Rock Star

Kaitlyn was invited to a birthday party last Friday, and she was supposed to dress as a ROCK STAR! Here is what we came up with... I thought she looked really cute. We originally were planning to get some temporary hair color, and streak her hair with some fun colors, but I never had the chance to get any... so she was a little concerned that she wouldn't look very Rockstarish, but I think she did, and she was really happy with how everything turned out.

They played Rock Band, watched the Hannah Montana movie, and had a great time :)

Little Buddies

The year that I was pregnant with Hayden, two of my sisters were also expecting. The best part is that we were all due within a month. Justice was born first, then 2 weeks later Sydnee came along, then finally 2 weeks after that Hayden arrived. Not only was that a fun summer with lots of baby showers and births (my mom was in heaven, I'm sure), but they had instant buddies! We wish Sydnee lived closer so we could get the three of them together, but Justice and Hayden are great friends. They will be in preschool together again starting next week and they (and their moms) can't wait! :) We decided to go pick up Justice and bring him over for some cousin fun. Hayden wanted him to bring over his back-hoe (we all know how much Hayden loves to dig in the dirt) but it rained the night before and the dirt was now mud... so I told them they'd have to dig inside. Well, what is there to dig in the house? BEANS! I dumped out a bag of dry beans, and they were entertained for the longest time!

Then they went outside for a little bit to watch some of the construction that is STILL going on near our house. (Gives me a bit of anxiety... it's EVERYWHERE, I tell you!) They weren't supposed to dig in the dirt outside, but it's like a magnet to Hayden, and before I knew it, they were digging! So I made them come inside, and told them that if they would clean up all the beans, we would make a treat. They were great little cleaning machines, so we headed upstairs to make Rice Krispie Treats!! They had fun pouring and stirring (and eating, of course!)

Thanks for coming to play, Justice. Hayden always loves to have you over. It was super fun!

Mr. Woodbadge

While Jared was in the bishopric, he was very much involved in the scouting program. Partly because he had to, and partly because he really learned to enjoy being with the scouts and helping them get the merit badges they need in order to receive their Eagle. Dad Stafford was very involved with scouts and every one of his sons (all 6) received their Eagle - so cool! So Jared had a great example growing up. He and the bishop he was serving with went to a big scout leader training called "Woodbadge." Apparently the "projects" and things you have to do in order to receive your Woodbadge award are fairly equivalent to doing an Eagle project... It took them a while, and of course they are no longer in the bishopric, but they finally received their awards at a recent court of honor. Good job, honey! We are proud of our scout, and look forward to you helping our little scouts as they get older :)

The funny thing is, now that he is no longer in the bishopric, he has been called to be the Young Men's president. So the scouting continues... he has several young men who will receive their Eagle Scout Award by December. The boys in our ward really like Jared, and he likes hanging out and working with them, and really wants to help them get those merit badges!

Let the Games Begin!

Well, soccer season is once again in full swing. This time, however, we have 4 kids playing. Yes, you read that right, we are officially crazy... but it's so fun. Jared is coaching both girls again. It's so great watching how well they are doing having the same coaches consistently season after season. Their teams are really doing well. The boys are having a blast playing. Hayden started out the season really strong. I was really expecting a just-barely-4-yr-old to be clueless and look more at his shadow and passing butterflies than at the ball, but we were pleasantly surprised by his focus. He really tried hard and got several good kicks in. (Don't worry, the next week he was a typical 4-yr-old... hanging upside down from the goal, doing summersaults, etc. But had a great time anyway.) Here are some shots from his very first soccer game!


He was very focused. He followed that ball and really tried his hardest. We were so excited when he got some kicks in!



It was great to see him having so much fun.


Of course, there were moments of boredom when he had to sit out. What was he supposed to do? I mean really! (Someday he'll really hate me for this one!)



Now, here are Bryson's pictures. Some from his first game, and some from his second. He LOVES soccer and playing with some of his friends.

He played pretty well. Got some great kicks, blocked a few goals. He does great!


The best part for B is having fun...

And of course, it would not be fair for me to post a slightly embarrassing picture of Hayden without doing the same for Bryson. But what are you supposed to do when the other team just doesn't get the ball down to your goal? A goalie can only wait so long, folks! So funny! And if you notice that he is missing a leg, it's because I had to act fast in order to capture the moment... therefore I didn't get his whole body in the frame. What a kid!

Hopefully next week I'll have some fun pictures of the girls in action. We have some conflicting games where the boys are playing at the same time as the girls, so it will be harder to get some pictures, but we'll do our best :)

First Day of School

Early Monday morning, three of our kids started school. Since they are in a charter school, they started three days earlier than the regular school district. They were so excited. Eryn started 6th grade... she gets to have a locker and has 6 different classes each day. Kaitlyn is in 4th grade this year, and it's sure to be an adventure. Bryson started 1st grade, and will be going all day this year. That's quite a change after 1/2 day kindergarten. Everyone had to get up quite early, since school starts at 8:00. The nice part is that they wear uniforms, so picking out an outfit is easy! We got there plenty early, and I was able to walk Bryson to class (after which he let me know that it was unnecessary). I really had a hard time leaving him, knowing he'd be there all day. You'd think I'd have that part down by now, since I've already gone through it twice before, but I don't. When I went to pick them up that afternoon, they all said that it was great, and they couldn't wait to go back the next day! Hooray for school.







And what were Hayden and I doing while the rest were gone? We babysat my new little niece. My sister had to go back to work (which was very hard for her) and we got to take care of Harlie. She was such a sweetie. Hayden kept wondering why she couldn't get down and crawl so she could play. I told him that she would be able to in a few months. He was excited to hold her and thought she was just the cutest!



And then we went outside to enjoy what's left of summer. Hayden LOVES playing in the water and getting all wet.

Hogle Zoo

We used to have a Family Zoo pass, and we went a lot, but honestly the last time I remember going to the zoo when right before I had Hayden (with Eryn's school class!) They have done SO much since I've been there. It is so nice! They have lots of really neat animal enclosures, and lots of fun animals to see... including a couple of babies! My favorite part, though, is seeing MY little animals and how much fun they have. We ended up getting another family pass, since they let us "re-new" even though it's been 4 years, and we got a great deal. They also gave us several passes to ride the carousel (which I did not know they had). We walked around and looked at everything we possibly could. It was really fun. The mother elephant was actually in labor while we were there, so they had her in the back. We can't wait to go again so we can see the new baby elephant. We were excited to be able to see the baby giraffe, though. So cute! Enjoy our slideshow of all the pictures we took (between Eryn and I - she was using one of my cameras, since hers wouldn't turn on even with new batteries. She took all the close-up animal shots, because the camera she used could zoom in really well).

Kaitlyn's Turn

So I've been trying to take my kids out one at a time to get some cute pictures taken of them. I took Eryn first, and that same day Kaitlyn asked, "When's my turn?" It was a couple of weeks later when she finally got her "turn" and we had tons of fun. And it's been a couple of weeks since we did her pictures, but life has been so busy that I just haven't posted them before now.

And here are a few more:

High Adventure

Since Jared has been called as the Young Men's President, he has been on several fun adventures with the boys in our ward. He went to Youth Conference and had a really fun time in Filmore, Utah... then he went to a couple of days of Scout Camp with some of the younger boys... finally he went on the High Adventure with the older boys. He had a great time! They hiked, fished, rock-climbed. He really does such a great job with the young men, and they really seem to like him. He is looking forward to many more adventures to come!

Birds!!!

So, we've had some house guests this summer. A cute little bird couple built a nest in our carport. It was so fun watching them work together to build their home. And amazing to see how they can use such random items, and it sticks together! Well, pretty soon we noticed that the female bird was spending a lot of time sitting in the nest, so we figured there must have been eggs in it! It was fun to watch the male bird. He would come over and land on the side of the nest, the female would fly off for a while, and the male would just stay there, watching over the eggs. The mama bird would come back, and daddy bird would hop over to his post nearby and just hang out there. Well, pretty soon those eggs hatched. The kids came running in yelling "THE BABY BIRDS HATCHED!!" They were so tiny. I have to admit, I was afraid one was going to fall out of the nest. I really didn't want to have to deal with that! Luckily, they all survived. They were kind of noisy. Mom and Dad flew in and out all day, taking turns tending and feeding them. And those funny baby birds would squawk and open their mouths as wide as they could to have a turn being fed. It was really interesting to watch. Within two weeks, those babies were as big as their parents! I couldn't believe how fast they grew, but it seems like all they did all day was eat, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Then one Sunday, just two weeks after they hatched, we watched them getting flying lessons from their parents. It was so cool seeing the parents helping the first one. It landed funny on the fence, and we were a little afraid that "he" was stuck, but after a while, and with mama and daddy birds' support, he was flying again. They would only fly a little way, then they would stop and rest for a bit. Pretty soon, another bird was gone from the nest, then another, then finally the last. It was weird to see the empty nest. For the next few days, they were gone flying in the morning, then back squawking for food all afternoon. Our kids even named them. There were four, so they named them after themselves (since there are four of them too!) Then suddenly they were gone for good. Empty nest! It was abandoned for a couple of weeks, then suddenly this week, mom and dad bird are back! They added some random items to the nest (there are long horse hairs hanging down from it) and mom is spending a lot of time sitting in it again. We are wondering if there are more eggs! Our kids are so excited, and hoping to see some more babies soon. One thing that really struck me was the teamwork between the parents. They really worked together. Not only building the nest, but tending the eggs, feeding the newly hatched babies, and teaching them to fly. It was really neat!

B is for Bubbles!

My boys LOVE bubble baths. They are so funny in the tub. I'm trying to learn how to use my new flash, and they were the perfect models! I wanted to capture a memory of how much fun they had taking bubble baths. When I think about how fast they are growing up, it makes me kinda sad. One of these days, they aren't going to want to play in the bubble bath together anymore. It's already killin' me that B is going into first grade, and Hayden is in preschool for the last year. Where did my baby boys go? I love them so much. The conversations we have are priceless. They are getting really fun as they grow up, but I just can't believe how fast time flies. It's such a great reminder to me of how much more I need to be playing with them, before they don't want to play with me anymore. I love my little buddies!

Big Changes

Eryn is growing up so fast! She is going to be in 6th grade this fall, which at her school is MIDDLE SCHOOL! I can't believe I have a kid that old. She is such a great daughter. She's so fun to be around. She decided a couple of weeks ago that she needed a haircut. Her hair was getting so long, and it was hard to manage. Brushing was a pain! So finally, after days and days of asking, I called our friend who cuts hair, and she came over and gave Eryn a really cute haircut.

Then, the very next day, we headed to the orthodontist to have braces put on! Another crazy thing for me to think about... I was in 9th grade when I got my braces on, and didn't get them off until my Jr. year in High School (which was SO frustrating!) And now, here's my sweet Eryn getting braces in 6th grade! Lucky kid! All the crazy braces memories are coming back to me, like how sore your teeth are when they get tightened, how weird they felt the first few days, how depressing it was to not be able to eat certain foods... but Eryn is going to do great. And doesn't she look so cute!?!?

A Day at the Beach

So apparently there is this really cool beach... in UTAH! In Herriman, they have built this fun little beach next to their pressurized irrigation reservoir. They put in sand for the beach, then it extends half-way out into the water (to a wall, where the bigger kids can still touch - then on the other side of the wall, it's just dirt and rocks and much deeper). My sister Jana invited us to all go up and play! Our kids were so excited to go. We stopped and grabbed a pizza on the way there, and it was so funny, because the whole way there it just looked like typical Utah landscape, and suddenly you go over this little hill and there you are - at the beach. (Well, there is still typical Utah landscape around it, but anyway... it is this cute little beach!) The kids couldn't get out of their seatbelts fast enough. We threw the towels out onto the sand, quickly ate some pizza, put on sunblock and life jackets, and the kids were in the water. (Okay, most of us got sunblock on. I forgot until it was a little too late, and my back got a bit fried.) The kids could have stayed there ALL DAY. The swam, played in the sand, swam some more, played in the sand some more... they had a blast! And I loved watching them have so much fun. All my sisters and their kids came, along with my sister Jessica's sisters-in-law and mother-in-law (who my boys think is their other Grandma! - and who was the best life-guard ever!) It was such a fun day, we can't wait to go back and take Jared. The kids missed him and said "We GOTTA bring dad here!" Watch the slideshow below of some of the fun pictures. (And for my sisters, I actually have a ton more pics of your kids... I'll send them to ya!)

My Dad the High Priest!

My Dad's bishop has been trying to convice my dad that it's time he became a High Priest. Of course my Dad didn't feel he was old enough for that (HEHE! We had to tease him about that since Jared is one!) Finally, my dad decided that he'd accept that "call" and said ok! He made sure that it happened while Jess was up from Arizona. My Dad is a great guy and I look up to him. We got to go to my Grandpa Grace's, who ordained him. It was SO awesome. My Grandpa has always been my spiritual hero. He's amazing. His testimony of the Savior and His gospel are very inspiring to me. The ordination was so neat. I'm so glad we got to be a part of it. We love ya, Dad, and we are so proud of you!

A few pictures from the day - Left: Dad and Mom with Grandpa. It's so good to see Grandpa up and around! Top Right: Mom and Dad with all their grandchildren! Bottom Right: "Great" Grandpa Grace with a few of his great-grandkids!

A Visit from the Arizona Gang!

We have been counting down the days for Jess's family to come up from Arizona to visit. It is so hard to have them live far away, so we were super excited to see them. Mom flew down so she could help Jess drive up. We were sad that Matthew couldn't come up, too, but we were happy to see the others. We did some fun things together while they were here. After we visited the Oquirrh Mountain temple, we got together at Grandma Cheryl and PapaBob's house to BBQ, play, and hang out. The kids always have such a fun time together. There was only one injury noted... and that was my kid! Bryson was pushing Kaitlyn in one of those little Cozy Coup cars, and pushed her right off the edge of the cement. She is too big for the car, so her head was hanging through the front and hit the ground, and her hands got crushed a bit. She had some bruises on her fingers, but she seems to be okay :) We only wish that the Young Fam could be here for more than a week. Hurry up and move back to Utah already!