Remember When...

Remember when I used to update my blog almost daily? Oh man, those were good days....days when I guess I had too much time on my hands!

For reals, I am desperate to keep updating this journal of mine but at the end of most days all I want to do is lay down and be a vegetable!

However, it's early afternoon and I'm taking a break from the day and upating this blog. I have too much going on to not blog about it!

Once school ended, the typical summer activities ensued: Youth Conference, Swim Lessons, camping trips planned, and about 400 otter pops have been consumed (I helped consume them). I love me some otter pops! How do you know if the otter pop you are eating is strong enough? You cough! Whenever I cough while partaking of the sweet sugary goodness, I always exclaim "Oh yeah, that's the good stuff!".

Our ward's Youth Conference was amazing...or so I heard. I wasn't there but Sam was. :) They did a partial trek intermixed with some fun activities. Each person on the trek represented an actual pioneer who crossed the plains. At the end of the Youth Conference, each person found out if their pioneer survived or not. Very touching! I looked at the pictures Sam took when he got home and a few made me laugh:



I said "Hey Sam, what were taking pictures of here??" He said "the scenery....and stuff...." Riiiiiggggghhhhhhhttttttt....the man loves his car. So precious! :)

Father's Day was great! We had a fancy schmancy dinner at my parents house. Always delicious! Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of Sam or my dad. I'm lame like that. However, I love them both dearly and I'm so thankful for their influence in my life!!
Sam did capture this beauty: I have no idea what Parker is doing with his shirt, but Cameron thinks it's funny.


Speaking of Crazy P-Maw, he turned 7 on the 20th. Usually I kind of lament the fact that my kids are growing too fast, but I don't feel that way with Parker. I swear he has the wit of a 12 year old so it's kind of weird that he's only 7. Does that make sense? In fact, I'm kind of nervous to see what he's going to do with each growing year....he will always keep us on our toes I'm sure!

He invited his cousin Dexter and Carson's friend, Devin, to celebrate with us. Sort of as a joke, I gave him a birthday hat I found and he wore it faithfully most of the day. ha ha!


Make a wish! Remember, you have to tell us what you wish for or it won't come true! At least that is what my dad always taught us.


After cake and ice cream we all went to a trampoline place called Airborne. Holy cow, it was such a blast! The tickets we had were only good for one hour of jumping. I thought that was too short. Boy was I wrong!!! After 45 minutes everybody was panting so hard and they were covered in sweat! It was just perfect!
I think the favorite activity of the night was jumping into the foam pits. We would even launch Cameron into them. He would land like a slug and then just lay there. I had a few tears from laughing so hard.









Now we turn our attention to upcoming camping trips. I'm not a huge fan of sleeping outside, but overall, camping is such a fun experience! We reserved a camping spot locally for a time in the near future. Last weekend Sam drove up to the spot to check it out. Good thing he did too. We have had such a cold, wet spring....it's taken a long time for the snow to actually melt. Now that the temperatures are rising, the snow is melting faster than the rivers and streams can handle. The spot we had reserved had melting snow running right through it! ha ha!


The camp hosts were very nice and re-assigned us to a dry spot. It should be a good time!

Next week we are in charge of the big ol' Sweet campout. Every 8 years we are in charge. That's right, last time we were the head honchos we only had Carson! One of the perks of belonging to such a large family I suppose! I use the term "in charge" loosely. Basically we reserved the group site. After that everyone is on their own, I'm not good at being in charge of a group's entertainment!! Sadly, the bigger and older this family gets, the more people start dropping out of the campout due to schedules and other conflicts. I'm going to miss those that aren't there for sure!

This morning I backed out of my driveway to go run some errands. As I was backing out, I noticed this on my front lawn!!


I nearly died laughing!!! I knew immediately who it was from. Our friends are in charge of doing a 4th and 24th of July float for our Stake. When they got this assignment last year, the immediately called all the float people who just finished the parades and asked them if they could have all their misc float pieces. They received some of the most random and hideous items! Seriously, their yard looked like something out of a budget horror movie... huge doll heads, random body parts....it was classic! So when I saw this larger than life football player, missing a head, hanging out on my lawn I had to cross my legs because I was laughing so hard (if you've had babies, you'll understand the crossing of the legs part).

After I gathered my wits, I noticed this headless monster was holding a sign:


Awwwww, that is nice! Sam has been helping build the float for the past few nights, I guess they are grateful! Our friends are funny because they keep asking why Sam wants to help. Our reply: Because you are our friends and you need help, duh!!! :) I am leaving that headless dude on our lawn until I find motivation to do something with it. Come on over and enjoy the view, you will laugh! Cameron keeps saying "that red guy is too scary."

Carson and Parker are reminiscing. Carson just said "Parker, remember that one time at school when my nose wouldn't stop running? I went into the bathroom and blew my nose for like an hour...and then all of a sudden all this corn came out??"

What?!? I honestly didn't ask any follow up questions. Sometimes things are best left unresolved.

Finally, we'll see who still reads this ol' blog. I'm pregnant.

I'm 12 weeks. I puke a lot. I sleep a lot. I hope to come out of my funk soon because I'm not very fun to be around right now. However, I'm so excited. I'm due January 14th. We like to be consistent in this family. If all goes according to plan (cross fingers and toes), this baby will be healthy and born in 2012. My kids are born every 4 years: 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. Yep, consistent. There's something to be said for spacing kids out 4 years. I really like it! It wasn't my choice, but that's how it turned out and I'll take it!

Just because I know you are wondering: I'm expecting this baby to be a boy, and I'm very okay with that! :)