BIRTHDAYS!!

I love sharing a birthday with Emma.  When she was a baby I was kind of sad for her that she had to share a birthday with me, especially because mine comes first.  I remember thinking I wish she was born the day before my birthday instead of the day after so that she could be in the spotlight and we could just kind of forget my birthday.  That's not the hand we were dealt though so we make the most of it and every year we get a two day party!  

This year was good for Emma because my birthday landed on a Sunday. There's not a whole lot you can do on Sunday so we were pretty low key.  I had to go to Ward Council in the morning and was commanded to come home between my meeting and the beginning of sacrament meeting. When I got home I was surprised with a great present.  Everyone was ready for church and lined up with something behind their backs.  They sat me down in the "birthday chair" and they each took a turn to wish me happy birthday.

Ethan was first:  "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I promise to be more helpful."
Then Emma: "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I promise to be more loving."
Hannah: "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I promise to be more patient."
Isaac: "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I promise to give you more hugs."
JayDee: "Happy Birthday! I love you! I promise to give you more time. Specifically tomorrow."
 
As each of them wished me happy birthday they also handed me a $20 bill rolled up and tied with ribbon, so at the end I had $100!  JayDee's promise was to take me and that money and go shopping the next day for whatever I wanted.  We had a great time shopping together.  JayDee was so amiable and helpful. He sat in dressing rooms for hours and didn't complain one time. It was way fun!  And yes, we shopped on Emma's birthday but she never missed us because she was at Boondocks for most of the day with Grandma.  Happy Birthday to both of us!

After church, where I was sung to by all my cute primary kids, I got a Sunday nap and then we were off to Grandma and Grandpa Taggart's for our birthday dinner.  I picked the menu, Dad's famous BBQ chicken, spinach strawberry and mandarin salad, corn on the cob, and watermelon and Emma picked dessert, Chocolate Chiffon Cake.  YUMMY!

That was it for my birthday but just the beginning of Emma's.  Emma turned 8 this year.  She is so excited to be 8.  She found the baptism schedule for the year in my primary binder in January and has been telling everyone since that her baptism is going to be on August 6th.
Look forward to that post.  It'll be a good one...hopefully. :)

Emma woke up to the customary birthday decorations and presents.  

She got new clothes (mostly for school), hair stuff and a real set of scriptures.

I loved after we sort of dispersed to get ready for the day that Emma told me her most favorite present was her scriptures.  She said she had wanted those most.  Really she had never mentioned scriptures to me or JayDee before but I sure was happy that she loved them so much.

Like I said before Emma spent most of the day with Grandma Taggart at Boondocks for her birthday date, and then at 7:30pm she had a late night birthday party with her friends. Her party was so much fun!  I love her friends.  I love that they are all good girls and get along so well.  Emma wanted them to come in their pajamas, they watched Evan Almighty (which I thought was kind of an interesting choice for a group of girls but they loved it! I loved listening to their shrieks of laughter when something funny happened. I could almost predict when the laughter would start and every time it made me smile).  They ate popcorn, candy, cookies and drank lemonade.  

Getting ready for the movie

  

They ate so much during the movie that no one wanted cake after.

We lit the candles and sang anyway and then went straight to presents.

After presents we were getting ready to go out and light fireworks when JayDee came in and said it was raining.  Awwwww... I told them as long as the fused stayed dry we could still light them so out we went.  

We opened the garage and they stood inside at first.

It didn't rain for long (which I suspected) and soon they were running all over shrieking with delight.  And because I love Emma so much I bought ONE aerial firework for the finale.  I did not however get a picture of that one but I did get a picture of this one. Hooray for fireworks!

We finished the party with a rousing game of "Ghost in the Graveyard."  Another opportunity for more shrieks and laughing.  They had so much fun that one little girl started crying when her mom came to get her. 

I was completely exhausted after our birthday celebrations but we had such a good time I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

Just Another Day on the Farm

Thanks to the long, very wet spring this year, farmers have had a record hay season.  JayDee's dad, who has always been a farmer but mostly dairy cows, has been running a dry farm in Portage (on the border of UT and ID) for the past 16 or so years.   It's called dry farming because you don't use any irrigation to water your crops just whatever nature sends your way.  So the kind of weather we've been having this year has been a blessing to dry farmers everywhere.  

JayDee decided we needed to go up and spend a day with grandpa to help bring in the hay and by "we" I mean JayDee.  Let's be honest, there's not much me or the kids can do to help.  My usual job on the farm is to drive the truck while it's being loaded or unloaded or the go-fer when something is not right there that they need.  I did however drive a tractor for the first time this trip.  Yay me!  All it was was moving it from one place to another and JayDee had to make sure the arm was positioned right before I left so all I had to do was drive.  But still...I drove a tractor!  A big, burly tractor.  A machine that if I wrecked or broke would take me 30+ years to pay off.  Glad it was smooth sailing.

The kids and I spent most of our time doing the fun things, riding 4 wheelers and horses, feeding the calves and holding the new puppies.  Grandpa has a new horse named Big Steve and since he's the most tame out of the 3 he's the one we like to ride.  

Saddling up Big Steve

Waiting patiently...

Everyone got a turn

My 2 favorite cowboys 

This was probably my favorite part of our whole day...

10 minutes after arriving at the farm, Isaac took off into the newly cut hay field and tripped almost immediately.  He scraped his hand on the hard cut edge of the hay and his day was ruined.  It was really only a scratch but it was red, which meant it was bleeding, which meant it wouldn't feel better without a band-aid.  I of course had no band-aid.  I tried to get his mind off it but nothing seemed to work.  JayDee picked up a roll of duct tape and I looked at him quizzically and then he said, "Isaac, do you want a cowboy band-aid?"  What a stroke of genius!  Isaac immediately said yes and he was good to go.  Instant healing.  All day he was being asked why he had tape on is hand and he would correct them and say it wasn't tape it was a cowboy band-aid.

Newt and Lady, Grandpa's dogs, are the proud parents of 5 new puppies.

Only 3 days old!

After our hard days work, we were rewarded with a trip to the rodeo.

The 60th anniversary Stone, ID Amateur Rodeo.

Small town rodeos are pretty fun because they throw in some other events that aren't included in pro rodeos but the main events are a little lacking.  Like the bull riding where no one even comes close to riding 8 seconds or the team roping where only 2 teams out of 10 actually rope their cow.   We did get to sit on the front row and when the horses ran past us we were showered with dirt that they kicked up.  We've never experienced that before.  It was almost like sitting on the front row of the Shamu show at Sea World but...not.  :)

P.S.  There is just something amazing about seeing JayDee in his nature element.  Don't get me wrong, I am SO glad JayDee is not and does not want to be a farmer, but watching him saddle a horse, get on any piece of equipment and know how to run it, herd cows and understand what his dad is saying in farm-ese just makes my heart pitter-patter.  I just love this really good man! 

Blazin'

July 16th we were invited by some friends to go a Utah Blaze game.  To tell you the truth, I've never really been very impressed with indoor football.  It just seems wrong to play football inside.  JayDee and I joke that the guys that play indoor football are those poor souls that didn't make the cut into the NFL so they had to settle for this.  Which is probably more true than funny.  Needless to say, we would never buy tickets to such an event but since our friends own a business and that business is a sponsor of the Utah Blaze we didn't have to buy tickets...so we went gladly.


It turned out to be really fun.  We got to sit in a "suite" right next to the end zone.  I emphasize suite because when you think of the Energy Solutions Arena (a.k.a. Delta Center) and suites you think of those enclosed rooms above the lower bowl.  Well this was an open section, ground level, literally right on the playing field.  I guess it's called a suite because it has tables, tableclothes, room to mingle and most importantly food. Who wouldn't go for that?


We got to take Ethan along and he was in heaven.  He's not the most sporty guy.  He likes to play sports but not organized sports so much.  He's more the backyard quarterback type or the pick-up game with friends type. But when a game is played in your lap you can't help but think it's pretty darn cool.

 

 See that yellow sign across the field?  That was our ticket to this night of fun.

Thanks Rugged Rental!

The whole time, Jesse (the friend that invited us) kept saying Ethan's gonna get a player right in his lap.  While I kept thinking, Yeah right.  Well Ethan didn't get a player in his lap but he almost got an elbow to the face.  These two players came smashing right up in front of him fighting over the play, elbows were flying, hands were slapping, helmets were butting.  Ethan had to duck to not get hit. I grabbed my camera but they were moving pretty fast and by then the official was involved and was moving them away from us.  

It was pretty cool to be a part of the action.

TOUCHDOWN!

Jesse, Lauri, their other friend on the left (I forget her name) and us 

We came home with oodles of slap stick noise makers.

Which, if you are wondering, was a mistake. 

Being so close to the action meant balls were flying everywhere!

Ethan wanted to catch one so bad but so did everyone else sitting with us so his chances were pretty slim.  I think during the duration of the game 5 balls were thrown our way.  Another kid sitting with us caught 3 balls and at the end of the game he gave one to Ethan.

Ahhhh...points in heaven for him! 

 Oh and in case you were sitting on the edge of your seat...the Blaze made a winning touchdown in the last 30 seconds.  Whoo-Hoo!!

A Moment To Remember

Enjoying twilight on a summer's eve

Summer Lovin'

I am so glad that summer has finally decided to show up around here.  There is nothing like shorts, flip-flops and water fun.  I love watching my kids play: running, biking, climbing trees, swimming.  All the good stuff.  And don't forget one of the best holidays out there...July 4th, Independence Day!  I love living in America.  I'm so grateful to have been born here and so grateful to have been born in the covenant of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Sometimes I feel like my cup runneth over.

Here's some summer fun:

Jumping on the tramp with the sprinkler

Cousin Eden's first time. She loved it!

 

Shaved ice with the cousins

Just hanging out with my cousin's cutest baby ever!!

Off roading in the mini van...that's right it's not just for SUVs anymore.

Okay, okay...we'll just call this adventures in a mud hole.

Fourth of July fun:

Parade

Fun at the BBQ

Fireworks

No aerials for us but lots of smoke. 

Grandma and Grandpa were the sparkler marshals

Flash on

Flash off 

Same firework

 

Something I always wanted to do in high school while watching fireworks

but had to wait until I got married...worth the wait. :) 

Happy 4th of July America!!