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We took the kids down to BYU to feed the ducks.  Those ducks must be so overfed.  Brendan kept running around saying, “quack, quack!” and throwing bread at the birds.  We saw several groups of baby birds and I brought treats for everyone to eat after the ducks had their treat.  It was a fun afternoon.

The year brought another 4th of July (as it always does) and the family gathered in Grandpa’s backyard to slide on the waterslide, hang out in the hammock, throw rocks in the stream, eat good food and visit with friends.

Jonathan invited a few friends and cousins (who are also his friends) to come to Nickel City with him and celebrate his 10th birthday.  They played video games (Jonathan’s FAVORITE past time), ate pizza, played laser tag and opened presents.  They had a great time.

Every year we go and visit my father’s grave.  He passed away when I was fifteen years old due to a heart attack.  Every year it seems strange that another year has passed without my father in my life.

This summer we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine in Heber.  Brendan thought it was amazing.  The kids got free balloons, they ran around in bubbles, watched the expensive train go by, and rode in a free little train car past the expensive train.  All in all it was a fun event.

Brendan had a good second birthday today.  He got a donut with candles for breakfast.  Then we went to PetSmart where he marveled at the fish, birds, lizards, hamsters, dogs and cats.  Then we went to a playground and played on the toys.  After that, we had lunch at Wendy’s.  When I got home from work, we had dinner and then he got a chocolate cupcake with candles for dessert.  Then we revealed the present…a Woody with a pullstring.  A huge grin spread across his face.  What a success!

Marissa had her 7th birthday party today.  She wanted to go to Classic Skating.  They now let you use scooters as well as skates.  She invited some friends from the ward, from school and some of her cousins…and of course her brother.  They played red light, green light.  They played “wipeout.”  Classic even announced her name over the speaker and had her stand in a spotlight to announce her birthday.  Everyone there sang happy birthday to her.  Her grin was enormous.  Her grin makes me smile even more lately since she’s lost her front two teeth.  The kids had pizza, ice-cream and pop.  They skated, played video games, bought toys with their tickets and opened presents.  I think it was a success.

I got all of the kids a shirt for Easter.  Brendan got a Buzz Lightyear shirt, Jonathan received a Transformers shirt and Marissa got a pretty pink sparkly shirt.  It was very girly.  The kids hunted for eggs with their wheelbarrows.  I had a wheelbarrow when I was little instead of an Easter basket, and we have carried on that tradition at our house.  Brendan had orange and yellow eggs, Marissa could hunt for pink and purple and Jonathan sought out blue and green ones.  Brendan was not very interested until I opened one of the eggs and showed him what was inside.  Then he was all for it.  They had a good time.

Brendan has recently turned a little of his love for the movie Cars to the movie Toy Story.  He calls Buzz “Buh” and Woody, “Hat.”  He didn’t pay attention to our toy Woody until he realized that he had a hat that could come on and off.  On Wednesday, for his birthday, Adam and I are giving him a Woody with a PULLSTRING!  I know…exciting.  Anyway, for Easter, he received a Buzz Lightyear shirt.  He thought is was amazing.  Lindsey bought him some Buzz pajamas and a Cars flashlight.  She also made him mud pies with rocks for his birthday desert.

Saturday night, we had Easter at Nana’s house.  There were so many eggs in their front room.  The kids had a great time finding them and mostly eating them.  Jonathan, Marissa, Brendan, Savanna and Miles all hunted for eggs.

Getting a family picture is a little tougher now than it used to be.  Brendan wants to cry every time you make him sit still for a photo.  Jonathan can’t help but look like a walking zombie…and Marissa sometimes doesn’t look at the camera.  Adam and I try to smile through it all and take it in stride.  Amazingly enough…this was only the fourth picture we took this morning to get one that worked.  As soon as this one was snapped, the second battery for the camera died.  Of course, we did have to turn on the movie Cars on the laptop and set it behind the camera to get Brendan to look in the right direction…but, whatcha gonna do?

For Christmas, Nana gave Jonathan a kit to make a bionicle riding a huge ship.  It took Jonathan three days to put it together, but he had a great time doing it.  He wanted me to post pictures of it so that Nana could see the finished product.

Jonathan had the assignment of making a castle out of anything he wanted.  We started making it out of legos, and it became apparent very quickly that we would have to buy a lot more legos.  So, I suggested asking Uncle James to help.  Jonathan became very excited at the thought of being able to weld again with “Uncle Bob.”  So, we sent him off to spend some time with James.  Jonathan was able to design the castle, cut the metal, use an electric drill….and watch his uncle light the whole thing on fire for fun.  You never know what fun you’ll have when you get together with James in the garage.  Anyway, Jonathan was assigned to dress up as a peasant.  He decorated his castle with medieval people and took it to school.  Everyone was very impressed.

All of us dressed up this year and went to the mall to trick or treat.  Before we left, we took some family pictures on the porch.  Brendan cried through all of them.  But, when he saw a cat run by our house, all the tears dried up.  We went store to store to trick or treat, and then we went to the ward trunk or treat.  The day before, Jonathan and Marissa had school Halloween parties.  This year Marissa decided to be Jessie from Toy Story 2…mostly because she says she wishes Jessie was her real name and not Marissa.  Jonathan wanted to be Batman from the Dark Knight movie.  This is kind of humorous since he’s not been allowed to see that film.  Mom deemed it too scary.  Adam and Brendan and I were the three musketeers.  When Jonathan was Brendan’s age, I made these costumes because there were only three of us.  It was fun to go see Grandma and Grandpa Stone and then visit Uncle Jon to see all of his scary decorations.  Needless to say, at the end of the evening, the kids were Halloween-ed out.

Jonathan and Marissa were both excited to carve pumpkins this year.  Last year, we somehow never found the time.  Marissa wanted a cat on her pumpkin and Jonathan wanted the bat symbol.  The both scraped out the inside of their own pumpkins.  Marissa played in the goo while Jonathan covered his hands with plastic bags so that he couldn’t feel the “nasty feeling of it.”  Brendan slept through the entire process.  The end result was pretty impressive.

On Saturday, we drove the Nebo Loop with the kids.   We stopped and saw “Devil’s Kitchen” and then had dinner on a log near Payson Lake.  The kids loved hiking the trails and were especially excited to see the snow.  Brendan wanted to stomp on the snow repeatedly because it made a funny noise.  He thought it was quite humorous that the snow was so cold.  We had a great time hearing about all the different kinds of rocks from Jonathan.  He is so into science!

Adam challenged both the kids to read 1000 minutes in the month of September.  If they did, he would take them to the new Pirate Island.  This is located close to my work, and the kids talk about it constantly.  So, they both made their goals, both reading two or three chapter books in one month.  The place was fun.  The ambience was very cool.  We had pizza, which was really good, even though we had to wait ten minutes for them to bring our plates.  The kids played arcades and on the playground.  Even Brendan enjoyed being a pirate.

A few days ago, as I was driving my kids home from school, Jonathan turned to me and said, “Mom, I think I’m gonna marry Natalie.”  Natalie is a girl he has gone to school with for the last three years.  They are best friends.

I tried to stay calm and asked, “What makes you think that?”

He turned to me and said, very seriously, “I just think she’s the one for me.  She is really nice and she likes to be creative like me.”

“That’s true,” I said, trying to suppress my giggles.  “She is always very interested in the things you enjoy doing.”

Then from the backseat, Marissa said, “I’m going to marry Taylor.”  I could feel my eyebrows raise as she continued.  “There’s a Taylor A and a Taylor W in my class.  They both play with me at recess.”

“Which one do you like?” I asked.

“Oh, I could marry either one I think,” she replied matter-of-factly.

Ah, I love my kids.  I hope they don’t get married TOO soon, though.

We are very proud to announce that Jonathan earned his Bear in Scouts in only 3 and a half months.  He was very happy to earn this before school started.  Now he can just earn arrow points during the school year.  They had a picnic dinner outside and then gave out awards and played games.  Thank you to Grandma and Nana for coming and celebrating with us.  Jonathan especially liked going out to Sub Zero afterward.

Sunday is the best day for family pictures.  On August 16th, as I got each of my kids ready, I sent them out in the front yard with their dad to have their picture taken.  Brendan is a smiler.  He will laugh at almost anything you do that is unexpected.  Marissa is gorgeous.  I often find myself staring at her and wondering how I helped to create such a beauty.  Jonathan is the man.  He is constantly trying to spend time with me or make me proud of him.  He has already completed his Bear in Scouts, and has only been in the nine year old class since May.  He is a hard worker.  Marissa has literally blossomed over the summer when it comes to reading.  She read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Ramona the Brave, a couple Junie B. Jones books, No Flying in the House, and Coraline just over the summer.  We are very proud. Adam gave both Jonathan and Marissa a father’s blessing before school started.  As always, Adam is so in tune with the spirit and was the mouthpiece of two beautiful blessings.  I love to hear him do this because his love for his children is truly exposed when he gives a blessing.  I married an amazing man and I love him to death.  Here are the new pictures of our family.

My cute Brendan.

My three sweet children.

My sweeties and me.

The whole family.