Erik and I snuck away for a quick overnight trip to San Francisco this weekend to celebrate his 32nd birthday. His birthday also marks the 10th anniversary of our engagement.  We always joke that good things happen the day after your birthday as we started officially dating the day after my birthday and got engaged the day after his.  It’s been a great ten years and I love my Erik.

Here’s us 10 years ago…..

As you can see, being married to me has caused Erik to lose his hair….

So I’ve been trying to find the time to catch up on my blogging but as you can see my efforts have been in vain.  So I’ve decided that before my bad memory gets the best of me I better record a few choice memories:

Lincoln (1 week before Christmas):  ”Mom, I think I’m on the naughty list.”

Mom: “Why do you say that honey?”

Lincoln: “Well I’ve been making bad choices.”

Mom: “Well, Lincoln have you repented?”

Lincoln (in an anguished voice): “Yes, but I don’t think Santa’s a Mormon!”

(I assured him that even though I wasn’t sure of Santa’s religious affiliations, I am sure he believes in the concept of redemption.)

Rulon (following a FHE discussion about the Holy Ghost):  ”Mom….(head cocked to side and looking up at the sky), Jesus is talking to me.”

Mom: “Oh really…(slightly bewildered and wondering what prophetic news is about to be bestowed by 5-year-old son)..?

Rulon:  ”He says I need to hit Ellis.”

Mom:  ”No, Rulon, Jesus does not tell you to hit your sister!”

Rulon (later that night at dinner):  ”Mom, (head cocked to side and looking up again) Jesus is talking to me…”

Mom:  (this time on my guard)”Yes…?”

Rulon:  ”He says I don’t have to eat my carrots..”

Mom:  ”(sigh), Rulon, Jesus didn’t say that, Jesus likes carrots.”

I think we need to have a review session for our next Family Home Evening…

That’s what we call Rulon, or sometimes just “the guy.”  He is quite the little guy and we have loved having him in our home for the last 5 years.  He is very sweet and quiet yet at the same time is absolutely bursting with energy.  What a funny little kid.  I often say to Erik, I am still getting to know him, there are so many layers.

We celebrated his big day on August 19th with a party at (gulp) Chuck E. Cheese.  We are not Chuck E. Cheese fans but since “the guy” had not had an official birthday party before we decided to oblige.

We found Chuck E. Cheese to be a bit freaky.  Rulon just stood there frozen in place while Ellis’ friend, Vila refused to be put down.

Things started to look up as the kids were able to put some space between themselves and the over-sized rodent.

Rulon got to choose whatever he wanted to eat for breakfast.  He chose a hotdog…..

At the beginning of August we got the chance to take a trip to Island Park, ID (just outside of Yellowstone) where we had a family reunion with my parents and siblings and all of our kids.  We were able to find a huge log cabin to rent for the week that actually accommodated all of us (13 Adults and 17 children)!  We had so much fun exploring the park and mostly just hanging out, relaxing and letting the kids play with their cousins.

Our day in the park.  It was a lot of fun and brought back memories from when we visited when I was a kid.

Me and my cute sisters (Lisa and Angie)

The cousins!

Will and his cousin Brynley (they were born just a few weeks apart).

Ellie and daddy after a long day.

Will was such a good sport to be packed around.

Just a few bits and pieces from some of our favorite summer memories:

Lots and lots of swim meets…

Cooling off in the backyard…

Guitar Hero at Uncle Dallas & Aunt Kirsten’s house!

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For any of you that aren’t Barbara Streisand fans, that’s a line from the last song in the movie “Funny Girl.”  I thought of it as I walked in the house yesterday, after an early morning run, to find this sweet little scene:

I’ve got myself a good man, he’s a great dad and the hardest working person I know.  He’d stayed up until 3am the night before working and was still willing to help with the kids in the morning.  He’ll be rolling his eyes when he reads this, but honey, I don’t care, I love you!

If you’re interested in a little taste of Babs I included a little clip from the movie.

Ellis turned 3 on Tuesday, July 7th but we decided to go ahead and celebrate on the 4th of July while Aunt Kirsten and Uncle Dallas were here and Erik was home from work.  We had a fun barbecue, opened presents and had cake.  It was definitely a princess birthday!  We gave her the Cinderella dress and Barbie but Aunt Kirsten stole the show with the gorgeous Tinker Bell outfit and wings!

I love this picture.  What a crazy little family and what’s with Lincoln using his party favor as a stogie?

We couldn’t let the day of Ellis’s actual birthday go by without any fanfare.  She got the customary candle in her breakfast, wore her cute birthday outfit she received from Grandma Doris and got to do lunch and play land at Burger King.  It’s official our baby girl is all grown up!

Blogging has certainly taken a backseat to real life lately but since this is the only way I do any documenting of our life I realized that it needs to put back on the top of my list.  I worried going into this summer that it might be a painfully boring three months confined in the house with a new baby.  I pictured kids bouncing off the wall and me tearing my hair out but it hasn’t been half bad and only with the most minor bouts of bouncing and hair tearing.  We’ve stayed really busy and baby Will seems to enjoy the busy lifestyle he’s been plucked into.

At the end of May Rulon graduated from preschool which means my sweet little Ru will be in Kindergarden next year!  He has a cute little graduation ceremony and got to share a fun year with his best buddies, Jack and Brett.

Lincoln finished first grade and was very much excited to leave the pressures of his “studies” behind him for a summer.   Ah, the stress these 1st graders must endure!  Lincoln and Mrs. Hicklin:

The boys got to go on a fun overnight with Erik for the Father and Sons outing.  Ellie was sad she didn’t get to go so Erik set up the tent in the backyard when they got home the next day.  The kids thought it was great, the grass in our back yard not so much..

Memorial weekend we barbequed and then decided to take the kids up to the top of Mt. Diablo to enjoy the gorgeous view.  Ellie did not enjoy the views on the way back down and ended up losing her lunch in my canvas library bag.

Erik further deepened Lincoln’s obsession for guitars when he took him to Guitar Center to check out the merchandise.  Lincoln was thrilled and informed me that when he goes to college he wants to major in being a rock star.  I’ll have to check the course directory at BYU for that one…

My lastest nerdy obsession?  Couponing!  I know…weird, but I really love it.  I’ve stumbled across all these crazy couponing bloggers and I really gotten into it.  I can’t tell you the high I get when I score a box of granola bars for a quarter, or a tube of toothpaste for free.  Oh, yeah..  One of my recent shopping trips, all for $29.00 (yes, I did take a picture of my food):

We really love Chabot Space and Science Center!  As one of the prizes for the summer reading program at the library the kids got free passes, so we had to make a trip.  It helped to have Kirsten and Erik there to help with brood. Check out Rulon’s obscene space suit:

We’ve joined a community pool and have also been really busy with swim team.  Lincoln’s on the team and gets to compete in swim meets once or twice a week.  Rulon and Ellis are a part of the mini team which means they go daily and have swim lessons with the older members of the team.  Once they can swim the length of the pool by themselves they get to be on the team too. They all love it, although “Princess Ellie” doesn’t like getting her head wet, which I see has a potential hinderance to her progress.  A post and pictures on swim team to come…