What we've been up to...

I have really fallen behind on this blog. My summer has been taken up with worry and planning for Girl's Camp. (I was called as the ward Camp Director) So now that camp is over, (YAY!) I can finally get something else done. The last post I made was about Blake's birthday, (which was way back in March) so I guess I will just pick it up from there. So here goes....

*Warning, what you are about to read is quite long! No hurt feeling if you don't read it all!*

Easter

We had a pretty fun Easter this year, especially cause we got to spend alot of the time with my sister Jenna and her family, who were in town visiting from Peru. They spent Easter day with Glenn's family, but they stayed at our house while in town so we got to see them for the most part while they were here. Before Jenna got here, we had a Easter party with our friends and their families. We got together and had a huge Easter egg hunt. The amount of kids that accumulate when we are all together is just ridiculous. Here's a picture of most of them all together...

I'm pretty sure there were more there that didn't make it into the picture.

Damon hunting for eggs

Ashlyn hunting for eggs

Blake at the egg hunt

The kids

Then on Easter the kids got to hunt for their baskets that the Easter Bunny hid...

Damon coming down the stairs to start the hunt

Blake searching

Ashlyn searching

Noone can find theirs. The Easter Bunny hid them good!

We finally give Damon some help and tell him to look out in the backyard...

He opens the curtain to look

Still looking

He fianlly sees it!!

Blake finds his in the oven drawer

Ashlyn finds hers in the bathroom

We had lots of fun hanging with Jenna's family. We wish they could have stayed longer.

Next, I did the unthinkable!!!

I CHOPPED ASHLYN'S HAIR OFF!!!!

Ashlyn had been complaining about her hair for quite some time. It was always getting tangled, and if it wasn't braided every night she couldn't sleep cause it would get stuck underneath her and get pulled. And lets not forget to mention how she would have to bring her hair to the front everytime she sat on the toilet so that she wouldn't poop or pee on it. She was just sick of it. I finally took her in and got 10 inches cut!! She even got to donate it to Locks of Love. She was really happy with it. Terry on the other had was not so happy, to say the least. Well, we've all gotten used to it, though I really miss her long hair!!

This year, Ashlyn decided that she wanted to take just tumbling instead of dance. So I signed up her with a lady who is the cheerleading coach at one of the local high schools, who teaches tumbling and cheerleading on the side, out of a gym at her home. It was a fun change, though she has already decided that she wants to go back to dance this year. She had an end of the year performance that I got a few pictures of...

Here's Ashlyn waiting for the performance to start.

(It's really grainy cause we took it from the top of the bleachers and just zoomed in)

Waiting some more

Doing a trick

Another trick

After the performance with her friend Ellie

(One side of Ashlyn's braid came out in the middle of the performance.)

Ashlyn with her friend Kinlee

Next on the list....

Soccer

Once again Ashlyn played soccer. She has gotten to be quite the little soccer player. Like most years, she was the only girl on her team, which doesn't seem to bother her a bit. I was really sad recently, when it was time to sign up for soccer for this upcoming fall, Ashlyn told me she didn't want to play. I'm really not sure why. The only thing I can figure is, this year is the first year where they split the league up with the boys in one league and the girls in another. She has played every year with her 3 friends who are boys (Cade, Charlie, and Max), and this year she was going to be on her own. I was really disappointed in the change. Not only does Ashlyn not want to play now, but if she had decided to play I wouldn't have my friends sitting on the sideline with me cheering our kids on. I actually asked the league organizer during signups if there was any way they would let a girl play in the boy league. She of course told me no. Regardless, I am hoping she will miss it once the season starts and will decide to sign up for the following season. She had just started to get good. Here is a team picture I stole while the photographer had them lined up for a picture. (I was too cheap to buy the photographer's picture this year!)

The two boys right behind Ashlyn are her friends Max and Cade. And the boy on the top far right is her friend Charlie. We will sure miss playing ball with them!

Next we had Ashlyn's 6th birthday.

This year Ashlyn wanted to have a sleep over for her party. I was a little hesitant but decided to go ahead and do it. We had to wait a week after her actual birthday (May 25th) to have her party because her birthday fell on Memorial Day weekend, and we figured not many friends would be able to come then. So on her actual birthday we decided to have a get together at Leo's Place and invite a few families to join us. My sister Aja and her family were actually able to come as well cause they were in town visiting some of her husband's relatives. I didn't get any pictures at Leo's, but I do have a picture of Ashlyn with the present she got from us that day...

Ashlyn got a brand new pink four wheeler!

She was super excited and loved that we got her a pink one.

A week later we had Ashlyn's sleepover. I was disappointed in the lack of how many girls showed up, but Ashlyn didn't seem to mind and still had a ton of fun.

Here is the super cute invitations that my friend Lindsey made for Ashlyn's sleepover.

Ashlyn with her treat table

I made the girls each a ribbon dancer. They had a ton of fun playing and dancing with these down in the basement.

(Ellie, Hailee, Ashlyn, and Kinlee)

More ribbon dancing

Opening presents

In June we started tball and pitching machine. Let me just say, I was so glad when the season ended. I signed Blake up for the Ammon league cause that is where he played last year and I really liked the league. I was going to sign Ashlyn up in Ammon but a friend of hers mom was coaching a team in the Iona league and wanted Ashlyn to play on it. I was hesitant to have Blake and Ashlyn in two different leagues but went ahead and did it anyway. What a bad choice! Alot of their games were at the same time, or right close together.  So I was running from one field to the other all season, missing alot of Blake's games. I won't be doing that again next year! And of course as crazy as it was I never did get any pictures taken.

Last but not least

4th of July....

We had a pretty fun and active 4th of July week. All of Terry's brothers were in town. So each day we had something going on. We had lots of sleepovers with cousins as well. Every single night we had either a kid staying over at Grandma and Grandpa's house with cousins, or a whole bunch of cousins staying at our house. It was alot of fun. The boys did alot of golfing. We went jet skiing at Blacktail. And we lit off fireworks. The last day that we were all there together, we took the kids up to Heise to golf, eat pizza, and swim. The kids had a great time with their cousins and were really sad to see them all leave.

Ashlyn and Sophie in their 4th of July outfits

Closeup of their hair. They wanted to be twins that day.

The boys

Blake hitting the ball

The prettiest golfer there ever was

All of the cousins

(Minus the "Georgia" cousins)

All the cousins with Grandma and Grandpa

All of our families