random pictures

 
Shane came and stayed with us for a week this summer to go to EFY with Tyler. He is so much fun to have around. Such a great kid! I thought this would be a fun picture to take with Ryan because he is so much bigger/taller and there is only 2 year difference.

 
For 4th grade this year the kids learn the counties within Utah. At the end of learning them they are assigned a county to do a report on and create a "float" for for a parade at school. They had fun making them but mom didn't. Mom is very glad that 4th grade is over and done with. No more floats:-). I am sure once they all hit high school I will be missing the "float" days.

 
The week that Shane was visiting us he slept in our guest bedroom in the basement. One morning he wake up and said how tired he was because something kept banging on the window all night. We went outside and looked down in the window well and there was a bird stuck in there. It couldn't get out. I sent a very nervous Ryan into the window well to get the bird out. I should have gotten the video camera out as it was quite the spectacle:-). I don't know which was more freaked out; the bird or Ryan. It was a success though and the bird flew away happily. (and yes, I did go and clean the window well after I saw how bad it was)

 

One of my friends from Omaha, Ne was in town for a wedding and came for a visit/night. It was so good to see Sherri and her kids again. She so fun to listen to because she's one of those people that smile the whole time. Her little boy, Austin, took a liking to Dave. It was SO cute to see him explain how to play the gameboy to Dave. He is a very cute boy with a very cute personality.

Birthdays galore

 
Tyler is the only one with a b-day in May but since we couldn't fit in the triplets
b-day in April we had lots of parties in May. This year Tyler turned 15. This number for some reason made me realize that he is not going to be with us much longer. 4 years will go by really quick and it scares me just a little. Funny story though; I can't remember what specifically he asked me if he could do the very next day after his 15th b-day (that's what you get when you are 5 months behind in your journal/blog) but the answer was something along the lines of (raised eyebrows and laughing) "I don't think so" with his response being, "but I'm almost 16." LOL! Really? It reminds me of something John Bytheway (whom we L-O-V-E, love) said in one of his books. He says, "Most teenagers never turn 15 years old. They just skip that year. They're either 14 or "almost 16". I read this just recently and laughed as I remembered what Tyler had said right after he turned 15. John goes on to crack my up by saying, " Sixteen is an age to look forward to because of the two D's: dating and driving. You might be interested to know that your parents think of two corresponding D's when you turn 16: depression and dents. Depression because you're growing up too fast and "dents" because of what happened to the can as a result of the lesson you missed in driver's ed." The first is very true....the latter I hope we will avoind:-)
The shirt he is holding up was a gift from one of his church Young Men's leaders that he loves, Brent Jenson. Brent is math geek and we LOVE him to death. Very good friend and nice guy. He also gave him "star trek" uno cards:-).
Happy 15th birthday, Tyler David Boden! You are growing up to be an awesome son and wonderful young man!

 
I decided this year that 10 years old was old enough to have seprate boy/girl parties. Chases was a movie themed b-day. They kids played a couple of games and then watched "Scooby-doo" and had cake and opened presents.

 
It was fun to decorate the room for his b-day and I made some dang cute invitation that I just now realized I forgot to include a picture of. If I remember I'll put it in the next blog entry. He had alot of fun with all his friends. Happy 10th b-day to my buuuudddY, my handsome boY, my little joY!

 
The girls, on the other hand, had a pajama themed b-day party and decided to have a craft instead of games so they all made their own tye-dye (sp?) shirts with permanent markers and played on the trampoline. The craft took up most of the time and then they had cake, ice cream and presents. Again, their invitations turned out cute and I forgot to include a picture. I hope I took some pics. UGH! I'll have to look. Theirs were sleeping bags that we made though and they turned out really cute.

 

No matter where we have lived the girls make friends very easily. They are so much fun to be around and full of energy. They are my BEST FRIENDS! I love you Meagan and Jenna. Happy 10th b-day! (P.S. last pic was them pooped after their party. don't you love how they are laying all over the bed and eachother?)

Trying new things...

 
Sticking to the theme of this blog entry...,Ryan ran for student body this year. He is such a happy, fun kid! He can't tell a story without smiling or nearly laughing the entire time. Anyway, he didn't make it but he is not giving up. He came into the school year half way through the year last year so by the end of the year this year more people will know him. I, on the other hand, decided to see what extentions would look like on me. I've had a lot of fun with them.

 
We heard that the Author of the "Fabelhaven" series was in South Jordan signing bools so we took ALL (heehee) our Brandon Mull books and had him sign them. The kids were SO excited to meet the guy who has written some of their favorite series. And, yes, that is Ryan giving him bunny ears (hello!).

 
The girls LOVE gymnastics and are doing really well at Jolley's. They go twice a week and most of the time they come home and say they want to go more than twice a week.

 
This time, at their performance, Meagan had gotten her aerial. I didn't get her on camera in the actual aerial (dang it...the battery in my camera was dying) but I got her on video camera (or rather Tyler did) thank goodness. They both did really well. It is fun to see them succeed!


 
This year Ryan got to go to his first official concert and what better group to start out with than U2! He and Dave went to the U2 concert and had a blast! He couldn't stop taling about it for days!
Chase also had a pinewood derby for scouts and got second place this year! We were so proud of him as he designed and painted and made the entire thing (well, we did the cutting...too protective still). Good job Chase!


 

Okay, so we decided to go to Antelope Island to do a bike trail one Saturday. As we paid at the entry they had a sign up warning us about the gnats. I asked the lady if the bug spray I brought would help. She said sometimes. We decided to go for it. As we were driving out all these bugs were getting smashed all over our windshield. We should have taken that as a hint and left. We went on, got out, rode our bikes for about 1/4 of a mile before I was dying! People coming back were telling us that it got som thick "up ahead" that you could hardly breathe. We decided we wanted it to be a fun, good family experience and that if we went on there was NO WAY that was going to happen. We decided to pack it up and haul it out. Dave thought I was being a wimp but the 18 gnat bites all over my face and neck were proof that I wasn't lying. Yes, 18 in about 15 minutes. When you go out to Antelope island and it warns you about the gnats, DON"T IGNORE IT! Lesson learned:-).