Ike's Souffle

"Mom, can I please make you some souffle?" Cutting up baby carrots into smaller pieces is Ike's souffle.
I've been eating a lot of carrots lately. Thanks again Zs for the great cutting board that gets put to such good use making "souffle." I hope Ike isn't terribly disappointed when he finds out what a souffle
really is.

Loving Mac

So I am excited and a bit overwhelmed with my new Mac. Explains the lack of posting. My PC (with my life on it) won't boot up after we switched it out with the Mac. I think it feels betrayed by this sleek, more functional, and a lot more fun Mac. I still hold a little place in my heart for my PC. I knew it pretty well and it has all my photos, familiar software, and microsoft word. However, I hope to get Mac savvy ASAP.
Thanks to my good friend Amy for sharing her skills in iphoto. If anyone knows all the fancy fun stuff on Mac--it is her. I am going to continue begging her help.
Now that we have a computer camera, in the Mac,....we have discovered SKYPE. Many of you probably already enjoy this "Jetson" form of communication, but it is new for us and we are loving it. I fully own the fact that we can be a bit behind the technology curve. With Skype, you can talk, message, and view one another online. My kids love it. You can skype-to-skype anywhere in the world ...for free. If you have our e-mail address, just plug it into the search and you'll find our skype address. Just don't answer from anyone asking to "be your friend."

"When is my school going to start?"

This week has been a little tough for this guy. He is missing the kids. He made a preschool countdown chain today and we did a fly-by Miss Rita's......just to see what it looks like and to "talk about it." He has 10 chains left.
What I love the most about today is the hat. I have been reading John Adams (almost finished) and I love it so much. It was a story that needed to be told. Tom and the kids are the victims of my enthusiasm, especially Isaac. I want him to know a few historical stories. Apparently, he is on board with me. He ran and dug out his patriotic hat and wore it for the day. With a big grin he came down the stairs, "I'm going to wear this because we love John Adams, right mom."
Thanks to my friend, Gale,for turning me onto this biography. It has awakened a deep sense of gratitude for our Revolutionary Fathers and our Heavenly Father's hand in the creation of this great country. I want to go out and read all of David McCullough's work.

The excitement has been building around here. These three all get to attend new schools this year. Cole is off to junior high and the girls to our neighborhood school. Summer and Meg get to bike instead of bus now. They were giddy with delight. They got to meet up with some of their neighborhood friends to descend down "cherry hill" on the way to school.
Cole gets to leave 90 minutes later for school now that he doesn't catch the bus to Franklin. He loved me taking a picture in front of the carpool.

And then there is Ike, sad to be left behind. He has one more year of preschool with an awesome teacher and then he'll be with the big kids. Thanks Mom for coming and taking him out for a little outing. He's been playing with his new Star Wars figurines all morning.
I can hardly wait to hear all the details about their first day experiences.

The closets were cleaned out and organized so that we could go school shopping today. It was supposed to happen last Saturday, but the girls didn't take me serious about their closets and how they should look. Now that they look splendid and we have several big garbage bags full of "stuff", we hit the mall.
They did great with their clothes budget, no complaints. Summer only had to dip into her own money for a new backpack (because last year's backpack was still perfectly fine in my eyes).
I could shop all day with Meg, drama and all. I had some good laughs listening to her observations, opinions, and comments while she tried clothes on and shopped. She wasn't luke-warm about anything.....loved it or hated it.
And then there was Summer, who agreed with all my suggestions and opinions. I doubt this will last, so I thought I would make sure and document what an easy shopping experience it was today. I keep waiting for payback. Just ask my mom how fun I was to shop with, growing up. I still hate shopping.... for myself!
A big thank you to Ike for putting up with our shopping. He just knocked over a mannequin, sprawled on top of a table full of perfectly folded shirts, and crawled into the stall of an undressing lady.....he had to keep entertained somehow.

Two Happy Events

On Sunday two important events took place. Baby Luke (My sister Aryn's) was blessed and my baby sister Bridgette got engaged! Yeah! We love Corey and in a couple months, October 17th, he'll be part of the clan.

It feels good to be back home. The Oklands joined us, at the cabin, and we had a great time. We stayed a little longer so we could put the little boys in soccer camp. It was run by some enthusiastic soccer players from England. They have a way of making ordinary words sound great. I especially like their use of the word "Fantastic."

Just a few of his cousins that were in his group.

Ike loved every part of it, except when his team didn't win the World Cup Soccer Tournament. He was deflated for about 2 minutes.

Cole did awesome in the horeshoe tournament. He was consistently throwing points and some ringers.

Leave it to our "animal lover" to find some interesting creatures to bond with.
Ike had a misstep in the creek. He was brave and then after a while..."I hate this, having my underwear soaking wet!"
Oh and we attempted a second try at riding the bike. Tom tried a month ago, and he wasn't ready. I thought we would see if Cole and Robbie could encourage him ...no such luck!

Our Last Hurrah!

We are off to Pinetop for one last hurrah. I'm actually looking forward to one more non-scheduled, relaxing vacation to the mountains and then to have order and schedule back in my life. I love when school gets out .....and then when it starts back up. I do better with order and routine.
We can't wait to spend a few days with Tom up there. He can never go and stay for long periods of time, like the rest of us. Someone has to make it all possible.
Oh, and if any of you are going to be in Pinetop, come by and visit.

This Week

These are some of the highlights of this past week.
On Sunday, Cavan Cooley was born. We all can't wait to see him and get to know this little guy.

We had fun celebrating Isaac's birthday. He wanted a storm trooper costume, nacho libre costume, CTR ring, and an alarm clock. He thinks that when your a big kid, you have an alarm clock in your room. The picture with his CTR ring on, cracks me up. I asked him to show me his ring and this is the pose I got.


What would we do without Janet! She snapped these pictures while my kids were over having a "late night" at her house. Janet always takes fun to the next level. Why just sit and watch a musical, when you can be dressed up like the actors, singing and dancing along. We have watched this movie all week. Janet even loaned and dropped off her costumes, so we could enjoy them at home too.

Cole has perfected the "no bake" cookie. He usually makes a deal with Summer and Meg. He makes them and they clean up the mess. Both parties agree and are happy with the arrangement, .....for now. However, Cole's highlight this week was finishing the Book of Mormon. He started reading the last day of school and he finished it 57 days later. I will never forget that cute face coming in to tell me he had finished it.



The long awaited braces got put on this week. Summer has a great smile, but it is going to be even prettier in about 2 years. She has braved a sore mouth, full of canker sores since Tuesday.

These two love to fight and play mancala. Isaac likes to bug Meg and Meg likes to boss Isaac. You should hear these two play this game. I love playing this too, but I never can beat Meg or Ike. They have got their strategy perfected.


We always look forward to the missionaries, in our family, coming home. I love the anticipation of watching them come down the walkway and be absorbed by the welcoming mob of aunts, uncles, and cousins. We welcomed Sam Ashby home on Thursday. He served in Argentina. I am grateful for the strong examples these young men are to my kids. Welcome home Sam!


On a sad note, my 19 year old cousin Andrew Hall, passed away last Sunday. His funeral was today. It is so nice to see so many of my cousins, that made the trip to pay their respects. Andrew battled health problems his whole life, due to Cystic Fibrosis. He lost the battle last Sunday while fishing in Show Low with his Grandpa Hall. His family was so glad that he didn't have to pass away in a hospital. He was doing something he loved, with someone he loved very much.

Turning 5

Our baby is turning 5. We have been counting this down since Christmas. Ike loves to look forward to events and there isn't a bigger event than turning 5!!! Since his birthday falls on a Sunday this year, he asked if for his birthday he could please stay home from church. Sorry, but we'll still make it fun. So, Happy Birthday to such a fun little guy. We all just adore and love having him in our family.

Back to the Mountains

We got back from Colorado, did a couple loads of wash, unpacked, ...and then repacked and headed back to Pinetop. I wasn't quite ready to take a break from that fresh mountain air. I am so thankful that we have a place to escape the summer heat and enjoy the outdoors. I just wish that thing called "work" didn't get in the way, so Tom could go.


We have been feeding the ducks, at Woodland lake, since my kids were little. You never outgrow feeding and watching ducks scramble for your bits of bread.

Every year we have to get a picture on the green bridge. This is the first summer that I have seen water flowing under it. The lake is no longer at drought level.

This is the hill where Cole knocked out his tooth, when he was 5. This isn't probably the safest activity, but they sure have fun racing down.
Tough Guys

If you tilt the camera and lower the hoop.....it looks like your have some serious skillThere is a great 9-hole Frisbee golf course

There was a crew thinning the forest, so Jill started a little Woodworking 101 class. The kids all picked bits of the cut trees to make candles out of. I was surprised how long they sat there scraping and sanding their pieces.
The kids always beg to hit the race track. They have double cars, where you can drive with the younger kids next to you. They have a fake steering wheel, so they feel like they are a part of the racing. Isaac felt cheated when he realized that his steering wheel wasn't the one driving us. So we stopped at the Kiddie-track for a little Ike independence.

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Until next time

Celebrating the 4th of July

We met up with the Bray family, in Colorado, for the fourth of July. We thought Cole may be a bit out numbered with 6 girls and Ike , so he got to bring his good friend, Robbie, with.
Thanks, Brays, for making the 12 hour drive, from Oklahoma, to meet up with us. Chris and Gale have four beautiful, extremely talented, good girls. They were fun and easy to vacation with. This will go down as one of the best vacations our family has taken.

We stayed in the General Palmer the first night. It was nice, with a lot of old-fashion charm. The elevator was about as big as a broom closet. They messed up our reservation, so Tom and I got to stay in the Presidential Suite.
The next day we climbed aboard the Durango to Silverton train. We sat in the open air gondola car and enjoyed some pretty amazing scenery. The ride takes just over 3 hours. None of the pictures I took, do the scenery justice.

We opted to take the much faster shuttle back down so we could go river rafting. The rafting was freezing and so fun! We got to experience a series of Class II and III rapids. The only bummer ---we had to all split up into different rafts. Chris took all the older kids, Gale and Ava were in a different one, and Tom, Isaac, and I were in another. Isaac loved every minute of it.
After river rafting, we drove to Pagosa Springs, where we stayed for the rest of time. We stayed in a great cabin that housed us all comfortably.

Our first day in Pagosa, Chris found a great spot to take us to---Treasure Falls. It was so beautiful. The kids enjoyed exploring around the trails, streams, and falls. It was also such a beautiful drive to and from. We had fun spotting deer and elk.

The last day we went to check out the Pagosa Hot Springs. There were at least a dozen different hot springs, with varied temperatures. It was a perfect day of relaxation. The springs overlook the San Juan or Piedra (?) river. We all took a plunge in that freezing river and then warmed right up in the springs. Tom was taking the picture
After the springs, Gale put together a fun treasure hunt. There were nine clues, so each child got to find, open, and read a clue. The treasure chest was filled with poppers, sparklers, snappers, candy, and small fireworks to celebrate the fourth of July. It was the perfect conclusion to our vacation. All the kids loved celebrating that night, with their loot.