Tuesday, July 17, 2012

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


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Blake turned 8 forever ago!

Yes, this post is way overdue!
Blake had his 8th birthday on March 4th. Rather than having a huge birthday party where we invite everyone, we decided to keep his party small and just invite a few of his friends. He decided to invite his friends Dallin, Colby, Austin, and Seth. Once all of the boys got to our house, we took them to Blast Off, where they played on the big playland, and arcade games. They had a ton of fun, and even included Ashlyn in on the fun!
Here's the whole crew playing in the ball pit.
(Dallin, Colby, Blake, Seth, Austin, and Ashlyn)
Here's the very handsome Damon, playing in the ball pit. He had a blast!!

After we had enough of Blast Off, we took the boys back to our house for pizza, cake, and presents.
Blake got tons of really nice presents, but there was one that was definately his favorite...

HE GOT A KINDLE FIRE!
Can you tell how much he loved it!?!
And just so that you aren't confused... No, he is not some genius 8 year old who loves to read, this gadget is all about the games for him. We debated over getting him this or a Nintendo DS, but we decided that he would eventually get bored with the DS, but that he could always use the Kindle, even when he gets older. And the above picture is pretty much what the rest of the night went like. At least he let his friends have a turn!!
Blake's actual birthday was on a Sunday, so we had Terry's parents over for a small little party.
Here's what he got from them...
Yes, he got super spoiled this year!! He loves his new bike!
Finally, the following Saturday was his baptism!
We were really excited for him. Only a few family members were able to make it, but we also had some close friends come to support Blake on his big day. We had the baptism in the morning, then afterwards we had a luncheon with all of the people who came.
Here is all of the family who came.
(Top row:Beau, Ricky, Dad, Mom, Me, Terry, Bonnie, Larry, Caleb, Daniel, and Aja. Bottom row: Ashlyn, Damon, Blake, Jaedyn, Joslyn, and Caitlyn.)
I was disappointed that I didn't get a picture with all of the friends that showed up!!!
Our family

We are so proud of Blake for deciding to be baptised. We have definately seen a change in is attitude since being baptised. And we are so grateful to those who came out to support him. And I know there are many who would have also loved to come but weren't able to. So thankyou to everyone!