The Baby Shower

The Spread

The Junk

The Exhaustion

The most comfy seat in the house

The "Super"  Onsie

The Loot

The Display

The onsies and me

The Belly

The Darling Onsies

The Sistas!

The Girls

Bye Bye Birdie

 For a few months now we have been watching this mama bird build a nest in our pergola in the back yard.  Well, apparently there were baby birds in it and they were ready to leave the nest...right onto our patio.

Paige and Cameron had a ball watching these baby birds hop around the back yard and even got so brave as to touch them.  Paige gave them water and even tried to find bugs to feed them.

All the while the mammy bird was flying in circling over our heads.  She was not happy.  

This particular baby bird was the pudgiest one and didn't try to hop away much so he became Paige's favorite.  They really wanted us to go buy a cage to put them in so we could keep them. 

There were 4 total birds in the nest.  Two were on the patio and these 2 eventually jumped out of the nest into the tree. 

We eventually put the birds on the fence and they flew away.  I couldn't bare to leave them on our patio to be eaten by the neighborhood cats.  It was a fun experience for the kids to experience a little bit of nature and to see that its better to let baby birds fly free than to put them in a cage. 

12! YIKES!

Braiden turned 12 on May 20th!  Yikes.  I think yikes is my favorite word every May 20th because that's all I cant think to say when I think about how he is turning into a MAN right before my eyes.  YIKES! 

So, of course, in ritualistic style, Braiden got a weekend that was all about him.  He was pretty lucky to get it too because I am feeling anything but energetic these days (35 weeks prego) so he was a double lucky kid and he deserved it. 

Friday May 20th, 10 twelve year olds took over my basement all night.  They ate 4 pizzas in like 10 minutes and a whole red velvet cake (Braiden's request).  I have to say though that these are pretty good kids. They were all very complimentary, polite and well-behaved while in my house.  Eric took them out for a little while to play my approved version of "night games", completely supervised, of course. 

Saturday evening, Braiden again was the reason for the event when a large amount of the family and some friends all gathered to go see Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Strange Tides.

It was a pretty awesome movie (slacker took no pictures).

Little Caesar's saved the day!

Paige and Cameron were warned to stay out of the way of the 10 big boys and they did very well.  They just wanted the cake.

So i made Braiden pose for this because the ceiling fan had actually blown out the candles before they were done singing happy b-day!

Our attempt at getting a group pic.  Its a little like wrangling kittens to get them to all look at the camera.

Sunday, Braiden was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood as is the normal order of things when a young man turns 12 in the LDS Church.  It was a pretty great experience and "rite of passage" for Braiden. That afternoon we had another family Barbecue hosted by Braidens dad.

 I am so proud of him and excited for him to start this part of his life.  It seems like he immediately has his time now dedicated to all sorts of exciting activities for Scouts and Young Mens and will soon be headed to the dreaded MIDDLE SCHOOL!  YIKES AGAIN!

He has a 4 night camping trip coming up for Scouts to Flaming Gorge and I am all of the sudden scared to death to let him out of my sight for so long.  Will he make good choices?  Will he stay safe?  Will he remember to brush his teeth?  I suppose these thoughts  are normal and I suppose I will adjust but its still not easy to watch your kids grow up.

Abby and Paige raiding the cupcakes.

Braiden and his best buddy Kobe. They have been friends since they were 6.

I don't care what he thinks, he is still my baby.

Ben done gradumucated! Good job Sheriff Watson!

My little bro Ben graduated from UVU Police Academy on May 11th.  He was one of the lucky and few to have a job right out of school.  He was hired over a month before by the Duchesne County Sheriff Dept. so they have moved to the utterly far away and remote Roosevelt, UT!  Its too far and we miss them too much but they are happy and we are very proud of him and Jenice for their hard work to get to this point.



He looks so growed up!



McCoy is obsessed with the "Shield".  It was pretty cute.



Family gathering at moms house.  I think this is the only family pic we have in a couple years.  Too bad I am 1.5 my usual self!



Grandma and her chicks!



Mom and the sibs



Race for the Cure Team 2011

May 7, 2011 in downtown Salt Lake City was the Susan G. Komen SLC Race for the Cure.  It was a gorgeous day and I walked much further than I had planned.

My team had 44 registrants and raised just over $2000 between registration fees and donations.  It was awesome!

We (Eric and I) have decided to make it a tradition to do the Race for the Cure with all the kids every year.  I think it will be important for them to see us participate in philanthropic activies as a family and to learn about the effect of these devastating diseases that need continual work to raise money.  They had a good time.

Bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 7am on a Saturday!  What a gorgeous day!

The kids had a great time.  I think they were in awe at how many people were there.

The husbands pushing the strollers

Eric and the Kids were good sports even though they all had to pee really bad!

Amy and Bonnie...carrying that belly 2.5 miles was no easy task!

Are you lost?

Exhausting day!

HCI's Pride for Pink 2011.  This is not everyone that registered but these were the only people we could find to get together for a pic.  Go team!

Spring 2011

I love this picture but really I had to post something to get that Potato Bug picture off the top of my blog.

Potato Bugs...not cool.

This has to be said, for those of you who are not fully aware of the somewhat gruesomeness of many of God's creations... I personally think God must have a sense of humor, otherwise, really, WHAT WAS HE THINKING??? 

I was talking to a friend a couple of days ago and she was telling a story about her son looking for "potato bugs" in the back yard.  As soon as I heard the words "potato bug", I had to stop her with a "Say WHAT? There are POTATO BUGS in Utah?!?!?"  She looked at me like I was loony, no argument there.  "Of course there are potato bugs in Utah.  Aren't they everywhere?".  Suddenly it hit me that our definitions of "potato bug" were not jiving.  We went straight to the internet and Googled "potato bug".  She quickly understood why I was horrified at the thought of her son playing with potato bugs.

She was talking about these innocent little creatures, appropriately called "Rollie Pollies".  Everyone has childhood memories of playing with these silly little bugs that roll up into balls in your hand and look like a tiny version of an armadillo. 

Of course her son was playing with these.  WHO HASN'T??

Wanna know why I almost passed out at the thought of a POTATO BUG??

Scroll down...

From www.potatobugs.com:  The common Potato Bug is also known as the Jerusalem cricket. Our Native American friends call him “Woh-tzi-Neh” (Old Bald-Headed Man). In Latin America, he’s “niña de la tierra” (child of the earth). Other names include: Satan's fetus, the Devil's spawn, the Devil's child, the Devil's baby, the Devil's fetus, evil fetus, bald devil fetus, bald fetus of Satan, and earth fetus.

Do you get it now??  Maybe you have to be from California.  Most people from central or northern Cali have come into contact with them.  They don't hurt you, they just scare you to death.  These things can get really big and when they walk across hard surfaces...you can hear them!  They have opposable thumbs for crying out loud!! Not cool.

When my family first moved to the Central Coast in 1990, none of us had ever seen one.  None of us knew they existed.  They burrow in the grass so if you wanted to find one, they are really easy to come across.  My first experience with one was seeing/hearing one run across the linoleum kitchen floor and I screamed a scream that my mom was sure would be my last.  From that moment on, I never went barefoot in our house or across our lawn.  Warning:  if you see one, DON'T CRUSH IT!  It's a sound that you will never get out of your memory...EVER!

They are ungodly.  In short, they could easily be one of the top reasons why we left California.

To my good friends, William and Kate. Congrats!

This historical day has to be blogged about for the billionth time.  I will admit I am sort of a closet Royals Obsesser...  I am a so intrigued by the grandness and tradition of it all.  What would be like to be born into that kind of life?? 

Prince William and Kate on the day they announced their engagement.



The Happy couple after the reception.  I think this was the 3rd dress of the day. Kate is so gorgeous yet so simple.

  

The dress.  Not what I expected but so perfect for her



Westminster Abby.  Just a simple little afair...ha.




Princess Diana on her wedding day back in 1981.  Its a little sad that she wasn't there to see her son get married, in body anyway.



PS- I am sure my invite probably just got lost in transit.