Nice to my momma!!

Carden is a Mommy's boy. He's pretty attached to me. Most of the time it's fun~~ I love how much he loves me. He is everything I wanted when I wished for a little boy. At night, when all the girls are in bed, it's his time with just Ray and I. We read books, sing songs, and sometimes wrestle. ( I know, we're supposed to be settling down, but it's so funny!) Ray and I have always liked to play fight~ We pinch, poke, bite, twist, you get the picture. Just a little playful banter. Well, a few nights ago, we were bantering and Carden freaked out. "Nice!!" he says to Ray. (Even though I am as much to blame.) Then he goes on to speak his first full on sentence.."Nice to my momma!" He then proceeds to come to me and hug and kiss me, making Ray gag. "Whatever. That's pathetic" he says. He's just jealous. Last night Ray got home from work and we were again doing our thing (yes, it happens often) and Carden again, freaks out. This is what he looks like when he's yelling at Ray...That's my boy!!!

Breaking Dawn

Last night I was able to attend a reception for Edward Cullen and Bella Swan--AKA, the characters in the Twilight series, which happen to be some of my favorite books! At 5:00 Jamie and her sis. in law (and my friend) Angel, came to pick me up. We drove to West Jordan for a potluck dinner at a "twilight mom's" house. For those of you who don't understand--many women are obsessed-more than obsessed with these books and their characters. There are so many groups to belong to and this is one of them. (I just joined this morning!) Angel had a friend that she knew who was helping with this production--For the release of Stephanie Meyers 4th book in the twilight series~~Breaking Dawn~~ and we got to help volunteer. The actual "party" was at Barnes and Noble at Jordan Landing. It was the craziest thing I have ever been to. Millions of women, teenagers, and even little girls gathered for the event. Being in the store made you feel claustrophobic. There wasn't room to move, but there was an excitement in the air that was hard to miss! People were sporting all kinds of t-shirts and twilight paraphernalia. Young girls pranced around in prom dresses. Girls and guys were dressed up as vampires with blood red eyes. I was lucky enough to be the volunteer with the nice camera, so I got to follow Edward and Bella around and take pictures of them. Lucky Me!!! What an excellent opportunity to practice my photography skills. At 11:00, Barnes and Noble closed their doors to the public, allowing the volunteers to get ready and brace themselves for the mob of fans that we were going to have to detain wanting to get in to get their copy of the book. I was in charge of handing out stickers at the front door, which unfortunately I left mine there in our hurry to get home. We had such a good time, had a lot of laughs, and best of all--we didn't have to wait in line for our copy!!! Yeah!

Summer is Over

At least for us...basically. We went on one last trip to Yellowstone last week with my mom--that's right, just me, my kids and my mom. It was so much fun. I loved being able to spend time with my mom all by myself. We had so much fun talking! Imagine how in heaven I was being able to talk for hours while driving....The kids were awesome. We took stuff for them to do and they did great! We got to see a few new things too. We discovered parts of Yellowstone that we have never seen before! We met lots of people from all over the world, but our favorite was two little gals from Taiwan that we met while walking to our van. They asked if we knew where a little general store was--which we didn't. We tried to help them out, but their english was a little choppy, so it was a little difficult to communicate. Later, as we were driving back to the main road, we spotted them walking with a little sign that said "fishing bridge." I told my mom to pull over and get them. Their destination was 16 miles out of our way, but it was so worth it! The girls thought it was amazing to meet "chinese" people. They spoke mandarin and were teaching the kids how to speak it. We laughed the whole way. The girls favorite part of the trip was swimming at the hotel and our little "Kamping Kabin" at the KOA in West Yellowstone. We thought it was funny that there were all these cool things to see and all they cared about was getting back to swim. Funny kids. We got to see a bear, some elk, some ENORMOUS buffalo, and little chipmunks. It will be a very memorable vacation. THANKS MOM!

Pictures to follow soon....

Our Awesome Vacation

Bear Lake was AWESOME this year! We had a lot of fun. Got a lot of sun--which means lots of red bodies! OUCH! Other than sunburns we had a great time. We got to go out on Jamie's brother, Jason's, boat all day Thursday. Ray and Abby tried to wake board, which looked easier than it really was. I wish I would've had my camera with me. I was proud of both of them! I wouldn't have dared, even as much as I love the water. The other two days were spent swimming, riding 4 wheelers and just relaxing. It is so beautiful up there. I love it. It is a vacation that I look forward to. This is the 3rd year we've gone and it's so nice of Jamie and her family to invite us up there to spend some of their vacation with us. THANKS BARNES FAMILY!!!

Starting Over

I decided to start blogging again so that I can keep everyone up on what's going on in our family. I can't believe it's July already. Two more days until we head up North to go to the fireworks at the stadium. Carden will be two this month. He is growing up so fast and is so much fun. He is definitely all boy. He loves motorcycles, trucks, trains, planes, dirt, bugs, climbing, moving, throwing...Yep, ALL BOY!!!

Life is busy as ever around here. A month of summer has come and gone. Emma had summer school all during June and is all set to start 1st grade. She's doing great with her reading and can spell all sorts of little words. She's excited to go to school with her sisters and be able to eat school lunch. (Although I'm not at all excited to pay for it!)

Abby turned 8 in January and will be heading into 3rd grade. She has lots of cute friends and spends a lot of time with them. She's had a fun summer so far! She got to spend a week at her grandma's house and got really spoiled! It's always fun to be with grandma!!!

Whitney had her birthday in June and is now 10! YIKES!! (Am I old enough to have a 10 year old?) She is so much fun and is such a help to me. She'll be in 5th grade this year and hopefully continues being an A student! She gets cuter every second!

Ray and I are still up to no good! He is still the manager at Arctic Circle and I'm still doing daycare. We're hoping to be able to buy a house next spring or summer and make our home in Lehi more permanent. We love it here! We have a lot of great friends and love our ward.

So, this totally sounds like a Christmas letter, but I thought I'd just start with the basics and go from there! I am excited to do this again and hope it keeps you all posted on May family events! You can also go to www.flickr.com/mrsglitter to see more pictures!