Chalk Hands

Last night, while Shawn and I watched the final night at the National Republican Convention, the kids were doing this.

 I should have taken pictures of the kids when they were done. The ones I took of them, was when they were just getting started.  The sidewalk in the back yard was wet, and they made chalk paint and painted their hands on the side of the house, the side of the garage, the BBQ grill, Luckie's roof to the dog house, the yard waste can and on each other. We recorded a video to put on our yearly family video and some day they will laugh at what they did. The hand prints were so cute, and it made it that much harder to tell them not to do it.

We had to get the brush out and wash the side of the house with soap. The pink chalk left a small imprint and needed some extra care.  You should have seen the tub water when they were done being washed up.  Paige still had purple in her hair after I scrubbed her and Emma and Paige still had gray hands till this afternoon.  We are just so grateful it wasn't real paint.

Who's dirty Children are those?

At the early start of summer, I came to realize that I would see this several times during the summer.  Mud, children, summertime and water don't mix with out a mess.

 Paige doesn't like to be dirty, or even slightly messy for that matter.  She was quick to come in and change when she and Mason got into the dirt and decorated themselves with it. Mason on the other hand, would have stayed and played in his mess of a self if I would have left him to.  I am sure Mason's best friend is dirt or mud.

May 26,2012-Tangent

May fun in the Sun

One of our favorite things to do in the summertime is to play in the water. Since we don't have a pool, or a community pool close, we improvise. The kids have these super soakers that are easier to use than guns, and shoot a lot further than a squirt gun would shoot too.  They love playing with them, and love shooting each other.  I think that of all the kids, Mason loves it most and gets the most joy from doing anything with water, but when it hits him just right, loads of contagious laughter is bound to come with it.

 Filling up can be a challenge at the same time, especially if they are using a bucket. They have mastered the art of it though since they know that if they wait, their going to get wet while filling.  It took Mason and Paige a while to figure out house to fill up, but once they got it, they we're good as gold.

 And today, Dad just came home at the right time to join in the fun. Too bad he had papers and a computer in hand.  We really could of soaked him up good.

*May 15,2012- Tangent

Playing at the Park

My first outing with ALL 4 kids by my self was January 2, 2012. I needed to get the kids out of the house, I needed out of the house and the weather was prefect for doing so. Grandma Sanders made this had and glove set for Carter and I just couldn't help but take pictures. He is so cute. This was his first trip to the park. He lasted about 30 minutes before we had to get him home. I'd say that was success.

Paige was so cute swinging and running around wearing her shades. She was so happy to be running around and being happy. It had been a long month.

There was a big kid swinging next to Mason. He was probably 15-17 years old and was listening to his iPod. Mason kept saying to him "Hi, I'm Mason. Who are you?" I kept telling Mason he couldn't hear him, but he kept asking the kids the whole time he was on the swing. I laughed until I realized that he was getting quite frustrated and saw the start of a melt down. I quickly got him off the swing and playing on the jungle gym.

Carter sleeping and soaking up some sun.

We had so much fun playing. When we were leaving Emma asked if we could come back tomorrow...to which I had to say no since they started back to school from Christmas Vacation.

An Elk Hunt Visit

Shawn went on the Elk hunt Oct. 12-16, and the kids now realizing he's gone had some trauma about it. Thurday morning as we knelt in family prayer, minus Shawn, Emma started crying. When we were done with the prayer I asked her why she was crying. The answer "I miss my Dad!" Oh gee, I thought. We still have 4 days till he'd be home.

He wasn't very far away. He has a friend who has a cabin up Hobble Creek Canyon outside Springville, UT and was hunting there. So we arranged a visit for Saturday. The mountain side is so pretty in the fall. I just couldn't get over the colors. It reminded me so much of New England in the fall.

We borrowed the 4 wheelers and went for a ride. Luckie was with us and he ran/walked along side us the whole time. He truly was a trooper. Not being use to exercise like that, the poor dog was pooped by the time we left to go home.

When we got ready to leave the cabin, Mason went inside and hid. He didn't want to go, and wasn't so excited when we pushed him. It took a bit for him to warm up. He cried down the drive to the cabin, but once on the road we hit some bumps and the tears turned to laughs.

Paige and Emma are for sure going to be asking to do this again. The rode with Dad and loved every minute of it. I am sure when Emma gets older, she's gonna become her Dad's hunting partner. She wanted to stay with him so bad.

Shawn shot some beautiful pictures while he was out. We didn't go far enough up the mountain on our ride as we had Luckie running with us. It was just so beautiful. The pictures just don't do it justice.

We're hoping one day we will own some toys that we can take out as a family and enjoy the great outdoors together. For now, we are just grateful we have friends who let us use theirs.

Slip Slide

Yesterday, I took my the kids to the park. The kids all had fun. The playground is a bit different than the playgrounds they are use to. I think that it is built with kids of older ages in mind, but the little kids can still play around and on it. It took them a little bit to figure out what they liked. Paige swung on the swings for most of the time, something she loves at home also. The play structure has a tube slide Mason and Emma went down several times. When Paige saw them, she wanted to go, but when she got to the top of the slide, she froze. She went down a couple of times with Emma, and then Emma decided she was done. Paige decided she was not, but she wouldn't go down by her self. Mason was at the top and he sat down, let Paige sit on his lap and they went down together. I didn't know what to expect at all when they got to the bottom. I could hear giggling and happy sounds coming all the way down the twisty tube slide. When they got to the bottom, their smiles were priceless. Such happy kids.