love these boys

Luke decided to join daddy for a bit of weightlifting

He had a lot of fun, but I think it made it a little harder for daddy to concentrate.

Caleb and Ariel

On the 26th of June, Trev's brother Caleb married Ariel in the Bountiful Temple. The wedding was beautiful. They also had great weather for the day. I should have taken more pictures, but honestly, I forgot. Oh well, I'm sure there'll be some lovely ones taken by the wedding photographer- maybe I'll update later.

The wedding colours were hot pink and green. We bought matching ties for all the little boys to wear. Here's Luke and cousin Braylen, who doesn't seem very happy but I'm not sure why.

And I made a little dress for baby Lainey (the only girl) Here she is with her great-grandpa Peterson.

And I just love this one- Luke with his great-grandpa Guild. So cute!

Unfortunately, Lainey fell off the stage at the reception and hit her head on the floor, giving us quite a scare. She was a little bit sick and we had to leave before the end. But she was okay by the time we got home and back to her usual cheeky self.

new arrival :-)

Welcome to our first niece, Lily Watts! Lily was born last week and she's just perfect. My brother, Jonny and his wife Cassie now have a boy and a girl, and what cuties they are! I only wish we could be with them and cuddle this little bundle-

Isn't she just darling?!

Congratulations to a lovely family!

ps. can you believe this was only a few hours after Cassie had given birth? lucky thing...

water

A few days ago we went swimming for the first time this summer. It was Lainey's first time in a pool, and my first time since before my mission (that's 6 years....yikes!) We all had a good time and we discovered that Lainey is just as fearless as Luke in the water. And just as independent. There's no relaxing for mum and dad when we go to the pool!

We bought punch passes, so we'll be going many more times this summer. Which is just as well, because a certain little miss can't get enough of the water...

Yes, that's a bowl of cleaning water that she climbed into, fully dressed while mama's back was turned.

Memorial day

We were completely amazed when Trevor was not scheduled to work on Memorial day this year. He never gets holidays off, ever. We decided to have a picnic and some fun up in Logan Canyon. But then we got locked out of our apartment with no car keys. Oooops. I must admit I was so disappointed, I threw my two-days-old phone pretty hard onto the grass outside our house. But once my tantrum died down, we decided to make the best of it and eat our picnic in the back yard.

I wasn't in a good enough mood yet to get any pictures.

Then we headed to a playground that we really like. It has lots of stuff for the kids to do and it's quite safe compared to some of the others we've been to.

Us! I wonder what got Lainey's attention...

And on the way home, Luke had his very first Slurpee!

We had lots of fun and decided that we need to do many more little trips like this when we get the chance. (when the rain goes away)

ps. I love walking in the cemetery the day/week after memorial day. The flowers are so pretty!

meeting Ros

At the end of May, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with my dear friend and former mission companion, Ros. Ros lives in England, and she travelled to Salt Lake en route to visit friends in North Carolina. I'm so glad she stopped in Utah, because it was simply lovely to talk with her and share a few memories. We served in South Shields together, in 2005.

I just love her positive attitude about everything. She is just a delight to be with and I'm happy we had chance to serve together- she's an example to me. It's just a shame she lives so far away.

We decided to make a day of it, we took the kids for their first visit to the Salt Lake Temple grounds. There was a lot of building work going on in downtown SLC so it was a bit hard to navigate.

On the way home, we stopped at Smith and Edwards, a massive shop that sells lots of random things. We can never leave there without buying stuff that we didn't plan on buying. This time we bought a puzzle for Lainey and a little tractor for Luke (which he has labelled his 'cool tractor') I was lucky and came away with a nice outdoorsy type coat.

They sell cowboy hats of all sizes.

And they sell saddles too. Luke tested out a few. This picture was taken a few minutes before we lost Luke. I suppose he just made the most of the opportunity to escape, and ran away. Trev immediately went to the door in case someone tried to take him from the store, while I frantically flew around trying to locate him. When I did find him, he was in the fishing department, playing with those little plastic ball floats. Panic over. It was a scary incident though.

giddy up

In mid-may, our friends Craig and Tiffany got married, so we travelled up to WY for the reception, and then stayed at the ranch for the weekend. The weather was perfect for being outside, and we had lots of fun.

Lainey had her first time on the trampoline. Here she is with cousin Taven-

Luke got to meet one of the many kittens that were recently born.

Aunt Annie took Luke for a ride. They just rode around the yard. Look at the rude horse, sticking his tongue out for the camera!

Lainey got to 'ride' too. Cousin Corben took good care of her! She loved stroking the horse's mane, which was no surprise, since she plays with my hair a lot- almost obsessively!

One of the highlights for Luke was going feeding with daddy and grandpa. He loved driving the enormous truck and watching the cows gather round for their breakfast!

Grandma, Lainey and I drove down to meet them a little later. We watched grandpa load the hay.

And we said 'hello' to the cows.

It was a fun weekend, and we all ended up pretty tired!

St. George's day photo shoot

Every year it gets a little more fun and challenging to do our St George's day photo shoot!

Gone are the days when the babies will just sit and smile sweetly, with the English flag as a back drop. These days they would rather crawl under it, wrap themselves up in it, scrunch it up, fight under it...you get the idea.

It makes for some very...er...vibrant pictures.

Just for comparison, here are a couple of photos from past years.

2008-

2009-

I should probably point out to my American friends that St. George's day is not really celebrated in England, and certainly not with photo shoots like this. I just do it because I want my kids to have a sense of both parts of their heritage, and it's convenient to remember to take pictures on a certain day. So, April 23rd it is!

A rainy day

My babies are so much fun. I love them enormously.

I think that a child's curiosity and exploration are some of the most inspiring things to behold.

Getting ready for Easter

A few days before Easter, Luke and I made these yummy treats. I almost didn't bother because the shops were all sold out of Cadbury's Mini Eggs, but decided to use 'Robin's eggs' instead. (They're like Maltesers with a hard shell) Obviously not as good as Cadbury's, but oh well...at least there wasn't a massive bag of the best chocolate in the world sitting around the house.

Then, we went up to the ranch for a couple of days. There had been some snow, so the kids got to go on the snow machines with grandma. At one point, she had three kids on the snow machine, and three on a sledge being pulled behind.

While we were there we dyed eggs for Easter. It was my first time ever dying eggs (at age 28- I know!). I loved doing it and after everyone else was finished, Trev's mom, Trev and I were the only hardcore ones who kept going until all the eggs were dyed.

Luke searching for the perfect colour crayon.

Watching with delight as the egg changes colour.

We also had lots of free time to just play inside. It's amazing how much the kids love to play with different toys, and different playmates.

Here are Luke and Corben being little rascals, I think they were stealing some crackers and got caught in the act.

And Corben at it again, this time with chocolate chips! He is such a cute little boy, how can you say no to that face?!

The little ones got some chocolate chips too.

What a fun couple of days!