Which One's Taller?

We recently went in for the kids' yearly well checks. The measuring and weighing are always a highlight as the kids get to see how much they have grown from last year. Michela got measured first and after Hunter was measured the nurse announced that Hunter was taller. Michela looked depressed so I told her to get measured again and to stand as tall as she could. It was no use though, Hunter still had her by a 1/4". These two have been so close in height for the last few years. Michela was always so glad that she was taller, no matter if by 2" or 1/4". Unfortunately those days are now over. Hopefully Michela will get a growth spurt soon, but I don't know if she'll ever pass Hunter up. Hunter keeps growing like a weed and I don't see that stopping any time soon. I had to take a picture to commerate the occasion. I love Hunter's big grin and how straight he is standing up, trying to look as tall as possible. Michela on the other hand wasn't so happy to take the picture.

Oh well, it was going to happen one of these days, it just happened sooner than later.

Jessica Sprague is the Best!

I just finished up my last photoshop lesson of the two week course I was taking from Jessica Sprague.com. I had so much fun! It gave me a reason to do something creative and learn something new every day. I'm so excited to start playing with my pictures more and experimenting with these new techniques I've learned. I know I've put up a few of the pictures but here they all are in order of how the lessons went.

Lesson 1 - PNG Files

Lesson 2 - Brushes

Lesson 3 - Handtinting (I learned how to handtint in a totally new way!)

Lesson 4 - Clipping Masks

Lesson 5 - Textures

Lesson 6 - TTV

Lesson 8 - Type

Lesson 9 - Edge Burn

Lesson 10 - Various Techniques

Lesson 11 - Recoloring (So much easier than how I first learned to do this.)

Lesson 12 - Storyboards

Lesson 13 - Photo Collages (I learned so many shortcuts in this lesson.)

What a great time I had doing these different lessons! Now I feel like I'm a little more "in the know" when it comes to photoshop. I can't wait to do my next digital family album!

Dinner with Grandma

Monday night we had a little impromptu family reunion with my Mom's side of the family.  Some of my cousins were coming into town for a family reunion of their own so we decided to all get together at a little park by the rest home my Grandma lives at.  It was so much fun seeing cousins all grown up.  I haven't seen a lot of my cousins since we were all a lot younger.  I loved meeting spouses and their adorable children.  It was great catching up and learning about their lives now.  Hopefully we won't have to wait another 10 or 15 years to see each other again.  I apologize to my cousin Daniel, I couldn't come up with his name!  I felt so bad.  In my defense there are 9 kids in their family, there are five boys and he used to be blonde!  He didn't know who I was either, so I guess I shouldn't be too embarrassed.  My one cousin Katrena said, "thank goodness for facebook, I wouldn't have know anyone if I hadn't already seen their pictures on there!"  Very funny and very true.

This is a picture of all the cousins who were there.  There are actually 36 of us but this wasn't a bad turn out.

Tiffany, Brian and I are the only ones from our family who live in Utah.

Pool Party

In celebration of Chase, Trevan and Kaden's birthdays, plus the fact that Megan's family is in town, we had a big pool party bash.  Matt and Sara live next door to some awesome neighbors who have the coolest pool ever.  The kids, big and little, all had tons of fun as we swam all evening.

Hunter was loving Michela's snorkel mask because it protected his nose.  

He was also the cannonball king jumping off the waterfall.

Michela loved jumping off the waterfall as well.

Chase was ready for anything.  He has to have all of his accessories; rash guard, life jacket and goggles.

Aria had the most fun going down the slide with her Daddy.

Here's a picture of Mindy doing flips off of the waterfall.

By the end of the night the grown ups were ready to go, but the kids had a hard time leaving such a wonderful water play land.

We Finally Get to Go Swimming

Michela has been dying to go swimming all summer. We were supposed to go down to St. George right after school got out but Hunter ended up getting the flu so our plans were cancelled. For some reason we have not been able to get to the pool so far. Mindy and Megan invited us to come to the pool at Mindy's condo today. The kids were so excited to finally be able to go swimming.

Michela and Alyssa spent most of their time down in the deeper end of the pool.

A cute shot of Jenna and Weston.

Chase doing his own thing.

A little group shot.

Aria was a little wild woman in the pool. She wanted to do everything and thought she could do it all by herself. She was jumping in off the edge, trying to swim and throwing the balls around. After she got cold we sat out in the sun. When she warmed up she started throwing a ring into the pool and then Hunter would go get it for her.

Hunter is so sweet with his baby sister, it just melts my heart sometimes. They are the cutest little pair.

Dinosaurs!

On Tuesday evening we met up with Peggy, Megan, Mindy and the cousins for a trip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. I couldn't believe how empty it was! This turned out to be the perfect time to go, the kids basically had the whole museum to themselves. This has turned out to be an annual trip whenever Megan and her family come to visit in the summer. With Grandma's grandparent pass it also makes it a fun cheap outing. Aria working on a dinosaur puzzle. Unfortunately I think all the puzzles had pieces missing.Alyssa clowing around with the dinosaur head. "Roar!" The water erosion table is always a big hit. The kids were busy building islands, dams, rivers and the little kids were enjoying throwing the sand and dinosaurs. Logan and Aria had fun planting trees and playing with the dinos.Chase was busy at work on his creation. He was the last one at the table.I love this little dinosaur. I try to get a picture of the kids on it every time we go. Aria cooperated this year so I got one of all four of them. They are getting a bit too big to all fit on it though.
The Wooly Mammoth is a favorite. The kids are always awed by its enormous size. I sure am glad I never have had to tangle with one of those!The last stop of the museum is the sand excavation pit. The kids could spend hours in there uncovering bones and covering them back up. This time they even had fun burying each other. Hunter's feet were buried in the sand and he couldn't get them out. He was such a sad little boy. Ha, Ha... :)A cute picture of the grandkids. Unfortunatley Sara and her kids had too much going on to come and join us. What a good looking group of kids!

Who Wants to Go to the Park?

My kids love going to the park, but it seems like we don't go often enough. Megan is in town so we decided to go to the park in the morning before it got too hot. I don't know why the park always gets busy around noon, that's when it's starting to get super hot! I love going to the park in the morning when there is no one else there and the weather is bearable.


The kids had so much fun running around, playing tag and swinging. They probably could have stayed on the swings the whole time we were there. Aria liked it when Megan pushed her "like a rocket".
Jenna actually let me take a picture of her on the swings.
Here is Michela jumping off of the swings. I remember loving to do this when I was her age.
Jaida is swinging on the bars like a little monkey.
Hunter and Chase love sliding down these bars. Chase is a speed demon on them.
Hunter kept asking me to take pictures of him sleeping on everything. Here he is sliding down the bars while in his "relaxing" pose.
Aria loved all of the slides. She is now brave enough to do them all by herself.
Logan tried the slide out once but he flew off at the end and decided he didn't need to slide anymore.
Hunter and Aria hanging around.
Megan and I were sitting on the grass and chatting when she saw this huge black beetle by her. It was probably a few inches long. Yuck! We decided to end our park day after this thing crossed our path.