Here you go MeMaw and Poppy!
 

Bitty Boo Birthday

Our Bitty is still tiny for his age, but he is growing up in years.

I love this picture because he is showing his age with his fingers but even more so because you can see his teeth so well.  His front 2 teeth are loose and so they look all lopsided.  It just screams the growing up years of small child growing up into a little boy.

He wanted Minecraft stuff and since these wafer toppings cover most of the cupcakes, there was no room for a candle.  So here he is fake blowing out his candles.  He is so cute!

He did get other toys but I wanted to show how many Minecraft things he got.  

He was in absolute heaven!  Poppy and Nanny got him 4 of the stuffed Minecraft characters.  MeMaw and Poppy got him the squid and ocelot (cat) from Minecraft.  Chuck gave him $20 and I'm sure it will be spent on something Minecraft.  His friend Jack made him a Minecraft braclet and magnet and Jack's mom made him this ocelot pillow (which is absolutely amazing that all of the gifts from Jack's family was homemade and it didn't look it!).  Ummm....can you tell he is a little obsessed with Minecraft?

Technically, his birthday is the 31st but we wanted to celebrate today because we're cheap and had some tickets to get into Nicklecade for free on Tuesdays.  He had 4 friends come along and they all really loved it.

I can't believe my baby is 7 but it sure helps that he is still so tiny for his age.  He probably won't like that growing up but Mommy is soaking it up for now.

Ogden Utah Temple

(before)

The Ogden, Utah temple has been under remodel for quite some time now.  Big D Construction was a part of this reconstruction of the picture above to the picture below.

(after)

Because David works for this company, he was able to get us in before it was open to the public.  Our family has never been to an open house before, so it was special for us.

Especially since the 2 older boys are old enough for them to ask serious questions of curiosity.  Hyrum just wanted to touch everything :)  Do you see the booties on Hyrum's feet?  He forgot to take them off when we left the temple.  Such a cutie.

Afterwards, they had a little reception area with this Christus.  They boys did so well, and I'm so grateful we were able to go in a time in their lives where they weren't bored and knew enough about the gospel that it was interesting to them.  Brigham asked a lot of questions, which is typical of him anyways.

I am so grateful for my eternal family.  That intense feeling came as we watched a video in the building next to the temple.  Elder Holland said, "I wouldn’t know how to speak of heaven without my wife and my children. It would not be heaven for me."

Can you imagine Heaven without your spouse?  Children?  When you think of eternal principles in this way, everything else in life, especially the trials, seem so unimportant.

Payson Community Pool

We went down to Spanish Fork today to meet Rob and Erin's family and Helen at Stephen and Holly's house.  The men worked on Helen's car before we headed off to Payson to go to the community pool.

 It was 100 degrees (according to weather.com) today in Payson, so you would think it would have just been perfect in the pool.  But as you can see from the above picture, storm clouds were rolling in soon after we got there.  That, of course, brought wind so it was kinda chilly at times.  Then the sun would come out and it would feel real hot again.

 But as you can see, we still had lots of fun!

(Abbie and Stephen)

 

 (Levi)

(Bridger, Brigham, and Hesston)

I wanted to get these boys together for a picture with their long and blonde hair.  Don't these cousins look like they belong on a beach somewhere?

Mini Family Reunion

Yesterday all of David's brothers with their families, as well as their Dad and his family, were at our house. 

(Aaron, Steve, Barbara, Stephen holding Abbie, Chloe, Stephen Jr, Keiran, Holly, Rachel, Erin holding Mason and Bridger, Rob holding Hesston, Alisa holding Hyrum, David, Brigham, and Levi) 

Every summer the Adams' has a family reunion put together by Steve Adams and his siblings.  Rob and Erin's plane tickets were bought in advance (they live in Texas) so when the Adams family reunion was changed to a date for next month, they came anyway.  Steve (he and his family live in Nevada) hadn't seen all his sons together in years so he decided to come up as well so we could have our own little family reunion.

 All the spouses in the Adams' family know that if the men get together, they want to be working.  That is how they bond.  I want to plan things and keep everyone else entertained but that never seems to happen when it comes to this side of the family.  I think I have finally gotten used to it.  As much as I would rather go and do stuff, I sure am grateful that the Adams's boys have a VERY strong work ethic.

 So David had a project for them.  He had already started on laying some bricks around our garden but it is hard labor with getting the bricks, cutting them, taking out the grass, and then putting the brick in.

 But with brothers and Dad helping, it went so much more easier for him.  Plus, having others input really helped make it unique.  Stephen was the one who came up with this idea to put a pattern in the bricks and even though I don't have a finished picture on here yet, it looks amazing!

 I even put in some input, which I rarely do.  Not because I am not asked, I just always tell David that he is the one who is knowledgeable in this stuff and I trust his judgement.

Later a neighbor friend, Casey, came over to help also.  It was dark by the time the project was finished but I sure am grateful for the labor that was put into it all.

Probably for me the most memorable part was the impromptu Family Home Evening that Steve wanted to have with all his sons and their families.  He bore his testimony of God and then had each of the sons and spouses do the same.  As it went along, it kind of morphed to slightly different subjects but they all related every bit to our Father in Heaven and His plan for us to be happy here on Earth as well as to return to Him worthy of His blessings.  I hope I never forget that feeling that was in mine and David's living room last night brought in by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.

UPDATE:

Double Digit Brigham!

Today is Brigham's birthday but since it falls on a Sunday this year, we decided to celebrate it on Saturday.  This birthday was very obvious to me just how much he is growing up.  He has the beginnings of the making of the mind of a young teenager.  First, he asked for things that were "cool" this year.  Second, he did not want any younger kids there.  Third, he didn't freak out with excitement with the gifts that he got.  He decided to play it cool which makes me giggle a little.  Fourth, he didn't want a theme for a party and wanted a normal cake (Daddy's favorite cake to be exact.)

But before we had cake, we opened up all his gifts. 

Brigham asked us for a leather jacket and a cross necklace.  The leather jacket made me laugh inside a little remembering when leather jackets were "in" when I was growing up.  When I asked him why he wanted a cross necklace he said, "Because it's cool!"  I laugh at a lot of things but I didn't find this funny.  Mormons are not known for wearing crosses because we focus on the suffering Christ endured in the Garden of Gethsemane, not the cross.  But that is not why it bothered me.  I have come to the understanding now that if a Mormon wants to wear a cross, so be it...as long as it reminds them of Christ.  We are known to wear CTR (choose the right) rings because it helps us to remember to make wise choices.  So as long as some type of symbol reminds you to be a better person, I say go for it.  But don't take a sacred symbol and turn it into something that is more about style.

Brigham and I had a conversation on this subject and it was one of those times that you walk away, as a parent, and know you did something that taught your child a lasting way of thinking.  I knew he understood and I was proud of him for still wanting it even though I told him he had to think of it differently if I was going to get him one.

 Brigham got a lot of Minecraft things thanks to MeMaw, Poppy, Uncle Chuck, Nanny, Poppy, and some of his friends.  You can't see his face but I love this picture because you can see the "awe" in some of the other kid's face when they saw him open up a Steve character.

Brigham had 7 friends over and it made me smile as I was reminded just how LOUD boys are when they are all together.  Oh, and very rowdy!  But David took them all to Nickle Cade, without all the little ones that were over at our house, and they were able to get out a lot of energy there.  So it all turned out great and I could tell that my 10 year old had a great time :)



Treehouse Museum

There was free admission at the Treehouse Museum in Ogden today.  They have exhibits that tell stories from around the world geared towards little kids.  I took Jett and Hyrum there this morning because Brigham insisted that there were to be no little kids at Nickle Cade, later in the afternoon, for his birthday party.  I knew it would upset Hyrum so this admission to the Treehouse was perfect to make him feel special like he was getting to do something fun too.

 My favorites were these two because it made me think of Oklahoma.

 Hyrum is sitting on "Oklahoma" so he could feel like he was there again :)

 We made these in the Mexico exhibit.

I love this picture.  Hyrum loves cats so much so he sure loved finding this painting on the wall of a cat that was as big as him!

The mission of Treehouse is to be the magical place where children, ages 1 to 12, “Step into a Story”™ through interactive exhibits and programs focusing on stories from around the world, the arts, history, and geography. - See more at: http://www.treehousemuseum.org/about/treehouse-story/#sthash.qb82ErXN.dpuf

The mission of Treehouse is to be the magical place where children, ages 1 to 12, “Step into a Story”™ through interactive exhibits and programs focusing on stories from around the world, the arts, history, and geography. - See more at: http://www.treehousemuseum.org/about/treehouse-story/#sthash.qb82ErXN.dpuf

The mission of Treehouse is to be the magical place where children, ages 1 to 12, “Step into a Story”™ through interactive exhibits and programs focusing on stories from around the world, the arts, history, and geography. - See more at: http://www.treehousemuseum.org/about/treehouse-story/#sthash.qb82ErXN.dpuf

The mission of Treehouse is to be the magical place where children, ages 1 to 12, “Step into a Story”™ through interactive exhibits and programs focusing on stories from around the world, the arts, history, and geography. - See more at: http://www.treehousemuseum.org/about/treehouse-story/#sthash.qb82ErXN.dpuf

Let's get wet!

I am trying to find entertaining ways to get the boys out of the house.  Especially since we have the boy's friends over Monday-Friday.  I don't want them to only be on the electronics.  This summer has been so hard to successfully keep a schedule of keeping them off as well as making them do homework.  Yep, definitely failing on that.  But today, I had them go outside, get a bucket to fill with water, and sponges.

 

 

 

Originally the plan was to play tag with one wet sponge at a time.  That was fun but as you can see, what they really liked was just being able to attack each other all at once!

Cowabunga Bay

Brittany Doll drove from California to be with her family for a week, so we met at Cowabunga Bay in Draper to see each other and let our kids play together.  Almost every time she comes and visits, her and I get together for lunch or dinner.  We rarely do things with each others kids so it was really neat to see how this...

 (Avery, Zani, Caden, Brigham, Levi, and Hyrum)

...turned to this!

By the time we left, we had been there for almost 5 hours and the 3 older boys were the best of friends!  Hyrum was cute with the 2 girls and played with them but not like those older boys.  Anyways, it was a wonderful time and I REALLY needed some water park time.  This will be the only one we go to this summer and I'm glad we picked one that we had never been to before.

Spittin' Cherry Pits!

There are so many times when I'm convinced that I am not living up to my divine calling as a mother to my 3 boys.  But every once in a while I do something cool and think, "Well, at least we are having fun!"

(Daniel, Breyden, Hyrum, Brigham, and Levi)

 

 Like letting my boys and their friends spit cherry pits at me!

My emotional state of mind wasn't that great this morning.  But like they usually do, some neighbor kids come over today after lunch.  I told myself to snap out of it and amazingly it worked!  So we got some cherries, water balloons, and a water hose and just played for a few hours outside. 

And it felt good.