3RD TIME FOR SUMMER SPEECH

Kate did not want to do speech therapy for the summer, but I thought that it would be a good thing for her and for the students. Many speech therapists don't work with stuttering kids/adults, so this is a good opportunity for them to learn what to do and practice. The parents get to watch speech therapy from behind that special glass, like police offices use. I took a picture of Kate and Kendra working hard. Kendra was having her watch herself on the video and see if she could hear disfluencies. This was something that she has never done before, but I think that it has helped!

This has been our 3rd summer with Kate at speech therapy. Faith also attended for one summer when she was 4 or 5. It was great! I can't say enough about how much we love ISU! It is so great that the students are motivated to work hard and have their students improve. It's a win-win.

Kate also asked if Myah would come that day and watch. Which was sweet!!! Here she is enjoying the hour of speech therapy. She really did love watching her and being there with me!

Thank you for being such a good friend Myah!!! We love you and you are beautiful!!!

ETHAN AND THE 4th

While the Bohneys were in town, Ethan celebrated his 12th birthday! It's crazy to think how big these kids are getting, and that all of us are getting older...

Some of us started the 4th of July with the parade down in old town. We took the sister missionaries with us. Sister Hancock and Sister Rawlins. I sure hope they had a good time. We love these sisters!

Parade selfie

The kiddos

We spent the rest of the day getting ready for the BBQ in the early evening. Brandon also made a smokin' 4th of July cake for Ethan's birthday! This bottom layer was white cake, with white chocolate mousse and fresh raspberries on it! Yum!!! The 2nd layer was chocolate cake with mint grasshopper cookies. And the top layer was chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.

Final product.

True to 4th of July in Pocatello/Chubbuck, about 1/2 hour before the BBQ, the traditional storm blew in. We were lucky that it did not stay. Many of Will and Sara's family came to celebrate Ethan's birthday. We had a great time visiting and eating. However, when the boys went to light the candles, they would just not stay lit. 

We went to watch fireworks with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Jerry at their house. We had fun lighting off a couple of fireworks, but they seemed to do them early. A couple of other 'worthy' notes: We did not have to have jackets and the show seemed smaller. I am grateful that our community does put together fireworks for us. The city that Will and Sara live in does not have a show!

Myah and Kate

Zoey and Sara

Faith and me (who is taller???)

Miss Kate LOVES babies!

Kate's selfie (no holiday is complete without this picture and cute face)

Most of us (just minus Faith)

Me and my man!

The kiddos getting ready to celebrate!

Imagine my surprise when Will let his 2 oldest light off the fireworks! Scary!!!

Thank you VanTassells for being such great hosts and letting us leave behind a mess. :( I hope that it wasn't too bad!

The next day, we had the opportunity to join in at Ethan's ordination of becoming a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. What a special day that was for him.

Maddie and Kate

The future priesthood holders (I think this is such a cute idea that I would love to duplicate for Dawson!)

The circle of men

Pretending that he's part of our family!

We are so proud of you Ethan! We hope that you continue to make good choices and to be a good example to your brothers and sisters! We love you!!!

ONE YEAR OLDER AND WISER TOO

Brandon's birthday came during a very busy time for us this year! The Bohney's had just arrived and we were also preparing for the puppy!!! I also had the opportunity to speak in church that Sunday. So not only was I unable to make him breakfast that day (one of our traditions), or dinner that night, but he was also left to make his very own birthday cake!!!

He chose a strawberry lemonade cake.

 

This was a perfect cake for the summertime. Light, fluffy, with a bit of tang to it!!!

 

We invited our families over, but the Bohney's made up the biggest part of the group. It was really fun to visit, eat cake, and then see Brandon's reaction to his Boise State shirt...

Dawson though it was the best!

 Chase and Dawson trying out the new wear for Brandon!

Happy birthday babe! I love you so much and hope that you had the best day!!! Next year, I will make it up to you ... breakfast, dinner, and cake!

OUR PICK

We were so excited to go and see all 5 puppies. They are miniature labradoodles. We really had to work to contain our energy. The breeders had a large basket that they brought all 5 in. All too adorable. Here's what we noticed.

Pink girl: Immediately went to Faith and was snuggling.

Purple girl: She would yap and bark at each of the other puppies. It was as if she was pushing all of the buttons of the other puppies. She was the runt, so that might have been part of it as well.

Blue boy: Probably going to be the biggest of the group of puppies. He was the only one that would play fetch and was going up the stairs to one of the kids. Very interactive.

Green boy: A good mix of all of them, but not a snuggler. Fur was more of a poodle than lab.

Orange boy: He hid in the corner behind the green chair and got under the checker dresser. Twice! But he let me hold him like a baby and that was fun.

So, how do you decide? We decided to go through the process of elimination, since we felt like that would be the easiest. First one to go? Purple girl. She was a little trouble maker. The next one to go was Blue boy. I felt like he probably had one of the highest energy. We didn't want a dog that had more energy than we had. After talking for a little bit with the kids, we realized that Orange boy was the worst pick of the liter for us. He hid and avoided us ... which dogs that age should not be doing. So after that we were left with Pink girl and Green boy. We decided that each of our family would circle pink or green. Everyone voted for pink except for Dawson. But he was okay with our pick. So, we decided on this good looking puppy!

We can't wait until we get to take her home! It's like Christmas around here...

TFIOS

Faith and I planned a girls day with some other friends. When they were not able to come, we decided we would still head to this movie - The Fault in our Stars. It is Faith's all time favorite book. She read it 19 times in 3 weeks. It was a book that I recommended to her. I loved it.

Here is our selfie before the movie started! Faith LOVES selfies!!!

And, of course, we had to bring a lot of tissues.

Faith's review: It was incredibly true to the bok, which surprised me. John Green, the author was allowed to go behind the scenes with the actors and director, which is rare. Josh Boone (director) thank you very much for staying so true to the book that there are book quotes, the places look the same as they did in the book, and the outfits were the same and it was AMAZING. Shailene Woodley did such an amazing job of portraying Hazel and it felt as if she was the character instead of trying to be the character. Ansel Elgort was a great actor too and I loved that portrayed the pain and loss of not being able to do things by yourself. I loved that they didn't need to look cool all the time, and that's the truth. Like (SPOILER ALERT) when Augustus dies, pain is etched into Hazel's face and she sobs heartbroken sobs and grabs her mother for the support she needs. Also, before that, when she goes to pick Augustus up in the middle of the night because he wanted a pack of cigarettes, he has blood dripping from his mouth and his face is, also, etched with pain. Overall, its a very splendid, fantabulous, and AWESOME movie that everyone should watch. (READ THE BOOK FIRST!)(:

Did we cry? Yes!!! From now on, I think that I will choose to watch the sad movies at home so that I can pause ... blow my nose ... and continue to watching great stuff! Thank you, Faith, for coming to the movie with me! Okay? Okay.

FALLING IN LOVE

I really can't believe how much the puppies have changed in a couple of weeks. 5 1/2 weeks old right now! I think that they are even cuter than before. We are excited to pick out our puppy and make final preparations before the official adoption day!!!

We are also still debating on names, so if you have any to add to the mix, please comment and give us some  ideas. Christmas is getting so close!!! We know we are going to love our chog!

CHOOSING AND WAITING

Who knew that we would have such a hard time choosing? The puppies are growing fast! Here they are at 3 weeks old!

We continue to watch videos about dog training with the family. Faith and Brandon like them the most. Brandon also went to visit 3 local vets this week so that we have one ready to go when we come back with the newest member of the family.

Brandon admitted that he was having such a hard time. I laughed and said that it must be similar to what kids experience at Christmas time. All that waiting feels like an eternity!