The Haws reunion begins with some 4th of July fun!

On the 4th of July my dad and Emma flew into town.  Shortly after they showed up, in walked Uncle Jay, Uncle Scot, Aunt Nancy and Aunt Sally.  Scot, Nancy and Sally had just flown in from Washington.  

Let the Haws family reunion begin!  

We all sat around the table shooting the bull for a little while and then headed over to Aunt Cindy's house where the real party began!

Cindy had a pool set up for the kids to swim.  The kids had a blast!  Well, all except for Reagan! She thought that she was going to die for some reason!  Reagan's swim lasted all but about 2 minuets!  It took longer to change her in and out of her bathing suite than it did for her to decide she hated swimming!  

We had hamburgers and chips, a variety of delicious salads and desserts and homemade root beer!  It was lovely!  Everyone hung out in the back yard where the weather was perfect!  It was a lot of fun!

  My Aunt Cindy lives next door to the BYU Stadium where Miley Cyrus and The Blue Man Group were performing at the Stadium of Fire.  My mom walked the kids a little closer so they could see Miley Cyrus on the jumbo screen.  She forgot to tell me that she was taking them and when I noticed that they were missing I panicked!   Luckily we found them and I could calm down and enjoy the awesome firework display!

Talan loved the fireworks!

You can't really see the fireworks in this picture but they were there!

After the show we hung around until the traffic died down and then we headed back home.  It was a late night but lots of fun!

4th of July breakfast in the canyon

Here we are at our favorite little spot up the American Fork Canyon for a 4th of July breakfast and family picture.  I think that this is the first picture of all of us since Talan was born.

My Aunt Camille came with us.  She made us extremely yummy whole wheat pancakes with fresh blueberries in them.  David made us bacon and eggs.  There is just something fun about eating breakfast with nature.  Minus a few flies would have been nice but it was still fun, flies and all!

I really enjoyed my moms visit!  We had a lot of fun just hanging out.  I thoroughly enjoy any time I get to spend with my family.  It's a blessing and a joy!

David got himself a BBQ apron and chefs hat and Ethan especially likes wearing the hat.  Ethan is such a cute kid!  After our 4th of July breakfast Camille took Ethan, Bradon, and Carsten hiking up to the Timpinogos caves. They all had a really good time!  Thank you Camille for taking good care of my boys and building memories that will last forever!  

Bradon is always moving!  It's hard to get him to sit still long enough to catch a picture.  But here he is with his extremely short hair cut.  (I forgot to put an attachment on the buzzers!  Oops!)  Several family members have asked him how chemotherapy is going.  He doesn't get it!  Huh?

Carsten is still strutting the Mohowk!  Everywhere he goes people are saying, "Hey, I like the Mohawk!"  To tell you the truth it's kind of growing on me!  Carsten is so cute I think he could get away with any kind of hair do.

Reagan was trapping ants with her cup.  Reagan also fell right on top of her head while we were there.  We aren't so sure just how she managed to fall but somehow she lost her balance and landed smack on her head.  She cried about it for a little bit but she's pretty tough and got over it.  She's got to be tough with all those brothers!  Do you like the pink socks?  That's a battle Reagan and I had that morning and I lost!  I guess you just have to pick your battles.  She sure liked em, and I guess that's all that really matters!  Cute girl!

My sweet little bug a boo is just so sweet!  Talan slept for most of our canyon adventure.  And then just after our family picture he had a little blow out and we had to change his outfit into something a little less patriotic.  Thank heavens we got the picture first!  (Like it really matters, but it does!) 

 I just love this boy!

Grandma Haws is here!

Last Friday my mom came into town.  David picked her up at the airport and took her to The Gateway Mall where we met her for lunch and to go to The Gateway Children's Discovery Museum.  The kids were so excited to see her and I was too!  It's always good to have mom/grandma around!

Since she has been here we have gone to the Sweet's Candy Factory in Salt Lake City for a factory tour (where Reagan threw a fit because she didn't want to wear the mandatory hairnet because she thought it would make her look stupid.  So long story short, Reagan and my mom sat in the car instead of going on the tour and they battled it out.  Grandma won the battle and Reagan was good after that.),  to the movies to see Wall E, to Carsten and Bradon's baseball games (Bradon got to pitch in his game and he did an excellent job.  4 up 3 down, all 3 down were strike outs!), out to lunch with the girls, to the BYU creamery and then to the Riverwoods to eat a 1/2 gallon of ice cream with our 8 plastic spoons!  

We have had so much fun!  Other than that we have been sitting around at home hanging out with each other  or going to local stores for groceries and odds and ends.

My aunt Camille came on Sunday night with my cousin Jett and Jett's 3 friends.  They spent the night and then Camille took the girls to EFY Monday morning.  Camille then went to spend time with her sister in Kaysville and then came back here again on Wednesday.  It's been a lot of fun having her here to play with.  She is one of the nicest people on the planet and a lot of fun to be around.  My mom says that she could make a mud turtle feel good about himself.  That's just how nice she is!

We have a Haws reunion starting on the 4th and going through the 8th.  My dad flies into town tomorrow for that.  We have been trying to get things together for the family reunion auction.  It should be a lot of fun getting together with everyone and going and doing fun things.  I'll try to take pictures to post of the reunion events.

Tomorrow morning I think that we are going to go up the canyon for breakfast.  We'll see, but that's the plan for now!

It's a busy Summer!

The Lehi Rodeo

For the third year in a row now, we have gone to the Lehi Rodeo.  It has become our family tradition!  We love it!  David put his cowboy hat on and we were ready for a family night of fun at the rodeo!  Pretty cute huh!

Cowboys are crazy!  It's amazing to watch these cowboys do their thing.  It all looks so painful to me!  Bradon tells me that he wants to ride the bulls when he grows up.  He thinks that that looks like the funnest thing!  I tried to explain the danger involved with bull riding but he still thinks that bull riding is where it's at!

This is Liselle the clown.  He is absolutely hilarious!  He always says thing to people out in the audience.  He can actually be quite rude, yet funny all at the same time.  Well this year he looked out into the audience and said "Man, there sure are a lot of beautiful ladies here tonight. But lots of ugly men!"  The other announcer guy told him that he was being rude and that he shouldn't say things like that.  Then Liselle said "If your a man and you know that you're ugly, then raise your hand."  Lots of men raised their hands.  David was leaned over talking with Reagan while this was going on and so he didn't raise his hand.  So then Liselle said while pointing at David, "Hey you in the cowboy hat!" David looked up at him like...WHAT?  Then Liselle said "Raise your hand!"  So David raised his hand.  Then he said "You should have been the first to raise your hand, in fact you're so ugly you should raise both hands!"  The audience laughed and David played along and I think he then raised both of his hands.  It was pretty funny!  And I imagine a little embarrassing for David!            

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The Primary Carnival

This is one of Ethan's best friends, Marcus.

This last week we put on a primary carnival.  We had the senior primary plan and prepare games that they ran for the junior primary.  The senior primary was thrilled to be able to somewhat be "in charge", and the junior primary was thrilled to be able to go.  Ethan and his friend Marcus made this clown.  We got scrap wood from my cousin Jeremy and had him cut out the whole for their face.  Then the boys drew a picture and painted it.  It was a wet sponge in the face game.  They got soaked running the game and Marcus had a few bloody noses, but all in all the game was a "hit" and they had a good time!

This is Carsten and his friend Tanner.  They were just sitting down enjoying some popcorn and soda pop.  

We made each kid treat tickets that they could redeem for a drink, popcorn, cotton candy and a balloon.  Each kid also had a name tag pinned on them when they came in.  There were 12 balloons on it representing the 12 games they could play.  If they played all 12 games and had their balloons checked off then they could turn their name tag in and receive a candy treat bag as well.

These are two of my dear friends making cotton candy.  Keri on the left and Shari on the right.  We all serve together in the primary presidency and we get along real well.  I'm very thankful for good friends like these.  

So the carnival was a lot of work but I think that the kids all had a blast!  And that's what makes it all worth it in the end!

Memories

I got this from a friend's blog.  I thought it would be fun! I hope you will play along.

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments

Tooth fairy...

While at church on Sunday, Bradon lost another tooth!  He came home, put it in a zip lock bag, and put it under a folded blanket that he planned on using as a pillow that night.  Later he went to bed and the next morning while he was getting ready to go to summer school he casually told me that the tooth fairy hadn't come.  I was shocked!  Oh my gosh, he didn't come!  And then I sounded something like this..... "Well, did you have the tooth under your pillow?  It was under a folded blanket?  Well I think that you're suppose to put it under a pillow, not a blanket!  Try putting it under a pillow tonight, I'm sure he will come!"  So the next night he gets out a pillow and puts the tooth under the pillow.  The next morning Bradon once again casually mentions that the tooth fairy failed to come AGAIN.  This time I just about died!  "What?  He didn't come again?  Was your tooth under your pillow or just a blanket?  Under your pillow?  Gosh Bradon, I don't know what to tell you!  I'm so sorry bud!"  So the next night before Bradon even when to bed he looked under his pillow to make sure that his tooth was still there.  

He found a one dollar bill and his tooth was finally gone!  

What's with our lame tooth fairy?  

Summertime fun at The Hogle Zoo!

                                    

                                    

Lions, Tigers and Bears oh my!

Well actually, according to the pictures above it's more like, 

Elephants, White alligators, Bears and Monkeys oh my!

We went to The Hogle Zoo again on Friday.  I have a yearly pass to The Hogle Zoo, Thanksgiving Point, The living planet Aquarium, and The Children's Discovery museum.  I am trying to make it a point to get my money out of all of my yearly passes.  So every Friday we have been trying to go on little field trip.  It helps break up our week and gives us something to look forward to.  The Gregory's are our neighbors and they have yearly passes to all the same places so we have been going together.  It has been a lot of fun!  Our kids are all really close in age and we have a good time hanging out together.  The kids all get along really well!  

We went to the bird show.  It was awesome!  They had birds flying right over our heads!  This picture above is of us waiting for the bird show to start.

We ended up staying at the zoo a lot longer than we thought we would.  We went to the bird show, the kids rode on the train and the new carousel.  Time just seemed to fly by.  This is a picture of all the kids just before we headed home.  Yes, 8 boys and 2 girls!  The Gregory's family is just like ours.  4 boys and 1 girl!  We make quite the bunch!   

Father's Day golf outing with dad!

 For Father's Day (well actually the day before) we went to Fox Hollow's driving range to hit a few balls!  The kids all like to play golf with their dad, and I know that dad loves to play golf with his kids!  We had a good time!  It was a wonderful family activity!

  

  

   

A family who golfs together,

 stays together!

(Well at least that's what we're hoping for!)

Carsten lost his first tooth!

I failed to mention that Carsten lost his first tooth.  I have decided that we are late teeth getters and losers in our family.  Carsten is 6 1/2 years old and finally loosing his first tooth!  The tooth fairy came and gave him a 2 dollar bill, a pack of gum, a new toothbrush and toothpaste.  Well worth it if you ask me!  I was telling Carsten that when he loses his next tooth he needs to give the money to his dad and I because we are poor people and could really use the money!

The Dairy Festival

We went to the Thanksgiving Point Farm for the Dairy Festival.  We took the Gledhill kids and we met the Gregory's there.  Reagan got to ride on a horse all by herself and she loved it!

The festival was pretty fun!  They had games and activities for the kids.  My favorite game was cow pie bingo.  They painted a bingo grid on the floor of the cow pen, and the cow did all the work!  The kids got to make their own butter, their own homemade ice cream and sample milk and ice cream as well.  This picture is Bradon and Max on the wagon ride.  (Bradon's homemade ice cream has a leak!)

They made their own homemade ice cream that they had to shake up in a zip lock bag.  They thought that it was so yummy!  They acted like they had never had homemade ice cream before.  Maybe they hadn't, poor deprived children!  Well, we solved that little problem and got David an ice cream maker for father's day.  (We have been eating ice cream everyday since.)  This is a picture of Callie, Taylor and Reagan eating their homemade ice cream.  Yum!

This is Bradon, Carsten, Max and Ethan sampling chocolate milk and ice cream from Meadow Gold.  All in all I think that the kids had a good time.  Carsten desperately wanted to buy a chic to take home.  We had to explain to him that even though the chic only cost $2.00, there were a lot of other things the chic would need and he didn't have money for that.  He was pretty sure that the chic could live in his bedroom and eat whatever food we had around the house.  When we explained how much a chic pooped, he decided that the chic could live with our dog Teegs.  I think that Teegs would like that! Yum!