Canning Jars

I am getting rid of 2 dozen quart mason jars. Justin's aunt gave us a lot of her jars and I just don't need all of them. Let me know if you would like them.

Happy Birthday, Mariah!

Mariah turned nine on Thursday. It was a little different birthday than we had planned on. We planned to spend the day with Justin's family at Bear Lake. Instead we stayed home with 3 sick children. Emily woke up with a fever and a headache. We decided we better not make the long drive to Bear Lake. Mariah spent the first part of the day having a special day with Grandma Martin. She went shopping and to a movie. By the end of the day all 3 of the kids were running fevers and dragging around the house. Poor Mariah barely wanted to blow out the candles on her birthday cake. It wasn't day the we planned on, but we still had the best day possible under the circumstances. Thank you to Grandma for helping us make the day special. We were glad they came up to the house for dinner and cake. It helped make the day seem more special and we appreciate them knowingly exposing themselves to our sick kids. Mariah's soccer birthday cake!

Finally

We have had the hardest time getting a good picture of Devin smiling. Whenever he smiles his whole body moves. He just gets so excited. But it is hard to take a good picture that is not blurry. This week I finally got a few adorable (I am not biased) pictures of him. I can barely believe that he is now 4 months old.

Berries, Berries, and More Berries

This year in our yard the highlight for me has been all of our berries. We have strawberries, raspberries, and dewberries (which are like a blackberry). Our yard is a lot more established this year and we have definitely seen an increase in our berry production. Our raspberries were huge and delicious. But my favorite has been the dewberries. We got the berries plants from Justin's grandma so they have sentimental value to us, but they are also wonderful. They are a little bit more tart than a raspberry but they make the absolute best jam! They are rather vicious plants though. There are terrible thorns all over the plants even the leaves. I think it is worth it though. We have berries that run along the fence in the backyard. I think it has been my favorite thing about our yard this year. Yum!

Camping

We went camping this past weekend. We went with Natalie and Cody to his family's property near Strawberry. We had a great time. We rode the 4 wheelers alot. The kids loved them. It was Devin's first time camping. He is now 4 months old. He did great! He slept good (all night the first night and got up once the second night when Emily woke us all up because she needed to go potty). Of course the girls had a great time with their cousin, Dominic. He is practically like a brother to them. They had a great time playing Harry Potter, playing games in the trailer, and looking for animal bones. The highlight for the girls was driving the 4 wheeler. Thanks Natalie and Cody we had a great weekend!

Grandma Stacey

Justin's Grandma Stacey passed away last Sunday. Even though Justin and I have been married for almost 13 years I never got to know her very well. She was diagnosed with cancer soon after we were married. Even though she recovered and lived many years after that it forever changed her. I do have many memories of going to visit her and spending time with the family but I never knew her as the person Justin remembers. She was his grandma that as a child he has many happy memories of. Here are some of the things he has shared with me that he remembers about her. When they would go to her house she always had things for them to do. They never watched TV at her house. They played games or helped her make things (like Christmas candies and popcorn strings). She had a big party at her house on Christmas Eve and had lots of presents for everyone (amazing considering how large the family is). Justin said that she just kept bringing in more and more presents (which now Justin's mom and dad are like that now). She expected them to be nice and mannerly. Justin and his brothers had soap put in there mouths a number of times for something they said. She was the grandma who babysat them and took them places like going to see Saturday's Warrior at Weber State. She made it possible for him to buy his first car by co-signing on the loan. Her funeral was yesterday. We spent the day with the family. It was amazing to see how much the family has grown. She has 38 grandkids who have now given her 64 great grandkids. It was a huge group. As a mother I can appreciate the influence of a grandma and love the time and memories my own kids share with their grandparents. Even though I did not know Grandma Stacey very well I do know Justin's mom. And I can see many of the things that she does with our children are things that Grandma Stacey did with hers. She is always happy to have the grandkids come over. She always has crafts and fun things for them to do there. Christmas is amazing how many presents there are and the thought that goes in to each gift to be exactly what you want. She is the most selfless person I know, always doing things for other people. Justin made the comment that his mom is who she is today because of Grandma Stacey. How much I appreciate that because she is a blessing in our lives! I think the thing that makes a grandma special as I think back to my own grandma is how they make you feel when you are with them. That they always have time for you and love to be with you. That every grandchild secretly thinks that they are grandma's favorite. I hope that someday I can be a great grandma like them.

July Highlights

Here a few fun things that our family did in July. Justin has been out on the boat fishing with his dad and Tim. Most the time Mariah goes with them. She loves to go fishing. But when they get home and clean the fish that is Emily's favorite thing. She is so fascinated to see the fish. She never gets tired of it. She is so happy to help Justin gut the fish. She is definetly a interesting kid. We went to dinosaur park with my dad. On the 24th we took the kids to the American West Heritage Center. They had wagon rides, petting zoo, panning for gold, cannon demonstations, and alot of other pioneer events. It was a great thing to do a pioneer day. They had volunteers dressed up in pioneer clothing and we got to tour the buildings and see how the pioneers lived. It made me appreciate how hard they worked at every day life. We also got to see some members of the Shoshone tribe do dance demonstrations. Justin and girls even got to do the Friendship dance with them.

Fun at T-ball

Emily played T-ball this summer. It was our first experience with T-ball. It was a fun season. Mostly because my nephew, Dominic, came and played T-ball in Brigham too. They were not on the same team but each week we attended each other's games and Justin's parents came up to watch all the games. We had quite a cheering section. Here is Emily's team. She is the 3rd on from the left on the bottom row. Notice her participation medal that she is so proud of. We had several funny events happen at the games. One week Riley was sitting on the blanket in front of Justin. (Side note: My high school friends may remember the blanket "Old Yeller". I still have it). Anyway we were sitting under a big tree and Justin had a twig that he was breaking apart into small pieces and randomly throwing them at Riley when she was not looking. She was convinced that there was a squirrel in the tree dropping things only on her. This went on for half the game. Even when everyone else was in on the joke and openly laughing each time a twig fell on her she still had not caught on. Finally Justin got a branch and tossed it over at her and she still had no idea until Justin had to tell her what he had been doing. This is a picture of her with all the twigs "the squirrel" dropped on her. That same week the girls brought a marker to the game and had been drawing on rocks. They let Justin decorate them with it. Poor Mariah got a little to close to Devin. He loves to grab on to things especially string like things. He had Mariah stuck here. Good times! Good times!