"Above the Clouds"

As promised... this is for 'you' . I LOVE YOU!!!




I admire your strength. You are an amazing person. You have an incredible spirit. You mean the world to me. I'm here for you, always!

"It makes people sad"

I was able to venture away to walmart this morning with Ashton and Dylan. At the check out i purchased a squirt to drink on the way home. After i opened it, Ashton wanted a drink and so i took a swig then handed him the bottle. A minute later, as i'm driving, Ashton says, "it makes people sad." "What makes people sad?" i asked, "This," he respondes. He held up the bottle. It took me a minute to figure out WHY that would make people sad. That carbonation sure can bring people to tears. But i'm sure that even though it "makes people sad," he'll never pass up an opportunity to drink a soda, if offered.

Handsome little devils!

On Father's Day, we gave daddy some colonge. (Usher, to be exact. Smells awesome!) So when they 'guys' started to get ready for church, they really spiffed it up and decided to have a photo shoot, they were looking so good! Ash stole that camera the most with this session.

This one Ash sure looks like Oliver when he was little. Don't you think, Oli?

I love the colors in this one.

Jared wants to get Ash going on modeling. I don't know if that's a good idea, he's REALLY bossy.

Jumping on the bandwagon.

Eli seems to be the "instigator" in the family. I think because he always makes, what he's doing, look like SO much fun. Even if it's putting a diaper on your head. He came in my room wearing this and then all the kids had to do it. Of course my first thought was 'get the camera!'

Kiss a 1000 frogs before you find your prince

Frogs! -Cute to look at, but not so cute to touch. (As Mykael and Eli demonstrate here.)

When Eli was shown the frog, he would yell and make this face. It was the funniest thing. So, we kept doing it to him, just for pure entertainment on our part. I love being a parent.

"Oh, just kiss it already Kael...maybe this is your prince!"

Survivor Man

For any of you who have cable and like to watch Survivor Man, you will appreciate this the most. For the rest of you....it's a funny story, actually it's disgusting but kids will do the darndest things.

Jaden LOVES to watch this particular show and for his birthday, we got him the first series on dvd. WELL... I don't know if that was the greatest idea because in the next few pictures, you will understand why. There are reasons why people do stuff like this in a "survival" situation. In one particular episode, the guy, (I forgot his name) shows you how to eat and cook up a grasshopper. Jaden decided he wanted to find out if you could REALLY do that, so the kids went grasshopper hunting. Unfortunately they were VERY successful and we had one too many grasshoppers than what they needed to try this experiment of theirs. (I finally had to tell them to stop hunting them and eating them.)

First, you take your grass hopper.

Next you pull off the head and the guts come out with it. Kind of like cleaning a fish if you can do it the right way.

Then you take a small stick and insert into the bug just like a kabob.

After that, place it on a hot rock that has been sitting in a fire and wait for it to turn charcoal black. (That way, all you taste is ash. More edible that way.)

Ashton was too eager to take this next insect, he chomped down on that before i could get a picture of the "hot off the grill" dish is so delicately clamped down on. But trust me....he ate it.

And the drink i held out for him...didn't need it. It "tasted good," he said GROSS!!!!

St. George water fun

After we moved from St. George to where we are now, they built this awesome water park a half block away from our old home. Go figure!!! Luckily, we still go down quite frequently to visit grandma and we can still enjoy it. The kids had a blast and the cool thing was Dylan was able to get in and be safe. The water level was very low. Just for the purposes of babies being able to sit and splash too.

Fish out of water

In this lovely city that i live, we have "irrigation" water that runs the deep gutters on, almost, a daily basis. ALL of my children are drawn to it like it's their second home. One day, they, and the neighbors started a "project". "Let's see how big of a dam we can build and how much water can we pool up"? Well....It flooded their yard and the neighbors behind me. But when your grass is being watered for free....who could complain?