June 24th - Dustin's Hike to Hell's Canyon

As Dustin was preparing to go on his backpacking trip he brought in an extra backpack to transfer some stuff over.  Alissa quickly put it on and was determined she was going hiking with her dad.  He loves every minute of it.

Narrated by Dustin:  Some guys from work:  Jed Peters, Erik, Jason, Alan and I went to Hells’ canyon on the Oregon/Idaho border.  We tried to get to the campground but couldn’t because it was snowed in.  There was 5’ of snow on the ground.  We camped out on the road that night and hiked 6 miles over the snow to the campground.  We found a place where we had running water and the only place that was not covered in snow and set up camp.  We did a couple of day hikes the next day.  Hiked out on Saturday about 8pm when we got out so we decided to pull an all nighter and drive home that night. So we drove in shifts to get home at 5am Sunday.

This picture was taken right before he skis down this hill in his boots.  They took video of them "skiing" and they are hooting and hollering like a bunch of little boys. :)  Gotta love it!

Brownies

4th of July 2011

We had a SUPER fun holiday!  We started first thing in the morning with the parade.   

Before we left I attempted to paint a star in red, white & blue on the girls face.  Except Molly who only got dots since she wanted to eat the brush.

We met Aunt Heidi and a friend down on 16th street.

The girls thought it was lots of fun.  Especially Alissa who loves all exciting new things.

Molly loves her daddy!

So this is how Ella's tooth looked most of the day. 

After the parade we went to my parents house and met up with all my siblings for a BBQ and some water games.  We played water baseball with cups of water and the slip n slide.  It was a riot!

Great Great Grandma Bitton & Molly

Go Mom!!

Yay Dustin!

Molly, loving her personal bucket.

Kailey, Kaitlynn and Ella at the fireworks.  After we left my moms I took the girls home for a bath and held Ella down for about 1 second while I yanked that tooth.  I was tired of her playing with it and for the last few nights she has cried in the middle of the night because it's been sore.   I remembered a lesson taught by my High School Parenting teacher - "You have to love your kids enough to let them hate your guts."  I figured it applied in this situation.  As soon as the 1 second was over she loved me again because her tooth was out.

Yay for no more snaggle tooth!

Alissa with Heidi & friend watching the fireworks.  My kids love their aunts and uncles.

Ella wanted a picture with fireworks in the background.  As always it was an awesome firework show.  Ella was actually the most nervous out of all my kids.  Molly didn't sit still through the whole thing, Alissa loved it and Ella sat in the stroller hiding her face.

I feel so blessed to live in America.  I fought tears all weekend: at the parade, at the fireworks, sitting in the car listening to patriotic music, standing in church for the Star Spangled Banner.  I just am so thankful for all the many people who fight for our freedom and the families that sacrifice so much.  God Bless America!!!

 I am thankful especially to live right here in good ol' Idaho with the people I love the most!

I am a Child of God

I am a Child of God, and He has sent me here.

Has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me walk beside me.  Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do, to live with Him someday.

I have heard this song thousands of times, but as I sat in Primary today and it seemed like every kid was belting it out, the Spirit testified again how true these words are.  I know I am a Child of God, I know I have 3 precious daughters and 1 precious son of God living in my home with me.  I hope we can help our kids feel the truth of these things.  They are such precious little people.

11 months

This cute baby will be 11 months this week!  She is growing up so much and starting to learn so many new things.  Here are a few of the newest:

*Molly took her first step last weekend.  She is well on her way to running around with the other girls.  She gets so excited watching them run and loves to wrestle with Alissa.

*She says "ta, ta, ta"  for "cha, cha, cha"  whenever the girls sing Happy Birthday to you.  They always add "cha, cha, cha" to the end of Happy Birthday song.  Ella learned it from school.

*She got a new air flow binki that has almost totally taken away the rash from around her mouth.  Thank goodness.  We were wondering if it was an allergic reaction.

*She says "oh ya!"

*She loves soft classical or instrumental music and will sleep so good if I play it in the room.

*She has a favorite 2 blankies.  The white with polka dots and pink on the other side and brown one - they are both made of the same material.

*She eats almost everything.  She doesn't like fry sauce, ketchup or oatmeal.  Those are the only things I have found she will turn her head to.

*She is learning to fight back to Alissa who has started to be a lot more rough with her out of jealousy.  Occasionally she will hit her right back or pull her hair.

*She is learning to climb.  She climbs on Alissa's bed and I found her the other day on my mom's little kid picnic table.  She was sitting on the table part bouncing around. 

*She LOVES to eat dirt.  I'm not sure what it is, but she will grab for it and just shove it in her mouth.  Any time we are outside she has a brown ring around her mouth from eating dirt.  Gross I know..

However, she tops Alissa's gross story of licking the toilet plunger.  She crawled into the bathroom where Ella had gone potty and forgot to flush.  She pulled her used toilet paper out of the toilet and was eating it.  There you have it.. 11 month Molly.

Tball, Swimming Lessons and more!

We are so thankful the weather is getting so warm.  We have had a super busy week.  Some of the highlights include: going to the movies, lunch at Discovery Elementary, lots of haircuts, garage sales, tball, planting our garden and bushes/flowers, Tball, swimming lessons, and many bags of popcicles. 

This year Ella had the choice between an all girls team that is 6-7 years old or a boys/girls team that are 4-5 years old.  I guess it wouldn't be hard to believe she picked the boys/girls team.  Didn't care if they are mostly younger than she is just likes the fact that boys play on her team.  She is a bit bored by it this year.  I think mostly because she doesn't have a person on her team that she really plays with or knows well.  She is getting pretty good at hitting the ball on her first shot now and loves running the bases. :)

Ella & Addi Taylor (our neighbor)

Ella on first base.

We have been doing swimming lessons as well over at Ammon Pool again.  She LOVES, LOVES swimming lessons and has been so brave this summer compared to the other summers.  I love watching her just jump right into the water and not worrying so much about going under.  Alissa has been super crazy sitting in the car watching Ella.  I try to keep us in the car or I end up running after her the whole half hour.  Next year she will be old enough to do swimming lessons too.

And seriously, we have gone through at least 2 bags of popcicles in the last 2 weeks.  These girls eat like 3 a day!  Even Molly loves them now.  We have had a very sticky floor and very happy kids.

Family Night at the Snake River

There has been so much water this year and we had heard the Snake River was high but hadn't made it down to see so for Family Night last night we took a little trip.

I don't remember ever seeing it quite like this before.  The water was clear up on the grass where the ducks are.

It's always fun to walk around the greenbelt with the temple in sight.

Dustin was preparing his back for his upcoming backpacking trip by carrying our 23.5lb baby on his back.  :)

I love my family and feel so blessed to have them in my life. 

Too much camping?

You know you've been camping a lot lately when you look out the back window to see your daughter squatting beside a tree at grandma's house.