We got eggs!

Well, today we got our first egg from our chickens.  It must have come from Kayla's chicken because it was a light brown egg.  The eggs from Nathan and Lily's chickens will be blue/green and dark brown.  I would have taken a picture but our camera quick working.  Big bummer.  Anyway, we are very excited!

Our Trip!

Well, Bryson and I were so lucky to be able to go on a trip (WITHOUT KIDS-Thanks Mom, Dad, Lori and Kara!) to see some of Bryson's family and also to see many of the church historic sites in Kirtland, OH and Palmyra, NY.  It was absolutely amazing!  To start off our trip, we flew from Boise to Indianapolis (it was a lot cheaper) and then rented a car and drove 6 hours over to Pittsburgh to pick up Bryson's parents (it was cheaper for them to fly in there :). Then we all drove down to West Virginia to spend the 4th of July with two of Bryson's sisters and their families.  Can you tell we are excited?  

The next day, we drove with my in-laws to Kirtland, OH where we met up with another of Bryson's sisters and her cute boys and went to the church sites there.  Here we are in front of the Newel K. Whitney store (obviously).

One of the rooms upstairs from the store is where the School of the Prophets was.  That was a really neat room to be in.

The next morning, we visited the Kirtland Temple (now owned by the Community of Christ church . . . the tour there was very different from our visits to the other sites - something was just missing).  It was still so beautiful.  Here are my wonderful in-laws. :)

 And here we are in front of the temple.

After that, we drove up to Niagara Falls and loved seeing that!

Bryson served his mission (a few years ago. . . :)  in Buffalo and Rochester, NY.  So, we were able to drive around a little of Buffalo to see where he lived and we also ate dinner at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo.  It is the place where Buffalo Wings were invented.

And they were DELICIOUS!

Afterwards we drove to Palmyra where we stayed in an 1800's style Bed and Breakfast.  It was true to the time. :)  Bryson's oldest sister and her family (the ones from West Virginia) were there, along with his parents.  We all shared one bathroom.

Our first stop of the morning was the Sacred Grove.  This is where Joseph Smith had the First Vision.  It was amazing.  The Spirit there is so strong.  I had such an incredible experience just walking along the path and feeling like I was in a temple.

We toured through the homes of the Smith family.  Here we are in Joseph's bedroom.   It's not the original home, but was built on the same foundation, so really we are in the same space where the Angel Moroni appeared.

We also toured the Grandin Building where the Book of Mormon was first published.  There were many miracles that led up to the publication.

We went to the top of the Hill Cumorah and then toured the visitor's center--so neat!  I forgot to add a picture of that.

We also drove out to Fayette and visited the Peter Whitmer farm.  This is where the church was first organized.  It was a very special place to visit.

Friday morning, Bryson and I were able to attend a session at the Palmyra temple.  It is such a beautiful place.  One thing that was neat about that temple is all the windows have stained glass to look like the Sacred Grove, but one window in the foyer is partially clear and you can see right out into the actual Grove.

From Palmyra we drove back to Pittsburgh where Bryson's parents flew out of the next morning.  We then drove back to Indiana (and got stuck in some massive NASCAR traffic in Kentucky) and stayed a couple days with Bryson's sister and her family (the one that met us in Kirtland earlier in the week).  It was nice to have a relaxing day after all that we did!  On the morning we flew out, we got a great intro to Crossfit by Bryson's sister who started her own Crossfit gym.  I was really sore for a few days!

And here we are in front of the Ohio River.

We flew out that night and got home late and jumped right back into real life with four kids!  It took me most of the week to feel normal again!  But it was a great trip and we enjoyed every minute of it!!

A Quick Update

Well, time is flying by and with summer here, there is little time to keep things updated!  I've got  to keep 4 busy little kids busy and that is keeping me busy. :)

Here are some of the highlights from the last couple of months:

Kayla is becoming quite the little bike rider.  Her trike died and we found this cute bike at a yard sale.  I am proud to say that I put on the training wheels from Lily's bike all by myself. :)

It's harder to get a picture of all the kids together, but here's one. 

Lily graduated from our little preschool co-op.

Our chicken coop is almost done.  The kids had a great time playing in it.  It is now more done that this picture, but not completely done.  I'll post a picture of it when it's all done.  It is usable, though and the chickens are growing fast!

Since it is rare to get a picture together, I thought I'd better post this one.  We are at my youngest sister, Kara's high school graduation.  She started kindergarten when I started at BYU.  Now I really feel old. :)

 

Oops.  Fuzzy family shot.  

 

We took a little trip out to the Whitman Mission while we were in Walla Walla.  My sister, Lori is working out there for her third summer!  She's the third in the family to work out there.  

We spent a Saturday afternoon riding bikes along the Boise River greenbelt.  It was a lot of fun!  We stopped to find a geocache in this huge tree. . . but never found it.  

Here's Lily's pose.  She's quite the drama queen.

Me and sweet Benson.

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Kayla rare poses for the camera these days, so this was nice. 

Benson sure loves my cookies. :)

My mom made nightgowns for the girls (and cousin Kate).  They feel like princesses in them.

And they sure have lots of fun together!

Well, if you made it to the end of all these pictures, thanks!!  Now I might feel not so overwhelmed about posting again that's a little more up to date. :)

We Got Chicks!

Meet the newest members of our family! Strate (Nathan's chick, started out as Fluffy, then Bird of Prey, now Strate. . . ), Sweet Tweet (or the latest might be Fluffy, I can't keep track--that's Lily's), and Dorothy (Kayla's--she loves the Wizard of Oz). Hopefully, one of the names of Nathan's and Lily's will stick before too long! Lily, holding Sweet Tweet.

Kayla and Dorothy.

The girls' favorite sitting spot, staring down on the baby chicks.

I didn't get a picture of Nathan with his yet. The kids are having so much fun with these little gals. :) We are hoping they will be nice, low maintenance, productive pets. ;)

Look at Me!

This is Benson's latest trick. He's starting to pull himself up to standing! It took a little help from Lily to get up this high, but he pulls himself up onto our little mini tramoline and then crawls across it -- and right off the other side unless we are there to catch him. :) He has lots of helpers to watch out for him, though!

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Our big boy Nathan turned 7 years old today! I'm not big into birthday parties, but I told him that he could have a "couple" of friends over for cake. I had made a yummy eclair cake for his birthday, but then we ended up with 5 little boys over and I didn't want to share that yummy cake! So, I quickly made a chocolate bundt cake (which turned out SO delicious--just a cake mix with the eggs, water and oil called for, a package of instant chocolate pudding, a couple spoonfuls of sour cream and chocolate chips. Yum! For the frosting, I melted 3 T butter, 3 T milk and 3 T cocoa, mixed and added 2 cups of powdered sugar. . . ).

Here are the boys chowing down! I have to say that this was a very last minute party, but it tunred out great!

Everyone making silly faces.

Lily and Kayla making their funny faces.

Tonight after dinner, we sang, again, and had cake, again, with Bryson home. It was a great cake day!

Nathan's said it was his best birthday ever and that makes me happy. :) He is growing up so fast and we are so lucky to have him in our family!

Chuck E Cheese

Well, we finally did it. After years of Nathan begging to go to Chuck E Cheese, we finally did it. Yesterday, we spent three fun-filled, loud, crazy, overstimulated hours there to celebrate Nathan's birthday! The kids absolutely loved it (which kind of surprised me, at least Kayla, because she doesn't usually like loud places with lots of people. . . )

Benson was sooooooooo good to endure the craziness and being kept up way past his naptime. He was such a trooper and never complained. :)

Of course, I was a little tired by the end-to say the least-especially after hauling this big boy around most of the time.

Lily had a rough start. Her tooth was SO loose and she couldn't eat or do anything until because it was hurting her.

Finally, her tooth fell out! That's number 2 for her.

Bryson gave me a couple short breaks from carrying Benson around. :) So, he sucks on his index finger. . . backwards (Benson, not Bryson, ha ha). It's very cute and when he is ready for nap, he just cuddles up to me and sucks his finger. I put him in bed and *poof* naptime.

With all the games and things to do there, the kids' favorite thing was the above ground tunnels.

Crazy driver Nathan on the loose!

That night, we let Nathan open his present from Pa and Grammy (I knew there were new church clothes in it. :)

He is SO excited for his birthday tomorrow!
In fact, Nathan is so excited that he woke me up this morning at 5:18AM. That kid is an early riser, but I think he is literally SO EXCITED that his early morning wake time is getting earlier and earlier. . . hopefully it will go back to normal (at least 6AM) after his big day.