Aspen is 5!!

I know I posted about Aspen's birthday, awhile ago, but I wanted to add some of my favorite pictures of Aspen through the years. (Because in our book this was a big birthday for her and us.) The night before Aspen turned 5, I had a bit of a melt down (ok so actually it started in May, everytime I would think about it I would cry I know-I am a dork ) I had a really hard time with the fact that she is 5 and starting kindergarten. I feel like now it is out of my control she is going to be exposed to all sorts of scary things and people, and I have to hope and pray that I have done my best at home to instill in her the things she should and shouldn't do and or say. AAAHHH!! It is so scary! Aspen will LOVE going to school and it is something she will thrive at, so of course I am excited for her. I just wish I could go with her everyday and proctect her! I didn't think I would have a hard time with this and used to laugh at others when they cried when their kids started school--BUT here I am getting emotional just typing about it!!


I can't believe 5 years ago we were expecting our first baby. It was something we had longed for for quite a few years. I remember when she was born, we couldn't believe how big her cheeks were! She was a great baby, she was so easy going and would go to anyone!


A little dirt never hurt anyone!At Aunt Angela's wedding. Aunt Holly's flower girl!
Not much has changed she still loves to get dirty!


As I look at all of these pictures I can't believe how much she has grown and changed! We love having Aspen in our family she is a great BIG sister and is always looking out for Brylee and Porter! Aspen loves drawing and cutting out pictures, right now her favorite thing to do is make pictures for Brian and put them in envelopes and tape them to the door so he will find them when he comes home. Some days there are three or four taped to the door, and Brian is so good to open each one and get excited over every picture. Aspen is our drama queen and I have a feeling the best is yet to come, we can't wait!! We love you Aspen!! =ok so NOW I am crying=

My attempt at being self-sufficent!

As we have for the last three years, we planted a garden this year. And tried some new fun things this time, we planted Artichokes, and Broccoli, along with our normal green beans, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, crook necks, pumpkins, cantaloupes, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, strawberries, and raspberries. And they are doing wonderfully! The rest of the garden has struggled a little bit, but everyone I have talked to has been having a little bit of a hard time this year. I think all of the rain in June slowed us down a little--too wet! But all in all I think it may be a little slower, but I think we will have some pretty good results in the end, and I will probably be complaining when I am trying to get it all canned! Yes, that is 75 feet long by 30 feet wide!

If you come up to see us we will share!!! another shameless ploy to get visitors!!

Our Annual Knolls Trip!

Ok this is WAY overdue, but that's how I most of my posts seem to start!! In April we went on our yearly trip to the Knolls! A few years ago it started with Brian's brother and his family and us. Since then it has grown to Brian's parents, My parents and sisters, some people from my parents neighborhood, and this year our friends, the Radford's came. We end up having a pretty large group! I think there was 16 four wheelers, two dirt bikes and one Rhino. And I think close to thirty people at one time! We had a great time riding all over, playing golf in the sand, hiking to the mine, making s'mores and tons more! We did get rained on, but just enough to make us all take a little rest, then it was back at it!! This is the first year we haven't had some sort of catastrophe happen to us-so that was great! Well, actually the trip wasn't totally without incident--I kind of fell/flew/catapulted myself off of my four-wheeler-don't ask me how, cuz I am not sure, I just know it hurt. Luckily, I didn't have any of the kids on with me,so, other than a bruised ego and a bruised butt, I am just fine. We look forward to next year and hope we just get more and more people along! Sorry, there is going to be a million pictures following this so if you don't care-that's ok just skip it!!:)

A view of our camp for the top of a mountain! Porter and Granpa eating watermelon!
Yummy!

We all loved having the Radford's along, especially the kids!

Aspen getting some Grandpa loves!

Shootin' cans in the rain. And just in case you were wondering--Kristin kicked Steven's butt!!:)

This is normally what I see while riding---everyone's bum! (Just a tip though--don't get behind Gary:)

This is most of our group, but not all.

Kim and I trying to get brave and go off the big boys jump (ok so, I am just trying to get brave Kim has no problem with that!!)

Brylee riding her cousins four-wheeler.

Two of my brother's friends came up and decided to take their car through the sand (Crazy boys) needless to say, yep it got stuck, but don't worry we got it out! That's me!! And my tires are actually off the ground!!Steve!And Gary!

Girls Camp

I am looking for some help--does anyone have any great ideas for girls camp or have you done anything that turned out really well! I am looking for some ideas! Thanks!!

Our house guest's

About a month ago while we were out of town a robin decided the vent off of our fireplace looked like a great place for her nest. She picked a pretty good place, because it is warm all of the time. She was probably wishing she chose somewhere else, because everytime we went out on the back porch she would fly away and sit in the bushes and watch us. I climbed up there and saw about 4 beautiful blue eggs. We lifted the girls up there to see them also. So, we watched for a couple of weeks while she sat vigil over her eggs. This week I noticed she hasn't been sitting on the nest as often. So, I climbed up and sure enough there were 3 ugly baby birds and 1 egg in the nest. I have showed the girls and they think it is so fun we have baby birds! The other night Aspen said "Mom I want to feed the baby birds." So, I asked her if she knew how the mommy bird feeds her babies. She said "No". So, I told her the mommy bird finds worms and chews them up and spits them in the babies mouth! Needless to say she doesn't want to feed the birds anymore!!

Young Women Graduation gifts!

In May 4 of my Laurels graduated high school and sadly Young womens :( For their graduation gift my secretary made these amazing recipe boxes for the girls. I gathered recipes from other ladies in the presidency and made some really cute recipe cards with my digital scrapbooking program. I was very happy with the way it all turned out!! I am so sad to be loosing these girls they have been so fun getting to know them--I was hoping I could find a way to "hold them back", but no luck they have all moved on to the singles ward!! I have a feeling they won't be single for too long!!!

Our new toy!

So we splurged and bought the kids this great waterslide for the summer. We werew trying to decide what to do for Aspen's birthday and after looking into some places I could take the kids-a movie, a place that has BIG bouncers and slide- we decided that we could put the money we would spend taking the kids somewhere, and buy one of these and have it to use all the time!



We looked into alot of different types and decided on this one because it has a little slide in this tunnel so Porter can use it, and it also has a bigger pool area than the other ones did so we can get the best of both worlds-pool and slides!

The kids all love it!! The first day we put it up it was still kind of cool, but the kids did not care they would not come out, I had to drag them out when it started raining! Porter loved it too! Now I am just hoping that this weather will shape up and stop raining everyday so we can use it more!! Any one who wants to come visit is welcome (as always!) but if you come we will pull the slide out and the kids can play! Yes that is a little bribery!!

This is what I do while the kids play!!!!! Better than a babysitter!!!!

Aspen's 5th Birthday Party!!

Aspen turned 5!! (I am not very happy about this, but I will save that for a later post) For her party we decided to use our waterslide and have a swimming/water party! The kids played ine the water, ate cake and ice cream and had a great time!! And I just had to sit and watch!!!!Once again I had Aspen's cake made by a lady who works with Brian and once again she did a GREAT job!!! Aspen wanted a sleeping beauty cake with Aurora in a pink dress! Yummy cake and ice cream!!!

Make a wish!!!

WOO HOO Barbies!!!

Aspen was so excited about all of her presents! thanks to everyone who came!!!