June

It's been such a busy, fun summer!  And I have been horrible about recording any of it, but hopefully I will do better for the rest of the summer...

1. Isabelle had an end-of-school party with a few of her good friends and two great brothers!
Below: Jace, David Green, Nolan, Isabelle, Niyah, Sharly Widerburg and Abram

2.Nolan had a friend birthday party:

Bryce Wilson, Nolan and Adam Peterson:

Pace excited everyone when he got hold of the hose and started spraying everyone.  No one could get it away for quite some time because he drenched them when they tried!

3. Nolan got baptized!:

I really like this picture of the grandpas at the baptism:)

4. We went to Oregon to hear mom and dad report on their mission, and enjoyed time with family!

It is so fun to see so many teenager cousins around! I need to be better about taking pictures so that I have more pictures of all ages though.

l-r: Ila, Katie, Kami, Caden, Gracie, Emmie, Abby and Micah:

And other cousins of all ages!
Caleb, Isabelle, Isaiah, Joshua:

Kylee, Abram:

Heidi and cute Spencer who had just helped himself to some cake!:

Ori and I watching our little ones and visiting:

l-r: Abby, Adam, Matt, Gracie, Kelly, Dad:

popular uncle Adam:

Micah, Caden, Gracie, Isaac, Ila, Anne and Kami:

l-r: Anne, Isabelle, Micah, Isaac, Kami, Gracie, Abby, Ila

Below is my nephew Thomas and my niece Lydia, carrying the tractor that Pace rode half way to their house:)  One week before this picture was taken, Thomas was found floating in their pond.  His eight year old brother pulled him out and my SIL began CPR on him.  He was blue and wasn't breathing.  She got him breathing before the paramedics arrived, and they spent the next 4 or 5 days in the intensive care unit, but he is completely okay!  I count this as one of the greatest blessings of my life!  That was such a scare.

5. Mom and dad came up to watch the kids while the girls and I were at girl's camp.  I was SO grateful for this!  I had friends who had offered to watch them, but I always feel like I am really putting people out when they watch my kids, and I was so much more comfortable to have my parents do it. They are always so much fun for the kids!  The kids report that they took them to swimming lessons every day, and took them to the splash park and to ride the carousel twice.  Dad made TWO treasure hunts for them, and played all sorts of games with them, and read to them.  Mom cooked delicious meals.  I am so glad the kids got to spend time with them!

6. The week before girls camp all I could do was girl's camp stuff.  I told the kids that I wouldn't be doing any housework, so they would need to help if it mattered to them.  Nolan completely took over the laundry.  I couldn't believe all that he did!  He kept up with the wash, keeping the machines going, and folding all the clothes, and carrying everyone's clothes to their rooms at the end of each day.  Seriously.  Isn't that amazing?!?!?:

7. Our dishwasher broke a couple of days before I left for girl's camp, which, I'm sure wasn't very convenient for my mom.  It's not convenient for any of us, but I have to say that I have really enjoyed it when I don't have something really pressing to do.  I have had such great conversations with whoever helps me with the dishes, and have heard others do the same when it is their turn:

Abram helping mom:)

8. I loved spending time with the girls from our ward for girl's camp!  Kami was one of my assistants and it was SO GREAT!!! I was so lucky to get to spend that time with two of my own girls. All of the girls are so wonderful - we would love it so much if we could do a ward girls camp sometime!

Emmie Hansen, Libby Widerburg, and Ashtyn Ricks:

back row: Emmie Hansen, Mikaylie Judd, (Maddie behind her), Mckennah Roberts, Emily Haslem, Madelyn Robinson, Kami, Ashlyn Spencer

Front row: Ashtyn Ricks, Haylee Ricks, Madelyn McNair, Annabelle Haslem, Megan Clark and Evelyn Heiner:

Zoe and Whitney Ricks:

Shawn came up for bishopric night and got to spend time with us.  He and his counselors even brought us dinner!  They made Papa Murphey's pizza in a dutch oven, homemade root beer, a salad, and brought along artesan bread.  Then they played all sorts of games with the girls.

Shawn and Kami:

Shawn and me:

Brother Nielson with the root beer:

Below is a picture of Angie Roberts, our Young Women's president:

I have so much love and respect for her!  She is such a classy, faith filled, capable and amazing woman.  Life has not been easy for her:  her oldest son has type A diabetes, she lost a baby soon after it was born, and her second to youngest was born with a seizure disorder that has rendered her completely disabled.  In May her daughter had a surgery to correct her severely curved spine, and now the family needs to purchase a disability van for her because it's even harder to put her in and out of a car seat now that she can't even bend.  She is Isabelle's age and size and it was already hard the way it was!  Today our ward finished up a second fund raiser to help raise money for the van.  It's our second of the month and that has been a busy pass-time as well! I hope they can get a van soon!

Well, you did amazingly well if you made it to the end of this very long post!!

The help

It may not be the most convenient - he takes over whatever job I am trying to do- and it's definitely not the fastest.

But this is some VERY CUTE, mischievous help! He has insisted on wearing this hat, backwards, for days now:)

He's been helping Shawn tear out our driveway whenever he gets the chance.  There's always a little smile on his lips when he gets to do this, and he says, "whoa!!!" over and over again. He is very impressed with all things that "go" and particularly heavy machinery:

He's been keeping me company while I weed my flower beds:

On this particular day, I decided to keep him barefooted to see if it would slow him down for a little while.  And for a very little while it did!

His kind of help keeps us pretty busy!

Eight is great!

As of today, we have another eight year old in the house! He's been looking forward to this day for a long time;)  Two weeks ago, he was excited to go to church to see if his birthday was listed in the church bulletin.  I told him it would be another week before it would be in there, so yesterday before church he mentioned that HIS NAME WOULD BE IN THE BULLETIN!!!   It was the saddest thing.  We got there and he grabbed a bulletin and started searching through it.  Then he dejectedly handed it to me with tears in his eyes.  They had every birthday but his:( How ironic that he was probably the only one that it mattered to, and his was the only one missing.

We sure love this boy!  Today was pretty low key, but we tried  to make him feel special.  He and I made and dropped off birthday party invitations for the friend party that he will have later in the week, Shawn and I took him out to lunch, and we had gifts, cake and ice cream with the family.