A Crazy September!

Yesterday I flew with Carter down to Arizona.  Eric's grandma Skousen died, and we came down for the funeral.  Eric was already in Utah to go through the temple with Hillary.  After he went to the BYU vs UCLA football game, he drove to Arizona with his family.  The funeral was today, and it was a very nice service.  Eric's sisters read a poem that Lindsey had written about grandma and we all sang a group number.  We are staying with Eric's cousins Ryan and Nichole in Gilbert.  Since everyone came to Spokane in July and then I saw the girls in Las Vegas, we have been together with Eric's family a lot.  We will see them at Hillary's wedding this weekend, too.  I'm going to go through withdrawals not seeing all the family every few weeks. 

Carter is still free to fly for another few weeks, so he came with me.  I thought it would be a lot easier for my mom to take care of the kids without him.  He must of got motion sick or something, because while I was getting our bags he threw up in the stroller.  Then when he got in the car, he threw up again.  He was totally fine after that and running around crazy.  
Tonight we went to Eric's uncles house for a birthday party for Aunt Tammy.


On Friday, Carter and Olivia went to my mom's house while the boys were at school.  I went out to my friend Marie's lake house for a little girl party with neighborhood ladies.  It was gorgeous weather and so much fun.
Olivia got my camera out when we were at Jackson's game and insisted that I take a picture of her.
We were at a swimming birthday party for Olivia's friend.  We gave Carter a chocolate sucker to keep him from jumping in the water.
Saturday was Olivia's first soccer game.  It was the cutest funniest thing ever.  She kept on trying to convince the other team to give her the ball.  She would point to herself over and over.  One of her friends was on the other team.  Every time he had the ball she would call out his name to give her the ball.
I tried to get her to drink her water when she took a break.  She wanted chocolate milk instead.  I'm pretty sure it is not much of a thirst quencher in hot weather.
Last Monday night we went to the fair with our friends the Kristi and Mike.  If you give Carter what he wants he stays pretty quiet.  He threw a huge fit when I wouldn't give him his own funnel cake.




A week ago Friday night we went to the lake.  We went up the river and came back as it was getting dark.  Jackson's friend Holland was with us.  The sunset was beautiful.

Johnny was with us too.  It was cold once the sun went down, so Olivia snuggled under the blanket.
The first day of school the boys headed to the bus stop.  I made them stop so I could take a picture of them.
We had some drainage problems in the back yard.  Eric was trying to fix it and got sprayed with a fountain of mud.  He wasn't allowed in the house after that.

What Happens in Vegas........

Because these two great people fell in love......... I got to spend a fabulous girls weekend in Las Vegas. This is my sister-in-law Hillary and her fiance Jeff. They are getting married in a few weeks, so we had an amazing bachelorette party for Hillary. We are so happy for her! Jeff is a great guy-- he even let us all stay at his house while he slept on the couch downstairs.
I flew in Friday afternoon, and the rest of the sister-in-laws didn't get in until late that night. I went with Hillary and some of her friends to Mamma Mia sing-a-long. The movie is a little cheesy and I had already seen it, but we sang our hearts out. We had so much fun!
After we got home from the sing a long, my sister-in-laws got to Vegas. We stayed up until 3am talking and doing who knows what.

We woke up Saturday morning and headed to the JW Marriot Spa. We hung out by the pool and relaxed in the steam room before we all went in for our massages. This is me with Eric's sister Lindsey and his cousin's wife Nichole. She is pretty much like a sister-in-law, too.

After we spent the morning and early afternoon at the spa, we headed to a bridal shower for Hillary. Here she is opening up the box full of surprises that make her blush!
After the shower we had the greatest time shopping-- I bought lots of stuff I didn't really need. I had to take advantage of the stores I can't get in Spokane. Then we headed to a yummy Thai place for dinner.

Then it was home to change and get ready for dancing. I'm pretty sure I haven't gone dancing since college. That means it has been over 10 years! I am getting so old!!!! I can't remember the last time I went out at 11:30 at night. Even us old moms were pulling out some pretty sweet moves. I'm pretty sure we looked ridiculous, but it was the best time ever! Hillary wasn't even too embarrassed to be seen with us. Can I just tell you how much I love my sister-in-laws. We have the best time together-- especially when we don't have any kids to worry about. We have to plan these trips often. From the left is Aria, Brenda, Hillary, Nichole, Lindsey, Me and Hillary's friend Danielle.
Here we are showing our awesome moves!


We got home after 1am and then stayed up really late again. We had to drag ourselves out of bed the next morning to get some breakfast and then say goodbye. Hillary and Jeff took me to the airport, and the other girls started their drive back to Utah. By that afternoon I think we all wished we were back in Vegas, because you know, what happens in Vegas...........

Close Only Counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Last weekend the Shock played in the Arena Cup (the championship for Arena Football 2) in Spokane. Saturday night we went to a team welcome dinner and Sunday night we went to the awards dinner. It was held downtown at the Davenport Hotel and was so nice! We got to dress up and hang out with the coach and other owners of the team.
We are here with the Nelsons and Nebekers. The coach and my brother were on the other side of the table, so you can't see them.
Brady got the AF2 executive of the year award.
The AF2 commisioner gave the Shock owners an AFL watch as a thank you gift for hosting the cup. Unfortunately I don't have any great photos of our team's victory. Evidently "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." It was the most exciting arena finals ever, but it didn't go our way. We had a chance to win at the very end of the game and our kicker tried for a field goal. He missed it, and we went into overtime. We scored quickly, and then the Vipers had their chance. They ended up scoring and then getting a 2 point conversion to beat us by 1 point. It was very sad, but the team had a great season. We got a room to stay at the Davenport that night and our kids went home with my neice. It would have been much better if they had won, but it was still a great weekend.
The Pypers came with us to the lake and spent the night Friday. We hung out on the boat on Saturday before we went in for team welcome dinner. Carter and Tucker are so cute together. Tucker is probably the funniest little kid I know!

Taraka, Ben and Tucker
My nephew Mitch and Olivia
Our friend Jon Abrams and Jackson
We took the boat up the river to Anderson Lake for better water. It is about a 20 minute boat ride but very worth it.

Olivia put on Jonny's glasses. It is definitely a step up from her usual goggle pictures. I just got back yesterday from a fabulous girls weekend in Vegas for my sister-in-laws bachelorette party. Stayed tuned for those pictures coming soon!

A Little August Overview

Ok. So I have never been a really regular blogger, but this summer I have been terrible. I seem to try to catch up on everything all at once instead of doing a bit every few days. Oh well, at least I'm doing it. My posts are pretty boring, though. Most of them consist of shock games, lake and swimming. I guess that is pretty much our summer (or at least what I take pictures of.) The picture above is from last Saturday's shock game. We went down to the side of the field right before the game was over to accept the trophy for the conference championship. That means that we are going to the arena cup this next monday. We have had home field advantage throughout the playoffs, so it has been great to have home games every weekend. Two years ago when we went to the arena cup we got to go to Puerto Rico. This is the first year that the team with the best record gets to have it at their arena. It will be fun to have it here and have a sold out crowd, but it was really fun taking a trip last time. Hopefully my next post will have pictures of us after we win the cup!

These are my friends Danna and Meaghann. Danna's husband is the main owner of the team and Meaghann's is the general manager. It has been way fun to do all the shock stuff with them these past 3 years. Aren't we quite the brown haired beauties in this picture?
Jackson's friend Nate came with us last week.
My brother Brian became an owner last year. He was a crazy fan and thought he might as well be an owner.

These pictures were taken at my friend Emily Christensen's house. Olivia is here with her friends Ella and Emma.
Carter is seriously such a fish. I think next summer he will be swimming without a life jacket. He jumps right in by himself all the time and swims around with his face in the water to see the bottom. None of my other kids liked water so much at his age. He swallows a ton, coughs and goes back for more. He is totally obsessed with shoes right now. He brings shoes to me all the time to help him put on or my shoes when he wants me to put on shoes. When I try to take his shoes off he screams at the top of his lungs, "shoes! shoes! shoes!" and then throws a temper tantrum. He is so strong willed! Gorgeous, I know! As obsessed with shoes as Carter is, Olivia is probably even more obsessed with goggles. These stupid cheap goggles she loves. They are constantly fogged up and filling with water. I finally convinced her to get a new pair last week. She often takes everyone's goggles out of their swim bags and carries them around. She then over and over says, "aren't you so glad that 3 of your kids have goggles?" or "why do 3 of your kids have goggles?" After a while I just say, "no, I don't really care!" She also picks up on everything people say. Last Sunday we were coming home from dinner at my moms and she says, "Oh! My nuts really hurt!" We couldn't help but laugh, and Hayden informed her that she didn't have nuts. She then replied that she ate some nuts, they were in her stomach, and her stomach hurt. I guess she had overheard my nephew complaining after my neice had kicked him in that area. I'm glad she didn't really know what he was referring to. Later Olivia told me, "My head freakin' hurts!" I told her she shouldn't talk that way, but I'm sure she heard it from me.


Ok, gross story. In this picture Carter is showing part of a chewed up hamburger. Even grosser is that he started chewing it at least 30 minutes earlier when we were eating at the marina. He kept on shoving more food in his mouth and wouldn't swallow it. He kept showing us, and I was gagging. Finally-- about 45 minutes after he started chewing-- he swallowed.

Carter fell asleep on the boat, and I brought him upstairs to my bed. He was so out of it that I changed him into his clothes to go home and he stayed asleep. His eyes look a little open in this picture, but he is asleep. I even got him in his carseat and he slept on the way home. I only wish that I could sleep that well.

This is typical smiley, cute Hayden. You might think that is Eric behind him, but Eric only has about 13 chest hairs. That is our friend Jeff.
We often go up the river to some chain lakes to get really smooth water for wakeboarding. The edges of these small lakes can have a lot of seaweed. I guess we were really drifting after Jackson got done wakesurfing. I turned around to see Jackson like this. I was totally grossed out. Boys are so different than girls. I would not even want to touch seaweed, and he was piling everything he could onto the board.

This was my favorite spot to read Breaking Dawn. I finished it that day at the lake. It was the best sitting in a lounge chair relaxing by the water.

Carter, Hayden and Olivia
This picture is a yard update. The concrete guy was putting in the slab for our sport court. Someday we will have a backyard to play in. A few people asked if the circle to the left was for a pool. That would not be a very fun pool. It is for our inground trampoline.