Lawn pets

With as many animals as we have seen in our yard, you would think that we live out in the country. I have come to call them my lawn pets. I have never been this girl who likes bugs and odd animals and well, still don't care for bugs but I think my boys have changed me a little as I am becoming more and more interested in certain animals. I mean the other day we were at Little Blue and I found a snake with a fish in its mouth in the water. Could have been venomous but I still wanted to get a good look at it. I would have never have done that before my boys. I kind of like what my boys and husband have opened my eyes to.....well, maybe except for finding 2 armadillos today in our yard and me wanting to get a closer look at them. What was I thinking?! Those things are nasty. I mean, they are one of the few non-human species that carry leprosy! But still I was fascinated. I guess partly because even though I grew up in Oklahoma, I have never seen a live one before. I mean, I have seen plenty of dead ones on the side of the road. In fact, I have seen my share of the picture below on Hwy 59 and dirt roads around here!

Gotta love Redneck humor!

I walked away with the same conclusion: Yep, they are nasty!

Water is good!

As we continue to be in an "excessive heat warning" with no rain in sight, I have an extreme love for water right now. It has been really hard this summer keeping spirits high as we have been stuck in this very tiny 2 bedroom house with 3 very active boys who can't go outside for very long because of the heat. Do you know how hard it is to separate 3 boys in such a house when they are in trouble? I have never been so grateful for the Wii until this summer! I have a love/hate relationship with the device. I soooooo love it because it keeps the boys from fighting but it also makes me feel very guilty for the amount of time they are on it to keep my sanity in check. Sigh....oh well. It is what it is.....as David says. But on to my love for WATER....

We have a city pool that we can go to but as you can imagine it gets very expensive and so that limits how often we can go but when we discovered Little Blue a few weeks ago, I have been in heaven! We (the mommies) literally park our camping chairs in the water while our little ones play like crazy. I go on crawdad hunts with them but for the most part, they just entertain themselves.

Yep, even the teenagers entertain themselves!!!!!!

July is the crazy month of birthdays for my side of the family and so unless you are entertaining at Chuck E Cheese or something, the parties have to include water outside. I never knew so much fun could be had in the tiniest pool ever!

My Grandpa Beck made this firetruck for my parent's day care. Absolutely amazing!

I have always been a water drinker. I love water! But the past few years I have become a little addicted to Sonic's drinks and their add ins. SO SAD! But this summer has been so hot that drinking pops actually makes me a little sick inside. The outcome? I have lost 15 pounds this summer so far! They are not joking when nutritionists say that the best thing you can do to lose weight is just lay off the pop!

Water anyone?

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY, BRIGHAM!

It seems that at least one of my boys wants to do Chuck E Cheese for their birthday each year. This year it was Brigham who really wanted it. There were more kids there yesterday than this picture indicates but with cautious toddlers and older cousins that are feeling to old for this, this is all I could round up!

If you look back 2 years ago on Brigham's birthday, you will see a similar pictures. Auntee loves to get in on the fun!

Brigham is probably the most photogenic out of all my kids. I love this picture of him. You can kind of see the embarrassment on his face as everyone is watching but a little bit of loving it too!

He, of course, got plenty of presents. This picture is of the gift that kept on giving! Chuck's birthday bag seems to never end!

It seems you can never get enough tokens at this place.....and believe me, plenty is always bought!

A few days ago Brigham was talking about his soon to be birthday party and said, "We need to leave tomorrow if we are going to go to the Chuck E Cheese in Utah." He knew it takes a day to get there.......if only we could have given him that for his birthday too!

While driving to Chuck E Cheese in Joplin, David and I were so impressed with how much clean up has been done on the main roads since the tornado, that we decided that after Chuck E Cheeses we would drive around the housing areas. I am so grateful for the outpouring of help that has came to the rescue of Joplin, MO. There is still much to be done but the difference is amazing! Streets were cleared within days after the storm but for the longest time they were just trying to find bodies and not worry about clean up. Well, at least it seemed like a long time because so many wanted to help around here. It was so nice to come back and see that so much had been cleaned up. It was nice not to have to see military at every corner. People were rebuilding. At the end of most lawns were piles of debris just waiting to be picked up. I am very grateful to live in an area where people want to help themselves!

The most sobering thing that I saw this time as we were driving around was next to the hospital that was hit. There were mobile stations everywhere....like glorified tents. Tents for the ER and such.....can you imagine having a child in the middle of night with a terrible fever or a child who has had a serious accident and driving up to this place? Americans really are resilient. We amaze me sometimes. We make it work.

Little Blue

As we continue to be in heat advisories with our 100+ temperatures PLUS HUMIDITY we headed off to Little Blue State Park in Disney, Oklahoma. I am not a lake person. Probably because the Grand Lake is so nasty looking but I grew up going to creeks with my family. I was excited to go to Little Blue since I hadn't been there since before my children were born. The waters were so clear and it doesn't get very deep so that put my worried Momma's heart at ease.

There were 21 of us and the majority of the time, I would say, was spent in this area. The kids loved being in the deeper end being able to jump off of this log and floating styrofoam that I think are used for under the docks around here. Look at Shaylee posing in the middle! The Mommies parked ourselves in camping chairs in the water staying quite cool.

The second favorite thing was catching things. This crawdad was the first thing caught. Then came minnows, frogs, bugs, snails.....

Tricia brought these bags for the kids to catch minnows in and Hyrum was so cute when he came up to me and said, "I caught water!" Later, he and Sofie found it much more fun when holes were punctured at the bottom and gave themselves baths.

I still am so impressed with how clear the water was. We live close to the Grand Lake and it has been advised for a while now that people do not swim in it because of the Blue Green Algae problem that it is having. It's pretty nasty, not that I ever swim in the lake, but to know that not all the water around here is contaminated makes me feel better.

Happy 4th!

Last night was Grove's firework display. It was a last minute decision to go, only because we thought it was going to be tonight. But it worked out great as we arrived at last years location just minutes before the fireworks went off. That is what is wonderful about living in a small town....not hard to find parking and friends! We sat down next to the Houck and Brown families and it was entertainment from there!

When the fireworks began, Lilly and Hyrum started dancing with excitement. I just love this picture! And it is the only picture I am going to post from this holiday. There will be more celebration on the actual 4th at April and Elton's house and then at Mom and Dad's house but I just want to enjoy the time without worrying about getting the perfect picture. Plus, I think this picture captures the moment just fine. It captures joy.....and how wimpy our firework displays are! Ok, so they are not really that bad but as I was sitting next to Marie (who lived in Idaho with me) and Nate (who is from Idaho Falls) I couldn't help but chuckle at what they must be thinking. Idaho Falls has the most amazing firework display right on the snake river by the temple. It seriously is so long and full of fireworks that it actually gets to the point of where some just might say it is getting to be too much for too long. I have always missed Rexburg, Idaho since leaving but it seems to be on my mind quite a bit lately. I missed Idaho all the more tonight.

So as we were heading home tonight the boys were asking about other fireworks. Levi then asked if they would have them in China. I told him yes but that it would be for something like New Years Day not the 4th of July. I had that dreaded fear that my children didn't remember what this very important holiday was about. So I asked Levi if he remembered why we celebrated the 4th of July and he made me proud as he spoke of "America being born." Kids are so cute with their words. And before I forget I need to record what Hyrum has said since leaving for Utah a few weeks ago. So we were talking about driving to Utah when Hyrum said something about "Me-tah." I didn't get it at first but when he kept asking where we were when we actually arrived in Utah, it made since. I would tell him that we were in Utah and then he would say, "Oh, Me-tah." He though we were saying "YOU-tah." So cute!