MOTO MADNESS!!!!

Moto Madness was a camping trip put together by Ben's brother (great job Andy!). We went out to the desert in the middle of nowhere that had a bunch of ATV and motorcyle trails. We went with Andy's family and Holly's family and Drew and we all had a great, fun, dusty, dirty, hot, wonderful time. I think the boy to girl ratio was something like 3:1, but it's okay 'cause I have a sweet pink helmet:) Some even caught a few fish in the tiny stream. We had 3 four wheelers and 9 motorcycles and they didn't sit still very often. WOW! We're hoping to make this a frequent tradition!

Kyle, Riley and I takin' it easy...

Jason, Ben and Riley chillin' by the fire...

Our late night tin foil dinners and s'mores...YUMMY!...

Some of our super fun cousins...

Our Ritz Carlton on wheels...

Sean and Kyle going for a ride with their cousin...

Riley can now army crawl, crawl on all fours, go up and down our 2 office stairs and pull himself up on just about anything. We are so proud! Look how big he's getting!



Kyle can make his own bologna sandwich. All I have to do is open the bologna for him and he's good to go! This is his own recipe...bread, bologna, mayo, ketchup, BBQ sauce and mustard. Mmmmm?

Potty Training With 4 Kids

If you are looking for a "How To Potty Train With 4 Kids" this is NOT the blog for you! If you don't like reading about poop, this is also NOT the blog for you.

Do you ever have an experience that seems really bad at the time, but then later you think, 'oh that wasn't so bad?' This is NOT one of those! It really was that bad.

It all started when I was reading my friend's (you know who you are Kristy) blog and she posted this super cute potty training chart and said how she used gum to reward her son (who is Kyle's age) for pooping in the toilet. I think to myself, Great Idea! Which it is, if you do it right and have time to pay attention to your child. But I did not. Here's the story...

Yesterday we are at WalMart and I see the gum and I let Kyle pick out some gum for potty training. He is excited about this because he has not been allowed to have gum since he smeared it (very artlike) all over the window in the back of our car. So he picks strawberry and we spend yesterday and today making little comments like, "When you go poop in the toilet you can have strawberry gum." So today Kyle goes over to the couch and plays quietly. This means he is going to poop. So I ask if he wants strawberry gum. He says yes! This is progress for us. We go to the bathroom, but I am in the middle of making lunch and Riley needs me and I have to find Sean and Jason so I leave him there. I kind of forget about it. Later we have lunch. Then he is over playing quietly at the couch again. I quickly go over and ask if he wants strawberry gum. He just looks at me. I ask him if he pooped. Again, he just looks at me. I go to check his diaper and find that he DOESN'T HAVE ONE ON!!!!! I kind of forgot to put one on after he tried to poop earlier. He must have just put his own pants back on, which again is progress for us. Luckily his pants are hand-me-down elastic leg pants so we are contained a bit. Did I mention that Kyle has had a stomach bug for 4 days? So a dozen or so wipes and a bath and a really gross scrubbing of some hand-me-down pants that were too good to throw away later I can write this post. And yes, it was worse than I am describing here.

I think we will be waiting until the big boys are actually in school and I can focus on Kyle before we start potty training. Or I'll just wait until I potty train Kyle and Riley together:) What's a couple more years of diapers? At least I know what to expect.

I'll Sit for a Minute

Sorry mom and dad, but we've been having too much fun to stop and sit to post a blog. I'll sit for a minute and share some of my favorite pictures. (actually, this has taken me a couple of days to finally finish;) I do this in 5 minute intervals over a couple days)


Our last month has been full of fun and activities. We swim a lot, play in the backyard, go on adventures and just enjoy being together. Our biggest event of the summer was Sean getting baptized last week. It was such an amazing experience and he was so excited and ready. Mom, I don't have pictures of that yet, but I'm sure they will be posted soon. Also, we got a sweet new camera that takes video with sound, Yeah! Here's a couple pics and videos.



This is one of my favorites of our cute, growing-up-too-fast baby Riley. You can't really see them in this picture, but he now has his two top front teeth. He is scooting around the floor and will play while kneeling for a few minutes. We're working on crawling and I don't think it will be too long. He can now eat a half of a pb&j sandwich all by himself...Nice!

Sean read Where the Red Fern Grows thanks to the recommendation of his cousin, Elise. He loved reading it and this is where I found him one afternoon. He was originally sweeping the garage to skateboard, but he must have got a little tired and decided reading was more his style:)


This video needs no explanation...what a cute boy Kyle is!

I don't know if I've mentioned before what a little Mozart our Jason is. Sean is taking piano lessons and Jason learns everything he does once Sean gets home. He loves playing the piano. He told my friend the other day, "If I could play the piano all day every day I would." Don't know where he gets this, but he's a lot like his cousin Sterling, so it must be from the May side:) This is his very impressive Indiana Jones.

Another Sweet Week of Summer

Well, things are not boring. I guess that's the way it is from here on out. I'll be sad when I have nothing to do and my house is always clean. As it is now, we have lots to do and my house doesn't remember what clean means. Here is another addition of Summer Fun!

Sean started piano lessons today and is pretty excited about learning to play. Jason swam the length of the pool and Kyle can jump off the side of the pool and turn around and swim almost all the way back. Riley made a calculated move for my cell phone today and went from sitting to his tummy (a big deal for him). So, life is good.

We had the funnest '30 Going on 13' 30th birthday party for my friend Katie. We dressed up in 80's clothes, listened to Cindy Lauper, went to dinner and then bowling. It was a riot! We even did the chinese firedrill at the stoplight. We really thought we were 13 again. And, yeah, we still got it!:) I wish I had better pictures, but these will have to do.

For Family Home Evening on Monday, we took the boys fishing at the lake. We were there 2 hours, ate several chocolate cupcakes and caught 4 white bass (Sean 1, Jason 1, Kyle 2). We all had a great time, even with a little rain.

This was tonight's activity...motorcycles in the field. What awesome boys I have! And they couldn't have a better dad.

The Not-So-Lazy Days of Summer

We have started the summer break off with a bang! What a fun time of year. I love when school is out and we get to do whatever we want all day long. In the past week we have played on the slip and slide with Uncle Bryan in town, climbed trees, trained for a triathlon (Erin), gone to work (poor Ben), had a mud fight with friends (Sean and Jason), taken swimming lessons (Sean, Jason and Kyle), taken some serious naps (Kyle and Riley), had picnics, painted the bathroom (Erin, since she had to paint the area where she started the fire), started potty training (Erin and, occasionally, Kyle), eaten food from the garden, BBQ'd with friends, etc. Wow, that's a busy week! I hope we have more just like this one!!! Here are some pictures of our fun...

Sean and Jason just came in a few minutes ago looking like this...

Riley got a little tired after swimming in the pool this morning (best baby EVER!)...

Sean, Jason and Kyle have been taking swimming lessons from my friend Katie. Kyle wakes up every morning ready to go. They all love it. They each had their 4th lesson today and I can't believe the progress! Thanks so much Katie!

My brother, Bryan, came to visit on Friday so we had a picnic/water party. I wasn't intending to get wet, but how can you resist a slip-n-slide?!

Jason took the slip-n-slide to a whole new level...

My cute monkeys!

Riley loves the water, as long as it's warm:)

Jason with some sweet moves into the pool...

Hogle Zoo

The kids had a day off school last week, so we made the trek to the Hogle Zoo with our friends. Kyle is used to going to the animal museum, so I was anxious to see how he would react when he found out these animals were real. We all had a great time!

On the train...

What a good lookin' group of boys!

If you count, we've got 6 boys here and 1 girl. Someday she will appreciate those odds:)

I love this shot. I promise I didn't pose them, this was just how they were standing.

Riley was awesome, as usual. He even took a nap in the stroller. What a champ!


This is the end of the day. I think Kyle had had his fill of the zoo. Notice the "army hat." It's his hat of choice these days. He didn't take it off the entire day. I love 2 year olds, especially this one!!!!!

Family Reunion

This post is way late in coming, but here it is nonetheless. We had the greatest family reunion with the May Family. We stayed at Hidden Springs Ranch (http://www.hiddenspringsranch.biz/) and had a BLAST! We rode motorcycles and 4 wheelers, swam in the pool and hot tub, climbed the climbing wall, played volleyball, ate YUMMY food, shot clay pigeons, fished, had s'mores around the campfire, and so many other things. The place is amazing! I didn't get many photos because I was too busy playing, but here's a couple I scrounged up.

Okay, this may be my favorite picture of Riley, ever! He's chillin' by the pool.



Jason and his cousins hangin' out in the hot tub.


A reunion isn't complete without a day of shooting targets and clay pigeons.