You are so fat!!

Sadly, these were the first words I muttered to Mariah six years ago today. Can you really blame me though. She had the chubbiest little cheeks I have ever seen. I am definately not complaining. They made for some great mommy-baby kissing time. Mariah was a very easy delivery. She was also an exceptionally mild mannered baby. We used to call her the "trick baby" because she made me want to have another. She is still one of the great joys in my life. I can't imagine my life without my kitty-loving, nonsense-talking (it's called Mariah language), adorable, sweet little Mariah. I am also glad she still has cute cheeks for me to love. Happy Birthday Mariah!

just call me bruiser

Now that Gabe is crawling he is finding it easier to get near objects to pull himself up to. He is a lot better at it than he used to be but there bit more learning to be done. He is trying to cruise around on the furniture and he is sometimes quite unsteady. It seems like in the last couple of weeks he has always had a bruise on his head. When one heals he manages to get himself another. Yesterday he acquired quite a nice one on his forehead. It didn't get swollen or anything but it sure did make a nice mark. I am sure it is only going to get worse when he decides he wants to walk.

three down two to go

My kids started school this week. Three of them! I have three kids in school all day long. That just leaves me Bella and Gabe. It's funny, I used to think two kids was a lot of work. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. I think I will go and try and exercise while Gabe is sleeping. Wow, it's like I only have one kid. Sweet.

waving goodybye as he crawls on by

Gabe has fianlly gotten the crawling thing down. It's kind fo scarry. He is very good at exploring now. I am going to finally have to put up that gate. He has also learned how to wave. He went crazy watching the parade yesterday. He was waving like a mad man. He also finally got his top two teeth through. Yeah for him, bad for me.

parading around

We aren't quite adventerous enough to go the the days of 47' parade but we can manage the one in Bountiful. It was last Friday night.
My Parent's stake did a float this year. My dad is on the High Council and was over the float making. I think they did a great job. Since they live in North Salt Lake they got to be in the Bountiful parade as well as the Salt Lake one. We went with my in-laws. They have friends that have a house right across from the park. It was great to have someone saving us a spot. It even had shade. The kids had a great time. Gabe wanted to eat his flag. He was really upset when we took it away from him. He kept poking his face with the stick. My other four spent there time running to collect the candy that was thrown out from various floats. Bella had a very hard time with this. She just isn't as fast as those stinking big kids. We finally got candy ourselves and threw it in front of her whenever candy was dispersed. It was a very traumatic night for her. It was especially hard when a truck came by throwing stuffed animals. She was headed right for one when a very large boy ran her over and took the toy. Luckily another boy (younger than the first) saw her anguish and gave her his toy. All in all it was a great night out. Oh man, I just realized I don't have any pictues of Mariah. I guess with five kids someone is going to be left out. I think she must have been sitting on the grass next to Grandma.

Cub Country

One of the fun things about having boys is scouts. And, in case you hadn't heard, Holly is now the assistant cub master. Well, even though she's the one with the scout job, I was the one who got to go with Jaden to his Cub Country day camp. Lots of fun, and LOTS of dirt. Of course, the folks who work up there don't seem to mind it. In fact, they seemed to take any opportunity they could to lie down in it. Even still, the boys took a while warming up to the whole crawling around it the dirt thing. Anyway, their particular camp was "Spy Camp". They did lots of typical scout activities (B.B. guns, obstacle courses, code deciphering, maps & compasses, etc.) set in a spy-ish theme. Well, we had a great time - Jaden's back up there today on the Jurassic dinosaur camp, but I had to stay home and mow the lawn. I'm sure he's having a great time. Anyway, here are some of my favorite pics from our excursion.

Scott

another perspective

I told recently about out trip to Mesa Verde. I also shared my anxiety over hiking the ruins. These pictures were taken by someone else who was on the hike. They kindly e-mailed them to us. I wanted to share them to show what was freaking me out. Watching my baby hang out like that with nothing below him but cliff gives me the willies.

just like old times

Wednesday I invited my friends to go swimming with their kids at my parents pool. Shalynn, Mindy and Haylie all came with their kids. We used to do this a lot during the summers. With school and everyone's busy schedules we haven't done it for a while. Between the four of us now we have 14 children. I think the last time we all went together we had 10. It was so fun to watch the kids all play together.

Hellooo Mommy!

I had to put this one up too. Bella loves it when I am filming and I am usally holding her back. I didn't see her coming this time.

Cutting Teeth

Gabe is getting his top teeth in. It seems like it is taking forever. It has caused a few sleepless nights. Yesterday I noticed one of the top ones broke through! He's still working quite hard on the other one. We gave him an ear of corn yesterday and he went to town. He started with one that had the corn cut off. He was okay with this but I thought he would like one with some more corn to sink his teeth into. I was right. He was very intense about eating his corn. When he would drop it he would squeal until I gave it back to him.

Colorado Part 2

I never finished reporting on our trip to Colorado. Not only did we go to Mesa Verde but we also spent time in Durango and Ouray. I will not bore you with every little detail but I will say that it was the best trip I have had in a while. Our room in Durango was awesome. We could walk out our sliding glass door to the Animas river. It was cool because when we went on our river trip we passed right by our hotel and we got to wave at Grandma, Bella and Gabe.

We had a blast going down the river together. Hayley even got to help our guide steer the boat. We ate dinner that night at the Bar D Ranch. It was a genuine cowboy dinner with a show to boot. It was very fun and would have been a lot better if the kids weren't so darned tired from the river trip.

We then took a train ride to Silverton. It was very fun and very sooty. We were in an open car. It was a real life coal train which incidentally makes a lot of soot. It was a 3 1/2 hour train ride. Thanks to my in-laws for driving our cars there so we didn't have to do a round trip. I am especially grateful to Judy for doing this even though she was extremley sick. I can't imagine a seven hour train ride with seven kids. We then went on to Ouray which was my favorite place we went.















It is surrounded by the San Juan mountains which I think are the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen. We took an awesome Jeep ride up to Yankee Boy Basin. It was a very cool jeep that seated all eleven of us (Grandma had to miss out because she was still sick). Even Gabe got to go. They also have some natural hot springs there that we spend most of the afternoon in. I think this was the kids favorite part. It was beautiful surrounding with mountains on every side.
I love this picture of Jaden and Dallas. I wish I had a picture that showed the whole hot springs. If you want to see more of my trip come on over and you can sit through our home movie. We took a lot of video. I mean a lot. I would like to thank Paul and Judy for a great time.

My New Look

Do you like my new threads. I thought it was high time I change my template. Haylie showed me this really cool Blog that has free templates. It is super easy to use. Check it out.

Rule # 1

Our first stop on our trip was to Mesa Verde. It is filled with 600 different ancient cliff dwellings. It is really spectacular that people lived like that.
Hiking there with seven kids (my sister in law has two) was a bit unnerving. In order to prepare the kids we had a serious talk with them on the way to the first hike. Mariah came up with our first and most important rule when she said, "Is the number one rule no jumping off cliffs?." The first hike was to cliff palace. It was a little stressful trying to keep the kids away from the edges. However, when comparing it to our next hike at Balcony house it was nothing.

We had to climb to very long ladders with nothing but a cliff beneath us. What really freaked me out was watching Scott come up with Gabe on his back. I was very grateful he was so careful. I would love to go to Mesa Verde again but I think I will wait a few more years.

Ouray?

We just got back from a very very fun trip to Colorado. I have a lot I want to blog about but am up to my eye balls in laundry. I did however want to share a conversation between Bella and Scott when we were in Ouray (pronounced You-Ray)

Bella: "Where are we?"
Daddy: "We're in Ouray."
Bella: "Ouray?"
Daddy: "Yep, we're in Ouray."
Bella: (thinking)
Bella: "Not Ouray.  Yippee!"

creepy crawler

Gabe is really trying to crawl. We caught one of his attempts on video. When he finally figures it out we're going to be in trouble. This kids got places to go.

I scrapbooked

I haven't scrapbooked for months. This weekend I was finally able to squeak out two pages. I know I shouldn't go chronologically but I couldn't help it. I really wanted to do these pages. So what if it was five years ago.