Daddy play time

Alright, Alright, so I like the videos. So what. They are fun and better than pictures I think.

The kids were all over daddy again tonight. They jumped and poked and tickled each other. Daddy was playing a peek-a-boo scareing game with Miah. She was loving it.

BBQ

We had a BBQ on Sunday night with Jeremy, Molly, Janet, Paul and Jacob. We had great food and my most favorite thing, Hokie 6. I love playing that game as I have already explained in a previous post. BBQ are just so much fun. Cameron and Lilly really enjoyed playing with other peoples toys. They went to town on those.

Miah's birthday part 2

I think Miah enjoyed her day. She got to hang out with grandma and grandpa for a while, and eat cup cakes twice with every one singing to her. She wore a pretty drss all day and got to get really messy.

My dad was a little emotional but we won't get into that. It was just nice that she could feel some extra love and attention an her special 1st birthday.

I love birthdays. I also love videos. That is why I have so many on my blog. They are not always incredibly interesting but they are something and good enough for me.

Miah's 1st birthday

We had a special birthday thing for Miah in the morning on Saturday. We dressed her down and put a cup cake in front of her and sang to her. I seriously can not believe she is already a year old. Oh my goodness. These kids just grow up so fast.

I am enjoying things a little more with her because she is more curious and can entertain herself . She is playing with Cameron and Lilly more and is in a good stage. I would like to freeze her in this stage for a little longer than it actually lasts because I know that not too long from now she will be in to not doing what I say and repeating the word no as much as possible. Fun, Fun. How great life is.

Posing

We bought Lilly a new dress on friday while I was trying to pick up something for Miah for her birthday. I got her a yellow dress and a couple pairs of shoes at savers. Lilly loved the dress and wanted to wear it as soon as she got up on Saturday. She put it on and her new church shoes while I did her hair.

I told her to smile and stand a certain way and she gave it to me. She posed and loved the camera. She let me take several pictures of her. I think that it is funny, when she gets in dressy clothing she is very open to me taking pictures of her but on regular time and just day to day, she does not like it. Definitely not the way Cameron does.

I think she will like these pictures too when she is older.

Miah Bored and tired

This is Miah at the end of the day a little tired but not tired enough. She was in a weird mood and I guess could not figure out anything better to do. What a funny girl.

I love her.

Lester's Party

Ok, So I know that these are weird pictures for the party we had, but it was the only time that I pulled out the camera during the night.

We started the night off catching up with family and meeting Jane. I talked with Jolene about how her family is doing and then what we have been up to; all the while Lester was at the house waiting for more people to show up. I think he wanted to make a grand entrance. I had seen Lester pull up and go hang out with mortimer. I told mom that he was there, so she went out to find him, and then didn't come up for about another 20 min. They came up the stairs one at a time and he introduced Jane to every one. She seemed like such a cute girl, friendly but abviously nervous, which, I would be too.

The family came in; Delmar said hi and asked Lester, " was it you that I need to get back at, or was it Jackson, I can't remember." Then we laughed and Lester said that it was Jackson that de-pants'd him in the hot springs. He explained to story to Jane and we went on. That story always comes up every time we get together.

We ate spicy BBQ ribs, fruit salad, coleslaw, baked beans, macaroni salad, and chips. We were looking forward to the ribs all week. I made the rub and sauce for it on Wednesday and Mom and Dad cooked them up on Thursday. Mom said that she put the rub then dad came in after and just poured the rub over them thinking there was just not enough. It was made and came out very spicy I could only eat a couple of them. I guess I needed to watch what I was eating any ways.

Mom it is ok though. I am sure that you will have another chance to make them and they will be as good as they were the first time. FYI: do not pour rub on, rub the rub on lightly. Tastes better that way.

Lester was very talkative with everyone trying to make the focus not be on Jane too much. I guess she really isn't into parties much. He also would eat some food beside Jane then go upstairs and eat a whole bunch more so that she wouldn't see. I think he got his fair share. It was funny.

Joelle, her husband, Lester and Jane played this human rubber band game that was pretty funny to watch. It didn't last too long because the material was too long and it wouldn't fling them around correctly. Nice try though.

We then played hokie 6. For those of you who don't know the game, it is played just like nerds. I really enjoy it and I guess Janes family is really into nerds. Yah, I will have some one to play cards with. I love playing cards. Mom and Dad tryed playing with us and a normally fast paced game turned into a very slow game .

Everyone started leaving and then finally Corin and Cory showed up. They were in charge of the dessert and brought cookies and key lime pie. It was good but we all had to give it up for them because what else could we expect. We know that they are like that and it just doesn't matter any more. Hey they are family.

The pictures are of Miah crawling through the doggy door. I kept trying to keep Miah in the house because she wouldn't stop getting into things outside and we needed to clean up.

It never fails. Every time we go to grandma and grandpas house they do not leave with out becoming soaking wet at least once and riding the four wheeler.

It was a good night over all. We had some laughs, saw family we hadn't seen for a while and met Jane who will be joining our family in the not to distant future.

A great Thursday BBQ

Caiden's birthday

It was a celebration for Caiden's first birthday. He turned 1 year old yesturday and he is such a cute kid. It is funny watching him walk around because even though he has been walking for 2 or more months now, he wobbles like a drunk man. Miah is only 5 days younger than he is and I hope they will be good friends when they are older. Any ways,

Happy Birthday Caiden

We love you

Watermelon, Watermelon

oh its great

It must grow up not knowing its fate

Into my mouth, down to my tummy

Yes that watermelon's very very Yummy

(Word)

poem by Doug Harward

Daddy got there a little late but was able to take the kids out and play with them for a minute before we left. Miah loves the water but she has to stay as close as possible.

It was a nice night and perfect for our nephews birthday party.

Caiden and Miah. A cute pair.

Memories

My friend had this on her blog and I wanted to try too.

Here are the rules:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you (and if this isn't on there...I'll assume you're a procrastinator like me and will check back later!)

Scooter

Wow, what a scooter. Doug got this scooter yesterday for a good deal. He got this for a work vehicle. It should get 85 to 90 mpg and it holds almost two gallons. So hopefully he will only have to fill up once a month. I hope that he will be cautious and that people on the road will be careful of others. It does scare me the way some people do not pay attention and I've heard bad stories of people getting hurt on them, but I believe that Doug will be safe and careful.

Now don't laugh at him either because I think it is better than a normal motorcycle and I can drive it if I need to. Doug has a job selling for Verizon and he works close by so it should work out nicely. IT is also fun to just get something new every one and a while. The kids like it too.

Pray for us to stay safe though.

Fun in the back yard

Miah loves being outside. She can't stand it when Cameron and Lilly are out and she is stuck inside. We were tired of the TV so getting out was a relief tonight. Miah had an insident while I had to run inside. She picked up a piece of dog poop and luckily Cameron got it away from her and put her in the sand box. Yuck. I cleaned her up and we played some more. Miah also loves rocks. That is one of the things that she has in her hands. I can't keep her hands off of them. Where ever we go if there are rocks, she will go for them.

This was funny. I told Cameron to dance for me, and he gets on the trampoline and looks like he is having spasms. I didn't know what he was trying to do. I just thought it was funny. He also absolutely loves seeing himself so him will do anything to attrack attention.

My Garden

So I started a garden this year. I tryed several different seeds but not all came up. As you can see there are only three groups of plants. I have my corn on the bottom, pumkin on the upper right and tomatoes and green peppers on upper left. I have a large space of plants but I did not want to waste a whole lot of food so I did small sections. I was suppose to have four rows of corn but only three good rows came up. I hope they will pollunate o.k.

I also had carrots and cumcumbers, squash, basil, cantelope and watermelon but none of those worked out.

I do not like trying to keep up on the weeding. Every day there are more and more. I just can't get myself out there everyday. There is a lot of that, so I usually enlist the help of my sisters. Corin has helped a lot with that.

The pumpkin is doing well so I will have extra of those I think. Same with the tomateos. I will enjoy actually having something I grew myself and hopefully things will be better next year in its variety.

Flashy girl

Wow, she is my cutie. I took this picture on our way back to camp after the sand dunes. Grandpa got her those sun glasses and she was just relaxing there.

I think that we are going to have to be really careful when she is a teenager. She will have guys running after her, no doubt. I am not too excited for those days. They will be interesting, I'm sure.

4th of July Camping

Well, we took a trip to the Farwell camping ground in Oregon. It was right outside Ontario. I went with Grandma and Grandpa G, Corin and her kids, and my kids Lilly and Miah. Cameron went camping with his Uncle Jeremy and grandparents H. He had a great time with them and it made it so that there was less fighting with us. Doug had work he couldn't get out of, so he ended up staying home.

We left on Wednesday and got there at 4:00pm. It was burning hot and we had to set every thing up. I set up my tent and then we tryed to get together and set up the canopy. They didn't bring the directions on how to put it together, so we had to figure it out ourselves. Dad to one look at all of the pieces and walked away. So Mom, Corin and Me started putting it together. Man I started getting light heading and a little dizzy out there, it was so hot. We managered to get it up and then I worked on making dinner. We were having BBQ ribs in the dutch oven. I made the rub and sauce and mom helped me cut them up. We cooked them and they weren't ready to eat until 10 or 10:30. Oh my goodness, they were amazing, so delicious. The receipe is:

Easy Barbecue Beef Ribs
8 lbs. beef back ribs; well trimmed 4 cloves garlic; minced
Emeril's Rustic Rub* to taste 3 Tbs. dry minced onion
1 (12 oz.) bottle hickory barbecue sauce 1-2 tsp. red pepper flakes (to taste)
1 (12 oz.) bottle chili sauce

Separate ribs by cutting between the bones so they are in single rib pieces. Trim excess fat from both skin and membrane sides of each rib. Season ribs with Emeril's Rustic Rub then place in a large ziploc bag and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Arrange ribs in a 12" deep Dutch oven. In a medium bowl mix together the remaining ingredients and spoon over ribs. Cover oven and bake using 8-10 briquettes bottom and 14-16 briquettes top (325° F.) for 2 hours. Baste with pan drippings every 15-20 minutes. Replenish briquettes after 1 hours cooking time.

*The recipe for Emeril's Rustic Rub can be found on my Recipes page under Seasonings.

Serves: 8
You must try it.




When we were eating dinner, all of a sudden a sworm of nats covered us. We grabbed everthing and went into the camper but they followed us. It was seriously disgusting. They were all over the table and walls, in the sink flying in circles around the light. We grabbed our tooth brushes and walked to the bathroom where the water in the toilets were black with dead nats. I couldn't even set my stuff down because all the surfaces in the bathroom were covered with them. Yuck.





This is Dad trying to vacuum up the sworming nats. If any water touched them they would die so the ones on the counter were dead and easier to clean up. Yuck.

The rest of the days we didn't have as much trouble with bugs, but that was horrible. The bugs didn't come out as much because it was soo windy. It was windy for the rest of the weekend so it made it nice to not burn up in the heat. The only thing that was not nice was the fact that during the night I was freaked out because I thought my tent was going to blow over. But over all it was great.



We ended up driving a lot because swimming was not allowed at the camp ground. Miah did pretty well during the trip. I was trying to keep her happy with the cookies her has. We drove out some where each day so the kids kind of got tired of it.



Mortimer thinks he is the size of susie. He kept trying to jump onto grandpas lap. It was funny and this time grandpa let mortimer drive with he. Mortimer is a big dog but he is also a sweet one to.



We went swimming every day. That was the best part for the kids. We found some pretty good places too. Miah was hilarious. I would take her into the water with me and she would just laugh and grunt and splash around over and over again because she was so happy. Lilly was afraid of the water and would not go farther than 3 steps by herself into the water. Hyrum had a hard time the first day getting used to the water but the rest of the time he had no trouble laying and playing in the water. Nathan was just every where and into everything.

This spot in the picture is at the sand dunes. There was a great beach to play at there.



At the sand dunes we all had a chance to ride on the four wheeler. It was so much fun because there were trails and jumps all over. What a great place for that activity. It made the trip even more worth it.

We did take the time to watch a girly movie together. I brought Pride and Prejudice. We watched it and grandma was smitten by it. She watched the whole 6 hours of it in one night starting at 10:00. Wow. I really liked it too. It is one of my favorite movies. I knew she would like it though. Corin didn't finish it all so the next day we watched it again, only the last hour or so of it. I thought it was funny.

Well I had a great weekend. The kids enjoyed it and it was something different from every other day.

Thanks for taking us along Mom and Dad.

Happy Birthday Caiden and Beila

Happy birthday Caiden and Beila. Shout for joy. We are soo happy for you two. We hope you have a fun day today and we are excited to see you guys when you get back in town.
Grandma and Grandpa wanted to wish you a happy birthday too.

Daddy fun time

This is Daddy about to toss Miah up into the air.



This is Miah wimpering and getting as close to daddy as possible because she was too scared. He loves those moments of embrase with the kids, especially when Maih tucks in her arms and lays her head down to feel secure in his arms and safe.



This is all the kids together, ready for bed. This is usually the time where they all participate in a rituale of tickle attacks and jumping on daddy. They love it and so does he. I love that they have a time to be happy together and bond.

Baby Shower

So I went to a baby shower tonight. It was my friend Stacy Brady's first baby, baby shower. She looks so cute. This is also my friend Abrie and her baby. They were my friends from high school. I became friends with Stacy the summer before college, which would have been my senior year. We had a great time skipping American government as much as we could. It was so worth it to enjoy the time and be happy.

She looks so cute with her baby bump. She is three and a half weeks from her due date.

Abrie was my best friend in highschool. She is someone that I always wanted to be like and I admired. I enjoyed being friends with her because she was such a good person. I hope to stay in touch with them.

Grandpas Birthday

Look how great he looks. This is the Man. He is my Dad. It is his 54th birthday today. Happy birthday Dad. I love you.

I want you to know that I am so thankful for you and the wonderful father and grand father you are. You are so sweet. I love watching you play with the kids and bless them with your beautiful spirit. You did your best to raise and support your family and you did a good job. All of your children have become good people and are in the process of raising wonderful families of their own. We take a lot from you and moms example, the good and the bad. There is a lot of good though.

I always liked how you took good care of the yard and making the home better with your improvements. You have always been a hard worker and I believe that, that is one great quality that you have passed on to all of us. There is no doubt that you gave 100% in work and in whatever you did. It is something that all of us will use throughout our lives and pass on to our children.

You have such a tender heart and all who know you feel that way I'm sure. I know that you tryed to give us the best life as possible.

I also really enjoyed our family trips. I know that they were full of fighting and bad attitudes, but looking back at them they bring joy to me. The camping trips and cabin outings make me want to share those kind of memories with my children. I can't remember a better snow tubing trip than when we got together at the cabin. I wish we still had that but we enjoyed it while it was there. I also feel that we have missed out when we don't go camping at least once a year.

The hikes that we went on taught me to enjoy the out doors. Those were some of my greatest memories, just going out and walking through the hills or exploring the craters of the moon, and hiking through the mountains at the cabin, all were pleasurable and for the most part non fighting moments. I deeply desire to share those with my family and I can't tell you how much I love hiking now. Those were our best times and I am so thankful that you took the opportunities to to that with us.

Dad, I love you so much



This is most of us after singing happy birthday to Dad. We had cake and ice cream and just hung out. The kids enjoy going to grandma and grandpas house because grandpa always plays with them. They all adore him.



Now that Miah walks, she gets into everything. This is Miah getting into grandmas cabinets. All the stuff is just to fun to look at and pull out to play with.



Lilly was enjoying the slide with the bucket of water at the end. She was wearing a dress today and had already got it soaking wet. She even peed her pants just so that she could wear a swim diaper. That girl is crazy I tell yah. You can be sure that when you go to grandma and grandpas house they with get messy or wet. It is just how it is. That is why they all love it so much.