Family Pictures

Are you sick of looking at pictures of us? Too bad- here are some more.

When we were in Utah we picked up our family picture cd. I had to go through 200 pictures and decide which ones to edit. These are not the final product yet. We swapped a bunch of heads and fixed clothing etc. - so we will see how they turn out soon. I think they turned out pretty good.

Ella looks like such a chunk! But, I love how they are all laughing!

Unfortunately, Ella stuck her toungue out in every picture!

Little model boy.

Look at those teeth!

This isn't our favorite.


This is our favorite family pose- but we swapped a bunch of heads. You may be seeing one similar to this on a Christmas card.


We swapped heads in this too. However, the pose seems a little awkward.

Back to Life, Back to Reality..... for eleven days!

We got back from Utah last night. It was nice to not have any true responsibility for two weeks. My kids had the time of their lives. This was definitely a kid vacation- and fun for me, too. Thayne was only able to come the first 5 days and the last day. We missed him!

Quick side note-- I am currently neglecting my home and the 7 phone messages I need to return. I just got back from running errands and a neurologist appointment for Ella. The neurologist was a little baffled with Ella's case. Her comprehension and speech is developing well, but she is so gross motor delayed and she is quite a chunk as you know. Her head and weight are in the 95th percentile and her height is only the 15th. She looked at the MRI results and said they do look good. She has decided to run some tests, but thinks most will come back negative-- I hope. She is going to check for Prader Willi's and a couple other genetic things. Ella does not show all of the signs for these things, but you never know. She also wanted to run a thyroid test, liver functioning test, and some other endocrine type tests. Unfortunately, this means 6 viles of blood. If you remember, Ella's veins are nearly impossible to find. This once again rang true. Two of us had to hold her down as she poked and repoked, and moved the needle around in her arm. The phlebotomist said the vein moved everytime she stuck the needle in. This was the case for both arms- she finally did get the vein in the right arm, but then the vein blew. She then went to the foot. After about ten minutes (of screaming from Ella), she barely milked out one vile and decided she needed to talk to the doctor and figure out a better way to take her blood. I'm thinking they might need to sedate her again and take it from an odd place.

Okay- on to the Utah trip. I won't blog much, just post the pictures. Here is what we did in a nutshell- Lots of swimming, Seven peaks (water park), Lagoon (amusement park), Chuck E. Cheese, lots of parks, Ikea play place, Ratatoulle the movie, lots of ice cream and BBQ and eating in general, a visit to old friends for a day, hike to Timpanogos cave, lots of playing and video games and loving being with cousins. (ok that was a horrible sentence, but I don't feel like fixing it). The kids did very well together, except the last day we had some fighting and crying. It was probably my crabbiness rubbing off on them, due to lack of sleep and frustration because our car battery died, our plans were foiled etc. All in all, a very fun trip-- my kids did not want to come home. Thank you so much to the Steven's family for hosting us the majority of the time- we had a great time hanging out with you and the Spragues- We love you all. Of course we had an awesome time with the Christensen's too, but they never check this.
These pictures are in random order.

Little bathing beauty!


Jordan, Brooke, and Kaden having fun in the pool. Kim has a pretty nice pool in her sub division.


Summer sledding with the Christensen's and McCluskeys.
I wish I got a wider angle of this hill- it's pretty big.


Hiking timp cave with Darrin and Donae. Wow, how did we do this with two newborns, two 2 year olds and a three year old?! It is so steep.

Inside the cave. This tour was fun- my kids really enjoyed it.

Hailey gets our "trooper" award. She and Thayne were the first ones up the mountain.


Dinner time at the Christensen's.

Hailey, Courtney, Brooke, and Kaden at the Lagoon. I noticed Kaden will try things he is scared of if his older cousins go. He went on almost every ride, except ones that go upside down. If Hailey was tall enough she would go on every ride.


Hailey and her good friend Hallie (friends who used to live in Arizona). They had fun catching butterflies in this alfafa field, in Morgan, Utah.

Backyard fun!

Making mud pies. Isn't being a kid the best!

Fourth of July Parade. We did the parade in the morning; BBQ at Grandma Bushmans, BBQ at Aunt Jo's, then fireworks in Lehi. This was a fun day!


Cute chiquitas.

Watching fireworks in Lehi with the Innes's. We decided to skip the Provo traffic this year.


Seven peaks waterpark with the Christensen's.


Aubree, Hailey, Taylor, Ashley, Kaden, Grandma, Ella, Neil, Andrew, Heather, and baby Aaron. All of us are Christensen's.

That's Kaden, Jordan, and Sabrina. I posted this because Kaden was very brave at Seven Peaks. If he would've been there without cousins, he probably would not have done half the slides.

Eleven more days and we will be in California-- I better get some work done!