Katie. Inside Aunt Katie had tie- dyed some awesome shirts for us. They sent a lot of fun things.
We started the day out early and walked to the parade route around 7:40 am. Liz and David and their kids were in town which was a huge highlight for our kids. We had a fabulous breakfast in the park and then headed to the parade.

We met up with the Calton's from our old ward. It was so great to see them. The kids had a blast collecting candy and playing with their old friends!

Mike set up the volleyball net in the front yard and the Thorne kids played with our kids all afternoon. The teenages were so nice to play with our little kids. It was a lot of fun. Later we did a bbq at grandma Kayes, then back to our house for smores and fireworks. Oh how we love smores! (there is an advantage to not having all of our landscape done. It is very easy to did a big fire pit)

Spencer eating his smore. He was a mess by the end.

We love the 4th of July at our house. It is one of our favorite holidays!

Where has the time gone...

I can't believe that we are coming towards the end of June... We have been so busy! We took the kids down to St. George for a quick get-a-way. It was exactly what we needed. They were so excited to spend time with Mike and just have fun. McCall loved hiking and climbing. She could have done it all day long. But of course we had to fit in some pool time also. Mike decided that next time he would bring some of uncle Scottie's climbing gear and he could have her do a couplr of small climbs. The weather was perfect and it was so fun being with our little family.


The girls climbed through some narrow slots. They had to do it by themselves because mom and dad couldn't fit. They both thought that this was a highlight!

We had to take an ice cream break!

McCall Climbing!

McCall and Mike climbed up a steep rock to a cave by the Circus wall. They had a lot of fun!

It was a great trip and much needed. We are sad because dad is now back to his busy,crazy schedule again. We can almost see the end of it though. We hope that everyone is having a great summer!!!

Spencer's week on the POTTY...

So we have had a busy week of potty training Spencer. He is being a rockstar (although I truly loathe potty training). He is doing great at peeing in the potty. We haven't had an accident in days. Pooping on the other hand has been a little tricky. I don't think he has the patience to sit there. One huge surprising bonus has been nights. Spencer has not wet a diaper during the night or naptime since we started. I believe that I am done buying diapers for this little guy, which brings a huge smile to my face!!!

T-BALL

Our lives have been taken over by t-ball. We decided to try this instead of soccer this spring and McCall loves it. She is actually in coach pitch, and McKinley is in t-ball. I feel like we are living at the field. This is a picture of what Spencer does. He will sit long enough to eat snacks, then he is up running and causing trouble!


McKinley posing. For some reason she always has to kick up a leg!!!

McCall on Base.

McCall batting...

We didn't get many pictures of the funeral, but here is a great grandchild giving grandpa a Kiss! Grandma's funeral was wonderful! She was an amazing person...

What A Week!!!

It has been quite the week. On Friday my sweet grandma Swallow had a stroke. She was at the temple completing a session and didn't feel well. Things have gone down hill since then and we don't expect her to last long. Yesterday I went up and spent a few hours. It was so sad to see her just lying there. We saw her just a couple of weeks ago at Jame's baby blessing, and then for Easter dinner. She was so full of life then! She and Grandpa are two of the most Christ like people I have ever met. They are absolutely amazing. At 90 they go to the temple 4-5 days a week. They are so happy all of the time. I don't think that in my whole life I have ever heard either of them say anything negative about another person. They have unconditional love for everyone! It is going to be a huge loss...

Another sad thing this week was my good friend Katy had a sweet baby girl on Tuesday. She had Trisomy 13. She lived a short 14 hours before she passed away. I was able to go to the hospital and hold her. She was a little angel and so Precious. I attended the Funeral on Saturday. It was very heart wrenching...

McCall got the flu on Friday night. She is still a little under the weather. I am really hoping that she starts to perk up. We have too much going on.

I also can't believe that it is May already. School is going to be out before I know it. We have a lot of things going on which is good, because Mike is gone so much. I was really depressed when I wrote out our May calendar, looking at how much he is working. He gets about 1 1/2 days off for memorial day and then has to work for 13 days in a row...wow!!! I feel bad for him and worry about him working so much. Luckily it will all be over the end of July! Yeah...

Other then that we are doing well and keeping busy. The kids are fun and loving t-ball and spring weather. I got the garden planted, which was great!

Our Crazy Life

Life has been a little crazy lately. I know that I have been the worst blogger known to man. This past week Mike started his clinicals. He has been working non-stop. The kids have only seen him for about 30 minutes total since last Tuesday. Luckily tomorrow (Tuesday) Mike gets off. It will be nice to have him home for a day. He is enjoying it, and I am trying to keep the kids busy and distracted so we don't have too many melt-downs.
We had an interesting week while he has been gone. We thought McKinley broke her foot and spent last Tuesday night up at Primary Children's Hopsital. I feel so blessed that with everything else that is going on that it isn't broken. She spent Wednesday and Thursday barely walking on it, but felt much better by Friday. It was sooo swollen and is black and blue.
The girls started T-Ball last week, which is a lot of fun. We go 3-4 days a week but they love it. Spencer is going to be a happy camper getting to spend so much time at the park. Last Wednesday McKinley had her Spring Sing at school. I wasn't going to take her because she could barely walk and couldn't fit her foot in any shoes, but she had told Mike earlier in the week that I would record it for him and she was very persistant. She did a cute job but was wiped out by the end. We did get it recorded for daddy, so hopefully he can see it on Tuesday when he comes home.
Friday aunt Katie was a lifesaver and came up while I went to get my haircut. I think I need a new person because I was there WAY to long. I don't have time to sit and wait at a salon.
Saturday we had our first T-Ball games which McCall's coach forgot that she was a lefty and had her stand as a right handed batter. She was pretty proud because she was able to hit his pitch's both ways. She loves T-Ball and has tons of strength to wack the pitches. She was able to hit all coach pitched balls and had a great game.
Sunday I hate to admit but we were about 5 minutes late to church. Mike is going to be gone 8 of the next 11 Sunday's. So I need to get it together a little more to get us there on time every week. 9:00 Church seems to roll around a little early, but I don't like being late.
This morning the sun was shining, which was great! (we have had a rainy few days).
I did step on a big shard of plastic that went up in my foot. The kids were freaking out because it was bleeding quite a bit. McCall even made my bed for me. They were so funny.
We are doing well and can't believe that it is almost May... School will be out before we know it. I am putting in a few Easter pictures that we took. We had a great Easter!!! I made the girls dresses and they were pretty excited about them.


McKinley on the Hunt...



McCall showing off her finds....

My three great kids!!!