June's Joggings - Posted by the Mrs.

Bobby's cousin Elisa was in town visiting her in-laws and wanted to meet up for some dinner so we made plans to meet at Costa Vida downtown and spent a fun evening catching up.

(we were so busy chatting, eating, and keeping track of littles that we didn't get a picture all together!)

This is Duncan chillin' on some artsy structure downtown (proof that we were there ;).

Eye spy with my little eye...6 sleepy heads...and all their stuff!

The Cramer kids and the Rich kids sleeping out under the stars with grandpa.

It's that time again,

swimming lessons at the Smythe's house.

The boys had to warm up in the hot tub during swimming lessons because it was such a chilly and rainy morning.

We are all head over hills for this little gal.

3 little munchkins

We decided that we should take a pre-Yellowstone camping trip with our little family to get ourselves geared up. 

It was just an overnighter, which meant that we got there, set up our tent and cots, made dinner, got all the munchkins ready for bed, didn't sleep all night (because the temperature was in the 30's and our children weren't sleeping very well!), then got up in the morning ate breakfast and broke camp.

A LOT of work for such a short "vacation" :).

It was good to see where we needed to make changes for our upcoming Yellowstone trip though so yay for that!

Hammock time.

I love these little people.

Question:

Why did the little boys cross the river?

Answer:

To get to the other side of course!

Then they discovered that the path on the other side didn't go anyway, turned around and came back.

Smores, our little tent-ground, and smiles.

Reading before bed.

These cots were really comfy, if we didn't have to avoid freezing to death during the night we really could have slept well!

Quotes!

10/3/16

Charlie was sitting up on the kitchen counter helping me make ham fried rice and having a good time when he asked me this out of the blue question,

"Mom, do you know why I'm so sad?"

Me: "No, why are you so sad?"

Charlie: "Because Little Foot's mom passed away."

I was instantly brought back to my 4-5 year old days when watching Land Before Time made me sad too...for the very same reason, so I comforted him with my sympathy.

Charlie has a love for the Land Before Time theme song as well..."Don't loose your way, with each passing day..." and has been overheard singing it with certainty whilst using the bathroom. Can't help but smile when that's going down.

One of our kids was bound to like that movie since Bobby and I BOTH loved it when we were youngsters.

----

Also, on a side note, this is not a quote but for the record Charlie has begun sneaking finger dips in the butter and eating it. I'm embarrassed to admit I also was guilty of the same thing at that age. Some things just pass from generation to generation like that I guess, like a good 80's song.

May's Memories - Posted by the Mrs.

We took some pictures of Lucy for her 6 month birthday.

I love this picture because it shows a side of Lucy that few outside our family get to see.

Duncan started calling her Rainbow Eyes because of this look, and it's so appropriate. :)

While listening to a Mormon Channel interview one evening, we heard the term "Rainbow Baby". While we chuckled at the term at first, we realized that Lucy actually was our Rainbow Baby.

In case you haven't heard this term, here is the definition of a Rainbow Baby-

A baby born after a miscarriage 

(after the storm comes the rainbow).

We think it's quite a fitting title for this little girl.

Lucy

Caroline

Rich

Age: 6 months

We've got this one up on our family wall.

Natural poses and bloopers!

(ALL the super smiley pictures happened when Duncan came over to get her to smile for me).

We went to Christine Donnell to watch Duncan perform in a play, then afterwards, had a picnic out in the schoolyard.

Mother's Day treat at Christine Donnell.

We had a super duper awesome rain/thunder/lightning storm which we gave ourselves front row seats to so we could enjoy the show.

My Dad came into town for a visit. 

These pictures are from doing the Table Rock hike while he was here.

Taking a breather.

Almost there...

We made it!

Grandpa's so nice to clean out the leaves from our rain gutters when he visits!

Mother's Day isn't complete without homemade chocolate dipped strawberries.

Yep, she's a keeper.

We went for a little Mother's Day walk after eating strawberries.

This is how Charlie ended up by the time we got home.

Celebrating the 9th birthday of our family with candles and cake!

Candid pictures of the wee ones:

The usual result of Charlie looking at books in the late afternoon (Zzzzzz), Lucy bouncing in the Johnny Jumper, and Duncan eating peanut butter and honey while wearing roller skates and sitting in a stroller.

Lucy had her first ride in the Cozy Coupe.

I love these pictures of the boys, it's easy to see the love they have for their baby sister.

Cozy Trio

Love...

This picture is from way back in February when Bobby and I put vinyl flooring in the kitchen. I added it here to show what the kitchen "island" space looked like previous to the upgrading we did.

Ta-Da!

Brothers being goofy.

Lucy's 6 month Dr's. appt.

Bear Lake time!

It's tricky to get all three of these little munchkins to look and smile at the same time so this was a golden moment.

We arrived at the lake before anyone else and had the place to ourselves for a little bit.

Venturing out to the cold lake to try out Duncan's fishing rod.

It was cold but that didn't stop these boys one bit!

This was also Lucy's first time to the lake.

After Bear Lake we stopped by my cousin DeAnna's house who lives outside of Logan to visit her and check out their darling little hunting dog puppies.

If we ever take the plunge and get a dog...

it will hands-down be a Vizsla.

April's Afterthoughts...posted by the Mrs.

We had the Cramer's come stay with us overnight and had a hammock party in the backyard.

A sunny daddy-daughter date in the hammock.

Trying to update our 72 hour kits...

Duncan received an Honesty Award at school during an assembly.

My friend and I ventured into a big ( 2 day long! ) task of making a unique tincture.

One of the many pictures of Charlie sleeping.

These boys are good sports during shopping day.

Our other little shopping sport...

A story by Duncan:

"The book of Roady and his friends. 

Won day Roady was racing with his friends. 

The End"

Lucy's first time in the Johnny Jumper.

Making a spontaneous stop at the RV's-for-sale lot.

The boys thought the storage cupboards (bottom right pic.) under the eating benches were beds. :)

Costa Vida snugglers

I love it when these big brothers ask to hold Lucy.

I introduced Parkour to these two via Youtube and they were all over it.

Picture of mom courtesy of an offspring.

Charlie, with his totally fashionable upside down sunglasses.

After heading to Utah for a long weekend, we made a fun day visit to the zoo with cousins. 

Giraffes, ostriches, lions, seals, elephants, rhinos, orangutans, and bears!

My Littles...

We really wanted to show the boys Temple Square and the Conference Center while we were in Utah.

Taking a short jaunt to the top of the Conference Center Building.

My Favorites...

Love...

It's been 9 years since this family first began inside these doors.

Another Utah adventure: 4 wheeling with the Duncan side.

It was super windy so the wee ones were mostly car bound but there were plenty of snacks to keep everyone happy.

We're still young and fun.

Even the wind can't keep us from having a blast.

My handsome bloke on a mini bike.

We finished off the evening with Chinese food and hanging out with Brooke and Tyler.

 Quotes from the Children

(for the record):

6/16/16

Charlie: I have a king size bed

Duncan: I have a king and queen size bed, that's bigger. 

Charlie: I have a king and queen... and judge size bed

Duncan: I have a king and queen and judge and servants size bed. 

Charlie:...I have a king and queen and judge and servants size bed!

And then they run around pretending to fight.