4 year old.

Dylan turned 4 on Monday. He was at Grandma's house in Tempe and had a great day. Last week we had a little prebirthday party for him before we went out of town.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Dylan and Tyson a play kitchen for their birthdays and they love it. They play so well together with it and that helps me get the real dinner cooked. They love to use the ironing board as their table.

Dylan helping me make his birthday cake.
Everyone had a great time smashing the penata.

Blowing out the candles.

We just love Dylan, he is great boy. He loves to make friends, and gets along with everyone. He is such a sweet, happy kid. He is really smart, loves to read books and sing songs. He loves his trains and to be outside, he is such a good big brother and a big helper. We love you tons Bud.

Last weekend our friends the Masons came into town for a baby blessing. We had a lot of fun keeping everyone entertained. They have a little boy, Damien he is almost 5. He and Dylan had a great time together. They played so well and kept each other entertained while the rest of us visited. Friday morning we decided to take the boys to the Cardinals first practice. It was pretty cool. It was kind of warm outside and the boys weren't into that until they saw Reckers or however you spell it start kicking the football, then they thought it was pretty cool.

Damien and Dylan posing. Damien got Dylan into Transformers and Star Wars. One of the many faces of Tyson.

Dylan watching the football, after it was kicked.

After practice we went to Marshall pond and fed the ducks. The ducks full really fast, but the boys stilll had fun throwing bread and rocks into the water.

Saturday morning we went out in the forest and shot balloons.

This is Tyson first time shooting a gun, he knew exactly what to do.

I love this picture. Both Dylan and Tyson really like to wear my high hills. After church on Sundays I always kick them off in the kitchen, then Dylan and Tyson take turns wearing them. Tyson always falls out of them and Dylan is very kind to help his little brother get them back on.

Gotta love it, one day shooting a gun and the next wearing high hills.

Last weekend we went to my parents house in Clay Springs for a family reunion on Saturday. Friday night most of my brothers and sisters and their families gathered at my parents house for dinner. We made 13 dutch oven pizzas. The last time we did this was for my dad's 50th birthday, that was 13 years ago. I don't know why it took us so long to do it again because it was so yummy. If you haven't ever done this, I think you should, this is the best pizza ever.

I am so bummed because I didn't take any pictures of the reunion. It was for my dad's family and the purpose was for my Granddad's 100th birthday, and to show off the cabin that my dad and his brothers rebuilt. And of course I didn't get any pictures of the cabin. Next time I go home I will take some and post them. Reunions are interesting, it was blazing hot, there were like 500 people there, more than half of them I didn't know. There were some activities for the kiddos but Marty and I spent to whole day chasing them around to make sure they didn't fall on the rusty nails or get ran over by a car. We spent so much time doing that, that I didn't get to visit with the handful of people that I did know. They were chasing kids to so we would pass each other every once in a while. I guess that's how it goes when you have little ones. It was still good to go and see everyone.

Yum, homemade ice cream and rootbeer.

Dylan and Tyson riding a little train that was being pulled by a tractor.

This is was Tyson came out wearing on his birthday, he says"Ok lets go"

Ice cream cones for a sweet birthday treat. Tyson doesn't like birthday cake, but he loves ice cream.

Tyson's two year stats

height 361/2" 94%

weight 32lbs 89%

Happy Birthday Tyson!

I can't believe it is finally here. The boys have been talking about birthdays for months, Tyson has been so excited, I think or maybe Dylan is more excited.

Here are few fun facts about Tyson......

he is a very funny kid,

loves his dad more than anyone,

sings the ABC song

talks alot

sings alot

loves to play with his brother

know exactly what he wants

loves Thomas the train and tractors

loves the outdoors

loves his dog Bear

favorite foods are soup and oatmeal

very social

loves a good adventure

has a very short attention span

There is alot to this kid, we love him more than anything, and we are so happy is in our family.

Hope you have a happy birthday buddy, we love you.

4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend. We went to visit my family in Clay Springs. We had a lot of stuff planned, we started Friday night with a family reunion. My parents ward does a flag raising ceremony and breakfast really early the morning of the 4th, they have done this for as long as I can remember. It is great to see everyone come back home for a visit. Marty's sister Lisa came with us and his parents met us at the church to help us celebrate the day and it was also Lisa's birthday. After the breakfast we went back to Clay Springs for the 1st Annual Clay Springs 4th of July Parade. My Dad drove a tractor and pulled a trailer with hay, so a bunch of got to be in the parade. We watched for a while, the boys got tons of candy and then we jumped on as my dad was driving by. The boys loved it. I really hope they keep this up and it gets better and better every year.

After the parade everyone in town met at the park and had a little carnival. There was even a chance for someone to catch a greased pig. We let the boys play and eat popcorn for a while, then we went back to my parents house for a BBQ.

My Dad and Tyson getting ready for the parade
Look at all of my suckers mom.

Cute picture of Tyson.

This is the biggest tire swing I have ever seen.

Dylan playing a game at the carnival.

Sorry this got out of order. This is my brother's milk cow. She is very friendly.

That is alot of popcorn. Tyson said, "I want this."

So have any of you ever seen an old merry-go-round like this? This death trap used to be at the little elementry school that I went to as a little girl. It had been there along time when I was there. I just remember the big kids getting that thing going so fast and a bunch of little kids would try to jump on, and they would drag along side and then fall off. I have great memories of those big kids just laughing their heads off. Anyways, because of liability reasons I am sure, it was moved from the school to the park across the street. Let the town folk be responsible if there is an accident.

I love this picture of my dad and Tyson.

This is Marty, my dad and his dad bucking hay. That was Marty's first time "chucking hay" as he called it. He got to milk a cow for the first time, and go to his first rodeo. He had a busy day.

The rodeo was great by the way.

Then finally on Sunday my brother Darrell blessed his baby Clay, and we had a dinner afterward.

We were all exhausted by the time we got home. I love going to visit but it just wipes me out. Monday morning I had big plans to get right back to work and get the house cleaned and organized. Well someone else was going to make sure I got some rest one way or another. I got super sick and slept about 3 hrs on my bedroom floor and did nothing the rest of the day. Dylan and I were the only ones that got it, could have been food poisoning or just pure exhaustion, I have no idea. But we are all better and we had a great time, can't wait until next year.

Happy Birthday, and Walnut Canyon

Thursday was Marty's 29th Birthday, I think he enjoyed his day, he got to shoot his new gun and his parents brought his new truck. Doesn't it look awesome? We even got to go on a date, Marty's parents watched the boys. We went to Black Bart's the food was very good, the waiters sang Broadway song's, it was very entertaining. We ended up celebrating all weekend, we had a little party Friday night, we went to Walnut Canyon Saturday, and today is Father's Day. I hope he had a great weekend. Marty is the greatest dad, his boys love him more than anything. I love that he helps me so much with them, he can tell when I am at whits end and he gives me a break. I love you Babe, have a great Father's Day.

This weekend was free National Park pass day. I have wanted to go see Walnut Canyon ever since we moved here, but didn't want to pay the fee to get in. Yesterday was perfect. The Larsens and the Morriss came along with us. We looked like we were on a toddler field trip. The kids did great and had so much fun. The cliff dwelling were awesome, seriously amazing to think about how those people survived in those kinds of conditions.

Tyson loved to explore the ruins, he did so good even though he was very tired. Marty kept him on a leash so he wouldn't go over the side. There are over 100 stairs that you have to climb to get out of the canyon, and climbed almost all of them, he looked like a little monkey. He couldn't do the last 20 or so. He did so good, and he had a fun time.

Dylan had a blast, he loves going on hikes. He had slept until about 9:00, it was a good thing. He did this with no problem at all, and he didn't whine one bit on the way out.

Taking a little rest, before the last big climb.

What a fun day, I am so glad we finally got to see some cool stuff around Flagstaff. This was about 15 minutes from our house. It is great that we don't have to drive hours to see some really beautiful stuff.

I have to say congrats to my siblings who have all had babies in the last few weeks. My sister Sharilyn had a girl on the 28th of April, her name is Caitlin. My sister in law Tangela had a boy on the 10th of June, his name is Clay. My sister in law Teresa had a boy on the 18th, Marty's birthday, his name is Hunter. That makes 21 grandkids for my parents.

Marty and I had a fantastic anniversary. We dropped the boys off at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin in Tonto Village, near Payson, the boys were so happy the barely said goodbye. Our plans were to hike to Horton Spring and camp. We timed it just perfectly, we were pretty much the only people on the trail. We took the dog, he loved it, the water, trees, sticks everything, even with an infected tooth. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to the spring. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. It was up hill the whole way and I was tired. It was worth being tired, it was so beautiful. We were the only people camping, it was the best camping spot I have ever camped in. We had such a great time, it was so nice to just spend time together and have a conversation without being interupted. We didn't even have a watch, only disadvantage to that, we had no idea what time it was when we woke up. We packed up and headed out. When we got to the truck, even after 2 1/2 hours, it was only 8:30.

Happiest dog in the whole world.

This is were the spring comes out of the mountain.

The trail was pretty rocky and rugged.

There were alot of little falls and beautiful wild flowers all over.

After we got back , we played with the boys and had a nice lunch. Tyson went down for a nap so we took Dylan the the fish hatchery. He loved feeding the big trout, and seeing the holding tanks full of fish. Pretty cool place, if you've never been you should go sometime.

Then we took him fishing, we didn't catch anything, but he had fun.

And this is what you get when you have too much fun, you fall asleep with your ice cream cone.