Gavin's Baptism Day

You're invited!

New Scout in Da House

We've got a Wolf Scout in the house! Gavin turned 8 years old and jumped right into scouting. The boy is crazy excited about it and couldn't wait to show off his new uniform.

He went to his first pack meeting this past Wednesday and fell in love. This morning he woke up bright and early and left with his pack for the SLC Jamboree for some all day games, activities, and NASCAR race! I'm really excited for all that Gavin will experience in scouting. Utah is just swarming with scout activity and lots of volunteers! It will be great! I can't believe how old my children are getting. It's becoming such a fun stage. One that I'm sure to enjoy. Love you G-man!

DBE Fun Run 2010

The kids school put on their annual Fun Run during the morning hours of school this past week and I was able to go and run with them. Here's Gavin with buddies, Gabe and Tommy.

They had the kids start according to their grade. Here's Gavin getting ready to take off with the other 2nd graders. On your mark...

GO!

After Gavin was off I went to find Reese with her class. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with Gavin so I ran with my baby girl.

We did a combo of running and walking. Just what I needed.

This would have been a great shot had it not turned out so blurry. It had people wrapped around the trail with the mountains and the temple in the background. Oh, well. Just know it was beautiful.

Reese was a trooper and by the end of the run (2.1 miles) she came in FIRST for her class!! Way to go girlfriend!!

We met up with Gavin when we finished (Gavin saw us and run the last bit with Reese cheering her on...it was the cutest!) and got our goods from Chick-fil-a (a sponsor), our popsicles and new school water bottles.

Ah, a great reward and finish for a race well run baby girl. I really enjoyed my time outside. Couldn't have been a more perfect day!

Back in line, going in for the awards assembly. Me, back home to get some rest before having to pick up Bear from preschool!

Hide Your Husbands, Too REMIX

Remember this post? Well, I forgot to add the best part! THE REMIX that was once #35 on the Top 100 iTunes chart:

THE BED INTRUDER SONG

Now run and TELL THAT! Why is this song so catchy? Why do I keep playing it? So much that my kids are walking around telling me to hid them and myself! lol SO FUNNY! Oh, and did you catch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir bit? HA

Here's the original REMIX before it became all commercialized with iTunes. It's amazing wihat you can do with auto-tune. Anyone can be a music sensation! Even the NEWS! It's gotten almost 23 million views to date.

Ride Upgrades

Gavin got a new bike for his b-day. Now he has one that fits him and loves riding his bike to school.

Christopher took Gavin's old bike and disassembled it, spray painted and decal'ed it, and reupholstered the seat and front pad. A lot more girlie. I would have just bought a new one, but Christopher enjoys doing this kind of stuff. Better him than me. Reese LOVES her "new" bike.

That means that Reese's old princess bike is now a John Deere yellow boy machine. Bear is almost ready for the training wheels to come off! He's really taken to his new bike. Everyone is now equipped for fun rides around the lake. Good job, Goosey!

Gavin's 8th Birthday Party

Gavin's b-day got off to an early start by getting his present from G-ma and Pa Haslam the day before. He got the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts game board and LOVES it. He wants all the others now. He had all his friends totally into the game as well within hours.

Gavin said that he wanted a pizza cake as we were going to Incredible Pizza to celebrate with his friends. Christopher once again, did a fabulous job.

Christopher was left in charge of the camera for his party, and so we get what we get for pictures. Kids lining up for pizza buffet time!

Chow time.

Present stampede.

He got lots of fun toys and will be set until Christmas.

Cake time!

Happy Birthday to Gavin song with crazy boys signing along.

Then it was time to spin the wheel on the Incredible Wheel of Fun. He won a free bumper car ride on his next visit.

And again sung to in front of the whole establishment.

Then the kids were let loose on to the "Fairgrounds" where the did Laser Tag...

Games.

Bumper cars.

Mini cosmic golf.

And Go Karts.

And of course more gaming until they either ran out of money on their game card or their parents came to pick them up. Gavin had a blast and enjoyed celebrating the big "8" with his friends! Happy Birthday, G-man!

Boating: A Series of (Un)Fortunate Events Day 2

So, let me preface this first picture of this post with a little story. See, Christopher raced the Jordanelle Triathlon in this very lake 2 weeks BEFORE this picture was taken. While he was standing chest deep in the water waiting for the swimming part of the race to begin, he lost his wedding ring. YES, I was ticked. So was he. But there was no way he was going to find it and resigned to the fact that it was lost forever.

Fast forward 2 weeks to Labor Day Weekend and the water levels were WAY down at the very lake he did his Triathlon weeks before. ( You can tell by looking at the side of the lake.) While we were launching the boat, Christopher got the idea he would go looking his ring. We were all like, yeah, whatever. No joke, 5 minutes later he comes back like this:

He had FOUND HIS RING! I kid you not! Christopher swears he was lead to it by the power of prayer. He prayed and felt guided to it. So awesome! No one can believe it! Especially all the guys and gals he did the Triathlon with! A Tender Mercy nonetheless.

So, while on the high of finding the impossible, we went out and had a great time in the water. The kids loved being pulled on the tube.

Slow.

And FAST.

Bear loves the high "power jet" fast pace. He's fearless...unless he gets too cold from the water and starts screaming his head off. He's a Texan. We don't like the cold.

Finley even got a little time on the tube with her mom.

Then it was time for the big boys to play. Christopher was in heaven. He can't wait to get back to Texas and buy himself big boy boat toys.

Jarom getting in on the fun.

Jarom wiping out.

Finley was all about to jump off the side of the boat and get her wakeboarding on. Cute girl.

Reese too.

Oh, that girl Finley was cuddling with me for a long while on the boat, I was in HEAVEN!

This is the part where things began to go from Fortunate (finding Christopher's ring) to Unfortunate...where Jarom realizes that we can't find the key to his car (which has our keys to our car inside his). We don't know what happened but after spending a good hour thrashing around the boat looking for it, it was determined it either somehow got off the boat (kids) or never made it on (he threw it on to the boat but no one remembers this).

We pulled the boat up to the launch and let the kids get out and play while my brother and his wife tried calling and hunting down people that could get into their house, get the spare car key and drive it all the way out to us....so we could get the boat out of the water, get our keys and all go home. Yeah....

Chelsea finally got her step-father, John, to do all this with a little help of her neighbor who wasn't even at her house. Yes, it's way too long of a story to write about. While the boys were out on the boat fishing waiting for the spare key to arrive, Chelsea and I were on land with the girls and Caden. She hoped on Gavin's bike and rode up to the entrance to let the attendant know our situations so as to not charge John a fee.

This was probably the best entertainment of the day for me! Thanks, Chelsea for the laughs!

WARNING on this last pic! GROSS!

Of course while we were stranded with no diaper bag (in the car and boat) Finley girl had a SERIOUS blow out. With nothing to clean it up with. We had to get really creative and let's just say, some little girl doesn't have her favorite kitty towel any longer. But you could say, this picture describes what Chelsea though of the losing the keys situation. It was real @#$%^!

BUT despite it all, we had a great time and I can't wait to do it again sometime. Minus the poop but with the keys!