Vacation

So, I know that its been almost a month since we took our trip to Idaho. Im slow!

First off....epic fail! My mom allowed me to have a big bbq in the backyard and invite whoever I wanted. We mowed the lawn, set up the volleyball net, gazebo, and bbq pit and made several yummy salads and watched as John Monson and dad grilled hot dogs and hamburgers on two seperate bbq's. Friends and family came and it was sooooo much fun to see everyone and all their mini's (kids). But here is the failure...I didn't document it with a camera!


You can't visit east idaho without stopping here...Eating Rupes Ice Cream!!!!! The rootbeer swirl cones of course!

One of the worst parts about living so far away is not being able to see the grandparents (or from my kids perspective...great grandparents)

Grandma Chandler


Grandma and Grandpa Womack
I have a special relationship with my grandma and miss her sooooo much!


When we were talking about going to Idaho, the only thing that mya and keegan wanted to do was go fishing! We headed up to brush creek and dropped down into paradise where both my and keegan caught 20 fish in 2 days. Between Kyle, Chad, Mya and Keegan we had over 100 fish in 2 days....talk about paradise!

When I was growing up dad would bail the hay and we didn't have a fancy tracter to haul it so we would come home from school and get basic low boy trailer on the back of a pick up truck and stack them by hand (each bail weighing 40-60 lbs each) and then we had to drive them over and stack them for the winter. It's not that big of a field until you get out there hauling hay.

This visit, there was a neighbor with a tractor and Mya and Keegan found it fascinating!

Watching the pivot move is a lot like watching paint dry. It's so slow!

Grandma with Charlie (my brother Chad's little boy) and Jacob

We went to Micheals and found some crafts one day. This is mom and Mya stringing together necklaces.

And cute Jacob sitting on the front porch

It was great to be able to go home.

Its a Boa Constrictor

It was snake day at the library!

At the begining of the presentation he started out with tiny snakes....one that was a month old and they just kept getting bigger and bigger. Keegan was interested until about half way through and then he stopped touching them and didn't want the presentor to come close. Mya and Keelee were brave!

....and that boa constrictor was REALLY HEAVY!

Mya's is Seven!

For her birthday this year Mya wanted a real party. She wanted a sleepover with friends, cupcakes, and ice cream. I am sooooo thankful that she is easy to please! On Saturday before her birthday she went to chuck-e-cheeses. This is turining into a love birthday tradition! We saved the sleepover for the tuesday after her birthday because Monday was the fourth and everyone had family plans. She invited three friends over and we played musical chairs, spin the bottle, and had a scavenger hunt. The girls were able to decorate cupcakes and eat them and then we watched Tangled. The girls stayed up until 11 and were up at 6:45 the next morning so I felt like I had a birthday hangover afterwords. Mya declared that it was the best birthday ever! We are sooooo greatful to have Mya in our lives. Happy Birthday!!!!!

Jake's First Haircut!!!

It was time to say goodbye to the curls....... I hope they grow back, because he looks so much older without them.

Dad tried handed him the clippers as an attempt to make him comfortable. He loved it!

Now he is ready for a bath!

Playing at the Spray Park

Graduation from Daisy Scout to Brownie

Mya graduated from being a Daisy Scout to a Brownie this last week. This is her second year participating in Girl Scouts and she absolutly loves it!!!!! She has learned about different cultures, about the world around her, and how to treat others. She has the best leaders this year. Here are some pictures and a couple of video's from the ceremony.

Almost Summer!

I can only use Gerald's calling as the Bishop as an excuse as to why I am to busy to update the blog for so long....Things have slowed down considerably since I graduated and school will be out for the summer in five short days! I feel like I have climbed Mount Everest at this point! It has been a CrAZy year!

Let's start with the youngest....Jake turned one on April 6th. He keeps me really busy with all his energy. He wants to be right there with all the other kids and thinks that it is unfair that he has to be inside when the other kids are outside. I honestly can't believe that a year has already gone by. The older I get the faster that time fly's :)

Keegan is sooo excited to start kindergarten. This is all that I have heard about for the past three months and will continue to probably hear about for the next two and a half until it starts. Meanwhile he will continue to give me a heart attack with how active he is. Yesterday he was playing in the toy room when he fell and split open his head (just like his mother that did it three times when I was a kid). I feel like I stayed really calm even though there was blood everywhere. Boys will be boys right?

Mya understands the value of summer vacation this year. She was not happy to see kindergarten come to an end and didn't really understand why people NEEDED a summer vacation, but after this year she is looking forward to sleeping in and relaxing. She talks about all the time that we are going to spend at the library.

I can't make any promises, but I really hope that it isn't three more months until I update the blog again. I am hoping that this summer is going to have lots of "Bloggable" memories for us.

Happy Birthday!!!

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, (How many do we need?) 12,13,14,15,16,17,(this sure is a lot of candles)18,19,20,21 22,23,24,25,26,27,28 (are we there yet?) 29,30 (I don't know if they are all going to fit) 31,32,33............

It has been so fun to see the kids excitement over Dad's birthday. On the way to church Mya and Keegan were asking what we were going to do for Dad's birthday. I told them that it was going to be a suprise (mainly because I didn't want them rushing in to tell Gerald what we were going to do). They found him before sacrament started and with a big smile on their face and an enthusiastic tone belted out "happy birthday!" After church, they helped me make the cake. Keegan was in charge of the water and oil. I measured them and he dumped it into the bowl, and then he got to spray the cookie sheet with oil. I thought Mya would be old enough to operate the hand mixer but strawberry cakemix was on the floor and counter (fun times! Thanks Betty Crocker....you made all of our jobs easier!)

After the cake was in the oven they helped we wrap his gift, something that he had been asking for for a long time now......speakers for his I-phone. Then the hard part.....they had to wait for Gerald to get home. When they heard the door go up on the garage they ran downstairs to hide behind the bar to pop up and shout, "happy birthday!"

We love you Babe!!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!

Learning New Things!

Jake, trying to figure out why mom pulled out the camera.



What is wrong with this picture? I don't know if I should say that it is because he is smart or something else. He concentrated so hard to write his name BACKWORDS!!!



To save face, I wanted to make sure that you all knew that I have taught him how to write it the right way! Preschool has been so much fun with Keegan, Keegan and Joely. There favorite is singing songs about ducks and frogs while counting numbers. Keegan can almost count all the way to 100 by himself, but reading is another obstical that we have to overcome.



Jacob is walking! This just means more work for me because he can get into everything. He picked up on it really fast though. He has been walking around the furniture for awhile now but wasn't really brave enough to venture out out on his own. Over the weekend he started taking a couple of steps on his own. Yesterday he started standing up in the middle of the room by himself and now he takes four or five steps before he goes back to his bear crawl. It always amazes me how fast they pick things up. He really wants to be like the big kids.

This is a fun video of Mya and Keegan trying to get Jacob to make funny faces. He really has the cutest things that he has learned how to do lately. He has a fish face that makes everyone laugh when he does it. He also scrunches up his nose and smacks his lips. I love it when their personalities come out! It has been so fun to see how different he is compared to Mya and Keegan. He loves to make people laugh and will continue doing something as long as someone is laughing at him. He is such a joy to have in our family!!!!

Merry Christmas...Happy New Year!

Mya and Keegan Trying on Great Grandma Love's Fancy Hats.

Christmas Break was a blast! We packed the car and headed to the colder weather. It was a 20 hour trip to Milwaukee and a 20 hour trip home. On the way there we drove through the night. The kids watched movies and slept most of the time. It made for an easy commute. I can say that because Gerald drove most of it. I took the last five hours :) The kids were excited to see snow, but even though Gerald and I grew up in the cold, we had forgotten how cold it REALLY gets. I think thats because we are a little spoiled down here with our mild winters. Everyone was concerned about all of us getting sick that they rounded up coats for all of us. It was great to see everyone again. It had been about two and a half years since we had been back to Milwaukee. The best part about visiting family in Milwaukee are all the good cooks that are in the family. Everywhere we went there was something good cooking. My favorite was the fish fry on Christmas Eve. I think that I gained five pounds in the week that we were there. On the way home we stopped for the night just outside of Memphis Tenn. The next day seemed like it was taking forever to get home. I thought that the kids did really well traveling that far. Jacob was kind of rebelling on the last night of the trip and he was definatly greatful to get rid of the big coat that we kept putting on him. He did not like it at all. Someone had to distract him while someone else put it on him or he would start to cry. Another bonus of living in a place where we just need a light jacket once in a while.





I think that 2011 is going to be a good year for the Love's. One of the things that I am looking forward to is graduating from college with my bachelors. Another thing to look forward to in the year 2011 is Keegan starting kindergarten. I will feel like I have a lot of free time when I only have one at home. What am I going to do with myself when I don't have school or three kids at home......(I'm sure I will find something :) Anyway, we hope that your holidays were as good as ours.