Huntington Lake

This past weekend the kids and I went to visit my sisters in Price, UT. On Saturday we took a picnic lunch and spent the day at Huntington Lake. We played in the water, rode on the wave runner and inner tubes and got sunburned! We had a lot of fun. 

This lake is supplied with mountain runoff so it is really cold water. While we were being pulled on the inner tube we kept getting freezing cold water splashed in our faces. It was a shock! Tate went out on the wave runner once and was loving it until he got splashed with that freezing water and after that he was done. 

He preferred to sit on the inner tube this way....resting on the shore.

or just playing in the water

Ayden and Ellie thought it was so fun to swim with their life jackets on because it was easier to float. So they just swam around close to shore. 

I had a blast spending time with my sisters and brother-in-law. The only thing missing was Spencer. He would have loved it, but I have a feeling he would have tried to dump me off the inner tube. Maybe it's better he wasn't there! 

The kids had so much and played hard. They went to bed very early that night!

LOVE this! so sweet

 Thanks Katie and Adam for taking us to the lake. I love being close to family again to do these things. Hope y'all had as much fun as we did.

Fire on the Mountain

So here in Eagle Mountain there is a fire on the mountains directly by our house. This is a view from our neighborhood last night. It's very close, but we weren't evacuated or anything. The fire was started by target shooters and because of the wind, it spread quickly. It definitely puts things in perspective knowing that you may need to leave for safety.
Today, the fire is still going, but most of the danger has shifted away to the other part of Eagle Mountain called the Ranches which is where I work. Over 1000 homes (at this point) have been evacuated in the Ranches. So this morning I got a call from a tearful Ayden asking if I was ok. He said that he heard on the news that people in the Ranches were being evacuated and he got scared for me. I was almost in tears at the concern in his quivering voice! So darling and sweet.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Daddy's Day, Spencer! We miss you and love you so much. Here are the special things we love about you:

Ayden:

I like that daddy plays baseball with me.

He cares about me.

he teaches me about the scriptures

he makes funny faces

He is a very good daddy

Ellie:

That he loves me

I like that he showed us that funny video "ouch Charlie that really hurt"

That he can still talk to me

I like that he kisses me and shows me he loves me

He likes to cuddle with me

Tate:

kisses, hugs

daddy goofy

funny

Loni:

I love that your children adore you and light up when you get home everyday

I love that our boys try to be like daddy 

I love that our daughter loves spending time you.

Our children feel safe with daddy

I love that you laugh and play with them

I love the example you show by honoring and using your priesthood authority

I am thankful for the testimony you share with them to help develop theirs.
I love that you adore your children and light up when you are with them

Workin' hard

The boys helped me do some yard work this past week. Ayden was very helpful in pulling weeds and emptying the weed bucket. He kept saying "this is a blast, mom!". If only he would say that every time I asked for his help.

We worked hard for a few hours

This is what we started with:

And after all their help, we finished with this:

Somehow in the middle of all our work, Tate ended up like this:

where are your clothes, little man?

He loved the gloves

Thank you, boys, for all your hard work and help. It really was a blast. Well, minus the hand blisters.

Love Pizza

My 3 boys LOVE pizza! Seriously, if they could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner they would be in heaven. The other night while eating pizza Tate started singing a song about pizza. These are the words: some pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza. some pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza. I tried to record him singing it, but it's really hard to hear what he's singing. It's still cute though!

Impromtu Sprinkler time

I put a small sprinkler in the front yard to put extra water on our struggling tree and to water a brown spot. Then I walked down the street to talk with a neighbor while the kids played. As we were talking, we realized some neighborhood kids were congregating in my yard. Tate had stripped down to his diaper and was playing in the water which encouraged everyone else to get in the water too. They were all so excited to run through the sprinkler. But it was funny because I only had it on low so there was probably only 2 feet of water shooting out. Had we planned this, the kids would have gotten bored and been done in 10 minutes, but when we finally stopped them after 30 min they still wanted to play.

Safety Conscious

Tate loves to wear helmets, or hats as he calls them. This is how I found him the other night

Love that he chose to brush his teeth and protect his head: 2 things we value greatly!
Today he helped me water the yard and this is what he chose for the occasion

Tate is such a fun, goofy kid! He is constantly doing things that make us laugh! Who knows where the helmet will appear next

Friday night with Mama

So this weekend my mother and father-in-law took Ayden and Ellie. We dropped them off with Steve and then Tate and I started our evening together. We went to Home Depot so we could get some weed killer for the lawn. Tate kept asking when we'd be at "home mepot" and I kept assuring him we were there, to which he'd reply "oh". Then the little man and I got dinner. He got McDonald's cheeseburger and chocolate milk and let me tell you, the boy was in heaven. He ate and chatted and chatted and ate! Tate helped in the yard by picking up toys. I'd ask him to pick up the baseball mitts and he'd go "which beeball mitts, mama?" They were both right in front of him! Or if I asked him to pick up the truck and tractor, he'd ask "which truck, mama?" What a goof.

After we were done outside, Tate got a bath. I love the smell of clean boy! We sat down to read "Chicken Boom Boom" which is really Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. But he kept getting excited about a chicken! And then to end our perfect evening together, Tate had a......meltdown. Major meltdown. I put him in bed and that was the end of any cooperation from him. He threw a huge tantrum and cried/screamed for about 40 minutes before I was able to put him to bed. Silly, tired boy. But now I get some quiet time to myself. Who knows what I will do, probably go to bed early!

Getting Settled

Now that we are settled here in our house, life has gone back to normal. Well, whatever normal is! It's funny how quickly we went back to life here. It felt like we had only been gone a few weeks instead of a year. The kids are very happy to be back in the neighborhood. Tate was overwhelmed at first with all the new people and friends but after a few days, he quickly adjusted. For the first 2-3 days, especially, I didn't see my kids expect for bed time! They were playing with all their old friends. I worked on getting the house unpacked, I hate boxes and clutter so I try to do it as quickly as possible. Plus, I started work again on Monday. It's only a few hours of the day, so the kids get to have fun with a babysitter and it helps with my sanity!

We attended church on Sunday in our ward and the kids were a little surprised at the number of people! I think they forgot what it was like before our ward in Alabama. Sacrament meeting was filled with sounds of lots of children! We had 2 baby blessings, and I kept waiting for it to be quiet for them to start and then realized "oh yeah! this is as quiet as it's gonna get!" Our ward there was very small, I don't know exact numbers but I would guess around 80-100 people. Our primary there had about 15 kids every Sunday. Tate's nursery only had 3-5 kids. So it was different going to his new nursery with 15 kids! Surprisingly, he did very well.

The only thing missing from our lives is......Spencer. He's still in Alabama for a few months. It's very hard for the kids to be without him. Tate asks for him everyday "where daddy is?" But we know he's being taken care of. We have so many amazing friends there that will make sure he stays out of trouble! I miss him too and can't wait for our whole family to be together again.

Moving Trip

So once we decided to move back to Utah, it was very chaotic trying to everything ready to go in 2 weeks! Luckily, we got it all packed and we had amazing youth who were willing to help us clean the inside and get the outside ready too. We started packing the truck Friday morning around 9:30 or 10, and we didn't actually close the doors to the clean house until 6:30pm. Long day! All of us, Spencer, Steve, Danielle, and I were so tired, hot, sweaty and ready to be done. But this was only the beginning!
We have some amazing friends, the Witbecks, who let us spend the night Friday night. They fed us dinner and had showers ready for all of us. The next morning we were better rested, but still tired and we got on the road around 10 or so. We got as far as Memphis, TN before we encountered our first obstacle.
The transmission on the U-haul truck went out. So we had to wait for someone to come look at the truck and confirm our guess. It was 97+ degrees and don't forget humidity!

look how hot Tate's face looks

 The kids would sit in the car for awhile hoping to cool off, but that wasn't much cooler than being outside.

It was finally decided that we would have to unload from the broken down truck into a different one. Oh how fun. So I took the kids to Target to get a drink and walk around an air-conditioned place for a while. And Steve and Spencer stayed with the truck. After about a 6 hour delay, we were able to get back on the road. But we could only make it 2 hrs up the road, to Arkansas because all hotels were booked due to the Memorial day weekend.
Because of the delay Saturday, we had to make up for that on Sunday. We drove 15 hours from Arkansas to Denver, CO. It was such a long drive and everyone was so exhausted by the end of it. We were able to break up the day a little bit by stopping in Kansas to see some friends.
Our trip on Monday was actually pretty good. Spencer and his dad took the truck and left ahead of Danielle and I. We figured since they needed to be here in Eagle Mountain to meet everyone who was going to help unload, that it was ok for them to go ahead and the rest of us could take our time and not rush. Everything went fine until Spencer got to 123rd South on I-15 when the trailer came unhitched from the truck! The only thing holding the trailer in place was the emergency chains, otherwise it would have gone all over. As it was, it was swerving pretty badly and it took a lot of effort for Spencer to keep the truck under control. I only heard about this on the phone as I'm was an hour behind them. To make a long story a little shorter, they finally got everything hooked back up and got to the house. The whole neighborhood was outside our house! It was a great homecoming. We had family, friends, neighbors all to welcome us back and help unload the truck. With all the help we had, the truck was unloaded in about 30-40 minutes!

2nd Grade Field Day

Ayden's class had a field day the week before school got out. They could sign up for events and Ayden chose a gunny sack race and another one that involved foam paddles and a ball. Tate, Ellie and I came to support him and were MELTING, so I can only imagine how those kids felt running around in the heat. They took a lot of breaks in what little shade they could find and drank as much water as they could.

waiting for his event to start

Ms. Isdell giving instructions to her team

Ayden did the gunny sack race first and did really well. He concentrated very hard and didn't fall or trip! The next one he did was the "hold-a-ball-between-large-foam-paddles-and-don't-drop-it" race.

look at the concentration

Tate was very interested in all that was going on. He loved it! Here he is watching big brother

And this last one is Ayden's best buddy Ethan. They started a club with another boy, Brandon, called E.A.B Sports (Ethan, Ayden, Brandon). Not sure what the club did but they loved it.

Update coming soon

We are alive, promise! I've been without internet for awhile due to the move back to Utah. I'll do an update post soon. Just wanted to let everyone know that we made it safely to Utah and we are getting settled. I'll post again soon once things settle a little more.