Daddy who?

So this new shop is the reason we haven't had a daddy at home lately. Joel has been working late almost every night building this new shop for his company with Preston and Chris. It should be done in about 2 or 3 months from now, they are framing the roof and the inside offices right now. It will be great when it's done because they will start producing their own doors instead of having to buy them from another party which is pretty much the whole reason they are building it. They also won't have to pay a huge rent payment to the little shop and office they are renting right now. There will be a lot more for all their stuff too.

We take Dylan and Jaxon's four-wheelers out there because there is a lot of little hills and sandy areas for the boys to ride. The sun was in their eyes so it looks like they are both winking at the camera. :)

Here they are on the inside of the building where it was a little cooler in the shade. Joel makes them occasionally help while they are there because it's good for them to do a little hard work. They usually come home just covered in the dirt. They love it even though it's about 100 degrees out there right now.

Happy birthday Kinlee!

Today is Kinlee's 6th birthday. She is 6 going on 16 at the rate she's going.:) Here are a few things I love about Kinlee:

She is fearless, not afraid to try anything once. (This might not be good later on!) She's tried wakeboarding, skiing, all the scary rides at Lagoon, tubing behind the boat, you name it, she will try to do it.

She is so sweet to her baby brother and she loves him very much. She can make him happy if he's crying and she loves to hold him and feed him.

She does nice things for all of us without us even asking such as rubbing our feet, vacuuming out the car, setting the table, she'll pass by and give a hug or kiss to mom and dad.

She wants to be a good girl and mom's little helper all the time.

She worries about family members if there is a storm outside. If Joel isn't home and there is a thunderstorm, she wants me to call him and make sure he is okay and not out working in the storm. If Dylan is at school and it's raining or even a little windy, she wants to go pick him up so he doesn't have to walk in the bad weather.

She has a sweet smile and cute little face.

She gets along with everyone and makes everyone of all ages her friend.

***Here are some more interesting things about Kinlee:

She was my smallest baby weighing only 5 pounds 13 ounces.

Her dad gave her the nickname "Skinny Ninny" recently because lately she has just gotten really tall and thin.

Her favorite music is Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, and Jesse McCartney.

Her favorite food is spaghetti and steak.

Her favorite movie is "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "The Game Plan."

Her favorite sports are dance and swimming.

Her favorite colors are pink and purple.

Her favorite place to eat is Cafe Rio so we went there for lunch today. Her favorite is the salad of course. At first she chose Outback Steakhouse, but I told her that was a little pricey to take the whole family. :)

She loves to watch American Idol with her mom.

Happy birthday Kinlee, we love you very much!

The Police Concert

So last night Joel and I got to go to the Police concert up at the Usana Ampitheatre for a rare night out together without kids. We went with our friends Preston and Hillary and it was really fun. I was surprised at how many old people were there though, it was a pretty tame concert compared to some I've been to before. We even saw a lady with a cane! We thought we might be the old ones, but we soon realized we were pretty much the youngest ones there! Well, there were a few younger than us, but I guess they were really popular in the 80's so of course we saw quite a bit of gray hair in the crowds.:) Sting is still looking and sounding good at age 56! Joel has been wanting to go see them for years and now we had the chance. Watching the people in the crowds is almost more entertaining than the music! We had a good time.

How many kids does it take to put a trampoline together?

Since Dylan and Kinlee's birthdays are only 6 days apart, we decided to get them one big present, a trampoline. The kids and their cousins were so excited, they all "helped" Joel put the trampoline together as soon as he got home from work on Wednesday. Actually they really did help and it only took about 30 minutes to put it all together.

Joel was still putting the pads on when the kids started jumping!

The only problem with this new toy is that Kaitlyn has to jump by herself or she gets trampled or bounced too high and gets hurt. All the kids let her have her turn, but she doesn't want to ever get off and let anyone else have a turn. She's pretty sure it's her trampoline only. :)

Happy Birthday Dylan!

Today is Dylan's 9th birthday. I can't believe he is 9 already. Here are some things I love about Dylan:

He is very sweet and loving.

I never see him lose his temper.

He does all his chores without complaining.

He can handle his dad's teasing. (Most people can't handle Joel's teasing!)

He is an excellent reader and student at school.

He is very obedient and wants to do what is right.

He is very good with Kaitlyn; when I am having a hard time with her and he can see I've reached my limit with her, he will step in and try to talk to her or distract her from whatever is causing her to freak out (and me to freak out). He helps make her happy and calm her down.

He has big blue eyes and blonde hair.

He gets along well with others.

***Some other interesting things about Dylan:

He is a total Star Wars and video game geek.

His dad gave him the nickname "BoneRack" because he is so skinny.

His favorite foods are cheese quesadillas and chicken nuggets.

His favorite movie is Spiderman 3 and High School Musical (1 and 2).

He is now reading the 4th Harry Potter book.

His favorite sports are basketball, wakeboarding, and swimming.

His favorite color is red.

His favorite place to eat is Noodles & Co. so we went there for lunch today.

We love you Dylan, we are glad you are a part of our family! Happy birthday!

Overheard...

Overheard at the pool the other night:

Braiden: "Dylan, let's go over to your house because I can't swim tonight."

Dylan: "Okay, but let me just shove one more girl into the pool."

Oh, no, girls are on the horizon!

Trip to Canada and Montana

Well, we made the big trek to Canada last week and had a good time. First we went to Canada for Joel's parents homecoming from their mission. We stayed there on Saturday and Sunday of the previous weekend. The kids had a great time riding horses, 4-wheelers, and going to Waterton for an ice cream. Sunday we went to church and listened to Noel and Sandy speak in sacrament. They did a great job, you can tell they miss the people out in Wisconsin a lot and really enjoyed their time out there. After church, we all went up to Diana's grave (Joel's mom who passed away in 1994) and talked about memories of Diana and took some pictures. It was a really special moment for the family. The littler kids had no idea what was going on and were jumping around on the headstones, etc. but the older kids understood what was going on and I think it was kind of neat for my kids to see where their grandma is buried and hear stories about her. Kinlee is named Kinlee Diana after her. Monday morning we headed down to Montana to stay at the cabin in Bigfork next to Echo Lake. My kids just look forward to this vacation every summer so much that now we have been going twice each summer. We will be going again at the end of the month. Each day is spent several hours down at the lake where Noel has a boat and Jon has a boat. They waterski, wakeboard, wakesurf, tube, etc. behind the boats. Dylan really took to wakeboarding this year and was able to get up and go all the way around the lake. Kinlee still loves the tube rides, especially when she gets dumped out. She's a crazy woman on the tube. She tried wakeboarding too for the first time but wasn't able to get up. She was pretty frustrated. I hope she'll want to try again next time. Kaitlyn even liked the tube ride, she laughed the entire time and when we pulled back in to shore, she said "Again?" Kaitlyn pretty much followed her cousin Madilyn around the entire time. They play so cute together. Anything Maddy did, Kaitlyn had to do too. At the lake the kids caught turtles in a shallow part of the lake and played with them for a while and then put them back. There were about 7 or 8 they had at one time. Kinlee wasn't afraid to hold the turtles at all. Kinlee handed a baby turtle to Joel and it pooped on him. heehee :) Tuesday it started raining in the evening and didn't stop until the next day. Sleeping in a tent while pouring rain is about the last thing in the world I ever want to do again. It sounds like someone is dropping rocks onto your tent and everything you own gets wet. There is no way to keep the water out when it is pouring that hard. I was a little perturbed that we didn't rent a trailer at that moment, but we got dried out the next day. Needless to say, I got very little sleep that night. Amazingly, Kaitlyn and Christian slept right through it all. Dylan and Kinlee had their own tent to sleep in but that night they both slept in the cabin. Kinlee is very afraid of thunder and lightning storms. Friday, the 4th of July, we went to a big pancake breakfast they have at the church in Bigfork and then we went to the annual parade there. This is the only parade Joel will ever go to because almost everyone in the parade throws candy. Even whole candy bars are thrown. You have never seen Joel so excited to be at a parade. He was whooping and hollering so they would throw candy his way. Of course he was doing it for the kids. :) The kids just love that parade for all the candy, necklaces, toys, etc. that they get. One truck was even throwing out toilet paper with their company's name on it. That was kind of funny. At the end, we had a big garbage bag full of candy (that all the cousins gathered together) to take back to the cabin. After the parade it started pouring rain again for a couple hours, but it cleared up by nighttime so everyone could go down to the lake and watch fireworks. All around the lake many fireworks displays were going. I stayed up at the cabin with my two youngest kids because they were asleep, but I could definitely hear the fireworks! Saturday was a beautiful day with perfect weather so our last day down at the lake was wonderful. It was hard to leave Sunday morning, especially knowing that when I got home I would have about 20 loads of laundry and would have to dry out the tents and sleeping bags. It's worth it though, so we'll be going back in three weeks. Below are two slide shows of our trip. All the pictures I liked wouldn't fit on one slide show so here they are...

Montana

Canada

Bad Mommy

Last night I took Christian outside with his little rocking chair to see if I could get some good pics of him. Kinlee came with me to help get him to smile and keep him stable etc. Here is one of the cute pictures I got. Then, we decided to shift the chair a different way and it was slightly unstable and he leaned one way and... THUNK! He did a face plant on the dirt and the rocks. It was awful! He had dirt and blood all over his face. I was freaking out and so was Kinlee. I rushed him in the house and got him in the tub and got all the dirt out of his mouth and luckily he was okay, but he has some road rash on his nose and a little cut above his lip...

As you can see, it isn't too serious but it sure was a bad experience. I felt awful, and hopefully I won't ever let that happen again. Kinlee was so upset by it, she wants to get rid of his chair! I told her it wasn't the chairs fault it was mommy's fault. Maybe we should get rid of mommy! :)