Our Trip Home

We had a really great trip to Idaho Falls about two weeks ago. Along with most of my family (Greg and Hayley were sadly missed) we were also able to see Josh's brother Jon from Minnesota and his sister from Burley plus their families along with his little brother Danny and his wife Ashley. Although it was a little chaotic with so many kids running around it was so great to see so many people that we love but don't get to see very often. These are some photos of visiting Josh's parents. We were also able to visit the Titanic museum and spend time playing with cousins on Josh's side but unfortunately I lost my camera so I didn't get any pictures taken. We had a lot of fun though. Their is also a slide show following this post of my family reunion. Thanks everyone for making it a great reunion. We love you.

I so appreciate the time that Josh's Dad took with my children. The first night that we visited them the kids were outside playing and Dave scooted his seat right in front of Isaac's swing and talked to him and pushed him and he blew bubbles for the kids. I'm so grateful that they have grandparents that do little things like that to show their love. Thanks Dave.

The kids really enjoyed the swings and slide at Grandma and Grandpa Hill's house.

Silly Daddy, that's Emma's chair!!!

Slip and Slide Fun

I haven't posted in a long time!!! Part of that is due to us being gone and then to loosing our camera. Thankfully our prayers were answered and we found it. Can you guess where? In the back of our van. Yeah, anyways, this and the preceeding two posts are the first in a series of posts that will cover the last month and a half. I've already spent way to much time on this so I will have to do the post on my family reunion a little later. That will be a fun one so keep watching for it. I should be able to post more regulary now, assuming we don't loose our camera in the back of our van again. Thanks for keeping in touch with us!!

We got a slip and slide last month and the kids have had so much fun on it. This is the first night we go it out and it turned into a great family activity.

Isaac had fun watching everyone. Don't ask me what Emma is doing in the background.

This is the only time the Jaxson would go down it. He loved to play in the water but wouldn't slide in it.
OK, so maybe we're bad parents, but Emma is such a water baby and we were hoping that Isaac would be too. Evidently, he's not. We never put him right in the water and the stream of it wasn't falling on him but I think the sound of it on the plastic scared him. A guy was driving by as we did this and he actually stopped and watched and then laughed at us when Isaac started to get upset. Yes, we are retarded.
The kids couldn't figure out how to drop and slide on it so Josh put them on the pillow thing and then pushed them down the slide. Emma thought that was the greatest.Even Josh took a turn going down it

This is Emma attempting to slide on her own. Obviously she hasn't gotten the hang of it yet.

Isaac

I can't believe that Isaac is nine months old already!!! He is such a happy baby and I am so glad he's part of our family . Isaac found a black marker, what fun!!! We did a yard sale last month and he was rolling around the room and rolled onto to the papers that the pricing stickers come on and it got stuck to his face. He makes me laugh.
He's doing push ups already.

Josh gave the boys a bath and this is the result. He tried to do the same on Jaxson's head but Jaxson flipped out and wouldn't let him.

Lightning Storms and Lessons Learned

I've debated whether I should do this post or not because it happened so long ago but it's one that I'd like remember so I've decided to do it.

We had a thunder storm here a month or two ago. The kids had just gone to bed when it started but it's kind of a tradition that we watch the lightning together as a family(I've even woken Emma up to watch it with us before). This was the first storm we've watched that Jaxson was with us and he did not like the thunder at all. I love lightening storms and I wanted him to learn to like them as well, so instead of taking him into the other room and rocking him to sleep I saw an opportunity to teach him how fun it can be to watch the lightning. We made it a positive, fun, experience by saying "did you see that?" every time it flashed and "there it is" every time the thunder sounded. By the end he was saying it to us and was having a great time.

About a week later I was up around 3:00am feeding Isaac and I saw the most beautiful sky I've ever seen. The sun rises early up here so the sky was already starting to get light and it illuminated the clouds and made them look kind of like a wave of the sea. That's the best way I can describe it. It was so beautiful!! Of course I had to share it, so I woke up Josh and Emma to come look. The pictures we took didn't turn out very well but I will always remember that experience. It's amazing that something as simple as a sunrise or a lightning storm can convey the love of Heavenly Father so fully. I truly believe that makes beautiful things in nature to tell us that He loves us. How blessed we are.

This is the best photo we got of the sunrise. It isn't exactly what it looked like, but it's close. This doesn't show the prettiest part of the sky though.