What have we been up to?
Lots of house projects
Swimming, swimming and more swimming. We swim almost every day except for Sunday
Diving class at the city pool for Isabelle. She decided that it’s a lot harder than it looks. I think its good for her to have to work at something that doesn’t come easily.
Camping x2. Church campout as a family and the Father/Son campout
Girls Weekend- While the boys were camping we had some friends over on Friday night and then rode over with the bike and trailer to get a cupcake and also did some crafts.
Parties- birthday parties and a baby blessing.
Lots of nights we forget to turn Belle’s light off and she reads and reads til she falls asleep. She is a very good reader and really likes to finish a book in one sitting.
Chloe LOVES being outside. One morning we were eating some yogurt out there and when the boys ran off to play she stuck around to do some cleaning up.
Come back home Daddy
Chloe went to the door and tried it too.
Blurry picture but Chloe likes to push people around on the toy car
Max loves the show Mighty Machines. He stuck his legs in this package of paper towels and was dumping it up and down like a dump truck. 
There is no way this ended well.
Chloe was sick with a fever for about 5 days. It was a sad scene. The kids though a pile of stuffed animals would help her feel better.
Poor baby. And there is Sam with a lid to a cereal container. Oh the things they find to play with.
Belle was playing with some pipe cleaners on the floor with Chloe and Chloe just climbed right into her lap. They were having a good time despite how this picture looks.
Some wii fun. That’s a lot of skin there. 
I went out to tell them it was bedtime and they showed me the bulldozer full of flowers they pick for me. The sure know how to squeeze a few more minutes of play time out of me.
Before we went swimming we were eating an early dinner and two ducks flew into our pool! Then they hopped out and walked around quacking loudly for awhile. When we finally went out to swim they were still there and Sterling gave them a little scare and they took off. It was pretty funny but Belle was completely beside herself thinking of all the diseases they could have. When that girl gets tired there is no stopping that wild mind. Eventually she decided it would be okay to come out swim. 
Cute guys swinging together at the post blessing brunch at Seth and Mandi’s. These two have become the best of buddies.
Zoo day with Mandi, Penny and Jack.
Sam really liked looking at this baby orangutan.
Mandi took the boys into the goat petting while I stayed out with the baby girls. Now sure how I go so lucky on that one. 
Belle really wanted to save some money up to take me out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. She even did some work in the backyard for Sterling. She was so cut and we had a great time. I picked Genghis Grill because I had a free bowl there and all she had to do was pay for her kids bowl and the tip. She was so excited to hear that she had enough money already. (plus she loves Genghis Grill) The funny thing was that she really wanted to make sure it was a place I wanted to go and that I wasn’t just picking it for her. 
The diving class was lots of fun to watch. Its one that you can keep repeating as the ages are 6-16 until you get good enough for advanced diving. They worked on the steps leading up to entries and some head first dives towards the end. Belle has a bit of work to do on her form but she is one tough cookie out there and one of the smallest kids in the class. I think that was a little scary for her at first. On her report card at the end that we got today the teacher wrote “ you are a very sweet and tough girl and I loved having you in my class” Its true, no matter how many belly flops she did she just kept on going. One day she even slipped on the board and scraped up her leg pretty bad and it was bleeding but she finished the class without even a tear.
Night of the arts at Belle’s school. We had just come from swimming lessons so I had them change in the car and grabbed some McDonalds for them to eat. Sterling was out of town and the school was packed full. Luckily the kindergarteners performed first and Belle got to play a xylophone. It was really cute and only two numbers. Then we look around for a bit and headed home. Sam was a little under the weather and when we got home he just laid on the carpet and said he wanted to go to bed. So sad and unlike him. I just tucked him right in my bed and he went right to sleep. It worked out well because I had a church meeting here at 7. It is strange to me now how the older two take care of themselves so well. They just played in their rooms until they got tired and got into bed during the meeting.
The next day as soon as Belle was out of school we headed to them mountains for our ward campout. There are very few activities so we were excited for this. They had little Adirondacks with bunks for us to sleep in but it got REALLY cold at night. We hardly slept at all but it was so much fun and we had a good time laughing about things even in the middle of the night.
Sam had a fever the whole time but he still enjoyed himself.
Launching cardboard rockets they made themselves. 
We went on a little hike. 
This picture taken about 30 seconds before Sam fell asleep.
Belle took the nature scavenger hunt we had made for the kids very seriously 
We brought Chloe’s push toy so she could walk around and she likes that, except for when one little girl kept coming and pushing her over. I can’t stand it when people won’t watch their own kids. Huge pet peeve of mine. 
Picnic lunch before heading back home for a nice swim. 
If Chloe can get ahold of this little baby toy she always likes to stuff it in her mouth. She looks like Godzilla.
Celebrating Thomas’ birthday at Alan and Lindsay’s.
Father Son campout. It was a relaxing weekend for ALL of us. Even though Chloe and Belle were sick at home. 
Sleeping in the beloved tent. I packed TONS of blankets for them after our chilly family campout two weeks prior.
Sterling said it was so cute because they just climbed in the same sleeping bag and fell right asleep all snuggled up in there toasty warm. 
The handyman was working out in the hall and Chloe kept sneaking out to watch him. Sitting there just like this. 
We let the boys play Princess Monopoly with us. This DID NOT end well.
Cody and Jade were in town one afternoon along with their cute baby Atticus. He is a really mellow guy and Belle enjoyed holding him. Not something she can do with Chloe. 
Playing at Alan and Lindsay’s house.
Celebrating Amelia’s 3rd birthday. We have celebrated all 3 of Amelia’s birthdays with her!
I froze some toys in a giant ice cube for Max. He was very excited for the chance to smash them open.
Dinner at Someburros. They have added donkey ears for the kids now so that is even more exciting. 
Chloe only likes to eat if she can be in charge of the fork.
This is getting out of control. I had better get it posted. More to come.
