The Splash Park

We have been trying out the splash park for the last few years and this was a successful year! We found a great one close to our house that is perfect! The splash park is perfect for toddlers and the park is steps away and again perfect for toddlers. I love that there is nothing in between the 2 areas and I can see where my kids are at all times. My kids hang around me if it's to crowded, and slowly venture out as they watch Ava got out with out a problem! When it's not crowded they are out there playing with out hesitation! It is great to be able to go somewhere that they feel I am close enough by them that they can still go out to play. If any one knows my kids, they stick by me pretty close, so this is a chance for me to just sit and them to have fun.

Carter loves to be outside, but when he is sleeping he sleeps best in my sling when we are out and about

But when he's awake he is chillin in his car seat enjoying being outside with everyone else!

The splash pad

The slides - all the older kids take cups and dump water down to make them more slippery, I was nervous about Easton going down, but he handles himself so well and does great on this play set!

He really makes me nervous when he tries to do all the things his siblings do, but again, he proves every time what a big boy he is becoming!

SLC Temple

Our kids really loved visiting the temple grounds when we first moved here, but it was winter, and still very cold. We decided now that all the moving and looking for houses is done and things have slowed down a little bit in that sense, that it was time to go again while it's warm!! Our kids loved it it. They loved seeing all the fountains and running around the grounds

They make sure they touch every bit of water they see, its as if they have never touched it before, they get so excited!

You can tell at this point we have been there a while and now it's time to go!

The kids really love to go see the Jesus statue

Carter snug as a bug in his favorite sling

Love this sweet boys!

Laundry!!!!!

Please tell me I am not the only one who procrastinates folding laundry until it gets this bad!!!!

4th Of July Weekend

We had a fun family 4th of July weekend. This will always be a special weekend for us, it was the weekend in 2008 that our adoption was finalized with Ayden and Gavin. The night before the 4th we had a BBQ and then roasted marshmallows in our backyard

Easton carried this marshmallow and a graham cracker in his hand the entire time
He stole the marshmallow from me, it was one that had been roasting in the fire for a while, so it was soft and squishy. The problem with that is it was slowly, slowly falling off the stick while he was walking around.

Teaching her the "Chandra" way to take a picture, or in this case, the "Mommy" way

Eating the yummy smores

We had a huge box of Pops, so in the morning we let them throw a few around

Easton played with Dad and then decided it looked fun and joined in

He even was stepping on them with his bare feet, I tried it myself to make sure it didn't hurt, it was fine!

Gavin on the other hand was being silly. He gets on these things, his dad had recently taken him to the car races and the noises scared him, so I think he was being overly sensitive, but he would not play with the pops and he hid behind the door and watched. We teased him a little by throwing them at the door, I know we are mean, but he loved them the year before, he was just being weird.

Ok, so they were dressed on this day, you can see in one of the pictures above. When we got ready to actually do all our fireworks we wanted to get them in their PJ's first so they could go to bed right after.

We started off with some sparklers - Ava and Ayden were champs the whole day with the fireworks

We then got some chips out and decided to light our fireworks on the cement in the back yard


We got our chairs all set up and ready to go

Carter in his bouncer a little further away on the stairs

And Gavin in position behind the door


Alright so this picture is funny, The fireworks began and Ayden was a little timid, so when he got scared he would run in with Gavin and then come out when he realized it was a firework with out noise or not a very scary one, he was trying to be brave and just had to get use to them. While Gavin is being Gavin crying behind the door grabbing his wiener as usual. He just cried at first and then realized he was safe behind the door

It seemed like some were a little bigger than I thought and we felt like it was probably better to just do it in the street, so we moved to the front porch


There is Gavin and Ayden in the front window. The funny thing was, after the fireworks we found a HUGE pee puddle on the floor - which is funny because at this point he had a smile on his face the entire time thinking he had figured out how he could watch the fireworks from a distance with out all the noise - poor kid!


There is Ayden at the door ready to go in if he got scared Easton staying a distance on the stairs, and Ava who got over being scared and tried to get Easton to come down and join her


These three all decided towards the end that the fireworks were GREAT! Carter slept through most of it in my sling


And here is the fire maker himself. He was trying to get the kids involved and was telling them the names of the fireworks and showing them the pictures, it really was a fun weekend and the kids talked about wanting to do fireworks for weeks after.