James is making me feel old!

Happy Birthday, James!

It's hard to believe that you're already 10 years old!!! I'm glad that you are my son and such a good example for your brothers and sister. Here's a look at your life so far...

I've been a bad blogger!

As I warned initially, I thought that I might be an infrequent poster. Here's an update of some of our recent happenings...

Wesley turned 8, earned his Bobcat in Cub Scouts,

(ignore my waiting to be poked face)

and got baptized.

The boys finished school, started golf,

and finished swimming lessons.

The twins pretended to be cowboys,

warriors,

and finished swimming lessons.

Here's to the start of a fun, busy and hopefully sometimes relaxing summer.

Happy Father's Day

Well, I 've got about a half hour left to post this on June 15th, so I'll just say that I'm so thankful for all of the fathers in my life. Both Jim and I have great fathers that raised us well and helped us learn and grow. The picture below has both of them in it - can you tell which one is which? (It's really not that hard!)

Jim is a WONDERFUL husband and father and I am really blessed that we are sharing our lives together! The kids have all been quite "Daddy's Boy/Girl," so they definitely love all that he does for them. (Sometimes it makes Jim a little crazy, but that's a different story...)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!

Field Day

Last week was field day for James & Wesley. They each got the standard green ribbon that everyone received. Amazingly (it seems these days), the school also gave out place ribbons for certain events. Wesley won a blue ribbon for the shoe kick event. James won a blue ribbon for the 3-legged race (my friend and I won that every year, too - or at least that's how I remember it...) and a red ribbon for the football toss. They both had a lot of fun. I know I always loved field day!

My little monkeys at the zoo

Here's some pictures of our trip to the zoo with friends...

This gorilla was a little freaky! We went into the building where he was and the kids walked over to the glass. The gorilla had been on a "ledge" a few feet away and immediately came over and banged the window. The kids all freaked out and moved away from the window. Then he sat down for a while and I took some pictures. Not sure why he came over so quickly. Weird!

Here's the kids with the "safe" Gorilla.

I think Red Pandas are so cute!

Megan's face cracks me up on this one!

The cheetahs were trying to get to the kangaroos and emus in the adjacent area.

Matthew saw this and said, "Penguin school!"

(from the penguin episode of "Go, Diego Go!")

We saw a couple of peacocks, but this one had its feathers out. So pretty!

11 years ago...

This was a big week 11 years ago. The dates fall on the same days of the week this year, so maybe that makes me even more nostalgic. Jim graduated from USAFA 11 years ago today.

Our 11 year anniversary is Saturday, too. (The Cadets can't get married until they graduate, so 3 days later, there we were

at the Boise Temple!)

These 11 years (and the 2 1/2 years we knew each other before marriage) have been GREAT! I'm so thankful for Jim in my life and the life we have together.

Here's to many more years to come!!!

Speaking of Wesley...

Today is his 8th birthday. He's so excited to go to Cub Scouts and to be baptized at the end of the month. We're so happy that he is a part of our family. He definitely brings a lot of joy. Here's a couple pictures of our new 8 year old.

(As I looked for the pictures to include, I remembered that he would sleep in funny places, as you will see. Also, he definitely is the 2nd child - with less pictures taken of him - and it's even worse because twins came after him and got more taken of them, too. Here are the results of my search..)