Ethan's Firsts

Ethan has had a few "first" experiences in the last couple days. They're not the hugest things but its sure fun to show some of the things he has done. :)

On Friday morning, Ethan had his very first babysitter. My sister, Charlotte, has been the first babysitter with I think every one of my kids so far. :) This time was no different. I went to help at the school for Reflections and sent my four younger ones to her house for the time I was gone. Ethan had a ball and played in the swing and then enjoyed time on the floor. I had debated leaving him but he was so happy that morning I decided it was time for him to get to know his aunt and cousins!

Saturday morning we decided it was time to try cereal for him. He doesn't turn 4 months until the 22nd(tomorrow) but he's been watching us eat closely the last week or so and has all the other signs that show he's ready. So I got the cereal ready and gave him a bite. He didn't spit it out but sure wasn't impressed with it!!! Guess we'll keep trying...


And last but not least, Ethan got to go to his first BYU Football game! The other children stayed at home with a babysitter and we took Ethan with us. It was toasty so we got him a cool hat and enjoyed the game. Ethan doesn't like loud noises so the loud cheering and being right behind the band made it an interesting experience for him. But he was happy and took a nice nap near the end. It was especially nice when BYU won 44-0!! :)

We have a fun, sweet little boy and its so fun to see him grow up so fast!!!

Need a Plumber?

When throwing a child up on your shoulders, its always wise to make sure their diaper isn't sagging first... Our poor neighbor! Needless to say, Gavin got changed right when he got home. :)

My Garden

Yeah, so this year the garden didn't work out quite as well in previous years. We did have great peas, a few tomatoes, some tiny potatoes and a few beans. We even had a zucchini plant grow that we didn't plan and have no idea where it came from! Besides the ground... :)

I must say though that out of all the vegetables and fruits we planted, our watermelon is my favorite. We tried to give it a lot of water, although if you notice in the picture, the ground looks a little dry at the time. :) I didn't know if anything would come of it until Steve pointed out the fruits of our labor (literally). So here's the picture of our most exciting of crops this year... won't win awards but it sure is cute. :)

There goes another one....

Andy started school today. As he is my second, I thought it might be easier. In fact, it was harder!!! Jakob has always been my little buddy. But I knew how excited he was for school and I knew he was ready to go so I was excited for him. Andy's always been my little Andy. Sensitive, inquisitive, silly and my little boy. He's ready for school to be like his brother but I'm not ready for him to go to school. :) But they all grow up so there's only one thing to do, and that's let him be a big boy! So, instead of bawling (like I wanted to), I took a few pictures.

Ashley, Gavin, Ethan and I laid down for naps (although I read while they slept...) and when they woke up it was time to get Andy again! They were so excited to go back and pick him up. Andy was walking out of the classroom as I pulled up. He saw me and showed Miss Lindberg where I was and he ran all the way around to hop in the car. And of course I got pictures of that too. :)

Yep, he's a big boy alright. He was excited for the friends he made, the fruit loops he ate the future homework that's coming!

Summer's done?!

Summer was crazy but we had a lot of fun with everything we were able to do.

We went to Thanksgiving Point many times for their family night activities. We got to have jell-o fights, paint with bubbles, run from dementors, see dinosaurs, go on a pony ride and many other things! The kids had a blast and we had a blast right along with them!! They had pudding eating contests, and we got to enjoy the beauty of the Gardens.









Steve, Ashley, Ethan and I went to the Stadium of Fire as stated in one of the other posts (I think). We had a lot of fun. Ashley got to see Miley Cyrus and she was so excited!! She enjoyed the fireworks and the music and didn't complain once!!! Ethan slept through most of the show and only woke up to eat once. He even slept through the fireworks. It was so great to see all the celebrations for our country's independence. And to see the soldiers and the families of the soldiers that were there watching along with us. I felt great pride in our country!

We also go to celebrate a few birthdays and Ethan's baby blessing! Along with the two reunions I talked about, we also enjoyed having Steve's brother and family stay with us for a few days. We hadn't seen them for a few years so it was great to see them again. Ashley was in heaven playing with her cousin because she finally got to play with a girl (just a small tidbit... we have lots of girl cousins her age on my side too but it wasn't until recently
that she actually WANTED to do girl stuff...)! We took the girls shopping while Steve and his brother worked on our never-ending project of finishing the downstairs bathroom.
The last day they were here, we got to go hunting for geodes 2 hours west of us. It was quite a drive on dirt roads but well worth it as the kids and adults ran around looking for rocks that could possibly be geodes.
You'd think with having 16 of us in our home(9 of them, 7 of us), it would feel full but we all enjoyed every minutes of it and it didn't seem crowded at all!! We can't wait to see them again at Christmas!!





So I guess I'm okay with summer being done. Onto the next big adventure of two kids in school... I'm not sure I'm ready for my little Andy to go to school but ready or not, there he goes!

Weist Family Reunion

We have had a busy few weeks with family and I've loved it all. The weekend after we were in Idaho, we went to St. George to visit with Steve's family. We were able to leave earlier on Friday because the night before I unknowingly stepped on and crunched Steve's glasses.... luckily he had another pair but we had to take his others in to get fixed. :) OOPS!!!

Anyway, we enjoyed St. George's new In N' Out Burger and played at Grandpa and Grandma Weist's house. We stayed overnight there and then went clothes shopping the next day. Gotta love school shopping time! We had gone through all the kids clothes to get what we needed.

My favorite purchase though was the 8 ft long, 2 feet deep pool I managed to get for $7!!! It was the display so they gave it to us for really cheap. We were so excited because up here you can't even FIND pools anymore except for the really expensive kind.


We then took our little ones to Steve's sister's house. Her kids watched ours while we went out to lunch with my brother- and sister-in-law. YUM. We went back and enjoyed some time at their house and Steve took a nice nap with Ashley next to him.


We went back to Grandpa and Grandma's house and had a yummy German dinner of potatoes, brats, sauerkraut, and these little dough ball things that were really yummy. When it got late, we headed over to our hotel. It was pretty nice, although it had to be at LEAST 90 degrees in the room when we got there!!! It wasn't until about 2 in the morning before I finally felt cool enough sleep okay.

Sunday was a busy day but it was a lot of fun! We went to the St. George Temple with the whole Weist family and got our pictures taken. Unfortunately, it was at least 100 degrees sitting there on the white steps of the temple with the sun shining right on us!!! The picture tells the whole story. :)

After the picture we went and played with the cousins at G'ma and G'pa Weists for a while and then went back to the hotel to get ready for church. Church was very special because we got to be there for our nephew's baby blessing. It was extra special because this is a senior ward so they have NO kids in the ward. The ward members LOVED it! So all 27 of us squished in and about 8 of the kids bore their testimony. Plus we got to hear my mother-in-law and sister-in-law too!!

Right after church we went to the clubhouse of the community Steve's parents live in and had a very nice dinner. Steve's dad told the story of his conversion and I can't wait to get the video from that because it was very special! We had a talent show afterwards where the grandchildren got to show off their skills. Here are a few pictures. Video would be more fun but as I don't have it on videos, pictures will have to do. :)
'

It was a very nice day and we greatly enjoyed each other's company! The rest of the weekend flew by in a blur. We went swimming while others went hiking. The final thing we did together as a family was dinner at a Mandarin Buffet. The food was great and the company was a lot of fun. I'd put pictures on here but I think I used up all my picture space. :)

Pioneer Days Part 3

Apparently I get to do this in parts because I did too many pictures in the last one. :) I wanted to add my mom's picture in there. She's been doing the Goose Creek Run-Off since it began 22 years ago!!! That's a lot of 6 miles runs... But then she's also done 10 or more marathons on top of that!!!

What an amazing woman!!

After the races were done, we went to have breakfast at the park. We had the privilege of meeting LaVell Edwards who was in town for a fireside that day. It was very cool to meet him!
You can see Steve but I was back behind my mom. But I really was right there. :) The rest of the day we were busy with kids activities, a family reunion for the Poultons, swimming, a parade, barbecue and fireworks. I love being able to go for the 24th of July!!

We went to the Single's Ward with my parents(My dad is the Ward Clerk) on Sunday before going home for a yummy dinner. I was sad to see the weekend go so fast but it was a lot of fun!

Pioneer Days Part 2

Its been a while but its been a very busy couple of weeks! So here we go with Saturday of Oakley's Pioneer Days.

Early Saturday morning, they have the Goose Creek Run-Off which is a 10K run. They also have a 1 mile run for age 12 and under. Each year my little ones turn 3, we start them running. Here are some photos of my little ones and our nieces and nephews coming into the finish line.

Jakob was the first of all the cousins to come in! He came in 5th in his age group.




Andy did really well and was much faster than I expected. He placed 5th in his age group also. He started and stopped when he needed to and ran really well on his own.




Ashley was really excited to run at Grandma's house but decided 300 yards into that her tummy hurt(she does that when she's hungry) and Steve brought her back to me. My brother told me "Ashley's coming up fast" which I didn't believe until I turned around and saw her coming from the wrong way! When Grandma Hardy came running up with a couple of her cousins, I had Ashley run out and finish the last of the race.

Here are the other nieces and nephews that came in. They all had fun. One had a fall during the race but still finished!


There are a couple missing but my camera wasn't fast enough to keep up!!!