An Impromptu Visit

Elaine (my best friend from growing up) and her cute little family ended up coming down to Manti yesterday and staying for the night. They brought everything with them to make crepes (as is their Sunday night tradition) and we topped them with nutella, berries, and/or ice cream. YUM! This morning we took all the kids for a little hike up the hills in back of the temple. The only sad thing about the visit is it was so short. Elaine had to be back to Salt Lake to go to work this afternoon. It was a fun time.

Jaime (Elaine's husband) played surrogate Dad to our kids while he was here. He gave the girls shoulder rides, comforted them when they were crying and played with them. They all really miss their Daddy.

Grandpa gave Wesley a ride in the wheelbarrow the other day. Wes loved it.

Fun Filled Fourth!

Happy Independence Day...a couple days late! We had a fun filled day on the fourth of July. We went with Lenore and Steve and their girls to the Riverton Fun Days that they have every year to celebrate Independence Day. They have a carnival at the park there in Riverton with all the rides and other entertainment and food. Reili and Amberly had a blast with their cousins on the rides...Wesley even got to ride the carousel for the first time. It was fun to see them having such a good time. Then we all went home and went swimming in Lenore's back yard. After a yummy steak dinner we drove down to Manti where we will stay for the week. I put Wesley in bed and then walked with the girls down to Main Street where we sat on a blanket and had a perfect view of the fireworks that night. The girls were bored and crazy waiting for them to start (at 10 p.m.), but finally enjoyed them and thought they were too short, even though they lasted 20 minutes. I can say I was definitely ready to fall into bed that night.

I love playing at the park. Daddy, I miss you!

O.K. Mom, I guess I'll pose for a picture... if I must.

Aby and Reili play at the park while waiting for the rides to open.

Olivia and Amberly...there's nothing better than a flying saucer.

I can't wait til this ride starts (Reili and Aby).

Wait...maybe this caterpillar is better than a flying saucer.

This horse is pretty fun.

Lainey, Amberly, Olivia, and Wesley eat Cotton Candy.

Mmmm...suweeeeeet!

Wesley's First Haircut

Another momentous occasion this week was Wesley's first haircut. His hair was getting too long and looking rather ratty every time he woke up from his nap. Although I have cut Tom's hair for years now, I mulled over cutting Wesley's for at least a week before I took up the clippers and with much trepidation cut his hair. I tried to distract him with honey nut cheerios, but that only got us through half the haircut. It turned out better than I thought though and I'm glad I did it. He is such a handsome little guy. See for yourself:

After the first few snips. Okay this isn't that bad.

Mmm...cheerios. What haircut?

Mom... come on already!

Arrrgh...are you done yet?

Later that day...I thought it was appropriate that he climbed into this container...seeing as how it is labeled and all (it is his favorite thing to do lately with any and every such container, laundry basket, etc). He is some serious eye candy. Definitely girl stuff!

A visit from Christy

Tuesday night we met Christy and Pam (her mom) Norris (friends from Birmingham) at Temple Square. Christy was here in UT moving from her apartment at BYU before she leaves for a mission in a couple months. I met her when I was a councilor in the YW Presidency in Birmingham 1st Ward and she was just barely a Laurel (16) at the time. I can't believe she is already old enough to serve a mission, but I am so excited for her. We ended up going over to the Museum of Church History and Art where they now have a nice children's area where the kids can do interactive things. They loved it. It was so great to see the Norrises again. They are such a great family who I really admire.

They had a nativity scene set up where the kids could dress up as shepherds. Reili and Amberly really had fun dressing up and strangling the sheep puppets. Wesley had a blast climbing in and out of the set.

In this picture it looks like Reili is strangling her sheep while Amberly may be picking her sheep's nose. Wesley is just cuter than ever.

Family Night at Joe's

A lot of these entries are mainly for Tom. I probably wouldn't post about practically every activity if he were around, but I really want him to see what the kids are doing and how they are growing...especially Wesley since he is changing so quickly.

Monday we went to my brother Joe's for family night. We had a delicious dinner of Navajo tacos (I will be lucky if I don't gain 10 pounds this summer...even with all the running I do). Joe gave a lesson where we had to go around the house and find an object to trace and then afterwards everyone had to guess what the object was from our tracing. After that we had to try to draw a picture as closely as we could in size and scale to what we had traced without tracing it. He tied that in to the pattern God has for families using Elder Holland's talk from the Worldwide Training Session this last February and how it is best to use the original pattern rather than a copy of a copy etc. It was a great lesson. During the lesson my nephew Clayton drew characatures of my kids and gave them to me as part of the "talent" presentation that they have every week at family night at their house. They are totally awesome and I plan to hang them somewhere in my house.

Afterwards all the kids went out and jumped on the trampoline. Here is a video of Wesley with everyone on the tramp: