Millerton, Family Fun Week day 1

Monday, August 9th began what became known as "Family Fun Week" We stuck close to home. We went to breakfast in Old Town Clovis at Sandy's Country Junction. The food was good and the atmosphere was fun. After breakfast we got started on the cars, well, the van and the truck. Truck outside and van inside. I learned that I love to work together as a family, it makes it so much more fun and it gets done more quickly!

We had to put a halt on the car cleaning to take Micah to the orthodontist to get new, thicker wires and an elastic chain. I will post his progress soon. His teeth are looking so good! Micah had a doctors appt. too that I was able to take him to. The Linford family invited us to go to the lake with them for FHE, so that is how we ended our first day of vacation. Peyton spent most of the time asleep in the car but when she woke up she was as happy as can be.

After a good swim some dessert was had.

Here are the big boys, Melissa and I were there too.

The kids had a lot of fun using the Linford's boogie boards.

I know none of these pictures are great, but you get the idea! Ben didn't have the time to stop for a photo.

The sun went down and we went home.

This is something we do

JULY 12, 2010

During the hot summer months when school is out, we swim at Nana's. We sometimes bring some friends too. When you swim, you work up an appetite and kids sure like pizza!

Peyton and Savannah

Ethan, Benji, Micah and Jacob

Kendyl and Yo

Savannah, Dustin and Peyton

Rebekah was there too but I somehow didn't get her picture. We love our friends, we love swimming and we love no school!

Hey Kendra, how about a potluck???

No, but really, we invited many couples to our home for a potluck dinner a few Friday nights ago. It was an adult only potluck and I think that is why it worked so well with so many people. My very sweet friend Kendra arranged the date and made all the phone calls, THANK YOU! So, all I really had to do was allow people to come over and provide a place for everyone (thanks Sandy for loaning a few extra tables and for helping set up). In all there were over 20 people at our house! At least that many more were invited and unable to come, probably a good thing, but I'd love to do it again and have everyone else over. After we had our fill of wonderful food we played some fun games and I think we all got to know everyone a little better!

I love candid shots.

"I don't remember eating corn."

Kendra likes being in photographes.

This is Laawna standing in for me with Tyler.

Friends are Fantastic!

I have recently made a conscious effort to spend more time with my friends and I've really enjoyed it. Tyler and I also do more things with OUR friends. Here are just a few recent events along with my cliff notes review of Twilight. Yes, I have been neglecting my blog and my e-mail and my facebook and my myspace, ok, pretty much the computer all together. There is just way to much to do on the computer and I guess I'm suffering computer burnout, and I've been spending more time with friends!!!!

Fresno State Football game with the Olsens (Shawn and Kendra)
We had fun visiting, Kendra is about as into football as I am. Those are Tyler's fingers, not mine.
Aren't these guys so cute?!
November 20th, Midnight premere with Barbara and Donna.

November 23, another Twilight show with Jen, Kendra, Laawna, and Lydia.

Ok, so for my review...

I loved it! I enjoyed it even more the second time. It was very cheesy and had several fuuny parts, just like the book. So for all of you out there complaining of the cheese, did you not read the book? The book was cheesy. I wasn't happy with who they cast as Edward until I saw the movie and I thought he was great. Bella was also cast perfectly in my opinion. I loved the ballet studio scene and thought the special effects for it were done really well. I was happy with the Cullens, the one thing I thought that could have been done much better was the vampire's make-up. For condensing a large book into a movie I thought they did great, especially developing the characters, they kept them true to form. There were a few scenes from the book that didn't make it in that I wished would have, like when Bella bleeds in biology. Anyway, they can't get it all in! I am excited for the rest of the movies now.

Luke and Ben

October 13th

Luke Sever is like part of our family. He has been around longer than Ben has and now these two are the best of buds.

Movie night with the Stutzman kids

October 11th
The Stutzman family is fairly new to our ward, they were in it a few years ago for a short time. They bought a house that they have been remodeling and I offered my mad babysitting skills to help out all I could and now I have an amazing new friend. See how selfless service blesses us?! No, seriously, I feel like I have found an amazing lifetime friend in Yolawnda Stutzman. What's even better is that our kids get along really well and so do our husbands. I feel like they were made to be our friends!

So, our husbands were occupied elsewhere so we rented Speed Racer from the red box and popped some corn!

These two are the same age but Ethan gets along even better with Micah.

Her three girls to my one!

My 3 boys to her one!

Family Home Evening at the Lake

I forgot my camera in the Van, so I didn't get any pics until we were leaving. The McCauley's invited us and the Linfords to go to the lake with them on their pontoon boat. It was fun. We had bar-b-que hot dogs and swam. We were jumping off of the roof of the boat (yes, I know, not allowed but it was fun) and Ben wanted to, so we let him. What a fearless little boy.



My sister came with us and helped a lot with Peyton so I got to do lots of swimming. She was one tired girl by the end of the night.
Skipping Stones


I had to get this one of Peyton. When she nurses she pulls on her hair and it is very cute, I don't want to forget this.

June 21 YW overnighter and Babysitting Swap

Because we are now having Stake girls camp every year, we thought it would be a good idea to have an overnighter just with the girls from our ward. This way they could bond a little more with one another. The McCauley's were so nice to let us use their cabin and we all had a great time. Tyler gave a devotional on pitching you tents towards the temple and it was great and he enjoyed teaching his old Seminary kids again. After that we began a huge time consuming project by gluing pictures of the temple on these boards with grooves in them and then pouring poly eurothane on them (I'm sure I spelled that wrong!) and every few minutes running a popsicle stick in the grooves for over an hour. They turned out great though and looked like tiles! The next morning the girls, and Tyler and Matt and I all helped to rake pine needles around the cabin for a little service project and to say thank you for letting us use your cabin! All the girls ended up being the kind that get carsick, so I gave up my front seat and I ended up puking on the side of the road on the way home!


The Schafers are some very good friends of ours. They have 3 boys and twin boy and girl that are 6 weeks younger than Peyton. Noah, pictured below with Ben is just 1 week younger than Ben. The older 2 boys are pretty close in age to Micah and Jacob too. Anyway, we have been doing a babysitting swap with them because out kid situation is similar and our kids get along so well. We just found out that they are moving in August to Bakersfield! I am really very sad about this and plan on keeping in touch. She told me today that she would come back to town to go see Twilight with me when it comes out, so I'm going to hold her to it!
Me and my baby girl.
Peyton and Joshua holding hands, aren't they so cute?!
They kept studying each other. We will really miss you Schafers!!!

Busy, Busy, Did you miss us?

Somehow I thought that I didn't have much to blog about, and just tonight I finally put the pictures from our camera onto the computer and realized how wrong I was, so now I'm going to do catchup before this week gets too busy.

May 19 I was trying a new recipe for poppyseed bundt cake and let Ben help. Well, while he was using the electric mixer he dropped the bowl and the mixer continued to spew batter all over us and the cabinets. I must say that I handled it well, I am getting so much better about those things. The kitchen needed a good cleaning anyway. I also have to say that these pics don't do the mess justice.
Ben felt bad and said he was sorry, but got much happier when he saw that I wasn't upset and wanted to take pictures.
He ate lot's of the batter right off the floor, I guess it was pretty good!

Micah is very much in love with his little sister and holds her just about every chance he gets. We went to Jacob's last t-ball game. May 20
Jacob hit that ball really well, it was a great hit!

Tyler really enjoyed coaching Jacob's team, Jacob loved it too!
May 27 Ben sometimes comes on our bed and falls asleep, this time for some reason he put his socks on his hands, silly boy!
May 29 Micah earned his 5th belt in karate, way to go Micah! He still wants to stick with the karate and earn his black belt, so we want to support him in that. I am proud of him for not wanting to quit.
May 30 I went to the best baby shower ever for my friend Kendra. Since she is having her 4th baby and her 3rd girl, she just had her close friends with her. We had lunch at the Olive Garden and then went to Massage Envy and got an hour long massage. It was my 1st massage and hopefully not my last. It was GREAT!!!
This was my room, not much to look at, but they turned the lights down low and had relaxing soft music playing and the room was the perfect temperature. Thanks for watching Peyton and picking Jake up from school Ty ,and Allie, thanks for having Ben over! It was a wonderful day.

May 31 We weren't able to make it to my parents house for dinner last Thursday because I went to my friend Shelly's baby shower, so my mom needed her grandkid fix and came over late Saturday morning and Ben does what he always does with everyone and pulled her all over the place to do his bidding. Nana jumped on the trampoline, did puzzles, etc. I loved these pics of them jumping.

Peyton is starting to use the exersaucer and she really likes it. There are lots of tos for her to practice manipulating her hands and fingers on! She is still pretty slouchy, but her legs are sure strong!
June 1st The boys are really doing a lot more on their own. Ben can toast waffles and Micah can poor milk and Jacob can get dishes down. They are quite the team! Jacob said that one reason it is good to have lots of kids is so they can help do all the work!

Good job Ben, thanks for helping, you do a great job.

Ben likes to make that face.
June 2 All the boys absolutely love their sister and are just so sweet to her. She just lights up when she looks at her brothers.
Peyton has really been discovering her hands and using them to grab everything. It is so funny to watch because it takes her awhile to do what she wants with them. She works really hard to accomplish her tasks.
Benjamin turns 3 tomorrow!!! I ust can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. Happy Birthday Ben! I love you so much and you are doing great on going potty in the toilet, you are such a big boy and a great helper.