Junk Drawer

This is a random assortment of the goings on over the last month.

Logan absolutely loves playing pass with Eston. Eston sits across from him and rolls Logan the ball and Logan just starts laughing his head off. I help Logan roll it back to Eston and again Logan is in Hysterics. Logan is learning a lot of new things. He is Army crawling everywhere and cruises along furniture. He can say a few sounds, but mostly just Rarrrs at everyone he sees. Logan is a lot like Eston in that you don't come between him and his food.



The kids love to help with the Laundry. Personally I think that they just like to get in the baskets. I had stuck the babies in my two baskets and immediately Sam and Eston joined them.



I have 4 really good friends that I was freshman with in College that still keep in touch. We all got married around the same time, had our babies in about the same order, and have just stayed in touch over the years. We try to get together whenever the out-of-towners visit. Melissa was getting ready to move with her family to Japan so Amy came down from Logan and we had a swim party. (Missed you Camille, but your new baby looks adorable.) It's amazing to think that all together at the party we had 10 kids. Good Times!!



Lucy has hair. This is a new concept for me since Sammie barely had this much when she was 18 months old. It may not look like a lot to you, but we are loving it. She is just adorable. Lucy is crawling on all fours everywhere and loves cruising the furniture. She loves swimming, talking, laughing, talking, falling backwards, oh, and did I mention talking. Lucy hates going to bed because it means she can't be in the middle of whatever is going on.



Sammie had been asking me if she could go to the Hannah Montana movie for quite sometime. I told her that when it came out (meaning the dollar theater) we would go for a girls out adventure. The big day came and we ended up going with a few of her friends. Sammie loved the movie, but it was a little long. Now she is obsessed with Hannah Montana and all things girl on the Disney Channel.



I just think that this is a cute picture of Sammie. She went to a friends Cowgirl birthday party and this is what she wore. It was good times.



Did I mention that I have stair climbers now. Not so fun when there are two of them.



Over the summer I signed the kids up for some summer recreation programs. One of the classes was Itty Bitty ball. Both kids loved this.

I forgot that Sammie probably needed to bat Left handed until the last day. Wow did it make a difference.

Eston giving his power kick that went a whole 3 feet. Go Diego!!



This boy has quite an arm. He hit the ball on his own, past the pitcher. It's amazing what one day of class will do.



Sammie enjoyed soccer more than T-ball. She even learned how to pose without any instruction. Always must look good for the camera.



We have had a lot of fun so far this summer, but I am definately excited for Preschool to start in another month. This summer has gone by fast.

Happy 24th of July

I love my In-laws and I love going to Idaho to stay at their house. It had been quite a while since we had been up as a family and we decided to spend the 24th of July (Pioneer Day) visiting them. My sister Lindsay came along with us to play.
While there, Aunt Kim, Aunt Lindsay and Matt and I took the kids swimming. We figured our odds were good if we were on a 1:1 ratio. Swimming would be one of those situations that the Twins personalities stick out.

Lucy is our little water bug. The girl could swim all day if you let her. She will dip her own face in the water and look up to see who would do such a thing to her, but eventually keeps talking up a storm and laughing away. Lucy was mad when we took her out of the water.



Logan on the other hand, HATES the water. We took him in and he instantly started to cry. It took me being in the water with him (he is a huge mamma's boy) and holding perfectly still for him to calm down enough to stay in with us. Apparently I had him so still that he fell asleep in the water. Logan lasted in the water for a total of 20 minutes out of our 2 hours of swimming. Thanks to Lindsay for sitting with him while he slept on the side lines.



Pioneer Day is a Utah holiday, so when you go to Idaho and they have a parade and a big party in the park to honor the day, it is a fun surprise. Actually, Dallas and Brenda's Stake puts everything together. We went to watch the parade which involved lots of Tractors, about 3 or 4 members of Matt's family participated, and it was very short. My cousin Angela and her family came out to play with us. I am sad that I didn't get a picture of them or of Lindsay,her, and I. It was fun to see them. They only live 20 minutes from my In-laws.



Sammie loves going to Idaho to see her Great Grandparents, Leland and Ila. Grandpa Leland is a big guy, but is very love able and playful.



One of the things that the do every year on this day is have a fish pond. This isn't your usual fish pond of goldfish and you try to catch it with a net and then you can take it home. This is of mass proportions.

They take big trout and fill this big area with water and tons of fish. When it is your turn you get into the big pool and try to catch the trout with your hands. Eston was SOOOO excited to do this until one of the fish touched his legs. He then started to freak out and wanted to be taken out. However, he still wanted his fish. So. . . .



So, yours truly ended up reaching in and catching one for Eston. It was gross and awesome. Eston was so proud of his fish, but wouldn't touch it. He wanted to show everyone. We had the option of taking it home, but I decided to play catch and release. this guy was tiny compared to the rest of the Trout there. Some of them were the size of a small child.



Over the weekend we had a lot of fun. Matt's family loves to play a lot and we spend a lot of time outside just enjoying the open air and relaxing. We met some new "Friends" of his siblings, and enjoyed getting to know them. Hope they stick around.

We had so much fun, that we might try and go again in a few weeks.

Happy Birthday America!!

My family had a fun two day event for this holiday. The party started the night of the 3rd. We had an impromptu party at my parents house with all the kids. Matt stayed home with the Twins, because he was trying to finish some projects up so he could play with us the next day. My brother brought food. We had a backyard swim party, watched a movie, and topped it off with fireworks in my parents front yard. It was really fun. I headed home with my kids around 11:00 that night.

The killer of the whole thing was that I had to get up the next morning with Sammie and Eston to go participate in the Centerville City 5K. This was a fun 5K because we ran/walked it with Lindsay and Carly (my sisters), Dallin and Cathy and their kids (brothers family).

I'm glad that Lindsay took this picture. We were waiting to start the race, but were also waiting for Carly to show up. The gun goes off and we look behind to see Carly walking towards us wearing her flip flops. We slowly walked so she could switch shoes and catch up. The result of us doing this was, being the last people in line to start the race. It's kinda sad when you end up with a police escort behind you. We didn't finish that way, but we were close.



After the race we went and had a pancake breakfast in the park. After which we went to the parade. I do have to say that the parade is so much more enjoyable when you are not pregnant with twins. I didn't realize how miserable I was last year until I got there this year and was not restricted in movement and mass.

All the kids wore matching shirts for the day. The girls even had matching skirts. They looked pretty darn cute. However, we didn't get a great picture taken of them all. No one wanted to sit still.



Carly started laughing at Matt when he told her, "Some people fly flags, I fly babies."



For two boys with lots of energy it was pretty cute to watch them stand still with their hand over their hearts while our Flag was being carried in front of them.



The kids had a lot of fun gathering candy and playing with each other. Grandpa Jim (my dad) happened to be in the parade this year. He was on the emergency preparedness float for the city. When the float approached where we were sitting, it stopped. My dad jumped off and came and asked Sammie and Jake if they wanted to ride with him. They screamed yes and ran along with Dallin to get on board. Eston was sad about this but he will get a chance some day.



Apparently Sammie just wanted her mom the whole time she was up there.
After the parade we all headed home and took naps. Later that day we headed out to the annual Pedersen 4th of July celebration. It is one of the two times we see my cousins on that side during the year. We go to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Catherine's house to swim, eat, have a kids parade, and light fireworks. It is always a good time to see my cousins. Sammie and Eston just figured out how to swim with the help of floaties. They played for quite some time in the pool. Sammie even attempted jumping of the diving board. She never actually jumped, she just stood there and then walked off and to the side of the pool.



After which both kids got a hat and a flag to march in the kid parade. Sammie was in parade heaven.



When all was said and done we headed out to watch some fireworks that the City was putting on. Matt knows that the 4th of July isn't complete for me unless I have a parade and fireworks. In the past we have driven or walked over to Sugarhouse park, but this year we decided not to deal with the crowds. We saw a bunch of people congregating at the State Capitol and decided to try it out there. It was really nice. There weren't tons of people, you could see fireworks all over the valley, and it was relatively quiet. It was a nice change from the business of the rest of the day. The twins slept while we just relaxed. We got home and put the kids in their beds around 11:00 that night.



Even though we were really busy that day, we had a lot of fun family and celebrating our America's birthday.