and still Lotts more catching up to do.

 Happy 4th of July.  We hiked White Pine up Tony's Grove in Logan Canyon.  The weather was great and the boys even found some snow to sled in.  It is 8 miles round trip.  We had a great day.

Adam was soaked and freezing but had fun.

White Pine Lake was freezing but the boys still got in.  Ethan was definitely more daring than Adam.

Hyrum Dam- while camping up in Logan Canyon

 July 5

A little get away to Park City- We swam in the crater up there.  

 July 13

July 25

We enjoyed our trip to South Dakota.  It was so beautiful and fun to see family.  The Lotts from Arkansas joined us, and Jeri came.  We had a blast.

So I ordered a pair of shoes for Ethan online.  I guess I ordered the toddler size by mistake.  Ha Ha!!

We love our cute fuzzy chickens.  We have 12 now.

 Aug 6

Geo caching fun in Wyoming !!

 Aug 12

Aug 19

The Aggie Scrimmage.  The boys love doing this each year.  Free food, games and fun.  It was very amusing to watch them clobber each other.

 Ethan has no fear and loved getting down with the players.

August 22

"It's the most wonderful time of the year."  That is what parents sing when school begins again.

Jaime 11th grade

 Adam 6th   Ethan 3rd

Aug 23

Ethan was so excited to start piano lessons.  He is doing great and is learning so quickly.  It's cute to watch him teach things to Adam, who doesn't want to take lessons.  Who knows, maybe he will change his mind.

Guess Who???

 Aug 24

                                                                          Sept 10

Adam was so excited to get braces until he finally got them.  Now he knows first hand why we had told him that braces are no fun.

Sept 4

We love Tomato Days in Hooper.  So many fun activities and people.  The boys were thrilled they each earned $11 from the veggie show.  Ethan spent his five minutes later at a booth.

Sept 7

 last camping trip of the year

                                                                      Sept 10

a lott of veggies

Sept 12

We love you Ryan!!!

 Jaime went to Homecoming stag with a few friends.  They wanted the German foreign exchange students to experience an American dance.

 Sept 16

Isabel, our German exchange student was so excited to go to Wal-Mart.

 Sept 18

Happy 9th b-day Ethan!!!

 Sept 24

Cute little kitten's messing around with Alex's phone.

It looks like a pile of stuffed animals.  Wrong.  Ethan informed me that the fox and wolf are eating the horse.  Funny kid.

Oct 6

Oct 11

Adam enjoying playing flag football again this year.  He and Ethan are still trying to convince me to let them play tackle.  Sorry kiddo.  Alex's injury (6 days in the hospital for a perforated intestine) years ago playing football kind of cured me of tackle football.

Oct 19-26

Mike and I went to Okinawa, Japan to visit my parents on their mission.  It was an amazing experience.  It is so pretty and the people are very nice.  The bathrooms are crazy and have signs to tell you how to use the toilet.

 heart rock

There are literally vending machines almost on every corner- even in the middle of nowhere.

Happy Halloween

Not sure what I was.  I just like wearing crazy wigs.  All the kids in Ethan's class asked me if it was my real hair.  I said yes.

Oct 31

Dec 2

Dec 11

Having fun at the dollar store

Dec15

Merry Christmas!!!!

A new tradition of ours is to build Ryan a snowman.  Ethan told us how to get the second part up on the bottom.  He says they roll it on when they make them at school.  Sure enough it worked which was good because it was to heavy and awkward to lift- we tried but failed.

 Dec 25

Dec 26

 We stayed in a cabin up near Bear Lake for a few days after Christmas.  We had fun playing games and vegging.  Mike pulled the kids behind his truck because there wasn't enough snow for a snowmobile.  They had a blast.  It was awesome watching from inside a warm vehicle.

Jaime even joined in and had a blast!!!

Happy 45th b-day Mike !!!!!

 Dec 27

Dec 28

Long story short, Adam was sledding and he flew off his sled and into a tiny bush.  His eye got poked  pretty hard by a branch.  We took him to the ER in Logan to make sure everything was ok.  It's a miracle and he is fine.  He was put on an oral antibiotic and antibiotic eye drops for a week.  He has healed great.  We did discover he has bad eye sight as he failed the eye examine in both eyes.  It's nothing related to the accident.  I guess he can't see the black board at school without squinting.  News to me.  Not the best way to find out.  Ha Ha.  It would have been much less painful if he had just told us.  Ha Ha.  And the crazy thing is that he doesn't seem to mind, because he says he won't wear glasses if we get them for him.  Stubborn boy.  All joking aside, I am so thankful he is really ok and I know prayers were answered and miracles happened.   

He is bored to death from waiting.  We were there like 2-3 hours.

Don't scroll down if you don't like blood.  I included a picture of his eye.   It's the last picture in this post.

Poor brave Adam

My New Year's resolution is to blog more frequently!!!

Lotts of catching up to do...

 March 26  

 Visiting Ethan at lunch.  And no I am not eating.  Have you ever tried school lunch??

March 2017

 Lott totem pole

 The Hooper Easter Egg Hunt. Jaime is the bunny.

 Geocaching.  The boys love it.  Don't let the smile on Jaime's face fool you.  She hates it, and so we do it more.  Ha Ha.

April 13, 2017

 Happy 11th b-day Adam !!!

 fun at Chuck-E-Cheese

April 20, 2017

Adam's Arrow of Light Ceremony and the pinewood derby.  One part was a good experience.  Sadly the boy's cars lost.  Oh well.  They still had fun.

April 26, 2107

Cute penguin Ethan made at school

April 22

Jaime is excelling in German.  She went to a competition and did great.

 She performed her first solo.  She sang in front of around 120 people.  She sang I See the Light from the movie Tangled.  She sang it in German.  It was amazing.  We are very proud of her.

Adam and our new baby chicks (they are usually in a cage in the garage)

 April 30, 2017

Jaime was baby sitting the boys and got bored and did their eye make up.  Hilarious little princesses!!!

 April 22

Ethan loves soccer

 May 6, 2017

May 12, 2017

We love you Ryan.  We miss you so much and can't believe it's been five years.  So much has happened.  We have all changed so much.  We are so proud of you and look forward to our being together again some day.  We think of you always and know you are with us even if we can't see you.

I had this rock made and we placed it in "Ryan's secret garden" in our back yard.  The rock says, "That's Amazing".  That is a phrase he always said.

We headed to Salt Lake to spend the day as a family.  After dinner at Tucano's, in the Gateway, we stayed in a hotel and swam. We try and spend the day together as a family and try and make good new memories to make us smile.

May 22, 2017

 yard work fun







Hiking Adam's canyon up near Layton

May 27




Adam- our little chicken

 May 27




May 22

cookout in the pasture


June 10

she turned 16 the day before on June 9th




June 12

Crazy story.  There was a huge windstorm in Hooper.  We went to visit Ryan and this was what we saw.  It was very shocking and we were very grateful we hadn't went over earlier in the day as we had planned.  We also felt very blessed that his headstone wasn't damaged.  

The branch was huge.  A tractor had to come over and move it.  It was fun to watch.

 Check out how funny looking the tree looks now




June 15

 Ethan was so excited with the pocket knife he got from cub scout camp




June 16

Adam enjoyed playing baseball this year.  It was fun to watch him.





June 19-22

Our ward hosted a family trek to Martin's Cove this summer.  It was an amazing experience.  The boys did great.  They had so much fun pulling the hand carts.  The last day I joked and bet them they couldn't pull the last 3 miles by themselves.  The took me up on the best.  Adam was smart and asked if he could split the $20 and have someone help him.  He and Josh pulled the entire 3 miles (other than a few places in the sand that would have been impossible).  Wow.  What troopers.  Ethan wanted to do it on his own.  He did his best but we of course had to help a little.  I couldn't give him the full $20 from my because he didn't do it by himself and so I gave him $10 and Mike gave him $10.  That way I was still able to hold up to the deal.  The boys sure surprised us and I have learned to be careful what I bet because sometimes I lose.  All in all trek was amazing and I would actually go again.  My first trek had been about 14 years ago and it took me that long to want to go again, but this one was great and I would go again next year if asked.  I am so thankful for all the pioneers and all the sacrifices they made for me and my family.






A crazy tradition we have done for years.

June 23


Fun at the pool.  The boys are very brave going off the high dive.

Adam


Ethan

June 26, 2017



Adam in the chicken coop.

June 29