Josh Groban!

On August 20th Ryan and I got to go to the Josh Groban concert. It was AMAZING! I don't care what music you like, his voice is just incredible. I love listening to exception singer! He actually had quite a personality too and it was a great concert! Ryan surprised me with the tickets for Mother's Day and I was thrilled. It was a fun suprise to get there and see we were only 8 rows from the front! So neat! My friend Drea actually got to go back stage and meet him... she had her camera and shared these pictures with me :) Oh.. and there was an amazing piano player that opened for him! So incredible!

Super Sunday!

One Sunday we got invited to our friend the Nye's home for dinner. The food was delicious and we had so much fun chatting! The kids had a great time racing through the house! They are the sweetest family and we have loved spending time with them!


Trying to pass the afternoon time by we had watermelon for a snack... Casen wanted this piece all to himself :)


Then he got creative and made this watermelon sandwich - yum!


Brinley, Janson, Natalie, and Casen. So much character in these kiddos!


Go boys!




Casen probably stood in this position a dozen time insisting on Jessica taking his picture! His tough face :)

Marlee is 6 months old!!

I can't believe that my little Marlee Jane is 6 months old!! How does the time fly!? I LOVE her more each day. She really does bring so much joy to my life right now!

- She started rolling over at about 4 months
- Got 2 TEETH at 4.5 months
- Finally sat up the day before 6 months... she doesn't get much floor time... it's for her own safety, floor time is usually after Casen the Crazy is in bed!
- Loves to laugh and be tickled
- So happy in the morning, I love waking up to her smiling face!
-Started eating foods at 5 months... refuses all kids of "baby cereals" and most veggies. But she loves the "green smoothies" I make her and freeze. Currently she is enjoying our tomatoe-cucumber-spinach-sweetpotato-carrot-strawberry-banana-blueberry version. The kids love it too and always try and steal her "baby food"
- Won't take a bottle for anything, used to just be formula she refused and now it is pretty much any bottle... so different from the other kiddos... this is going to have to change!
- Had serious stranger anxiety from 3.5-5.5ish months, but had been doing much better the past couple weeks, yay!
-She loves her exersaucer and can be found there after nearly every feeding while her tummy settles.
- She loves to "talk" and I LOVE to listen to it. I think it might just be the sweetest sound in the world... right up there with her laugh ofcourse.
- Marlee loves her siblings, and especially loves when Brinely talks to her in her sweet "baby" voice. Marlee lights up every time.
- Marlee is always such a good sport and puts up with everywhere we take her.

I just can't get enough of this girl and am so grateful she joined our family!

Finished the Doctrine and Covenants!

We recently finished reading the Doctrine and Covenants (Scripture containing modern revelation given to the early saints of the LDS church, mainly through Joseph Smith). It is our 3rd set of children's scriptures we have finished as a family, and we are now working on our final book, the Old Testament. We try to do something fun after each book. The first two books we went bowling, but this time we just did a little picnic at the park. It was fun just being together and enjoying the fun park!

Mount Charleston with the girls!

During Madeline and Brooklyn's trip we headed up to Mount Charleston (just 30 min from home) to enjoy some cooler weather and have a little picnic. Brooklyn had the camera most the time, which added up to a TON of pictures so it earned it's own post :) It was so nice and beautiful up there! Wish we could go every week during the summer!


We found these giant teeter-toters (sp?). The kids loved them despite them being a little on the dangerous side!


This small one was a little more kid friendly :)


The girls, Brinley and Casen all worked together to give this giant tree a hug... you can't see Brinley in this picture...


But she insisted on one with her in it :)


Stinkin sucker! Oh well, I like the picture anyway!




Brooklyn got some great close-ups of the girls

My Boy





The meadow we went to is just a couple miles from the ski resort, pretty nice view!

Brooklyn and Madeline come to visit!

After Lake Powell Brooklyn and Madeline came home with us and stayed for 8 days! It was so fun having them and they were so helpful! We're excited to have them come next summer!



We swung by the St. George temple on our way home... it is beautiful and despite the many times we've been by, I've never been in it! Hopefully before we leave Las Vegas!


After a big trip, Marlee helped me unpack!


It rained the day after we got home, and we enjoyed it as always.


Brooklyn made these cute little headbands for Brinley, Marlee and I :) Thanks Brooklyn!


I asked the girls what food they missed the most from Russia and they said Borscht... it is a soup with beets. I had never made it before, but I gave it a go and the girls helped. Ryan was excited too because he missed this soup from his mission.


It was loaded with other veggies too... onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, and cabbage.

The final product. The have to admit, it was delicious! And so healthy. Definitely have to make this one again!



I had saved up quite a bit of old bread and we headed to Floyd Lamb to feed the ducks, geese, etc!


I love this face


Brooklyn had the camera and got lots of shots for us!


This is what happens when someone else hold the camera... proof I go on all these outings :)


I love this one of Brinley, throwing bread so hard it brings her toes off the ground!


Go Case!


Oh man, he went to far...


And was NOT very happy about it :( I promise I helped him, Brooklyn just happened to be holding the camera and grabbed these!



So many geese, they go crazy when they see food! We had to run back to our car!


Brinley went to "Princess camp" and loved it! She made her very first cake! Strawberry and it was delicious!


I took the girls shopping and it was fun to go out with just them!


After Brinley and Casen's well visits, we headed to the YMCA pool and had a great time! I just had my phone, so not a lot of pics!





One of the days the girls (and I helped a little) cleaned out Ryan and I's cars! Inside and out, 2.5 hours! They were so sweet, and I was very grateful!

Brooklyn filled a balloon up with a thank you note and other little notes for me to say thank you! It was very sweet. I have 2 thoughtful little sisters!