highlights

My baby turned two!

The boys played some fall flag football.  Jackson also continues to play b ball.  Ty likes to constantly remind us that unlike other sports, basketball is year around in the Church house. 

My Ella bella showed off some mad soccer skills

and loved having dad as coach

My kids think being Old Navy models is the funniest thing ever.  I can't walk into or out of this store without my kids doing this

2011 summer summary

 These cute girls had a dance recital. Ella the ballerina and Avery my tap dancer.
 Avery keeps asking "when can i go on the stage again?"
my little performer



we relaxed at Nana and Papa's cabin

Had tons of fun at the beach with LOTS of cousins!

I love this beach baby

Then One very special boy who I really love got baptized. I'm so proud of my Davis and how excited he was to be baptized. 

It was a special day for our family.

there was a lot of swimming, it really is the only way to survive the summer around here.
There was also a lot of basketball played,  but that is a year around activiy in this house.

Then summer time ended (not the heat of course) and back to school they went.

Good thing these two are still at home to hang with mom. 

Swim Team

These kids get up every morning and head to the pool to swim some laps.
But their favorite is going to the meets.   I got Ella the pink swim cap so I can always find her in the pool.   

Then and Now

Then: 1997/98 Ricks College Basketball team

This is when I started to fall in love with the game......okay and the point guard. :) But who doesn't love socks pulled up to the knee?

Now

We made a quick trip up to Utah for a reunion with Ty's old Ricks bball team. Ty has been wanting to do this for a lot of years, and he finally pulled it off with help from his buddy Seth (far right) These guys were amazing friends and players. It was so fun to see them all huddled together reminiscing about the good ole days. They spent the morning playing golf then spent the rest of the day at Ty's parents house (big Thank You) swimming and eating with their families.

I'm a little sentimental about this team. They were all there when I met, dated and fell in love with Ty. Really they were all there, these guys went everywhere together. You might call them a dream team. I went to EVERY home game and never saw them lose. It was Rexburg, Idaho people, everyone went to all the games. A bunch of them went on to play D1 after Ricks including Ty, but he will always tell you his favorite year of playing basketball was his year at Ricks college.

Swing Addict

It starts first thing in the morning when she gets her first glimpse of the backyard, Tessa pats me very aggressively and says "Mama! ing a bye bye!" which means I want to swing....right now!
We have a little family tradition of singing a little song when we push our babies in the swing. It goes, "swing a bye, my baby swing a bye" over and over again. Hence Tessa's words "ing a bye bye"

Why is it that kids love to swing so much? I wonder how long till I can teach Tessa to pump. That would free up a few hours a day for me.





The smiles on these baby girls makes my heart so happy.

Champs!

Jackson's Jr. Suns team headed to the Suns Arena for the Valley championship. It's basically a dream come true for a 10 yr. old boy. The atmosphere was intense!

It was a close game and the team was playing tough. We were down by 1 with 5.3 sec. left on clock. Jackson was fouled and went to the line. The only thing I could think was, This is WAY to much pressure for my boy. If he misses and we lose it's going to be all his fault. I can't take it!" My hands were shaking as I tried to video tape with drops of sweat coming down my face.

He sank both! We Won by 1!!

Check out the video here

I always forget not to talk or yell in this case when video taping, so this is just a tad embarrassing

I was just so proud of him.... and Ty. They had both worked sooooo hard!

Ty and his brother Whit really like having sons the same age. It gives them lots of reasons to hang out while they coach together.

Church Cousins, Elias and Jackson

father and sons

The only pictures that made it back from father and sons were taken by Jackson using his i touch, not sure if that was really even suppose to go on the campout.

This is the only picture that contained a person in it. Jackson holding a dead rattlesnake! He was not the one to kill it of course.
the other 600 pictures he took were of just the dead rattlesnake or cactus. Jackson tasted prickly pear cactus for the first time and thought it was pretty awesome!

The other highlight of the weekend was the campground where they stayed had an indoor basketball court. If you know anything about my boys (all 3) then you know this was a dream come true.

When they left Ella cried. She just hates feeling left out of all the fun. She put a note on each of their car seats for them to find as they drove away. So of course I tried to make the girls weekend just as fun and considering it did not contain snakes, I would call it a success.

Now if we could add a father and sons and daughters, that would be a pretty nice weekend for me, kinda like a weekend off.

swim season has begun!

Tessa's head doesn't really go under the water she just insist on wearing goggles like big brothers and sisters.
It really is sad that half the pictures I put on my blog come from my camera phone.

Double Digits

10 just seems so much older than 9, I think it's the double digit thing.

We had a little cake and presents last night, as my mom was leaving she said, "In 9 short years and he will be leaving on his mission." Wow back the train up, I'm not at all ready for that. I'm still processing the fact he asked for deodorant for his birthday.

Jackson:

occasionally thinks being the oldest is unfair, but he is oh so good at it.

stays up way past his bedtime reading.

competitor

Will still cuddle up next to me on the couch and give hugs

loves EMB (early morning basketball) with his dad.

Doesn't' love practicing the piano

did I mention he's competitive

great student (A+)

friendly

good example

WE LOVE YOU JACK ATTACK!!!!!

Jackson the younger years

Tessa's new quilt

I love having talented friends.
One very cute friend, Sarah has some mad quilting skills. Whenever she blogs a new quilt I drool over it and feel a little envious of the lucky recipient. She is so dang nice and always seems to be giving them away.

So you can imagine how excited I was when she brought over one she made for Tessa. I'm in love with the fabrics!

So today we did what anyone would do that lives in AZ right now. We took it out back to enjoy the most beautiful weather known to man.

It's always good to document these kids of feelings because come August there will be no weather bragging.

For you quilters that want to know more you can go here.

My Growing Garden and a Bear Fight

My new little citrus trees and square foot garden produced for me this winter! The kids favorite was picking the carrots and dipping in ranch.

a little sample

How do you receive your Bear award? You fight a Bear of course. Jackson was proud to display his battle wounds. Note the distressed face and hand holding his wounds.

I think it's very fitting that mom's also receive a pin. I'm pretty sure I'v earned my Bear and Wolf for that matter. Although I told Ty my scouting ends when the boys turn 11, after that he has to take over. Im okay with not being an Eagle.

It started with these two

and became

My fam. Love them!

We had a 24 hr. period where everyone was here. One sis flying in from ID right before one brother leaving for TX. Its a miracle this picture happened.

I really miss that sister that is now back in the potato state.

Nana and Papa with their grandkids

My baby girl

Mom with her four girls