A couple of weeks ago, Lindsay was watching me make my grocery shopping list and she saw pudding on there and we just started talking about how much we love pudding. I told her that sometimes you can paint with pudding like you would with finger paint and she said, WHAT?? She said she wanted to try that sometime. So, the silly girl that she is, she started naming other words that start with P and the first two she said were pool and party. And I said, what if we had a ‘Pudding Painting Pool Party’? We could call it a ‘P’ party! She LOVED the idea! So we did! We invited some friends over and if they wanted to, they could bring a snack that started with the letter P. We made WAY too much pudding for the event and we had popsicles for our treat. Our friends brought popcorn, popsicles and peanut butter M&Ms. They were all very yummy. The kids had fun swimming, sliding and painting themselves with pudding. Here’s A LOT of pictures.

Logan just wanted to eat it. I put a little on his cheek and he freaked out so I guess to him, pudding is just for eating.

Before they got back in the pools, they needed to rinse off in the beach ball.

Cute Orion.

Ashlee really got into and had a blast!

Cute Haleigh showing me her pudding hands!

Lindsay sliding down the slip ‘n slide. Thanks again Heidi for letting us borrow it! The kids loved it!

Drinking the water. The must have been thirsty.


Logan relaxing.

When we came inside after the party was over, Lindsay said that was the best ‘P’ party ever! Those are the moments I live for. It was a fun afternoon and I’m so super happy that they had a good time.

I planted some day lily’s and geraniums along the retaining wall in our backyard. I was tired of the way it was looking so we’ll give this a try.

If they do well back there I’m going to plant LOTS LOTS more. None of our sprinklers hit that area very well so I have to water them by hand so I hope I can remember to do that. Go little plants!!

We have an infestation of grasshoppers out here and it’s CRAZY!! Here’s some pictures to show our families who live out of town to see just how crazy it is. We constantly have at least 20 on our side fence at all times.

Just look at the bottom of the fence near the grass. Do you see them all??


I’m so glad that I’m not scared of them anymore like I was as a kid or else it would be unbearable, but the kids love catching them and as long as they don’t eat my new flowers we’ll all get along just fine. If they were crickets, this post would be entirely different!

Our little Logan has always been a really good sleeper. Ever since he was about two months old, he was sleeping at least 10 hours a night. He doesn’t always go all night long without crying and needing some extra hugs, but he’s always (well, mostly) good about going right back to sleep. He still takes a nap every afternoon. Well, except Sunday afternoons. With church at 11 o’clock, the poor little guy has some really LONG Sundays. Some Sundays he does fine. But others, well…it’s not too easy to stay awake, no matter what he’s doing.

He had been throwing a fit because he didn’t want to eat his green beans, but the sleep just got the best of him.

He had just finished a piece of cake. He was SO TIRED that we just picked him up and put him to bed and he didn’t even move.

And now that it’s summer, who wants to take a nap when we can swim and play outside? So sometimes even during the week he just can’t fight that tiredness anymore.

Poor little guy. Isn’t he such a cute sleeper?

Lindsay has never really been into the whole dress up thing. Sure, she likes to wear necklaces, put on a princess dress here and there, and put on my shoes, but that’s about it. But lately it’s ALL she’s been doing. It’s super cute to see what she comes up with. And double as cute to see who she is pretending to be and why. Her little imagination is taking off and I’m really excited for her!

This first one was by far the funniest. Can you tell why?

When she first came downstairs I was trying so hard to figure out what shirt that was! I know I had never bought her a shirt like that and then I saw the tag on her tummy and it became so clear. Yeah, that’s a skort. She was so embarrassed, it was so cute! I have to admit, I love what she’s done with it. Do you think that’s how that style shirt came to be? By a four year old girl putting a skort on the wrong way? Who knows! Those designers are crazy peeps.

This next one was what she came down with a few minutes later (and by far my favorite one), just in time for the missionaries to have dinner with us.

I love her cute little smile!

This one she put on while playing with some friends. Notice the skort put on properly.

She was sure to tell me that she made it all the way down the stairs wearing those shoes without falling. (Those were the ones she was wearing when she fell down the stairs and broke her collarbone.) I was glad she waited to tell me that until she made it down safely.

I love this girl!

The 4th of July is my second favorite holiday. Summer doesn’t officially begin for me until the 4th of July. I love everything about it! I love what it stands for, I love parades, I love BBQ’s, I love being outside, I love fireworks, and I love spending time with my family and friends. I love this country and the values that it was created upon. I am so grateful for all of the men and women who have fought to give me what I have today and I am grateful for parents who taught me what it means to be patriotic. I get teary eyed every time I hear or sing the song, “I’m Proud to be an American” because I truly am. God Bless America!!

As a kid we would go to the Provo parade every year and to this day I just LOVE it! This was the first time I had gone in at least 15 years and the first time for Jeffy and the kids. I was so excited I could hardly sleep the night before. Jeffy’s mom was in town so she came with us and Lane and Kelly joined us as well. Lane was so nice to get up at 4:40 to get us a good seat and he sure did! We were right at the end of the parade but right on the street so the kids could see great. Lindsay got to break another board for the karate people and did great. Lindsay loved the horses and big balloon things and Logan loved the firetrucks and cars. We got rained on right before it started and then sweating during the rest of it. Love it!

Near where we were sitting was a park that I took the kids to play while we waited for the parade to start. I was pushing Logan and looked down at the ground and saw these two big beetles fighting each other. I got Logan off the swing and called for Lindsay to come see. Grandma had brought Lindsay a book about bugs and in there we learned about stag beetles and how two boy stag beetles will fight each other to get the girl. So typical. Sure enough that’s what these two beetles were and boy were they fighting! They would be going strong and then just stop and one of them looked like he was going to try to hide in the wood chips but then the other beetle would come up from behind him and pull him out, as if he was saying, “I ain’t done with you!” We watched them for a good 20 minutes. It was so entertaining. We almost forgot about the parade….

After the parade we went home and got ready for the block BBQ Jeffy had planned. Only about 6 families ended up coming but it was perfect. We had a nice time being outside chatting with our neighbors while the kids played and had fun.

Then right after that he packed up the kids again and drove BACK to Provo for the fireworks. This was both of the kids first experience with big fireworks and the loved it! We saved ourselves a spot on the MTC field after the parade so we knew we’d have somewhere to sit. We got there about 2 1/2 hours before the fireworks started and we spent the time just hanging out. We played frisbee, catch, walked up to see the temple, had running races, did cartwheels, and snuggled up together to wait.
The kids doing cartwheels.


There was an ice cream truck there ( SO SMART!) and this is Logan with his blue mouth that would not come off. He’s so patriotic.

A happy Lindsay girl.

The kids playing.



All of us snuggling and waiting (silly Jeffy…)

We could see a storm way off in the distance with HUGE lightning bolts and everything and we were getting nervous that we would have to leave. But luckily it broke up by the time it got to Provo and we were able to watch the fireworks. The kids LOVED them and Lindsay has been asking for two days now if we can go watch them again. I wish we could! It was truly the best day and I had so much fun.