Look who we got to see in concert!!!

Are you jealous????  

Starring ZZ Top and Professor Dumbeldorf (or Merlin, whichever one you want it to be) --

Last week, Associated Foods held this concert and PJ invited us to go with him and Nancy, the Throckmortons, and the Hydes.  I only wish I had taken a picture of our seating arrangements.  The concert was held in Abravenel Hall and we were on the 3rd Tier, which is way up high.  Our seats were along the side so we were all sitting in a single file row, not necessarily the most convenient seating arrangement if you want to socialize and talk to your neighbor, but we had a TON of fun - dancing, clapping, lots of head bobbing, and a comedian to start out with.  The best part about the Oak Ridge Boys is the bass singer that can get so eerily low that it doesn't even seem real.  When Jeff and I were engaged, Jeff would put in this tape, I know I really did say TAPE because we are really THAT OLD, and he would sing along with Elvira and Bobby Sue in the bass parts.  I really did LOVE it and I would ask him to do is over and over again, because it made me laugh.  I kept trying to get him to sing along at the concert and he wouldn't, I guess he was a little embarrassed or something.  In the end, I really did enjoy the concert and I have to laugh just thinking about it because they are soooooo country with all the twang and stuff, but they did sing a couple songs the I LOVE -- Thank God for Kids and G.I. Joe and Lilly.

Are you jealous yet???

You should be :-)

Murder in Dodgy City

A couple weeks ago, we were invited to attend a murder mystery dinner.  Jared and Kristi Smith were the fabulous hosts, and we were able to eat a ton and in the end, solve the mystery everyone was on edge about for the months leading up to the finale.

I knew Grandma Campbell's red coat would come in handy for something.  I was Blaze F. Glory and Jeff was General Custard.  

Those in attendance:

Jared & Kristi Smith

Chase & Paige Smith

Jason & Sam Pitts

Matt & Chris Olsen

Scott & Carma Parks

Legrand Hansen

We had a great evening!!!  Thank You to Jared & Kristi!!!!

Logan = Par-tay

So, what do our kids do as soon as we mention "Logan"?  Well, Logan and the Parks just go hand in hand.  The kids LOVE going there because they know what it means.  Party, party, party, and "Grandma Carma" and "Grandpa Scott" are going to SPOIL them!!!  No, they are not of any blood relation, but they sure do love our kids just as much as their grandparents do.  

Keylee is on the Mountain Crest Caprielles dance team.  She is an AWESOME dancer and we really enjoy going to watch her perform.

Sarah and Shay

Ryan and Nathan

This is where the girls were most of the evening, up on the balcony trying really hard to mimic the dancing moves.  Ali was on the ground with her feet waving wildly in the air, Bella and Sarah were just running around doing turns and different variations of the dances which were very interesting to say the least.

We always have a good time when we go visit the Parks.  I love that family and I am soooooo sad they had to move.  They are even taking our kids for this next weekend, as is tradition, so Jeff and I can have some alone time for our Anniversary :)  You want to know what we have planned????  Painting the living room!!!  Are you all jealous?  I guess we will see how far along we get.

Leaves, Leaves Everywhere

These are just a couple fun pictures of the thousands of leaves we had to clean up this fall.  We had Kennedi come over and play with Sarah, and they had so much fun jumping on the tramp with all the leaves.  Ali joined them for a bit, but she got tired of it quickly.

Funny story about these leaves.  Sarah came up to us one Saturday morning and asked if she could take all our leaves over to the Pitts yard to jump in them.  We told her she needed to ask Sam or Jason (not one of the kids) if it was alright.  She called up and asked for Natalie, before Natalie got on the phone I told her she could not ask her, she had to talk to one of the parents.  So, reluctantly she asked for Sam.  When Sam got on the phone, Sarah asked her if she could take all of our leaves over into their yard to jump in them.  Jeff and I were cracking up.  Surprisingly, Sam said yes, anytime you would like to do that you can.  So, the kids got to work, getting our wheelbarrow and moving the leaves from one yard to the other.  Then they had a grand ole' time jumping in them in the Pitts yard.  Later I felt kind of bad (but not bad enough) when I saw Jason out there bagging up "our" leaves.  What great neighbors we have.  Thanks guys for being very good sports and helping us out with our kids so much.  I'm serious when I say we love you and are so grateful for your love towards us.  Friends are the best thing in the world and to have great friends across the street make it even better.

Neighborhood Vandalism

I just had to post the pictures of the "Vandalism" that occurred while we were gone for Thanksgiving.

I'm sorry to say -- I think the jokes on you!!!!  Compliments of the Pitts :-)

All I can say is:

GO BYU!!!!

The sad thing is -- we still have the window paint saying Utah is #1, and Go Utes.  We really need to get that graffiti off of our home.

22 Kids!!!!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to actually have 22 kids soon to be 23 --- in one house --- from only 3 families!!!  Well, I have never been that curious about it, but we did experience it last night.  Let's do the math for just a moment and see how smart some of you are.  If we have only 4 out of the 22, that must leave 18 more children and only 2 more families to compensate for the difference.  Ummmmm, I'll give you a hint: the Schmidt's and the Jensen's; OK I'll give you 2 hints.

All I can say is thank goodness for awesome parents who can handle a lot of kids and do a pretty amazing job at being patient in raising their little brood.  It makes me feel just a little bit selfish when I am around some of these great role models, and I think maybe I am not doing my "job" in the parent department.  Should I be having more children???  Well, no, this is not an announcement, but a huge shout out to all my friends who are raising all these children and teaching them good principles.  Kudos to all of you.  I sure do look up to you a lot and I pray I can become a little more like you.

My life with friends

This may seem a little random, but I have just been thinking a lot lately about just how grateful I am for so many things that I am blessed with. As I am typing, I have Bella hugging my arm telling me how much she loves me. Can that make a mom any happier??? I love my children so much and I feel so lucky to have them be a part of my life.

Another one of the many blessings I have is my ward family. Holy cow!!! They are so awesome to me. I just love going to church and seeing all my friends. They help make my week go by a little easier and more than that, they are such a support to me and my little family. Just last night, I was able to go to "Dessert Group" with some of the coolest sisters in the world. I think we use any excuse we can to get a group of ladies together to laugh and have fun. What a blessing the gospel is in my life! Again, today we had another "Craft Group" get together to make hair bows and flowers. And yes, again, I had a ball just "hangin' out" with my gals.

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to have breakfast with one of my dearest friends, Mindi. Man, it must have been nearly 9 months since I have seen her. That is terrible to go that long without making contact with someone who has made such an impact on my life. She used to live across the street from me, and we were able to talk about ANYTHING! I love my friends so much. I have made many more that have blessed my life in countless ways.

Another example of a wonderful friend: just yesterday my sister-in-law, Ashlie, was having a baby. I got the phone call that she was just about ready to start pushing and I wanted to be at the hospital when Austin was born. So, I quickly made PB&J sandwiches for the two girls and myself, and we ate them on the road heading to the hospital. When we got there, we were informed that the kids could not be there and visit Ashlie until she was moved to another room. I wasn't quite sure what I should do, but I decided to try to call my friend, Sam. She didn't even hesitate to come to the hospital and pick up my girls so I could stay there and see the baby within minutes of his birth. Another example of the self-less friends that I have in my life.

I could go on and on and on about how I have been helped in times of need. I think my list would be endless and then some more. I just want to say to all of you -- THANK YOU!!! I love you and I am so grateful for the great examples you are to me. You make me want to be a better person and try just a little bit harder to help someone in need. I only wish I could become a little more like so many of you. Thank you for setting the bar so high, it gives me something to always work towards :)

Neighborhood Block Party

Saturday night we had the annual block party/ward party. They had the cutest train that took the kids around the park. I am sad I didn't get any pictures of that, but I was too busy talking/complaining about nothing. We had some yummy hamburgers and hot dogs, salads, fruit, chips, and of course, desserts.

The kids all liked getting their faces, fingernails, and toenails painted. I'm so sorry to the poor soul who had the job of the toes :(), you deserve a metal of bravery!!!

They had a Twinkie eating contest, Ryan won this heat.

Sarah tried really hard

But Bella beat you out of your heat (with a small head start).

Crafting with friends

Sorry Joanie, you left before we got you in the picture :(

Last Wednesday, I called Sam up and asked if she wanted to do this craft we have had for a few weeks now. We decided to get together and have lunch as well, Cafe Rio, of course! We sort-of, kind-of, in a way, kidnapped Joanie and made her spend time with us (I just don't get why we have to force people to be with us???). When Sarah was dropping off Bella from kindergarten, we asked her if she would like to join.

Let's see, what did we do?

* eat

* talk

* debate

* drink (pink lemonade of course)

* laugh

* talk

* settle a couple arguments (7 kids, need I say more?)

* laugh some more

* oh yeah, painted really quick

* talk

* changed a diaper, maybe 2

* laugh even more

* added 6 more kids into the mix (school was out before we were done having our fun)

I think that pretty much sums it up.

As we were getting the kids ready to go, we found the girls like this:

Did I mention just how much fun I really had. Thank you gals for helping to entertain me and keep me a little bit sane. It was so nice to just have some mommy to mommy time. How therapeutic is that??? I love my friends and I am so grateful to them for the many laughs and good times we have together. Let's do it again soon :)

F. H. E. with the Gwilliams

Oh man, we had such a ball at the Gwilliams Monday night. They invited the entire Kendall clan over for a BBQ, the brave souls. We started the evening going through the Oquirrh Hills Temple open house, all 31 of us. What a beautiful building!!! The kids favorite rooms this time where: Ryan -- Sealing room; Sarah -- Baptistery; Bella -- Baptistery; I don't recall asking Ali, but I do know she surely enjoyed the cookies (at the Draper temple, Bella told us her favorite room was the room where we got the cookies and water, real spiritual experience for her).

Any way, after that, we made our way to the Gwilliams home in Taylorsville and had such a par-tay, I'm telling you. They have a swimming pool in their backyard, so of course, the kids couldn't wait til after dinner.

This ended up to be Ali's favorite spot in the pool.

Sarah flipping or diving (I'm not sure on this one)

Ryan trying to make a splash

Ryan sliding

Bella Sliding

Bella jumping off the diving board

Jeff broke the chair (oops) :)

Ali is showing off her little tooshy

Those are some goggles that were helping her see under the water (ha, ha)

Bella and Sarah swimming around.

Sarah going off the slide with a noodle

While the kids were swimming in the dark, the boys all started up a big game of Ultimate Frisbee. Ryan joined that group and they had a lot of fun. They each had lights on their heads to determine the team they were on and the frisbee was lite up as well.

We had a few belly flops, back flops, near misses with heads on the diving board, close calls with kids going down the slide, and whatever else we didn't see (or chose not to see I think is more like it). But at the end of the day, everyone was entertained and more than anything, we just enjoyed the company and getting to know Jim's family a little bit better. We thank your entire family for the fun evening.

A day trip to Silver Lake

Yesterday, we got a small group together from our ward and headed up to Brighton, out of the heat. The air up there is so fresh and it just feels good to get out of the city. We chose to go around Silver Lake because it was stroller friendly.

Here are part of the kids that went (the others were strapped into the stroller)

Ali and Addi (what cuties)

Ryan was trying to dam the water with his hands

The "Moms" -- Lisa Moss, Samantha Pitts, and myself

After the "hike" we tried to find a shady spot and have a little picnic.

Our little "friends" during our lunch

D E L T A R A B B I T S !!!!!

Nat, Sarah, and Bella came up with this cheer :) Maybe I should submit it to my ole' Alma Mater.

3 cheers for our "Cutie-Patooties"

Our week in review

June 20th was my mom's birthday and when Bella heard that, she pulled out our "Birthday" banner and hung it up over our fireplace.

Here's to you Grandma Johnson.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Then, Sunday (June 21st), we had Mikes kids over for a sleepover while Mike and Michelle were playing in Vegas.

Lauren, Sarah, Sydney, Ali, and Bella

Tyler and Ryan

This was the arrangement during our movie night

They wanted popcorn during the movie and I, being the ornery parent, did not want to deal with popcorn ALL OVER THE PLACE, so, I talked them into not eating it that night, but the next day I would pop a bag for each person. They loved the idea, and I loved it even more :)

Here's their spoils

With sick kids all week, and not being able to take them anywhere, we had to figure out what to do at home.

Among other things, we gave Ryan a buzz

Since they were quarantined to our yard, they spent a lot of time TOGETHER, imagine having to play with your siblings. It is a dirty shame!

But I don't think it was as bad as they thought it should have been.

Then, (sorry, I forgot my camera with everything we did), since we couldn't go to the Ward Camp out, we stayed home and enjoyed some of the festivities of Taylorsville Dayzz.

Friday night they had a Celebrity Impersonator, Jason Hewlett, come and perform for free. That was so fun. There was the biggest thunderstorm that came and went in a hurry, but not before it scared off most of the crowd. So, we got front row seats and LOVED IT! Thanks Joanie for coming over and inviting us to go with you and your girls.

Saturday morning was the parade and it is just around the corner from our home, so we packed the kids up and headed over to watch that. It was a lot of fun, once again with the Testers (I think we were the only ones who didn't go to the ward camp out).

That evening we had the Collette's over for a BBQ and Scott and Carma Parks ended up coming also. It was so much fun. A lot of laughs we had by everyone. (check out the Collette's blog for pictures) Later we all headed over to the park and watched the fireworks along with the Pitts and the Monson's. Good friends, good food, good fun, good memories, we are BLESSED!!!

Here is just a random picture I just took of fun times with the kids. I love my life :)