Been Busy This Summer.........

A brief synopsis of our summer.........

Charlotte really does like chocolate. I was starting to worry.

A quilt top from scraps (don't have a pic of the top finished)

I haven't finished quilting it, didn't like how it turned out.

Our 4th of July BBQ. Delicious.

Playing with Uncle David while he visited.

I finally finished Pili's patriotic quilt I promised her last year.

And my first, very large Dresdon quilt I plan on trying to sell.

Whew, that one was a doozy.

A fun shot of Elles, who is an angel. If I leave her in the high chair long enough,

she usually goes to sleep.

And my sweet Charles, loves to do the same work out as everyone else.

My Grantman turned a whopping 6 years old!!!!

He's such a smartie & has learned how to swim this summer.

We got to go to the State Fair. It was fun as usual.

Not too hot & dollar rides made it possible.

A place I've been dreaming about the last couple of weeks. FABRIC DEPOT!!

I wish we had one here in Sac,

but it's probably a good thing it's in Oregon for Jared's sanity.

Speaking of which, my Jared is such a hottie.

We had a baby shower for Drea & her upcoming baby boy!!!

I love this monkey fabric. Perfect for her kids.

Meeting up with Baby Enzo.

A post wouldn't be complete w/o some pics of Jared sleeping.....

My sweet Elles being patient in the stroller for 2 hours of soccer.

Grant N Nate has their first soccer games of the season. Nate's first ever.

That's bit of our summer.

2 more weeks till school starts. I'm a super ready!!!!!

Shout out Friday

Elliott has a built in moping option.

She drools, then proceeds to army crawl across the floor,

therefore moping up her drool & any dirt or loose items onto her clothes.

My solution? Go with it, change her outfits a couple times day.

Our summer trip

We decided to go to the Trout family reunion this year.

All the way up in Randle WA. In the sticks y'all. It was pretty fun!

Charly charmed everyone around her.

Got whatever she wanted.

There was a lot of sleeping.

Needed desperately by a little lady running around

trying to find someone to give her what she wanted.

Elles also found some girls to carry her around & to hold her all day.

We visited some great family members. We love Sam & Linda.

They gave Grant a great birthday bash!!!

Visiting Grant's great friend Lily. Glad to see you guys!

At the Trout's wonderful home.

So many great memories as a kid there.

A fun part was going to the Winston Safari Zoo.

There was a normal zoo, one that was so different than in Sac.

It was open & you were allowed to do things with the animals.

Our State stinks with it's crazy rules & overbearedness (is that a word?)

But then we drove through the actual safari & saw some awesome animals.

Camels in the background.

We were so close to the bears.

I made Jared roll up the window

b/c I didn't think the massive electrical fences would stop them.

The giraffes that were necking & held up the line of cars for a bit.

It was hilarious to watch them play around.

This lion did not like us.

He came down all angry like & stalked back & forth growling at us.

Feeding the fishes & ducks.

My family zoo.

We had a great adventure driving for days seeing things and new places.

Jared visited a place he saw on a foody show.

Downtown Portland was cuh-razy packed!

It took us 45 minutes to go 5 miles on I-5, w/o any accidents.

And I saw the largest fabric store EVER!!

Trees were the greatest. So beautiful, smelled so fresh.

I think we'll make this trip more often.

It was so great to see so much family.

Hasleton Quote

I was nursing Elles as we were walking through a store. Nathan asks why I put a blanket over me when I feed Ellie.

I reply: "To be modest. No one wants to see me without any clothes on."

Nate: "Why do you have to be modest?"

Me: "Heavenly Father wants us to take care of our bodies."

Nate: "Well, I don't ever have to be modest because I don't have any boobs."

I guess....

Shout out Friday

Shout out to the times the baby decides to have an extremely loud blow out in their diaper.

Usually in church during a prayer.

Although sometimes I think it's funnier to have a bunch of adults giggling during a prayer than the actual noise of the bum.

The way He works....

We currently have a fun missionary serving in our area.

His name is Elder Taratai from the island of Kiribati.

He has a lot of great stories, but this one is my favorite.

When Elder Taratai was 2 years old, his 5 month old baby brother was adopted to a family in the US.

All Elder Taratai knew, was his brother's birth name. That's it.

About a year ago, at a Zone conference

(a meeting where all the missionaries in the area get together),

Elder Taratai felt impressed to talk to an Elder from Arizona.

Elder Taratai asked this other missionary if he knew of anyone

that had been adopted from the Island of Kiribati.

The Arizona missionary said yes.

His best friend growing up had been adopted from that same island along with his brother.

The missionary gave Elder Taratai his best friend's info.

But it turned out that it wasn't his brother.

BUT, that family had adopted their 2 boys along with another LDS family

that had adopted a little boy that had moved to Washington.

So they passed on their information.

Elder Taratai writes to this family asking about the adoption

giving his little brother's birth name.

(please forgive me. I can't for the life of me remember what their island names are)

The family, last name of Allen, says YES!! that is their son's birth name.

His name is now Brock Allen. Getting ready to serve a mission back to Arizona.

Some plans are made, & Brock gets to come to Sac to meet one of his biological brothers.

It's a little confusing, but isn't that amazing??

Two brothers found each other in such a providential way.

We were blessed to share part of their day together

as we had them over for dinner.

Shout out Friday

A few years ago, before kids, Jared & I were watching our niece Samantha.

She came over to our place bringing with her a little girl's Barbie movie.

Aack! I can't stand those movies.

So we put the movie in (upside down), & it didn't work.

Oh no! we tell Samantha, it doesn't work. How bout Finding Nemo instead?

That was all good with the 4 year old.

Now, 5 years later, our sweet Charlotte likes those girly movies.

To my sad dismay, I've added some to our Netflix list. Sigh......

Shout out to what we do for our kids.

Graduations

Although Nate has another year of pre school, he got to participate in his class' graduation.

The awesome Ms. Roxann.

Ms. Kim. Nate wouldn't drop his mask they used for their performance.

At the water park to celebrate Nate's pre school.

Us waiting VERY patiently for Grant's kinder graduation to start.

Mrs. Bridgham. One of the greatest kinder teachers out there!!

Grant's good friend Joseph who called 3 times a day every day

till I gave him a limit of once a day.

Who knew 5 yr olds talked on the phone so much?

Grant had memorized several friend's phone numbers, but not mine.

Not sure how that works.

Can't believe my boys are getting so big.

Here's to the summer & all the wonderfully disturbing strawberries

my plants produce.