My 3 oldest boys decided to wear white t-shirts one day. I can tell my kids apart, but Parker came walking by me with his white t-shirt on, and I just saw him out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was Jaxon, so I started talking to him like he was Jaxon. Keaton came running up and laughing and said, “That’s not Jaxon!” I looked up and there was Parker standing in front of me. Now Keaton is catching up to Parker in height, so it was funny when they all wore these white t-shirts. I felt like I had triplets.

Well, here I am being pregnant….The first two pictures were taken the first part of June.

…and are you ready for this last picture? I’ve really blossomed this last month.

Wow! No wonder I’ve been so uncomfortable this last month. I think my belly is getting bigger by the minute! This was taken this last weekend.

We actually took a vacation this year. It was really fun….for most of it. We went on a lot of hikes. I didn’t take that many pictures. Scott took a lot more pictures and got a lot better pictures than I did, but he wanted to post his pictures he took on his blog, so I am only going to steal a couple of his pictures.

Here’s how the vacation went:

Day 1: Drove to my parent’s house and stayed the night

Day 2: Went to church

Day 3: Drove to calf creek. Approximately 1 hour after we arrived, Berkley fell and hit the van (I think…neither Scott or I saw him fall, we just heard the screaming), and cut his face open just below his eye. We drove back to escalante, where they put 3 or 4 stitches in, and luckily it didn’t cut the corner of his eye open or else we would have had to go somewhere else where a specialist could stitch his eye. He looks really dirty in the pic, but amazingly somehow the stitches stayed very clean. This is one of scott’s photos. I’m not sure why, but when you tell Berkley to smile, this is what he does.

Day 4: Went on a 2 mile (4 mile roundtrip) hike to a natural bridge. I didn’t really take any pictures on this hike. So, I will wait for Scott to post some. The kids did really good. We crossed a river 5 different times to get there. At one spot it was deep enough for them to stop and swim for awhile.

Day 5: Hiked to calf creek falls…..Super awesome hike, but long. It his 6.8 miles roundtrip. We took our time and let the kids go slow and took lots of breaks. We left about 8:30 am and got back around 5:30 pm. We stayed at the falls for a few hours. The kids had a lot of fun at the falls. They swam, built sandcastles, and played a lot.

Here they are starting out on the hike. Everything was going good.

Then, Keaton got tired, and decided to hold onto the backpack Scott had on. So not only was Scott carrying Berkley on his back, but he was also pulling Keaton along on the trail.

Scott gave the kids rides on his back.

This is the waterfall at the end of the hike. It was sooooo hot hiking to the falls, but when right before you get to the waterfalls, all the sudden there are a whole bunch of trees, and the temperature drops drastically, and the water is nice and cool. Hopefully Scott can get some of his pictures up soon. He has some good pictures.

Day 6: Scott’s parents joined us and we hiked the upper falls trail. It was a steep hike. I think this hike was 3 miles roundtrip.This hike also had a neat waterfall at the end, but I liked the other waterfall better. didn’t really get any pictures on this hike.

Day 7: Drove to Green River and stayed in a motel. I got to shower…..that felt soooooo good.

Day 8: Drove to the San Rafael Swell, and looked at a few things out there…..Oh I forgot to mention throughout this whole trip, Jaxon was keeping track of how many lizards everyone saw. He wanted to make a pie chart when we got home of all the lizards everyone saw, but I think he forgot. I think he ended up seeing about 51 lizards, and with Grandma Davis’s help, he even caught one. He also became quite the dragonfly catcher. I’m not sure how he caught so many of those poor dragonflies, but he somehow figured out how to catch them……anyways, we went to the San Rafael Swell mostly to go see the government caves. Scott and I had gone there with the LDS institute class when we were attending CEU. The caves were really awesome. I guess the government built these caves and were going to use them as an underground protection site, but it turned out the caves ended up not being sturdy enough, so they didn’t use them. Anyhow, from what I can remember they were super awesome. But, when we got there we found that the caves had been mostly destroyed and it was also gated off. I was disappointed to see all the grafitti everywhere, and the terrible things written all over the rocks. It was obvious it had become some kind of “party” place for young kids. That part of the trip was dissappointing for Scott and I…..However, the kids loved it. They found a bunch of bullet shells, and even some bullets that hadn’t been used yet. They could have cared less about the caves. They were more excited about how many bullets they found.

Then, after being disappointed at the caves we drove out the “wedge” overlook. It’s a really neat overlook, and I don’t think I got any pictures of the overlook, but I did get some other interesting pictures.

It’s not really a vacation unless you get a flat tire is it? What’s even worse than having a flat tire?

Our spare tire was also flat. It was a good thing Scott’s parent’s were there. Him and his dad jumped in there car and raced back to town, and were able to get the tire fixed right before the shop was going to close. Scott’s mom and I stayed at the van with all the kids, and suprisingly it wasn’t all that bad. Scott and his dad were back a lot faster than I thought they would be, and everyone was okay…..kind of. I can’t remember what point this happened, but at some point while we were at the overlook, Keaton was messing around and pulling on Grandpa Davis’s shirt. Grandpa told him to stop, but he didn’t listen, and he fell and smacked his head on a rock. There was blood all over, and I couldn’t tell if it was bad enough to need stitches, but we got the bleeding to stop, and then went into town and ate dinner at Wendy’s. Keaton wore Grandpa’s hat to hide the blood in his super white hair. It seemed like he was doing fine, until we got home late that night. I went and put Keaton to bed, and a while later heard him crying. I went down to see what was wrong and there was blood all over his pillow. So, Scott and I got out the super glue and glued his head shut. I think I need to start taking super glue with me wherever I go. It’s a good alternative to stitches. We did make it home, so that was good. It really was a fun trip for the most part, and I was amazed at how well the kids did with all the hiking. Over all we hiked 13.8 miles…..I think. I think I remembered the miles right on all those hikes.

Here are a few more pictures from the trip:

Jaxon and one of the dragonflies he caught, and Scott “Bear Grylls.” To stay cool Scott got one of his shirts wet and put it on his head.

And for those who want to see some pregnant shots of me, I will put some up another day. I’ve spent too long on the blog. I even had to kick Scott off the computer, so I could “quickly” update my blog. Now he needs the computer back.

We went to the library yesterday, and I got a “How to Draw Bugs” book. I mostly got it for myself, since my kids always want me to draw them pictures and I’m not very good. Well, Parker saw the book and spent the next hour drawing on the chalkboard. I think he has his Dad’s talent. He drew all of the bug pictures himself. Nobody helped him at all.

Pretty impressive, don’t you think?

Keaton has been trying to ride a bike with training wheels. Before he used this bike, he was riding a little tricycle. It’s pretty hard for him. Getting his left leg to work right is really difficult for him, but he’s been practicing and can now peddle by himself. He just has trouble stopping. And, his left foot slips off the peddle a lot, so Scott tried strapping his foot to the peddle. It worked pretty good. He’s taken a few spills, so it’s been hard convincing him to ride it some more. But, the therapists said if he would start riding a bike it would really strengthen his scrawny little leg, so that’s what we are trying to do.

Here he is riding by himself. He’s doing soooooo good. Just about a week and a half ago he got another round of botox in his leg. And, yesterday they casted him. The botox seems to be working a little better this time, so that’s good. Scott took him to get his cast on. Keaton has been following Scott around lately….he’s Scott’s little shadow. So, I had Scott take him to get the cast on, because when I take him he always ends up trying to kick the therapist, and screams and cries. But, Scott said he did really good. He just sat there while they put the cast on. I think it was fun for him to have time with just Scott. After he got the cast on, Scott took him to get some ice cream bars. He seemed pretty happy when he got home. So far he’s doing pretty good with the cast. He has asked me to take it off a few times, but he’s been a lot milder than he ever has been. At his appointment with the therapist before he had the botox, the therapist was amazed again at how well he’s doing. He just gets around so well, and doesn’t let anything stop him, which is good, but I think the therapist doesn’t know what to do with him anymore. I think it’s kind of pointless for us to take him to physical therapy. He does his own therapy at home by wrestling, playing baseball, playing soccer, and lots of other stuff. So, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. I guess maybe take him every 6 months or so to make sure he’s still doing good.

The hard thing with Keaton lately has been all his questions. I expected him to question his differences at some point, but not this soon. For a few days he kept coming up to me and saying, “Mommy, why am I different?” I was surprised and didn’t really know what to say. And, now with his cast, he has been asking me, “Why do I have a cast?” He wants to know why he has to have a cast and his brothers and friends don’t. So other than answering his hard questions he really is doing great.

And here are his broken glasses. He had these for approximately one month. He’s so hard on his glasses. I really don’t know what to do anymore. If anyone knows of any “Keaton proof” glasses, please let me know!!

Parker had another eye appointment. I always get so nervous at those appointments. Before we went he had been complaining that his eyes hurt when he went out in the sun, and his eyes would water really bad. I always think they are going to say he has inflammation in them, but once again they were free from any cells. So, we just keep doing what we are doing, and he gets his meds once a week. It was such good news to hear that his eyes were okay. I was soooooo excited, and I’m praying that it stays that way.

Parker got a slip and slide for his bday from his nice auntie. Since then the kids have been watching the weather everyday to see if it would be warm enough to use it. One day was finally a little warmer, and I gave in to their begging and got it out. I think they loved it, but it was still kind of cold, so they only lasted for a few minutes. You can see Berkley above. That is as far as he made it on the slip and slide. He didn’t really like getting wet.

Scott decided to put a chalkboard wall in our kitchen since our kids are constantly writing on the walls. It turned out really good. In the pic above, Keaton was writing on it for the first time, and below is what it looks like now. The kids have stopped drawing on the walls so much, but Berkley did draw on the chalkboard with some crayons….But for the most part it’s been really good. The kids love the chalkboard and I even like drawing on it sometimes.

Here’s some more pix of Parker’s bday:

(Above) Parker sword fighting Darth Maul.

I’m not sure why, but the kids wanted to make it look like they were standing on darth vader’s head.

Getting rid of Darth Vader.

Scott “vader” losing the battle to the Jedi.

I’m not sure what this is, but I think he was excited about getting money for his Bday.

A few things and stories about Parker:

* I like to call Parker Mr. T…short for Mr. Tease. He LOVES to tease, but the good thing about him is, he is good at taking a joke, too. If someone teases him he can easily laugh it off.

* Parker asked me once if I would please call him “Jumper” instead of Parker, because of how much he likes to jump….and it’s true, Parker is always jumping off of something. Mostly it’s the couches, but it drives me crazy. I just know he’s going to hurt himself one of these days.

* For some reason when we pray as a family, Parker usually ends up giggling through the whole prayer. Not funny for me, but he has that cute smile, so I can’t ever stay mad at him.

* Even though he loves to tease, he also watches out for his brothers. A few times as Scott and I have gotten the kids gathered up to leave to go somewhere in the van, one of the boys for some reason doesn’t cooperate, and ends up throwing a tantrum. Whoever the tantrum thrower is, sometimes I will tell them we are going to leave them home….which of course we would never do, so I’m not sure why I make that threat in the first place. But, there have been times, when we’ve gotten everyone in the car except the tantrum thrower, and Parker will start crying and begging us not to leave his brother behind. Another time, I had taken the 3 younger kids to the store to shop for groceries while Jaxon was in school. I told them if they were good I would let them pick out a treat at the end. Well, Keaton ended up getting too many warnings, and so I finally told him he would not be getting a treat. Of course he started to cry and I saw Parker walk over to him and try to tell him it would be okay. So, when I got done shopping I let Berkley and Parker pick out their treats, and reminded Keaton he wouldn’t get one. So, yeah you guessed it, he cried some more. I paid for the groceries and handed Parker and Berkley their treats, while dragging screaming Keaton to the car. As I was putting the kids in their car seats, Parker quietly asked me if he could please give his treat to Keaton. I honestly didn’t even know how to respond. I didn’t want to let Keaton think he would get a treat even though he was bad, but Parker was willing to go without so Keaton could have a treat. I allowed Parker to give Keaton his treat, and was amazed at how kind and loving he could be. He’s such a good example for me.

* Parker potty trained himself just after he turned two years old. I had just finished potty training Jaxon, which had been a nightmare, so I decided to wait to potty train Parker. But, after we moved into our house, I kept finding Parker diaperless. He was taking his diaper off and actually using the bathroom, only I didn’t know he was really using the bathroom. He would flush the toilet, so I really didn’t know he was going, and I kept getting mad at him for taking his diaper off all the time. Well, one day he must have forgot to flush the toilet and I finally realized he really was using the bathroom. He was by far the easiest kid to potty train.

* The second Parker wakes up is a big wrestling match with Jaxon and Keaton. Our house is wrestle mania.

* Also just after Parker turned 2, he was diagnosed with JRA. It was all so devastating and upsetting at first, but he’s learning how to deal with it all and so are the rest of us. I used to wonder if for some reason our family was being punished because of all the problems we were having.  I don’t think it’s unnatural to think that, but I started obssessing over it a little too much. But, one day when I was studying the scriptures I came across this story in the bible in the book of John, and I finally felt okay with everything:

John 9:1-3,6,7

1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was ^ablind from his birth.

2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this ^aman, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Parker turned 6 years old, and we had a small bday party for him. For part of the party, Scott drew this awesome picture of darth vader on the driveway, and then we let the kids throw water balloons at him to “kill” him. After they got all the black off the sidewalk, Vader was officially gone. Also, for the party, I decided to get the swimming noodles and was going to make swords out of them, or light sabers. I thought I would just put black tape on the bottom of them and let them be floppy so there would be no chance of hurting each other. Well, Scott saw the noodles and asked me what I was going to do with them, and I told him, and he got all excited and went to the store and bought pipe to put in the middle of them and made them look all cool. I’m not sure who had more fun with the light sabers, him or the kids. The kids still love sword fighting him with them.

Scott “Vader” fighting off the Jedi Knights.