The Great Outdoors!

We have been trying to enjoy every last ounce of summer that we can before it disappears before our eyes. So, we took the kids up to Bridal Veil Falls and let them play in the water for a while. They all loved it. Even Brielle loved to stick her tiny toes in the water. I was shocked she liked it so much because the water was freezing! Luke and Tanner had a great time, but of course they wanted to be a bit too adventurous for my taste from time to time. They would have hiked all the way to the top of the falls if it wasn't for their paranoid mother.
They have also been running through the sprinklers on a near daily basis. They absolutely love it! I figure it is a great way to run off some of their energy, and it waters the grass, so how could I complain. Launey and I have decided that to them, it really doesn't matter whether we spend money on a trip to Disneyland, or Lagoon, or if they are playing in our own backyard for free. They seem to have just as much fun splashing in the water at home as they do on vacation, (I on the other hand am a different story ;). I kind of miss that about my own childhood, it is so easy for kids to find such pleasure in simple things.
It kind of reminds me of Elder Ballard's talk in this past conference where he encourages us young mothers to find joy in the moments. Every time I really try to concentrate on that I find little moments of joy everywhere. They are certainly fleeting, but they are there.
A few weeks ago, Launey took Luke to get a "quick haircut" which he paid 14 BUCKS for, and it was terrible!! That alone put me in an incredibly foul mood which I was not about to get over. Then, I was sitting outside listening to my boys play. They were throwing rocks from our yard into the field behind our house and Tanner would say, "Good frow Wook," then Luke would respond with, "Thanks buddy, your throwing really far too." Their little words of praise to each other was enough to get me out of my melodramatic bad mood. It really was a simple little moment that brought me great joy.
Sorry for the tangent, I had no intention of making this such a long post, but when things come to my foggy brain, I better write them down because it doesn't take long before I forget them. Anyway I will quickly wrap this long obnoxiously boring post up with a few recent pictures.
These are of Brielle and Me. I took the picture of Brielle on our front yard because of the funny face she was making from touching the grass. Then I remembered the picture of myself as a baby making a similar face. I just thought it was fun to compare the two. The rest of the pictures are from Bridal Veil Falls.

What a Whirlwind!

Wow, I have always known that summer is busy, but it seems that it has been a little extra busy this year. On Thursday, my favorite brother, Karson, married the cutest girl in the world, Linzy. So we were happily involved in a lot of the wedding festivities. Unfortunately I don't have the pictures yet, but trust me, the bride and groom were adorable.

We have also been to the zoo, partied at Mona days, I was out of touch with reality for a couple of days while I read Breaking Dawn (LOVED IT) and we went to the demolition derby since my last post. Luke looks forward to the derby all year round. He is totally in his element there! Tanner has always liked it too, but he lacks some of the ferver that Luke seems to have. Ellie even seemed to really enjoy it. People around us were surprised that the loud noise didn't bother her at all, but I assured them that with brothers like hers, the noise was nothing new.

Ellie recently turned 7 months! I can't believe she is that old! She now has two tiny bottom teeth, and is starting to get on her hands and knees to crawl. She has been doing the army crawl for a couple of months so she gets to where she wants to go just fine, but I am sure that her new mode of transportation (actual crawling) will be happening right around the corner.

Tanner, what can I say about Tanner? Last week he proudly announced that he didn't hit or push in nursery because he bit Sammy's fingers instead. Yesterday the boys went to church in my parents' ward and I swear when Launey, Ellie, and I sat down in Sacrament without them, there was a twinkle in his nursery teacher's eye. He is going "pee pee" in the potty really well, unfortunately we are having more of a struggle with the dreaded number 2, but I guess we will just keep pushing along, no pun intended.

Luke has been loving his new bike riding abilities and practices them often. He is still just as content as ever to play with his cars for hours. He gave a talk in primary last week on baptism and did a marvelous job. Two days ago our fire alarm went off for no aparent reason. Luke has an intense fear of fire, so he had a terrible time trying to get to sleep because he was so scared that there was going to be a real fire in the house. He probably got out of bed ten times after we intitially tucked him in. A few minutes after his last venture out of bed, we heard him talking out loud as he was lying there, but neith Launey or I could make out what he was saying. He was asleep shortly after that, so it wasn't until morning that he told us who he was talking to. He said that he was so scared that there was going to be a fire that he said a prayer and said, "Heavenly Father, is there going to be a fire in my house tonight?" Then he said that Heavenly Father whispered in his brain the word "No" so he calmly fell asleep. Don't you just love the faith of a child! I have no doubt that his little sincere prayer really was answered.

Anyway, sorry for the long post I guess I had a lot to catch up. I will post a few of the many pictures from the past few weeks :).

Ellie and me on her first zoo train ride, doesn't she look excited!

Launey and the kids, for some reason the appear to be a little less excited

Luke and Tanner are up there on the fire engine. The got to ride on it in the good old Mona Days parade!

I love this precious picture. They wanted to go ride the inflatable slides in the Mona park so I told they to stay together. They held hands even without me telling them to do so. Isn't this just priceless!!