BOISE CELEBRATION

We love going to Boise each year to get away and have some low key fun!  This year, Meridian canceled their Dairy Days parade which has become a beloved tradition of our family.  We love the parade best of all!  Aunt Sondra lives only 1 1/2 blocks from the excitement!  We can't wait to be a part of such a wonderful community again next year!

We headed up on Friday and made a quick dash to the mall for a last minute birthday gift for Brandon.  I really wanted to get him a new Notre Dame hat.  But there was not a single white Notre Dame hat to be found.  One of the salesman in the hat store said, "Come back right before football season and we will have a better selection."  I wanted to say, "But right before football season isn't when Brandon's birthday is!"  It was quite a funny ordeal actually!

Next, we headed to fun Aunt Sondra's to visit and get ready for the BBQ.  There were several other families (cousins) that were invited but didn't come.  It was very fun though!

Dawson, Brady, Faith, and Colt

Kate and Jadyn

Kate is all about the babies!!!

I LOVE Bristol's smile!

Bristol, Jadyn, Hallee, Kate

Bristol

Kaylor

I love both of these pictures.  They describe why I call her 'FUN Aunt Sondra.'

After the BBQ, we headed out to Settlers Park in Meridian to watch the family movie "Rio" on a giant screen outside.  I have to say that it was so much fun and FREE!  I definitely want to put it on our list for next time. We got there at the perfect time and had an excellent spot!

Love all of Dawson's faces too!

I love this little girl!

What the movie screen looked like

Saturday, we were invited to eat breakfast with our friends the Zanellis.  We figured out that we have been friends since 1998!  They cooked an awesome breakfast.  While the adults talked, Faith talked to Bekah, Dawson talked to Caden, and Kate talked to Kenna.  They had such a good time ... and I forgot to document with pictures.  :(

After lunch, Sondra, Dawson, Kate, and I headed out to Robyn's (leaving Brandon and Faith for naps.)  Robyn set out this fun blowup slide/pool that all of the kids played on the entire afternoon.  It was good to visit and have cousin time ... and I forgot to document with pictures.  :(

Brandon's birthday was on Saturday.  He is another year older and we love him so much!  We hope he had a special day!

While searching for a movie to watch, Aunt Sondra said that she gave away the Twilight movies because she just couldn't handle it.  And when I found them, I took that opportunity to take another picture!

We decided on Avatar which was really cool.  (I had never seen it before.)

We finished off the night with a bang!  Sondra and Brady gave us our own personal firework show which was really cool and fun!

Brady taught Dawson and Kate how to light fireworks.  They definitely enjoyed it!

Faith content to watch

Ohhh-ing and ahhh-ing for the show!

We came in to find that Dawson was "burnt bacon" (in his own words).  We put on essential oils to make this better!  The legs were perfect the next morning, but the back took a couple of days.

                            

And Kate lost another tooth!!!  And the tooth fairy found us in Boise!

Sunday, I woke up to see Dawson upside down in the recliner.  Quite a funny boy!

We finished up the weekend with sacrament meeting, which happened to be quite incredible.

Thank you Aunt Sondra for hosting us once again and to the Royce family for helping make our Boise trip so much fun!  We love you all!  Until next time!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

The day before Father's Day, I took the kids outside and got several pictures for Father's Day!

We love you because...

Funny faces

Blowing kisses

We LOVE Dad!

The finished product

I didn't want him to find out what we were doing, but my cover was blown twice.  Brandon saw Faith's feet and asked her about it.  She said, "I can't believe you saw that!"  She denied doing it herself and that she had a boyfriend (remember her feet said the heart and D).  Brandon then started talking to her about how her body is a temple and that she should not let friends draw on her body.  Faith finally had to say that it is someone very close to him that did it and that she couldn't talk more about it.

He had a couple of suspicions, but let it go until that night when Dawson wanted oils on his feet.  He then saw a W and an E and knew that it was something to do with Father's Day.  

We hope he liked it and that he forgives me for using a sharpie!

breakfast in bed   

I sent each of the kids in separately to give him a hug, tell him Happy Father's Day and to give him papers that they had filled out about their dad.

Here are a couple of highlights:

From Kate:

His favorite thing to do is: make cakes.

My Dad's job is: making cakes.

He is really good at: making such beautiful cakes I ever had.

From Dawson:

My Dad is 36 years old. (Dawson was the only one to get it right!)

My Dad's job is: work for the internet

My Dad always says: your terdes (you're turds)

From Faith:

He loves to eat: Mountain Dew

My Dad loves when I: clean the house.

My Dad always says: Hay is for Horses.

Present time!

Kate got him cake making things from downstairs!  She is such a sweet girl!

A new white shirt!

We're NUTS about you DADDY!  Happy Father's Day!

We love you!

Silly faces!

We had a wonderful prime rib dinner at the Jensens.  It was absolutely fabulous!  I even made our $16 jello salad (although, it was a smaller version, so it was less than $16!)

Jordan, Kate, and Brandon playing Connect 4

Happy Father's Day to an awesome Grandpa!

Had to take a picture of us together!

Group hug!  Connor, Jordan, and Christian

Jordan wanted his picture taken.  Christian decided that this was more of a mug shot opportunity than a chance to see his teeth!!!

Muscles

Grandpa Kelly and Brian

I hope that everyone had an awesome Father's Day!  We sure did!  Love you Brandon!

CAKE, CAKE, AND MORE CAKE

Maybe you've been wondering what "we" have been doing this late spring.  And the answer is:

Cake, cake, and more cake!

Brandon has been working so hard.  His cakes are delicious and have been a lot of fun to see how the process works!

Impromptu Mother's Day cake

Grandma Zoey's birthday cake

The 'guts'

Matt's birthday cake

Grandma Zoey's second birthday cake

Grandma Kathy's birthday cake

Brit's birthday cake

This little princess was SO excited for her castle cake!

Monsters Inc cakes for Grace

She wanted to touch it SO bad!

Blowing out her candle

I LOVE the frosting!

The middles - chocolate with peanut butter frosting, Reeces peanut butter cups and Reeces piece

LIFE LESSONS - THE WRITING ON THE FENCE

Kate ran inside and wanted so badly to show me something.

I followed her outside to see our entire family ... name by name ... on our vinyl fencing on the porch.

While she was so excited that she could write everyone's name, I was so upset that it was in permanent marker ... on the vinyl fence ... on the porch.  I started trying to remove it before I took this picture.  Writing in marker is something that all 3 of our children have done.  But the fence was a new one.

I'm sure that Kate has learned that we do not write on the fence!  One of her life lessons that she had to learn the hard way.

SUNGLASSES FOR SUMMER

Kate has been outside 24/7 since school let out!  She loves to play with friends and is constantly going to another friend's house.  The latest request is that she NEEDS sunglasses!  While we were waiting for her prescription, she insisted on trying some on.  There was not a mirror her size, so we took pictures instead (one of her FAVORITE hobbies!)

We are still looking for that perfect pair, but hope that we find the best ones soon!

ALMOST TO 37!

Brandon almost made it to 37 before receiving any stitches!  Yesterday evening, he was cleaning some goo off of his new red truck and he slipped with the razor blade right in his knuckle.  After it kept bleeding, he texted me and eventually ended up at my office, where Amy and Matt performed a surgery.

Here is the initial picture that he texted to me.

We thought that we might be able to super glue it together, but because of the depth and the location, he received his very first 3 stitches!

It's proven to be quite a challenge because of the wrap.  But, Brandon added his 2nd finger in the picture so that it would be family friendly.

This morning, he also received a tetanus shot as well.  Now we are just hoping that this won't get in the way of any cake making!!!