Sunday, January 13, 2013

July

July was more summer fun for us. The girls took swimming lessons, spent a lot of time at the library and the girls and I went on our first campout.

 They loved getting new books at the library each week.
 Annika decided she wanted a new look before going back to school.
 Johnny would not swim in the pool when it was inflated, he still doesn't really like the water, but once it was almost empty he had a blast playing. What a silly guy!


 Bella enjoyed the deflated pool as well.
 We joined some friends for the fireworks on the 4th. They were very kind and shared their sparklers with the kids.  Being a California kid where we were indoctrinated from kindergarten on that all fireworks were illegal and dangerous, I had a hard time watching the kids play with them. I knew they were being safe and I was watching the whole time, but you can't erase that many years of teaching. The girls of course loved playing with them and had such a blast!




 Our friends joined us for more Zoo fun this summer. It seems that between two of us we have added a kid each year to this tiger, I don't know how many more he's going to be able to hold.
 Arabella having fun and playing dress up.
 My handsome men all ready for church.

 Isn't he a cutie.


 A day of fun at Rigby Lake, the girls loved getting buried in the sand. Mom learned the valuable lesson that you should always check your pockets before going out for a swim. I had my keys in my pocket and they are now sitting somewhere on the bottom of the Lake, oops!
 The girls getting ready for their first campout.

 Johnny working on his batting practice.
 Great Starfish float from Bella.
  
 MacKayla ready to jump in.   
 Annika working on her kicks. 
 
 All set up for our first night camping. We went up to Heise Hot Springs camp ground and had a few friends join us for a great night. We played, had a great dutch-oven dinner, and roasted marshmallows over the fire. It was a great night and I can't wait to take them again. The boys are noticeably missing from the pictures, they decided to stay home and have a guys night in, we are a reverse sexist family here :)

 Enjoying woof-ums while on our campout.
 Johnny has a great love for all things sports. For his birthday he received a basketball hoop a few days early. He LOVES this hoop and will play ball for hours even still. He can make a shot from halfway across the room and from sitting on the floor. He also loves to have daddy pick him up and dunk him and the ball.

We had the opprtunity to go to I-Jump, an indoor trampoline play place and the kids had so much fun learning new tricks and jumping to their hearts content.
Annika the flipper.
MacKayla was nervous to do a flip but after several practice tries she did a great one.
Bella had fun jumping and practicing her forward rolls.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

June

Once again my great intention of getting caught up on the blog failed. Let's see if I can keep it up this time. We have had so much fun over the past few months, that taking the time to blog has been hard. But here is more of our adventures.

June brought the summer fun to our family. MacKayla and Annika took tennis lessons, all of the girls played softball/tee-ball, and we had fun doing lots of other summer things.

MacKayla ready to play tennis.
Annika making friends while learning to play.
Great hit Annika!

Gotta love the enthusiasm. 
I finally got myself a birthday gift, a new grill and we had lots of great cookouts with it.
We did some rearranging of the house and moved the girls into the big room downstairs and then Johnny into what used to be the girls room. I had a firm rule however that my boy would not sleep in a Princess room, so we painted his room this awesome shade of blue. Johnny has loved his new room, here he was trying to help me put his bed together.
It wouldn't be a June post in Idaho if we didn't include the day that it snowed.
MacKayla and Annika's team photo.
My awesome girls.
Having some fun in our new pool.
Feeding the chickens at our friends house.


Annika is still too afraid to go into the goat pen at the Zoo, but the other kids had a blast playing with the goats.
Our annual photo on the tiger at the Zoo.
My little chicks.

Our stake put on a fireside about the life of Joseph Smith, it was done in a reader's theater style and MacKayla was asked to play the role of Emma Belle, the granddaughter of Joseph Smith. She did a great job with her lines and even performed a solo of a song about what it would have been like to know her grandfather. I haven't figured out how to post a sound file, but when I do I will add it.
Johnny got really bored with the girls games this summer. We had games everyday of the week but Friday and Sunday for the whole month and he spent a lot of time bored on the grass.
Ready to steal home.

Annika to bat.






MacKayla was always ready to catch the ball.

Arabella with her coach.
What a hit!



We were having some summer fun with friends and the kids wanted me to throw them into the pool, I think I had more fun than they did.