A child's prayer

Last night Luke was saying his personal prayer before bedtime and I was eavesdropping. Here's how it went:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for all the beautiful things in the world. I'm sorry you are dead. I love you. Amen."

Ohhhh. It just melted my heart while also making me bite my tongue so I wouldn't laugh out loud. Sometimes kids say the sweetest things that really make you remember how sweet and innocent they really are. He seems so old these days, he's a big four and a half year old and is getting so rough and tough and suddenly has this obsession for wrestling. But it's these little moments that he is still learning and growing, still my little boy, and still so sweet.

After he was done saying his prayers I went to him and gently told him that Heavenly Father and Jesus aren't dead, they are just up in heaven waiting for us to come back to them someday.

Then this morning I overheard Luke and Halle talking and Luke said, "Halle, did you know that Heavenly Father and Jesus aren't dead? They are just up in heaven waiting for us to return."

So cute. 

I love the little things about being a mom.

As I was writing out that little story I picture kept coming to my mind of when Luke was little and saying his prayers. I couldn't remember how old he was exactly but I started digging around in my computer picture files and finally found it.

 Is that not the cutest thing? It was taken right before Halle was born, so he was about 18 months old. So crazy how fast they grow.  Again I am reminded to cherish the little things. :)

The sunflower

When we got home from St. George the other day Luke and Halle went in the backyard and Luke came back inside all excited and said, "Mom, I have something really impressive to show you!"

I asked what it was and he led me outside to show me that the sunflower seed he planted and gave to me for Mother's Day finally bloomed! I was probably just as excited to see it had bloomed as he was! He has been taking such good care of it all summer long. Just about every morning he wakes up and one of the first things he has to do is go outside and check on the sunflower and water it. About a week or so into it Halle was feeling a little left out that she didn't have a sunflower seed to take care of too so we went to the store and bought some sunflower seeds and planted one in a little container for her and kept hers and Luke's outside alongside each other. So each day the kids would go water and check on their sunflowers. We had to save those little flower carton blooms once or twice because of storms and made sure we were taking good care of them. Halle's hasn't bloomed yet but it looks like it will now any day.

We ended up planting both Luke and Halle's sunflowers the other night right front and center in our flower garden that is directly out from our back porch so we will be able to see them all the time. We are excited for Halle's to bloom.

Lake Owyhee 2012

The traditional Lake Owyhee lived on this year! The kids loved it more than ever. They loved it last year too, but this year they were a little older and able to do more, and we were able to relax a little more since they are both a little older. For the kids, the treasure hunt that the super fun Aunt Jamie put together was the highlight. That happened day two, and the rest of the vacation the kids towed around their treasures and kept them in the safe treasure chest.

Luke was very brave and LOVED swimming in the lake anytime the boat would stop and he would get a chance to jump in.

Halle, on the other hand, really wanted to swim in the lake, but every time she would work up to it and get closer and closer to the water from the swim deck but just couldn't make the jump (or even just slide) into the lake from the swim deck. It was a little spooky for her. Finally, the last day, she got in with me, her clinging onto me with a death grip. But still, she did it!

Luke also loved tubing, and for the first time got pretty wild and crazy being pulled on it. One of the times I went with him and I was surprised at how fast he wanted to go and kept asking for more! It was really funny to be on there with him and listen to what he was saying. He would actually act like he was on an episode of his favorite TV show, a Disney Jr. channel shows called The Octonauts. He would yell out "Octo-alert! Octo-alter!" (which means trouble) or "Open the Octo-hatch!" (the name of their submarine). It was pretty hilarious and very cute.

The kids had lots of fun doing art projects Jamie and Grandma Lori had planned for them, including coloring, rock painting, finger painting, and all sorts of stuff.

And a lot of fun to have Uncle Jake back this year. He was doing crazy flips and jumps as usual, and Grandpa Sheldon was also doing crazy jumps for a man of 54. I told Mom we should send some video of him wakeboarding into some wakeboard companies and maybe he'd get sponsored or something.

I enjoyed reading a book for the first time in a long time. Actually, I almost got through two! It was a great, relaxing time.

On the way home we stopped at a diner in Boise that Cory and I saw probably six months ago on a popular show called Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that is on the Food Network channel. We saw the diner was in Boise and it looked sooo good, so we said that we would stop there when we were driving through Boise on our way to or from Lake Owyhee. So we stuck to it, and we were glad we did! It was very, very yummy and a fun stop! The kids loved the food, especially the ice cream. I think we'll add that stop onto our Lake Owyhee tradition.

Bagoon!

Lagoon, or as the kids say, Bagoon, was a lot of fun this year! The kids were brave and went on all sorts of rides. Luke even went on some roller coasters (he was barely tall enough!) We went on my work Lagoon Day (Azteca's) so there was a lot of family there, including Grandma Lori, Grandpa Sheldon and Aunt Jamie. The kids had a blast! Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Park City!

Every year over the 4th of July we go up to Park City with the Fergusons and spend the weekend up there. The men go golfing during the day and the kids and moms stay at the hotel and swim, swim, swim all day long! At night we always go out to eat at yummy resturants and we usually try to hit the Park City outlets while we're up there. The kids love it and it's a fun tradition we look forward to each year.

This year we stayed at the Waldorf up at the Canyons. It's our second year staying there at the Waldorf and we like it a lot it's super nice!  Maybe even a little too nice....by the end of the trip Luke kept asking where our "turn down service" was at night and where "room service" was to clean up our messes! We decided it's a good thing we're going camping for our next trip because our kids can't get too used to this kind of luxury, especially at three and four years old!

The kids loved swimming. Luke is a really good swimmer and goes all over the place with his floaties on, and this trip Halle did the same! It's the first time she's felt comfortable going out on her own with her floaties in the water and she had lots of fun.

The kids loved spending time with their second cousins, Mason and Myah (or maybe third?) - they are actually Cory's cousin Leslee's kids, so however that works out.

Fun times! 

Nothing like ice cream on a hot summer day...

The day we were going up to Park City Grandma Dixie wanted to go shopping over at The District, the outdoor mall by our house. So we went and took the kids. They, of course, lasted about five minutes before they wanted to run around. So I took them on a little walk while Grandma tried on clothes and we came to an ice cream shop I've been wanting to try but never have. I let the kids both order whatever they wanted - Luke got his very favorite - chocolate, and Halle wanted "pink" so she got cotton candy, which she loved. It was such a hot day and so nice to cool down to some delicious ice cream! And messy hands and faces aren't that bad when they look this cute!

Coloring, coloring, coloring!

These kids love to color, color, color all the time! I print off pictures for them to color from the internet of their favorite TV shows, and have noticed we have been going thru ink much more quickly lately!

This summer the Disney Jr. channel is having a thing where you print off a picture of your favorite character from their shows and email it into them and they will show it on TV. Luke thought this was such a cool idea! So we printed these pictures off and had thee kids color them. Problem is there are probably so many kids doing it that our chances of actually getting on TV are probably slim, but at least we tried!

They both love all the shows, but this day Luke decided to color Doc from Doc McStuffins and Halle did Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.