A few of my favorite things...

It seems that life, lately, just keeps getting busier and busier. There never seems to be a blank day on the calendar and if there is, it gets filled up before we even realize it. I just wrote out the schedule for the month of July and we only have ONE free weekend and there is already a tentative event scheduled. I don't mean to complain. We really are so grateful to live so close to family and have so many friends and belong to an amazing church, that always give us something to do.

BUT, in the craziness of life, lately, I just wanted to write down a few little things that have put a smile on my face.

**My baby's cute little (stinky) feet...
No he is not wearing his beloved flip-flops that he asks to put on first thing and screams when they MUST be taken off for nap time. That is just one AMAZING tan line!

**2 of the crazies happily having quiet time in their room...

Never mind the gaping hole in Tyler's pants that I keep forgetting to repair. Maybe I should just break down and get him new ones.

A few weeks ago, I finished this GREAT book..

A Mother's Book of Secrets by Lina Eyre and Shawni Eyre Pothier

My mom gave this book to all her daughters for Mother's Day this year. I have LOVED reading it. It gave me so many wonderful ideas for parenting without making me feel like a slacker mom. In fact it actually boosted me up each night I picked it up. I definitely recommend this book to every parent. I am hoping to read it with Dan next time.

Thanks MOM for this great book.

Last, but not least, I am loving this new piece of furniture...

(not sure this picture does it justice)

My incredibly talented brother-in-law, Tyler Wangsgard whipped this piece up in about an hours time. It then took me about 3 weeks to get it painted, sanded, the hardware mounted, and put in my house. I LOVE IT! I am planning to build wood crates that I will paint coordinating colors to go in each of the cubbies, but that may take another few MONTHS.

My boys are also VERY excited for more adventures at our family cabin. My parents just recently added a few new places for imagination and adventure...

***You'll definitely want to check out my family's blog to see the rest of the great pictures.***

Click HERE.

Little Boys=The Mountains

What do you do with 6 little boys all 6 years and younger? Take them to the mountains of course! We had Bruce and Christy's boys Wednesday night and decided to take them hiking. We did leave the babes Tate and Zeke with Dan's sis Leah because we just didn't feel like packing them up the canyon while trying to keep up with 4 other crazy boys. Thank You Leah!



Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. So you will have to imagine how incredibly awesome it was. Imagine 4 boys (2- 6 year olds and 2- 4 year olds) running up Adams Canyon with their matching Dr. Suess backpacks full of special treats to enjoy at the top. Hearing their little converstaions about all the cool things they were discovering in nature was such a highlight.

Things like, "Whoa, did you ever see a pine tree that humungous?", "I wonder if we will see any dangerous snakes." "Hey Sammy, can you do this cool trick?" "Whoa! Look at those giant rocks!" "Hey dad, those trees look like a monkey house!" "Are there cougars and bears that live in these mountains?" "Hey guys, when you cross the rocks in the river, put your arms out like this so you don't fall in." "Wow! How old do you think that tree is? It's huge!" "Hey Tyler, these rocks look like stairs. Jesus made them to help us climb up." "Can you believe we just climbed the biggest mountain there is?"

Dan and I both have a deep love for the outdoors, especially the beauty and magnificance of the mountains. So it was a real treat for us to see these boys truly loving every minute they had up there. In fact, we didn't start soon enough to be able to get to the top waterfall and Tracen was heartbroken when we had to turn around. So we promised Tracen we would do this again and go all the way to the top.

Boys (and me)=The Mountains! PERFECT!!!

My Dad Rocks!

*In honor of Father's Day (a bit late), I just want to say...

This is MY Dad.
This is also MY Dad.
This is ME and MY DAD.

That is also MY DAD just a few months ago. He decided to take this lovely ride to find that beautiful freshness of powder...
So I will say it again...
MY DAD ROCKS!
(Does Yours?)

32 years ago..

This was my beautiful mom.

She looks so BRIGHT,
So HAPPY,
So PREGNANT..
with
ME!

Thank you so much for all your love and sacrifices (including the 2 full days of horrible labor only to have me come out booty first) that have helped me not just survive but thrive over the last 32 years!

I LOVE YOU.

HAPPY 'BIRTH'-DAY to you too Mom!

Love, Dee

Tracen Graduates!!!

'Tis the season for graduates!!!

Everyone is talking about them and how they can't believe their "babies" are moving on in the world. Headed to college, missions, military, etc... They can't believe the time has gone by so quickly.

Well, my baby has graduated and I too can't believe the time has flown by so fast! He is not, however, headed to college or a mission, or the military.... but he is moving on to...

1ST GRADE!

His class put on a wonderful little graduation program that went something like this...

Lots of great singing!! Tracen actually sang quite loud. I heard every word and note he sang!

So Cute!
Then, each child got to come up and share a talent. Tracen chose to show a couple of paintings he had made...
This first one is of a "hunter shooting a bear with a sleepy dart gun so he can take him to the zoo". Heaven forbid we actually really shot one of those friendly beasts.

This next painting is of a "pirate ship shooting smoke bombs at the bad guys". I was pretty impressed with he amount of detail he put into this. Right down to the sea-weed, rocks and the octopus about to attack the unsuspecting ship.
He then read a special book that he wrote and illustrated titled "The Batman Book and The Dash and Iron Man Book and the Robin Book" (yes that is the title for just one book)

Tracen has actually written and illustrated several books now. They are quite funny. Hmm... maybe we should find him a publisher. In true fashion, the batteries were dead on the video camera so I couldn't capture his reading. So sad.

And what ceremony is complete without a little "pomp and circumstance"! You'd think the boy would be HAPPY about this joyous occasion, but... this was all we got.
He then went back to his classroom for one last look.


HUMONGOUS THANK YOU goes to Mrs. Ewing who made this the best Kindergarten year ever!
So long kindergarten!

Tyler 2-Wheel!!!

Several weeks ago...

...and he is so proud (and so are we).

Lovely Little Miracle

We have a piano. A very lovely piano, I think. And... it has a lot of meaning to us.
As many of you know, Dan and I met and started dating in high school. Well, right before Dan's mission, we saw this lovely masterpiece while strolling through a piano store.

It was Dan's idea. I never would have thought to do something so... irresponsible.

It was on a 1/2 price clearance and we just could not pass it up. So I took a good chunk of my savings and made the down payment. It was delivered to my apartment in Logan 2 days later. Dan made the monthly payments till he matched my payment. He then left on the mission and I kept the piano while waiting his return.
I played every day. I loved it. When I played it reminded me of him.

Now, I sometimes catch this view of our beauty...

And occassionally this one...

But today, I made it look like this...

... and it was BEAUTIFUL. Sort of.

(actually I realized I really need to call a tuner)

leT's gO caMpiNg...

So we had BIG PLANS to take the boys camping this last weekend. BUT... there is a lot of prep work involved with getting ready and I felt LAZY, so....

...this will have to do.

We started out byBBQ on the grill.
Mouth watering steaks for D & D, hot dogs for T3 and juicy corn on the cobb. Mmmmmm.
POOR TYLER.

Tyler has "inherited" my lovely allergies. He was sneezing the entire evening and woke up looking like this...

But the GAMES carried on...

They each had a "cool trick" to show off...


Especially the DADDY...

Tate was a little more interested in the drinks and sleeping quarters.

Then of course DADDY had show the boys some of his "special moves"...

just demonstrating the correct way to "ride the pony"...

Then daddy BECAME the horse. Complete with sound and everything. You really should click on this one. You can almost hear the horsey sounds coming out...

And then they were done...

What camping trip is complete without a little roasting of the marshmellows? So our AWESOME neighbors, BEN and Alexis, had us over.

This was the ony picture taken for this event. Sorry Ben. Alexis took it.

We then watched a movie in the tent, SLEPT, (sort of) and then the games began again...

Tracen actually exclaimed, "This is the BEST camping trip EVER!"

We may never leave our backyard again.

**For more Good Times, read the post below. Two posts back to back... Luck YOU!**