June 2011

Nicole with cute pony tails.

On our way to Colorado to visit Grandma Drake - leaving Spanish Fork through the canyon.

Our traditional pit stop in Grand Junction Colorado - the visitor's center. There is a picnic table right under this tree we eat lunch at. The kids wanted to climb the tree.

A rest stop up near Loveland Pass. Yes, it's June and there is that much snow up there! That's why we avoid winter trips to grandma's house in the middle of winter, too dangerous with all the snow.

Same rest stop - Reason #1 I love Colorado?! There is a ton of snow, but the sun is shining and it's warm enough for short sleeves! People really can ski in the winter with short sleeves some days!

Rest Stop closer to Denver, lower elevation. There was still snow, but this was when the whole nation was dealing with flooding. You can see the raging Colorado River waters! 

Chasing bunnies (we call them all Fred) at Grandma's house.

Visiting the park in Littleton where Jeremy proposed to me.

The Denver Temple - a whole 15 minutes away from my mom's house.

We took the kids after church to go see it.

 Reading stories with grandma Drake.

Running trains with Grandpa Hermes

 Natalie turned 5 this month! I can't believe how big she is getting. We decided to just have family parties this year with all the kids.

Cousin Ellie was born! We are so happy for Jake and Marcee, she is such a cutie and the kids are excited to have a cousin close by to play with. Nicole is obsessed with Ellie. She pretends to call her on the phone a lot. haha

I learned a new craft - crochet. This was my second project. My first was a ball for the kitty. My first attempt looked more like a muffin, but my second try actually looked like a ball.

Jeremy took the kids fishing, which almost proved to be hazardous! Look closely at the next photo! Jeremy caught Nicole!!

This poor man trying to help Natalie almost got hooked too.

The final catch! Not too bad.

May- Part 2

Kai built his new ship in a hurry. I'm still proud of him for working hard to earn the money and for  saving it until he earned enough to reach his goal.

Kai's end of the year class performance.

Jeremy, Grandpa Nelson and Kai built a small go cart. They had a lot of fun pulling it with the jeep and racing it down the hill by our house.

 Natalie's Preschool graduation! 

Our annual yard sale, this time we teamed up with our friends the Walters. It was a fun and crazy morning! I think we'll do a repeat this coming summer. Natalie was our spokesperson for facebook advertising. I tried and tried to get a video of her saying, "We're having a yard sale this Saturday." This was one of the funny out takes:

What's better than a yard sale? 50% off all the junk left! haha We do this every year during the last hour and get swamped with people.

May Family Pictures - Part 1

May was another big month for us, big enough that I need two posts!

Trying to get Natalie's hair curly. Taken with my iphone

Last month we bought chickens and a duck and Jeremy and our friend Steve built a chicken coop. The kids helped us paint it red! Notice how Natalie is in the same dress? A friend gave it to her and she wanted to wear it everyday for a while.

The finished product!

Natalie has a bad habit of hoarding! We had issues last december with her snatching baby Jesus from every nativity we came across. Now she is randomly taking things and hiding them under her bed.

Mostly things she is not allowed to have - my nail polish and makeup, candy. One morning we found a loaf of bread though; she claimed she was hungry!

My friend Debbie and I went to DI to find a small table for the studio. I found this and painted it blue. I think it looks really nice in here!

May brought lots and lots of rain, so much that we had flood warnings and worries that the river right across the street from us would overflow. This is a picture of the water flooding part of our walking trail. There used to be a sidewalk going under the bridge, but it is completely covered by ice cold water.

 The city was so worried about flooding that they widened the river banks, tore out a bunch of trees, and parked these cranes along the walking trail in case of debris blocking the water flow which would cause the river to overflow its banks.

We also got some answers concerning Nicole's stomach troubles. We had been waiting months to see a specialist. Until now we had been told from blood tests, that she was allergic to wheat, egg whites and milk. Not good news, that diet was so hard to maintain for her. Our specialist said he needed to do a colonoscopy to look inside her bowels, do biopsies and check her stomach. So we made a trip to primary children's hospital.

Kai had a procedure done when he was little and I forgot a camera. he looked so adorable in his little scrubs and I was so sad I don't have a picture of it. So I was determined to remember a camera this time. We got there only to realize we had left the battery at home in the charger. So I took some with my iphone instead, not the best quality, but at least we have some memories!

Here she is in her gown early in the morning, excited to be playing with toys and getting attention. I was in the middle of doing yarn extensions, but hadn't finished, so she looks like she has a mullet! haha

The results of all the tests showed she has Toddler's Diarrhea- meaning her stomach cannot break down the enzymes in fruit. So all we have to do is avoid fruit and fruit juice and she will grow out of it.

After she was done it was a different story, she just wanted to be cuddled, she didn't like being stuck in her little bed.

By the middle of the month our chickens were getting big!

 Kai saved enough money to buy a lego set he had his eye on. We were proud that he saved for so long!

This was my Mothers Day morning surprise. Jeremy and the kids made breakfast and wrote me letters!

April Family Pictures

April was a busy month, which is why I'm behind again! Here's a quick taste of the highlights:

Natalie and I had a play dough feast one day!

Kai is way into Star Wars now and wanted me to paint his face like Darth Mal, so I tried my best! haha

So of course the girls wanted to get in on the face painting too! Nicole is a kitty, Natalie wanted to be a butterfly, and Vada wanted to be a doll.

Here are my little Indians. They wore their Indian clothes to church in April. I still need to take them to the Indian Temple here and do some real pictures before they outgrow their clothes!!

Speaking of Temples...we all took a fun day trip to the Salt Lake Temple. The kids were excited to have a train ride.

The beginnings of our chicken coop by Jeremy. He was too busy to stop for a picture.

April [snow storms] bring May flowers???? We got so many huge snow storms in April!

The cat was not amused!

Our silly kitty loves to be tortured and snuggled! The kids had a long nap during conference!

Old MacDonald had a farm..... Meet Belle, Anikin Skywalker, and Eggbert. Can you guess who is who and who named who?!

The girls love to play salon now with me as their client. Mostly it's fun, but sometimes I look a little scary afterwards! haha

The Easter Bunny was lazy this year and just left baskets and a few eggs to find around the house.