Silly girls and soccer boy

The girls were being cute and silly last night, so I took some pictures:

Nathan started playing soccer this year. He's still a little timid out on the field, but he is so excited about it and has lots of fun. :)

This and That. . .

I tried to get these pictures in order, but they are worse than normal. Oh, well. . .



Here is my first attempt at creative hair fixing that I've done. I was pretty pleased. . . I did it on Lily, too, but it wasn't quite as good. Also, I am more impressed that I took this at the end of the day when Kayla was in the bath. :)





We took a quick trip to Utah a couple weeks ago. We were able to visit some friends. Here is Nathan and Lily with our friend Izzy, who was our friend in Las Vegas. It was fun to get together and play again!





And the moms. . . me and Molliee. I love visiting with friends that you haven't seen or talked to in forever and it's like nothing has changed between you. I miss you Mollee!

Here in the middle of these pictures is Nathan's first day of school picture. He was very excited and had no troubles at all as I took him to school, out to the playground and then waited with the other moms for the bell to ring and watch the teachers come outside and show their classes where to line up and all that. It was a little bit of an emotional day. He had a great time, though, and the girls and I are adjusting nicely to having every other day to ourselves. :) (The kindergarden schedule is crazy. . . he goes Tuesday, Thursday and every other Monday--full days).

The day before school started, we had a slip and slide party at some friends' house. They have a hill in their backyard perfect for a long piece of plastic!

And, just randomly, the kids are enjoying licking the bowl after we made a cake for my mom's birthday. My parents came through briefly on their way to take my sister, Lori, to BYU. Crazy, it seems like I was just getting dropped off there. . .

And we are back to our Utah trip. We got to see a lot of family in a short period of time. :) Here is a picture of Nathan with his cousins Cooper and Cameron. These three were all born within a three month time span.

And that is all for now. Sorry about the randomness! Time is precious and sometimes I just have to catch up on a few events at a time. Other than that, life is good!!

Our Trip to Chesterfield

We had a great time going to Chesterfield, Idaho, for our annual 24th of July trip to visit Bryson's parents and any other family that can make it. Here is a random sampler of what we did:

Lily loved to sit on Pa's lap and give him hugs and kisses. She is such a loveable, cuddley little girl. :)



Same with Grammy. . .

We got to hang out with Daylen, Ashley, and cousin Brooks

The brothers (Bryson, Daylen, and Brad) got to play some Ladder Golf, and the kids enjoyed taking a turn at that. Nathan was actually pretty good!

Grammy and the girls, all ready for church.

Daylen dug a great firepit for us to roast some hotdogs and marshmallows. You can see how much Kayla enjoyed that!

The kids could never get in enough four-wheeling rides! Bryson took all three of them at the same time, several times.

Nathan and Lily got to go fishing with Daddy in a nearby canal.

Lily had a lot of fun telling Pa jokes and making him laugh!

Here's Kayla lounging in the camping chair around the camp fire.

The nearby town of Bancroft has a really fun parade for the 24th. They throw out tons of candy! Bryson, Daylen and Brad trained Nathan to bring them all of the Bit o' Honeys. :)

Cousin Johnny was a lot of fun to be around, too! (Along with Brad and Keriann!)

Kayla learned quickly that if she waved, everyone would throw candy to her. :) In fact, often she would just walk up to some else watching the parade and hold her hand out and they would give her candy! (I sure would, she's so cute!)

We also drove into Lava and floated the river, which was a lot of fun! Nathan and Lily even went. I don't think they quite knew what was going on until we actually got on our four man tube in the river with them in the middle. Nathan LOVED it. Lily, didn't like it at all, but she was a trooper still!

We had a great time and look forward to this trip every year! Thanks Pa and Grammy and everyone!

Wheat Meat

I just posted on my self-reliance blog about how to make wheat meat. Check it out! http://selfreliancebyjamie.blogspot.com/

Crazy Hair Sunday

Nathan had a lot of fun fixing his hair for church on Sunday. . . if he can do this many different things with his hair it must be time for a haircut!!

I finally convinced him to let me comb it and make a normal face. It was not easy . . . what a handsome guy!

Food projects

Here are some food projects that I have been having fun with. I've been sprouting wheat. It is great! Sooooo easy and quick and healthy! I will be posting more about how to do it on my self-reliance blog. . . soon. . .


I canned chicken for the first time. It was so easy and is great!!




I've also been adding wheat berries, cracked wheat, and TVP (textured vegetable protein) to my ground beef as a meat extender (not all at the same time. . . ). These are my sloppy joes that I started out with less then a cup of meat and ended up with a whole pan. We love them, too!




What a great year for cherries it has been ! Our family drove out to Emmett and picked our own cherries a few Saturdays ago and I canned a bunch of them, dehydrated a bunch of them (YUMMY!!) and ate them until I was sick. I love cherries!

So, that's also a little of what I've been busy with lately. :)

Summer Fun!

I know I have been slacking on my blog. . . but summer has been BUSY!! Here are some of the fun things we've been busy with:



Lunch at the park! Pretty much everyday, I have gone to the park to get free lunch for the kids! It's great! They get free lunch, I don't have to make it, my kitchen stays cleaner, and they get to play and release some of the never-ending energy! Plus, it's super close to Bryson's office, so he frequently joins us.



Kayla thinks she owns the swings. She loves to swing as high as the swing can go. She will just lean her head back like she is relaxing and swing away forever.







Lily is a huge fan of the swings, too. Between the two of them, we are usually at the swings for quite awhile, and I am doing underdog after underdog after underdog. . . you get the picture?

Nathan wants his share of the underdogs, too. It is quite the workout. :) Running back and forth between swings doing underdogs constantly. I love to hear them squeal, though!

This is Lily enjoying the oranges she frequenly begs for from my friend, Christy, who often is at the park with us. She loves her little baby, Dallin and constantly talks about how much Dallin likes her.

Kayla does her share of stealing oranges, too. Thanks, Christy!

We missed a few days last week of having lunch at the park and the lady who gives them out asked me where we had been when we went yesterday!