Happy Birthday Matthew!!!

Matthew turned 9 today. He wanted to go to Seven Peaks for his birthday so we spent the day there going down the slides and relaxing in the lazy river. Below is a picture of him with his coveted Ripstick he's been begging for all year. He had to have a blue one, not red! It's a BYU thing with him--everything has to be blue. This forced his mom to go to every WalMart in the valley until she found him a blue one. (I also think we're pass the days of $10 gifts, bummer.) Hopefully he doesn't break any body parts when he's riding it!!! You are such a caring, smart and obedient kid Matthew. Mom and Dad love you so much!!!!!



Being at Seven Peaks all day mom didn't have a chance to make Matthew a cake so we compromised and had ding dongs instead. (I think he actually prefered them over cake anyway.)


I also had to add in this funny picture of Gracie singing to me at Seven Peaks. She was having such a good time!


Turning 9 meant that Matthew graduated from a bobcat to a wolf in Scouts. At pack meeting this month Matthew earned lots of awards and he even got marked with a wolf paw print on his forehead. His Grandma and Grandpa were able to come see him get all his awards which he was very happy about!

Summer Fun!!!!

I've tried to make this summer a little more memorable by planning atleast one activity a week for the kids. We've gone to the children's discovery museum at the gateway, to lots of parks, swimming at the pool atleast every week and just hanging out with friends. Below is a picture of the friends they hang out the most with because their mom's are together so much.



Ellie with her insepperable playmate Aly. These two are together whenever possible.



This is Gracie with her best buddy Cole or "Coley" as she likes to call him. She loves playing with him and I find the two of them kissing every now and again.



Thanks to our neighbors for a fun "family night" out on their boat. Our kids love playing with their kids and have a good time when we go out on the lake with them.






We've had a lot of little firework shows for the kids this year. Gracie burned her leg after this sparkler was done burning. She rubbed it on her leg. I felt so bad!

A Walk Down Memory Lane...

I got this idea from my cousin Laura's blog....here are the instructions if you would like to play.

1. As a comment on my blog leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me well or not so well, anything you remember.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and people will leave a memory about you. It's a fun way to get to know each other better. If you leave a memory about me I'll assume you are playing and I'll go to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog I'll leave my memory of you in my comments on my blog.

Fourth of July Fun!!!!

Every year since I can remember (ok not every year but most of them) my family will go up to the church my dad grew up in, in Midvale and attend their 4th of July breakfast. This has become a tradition that I think will last as long as my Grandpa Larsen is here with us. I know it is important to him to have us all there sharing this with him. They have games for the kids to play and it's nice to visit with extended family that we don't see very often.






After we took the kids to see WALL-E (which was really stupid--don't waste your money on it if you haven't already seen it) Phil's mom invited us over to their house for lunch. The kids always have a good time playing with Peyton's cousins which they think are their own. They even call Phil's mom and dad Grandpa and Grandma Thompson. The kids swam and then they had a little fireworks show. Thanks guys for a great time and for the invite!!!




Finally it was off to The Stadium of Fire. This has always been a fun tradition that we do every now and again on the 4th of July. My favorite part of the night is when they honor our soldiers who are fighting for us over in Iraq. It's really emotional to watch as they surprise the wives and children of some of the soldiers and let them talk with each other via satellite. Really Cool!!!!!!!!







The highlight of the night for Josh was when the jets flew over the stadium. I thought these pictures of them watching them were pretty cute!!!



The highlight of the night (atleast for Ellie) was Miley Cyrus. It was cute to hear all the little girls around us singing every word of her songs. It took me back to the days of New Kids on the Block. I'm embarassed to say that I was just like that. I remember being so obsessed with everything about them.



Gracie was so hyper during the whole program but when the fireworks started she hopped up on her dad's lap and didn't move a muscle the rest of the night. She was so scared of the fireworks and the big booms and crackles they were making. The fireworks show they put on was long and awesome. That made it worth the money in itself!!!!!


The day was a long and fun one for everyone especially Gracie who was so tired from not getting a nap and from all her dancing and boogieing during Miley's performance that she fell asleep on our way back to the car.