Rob and Erin

Rob and Erin (David's brother and Rob's wife) came to visit us on their way to Utah. They just spent their first year of marriage in Pennsylvania. We have all missed them and feel blessed that they would go out of their way to see us. Being "Mormon" I feel that I look at extended family different than most. We truly believe that we are linked together in Heaven. Most of my family knew Rob but they didn't know Erin yet. It was important to me that they got to know this new member of our extended family that I truly believe we will be spending a lot of time with in Heaven. I think it is very easy to lose sight of how important family really is. As we gathered together while April, my sister, taught the little ones a lesson on keeping families strong, I got a little teary eyed realizing just how big an eternal family really is. It is countless. Erin and I had a few long conversations of family as they stayed with us. I feel more connected with her now as I realized just how similar our 2 families really are....both a little crazy and loud but very closely knitted. I got to know her family during their wedding and I fell in love with them but after our conversations I realized why.
Later that night, David, Rob, Erin, Dad, and Ronald went crawdad gigging. Or should I say, "crawdad giggin'." We had to let Rob and Erin get a little taste of redneck while visiting.

Poor Erin froze that night!

You take a stick of some sort and put a fork on the end of it. Then you have to have a flash light and some sort of container to put the crawdad in after you've stabbed the thing. It is a group effort with someone holding the flashlight, someone getting the crawdad, and then someone taking care of getting it into the container.

I never did this growing up so this was new to me when the guys in the family started doing this a few years ago. My memories of crawdads involved a creek during the day. Dad would take us to a creek where he would fish and us kids would try to catch minnows and crawdads. Crawdads only crawl backwards so we would take one hand and go after the crawdad while we thought we were sneaky and would cup our hand in back of the crawdad while it would back up into our hand....unknowing that we had just trapped it.

The ones we saw during the day were NEVER this big though!

This is what they look like after boiled. I still have never tried one yet. I don't think I can eat something with a face just yet....

Locusts...cicadas...whatever you want to call them!

We are still unpacking....the joys of once again moving. After one box is done we just throw them outside on the lawn. So every few days I pick them up, put them in the back of the truck and haul them off to the school trash. It is only 2 blocks away from our house and school is out so I figure they don't care much. Well, this is what I found the other day! Once again, it brought back childhood memories. I remember finding these shells on Grandma and Grandpa's trees all the time. I always thought that they were the shells of locusts. Well, I wanted to make sure since I'm blogging this and I'm glad that I did because I have been wrong all these years. This is a cicada shell! I am not a bug person at all....not at all! I only like lightening bugs and sometimes I can handle ladybugs. But this fascinated me. I don't like snakes either but it always amazed me how certain bugs and reptiles shed their skin. Why? So as I am looking up things about cicadas I found out that they are kinda like caterpillars....except they don't turn into pretty butterflies. These cicadas just turn into ugly winged cicadas. So they look pretty much the same except some have more vibrant colors and now has wings. They live most of their lives underground and then finally emerge to molt, or shed their skin, and off they go.

Gross looking things but I have to admit it was fun looking this stuff up. I found out that most people around here call them locusts after all. Another memory I have of them growing up is the sounds the male ones make. We moved to Oklahoma from Washington when I was 9 years old. I'll never forget those first nights in Oklahoma "trying" to get to sleep. Those "locust" were SO VERY loud! Of course, they are music to my ears now.

My muggy, childhood 4th of July memories

Ok, so I put "muggy" because of how humid everything feels now when really, when you grow up in it....well, it's just normal. So yesterday, as we were driving from Grove to Jay I saw the first firework stand of the season. I instantly was brought to my cheerleading days and working those firework stands in order to raise money for our new cheerleading uniforms. I then thought of all those years my family LOVED to embarrass me at the football stadium. That is where our town firework display was every year and my family loved to go, "Ooooooo" and "Ahhhhhh" to every firework that went off. In a teenager's ears, that was embarrassed easily at times, it always seemed they were extra loud. They would just get louder and louder as I would try to get them to quiet down. I could hear giggles around us as people were listening on; which I'm sure pleased my family all the more! Now that we are living here, the question is: should I do the same to my children?

My Redneck Husband

I have said for some time now, "David is more redneck than I am....and I'm the one from Oklahoma!" He loves to randomly say "Howdy" to people, is one of the most laid back person I know, isn't the hugest country fan until some old God fearing, gun loving, hick town song comes on and then he's country's #1 fan! I could go on and on but I think this picture sums it up. We have been moving into a house in Grove and so there were a few nights that we needed to get fast food. Sometime in the evening his pop (though, he still isn't redneck enough to call it pop yet....that's just me:) cup had a hole in it so he put the drink in this! Mom thinks it is funny that out of all of her son-in-laws, he took the longest to get out here.

Grandma Kisses

I can't even begin to explain how precious this picture is to me. I have always been extremely close to my Grandma. Maybe it is because I was her first granddaughter. Maybe because she helped raise me in many ways. Maybe we were closer in heaven than most. Whatever the reason, I have always loved my Grandmother deeply. Since moving here, I have had to deal with emotions and trials not experienced before and as should be expected my wonderful and amazing family have stepped in to save the day. My Grandparents keep the boys 5 days a week for a good chunk of time. I still can't believe how willing they are to do this in their age. Most grandparents their age couldn't keep up and yet they do willingly. As you can imagine with all the time spent with our children, bonds are going to be formed. Today Grandma asked Hyrum for a kiss and he just came right up to her and planted one on her! This boy doesn't even kiss his own mother! I couldn't ask for a sweeter picture.

Daddy Sleep

Here are a few pictures of David, sleeping with the boys, taken within this last month. This one is my favorite so far of David and Levi. If you look underneath David's armpit, you can see Levi's little hand. He looks so comfortable in David's arms and it just melts my heart! Levi is our little cuttle bug. He outgrew naps a long time ago but will take an occasional nap only if in someones arms. I love this about him!
This picture was taken in the middle of the night when Brigham came to us to tell us that he needed a breathing treatment. David has always been so good about being the one to get up and give him those treatments. I couldn't get back to sleep for some reason and came out to the living room and found this! It made me think of Brigham when he was a baby. He had colic and as some of you know, when a baby has true colic, you will do anything for sleep or to get the baby to stop crying. The only way Brigham would sleep was in someones arms. THE ONLY WAY! David was a pro at it. He would lay down, hold Brigham in one arm to the side of his body while the other arm reached over to keep Brigham's binkie in his mouth. I still don't know how he could sleep like that but he did it every night for 3 months! I love you so much, David!

Grove Branch get together at Bernice Park

On Saturday (May 30th) the church had a get together in Bernice, Oklahoma. I wish I would have thought to have gotten pictures of everyone there but of course, I was focused on the little ones. Here is Grandma walking the great grandkids to the lake to pass the time until the food was ready.
Grandma tried to get them to just throw rocks...

...but it wasn't long until they were in the water!

Amanda putting sunblock on Logan. She is ALWAYS prepared! You would think that I would be better at that stuff after 3 kids. I think she takes better care of my kids during sacrament (snacks and things to keep them busy) than I do!

The time passed quickly with all the things that the kids had to play with and do.

Here Elton is walking the "tight rope" with a missionary.

The park had a nature center that the kids really enjoyed. They got to see all kinds of animals and insects.

Before we left we had to take the kids back to the lake. They probably would have stayed there the whole time if it was up to them. Kids + water = FUN!

While I was watching the kids play in the water there was this huge butterfly that kept flying around surprisingly close to me. He was a pretty fascinating creature to me that afternoon for some reason.