4th of July Fun at Gma's House

(Posted By: Rachel)

Face painting was a great hit! Aunt Beebes is an awesome face painter. 

 My cousins, Peyton, Makayla, and Cayla, and I got a smoke bomb or American flag on our left cheek, USA on our right cheek, and BYU on our fore-head. We begged her to put a mustache and goatee on us but she refused and said that our parents would not like it if she did that. 

 Elizabeth and her firecracker.

 Gavin making a cat face with his "blue cat" complete with red whiskers and white eyes! Great imagination!

 Here's the face paint freaks!

Rachel, Cayla, Peyton

  Dad and Levi were always down at the "launch pad"/ sports court together so my dad could make sure Levi didn't blow up!

 Here we're singing happy birthday to Atreyu/ Bunkin Boy! Notice the smashed cake. ;(

 Birthday people! Brandon was trying to make Peyton (his daughter) blowout his candle 'cause apparently he doesn't have birthdays anymore. He ended up lighting her candle with his every time she blew it out!

Uncle Brandon, Peyton, Cayla, Levi, Aunt Bethie 

My mom was trying desperately to get this picture but every time she let go of Trey to snap the picture, he would go running laugh hysterically over his shoulder at the 'game' of chase till she caught him and then do the same thing when she let go again! Meanwhile Wesley is just standing perfectly still like a good little boy. She finally got this picture of Trey laughing with Wesley looking a little annoyed. :) 

4th of July Memories!!

(Posted by Rachel)

Wednesday morning our ward had a 4th of July breakfast completed by a parade.

 Levi had fun racing with his buddy Treyson. Carter is in the front there. Gavin's friend's dad brought out his go cart car thing you see in the backround.

 I wasn't sure if I was going to do the parade because there are only two poeple in my church class that go to primary and the other person dosn't come very often so I wasn't sure if I was going to be the only one my age doing it. But lo and behold that one other girl showed up and brought her bike to do the parade with me.  

 Gavin was having a blast with his scooter. He actually goes pretty fast on that thing!

Elizabeth's bike fell off of our bike trailor on some highway back in Utah on Sunday so she had to share Gavin's scooter even if Gavin wasn't so thrilled with that.

Gavin's dream came true when got to ride in the car!

 When we got home I started to make a cake for Grandma Conway's party. It was a cake made out of cupcakes.

Good thing we took a picture before we left because sadly the stupid car in front of us, three minutes before we got there, abruptly slowed down and my dad had to slow too so the cake slid off the pan and onto the floor of the car. Luckily most of them weren't face down so when we got to Grandma's house just put back together and they tasted the same!  

Uncle John, Jensen and Ellie Vist from Utah!!!!!

We couldn't have been more happy to see John and his kiddos last weekend....we got to spend lots of time with them and it was so nice to connect my brother and his cute kids!  We missed seeing Mimi and Mia and Sam, though! It will be great to see them all this summer!

The weekend started with a wonderful dinner with John, and my Dad, Carol and siblings.

 Saturday, we had a wonderful family dinner at my mom's house. I failed to take any pictures at all that night! A highlight of the night was setting fire to Gma's Christmas trees. A bonfire in the snow...it was pretty cool. The kids had a great time sliding around on the sports court while we cleaned up after dinner. Then we played a group game of 'Do You Love Your Neighbor' and then took turns showing off various 'tricks.' It was great fun. Elizabeth enjoyed some quite time coloring with Ellie after everyone else was gone. Wish I had more pictures of them together.  We have quite a few of Jensen, since he was able to spend the night Sunday night with us!

 The kids had fun watching each other play Jensen's new DSi.

 There was lots of wrestling and horsing around too! These two boys are like two peas from the same pod...they just get along so well! It was fun to see their friendship pick up right where they 'left off.'

 Despite what you might think...no one ended up crying after this wrestling match!

 It was good times all around...and the boys didn't mind Elizabeth joining in on the fun! She misses Jensen and Ellie as much as Levi.

A 'sticky' breakfast gave us the calories we'd use for a morning of sledding!

 We are sledding on the nearby Maple Valley Golf Course...free fun!!!

 Rachel brought her best friend, Kalani along for some snow fun!

 Rachel's specialty: sucking snow off of branches! Who knew?

 Spencer on the sneak attack!

Jensen worked hard on this fort....the snow wasn't cooperating well....but his hard work paid off!

 On Monday, John's last day in town...we met him and Anne's and Beth's families and Gma Conway for an afternoon of bowling! I am holding Gavin and my nephew, Luke--Anne's baby. John is holding Beth's youngest, Leah.

 Gavin loved bowling!

 Elizabeth, too!

I think Gavin loved his cup of water best of all!

 Rachel and Makayla

 Levi

 Spencer

 The Mob. By the way....I won the 'grownups' game with 130 points!

 Saying goodbye was not fun. Especially for Grandma.

OK, well, the boys make it look easy here! Seriously, it was hard to say goodbye. We love you so very much!!  Sometimes it hurts to think about the miles that separate our families, Johnboy. We love you and Mimi and are glad that she blogs so much that we are able to share part of your life. Hopefully I'll blog more often, too.

Freezing Rain Hits!

Yesterday after the world's best snowball fight--freezing rain hit Maple Valley...actually, it was more like 24 hour freezing drizzle that created what seems like a 1/2 inch coating of ice over every little thing outside. The cars were completely coated in the ice....branches have been breaking off of trees--actually trees are being ripped in half from the weight of the ice--causing power outages all over town. We still have power. We have been enjoying our week of no school...movies by the fireside, games, crafts, warm food. Tonight Tim is reading the final chapter of Harry Potter v. 4 to Levi and Rachel...and we plan to snuggle in and watch the movie when they're done!  Here are some photos from today:

This rhodie branch is falling over with the weight of the ice.

 You can see the ice really well on the carrot nose.

 The trampoline webbing was completely solid.

 The front yard...you can see the remains of our forts from yesterday's snowball fight.

 Well, the bunny is still alive!

 Chickens too!

This kind of turned into a tour of our backyard! The fine structure you see here is the chicken coop Tim  built last year.