Rachel Evelyn

Hey everyone! Here is Rachel's birth acnnouncement. Along with it is an invitation to her baby blessing on September 7th at 9:00 am at the church across the street from our house. If you need directions, let me know! We would love to have as many of our family and friends there as possible!

My 'nuther Blog

I decided to start a hair blog just for fun. I have a lot of friends and family who have little girls and a few have asked how I do some of the things I have done with the girls' hair. So, I posted some hairstyles today. I will do better at taking pictures as I go along, instead of just the final product. You can visit the blog by clicking on the "Piggies and Ponies" link under "Places to Visit." Enjoy....and make sure you leave comments. They are so fun!

Camping and Rafting

So, after our river trip two weeks ago, (adult only trip), I was very excited to take the kids camping with most of their cousins this past week. The girls even got to ride on the upper part of the river in Captain (Grandpa) Jack's raft! We actually headed up the Alpine a day earlier then everyone else so we could get some good play time in with just our little familia. I am glad we did because it was a total blast and there were so many cute pictures. Here are just a FEW of my favorites!



First thing in the morning on Thursday, the kids found the little stream that ran behind our campsite. They couldn't resist throwing a few rocks into the river before we headed to Subway for breakfast.


Here's the three older kids posing on a rock. I think it's so cute. They are still relatively clean and the stream behind them is so pretty.


Bo found this cool little dirt hole and sat in it for a good half hour. He just played with the rocks in his own little spot and was in seventh heaven!


Here's a picture of our campsite before everyone else got there. It was pretty wide open and the kids had a TON of room to roam and play. (Probably TOO much room if you ask Grandma!)


Rachel chilled on my lap while her big brother and sisters played.


We went up to East Table and let the kids play in the water there. Bo was NOT happy about the life jacket, but Justin made him stay in it long enough to take a picture. I am glad!


The big girls show off their big muscles!


My two little sweathearts. That water was so FREEZING! But, they were good sports and let us take this adorable picture of them together sitting in the river.


Bo would not get any closer to the water than he had to in order to throw a few rocks. But, here he is posed on a rock looking his best! Man! Those little girls are going to be in trouble!


Here's the four kids sitting on a log by East Table. Can you believe Rachel is already sitting by herself at only two months! Hee hee!


Bo gets ready to throw a rock or two into the Snake.


Marianne and Allison LOVE their cousins. Duncan was the first cousin to join us by a long shot and they had a blast together!


This is the first picture of Rachel smiling. She is definately a morning person...OH NO!!!


Allison still asleep in her sleeping bag...


And Marianne...


And Rachel...


But, of course, Bo was wide awake ready for the dirt!


Rachel fell asleep in the chair. I think she looks like a little farmer with her hat pulled down over her eyes.


The girls get ready to go RAFTING!!! Alli cried for a few minutes, but enjoyed herself most of the way down. Do you love the dirt on their faces? Try as I might I couldn't seem to keep them all clean while we camped...go figure!


See what I mean!

We had a complete blast! Thanks to everyone for such a great time. Thanks to Amy and Shron for the food. Thanks again to Dad/Grandpa for the rafting, too! And, thanks to EVERYONE that helped with my four little kids, especially Grandma, Amy, Shron and Gus, Lex, London, Kate, Amberly, Haley, Baylee, Jackson and Kendrick. You guys ROCK!

Little Girl Funnies

Okay, so there have been a few cute things that my girls have said and I thought I would share a few of them. Here we go!

We were leaving a parking lot somewhere (can't remember where) and there was a convertible Mustang parked next to us. Allison gasped and with concern pointed out that, "Uh-oh! Their car is broken!"

We recently hooked up our new trail-a-bike and bike trailer up to Justin's bike. When we had it all done, Justin took the three older kids on a little bike ride around the neighborhood. He ran into one of the men in our ward out working in his yard. The man was nice enough to give the kids some apricots to bring home to share. Well, it was bed time, so the kids came straight in to get ready for bed. Allison was quite concerned about not being able to eat the delicious fruit she had brought home. She asked me innocently if we were going to eat the "Tater-tots" we got from our neighbor!

Last, but not least, Marianne's little quip. We have been having a hard time getting our girls to listen to us the first time and obeying what we say. So, last Monday night we had a lesson on obeying and we taught the girls the Primary song, "When my mother calls me, quickly I'll obey. I want to do just what is best, each and every day!" Well, a couple of days later, I asked Marianne to go get some books to read with me. While she was gone, Rachel started fussing, so I picked her up to try to comfort her. In the meantime, Marianne returned with a whole slew of books for us to read, but apparently I wasn't getting to the fast enough. After a minute of my trying to settle Rachel and Marianne asking me to read, she finally got frustrated enough to break out into this little tune..."When my daughter calls me, quickly I'll obey!" Man, she is too smart for her own good. I laughed hysterically and had to call Justin and my mom to share this funny!

A Rafting We Will Go!

So, we finally made it to the Snake River after a cancelled trip two weeks ago. Here are A LOT of pictures to exlpain what went on while we were away!



Lisa holds little Rachel. No, Rachel DID NOT ride the rapids this year...maybe in about 8!


Justin LOVES the inflatable kayak. I love pictures like this, and this...


Tee hee hee!


He did finally make it back into the kayak before he hit Lunch Counter.


Our friendly moose across the river getting a little drink of refreshing river water.


I have to laugh really hard at this picture. This is my bro-in-law, Gus going over in Big Kahuna. If you look closely, you can see his dorky jester's hat in the waves. I am pretty sure it was still atop his head, too.


This is the last trip down the river. I am on the front with my brother, Jeff. This was by far the BEST we hit Kahuna this trip. Now, you will see how my sis-in-law, Ann and I got our ride...


Yeah, we pretty much just sunk into the river before we came out of it. I honestly thought we were going over!


Ann and I both got knocked into the drink by the second wave. AWESOME!!!


Still on the way out of the raft.


Both Ann and I were hanging on for dear life. That river is a lot bigger when you are in it!


Yup, still hanging on!


Ann gets pulled in while I am STILL hanging on to the chicken line.


Finally! I tell ya, it was awesome, scary, funny, intense etc. When I got back in the raft and started paddling again, I felt something on my left arm. It hurt when I rubbed it against my life jacket while paddling. I looked and saw the start of a bruise about three inches in diameter. Well, like I said, it was the START of a bruise. Here is what it looked like two days later!




Me and my HEMATOMA! Yuck, huh? I am sure it will still be around when we go rafting again next weekend with all the kids. Let me tell you, it really hurts!

Here's a little funny from the trip. As you can see, my family always weare goofy hats when we go down the river. We are quite notorious around them parts. On our last trip down the river, I was choosing out my hat to wear on the raft. I picked out a great elf hat with bells and EVERYHING! It didn't have anything to keep the sun out of my eyes, so I put it on over my ball cap. I turned to Ann and actually asked her if that looked dumb. My sis-in-law Liz smirked and said, "You want to know if it looks dumb?" Well, okay, I guess it wouldn't have been as great if it didn't look dumb, right?

So, that's our trip. Thanks to my dad for taking us all down the river. Thanks to Joe and Liz (and Brigham) for going with us. It was great to spend some time with you guys while you are here. Thanks to Ann and Angie for arranging all the food for us while we camped. And last but most certainly not least, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU to Mike and Jeri and their girls for keeping our three older kids while we were off galavanting. WE LOVE YOU!!!