Worn Out and Ready to be Home!

We stopped at the KFC somewhere around Gallup, NM at the end of our first day of driving back to Ft. Worth. It's a bad sign when you still have another full day of driving and everyone is already this worn out and crabby!

Hadley and Oliver

Here's Hadley figuring out the puzzle. She actually loved to play with the blue chairs behind her more than almost anything at Gr. and Gr.'s.
Here's Grandma Oliver holding the baby cousins, Hadley and Oliver. They are both SO CUTE!

Jumping Jacks

Here we all are at Jumping Jacks. This was obviously mostly fun for the kids, but it did provide a cool, although extremely noisy, place for the adults to sit and chat.

St. George trip--Misc.

Grandpa Oliver and Hadley.
On Tuesday we went to visit my Uncle Rob and Aunt Rebecca. It's funny, my uncle is only three years (I guess almost four years) older than me. Scott and I have followed Rob and Rebecca about six months behind in everything. They got married in May, we got married in December. They had Jacob in July, we had Ryan in November. They had Aaron in April, we had Julia in June, etc. We actually bought our Salt Lake house from them. They moved down to St. George where Rob is now bishop of their ward. I couldn't imagine sacrament mtg. alone every week. You're my hero Rebecca!
Here we are at the St. George temple. The temple where Scott and I were married. We had planned on going to the temple one day; but sadly, it was closed for cleaning. We spent Wednesday with Grandpa and Grandma Matthews, and Brent, Natalie and Cousin Abbey. We went to the temple visitors center, Jumping Jacks, the new In N Out in St. George and then went to the movies to see Kung Fu Panda.
Uncle Brent, Aunt Natalie and Cousin Abbey drove up from Logandale, NV just to see us. They even put off moving to San Diego for law school just to see us. We're glad you did, we loved seeing you and we wish you the best of luck!

St. George trip--Water Works

The first full day we were in St. George we went with cousins, Gr. and Gr. and Aunts and Uncles to the new Water Works in St. George. They totally destructed the old library, and built a fun park where it stood. After about five minutes, Ryan--who obviously forgot the rule about no running--fell and slammed his head on the concrete. He was out for the count (that makes it sound like he passed out, he didn't, his head just really hurt!) for about twenty minutes. Which tells you exactly how hard he must have fallen.

Here's Ben, Julia, Cousin Drew and Emily playing in the water spurts.

Ben really loved when they came up as arches instead of spurts.

Here is grandpa and seven of his "grandbabies".

Privacy

I hope it will be a long time before I ever take a fence for granted again. Before we left on our trip for San Antonio, we had a huge severe thunderstorm which effectively broke five or six panels and the gate of our fence. It has been quite embarrassing and concerning to have our backyard exposed to the public at large. Thankfully, after many steps, we have a beautiful new fence! I'm sorry I don't have before pictures to share, it just didn't even occur to me until I was so excited about the new one!

Watching Star Wars

I went upstairs because I had heard Haddie fussing. I was going to get her out of her crib and beg one of the older kids to watch her so I could finish some cleaning. When I walked up the stairs, this is what I saw. Ryan had taken pity on Haddie and had taken her out of her crib. He was being such a sweet older brother! They were watching Star Wars together. Hadley even had the appropriate apparatus for such viewing. She was seeing if she could effectively shove an entire light saber into her mouth. Notice the choice of the blue light saber, we definitely stick with the good side of the force.

Picnic

Yesterday I had some errands to run around lunch time. I had tried to leave earlier, but Haddie needed her nap. So, even though I wanted to go, we let Haddie have her rest. A crabby baby is not a thing to be triffled with! Because it was so close to lunch, and because I am currently trying to lose some weight, I told each of the kids to pack a lunch. We combined pleasure and business, and it turned out to be quite a fun day!

My Mornings

Welcome to my mornings! Scott leaves most mornings at 5:45 to go running or lifting with his friend Ben. Around 7:00, sometimes earlier, much to my disappointment, I have visitors. They come one by one, or often in groups of twos. They weedle their way into my bed until, wham-o, there is no more room for me!

Haddie and Julie

This is Julia's new favorite thing to do with Haddie. Hadley likes it a lot, until Julie starts bouncing her faster and faster and crazier and crazier, and then she starts to cry.
What a sweetie pie!

Contest

Hey all, my friend's sisters entered a singing competition in which the winner will be the one whose you tube video is viewed the most. They did a fabulous job, it's absolutely beautiful. So, play it as much as you can stand and lets help them win!