So, I have a ton of pictures I’ve taken.  I have been practicing with the new camera, and I have even more pictures I want to put on here, but as I was uploading these pictures, Berkley found some sort of surprise on the floor, and was choking on it pretty badly, and it scared me to death, so I have to get off the computer.  I know, I know, I’ve turned into a blogging junkie.  I love putting pictures of my kids on here.  I love being a mom to my crazy boys, but I guess I need to do the blogging stuff when they are asleep……I’m not sure when that would be.  :)

My boys are on this kick lately of having “dinosaur hair.”  Whenever I comb their hair, they have to have dinosaur hair.  I think Jaxon is the one that came up with the idea.  I’m not even sure what they are envisioning dinosaur hair even is.  So, I just make their hair stick up as much as possible and they seem happy with it.  So here you have “dinosaur hair.”  I think Parker is a stegosaurus, and Keaton….well, I’m not sure which dinosaur Keaton’s hair is modeled after.  

Here is sweet little Berkley.  In the second picture he fell asleep on the bathroom floor.  I was trying to take a shower (which isn’t easy with 4 little boys running around!), and he ended up crying himself to sleep on the bathroom floor.  I was trying to hurry, but I guess I wasn’t fast enough.  

Parker and Keaton play a game they call “power rangers.”  They run as fast as they can at each other and then throw punches and hit and kick each other.  You would think they would cry and get mad at each other, but they always laugh, and think it’s so funny.  It must be a boy thing.  :)

This little dog is named Annie.  She’s our neighbor’s dog.  There aren’t really any kids on our street that are Jaxon’s age, so he will go over to the neighbor’s house and ask if their dogs can play.  It’s kind of funny. Annie loves to play basketball.  She seriously can get the ball, and then she goes crazy and runs a circle around the ball, and won’t let the kids get it.  So, Jaxon was trying not to let her get the ball.  He finally decided the wagon was a good idea, and Annie chased him all over the yard.  It’s pretty funny to watch.

I have been messing around with the new camera, and taking tons of pictures.  Parker said he wanted me to take a picture of him, so I did.  I was holding Berkley the same time I was taking the picture, so it came out blurry.  I let the kids have a couple of cookies to eat outside, and as you can see in the picture, Parker was holding his cookie in his hand while posing.  I guess Jaxon saw a huge opportunity, and decided then would be a good time to try and steal Parker’s cookie.  :)  I didn’t even notice that when I took the picture.  I didn’t see the little thieving hand until I looked on the screen after I had taken it.  

Then, Berkley decided to try Jaxon’s trick.  I guess Parker seems to be the easiest target.  Ha Ha.  

Any guesses as to who this handsome young man is?  This is my dad on his mission.  He served in the raratonga mission or also called the cook islands.  I liked this picture, so I thought I would put it on the blog.  That’s a turtle shell hanging on the wall in the background.  Scott and I are trying to scan all of my dad’s old mission photos—all of his pictures are on slides, and get them printed.  We’ve had the slides for about 2 years now, and we still need to scan a ton of them.  I know, we are slackers.  But, I love his mission pictures, so hopefully sometime soon we can put some more of them up on the blog.  This picture wasn’t actually one of his slides.  One of my dad’s old mission companions sent it to him.

So, this is Parker.  I had to write about this sad thing that happened this morning.  Today Parker has an appointment with his rheumatologist (Parker has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis).  At breakfast I was telling Parker we were going to go see his doctor.  Parker got a sad look on his face and tears started to form in his eyes, and his voice started to get all shaky.  Then, he asked me if they were going to give him a shot.  I wish I could have told him no, but Parker has to have his blood drawn every time we go to his appointments.  So, I told him they were going to have to give him a shot, and he was about to cry, but then I told him he would get a prize after.  They always have little prizes for the kids after they get their blood drawn.  When I said that, Parker’s faced lightened up a little, and he forced a little smile on his face, and tried to blink back the tears.  Anyway, it was just one of those moments when I wanted to cry, too.  The poor kid has to get shots all the time.  Right now he gets one shot of chemotherapy a week, plus every two months he has to get his blood drawn.  Having sick kids has been the most awful, but one of the biggest learning experiences I’ve ever had.  Trying to explain your feelings in words doesn’t work.  But, I can say this, when I first learned about Parker and Keaton’s problems, I was obviously heartbroken, but once you get past that stage things do get better.  Every once in a while all the pain and sadness comes back, but it doesn’t last long.  Ironically enough it is those two little boys that keep me going.  As long as they aren’t hurting too much they are so happy, and I really admire how heroic they have been as they have battled their physical problems.  I’m grateful for the experiences and the things I’ve learned, but I honestly don’t wish this on anyone else.  But, anyway, our family is doing really good—so I don’t want to make it sound like we are just sad.  We have a lot to be happy and thankful for.  I just love my little family.

Sometimes Keaton gets so tired that he can’t stand it and will get a blanket and just crash wherever he is. But, in this picture he carefully picked out a spot to lay down, and even got himself a pillow.  This is Berkley’s little bouncy chair, but for some reason Keaton loves the chair, and whenever Berkley’s not in it, Keaton will sit in it.  I guess it looked good enough to sleep in, too.  :)  It looks so comfortable.  

Berkley got his first tooth.  Scott got a picture of it.  He took this picture with my new camera.  I got a new camera for my birthday…one that Scott can stand to use.  It has Scott’s name engraved on the outside of it, so I’m not sure what that was all about.  Just kidding.  We have been playing with it and seeing how it works.  I’m still figuring it out, but it’s a lot of fun.  I gave my old camera to Jaxon, and he has been taking pictures of everything.  

Let me just start with a birthday song….You’re the birthday, You’re the birthday, You’re the birthday boy or girl! (For those of you wondering what the heck the song is…It’s a song they had on Simpson’s once.  Scott is a Simpson’s junkie) So, today is Scott’s birthday, and I scrounged up some old photos of him from the good old CEU days to put on here, but as I am really dumb when it comes to computers, I’m not sure I’m going to get them on here.  I’m trying to scan them and put them on, but it’s taking a really long time.  I’ve decided I need to take more pictures of Scott.  He’s always the one with the camera, and I love the pictures he takes, so I haven’t worried too much about getting my camera out.  

So, this is the handsome Scott Davis.  Scott loves volkswagen vans and his recumbent bike.  I have a picture of our old van, but I’m not sure I have one of his recumbent bike.  

We used to own this fun little volkswagen van, but since it only seated 5 people, and now we have a family of 6, we had to sale it.  The kids loved it, too.  I think the one that complained about it the most was, of course, me.  It was hard to drive, and I really needed a reliable van so I could take kids to all of their appointments.  

Well, I found one picture of his recumbent bike.  Parker snuck into the garage and was trying to ride it while Scott was gone.  You can’t see the whole thing due to my shaky photography skills.  Scott has been riding his bike to work everyday. It’s nice for me, because then I can have the van, and go to the store if I need to. The kids love his bike, too, and whenever Scott’s not looking they will run and jump on. 

Scott also loves hiking, and he likes to take the kids hiking.  He’s a really good dad.  We went to a ward camp out about a year ago, and Scott took the kids all over on some little hikes, and one of the ward members commented to me about how Scott really enjoys his kids, and how it seems like he just really likes being a dad, and it’s true.  Well, I could say so much about Scott, but I’m not sure everyone wants to hear all the mushy details.  He has been an amazing husband and father.  We definitely don’t have a perfect marriage, but I can honestly say it just keeps getting better.  Scott has always been good at making me laugh.  That was one of the first things I fell in love with. At CEU whenever Scott was in the room, everyone was laughing.  I remember when I first started to get to know Scott, I really wanted to be a better person when I was around him.  I will just end this by telling you of one cool experience that happened to me right when CEU was getting over and Scott and I were about to graduate.  The last semester at CEU, Scott and I started hanging out quite a bit, and I even had people asking me if Scott and I were dating, and of course I would always say no.  I considered Scott a good friend, but at that point in my life I really wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.  So, one day I sat there deep in thought–just thinking about school, and where my life was going and what I wanted to do, and all the decisions I was going to have to make, and all of the sudden out of nowhere this image came into my head.  It was me and Scott standing next to each other and we were married.  I didn’t know what to think about it, and so I decided to pray about why that would have just popped into my head.  Before that time, I really hadn’t ever thought of me and Scott ending up together.  And, after I prayed about it, I did receive an answer about why that happened, and the answer wasn’t that I was supposed to marry Scott, or that I was supposed to wait for him while he served a mission.  The answer was something like this (I didn’t have words or anything come into my head, just a clear impression.  It’s kind of hard to explain).  ”Remember this young man and what a good person he is, and remember how strong of a testimony he has.  When you get married, this is the kind of person you want to marry.”  So, as Scott left for his mission and I went off to school at USU, I just tried to keep that experience with me.  As I met and dated other boys, I would think often of that experience, and decide if the boy I was hanging out with or dating was strong like Scott had been.  Well, anyway, to make a long story short, yes I ended up marrying Scott.  It was the best choice I ever made.  He’s been such a good husband, and I’m so glad to have him by my side.  We’ve been through a lot together, but I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have by my side through all the trials and hard times.  So, Scott, Happy Birthday, and I love you!

Oh–and yeah, I didn’t get the scanner to work, so you’ll have to wait for the CEU pictures.  I will have to have Scott help me.  I really need to take some computer classes.  :)

Here are some pictures of the kids with sparklers.  Keaton got his sparkler, and watched it for awhile, and then touched it with his other hand.  I guess I forgot that he didn’t know you aren’t supposed to touch it, so after that he wouldn’t do anymore fireworks.  

We decided to take a family vacation this summer, and Scott wanted to involve the kids in letting them pick where we go.  First, he asked Jaxon where we should go, and Jaxon said he would really like to go to the beach.  Then, he asked Parker and Parker wanted to go to Scott’s work.  And, Keaton said he would like to go to the park.  So, we ended up going to Bear lake, Minnetonka cave, and the ice caves.  It turned out to be really fun.  I think my favorite part was going to the beach at Bear Lake.  Since staying in cabins and motels is so expensive, we ended up camping out each night.  That wouldn’t have been so bad, except for the mosquitoes.  All the kids got eaten by the mosquitoes, and the repellent didn’t seem to do anything, so that part wasn’t so fun, but I have to say the rest of it turned out really good.  It was a really good trip.  We ended our trip at my sister’s house in Wyoming and celebrated the 4th of July with them.  Hopefully we can keep doing this every year.  It was nice for me to get out of the house and just be able to play with the kids. Scott really enjoyed it, too.  

Berkley didn’t like the water too much.  He mostly sat in the shade and chewed on the string cheese.

Jaxon and Parker took their little kick boards and tried to swim with them.  I think they could have stayed at the beach the whole week of the vacation.  They loved it.  I wouldn’t have minded staying longer, except we all ended up getting sunburnt.  I put a lot of sunblock on all the kids, but it still wasn’t enough.  No one got sunburnt too bad, but we figured it would be better not to stay out in the sun too much.

Keaton even had a lot of fun.  The water was really shallow where we were, and they could go out pretty far. Scott went out and played with Jaxon and Parker, and Keaton mostly stuck by me.  Even though Keaton is laying in the sand in the picture, he did spend most of his time in the water.  The kids keep telling us they want to go back to the beach.

Jaxon and Parker tried to surf with their little boards.  It was pretty funny.  Scott also helped them build a big sand castle.  I took a ton of pictures, but Scott told me I couldn’t put the pictures of him on the blog.  I think he didn’t want the whole world seeing him without a shirt on, but I did convince to lay down behind the castle so I could take a picture.  

This is the finished sand castle.  Scott spent a really long time working on this.  I’m not sure who had more fun at the beach–the kids or Scott.

Here’s Berkley hanging out in the shade.  I draped a towel over the picnic table and onto one of our camp chairs, so he could sit and lounge in the shade.  He actually did really good and didn’t cry too much–and he even had a tooth come in while we were on our trip.

MINNETONKA CAVE

After the beach, we went to Minnetonka cave to try and cool off a little.  This was fun, too.  We decided to go here,because kids six and under get in free, so all of our kids got in for free.  It’s a neat cave with lots of stalactites and stalagmites.  

ICE CAVES

Then we came to the ice caves.  We stayed here as long as we could, because the mosquitoes were so bad at our camp site.  All the kids complained, because they were cold.  Even though it was cold they still went on this little snow slide in the cave.  They all liked that.  Then, Jaxon laid down on the rock with a blanket, because he said his stomach was hurting.  I’m sure it was very comfortable.  Even though it was pretty cold and not very comfortable, it was still fun.  There was a part where you could crawl back through this crack in the cave and it opened up into a big room.  Pretty cool.  After we went to the ice caves, we went to Raymond, Idaho and stayed at Big Rock for a while.  Scott’s grandma grew up in Raymond, Idaho, and would go hang out at this place she called Big Rock.  I’m not sure if we got pictures of that part of the trip, but if we did, I will put them on later.  I also have fireworks pictures I wanted to put on here, but I have spent too much time on the computer and now my kids are going crazy.