It's a Girl!!

Right after we got back from GA, we got to see our baby via ultrasound, and she surprised nearly all of us with being a girl!! Her head was turned for most of the time, but we did get a cute thumbs up from her.  After 5 brothers, I can NOT believe we will have a house with 5 daughters!! Now our only trick is naming her! Jane, Polly, Claire, Edith have all been thrown around--the kids all got busy taking votes after we got home, to which I replied, "Thanks for your interest and involvement, but be aware, that the naming will still be done by Mom and Dad, regardless of the results! :)"  We were so ready for a George, but are glad to hear the name at least went to royalty since we're not using it now!

 The boys are not thrilled about being SO outnumbered, but it's hard not to be excited--especially w/  Little Lucy delighting us with her singing, dancing and creative speech:  "Can you get me that 'hand-rubber'." (towel)--"I can't stop hicking-up"---"I love my boy Brent." and last night, playing "Categories" for FHE, she would say "bananas" every time it was her turn, and then get squirted with water, so after treats, she got the spray bottle, and said, "Now it's my turn to squirt everyone that says 'bananas!'---say 'Bananas!'"

Brian and I just celebrated our 16th anniversary this last weekend!! We had a delightful night in Salt Lake, visiting Ken Sander's Bookstore again, w/ a very rare French Book of Mormon, and had a DELICIOUS meal at Red Iguana, where we were even serenaded w/ BEAUTIFUL music! It was so nice to be together, and so crazy to think of how much time has passed SO QUICKLY as we await this 7th addition! Life is abundant and SO good!!

Summer Fun

A few fun spots of summer:
Spencer loved Cub Day Camp

Anne LOVED swimming lessons--and was jumping off of the diving board her first day! (I think watching all of her cousins swim at our reunion got her motivated!).  Still, she does different things with motivation than our other children have:  she also tackled doing backflips on the trampoline after watching our neighbor--that is a first for our whole family!

She does not get any bravery from me! Brian and I got to go boating w/ 2 other couples in our ward on a lastminute Thursday night (the boat-owners were so happy to find anyone willing!).  Brian tried a little skiing, and did great on the kneeboard--I did ride the little tube w/ Brian, but that was plenty of excitement for my pregnant body :)

It was nice to be in the water.  We're having quite a drought here in Syracuse this year, so we can't play in the sprinklers like we usually do in the heat.  The kids have had plenty of  "Wipeout" action w/ the Kinect in the cool basement, and we have visited a new splashpad in Layton that has some sort of water-recycling system to allow it to keep going w/ little water use:

 

Emily loves setting up school/parites for the younger ones, Brent and Maddie have had Girls' Camp and Scout Camp, and I made jam and tons of fruit leather (just sitting it oustide in our 100 degree weather under a window screen!) from Stacey's apricots!

Patriotic Days

Besides Syracuse Days,  4th of July and 24th of July (Pioneer Day), we've added City Council Campaigning to our list of ways to celebrate where we live! (though I use the word "celebrate" loosely).  We had NO idea what campaigning specifically involved, and we have had a whirlwind education, thanks to great campaign managers, supporters, and people more experienced than we are! We are also campaigning jointly w/ the mayoral candidate, which just makes all of our gatherings MORE of a party :).  We've had photo shoots of Brian (w/ my vast photography experience), stapled rubber bands to flyers--which sounds simple enough, but X 6500 flyers for every door in the city, it was HOURS of almost ALL-night fun involving EVERY family member--and putting said flyers on 6500 doors (divided into well-organized teams throughout--our family only had about 300 doors), and crazy nights of putting signs out all over the city--a few times, getting milkshakes after, at 10 PM, or standing like groupies at a busy roundabout in the dark of night, I feel like we're all back in college or something!--but my pregnant energy levels and impending mornings soon remind me otherwise :).  I know this is a lot of Brian, but-besides our wedding day, I've seriously never seen him smile so much for the camera!! (only slightly painful for him!)

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Here's the finished product--we actually re-did the pic's to try and reduce his squinting :)--again, I was just thrilled with the smiling!

Here we are stapling (at home, after staying 'til midnight w/ the "campaign crowd" wasn't enough!):

Passing flyers (this was not the fateful day that we moved from one neighborhood to the next, while leaving Emily behind!--AS it started to RAIN!!---another brightspot parenting moment):

and Brian's first sign out (the first picture is of him campaigning to a passerby)

Though there is way too much contention in our sweet little town, it has been rewarding (and humbling!) to see so much support from so many, including perfect strangers.  Though he hates the negative, he is SO in his element at Meet the Candidates/ Debate nights, talking about issues and principles! It's invigorating to listen to him :)! When he asks, "Do I need to smile more?" after these meetings, you can guess what I say :) (always!)
I can't believe I didn't get any shot of us all on a golf cart for the Syracuse Days parade!--but here we are watching the rest of it after:

That's the end of June (also commemorating when we moved into our house 5 years ago!), and for the 4th, we met some friends for the Layton parade, relaxed that afternoon, then met up w/ 2 families for a barbecue that evening, and tried out Clearfield fireworks that night (again, pretty lazy camera this year!)

For Pioneer Day, some friends invited us boating, so we met them at Willard Bay, and the 4 oldest children all (successfully) tried knee-boarding! Half of us at a time stayed on the beach swimming in the WARM water while we waited.  So fun! (sorry that I was not on the boat to photo the kids in action!)

Emily did not want our handmade bonnets to go to waste the one chance we have to use them (we made them for Maddie's trek last year), so she dressed up Anne and Lucy, rigged up a cover for our wagon, and took them on a mini-journey/picnic around the block :)--she is SO creative entertaining the little ones so often!

We came home that night for hamburgers, fresh corn on the cob, and watermelon, then did sparklers, snaps, and watched all of the neighbors' great fireworks!

 This is Lucy ALL DAY--every move is "Ballet", and she is usually singing constantly :)--well, when she's not screaming, anyway

A little taste of GA

By the time we got back from the beach, I was too tired to take many pictures! We enjoyed going to church with Mom and Dad (and Robert and Briant's families), visiting w/ Madsen's, swimming in the rain, joining Scott and Rebekah for Stone Mtn., and enjoying Sandy (?!).

Our trip home was relatively uneventful, except it seems that we're fighting the laws of Heaven to be SO separated from family!!

More Mildenhall Reunion

30 People was a lot for one house!--thank goodness for TJ and Kristen organizing things so well before we got there!

Besides the beach, Brian and I got out to enjoy a lunch of fried oysters, grouper, and hushpuppies!, we played patriotic songs on Grandma's new chimes, enjoyed a free concert in the park, and took pictures at the Nature Conservatory Park. (We sure missed Nick and Laurie!!)