Nephew Visit

 We were able to have 3 of my nephews stay with us because their parents and sister went to Hawaii for just over 2 weeks. The boys helped on the farm by moving sprinklers and doing chores where ever they may need to be done. Fortunately for them, six kids makes light work so a lot of the time was spent as they chose, playing video games. Ryan got to do more things since he was older. Not sure if he loved it but he was a good sport. He learned to drive a stick and hauled manure and also learned to change filters on the equipment with Kevin.

 The kids played with the puppies!

 They tried some fun meals like cheese fondu!

 Here is the evidence of video gaming.

 Making cookies! Fun story: I left Ryan, Sam and Samantha (aka the twins or thing 1 and thing 2) with the assignment to make cookies while we were at the Cub Scout day camp. Thing 1 thought it would be great to add chocolate chips to no-bake cookies. Not to mention they misread the recipe and added 1 1/2 cups of cocoa powder instead of 1 1/2 Tb. That made for some very DARK cookies. Then it was successfully burned, so it looked like tar with bits of white oats. Tasted horrible. I had them make it again so they could feel success, plus we wanted cookies still!

 Here is Thing 1 lifting a foam weight. You can tell it was pretty heavy. ;)


We went swimming at the aquatics center and rode horses another day.
They enjoyed the mini motorcycle the most and the 4 wheeler when it worked. We were so glad to have the chance to get to know them better and spend time with them. We miss them and hope they are having fun unpacking from their move!

KayDee is 7!

 For KayDee's birthday we went swimming at the local pool with a mix of cousins who live near us! We had so much fun and were so glad so many made it! We swam for HOURS and many received sunburns for lack of reapplying sunscreen. We used a lot of my aloe plant on my nephews! Even my kids burned! They had such a great time and loved the simplicity of the pool with floaters! After swimming we had graham crackers and leftover frosting from the cake.

 Those who could make it met at our place later and had cake and ice cream with us. We had a great gathering with Grandma and Grandpa Laub, Aunt Roni with her kids, Uncle Travis and Aunt Bree with their girls, my 3 nephews, and a couple of Samantha's friends we picked up at the pool. Our house was pleasantly full!

It's KayDee's spotlight moment! We love how KayDee is learning and growing. She has grown up so much this year by learning to read with more confidence and becoming more independent in taking care of herself. She finished the Let's Play Music program and still loves to play the piano. She is very proud of her musical composition she titled "Flower Petals Falling" and can play it so well. She can read chapter books and has done well on all math, even adding money. She loves school and has enjoyed catching ladybugs at recess under a specific tree. She loves to play with her small dolls and make dresses for them, and loves to build with legos (especially pink ones!). She loves to ride her bike, jump on the tramp and play outside. Lately she has loved collecting grasshoppers and pretending to take care of them like pets.
KayDee likes to take her scriptures to church and likes reading scriptures with the family from her very own. She also is very generous and loves to share. She is very helpful around the house and likes to mop the floor. She can clean the bathroom sink and helps put in dishes and takes them out.
We love KayDee and are so glad she is in our family! She makes us smile!

We adopted 9 puppies and their mom.

We adopted 9 puppies with their mom and now they are old enough to give away! We will miss these cute puppies! The kids have had a blast with them. We are keeping the mom and have named her Gypsy.

Baseball

After we settled down from our move I told the kids they could pick sports or activities they wanted to do. Derrick chose baseball. We attempted to sign him up for the city league but then we found out all of the games for his age group would be about 35 miles away. This was frustrating since it already cost more since it was a private league. We decided to keep our promise and do baseball anyway. We invited everyone from our town to come and play, no matter what the age. Some weeks we had 16 kids and others we had 6. We successfully played baseball once a week for eight weeks. (Obviously after cub scouts.) We reached our goal of playing baseball and kept our promise!

Spring Events

 Samantha was able to have a "late over". This means her parents won't let her have sleepovers so she can have friends stay late. She invited Ally from her class and Nikayla from our ward.

 We went to support my brother Andy and bro in-law Randy for the 1/2 Iron Man. It was a great race and a great time with family. The kids were able to play in the condo pool and I enjoyed using my distance lens on my camera. We stayed at my grandparents home with my parents. We had a great time!

 KayDee was invited by her previous Let's Play Music teacher, Laura, to play her composition in their recital. When we moved, she had one year left to complete the three year program. I worked with her and we did the best we could with Samantha and Derrick's old books. She created her own piano piece and memorized it and played it. It is called "Flower Petals Falling". Only the girls went to the recital since it was father's and sons that weekend. KayDee was nervous but she played her piece so well and received her certificate for completing the Let's Play Music program with a trophy!

 Samantha finished the year with a band concert. The 5th and 6th graders showed so much improvement from their Christmas concert. We enjoyed the music they played. Samantha had done much better since she was practicing more consistently. I believe she feels good about the work she has put in, and also knows she can accomplish hard things!

This was a not so great event. Kevin was cutting wood for the cub scouts on the table saw and ended up with this. The wood he used to feed the other wood jumped out of his hands and caused his hands to jump on the blade. He was so lucky and the wounds have healed and are not noticeable at all!

13th Anniversary Camping

 Kevin and I met 13 years ago over Memorial Day weekend and here we are at the exact same campsite. We always go camping Friday to Saturday before Memorial Day no matter where we are. This time we left when Kevin got off work Fri and came home so he could go back to work Sat. We were able to go on the hike we went on that first trip. We did it twice, once on Friday and then again on Saturday. The kids were tired on Fri and had more energy Sat, since they knew where they were going. The kids enjoyed the tiny stream behind the tent and delegated areas for play. We really had a great trip and we plan to go next year!