"who puts mosquito spray on their butt?"

We had a good time on our family camping trip up in Island Park this past weekend. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked but here are a few of our memories from the trip.












Some honorable memories I must mention...

- Tammy getting hung up and high centered on a rock while floating down the river. Hilarious!!!

- Hearing of how Ruby broke her leash loose from the tree branch, chased the neighbors poodle back to their campsite and bit it right in the butt. We have such a sweet dog don't we?

- Donna, the camp host from h~~l, yelling at EVERYONE to "SLOW DOWN!"

- Carrie saying, "Donna, you and Earl need to go back to your trailer and take a nap!" Don't worry, she didn't say it to their faces.

- Julie trying to use the toilet in a mosquito infested bathroom, constantly shooing them away so they wouldn't bite her bum. Because you know, "who puts mosquito spray on their butt?"

- Avery's fantastic hair do that Tammy so lovingly fixed. Two pony tail braids that were totally and completely lop sided. You can see it best in this picture. There's one pony tail, where's the other one??? ha ha! Oh good times!

Weekend Frenzy

The July 4th holiday always brings exciting times around our house! It starts off with my little Miss Avery's birthday on the 2nd, the 4th of July on the 4th (obviously! :), and all sorts of vacations planned with our families. The fun just never stops around these parts!

Happy Birthday little lady! I thought I'd post a picture of how cute she looked in her birthday shirt since that was the one and only day she will get to wear it. (at least without the shirt telling a lie I guess :)



After she opened her presents we took her out to dinner, she picked Applebee's, they sang to her and she was so HAPPY! Happy 5th birthday Avery girl!

The next day we headed up to good old Cache Valley for the grand firework show at Romney Stadium. I didn't get one "good" picture of my kids where all of them were looking at the camera, smiling cute, not closing their eyes...or crossing them Hayzen!...or that the picture didn't end up blurry. But what the heck, I'll show you all the semi-good ones I managed to get for kicks and varitey!






Hayzen looks pleased to be there doesn't he? :) Actually I think he was just stretching. Cutest little strechey face I've ever seen but still falls under the category of the "semi-good" pictures. Aren't I just so picky? :)


While we were sitting on our blankets waiting for the display of fireworks to start, Justin, Avery and Quinn played a thrilling game of "hit me in the face with my blanket", or whatever you'd like to call it. This game could have gone on for hours, sometimes children are so easy to please!



On the 4th of July we spent the day in Mendon at my parents house, better known as, a slice of heaven on earth. :) We went swimming, had a BBQ and ate it on festive 4th of July plates, ate watermelon.....awww, it was fantastic!

Later that evening we headed into town for the always pleasing Cache Valley Cruise-In. Quinney is obsessed with cars right now so we thought it would be fun to take him this year. Obviously the anticipation was just too much for my poor little guy, he ended up passing out with excitment!


Just kidding, he fell asleep in the car on the way there.

Here are a few of our favorites...





The next day, the 5th of July, (I told you the fun never stops!) we drove ourselves up to Park City to stay over night with the other half of our family. We celebrated Tayler's birthday with a delicious dutch oven dinner compliments of Lisa and Troy. Yum-O! Happy Birthday Tay Tay!

The next day we hit the outlets, ate dinner at the best mexican resturant EVER, then walked over and took a little ride on the Alpine Coaster. So fun!!!.....we'll be eating hot dogs and mac n' cheese for the next month but what a way to spend hard earned money, on a ridiculously over priced 1 minute ride. What could be better?

At dinner however we were entertained with clapping and singing for the two July birthday girls for free. They even got their own birthday treat, a balloon, a poloroid picture, AND they got to wear these spectacular sombreros at no extra charge.


What a way to end our 4th of July weekend!

Hawiian Tiki Birthday Party

Avery celebrated her 5th birthday this evening with a few of her friends.


They swam in the Zebra pool.....



Enjoyed the birthday cake display..... (okay, I guess this was just for me:) what can I say, I'm weird like that and I really get excited about stuff like this!


But they did enjoy singing "Happy Birthday" to Avery and eating the birthday cake!


Avery received lots of nice gifts from her friends, in fact, she was so EXCITED about ALL of them that she wanted to sleep with every single present when it came time for bed. I finally talked her into narrowing it down to one, her twin bed can only hold so much you know. (I don't have a picture to plug in here, present time was filmed on the video camera. And don't lie, I know everyone is dying to see a picture of her opening her presents!:)

Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating Avery's birthday with us and especially thanks for the lovely presents that were so generously given to Avery! I cannot believe that she is already 5 years old but it's true, she is. Well, I guess technically she won't be 5 until 9:16 am tomorrow morning but hey, what difference does a day make, right? Hope you enjoyed your birthday party Avery girl, we love you SO MUCH!

summer day

Yesterday we went swimming (well, Avery and Quinn did) with Madelyne in her new elephant pool. The kids had a blast as always. Wouldn't it be fun just to be a kid again in the summer, swim and eat otter pops all day with your cousins? .....those were the days! :)


Avery and Quinn had just gone down the slide together, it looks like Quinney is getting dunked. Hee hee, stay afloat Quinney!



This little fella just lounged around in the shade. He is 4 weeks old now, can you believe it? Time really does go so fast!


Doesn't he look cute as a button in his swim trunks? Grandma Smith gave him this cute little swim set. I LOVE IT! :)


Awww, what a fun summer day.

Their eyes light up!

My sister gave me some pictures that she took with her camera at the hospital when Hayzen was 2 days old. I just LOVE how excited Avery and Quinn were to see their new baby brother. When they came to visit they hadn't seen him since he was born, they were SO excited. I think these pictures capture that emotion so well, just look at their faces. Plus, I wanted to post these on my blog so they will be included in my printed blog book too for memories. :)




Avery and Quinn still get so excited and their eyes light up when Hayzen is awake and they can talk to him. It has been so fun to see them be so soft and gentle with Hayzen and talk so sweet to him in their little voices. Quinney has already given him the nickname of Hayzee, I love it, it's so cute when he calls him that. I love moments like these with my kids. I just can't get enough of these three!!!

3 weeks

My little Hayzen Baby is already getting so big it seems. We went in for his 2 week check-up today at 3 weeks because the doctor was out of town last week.

So here are his stats for 3 weeks:

Height: 20.5 inches, 25%
Weight: 8 lbs. 7 oz., 28%
Head: 37 cm, 35%

The day we came home from the hospital he weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. and now look at him, he has almost gained two whole pounds since then!

Time flies way to fast, before I know it my baby will be starting kindergarten!

brotherly love :)

My Quinney Guy takes such good care of his baby brother, he is always kissing his head!

... and then there were three.

1 week

Just after his bath.


I LOVE his hair! We had to have him sport a mohawk just like his brother. :)

One surprise after another!

Hayzen Todd

7 lbs. 5 oz.

19 in.

3:12 pm

First surprise: I ended up having to have a c-section.

Because of your placenta issues you ask?

No, because he decided he wanted to be born sideways. :)

Last Tuesday at my doctor's appointment he was head down and "engaging nicely into the birthing canal" were the doctor's exact words. When we got to the hospital I was checked and no presenting parts were felt. So the ultrasound machine came out and what do you know, he was transverse! To make a long story short, the doctor tried to flip him into head down position, after many painful attempts it worked, pitocin was started and contractions started every 5 minutes, about 2 hours later the doctor came back to break my water, I was checked and the wrong parts were presenting, he now was breech! Yes, that's right, breech! End result, a lovely c-section.

Second surprise: Look at all his long black hair! I love it!



Third surprise: (but not much of a surprise) Avery and Quinn are in love with their new brother. They ask to hold him all the time. Avery is so careful with him and can't stop kissing his head. One of Quinney's new favorite things to do is help Mommy or Daddy by handing us a diaper and the wipes. It seems like Hayzen is fitting right in with not much of an adjustment...not yet anyway. :)





We are in love with our new little fella, he is such a sweet baby!




Presenting our new family of five.....:)