Family Pics!!

Enjoy!

Grandpa's Surprise 80th Bday!

One of THE greatest men I have ever known is my Grandpa Gripentog. He is AMAZING! For his 80th the whole family joined in on a big SURPRISE party for him and a fun time was had by everyone. We had great food, a Hugging train, a flash mob, yodeling, bagpipes, and a guest star........

ELVIS.......

Yes, my husband LOVES me this much!

July 4th!

I thinkthe older the kids are the funner Holidays become. Kloee couldnt believe we let her run with a sparkler in her hand. She thought it was super cool. Sydney sad fell asleep around 8 and missed the festivities but I'm sure she will LOVE it next year.

Uncle Brandon and Grandpa put on a firework show, starting with smoke bombs and ending with pretty flashy ones after it got dark.

Kloee collected the smoke bombs and carried them around for the evening....they were her "babies"

She liked watching all the fireworks but didnt appreciate the noise so she sat with her ears plugged for most of the evening!

We had a great time with all our family that we just can't get enough of. Kloee is on cloud nine with all these cousins she gets to play with all the time. 

We are to glad to live in America and all the freedom we have here!

Stevens Family Campout

It's always a good time when we all get together.  Despite the stomach flu going around we had lots of fun. On the way to the cabins we stopped in Pendleton to a water park. It was A LOT of fun! Then we spent the weekend hanging out and camping our hearts out.

Auntie Megan as always came up with some great crafts for the kids to make......

They had tons of fun with bubbles and kids just had a blast roaming the surrounding area and being together.

Mom and Dad widdled wands, knives, and swords out of sticks for all the grandkids. It always make me laugh how excited these kids get about them each year!

Here is Kloee's nature bracelets she made with her Auntie's! She had a blast.

Cherry Harvest!

My parents have been having a busy summer as usual, so while they were away at girls camp Darren and I stayed over at their place and helped out with Cherries. I wish I would have taken a picture of how many there were, it was a lot. We got up early and had a CHERRY day. We picked the whole tree, pitted and bottled 4 dozen quarts of cherries, filled a whole food dehydrator and picked through and cleaned 4 gallon size bags of the prettiest ones just for eating. It took us until dinner time and we were exhausted but it was actually a fun day that we all spent together helping.

Kloee's job was to take all the stems off....she was so excited to have a job!

Sydney was equally thrilled can you tell? Her job was to grab the runaway cherries and put them in the garbage!

Fathers Day!

Father's Day was a bit of a bust this year, Darren and I both ended up with a serious head cold, so we spent the day in bed and watching cartoons with the girls.  I did at least finish the fathers day crafts I was hoping to, the girls each made a card for Darren that he loved and then we gave him an Aebelskivers pan which he has been asking for, for a while now. So pretty low key but not forgotton!

The girls and I made these for Grandpa Allen and Grandpa Ray!

I wish I would have gotten a shot of this years fathers day tie for my dad, it was one of my favorites.  I found and HOT PINK tie that I put a lot of bling and glitter on. It was great, if I can get him to put it back on I'll post a pic later.

I am so grateful for these men in my life, what a blessing they are to me and great examples of  worthy priesthood holders. I appreciate all they do for me and can't imagine my life with out them!

Scottish Games

I have the coolest parents ever......How else would you know to go to THE SCOTTISH GAMES!

My parents are members of a Dolsamer club. My dad plays the lap dolsamer, and recorder and my mom plays a drum and the guitar.  IT was so fun to be able to go and watch them as they had fun playing those instruments.

Here is part of a song they played....

Here is a clip of Darren's favorite athlete. He was the best. He could throw 80+ feet....

 Since Darren went on his mission to Scottland it was fun for him to get to eat some of the Scottish food there like Scotched Eggs and this big hotdog thing that I cant remember the name of. I stuck to normal stuff like fresh squeezed lemonade and MY favorite cotton candy. Such a fun day we will have to go next year and maybe get Darren to wear his kilt!:)

Warm Rainy Day

Kloee convinced me that Sydney and her were only going to wait and watch for Daddy on the front porch, you would think I would learn but no.......about 10 min later Darren walks in the door and NO GIRLS!!! Yikes! SO I went looking and I found them in the back yard playing in the rain soaking wet.

Sydney lost her shoe and was walking around lost.....but happy:)

Kloee just was excited I wasn't mad.

These two girls are soo silly!

Sleepover!!

Kloee thought it was the coolest thing ever that the Burch boys got to come have a sleepover out here in Burbank.  The boys were pretty excited too. We ate Pizza, rode bikes and finished the night with a showing of WALLE it was the first time the girls watched it and it was a hit. I love how kids just snuggle right together. Sydney would turn and look and Jakob at all the funny parts it was too funny!

Those Lazy Days of Summer?

As usual the Summer is flying by.  I have been so grateful to be around so much family. We are truly blessed.  Most of my summer has been spent laying around hoping not to be sick! This pregnancy has been by far my hardest so far but I keep reminding myself it will be worth it in the end and I know of many others who have it worse then me.  My Dr. finally gave me some nausea medication and it has be GREAT! Right after I was feeling better about a week later I was hit with and BAD head cold and then about a week after that I was a lucky winner of the stomach flu! Can't catch a break right? Yuck! I am feeling so great just to be healthy, I feel like my summer has just begun! :) We have been enjoying the heat, fresh garden goodness, and spending as much time with family as possible.

HOPE YOUR ALL ENJOYING YOUR SUMMER!!