Trip to Prineville

The last night we were there the kids got to roast marshmallows on the fire. It they all had a great time being together! It is fun to have all 12 grand kids together and all the mom's and dad's together. We took Family pictures but I don't have a copy yet I will post those when I get them! Also while we were there my dad had surgery and the kids had a rough house free weekend. It was funny to see them play with grandpa and NOT get to play rough but they enjoyed being with him and I hope he got enough rest while we were there!


While in Prineville we went to the Parade for the Rodeo. The kids came home with a haul of candy!!!


Beautiful view from my parents house! The sun was setting on the other side!
Both the boys water skied like pros (got up first try!) and Amelia rode on the tube with her cousin Lia. They all had a great time on the lake!


Ruth went on her first boat trip. She tolerated it well. She liked it best when the boat was moving and had a nice nap!

2nd week of Summer vacation

This was a busy but oh so fun filled week! Monday Ethan started soccer camp and I took the other kids grocery shopping, Tuesday I took the YW to Girls camp and my friend Lindy took Ethan to soccer camp with her kids, and took Brock and Amelia to their first day of Teeny Tiny class, and then I met them at the park, we had a picnic and then went swimming! Wed I took kids to their stuff, and shopped at Old Navy with my long over due Birthday shopping, then we did picnic and swimming again after classes. Thursday after classes we came home and I let them swim at home while I packed and we left for Prineville that evening. That will be on my next post.
Brock proved to me he could swim better then I thought and enjoyed going down the slide over and over!

I am writing this post a little backwards, (as I am not able to move my pictures!!!!) Anyway Each day when the kids were done with their camp activities we would go to the pool to cool off. It was so much fun! Hayden has gotten a little more comfortable in the water.

Brock's Teeny Tiny story included a Dinosaur (surprise surprise!) a little boy, a tree, a stove, and a tiny pot. He just loved this class and had a wonderful time!!!

I signed Brock and Amelia up for a Teeny Tiny art class. They LOVED it!!! They each were to pick a box and make teeny tiny things to make a story with. Then they were to paint the story on their box. Amelia's was a picnic story. She loves this tiny picnic basket. She made this cute little girl, picnic blanket, watermelon, cherries, and cheese. SO CUTE!


Ethan did a soccer camp and had so much fun! Each day when he was done he was sweating buckets and ready to swim! He won a trophy at the end of the week for "camper of the week" They said it was for having a good attitude, helping others, and working hard!

Schools out! First summer camp out!

The kids last day of school was Friday. Larry ended up having the day off so we took off as soon as the boys got home from school (which was a half day!). So we headed to Beverly Beach and spent Friday night and Saturday at the beach. It was so much fun! I wish it could always be that much fun!

We went for a little hike on a nature trail. The kids had so much fun exploring. There was a bear warning at the beginning of the trail (an old one!) The kids thought maybe we would see one! Larry and I knew we wouldn't mostly because it was an old sign, and we had 4 really noisy kids with us! NO wild life would be with in 100 yards of us! They sure loved it though!

Ruth did NOT love the beach. She was tired, and hungry, so eventually she ate then slept in daddy's arms for a while. But the wind is not her friend. I am sure she will learn to love playing outside as much as her big brothers and sisters soon!


We got to spend a beautiful day on the beach! The boys did what they love most, dig and build sand castles! Oh we also got some kite flying in!

Ruth's first camp fire! The kids always love this part of camping. It was quiet entertaining this weekend. I am starting to see the joy of having "bigger" kids and how they interact together, entertain each other, and make me laugh. They are so so funny! We sure had a lot of fun!

Amelia is our "messy face girl" she always has what ever she ate on her face! Marshmallows are no exception! It always makes me smile to see her enjoy them!

We spent the afternoon at Hatfield Marine center. This is right next to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It isn't as big and fancy, but it is free, and has a fun tank you can touch stuff. Plus you can be done with it in just a short time so no one is tired a cranky when you are done. It was fun!

This is Hayden looking at one of the Fish tanks. She cracks me up, just the way she has to kind of pose her self. Even if I am not taking a picture with the camera, it is like she KNOWS she is entertaining me with everything she does! What a silly girl!

Amelia's Kindergarten Graduation

This is Amelia's Kindergarten teacher. Mrs. Arauz. We loved "Mrs. A"!!!

 

This is Amelia with one of her good friends she has made this year. She lives in the other ward so they really didn't know each other before this school year but now love to play together! So glad to have he making new friends that are just so sweet! Their little program was so cute today. They sang some cute songs, they got certificates, and watched a slide show of the year. It was cute how they get so excited to see themselves or their friends on the screen.

 

I love these hats they made they have caterpillars, butterflies and flowers on them. They did a butterfly unit and did so many cute things with it! It was so fun!

 

 

I should have taken a picture of Amelia with her teacher. She just adores her and I can see why. She is such a sweet lady who really loves those kids. She got teary today when giving them their certificates for reading. Amelia read 33 books this year!!! I really hope she will still be teaching kindergarten when Hayden and Ruth go! She was so wonderful! Maybe I will get a picture of them Thursday when I go help with field day! Way to Go Amelia!!!

Brock's Baptism

 

Yesterday June 5th Brock was baptized. Here we have Stake baptisms. Which is still fairly new to us. Ethan's Baptism was not and so it was totally a different experience. But yesterday was still a special and beautiful day. 1st of all the day was Beautiful! The first day that we not only didn't have rain all week but the sky was bright blue and the sun shone. I couldn't help feeling like Heaven was smiling. (Although I am quite sure I would have felt the same way if it hard rained.) My heart was so full for my little guy! I am so happy that he had made this choice and that he was so excited to take this step. He could hardly wait and he was just giddy all morning long. It surprises me how quickly they seem to make this change and all of a sudden seem to mature and be ready to make these promises. Brock is such a sweet, kind and thoughtful boy. I am so blessed to be his mom. Our family wouldn't be the same without him. I am also so grateful for a husband who is able and worthy to baptize, and bless our children. This to is a great blessing in our home. Brock is now looking forward to being a priesthood holder.

 

There were 6 kids baptized Saturday from our stake and 3 were from our ward. This was one of the other little boys that was from our ward, Tige. He is such a sweet little guy too. It was a wonderful day and the spirit was very strong! We love you Brock!
It was also a lot of fun having a lot of our family here. My parents, brother Sunny and his family came from Prineville. I also had my cousin in Dallas, and Aunt who lives in Hillsborro here. There were so many from our ward there to support these boys it was just so nice to be surrounded with people who love you.

Memorial Day Service Projects

Oh I wish that I had taken my camera!!!! Larry and I had planned on taking the kids to his Grandma's house on Monday (Memorial Day) to help her put in her garden. She had eye surgery not that long ago, along with being elderly she could use some help! So we thought this would be a fun project for the kids. Then Sunday (the day before our project) we were at church and our sweet friend who is our favorite nurse (the one who helped deliver Ruth) and we found out that she had had knee surgery. She told us that they goal was for her to get in her garden soon. We told her we would help if she wanted and she accepted. So we told her we would be over in the morning. We took all 5 of the kids (Ruth took a nap on Sister Hatch's lap). The kids were very helpful, digging holes, and putting in seeds and plants. The girls were very surprisingly helpful. They have the patients and the interest for it. They were very careful about how they put the seeds in and followed directions very well. They boys loved digging holes clear to China if needed. Of course it wasn't needed when planting small plants but they are easily filled in. They had a lot of fun. Then we went and picked up Grandma Lucy's plants, lunch at Subway and then to Grandma's. The girls again were supper helpful. The boys again liked digging giant holes, but then got busy with Grandma's giant climbing tree. The girls surprised both Larry and I by staying with it the whole time we were there. Her Garden is probably 3 or 4 times the size of ours so it is LARGE but the girls loved it and helped the entire time. (Some times it is more help for the boys to climb trees so in a way they helped to!) We all had a good time, got along, and enjoyed working together. It felt so good to help someone else, have a good time, and work together as a family. I don't think it could have gone better. I am glad they both let us help them because it was good for our family to give some service together! I would like to make this a tradition of doing some service each Memorial Day.

Brock's birthday party!

Brock got from us a pocket knife, (his big brother is jealous even though he got one when he was 8 too!) a new Zhu Zhu pet and a car for his pet. I like these pets no need to feed them or clean up after them! My parents got him a brand new set of scriptures, with a case, scripture pencils, bookmarks, and a CTR ring. Oh and a yellow shirt he can wear to match Grandma. (long story but so sweet!) Larry's parents got him his Cub scout stuff. He got his scout shirt, with all the badges he needed, and she will get his book when they get more at the store. Grandma Lucy got him a game which will be lots of fun. His friends got him some really fun stuff to! It was quite a fun day. I have a few more gifts that are for baptism day, like his white towel, and a tie that will match his daddy's (I found really nice yellow ones!) What a fun birthday he had!
Trick candles! Always fun and good for a good laugh! We hadn't done them for a long time so Brock was not expecting them!

We played some fun games with balloons!

Brock's Zhu Zhu cake! He loves these little guys and wanted a Zhu Zhu cake. Not my best cakes ever but they turned out cute, and were easy. And more importantly yummy!

Brock's Eight!

Brock Turns eight today! I can hardly believe that my sweet little baby boy is 8 and ready to get baptized in 2 weeks! I will post more pictures of the birthday party, cake and stuff later but I wanted to post a few baby pics just for fun, and one of him as he is now. I just love this boy, he is so sweet, creative, kind to others, thoughtful, and funny. I just love how he is kind to everyone and loves to create things. He will bring crafts home from school, scouts, or where ever and always turn them into something else. If there is a great box, or something he loves in the recycling pile he will pull it out and make it in to something new. I love to watch him create but then on the other hand I get sick of the creations and often end up tossing them. He use to cut paper into shapes and make dinosaurs. I wish I had taken some pictures of his paper dinosaurs. They really were quite cute. He hasn't done that for a few years though. Now he loves making things for his Zhu Zhu pet, Dotty, or others. When his little sisters are doing something he doesn't like he will tell them if they don't stop he won't make them a "princess craft!" It is funny he will just yell "NO PRINCESS CRAFT!" What a threat! I love this sweet boy! I hope he is always as kind to people as he is now!

Mother's Day (late)

I was treated with a very nice mother's day I just didn't get around to posting it till now. Larry made dinner, and cleaned it up. Plus the night before he made me 2 berry pies! Yum!!! He always does a great job at making mother's day nice for me. I have to admit that one of the high lights for me was when the primary children went up to sing to the mom's during church. This was Hayden's first time ever being big enough to join the kids in singing and it was a riot! She marched up there with her siblings and they get all lined up and it gets quiet just for a second before the music starts and Hayden in her loud "Hayden voice" says "Mom I am singing this song for you!" Then she says it again just as the kids start singing. Then again while they are walking back to their seats. I could help but laugh a little! She is such a cute stinker!
This is the card Brock made me at church on Mother's day. I love little kids phonics writing! It makes me smile!

This is the inside of the card Brock made me during church on Mother's day.

This is the card Amelia made for me during Sacrament meeting on Mother's day. I love it because Like is one of her site words so she knows how to write that and not love, so I got I like you mom! So sweet!

Just so that Ethan isn't left out on this post I will only say he did his very best to make sure Mother's day was exactly the way my mom's mother's day always were when we were kids. She knows what that means, so do I and to keep from embarrassing him more I will leave it at that. Ruth did her best to just be the sweet angel baby that she always is!

Play Ball!

We are in the middle of baseball season in our home. This means we are very busy! Ethan is having another great season! He has the same coach he had last year which is great!!! He works hard but isn't so intense that it is overwhelming. They have won all but 2 games. Today was such a beautiful day and they had a GREAT game! They got so far ahead (15-0) that they stopped keeping score and then just called it a game because they got so far ahead. It was a lot of fun for our boys but probably pretty sad for the other team. We had a few in field home runs too! It was pretty exciting!


Slide!

SCORE! Way to go Ethan!