FINALLY......GRASS!!!

I never knew grass could look so good. It's a week old today and looking good. Mark thinks we should be able to walk on it by next Friday. The kids are pretty anxious to get there swing back out (and so is mom). It's still hot in the evenings, but once the sun starts to go down our back yard is pretty shady and pleasant. It's just perfect for the kids to go out and play.

We still need to fix the river rock and make it look a little better. The two bushes are going to go, too. You can't tell, but they're full of little purple flowers and we hate them.

I'm anxious to plant some flowers and veggies in the garden Mark built for me.

These are our second set of baby birds that hatched on a ledge by our pool. It has been so fun for us to watch the mama sit so diligently for weeks taking care of her eggs and then all of a sudden there are babies. When I was in Utah, Mark told me they had hatched and I get home a week later and this is how big they are. The last set of babies we got to watch learn how to fly.

UTAH TRIP

I took a ton of pictures on our trip, so I just picked out a few to share some of the fun things we did.

Blowing bubbles with Grandma Hinds.

When we were at Grandpa and Grandma Hinds house we got to go to the zoo by their house and play at the park. The kids had a great time. I especially love Logan this time of year.

Sydney loves to sit and play My Little Pony and The Care Bears games on the computer with grandma.
We got to be there for Grandpa Taggart's 79th birthday party. (My cousin Emily made the cake and actually fit 79 candles on that cake.) Grandma T is always trying to do fun things with the family and so she planned a tailgate party. We all lined our cars up in the church parking lot and went from car to car to fill up our plates. I think grandpa had a good time.

Sydney and Gracyn running through the fountains at Gateway.

We rode the new Frontrunner train from Ogden to SLC. We went with Granny and Katy's family. We met Jordan at the Gateway for lunch. It was a really fun day and the kids loved riding the train.
Uncle Jord was a good sport and gave all the kids a ride on the "boom boom". (Sydney started calling it the "boom boom" when she was learning to talk and now everyone calls it that. I've always called them 4 wheelers, then I move to Arizona and find out the rest of the world calls them quads. I'll stick to "boom boom"...I think it's more fun.)

We had the best time in Utah. It was hard to leave. In fact, as we were ready to board the plane in Salt Lake to leave, Sydney started protesting that she was not going to get on that plane. But we missed our daddy and are glad to get back to normal life again.

Sydney having fun with Kade
Jordan teaching Sydney to play a guitar video game.

Feeding the ducks at Beus Pond. All the kids were throwing bread to the ducks, then we notice that Travis was going behind everyone picking it up and eating it. His mouth was stuffed full of bread and who knows what else.

All the girls together. Pretty soon we'll be out numbered.

We stopped at the cemetery to visit grandpa's grave.

IT'S A....

...BOY!!!

Here are a couple of pictures:

1.) Bottom of his little foot.

2.)His cute little profile.

Right now he weighs about 10 oz. and is appox. 5 in long.

By the size of my belly I think he should be a lot bigger than that.

The doctor said that so far he looks healthy and everything seems to be

developing on schedule. So that makes a happy mama!

We asked Sydney what she would like to name him and the two names

she came up with were Timmy or Spongebob. We'll keep working on the name

part, without her help I might add.

SYDNEY VAN GOGH?

I just had to showoff some of Sydney's latest masterpieces.

Of course, we think she's amazing for just being 4 years old.

She sat for hours today and just colored. These are some of the

things she came up with.


1. Logan Temple (where mommy and daddy got married).

2. Spongebob Squarepants (she's obsessed with him).

3. Barney (with a contribution scribble from Travis).

MONSOON SEASON HAS ARRIVED

MONSOON SEASON IS HERE!

I didn't take this picture, but it is gives the idea of what we have been experiencing almost every night this past week and weeks to come. Around early to late evening the sky gets really dark, the wind starts to blow, the lightning is just beautiful, and then if we're lucky the rain comes, too. It rains like I've never seen before for about 15 minutes, then it's gone as fast as it came. It's nothing like Utah weather, that's for sure! It's quite exciting and the kids love to watch the rain. Since last year was my first monsoon experience and everyone was giving me advice what not to do, it made me a bit nervous, because it can be quite dangerous on the roads. But this year I'm really enjoying it so far (as long as I'm not stuck driving in it).

KIDS "PRAY" THE FUNNIEST THINGS

We always have family prayer right before Mark leaves for work and today Sydney offered to give it. She always puts a lot of thought into her prayers and always give them on her own. Mark and I say that most adults don't even give such sincere prayers. Today her prayer was especially sweet. She always blesses daddy to have a good day that he will "pay" lots of money so mommy can go to the store and buy food. Then she added to bless daddy to make lots of sales so we can go back to Hawaii next week. Then she also asked Heavenly Father to give her grass soon so she could run through the sprinklers. (We are laying sod tomorrow, so her prayer will hopefully be answered soon). Mark and I just crack up everytime she prays. She is so innocent and sincere and we are in awe of her sweet little spirit. We always say that we are not worthy of her. She is our sweet little princess!

SYD MADE HEADLINE NEWS

Sydney is already making headline news. This picture was in the local newspaper. We went to the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a new road that just opened near our home and the kids got snow cones and free bike helmets. We were driving by on our way home from swimming lessons (that's why her hair is such a mess) right as they were cutting the ribbon, so we decided to stop. Sydney sat down with two little boys in our ward and a guy from the newspaper took their picture. Aren't they so cute?