{3 year cardiology}

Today Gage had his 3 year cardiology check up.

Gage was born with a heart murmur.  He and Lucy both have pulmonary vavle stenosis.  Gage also has pulmonary artery stenosis and was born with two other small holes that closed as he grew older.  His last appointment was the summer when he was seven and he was cleared for 3 more years.  Today was the big day.

First the echo:

Then the EKG:

And lots of gaming with his brother support team:

Then we got to talk with the cardiologist. 10 years and just a "few" moves later, we got into the same doctor he started with at Primary Children's when Gage was born! Lucy sees him too, and we really like him.  (Plus, he did his training in Arkansas (go hogs!), and has 17 kids!! Seriously. What a guy!)

Basically Gage's heart has pretty much stayed the same.  When Gage was a baby the gradient of his pulmonary valve measured 23.  Today it measured 23!  The exact same!  (Normal is 0, Lucy was 57 when she was born, then 107 when they did her surgery, you can read her posts by clicking the label "heart" at the end of the post or on the sidebar)

Today we found that Gage's pulmonary artery stenosis is pretty much gone.  Woo hoo!

But, the bad news is that they found something else today. Let me follow that statement by immediately saying, they found something else today, but not  something terribly wrong.  In a normal heart the aortic valve has 3 leaflets that open and close.  In a bicuspid aortic vavle the heart only has two leaflets and the third is fused together.  Gage's heart has a leaflet fused half way, so he has 2 1/2 leaflets.  It really isn't bad news, just different news.  The doctor believes he has probably had this his entire life, but we just couldn't get a good picture of it until today.  They got a really clear shot of it.  Probably because 1. Gage is older, so his heart is bigger and 2. He is older and can lay still much better than he could have even 3 years ago.  There isn't too much they do for this condition, so we'll just keep an eye on it while he is growing, like the pulmonary vavle.

So in the end, he did great and got cleared for another 3 years.

Once again I felt pretty blessed to be walking out of the hospital with my kids in  toe.  Because things can always be better.  But they could always be much worse too.

I'll take a 3 year check up and count my blessings.

Sunday Photo: 28

The first sunflower bloomed in our garden today.

It's been a hard day today.  For no apparent reason and honestly, only in my head.  Should of...could of...would of...and everyone can do it better than me kinda day.  I am throwing myself a pity party with chocolate and going to bed.  

Tomorrow's another day and a new week.  

Still busy.  Same stuff.  

But I will try for a better outlook.

Besides, I have sunflowers blooming in my garden.

(Credit)

Sunday Photo: 27

Happy Sunday.  

This picture perfectly depicts our family.  

Seriously.

~~~

Our summer list is getting checked off; there are not many items left on it.  

The garden is out of control and we have enough zucchini to feed a small army.  Oh wait, we are our own small army.  When the tomatoes start to turn we might be in trouble.  I'll have to get out the canning supplies this year.

We are need a good lesson on tattling before a certain little girl starts kindergarten.  It is driving us all crazy.

Preschool sign up for Eli is tomorrow.  Too bad he thinks he gets to start tomorrow.

I started reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to the big boys and Avery at night.  Wade read them the first Narnia book a long time ago.  Gage loved it and Noah requested something else next.  So we took a Narnia break.  This time they all seem to be enjoying it.  I think Avery just likes being included in the "stay-up-late-listen-to-a-book-club."

Lucy tells us all kinds of new words all the time.  And she is throwing fits.  Today at church Wade took her out during sacrament meeting because she was screaming....well really it all started with her trying to spit on people.  Anyway, after a while I could hear her screaming and screaming.  I totally knew it was her and it sounded bad!  I was worried she was hurt, but I was in charge of 4 other little monkeys in the pew so I left it alone.  I asked Wade about it later in Sunday school and he said she wasn't hurt at all.  She was just super mad because he wouldn't let her eat a random goldfish cracker someone had dropped that she found on the floor.  

The kids ask me every time we go to the store when we can buy school supplies.  

Summer is on the downslope. Whether we like it or not.  School and routines will be here before we know it.  I am happy and sad about this.

The lesson we has today in Relief Society was about the Holy Ghost.  My all time favorite quote is by Julie Beck.  I know it's something I can always work on.  And I know it's true.

{Noah's two year appointment}

This May marked 2 years since Noah had his last seizure.  He has been on daily medication since then.  He is always very awesome and takes it without complaining. He says it tastes really gross so we have it flavored and in the beginning he used to pick a different flavor every month, but after being stuck with some pretty nasty flavors for a whole month (like banana) the last year he has just stuck to a couple of his favorite flavors.  I am always thankful he takes it every day without complaints.  He even reminds me if we forget.

At 2 years we were supposed to reevaluate with the possibility to go off meds.  I had mixed feelings about it, if we went off he could have another seizure.   But he wouldn't have to take daily medication.  If he stayed on meds I had a little reassurance every day. Yes, he could have another seizure, even with the medicine, but when he had the last one we gave him diazepam to stop the seizure and it didn't work.  The neurologist believed that with keppra in his system as a base, if he had another one and it didn't stop, the diazepam would work.  Luckily, I have never had to figure that out.  

So anyway, I was just mixed.  I finally decided the best thing to do was to see what the doctors said, and to trust them.  The worst that would happen is he would go off the medicine, have another seizure and then we would put him back on.

A couple weeks ago we took Noah to his appointment.  He doesn't actually see a neurologist.  We did in Washington, but since being refered here, he sees a great nurse practitioner at Primary Children's Neurology department.  We really love her. 

He did a great job at the appointment.  He is pointing to the hippocampus, which his cousin Ben (and Keppra taking buddy) had taken out a couple years ago.  

(link to blog here.  Wow, Ben sure has grown up since then!)

Anyway, the nurse practitioner said that we should do an EEG.  If it has normal results then we can taper him off the medicine.  If it doesn't, then we'll go from there.  She was really concerned about our family history. (my sister and my nephew have epilepsy, avery's had febrile seizures too)  She said that we should be all tapered off by the time school starts, or stay on by then.  She didn't want Noah to be in the middle of the transition when school started.  She also said if we tapered him off we could NOT let him go off with his friends at the swimming pool anymore.  We would need to follow him around.  He wasn't too crazy about that idea.

So, this week Noah had his EEG.  He kinda looks forward to this test, because he has to stay up till 10pm and then wake up at 4am.  Which means he can play video games with Dad until 10!  He was pretty happy about that part.

But then the 4am came pretty quickly and he wasn't too happy about getting up.  I suggested that we go get breakfast at McDonalds or go look at Legos at walmart, but he just wanted to watch Harry Potter Movies.  So that is what we did.  He couldn't have caffeine, or sugar.  But that didn't apply to me ....I had plenty of Diet Coke that day.  Plenty.

Wade actually took him to the appointment this time.  I had to work at the office.  Plus Wade pulled the card that I always have got to ride in the ambulance with Noah and he has to follow in the car.  He had a point.  I tried to let my control freak personality go for the day and Wade took him to the appointment.

  Wade said he was really pretty tired.  And he was acting pretty goofy, which means he was nervous.  But the technician complimented him on what a well behaved boy he was.

  

His least favorite part of the test, blowing on the pin wheel for 3 minutes.  Plus they give you that warm hospital blanket, but you can't fall asleep yet.  Poor guy.

So, yesterday we were able to call and get the results.

Inconclusive.

This is disappointing to us, but not really surprising.  Every other EEG he has had gets inconclusive results.  This time he showed some sensitivity to the light test and in the frontal lobe.  (which reading back today, is different than some of his other ones...I will need to have Wade read through all Noah's medical files and check) Because of family history, and this result, we get to stay on meds for now.  Noah is going to be referred to a different neurologist, this time in Provo, for more information and another opinion.  This is 3-4 months out.

Darn it, right?  

Not exactly what we were hoping for but it does take away a lot of my worry.  

And I like remind Wade anytime we take any of the kids to Primary Childrens: we take them home the same day (or pretty close).  Our kids come home.  

Some kids do not.  

And we are blessed to live in a time where we have medicine (and flavors!) that can help.

So that's where we are at.

the end.

~~~

(if you don't know the whole history, and want to know, you can click on the label and see all the fun details.  Labels don't show up on my mobile version, but you can always change to web version, find the label, click on it and read all your want)

Sunday Photo: 26

Another tooth bites the dust.

My sister took pity on us this evening and invited us over for dinner.

Back up:  our freezer went out this week and so a repair man came yesterday to fix it.  Apparently he did such a good job that the fridge and freezer are now both out of order?!?  Not even a little bit cold.  We called it a day after after putting all we could in a couple ice chests with ice.  Did I mention the a/c is out in the van too?  Just the drivers side?!  Geez.

Long story short: This heat is killing us!  I need some chocolate.

Anyway.  So, my sister took pity on us and invited us over for dinner.  She made chocolate zucchini cake for desert, so I wasn't going to turn her down.  After dinner Noah's tooth was really loose so he started to wiggle it with some tissue.  Fast forward ten or so minutes later, he he came up to me crying that he had pulled his tooth, but he threw away the tissue and didn't realize the tooth was in it!  The poor kid was so upset.

Daddy to the rescue.  Wade emptied the entire trash can (after 13 people dumped their dinner trash) trying to find a tiny tooth. After getting to the bottom with no luck. He went to wash his hands and I found the tooth back on the floor where Noah had been standing around wiggling his tooth.  

It never was in the trash can.

Ha.  The things we do for our kids.

~~

Doors open tomorrow at work.  I should be getting our fridge and freezer fixed too.  Not sure which I am more exited for.

Happy Sunday.

{Funnies}

I need to be better at recording the funny things the kids say.  

Because they are growing up so fast and honestly, some are just going to great for blackmail someday :)

~~

Eli refers to hula hoops as "holy hoops"

"Hey mom!  Watch me spin this holy hoop!"

~~

Eli was very upset and crying yesterday saying: 

"I lost my diarrhea!  I can't find my diarrhea!  I lost my diarrhea! I put it right by the fridge and someone took it!"  

I tried my best not to laugh and assure him no one would want to take his diarrhea, but he just kept yelling that someone took it from him!

He was so upset!  I finally had him show me what he was talking about since I was so puzzled (and getting a little grossed out) and found out he was missing his (caffeine free) Dr. Pepper.  

Dr Pepper...diarrhea?

~~

One day after fixing my hair, Avery declared that I looked like the "tree on Pocahontas"

Uh, thanks?!

~~

And I shared this a couple weeks ago on Facebook but it still makes me laugh every time I think about it.  

Boys.

Sunday Photo: 25

                                     

I look at this picture and wonder where the time has gone?  There used to be two tiny toddlers.  Now there are 8 loud rambunctious kids!

The best thing about moving around and living all the places we have lived is finding those friends you just connect with.  Those friends who get you through.  

I loved the years we spent in Iowa.  They were some of my favorite, it is one very awesome place to live.  Erica was one of the first people I met.  We both only had one little baby each at the time and her husband was in vet school.  We just clicked and had a ton of fun together.   I've learned a lot from Erica.  Maybe someday I'll have 1/8th of her fashion sense, her patience and positive attitude.  

Erica's family moved to Utah this summer!  We finally touched bases tonight and the kids had a blast.  Crazy to see that bunch of kids are all ours.  I'm looking forward to living close together again!  

And if you need a good veterinarian I know just the guy you should see.  Dr. Bret Grover in Draper.  Look him up.  Great guy and family.

Running

So I've decided I needed to start running.  I think it's the 20 extra pounds I've put on since moving here having something to do with me starting.  yes it's true, so don't try to tell me it's not.  stress eating at its finest. stress?  in my life this past year?  two years?  I haven't had any stress?  But if you had me that pan of brownies, I'll be glad to take care of it for you.  And once I quit nursing Lucy last fall that really did me in. Finished me off and sealed the deal.  those pounds were here to stay. But either way, some of it has to go, and I'm sure someday my body will thank me for it.

My dad runs.  All growing up he ran 8 miles a day, 10 miles on the saturday and took Sunday off.  My sister runs.  She runs marathons.  My other sister runs.  My other sister rides a bike.  My brother runs.  My other brother bikes.  So....maybe it's in my genes and I need to get with it.  I ran track in junior high.  Then I quit track and was a cheerleader, but I ran here and there all through high school just to keep in shape.  That was a long time ago.  I'm glad I live by my sister and she puts up with my slow pace.  She's pretty patient with me because I'm a big whiner.

I've been riding the bike at our house 5 miles every morning or night the last couple months, but this month I signed up for a race and decided to go for it.  

And run.

I started by running to work every morning.  It's about .75 miles there, then I work and run home for a 1.5 total.  A good start.  Then the days got hotter by the time I got off work...plus I was working in between, which is a huge workout itself, so I decided I needed to just bite the bullet and get up early enough to run routes before going to work.  Good thing I don't have to look pretty go work cleaning the school.

Here we are on National Running Day.  Going for a run together!

So I worked my way up and I was running 2.5 miles consistently every day the week of the race without walking.  I think that sounds huge and tiny at the same time.  All my running friends can laugh at me.  But I had to start somewhere.

Then race day came.  3.1 miles.

                                                 

Our pre-race selfie.  Ready to go!

I ran the entire race. Which was my goal.  My time wasn't that great, 34 minutes.  But I ran.

Here we are at the finish!  Wade even had 2 cold Diet Cokes for Kathy and I waiting for us right over the finish line.

And then as a reward for finishing my first race we took a trip to the Waffle Love truck.  I'm pretty sure it was more calories than I burned running, but it was worth every single drop.  So good.

~~

Not sure I'm calling myself an official runner yet.  But the more I do it, the more I have found myself enjoying it.  Plus, it's time by myself, or at least without kids asking me a millions questions or tattling on someone else.  I really think I feel better on the days that I go.  I'm sticking with shorter 2-3 mile daily runs during the week right now, but Saturday I ran the farthest I've gone so far, 4.37 miles.

My goal is to be able to consistently go 5 miles a day.  Then I'd like to work on my time.  

I've got my eye on a couple races in the fall. 

Who wants to go with me?

{June in the Books}

June was so busy.  I really wanted to read more, but I was in a slump and every night when I would get out my book to read, I would fall asleep.  About halfway through the month I was still reading the first book and I wasn't even sure I would finish it.  Maybe getting up at 4:30 every day for running and work is having it's toll on me...at least it is on my reading.

I managed to read 5 books.  

Edenbrooke, Julianne Donaldson

I've read this book before, so I was re-reading it.  I love it.  If you haven't read this book yet, I highly suggest it.  It's a regency romance and so good.  I could reread it again it's that cute.  Her other book, Blackmoore is really good too, I recommend both of her books if you haven't read either.

Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, Crystal Paine

I follow the blog MoneySavingMom and she released this book at the beginning of the year.  I really wanted to buy a copy, but it just wasn't in the budget.  I've read the free sample on my kindle a couple times actually, but then I found it at the library this month!  I loved this book!  One of my favorite quotes from the book is "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second best time is today."

I'm trying to remember that and go for things this month.  

Run like a Mother, Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea

I've started running. I wanted to read something to help motivate me get up every morning and get going.  I really liked this book, the authors both write for Runners World magazine.  I'm not really wanting to run a marathon, but if you did, I would suggest reading this book.  It was very motivational.  I liked that they had numerous quotes from moms in every chapter about different aspects on running.

Running Like a Girl, Alexandra Heminsley

Another running book.  I thought this book was funny and she had a real-life attitude.  It was easy to read and she had good suggestions.  It did have the f word in it once, which I could have done without.  And my only other problem was that her first run ever she went 3 miles.  It took me forever to work up to 3 miles.  But really - I thought the book was fun and I would suggest it if you are a beginning runner.  It gives a lot of details about her marathons.  I'm not really wanting to run a marathon, but it was fun to read her thoughts of how those went for her.

In the Hands of the Potter, Camille Fronk

This was a short, Sunday morning/afternoon book.  I really enjoy finding little short books like this at the library that I can read from start to finish on a lazy Sunday morning or evening.  It's good for me to read a good inspiration book every month.  This book talked a lot about how artist take clay and mold it into creations.  It is hard work and not always a pretty process. Pretty much like life.

~~

Total for the year, 48. 

52 books to go to 100

Christiansen Summer Food Challenge

One of the crazy things on our summer bucket list was to hold a  "food challenge".  The kids had such a good time coming up with a couple games they wanted to play.  They all involved lots of sugar and trying to eat as much of it as you could at once.  

In the end, it was a pretty hysterical night.....and no one threw up...double score!

We took a picnic dinner up AF canyon to one of our favorite spots and had dinner and played in the river before we let the games begin.  I think next time we will have to skip dinner and go straight for the games. 

First game:

Chubby Bunny.

Shove a marshmallow in your mouth, say "chubby bunny" and then repeat...until you can't fit anymore marshmallows or you can't say chubby bunny. 

I'm not even sure who really won this game.  But it was pretty funny to see.  And most of the kids couldn't fit more than 2 mellows. HA!

Next up:

Gummy Bear eating contest.  I don't know why I was selected to play this game.  I thing gummy bears are gross...as you can tell from the expression on my face.  With one minute on the clock....how many gummy bears can you eat?

Gage shares my opinion of gummy bears. Poor guy.

And the winner.... Eli nailed it.  He pretty much killed all of us on every game.  Who knew that kid could eat so much candy and junk.  Maybe that day he ate marshmallows and diet coke for lunch he was really training for the food challenge?  

After the gummy bears came the licorice jump rope.  With one minute on the clock how much of it can you eat?  It was Gage versus Eli.

Eli looks cute, but he was ruthless.  He was biting and chewing like a mad man.  We were laughing so hard. The kids got some game.

The final result:  Eli won.  again. 

After the jump rope competition came the twinkie eating competition.  And yes, we were all getting a little sick to our stomachs by now.  Or at least most of us.

This one was Eli versus Avery versus Dad.  One minute on the clock....ready and go:

Wade took it easy on them (and his stomach) and only ate one twinkie

I think Eli downed 2, maybe 3?  We could not keep up with that kid!

And Avery ate one I think.  But she was just as happy to eat it and eat it fast.

The last competition was a donut eating competition.  We had a couple more games but most of us felt like we were going to hurl at this point so we had to draw a line somewhere.  

One minute.  One bag of donuts.

Go:

Poor Eli is sad because he wasn't winning this contest, although he pretty much dominated the entire night.

One down for Avery!

And Noah won it with 3 total donuts.

At this point we were out of water bottles and all feeling a little green so we went home and went to bed.  (And ran a little bit farther the next day to work that all off. HA!)

I think we'll totally have to plan another food contest challenge similar to this one.  We had a couple more ideas we never even got too.  It was such a funny night.  

~~~~

The same week, my sister, Kathy, planned a different food challenge for us.

This one was a lot easier, since we didn't have to eat in a certain amount of time and it was just our opinions, so my crazy competitive kids couldn't fight about who won or lost.

                                       

How this challenge worked is she bought name brand items and generic (store brand items), in this case we used all Kroger (Smiths) brand items.  She then served them on an "A" Plate or "B" plate and we had to taste test all the samples and guess what was store brand and what was name brand.  We tried granola bars, potato chips, string cheese, yogurt, nutella and oreo cookies.  (she had to scrape off the top of the cookies so we couldn't read the brand)

This was pretty fun and a lot harder than I thought it would be.  The potato chips tasted exactly the same.  The yogurt surprised me and there was a big difference in the nutella too.

I think the kids just had a good time sampling and circling.  Avery and Eli pretty much just ate and circled anything on their papers.  The older kids really tried to find out which one they liked the best.

In the end, the majority of the kids liked the name brand items the best.  I blindly liked the generic items the best.  The store brand yogurt was FAR better than the name brand.  But the store brand nutella was gross.

Guess this showed me there are some things I should really pay more for and some not so much.

~~

I loved doing both of these food challenges!  

They were so much fun to watch and try.  

Another summer bucket list item got checked off our list and some fun memories were made.

{June}

Gone are the days I used to blog every single day.  I have no idea where I ever had time for that.  It's like I had 3 less kids or something?!?  I miss it and I don't miss it at the same time.  This year I think I'm good to get some kind of monthly recap post in every month.  It might be a picture overload, but it's here.

June highlights:

Lucy started nursery at church.  She really actually started in May, but I never even blogged about it.  Poor 5th child.  She absolutely loves nursery.  She has the best teachers and the last couple weeks she starts to cry during sacrament meeting for us to take her out early so she can run to nursery class!  Our church meets from 1-4 in the afternoon though, so sometimes that makes the nap schedule a little rough.  One week I went to pick her up and I found this!

~~

Wade found out (the hard way) what happens if you leave a can of coke in your hot car.  Unfortunately, he learned this TWO times this month.  Fool me once.....fool me twice....

~~

It's summer, so the ticket store opened for business. The kids have been busy earning tickets and doing extra jobs so they can "buy" things on Friday at the store.

What's in the ticket store?  Mostly awesome items from the dollar store such as this:

I also love to put coupons in for extra video game time, or dates with mom and dad.  The video game time costs the most tickets and is usually the most sought after item.

~~

We made it a couple times to our favorite splash pad in Highland.

~~

I gave Avery's hair a little cut.  She was not happy with me every morning brushing it out so I decided it needed a trim.  It turned out pretty cute.

~~

The office is coming along.  Actually I feel like it is taking up all our time and brain power.  But it's nice.  And I am not complaining.  The girls had a great time hiding in the cabinets Wade installed.  Do you know any doctors who install their own cabinets?  This one does!

                                        

~~

We had family night with Grandpa and Aunt Pam at Swig one night this month.  Eli gets sad if we drive by it and we don't stop at "wig" for a special drink.

~~

We had a good time doing some crafts at the library.  Charlotte is such a help anytime she is around!  Lucy calls her "shar-shar" and gets so happy when she is here!

~~

The big boys got their own room!  This was a HUGE accomplishment.  It took several nights when all of Wade's brother and sisters and spouses were here and we cleaned out the sewing room. It was really a lot of work!  So glad that project is over.  It's nice for them to have a little space of their own, even if Noah still likes to sleep downstairs in the room with Avery, Eli and Lucy. They love having their own space for their legos and toys. 

On top of moving the bunk beds and boys furniture upstairs, I got Avery's bed and Lucy's crib out of storage and built those too.  Lucy's been in the pack and play this year and felt like a princess in her "new" crib.  Eli even got moved up from a toddler bed to a twin.  They aren't Pottery Barn Kid rooms, and they never will be...but they all love their new space!

They hadn't even been in their new room for one day before coming up with some new rules for it.  They posted them on the door.  I love the one about no going on the beds if your feet are dirty!?!  haha!

~~

Everything is awesome!

The best day of the summer came in June.  The release of The Lego Movie!  Gage and Noah have been waiting for so long to earn this movie!  We pretty much now rotate between The Lego Movie, Bubbble Guppies and Frozen. yay.

~~

We had a couple days of rain and the kids took some toys outside and made boats in the gutters.

~~

The signs are up!  Everything is really coming together and looking nice.  I can't wait to share more pictures on the official website.

~~

This clean office is brought to you by....

my summer job.  You know, just living the dream of a doctors wife & cleaning the school as a summer job. HAHAHA.  It's actually not too bad and I love that I am home every day by 9am.  The kids are up, the beds are made, breakfast is done and they are all ready to go.  I get to work a little bit and still be home pretty much the entire day with them!  If I went back to work in my field I have my degree in (marketing) I'd be gone all day.  Plus, I kinda get to be marketing director for Wade right now.  But I only get paid in paid in foot rubs for that job.

Plus, I learned to mow my first lawn this week.  

(with a real mower, because in residency I mowed all the time, but we had a tiny push blade mower and our yard was pretty much the size of a dime.  Avery and I learned to do that together on this post.)

Don't laugh, and yes, I am serious.  A real lawn mower.  Once they found out at work I've never mowed a lawn, I never heard the end of it.  So I thought I better just suck it up and do it.  I even asked my parents if I mowed growing up and they said my little brother liked to do it, so I never really did it. I was so nervous I was going to break something.  Because I'm awesome and do that a lot at work actually.  I didn't break anything. (this week)  And the lawn looked alright in the end.  Wade better not get any ideas.  But this summer job gig...totally making me learn some new things.

~~

We had cousins over a lot this month.  

And we love rolling paper out on the entire table and having art time.

~~

Wade's brother graduated with his bachelors in June.  

Way to go Ted!

~~

We took a trip to BYU and visited the new and improved Bean Museum.  

And had to take a picture with the Liger, of course.

~~

We attempted our backyard camp out.

~~

And Avery got her first bee sting.  Poor girl.  She is terrified that flowers have bees and she asks me every other day what will happen if she gets stung by a bee while at school.  She is getting excited and nervous for kindergarten.

~~

Eli's been fixing his hair in the morning.  All by himself.

~~

And we spent more time playing, I mean, wrestling, with Charlotte.

Eli fixed himself lunch one day...a diet coke and a bowl of mini marshmallows.  What a nut! and yeah, I let him eat it.  If you can't get away with it at 3, then when can you!  

so, why the heck not.  

Avery's summer list included finding snails.  This totally grosses me out.  But Grandpa likes it too, because once Avery finds them, her brothers sneak them off and kill them.  I guess they are bad for our yard.

We had a fun family night up the canyon and played some games.  I have a whole other post to write about this!

~~

Gage and Noah took a summer soccer camp at the high school.  I think they enjoyed it.  And then because I'm awesome and on top of things like that, we missed the city fall soccer league sign up by one day and have to be on the waiting list.

Our cute neighbor friend let us pick cherries from her cherry tree.  And then, again, because I'm awesome and on top of things like that, I forgot the night we were supposed to show up until my other awesome friend showed up at the door with a HUGE bag that they all picked for us.

~~

I can get Lucy's hair in a pony tail.  It was just too cute.

~~

I ran my first race.  A 5k.  I am going to post about it separately, but after the race as a special treat we tried the Waffle Love truck.  SO yummy. I might have to run a couple more 5K's if I get Waffle Love again.

The Lehi Roundup days were the last week of the month.  We went to the stock parade and the mini float parade and the kids had a good time eating candy and throwing candy they didn't like back at the people in the parade and trying to trip them.  I am raising a bunch of  hoodlums.

~~

And last, but not least, we've been spending lots of afternoons outside in the backyard eating otter pops and watering our garden.  It's really starting to take off (along with the weeds). 

~~

June seriously came and went so fast.  I can't believe it's already July 5th too....and that I even stayed up this late to blog.  I am not even sure I am making any sense at this hour.  I don't even want to think of about editing or typos.  Whatever.  It's late in my book.

More blog posts from June, coming tomorrow!