Happy Birthday James!

My little James turns 5 today! From day one, he has been so easy going and HAPPY.

When I ask him to do something he just says "sure" and does it. He radiates JOY and has been such a fun kid to have in our family.

He never ceases to entertain us!

Happy Birthday!!! We Love You!!!

BUMP-ITS!!!!!!!!!

All the sisters and sisters-in-law sporting BUMP-ITS!(we even involved some of the children)
O.K., Have you seen the commercials for these things? Absolutely ridiculous, right? We like to make fun of them, so my SIL brought all the ladies in the fam our very own BUMP-ITS. She even made sure we got the correct color to match the hair. These are meant to create the illusion of volume at the crown of the head. This was not so effective. Some of the sisters, myself included, have extremely thin hair, so imagine spreading thin wisps of hair over a plastic rainbow. You could see big air tunnels and shiny plastic through the hair. Quite humorous! We had a photo shoot, of course! Erica's was believable, and too bad Amy's blends in with Nat's shirt, because she pulled off the look quite well. Yes, we are starved for entertainment. Thank you for the lovely gift, Erica! My sincere apologies if anyone is offended that we are mocking these, but seriously!

Back to School!

The kids started school on Monday and seem to enjoy it so far. Blake - 3rd grade, James - K, Marinne - 5th grade



James' first day of school! I can't believe he's old enough already!

James gets to be in the same class as Cousin Canaya!

Here they are with the BEST school nurse ever- Grandma!

P.S. I would like a nice camera someday! My pictures are so grainy! Maybe Santa's elves will read my blog and oblige!!!

Happy Anniversary to Us!!!

Utah Trip

We went to Utah for the annual Hammond reunion and stayed at a KOA in Panguitch so we could visit Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. The kids loved spending time with their cousins and the scenery was beautiful. We also stayed in Draper for a few days, so we got to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house, which was a great experience for our family.

picnic in the canyon with cousins

Lagoon!
(this was the 1st time our kids have been)


talent show
(lovely outfits, I know)

hangin' at the cabin

catching water at Weeping Rock

Bryce Canyon

the fam

Blake pondering

I have to say that I'm proud of the family van for making it there and back!

It has now crossed the 150,000 mile mark!