Utah!

Justin had 2 weeks of vacation that we saved for the end of his first year residency, so we headed down to Utah early before my family reunion and played a little! I love Utah. I love Provo. Mostly because of BYU and all of it's memories and important firsts and life events that happened there...(nursing school, meeting Justin, marrying Justin, having Zachypoo, graduating...). Plus my kids LOVE going to Utah because we play with cousins! They love to just go to Nani's house (my sister Katie's girl) and play with whatever they have there. Kate has a special connection with Nani. She loves her. I hear about her daily, and especially how she wants to go to "Nan's." :) Cute. We got there on a Tuesday, had a big family picnic in the park where I got to meet the other 2 brand new babies. Adaleigh isn't even the youngest in our family. She was for only 3 days! HA! Then her little buddy Aleia Jane came. :) The next morning went to Seven Peaks with Katie, Carrie, and Chris's families. It was so fun. Kinda hard with a baby, but the kids had a blast and I even went on a few slides with them. Water slides...not my forte. I kinda think water parks are dirty and gross and I dislike wearing a bathing suit. Especially 6 weeks post partum. Fun. Just not melting off like it did with the twins, darn it!

 Papa meeting Adaleigh for the first time. He couldnt' come when my mom did. It was fun to watch him oogle over her. :)

 This is my oldest brother's wife, Sherelda. She has the youngest grandchild. Adaleigh and Aleia are 3 days apart. That's her cute girl Aubree too. Aubree and Aleia are the only girls in a family of 8 kids! It was fun to meet little Aleia and think how close Addie will be in age to her. So fun. I never had any cousins close by to play with, these guys are lucky!

 This picture is funny because I am holding Aliea, Sherelda is holding Adaleigh, and Chris has Cannon, Katie's boy. These 3 are 6 weeks apart.

The day after we got there we went to the water park there, Seven Peaks. I mostly stayed and watched my baby and such, but the kids had a great time! They loved the water and the heat and being there with cousins.

Kara with Carrie and cute little Malia.

 Fun with some Olsingch and Hopoate cousins on the lazy river.

 Later in the day Papa and Mer Mer came and did baby duty for us so we could go play too. Dad has Cannon and mom has Adaleigh.

Doosh. Nice shot 'cuz. Got her.

 Cannon the ladies man.

 My sister Carrie and her ADORABLE little girl Malia. So so cute.

Papa and Aleia. It was a really fun day. 5 out of the 6 siblings were there! I love my family.

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day worked out to be the day before we left on our Utah vacation/reunion. AND Justin just had his birthday! Let's spread out the celebrations a little bit people??! Although really, Justin deserves to be celebrated every day. ;) He really is an AMAZING dad. People often say that I am superwoman since surviving a toddler and twins and now we added another, but honestly, without Justin this ship would not be sailing so smoothly! He keeps everything in order and in line and helps bring some sanity to our fun house. :) Thank you for all of the dishes, baths, stories, bedtimes, meals, and referring you help with dearee! The kids love you so much and I love you more! :)

His morning started out with a tiny bit of sleeping in with Addie girl.

...While I made this! Yum. I love breakfast. I want that fruit salad again. This meal sure helped us clean out our fridge before leaving on vacation! And the kids ate every last bite without prodding. That's a successful meal.

 Ha ha. Loving everyone's expressions here. And Kara, our helmet head. :) Packaging still on and all. I got these for the girls and they wore them everywhere for a few days. Not a bad idea in our house!

So Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there. I really do have 3 of the BEST fathers in my life. Love them and am SO grateful for them all. At church they handed out a huge cookie to each dad...not to compare, but you know what we got? A beautiful carnation. A flower. Yep. Next time how about a flower WITH a chocolate attached to it or something. We are women, but we still enjoy a treat! :) No matter. Justin had to share his cookie with all of us anyway. Poor guy. ;)

Old McGrandpa Has a Farm...a Ranch...Whatever

Well, Kate has been asking (crying actually) for months to go to Grandpa French's Ranch. Really whenever she had a melt down she would carry it on forever and then end it with "and we NEVER get to go go Grandpa French's. I NEVER get to go....wahhhh...wahh....over and over again. So one day when we were getting ready to go to Utah, Justin took the 3 older kids to Great Grandpa French's to see the horses!!! Kate was SO HAPPY when I told her she was going. So was I. I didn't get to go, but I am so proud of Justin taking pictures for me. I really missed out, but I really needed to stay back and get ready to go to our family reunion.

 Aren't they BEAUTIFUL!!!! There is a bit of country girl in me. I always wanted a "cowboy (to) take me away..." Well, I got the grandson of one. Close enough!

 Instead of the kids getting out of the car and stepping in the muddy, poopy field Justin drove right in to the field and opened all of the windows. Doesn't Justin have a nice finger? :)

 Kate LOVES horses.

 The horses were VERY curious and all started surrounding the van. They started licking the windows, sticking their noses in, and even drooling green slime in a few spots on our seat. Gross. Even grosser was Justin left it like that for a few days so he could show me, and then show his mom (who grew up on that ranch and LOVES horses too...although she thought that was gross.)

 Pure joy.

 Nasty Drooler.

 The best day of Kate's life.

 After they saw the horses Justin drove around to try and find Grandpa. He finally found him fixing the old tractor with a friend. Zach wanted to get up in the tractor and Grandpa let him. By the time Justin got up there Zach was pulling levers (pronounced leevers by Justin...ha! My Canadian.) and pushing buttons. Luckily he didn't get it started. Grandpa wasn't mad though. He is certain that Zach is going to buy the Ranch from him. Grandpa's little Cowboy. I think maybe he should bank more on Kate.

 Then they all got a chance to get up there.

 Kate's seeing her future...and liking it.

Happy Cutie pies. Thanks for "finally" taking them to Grandpa French's Daddy! Now what will Kate cry about??

Zach's Preschool Graduation

Zach graduated from Preschool mid June. What a great accomplishment. We are sure proud. Ha ha! Justin started his 2 weeks off then, so he was able to come with us. It was cute to watch the kids do their ABCs and songs and stories they learned.

 Waiting for the graduation to start. I love watching Justin with Adaleigh. She loves her daddy...and he loves her! I think with the girls we were so busy in school and church and baby mode that we didn't dote on them as much as we dote on Addie! Everyone loves having this baby around.

 Kara snapped this awesome picture of us. :)

 Zach's in the yellow shirt, front row...

 

 I SOOO wish this wasn't blurry. Grr. Bad lighting, slow camera, bad photographer. This was them as they were walking by. I found the "kids and animal"setting soon after.

 They made these cute memory pages for the kids.

 And his diploma. What an accomplishment. 1 yr down, 25 to go...(if he is a Doctor).

 His teachers Mrs. Shearer and Mrs. Fletcher. I LOVED Mrs. Fletcher especially. She was so great with the kids, loved her job, and had so much energy.

 Zach with his friend Charlie. He says he is going to marry her some day. Hey, it could happen. Especially in Southern Alberta! Small mormon world!

Zach with Charlie and Tylee.

Good work bud! Glad you love school so much!

Girls in White dresses...

Here are some random girly pictures. :)

 My month old Adaleigh all zonked out.

I love when I catch my kids like this...play time!!! Outside in tennis shoes, a Rapunzel dress up dress, sunglasses, and a bucket. Pretty sure she was collecting caterpillars. Yum.

I love this picture. Addie girl is 1 month here. Justin was holding her and I said "Smile Just!" Miss Adaleigh smiled too. :) Love this girl. She is seriously the smiliest baby, almost from birth. So fun.

Recently I've been bringing Addie into the girls room when I put them to bed. I feel like it helps them calm down a bit. We read stories and then pray and sing songs. She might look a little scared here, but Addie LOVES when we sing to her and smiles the whole time. This was the first night I did it. It was so cute to see all of my girls. :) They thought it was pretty special.

A little more relaxed...

Okay, too much love!

My sleeping beauties. :)

  

 Justin's cousin Jaclyn got married. Kara was ALL about this wedding! She LOVES brides and dresses. Once we were at the temple and saw a bride. We didn't know her, but she just wanted to go up to her and see her and talk to her and tell her her white dress was beautiful. What a girly girl.

 Congratulations Jaclyn and Justin!! Funny thing is that Jaclyn and her mom always talked about her finding her "Justin" (talking about my Justin, her cousin). Well, she did just that! With the name Justin and all! They are a beautiful couple and will do so well together. I love weddings. They make me so happy!!

The girls LOVED the reception and all of the decorations and pictures of Jaclyn and Justin. They were so fun and funny about it! "Oh mom! Look at this one! There's Jaclyn. She's bootiful." She sure was. A beautiful bride Jaclyn!