Cousin fun!

Shelly and the kiddos visited Utah this summer! We don't get to see these cousins very often! And they grow a foot every time we see them. From left to right, Ambria, Ellie, Braydon, Connor and Makayla. We went to Chuck E Cheese and I took a million pics and for some reason can't find them anywhere!!! Then had a BBQ a couple days later and got these pics in Granny Lanny's backyard. While the kids played the adults played Ninjuno!!! fun times..miss you guys already...Come Back Soon!!!!

Fun at the Zoo!!

Yay for Hogle Zoo!!! Grandma Jaelann, Mia and her kids and us and our kids went. We had so much fun...hot...but fun. And I know I took a lot more pics than these, but who knows why they didn't transfer to my comp and where they are at on my phone now??? But I did get pics of lots of other things...just know that we had fun but don't have the proof! :)

It's so much having kids the same age. These guys are best friends!!!!



Makayla on her favorite animal...to bad it isn't a real horse!



We went through the room that had the dinosaur bones and fossils and stuff..Connor liked the big huge bone..



Big huge dinosaur bone...Kayla thought it was gross!



This was so funny, Makayla was walking with Connor back and forth from window to window, there was a Gorilla that was so cute...he wanted to be outside with the rest of the Gorilla's and kept looking out the back window and then going from room to room and Connor followed him from window to window..



so hot.....but so cool....the zoo had dinosaurs displayed all over the park and a few of them squirted water out....mama wouldn't let me get wet!!! bad mama..


First Carousel Ride!!! He absolutely loved it. Connor kept petting the bear he was on. so cute!!






Traditional family pic in front of the fountain at Hogle Zoo.



Elephants! The baby elephant was so cute!!

For Karen

Hey Karen, I'm going to try to post the videos this way. See if you're able to save them. If not then I'll have to burn them to a cd..my comp doesn't burn to well so I'll see if marshall's laptop can. But we will try this first.

Happy 8th Birthday Makayla and 9 months Connor

Happy Birthday to my little big girl! I can't believe you are 8 years old now! Are you kidding me? You will be baptized in April and I just can't see how 8 years has passed by so fast! You are so excited to be baptized. Once you saw your cousin Megan baptized, that is all you can talk about. We have had the Primary teacher stop by for achievement days, the counselor stop by with a baptism book and the missionaries over to talk about baptism. Now we need your Bishop interview and then your baptism. Phew...being 8 is big business! And Connor turned 9 months old on your Bday. That little boy is just getting around everywhere! You love him so much and I know you are setting such a great example for him. You are so loving and kind to him. I love you Miss Makayla. You make me proud every day!

For Kayla's Bday we went swimming at the Rec center by our house. It was so much fun, The kids loved the play area, the slide, the lazy river.... well up till someone threw up in the pool and then that ended the swimming fun. They evacuated everyone from the pool and took them 40 minutes to get it ready..so we decided to get dressed. We had a Party room where we opened presents, ate pizza played a few games and had cupcakes..my camera pooped out on me so Carrie and Jaelann probably have more pics than I got.



Makayla wanted to make the cupcakes..I get nervous with the kids in the Kitchen, but how will they ever learn if I don't let them do it themselves...so this was definitely something that I had to let go of my control a bit and let her do it. She did a fantastic job!



Filling the liner's with dough. She was so precise..It was cute to watch her.



mom, "are you sure you don't want me to do that, it's hot"..kayla "no mom i'm just fine!"



Makayla coming down the slide.



Grandma and Bubba James...



Goofball...Trying to get Ellie to just smile pretty is asking a lot!



Tyla and Mackenzie holding Connor



Aunt Carrie and Connor..He didn't last long in the pool...but looked cute anyway!



Woo hooo Carrie!!



Jordan and Oscar in the lazy river trying to swim against the current! go boys!!!



I convinced Tyla to go on the slide, that Carrie and her mom were at the top that she could ride on their lap to go down. So she gets up there and they wouldn't let her sit on any one's lap!! Nice Aunt Jenny...so Andrea went down first and then caught her when she came down..She had a smile on her face and said it was fun..and I said oh good then you can go again and she said NOOOOOOO. oops! Sorry Tyla!



Ellie coming down the slide! They do this thing over and over and over again!



In the Party room eating Pizza!



The princess of the party! Little social butterfly.



All tuckered out!

Seriously....Does anyone look at this thing??

Well I thought I should update you all...and you all I mean my mother in law...I think you are the only one that looks at this? :)

Connor is now 7 months old! I know I just can't believe it! Where has the time gone? I want my baby to stay this age. He is so much fun. He does his army crawl everywhere, so cute, but look out...yes he is into EVERYTHING! Makayla will be baptized in March. She is so excited. Our niece was baptized on 1/1/11 and since then Kayla has been so excited! She has been reading her scriptures. She is so cute and it makes me so proud when she asks me or her dad questions about the gospel or the scripture she is reading. I feel she fully understands what baptism is all about and why we do it. Gabriella is our firecracker! She is Connor's playmate. They have a special bond and she can get him giggling so hard! She loves school. Ellie follows whatever Kayla does. She wants to do and say everything. I remember my mom telling me when I was younger that my sister wanted to be just like me and I would get mad cause she would copy me. But I can now see it and understand why. We have had quite the rough last few months. My mom was diagnosed with Colon Cancer which spread to her liver. She had surgery and 1/4 of her colon was removed as well as a wedge from her liver. They also removed 21 lymph nodes located by her colon and 11 of them were infected with cancer. She is home and now recovering...They say the cancer is gone but are going to do Chemo as well. Then the same day my mom went in for her surgery we ended up rushing my grandma to the hospital because she wasn't breathing well, running a temp of 103' and very weak. She ended up with pneumonia, bladder infection and heart failure. She is still in the hospital in the rehab center. A week before this Marshall stepped on a needle that broke off in his foot and the ER doc couldn't get it, the Podiatrist couldn't get it out in his office so he had to get it surgically removed! Thousands of dollars later we have a cool souvenir! whew...ya I know...I don't know how our family has survived this! My brother his wife, sister and I have pulled together and have taken care of what needs to be done! My Brother finished my mom's bathroom, which looks amazing...great job Pete!! I know the saying goes that the lord never gives you more than you can handle..I have found that to be so true, I haven't broke down in sobs...however I've been awnry...but I have been able to handle what has been going on pretty well. Marshall has been amazing in helping with the kids. It has been rough with all the running around and mostly, if marshall is working, my kids are tailing behind me when I have to go to the hospital. I don't have a place I can just drop off the kids so I can go check on my Gran. My kids have behaved so well during this to. It really has been a whirlwind and I'm hoping things will settle down soon. Gosh, I started out with wanting to just put a few pics on here and calling that good, but apparently I needed to get all this out! So here is a few pics of the gang....

Comp was acting funny and I lost my patience with loading pics...hang tight I'll try again tomorrow!