Over Grown Mohawk

We finally shaved the overgrown mohawk (as referred to by Uncle Shawn & Aunt Brooke) off. I was giving Ethan a buzz and like I usually do I let the boys enjoy a few rebel moments with a mohawk before I finish the job. This time Ethan asked if he could keep it just for one swim meet. Okay, why not, but it has to be off by Sunday. Saturday came and he wanted to show his cousins at cousin's camp on Monday his do. So for some strange reason we let him go to church with his hair slicked down as flat as we could get it. It looked great. (ha ha) Well cousin's camp came and went along with about 2 more swim meets before I was able to get to his hair. He can now say he had an overgrown mohawk for about 2 weeks. Let's hope we won't have to really deal with hair issues like this in the future.

Our Latest Words

Ethan - "That's Tight!"
Matthew - "Smellie, Smellie. Now Take it. That's for you!"
Rachel - "That's Hideous!"
Lauren - "Peace Out Dude!"

I'm really not sure what to think of their new vocabulary.

Happy 11th Birthday Nick!

This is Nicholas the last time we saw him just before his b'day. (6/08) This was Nicholas the first time we saw him. (6/97)
Nicholas is the closest boy cousin in age to Ethan. He is a year older and we love that he is such a great kid for Ethan to look up to. We only wish we lived a little or lot closer so we could all spend more time with him.

Here are each of our kids having fun with Nicholas "Pickleous" Paul!

We hope you had a wonderful birthday.

Locks of Love

We finally did it. After months of trying to convince Rachel she needed a haircut and that someone else would greatly appreciate her locks of love, she agreed. In fact, once SHE decided to cut her hair, she couldn't wait. I was hoping mine would be long enough so we could both donate our hair and because I don't know that I could ever let my hair get this long again, but it wasn't. I also wasn't brave enough to get my hair cut that short. Rachel had her first salon haircut. It was fun to go together. I could see her in the mirror getting her haircut as I was getting my haircut. I was a little nervous because she didn't want it to be as short as it was. But she LOVES it. She can't stop looking in the mirror. I think she looks adorable. We arefilling out her Locks of Love form and getting ready to mail her ponytail. I think this is a great service opportunity for every little girl to be able to do. http://www.locksoflove.org/

Happy Birthday Uncle Scott & Aunt Lisa

Happy Birthday Scott & Lisa

(notice I didn't put your age)

THEN (Lisa, Scott & baby Steve 1970)

NOW (Scott & Lisa aren't twins, they just get to share the same birthday)

One thing I love about doing birthday posts on my blog is finding the right pictures to depict the wonderful personalities of my family. So here you go!

Scott and Lisa both know how to have fun. They are always the life of the party, but also know how to get away and enjoy the quiet moments of life. They are both gifted with many wonderful talents and they are both full of great words of wisdom that I am always inspired by.

Some cute pictures of them and their sweethearts.

Scott & Lisa as proud parents
Their Beautiful Families

Thanks Scott & Lisa for your great examples in so many ways. We hope you had a great Birthday.

FOX 26 with the Cub Scouts

We were able to take our Cub Scouts to the FOX 26 Station and participate in their webcast for the day. (June 4, 2008) Apparently we were suppose to be on the next morning news, but I didn't watch the news from 5-9am to see it. It was way cool. We had 13 boys and we had a great time. One of FOX 26 Meteorologist, Dr. Jim Siebert, is in our Stake and he worked it out with his producer so that we could come. After the webcast the boys earned their Weather Belt Loop as we took a tour and asked the weatherman lots of questions. It has been fun being able to work with Ethan during his scouting experience. I even think I am getting the hang of the whole 13 or so boy thing.

Happy Birthday Aunt Janna

Happy 24th Birthday Janna!
Every picture I found of Janna involved a bunch of nieces and nephews. She truly is always right in the middle, entertaining them and we love you for the love you show our children. Thanks for always being so fun and thoughtful. We hope you had a great birthday way up there in Utah.

We miss you tons, too.

Our Beautiful Garden

Steve and his "Cool" hat

Ethan and Matthew planting red onions

Rachel and her Tomato Plant

These are the before pictures

Picking Green Beans and a Pepper

Our Beautiful Garden

Rachel with some delicious Green Beans & a Pepper




One of Steve's hobbies is planting our self reliant garden. Not only is it a hobby (a talent he learned from his dad) and a means of fresh produce, but it's main purpose was to help our children understand where all this yummy food comes from, (when Ethan was little he said carrots came from rabbits, that's when we started our first garden) AND to learn how to work. We planted corn, green beans, strawberries, red onions, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, peppers and lots of herbs.

Although, they might never know how it really is to harvest a garden, I grew up with a garden 15x this size that I "got" to learn how to work in, they are enjoying watching it grow and are still working on enjoying eating it.

Rachel walks out to it every day to see how her tomato plant is doing. It has 6 tomatos on it now. We have had a few Sunday meals with fresh green beans already harvested from our garden. Steve and the kids have done a great job and it looks beautiful.

"Brother Free" Girl Time

Rachel loves to have girl time. She doesn't get enough of it around here with her two brothers. I do keep reminding her that she could have 4 brothers like I have, though. We caught a couple of "brother free" girl time on camera. She loves to sing and dance and of course be loud and silly.