our weekend.

Ryan, Melissa, Tyson, Jaris, and Jimmy

We had a fun weekend in Marysvale. It started out with the wedding of Jaris in the Manti Temple. It was so fun to see her! She is really a neat person and it's so wonderful to see her so happy.
Grandma and Grandpa Blackwell's is the best place to see wildlife. Spencer went right out with the binoculars looking at the deer. They also have a hawks nest in their tree with some little baby hawks too.

Outside playing at the wedding reception.

At the reception there was chocolate cake and chocolate covered strawberries. I was really hoping the white shirts would make it through the wedding reception and be presentable the next day for church. My mom and dad had another reception to go to after this one and offered to take my boys and they were so excited to be with them and ride in the Mini Cooper. Needless to say after 2 wedding receptions and Taco Time for dinner Spencer's white shirt was in need of a good washing Saturday night. Parker's had a couple of spots, but nothing serious:-)

Spencer's graduation.

My cute, sweet little Spencer graduated preschool today. When the graduates walked in there was a whole lot of flash photography! My kid was the cutest, of course:-)

Receiving his diploma. Miss Angie on the left is the owner of the school. In the middle is Miss Christine (teacher assistant), and his main teacher on the right Miss Angela.

She read stuff about Spencer when he was standing there. She said Spencer wants to be an Indian when he grows up because they hunt dinosaurs. And what makes Spencer special is that he can run faster than a cheetah and a raptor!

We love you Spencer! What a fun and amazing little boy you are!

Father's and Son's Camp out

The annual Stake father's and son's camp out was last weekend. It was a success! They had chili dogs for dinner. Yummy!

The bishopric chowing down! These guys are so much fun and have a sense of humor and you can clearly tell.

Gage was Parker's shadow. He kept going up to him and saying "hi". He is a little cutie.

Where sticks, dirt and water are concerned little boys will always have something to keep them occupied.

Carter, Spencer, and Mason.....little buds! I love the dirty faces too.

They had a meeting at camp and all the little boys sang. Parker said, "Mom, it was like church, but we didn't have to wear church clothes!"

They made it home on Saturday by 10 a.m. with dirty clothes and fingernails. Smelling of a campfire with smiles on their faces.

Thanks, Cory, for taking the boys on an adventure!

spenc.

Spencer

This little boy of mine is an absolute joy! I got to go on a walking field trip with his preschool class on Wednesday. They walked across the street to an ice cream shop and got to see how they make ice cream and waffle cones. And they got to eat ice cream too. All the boys choose the blue cotton candy flavored ice cream. I wish I had my camera because it was hilarious sitting there with 6 boys, who were chomping away, showing each other their blue tongues. Spencer was so excited to have me there, it was a lot of fun. I don't know how those teachers do it. I was only with them for an hour and I was ready for a nap:-)

I've found it a little easier to blog now that Cory got me a laptop as a mother's day/anniversary/birthday gift and he's always gone and I tend to get bored...lol! So I'll just keep on blogging about food, kids, and ordinary life.

girls night out.

While the boys were off on the stake father and son's camp out eating chili dogs for dinner and doing "guy" stuff me and Mataya were doing girl stuff.

We hung out with some fun girls and went to the park, McDonald's and then painted fingernails. I have never painted Mataya's fingernails so it was good to be around other little girls so she could see what being a girl is all about. We are at the point where she loves Go Diego Go, wearing boots all the time and playing with Spencer's lions, tigers, and dinosaurs! A girls night out was in order!Mataya picking out her colors. She chose purple, sparkly nail polish. Good choice.And the little girls watched Tangled and Strawberry shortcake while the moms chatted. And I'll be honest adult conversations are few and far between for me these days. So it was SO nice!

Cory is a very busy guy these days so me and the kids don't see him too much. So I was so glad they got to go camping and spend time together. He took some great pictures so I'll be posting those soon.

Welcome to the Club!

My sweet little Mataya taking a nap wearing her favorite pink, polka dotted pants. She has such a spunky personality and has a strong opinion when it comes to her wardrobe. I wrestle her into a dress every Sunday while she is kicking and screaming and thrashing around. I have to often remind myself that I'm the mom and I'm in charge and she will wear what I tell her to wear....lol! She is not even two years old yet. I'm really in for it:) I told one of my friends that I'm embarrassed to take her places because of what she is wearing and she said, "Welcome to the club!"

yummy!

Chicken taquitos

Now that my life is settling down a bit I've been able to do some things that I love. One of those things is cooking. My fabulous mother-in-law got me the Our Best Bites cookbook as an early birthday gift. All last week I only made things from it for dinner. The recipes are awesome and easy to make. And Cory loved everything so I scored some points there:) One night I made an orange fruit dip that involved cream cheese, orange juice, and marshmallow cream. My Grammy would love it! Parker asked me if we were going to someone's house for dinner and I told him no we were just staying home. He said, "are you sure we aren't going to Melissa's because fruit dip is very 'Melissa style'?" Melissa does love her fruit dip, but apparently my poor kids think fruit dip these days is "fancy"!