I'm so ashamed!

I hate to admit it, but last Friday was the first time we've been up in the canyons since moving back to Utah!! Before we moved to VA I don't think I missed a week without going for a hike up in the mountains. It's really a cryin' shame that we haven't been more. But, I've gotten back in touch with one of my favorite friends from my childhood Lisa (Ruben) Moore and we went up to the canyons to make hobo dinners. Finally.

Here's Lisa's little girl Sydney and our boys.


Our fire died so we figured it meant our food was done. But some people aren't huge fans of overly rare hamburger, so the boys chopped up a big old tree and attempted to finish fixing our dinner. In the process we got a lot of smoke. But the food turned out to be pretty darn tastey.


Here's Lisa attempting to keep her twins out of the fire.


We finished off the night at Lisa and Josh's house with a little 'Ticket to Ride' America style. We got a little mountain and fire to please the misses and a little gaming to please the Jared. All in all it was a fun night!!

My grandparents have been two of the greatest examples in my life. This morning I lost my grandma. She helped me become the person that I am today. I am going to miss hearing her laugh-you could hear it from a mile away and you couldn't help but start laughing yourself. I am going to miss seeing her enter a room with a different shirt on every time she came in because she couldn't keep the shirt she had on clean. I am going to miss hearing her tell stories about Dedham and about Fish Friday. I am going to miss going to Jackson Hole with her. I am going to miss hearing her tell me how wonderful she thinks I am and that she prays for me. I am going to miss having her in the congregation everytime I play the violin. I am really going to miss watching my grandma and grandpa go walking hand in hand every day. I am so lucky to have had such a wonderful grandmother who loved her family so much and created so many wonderful memories for all of us to cherish. I am so thankful she was able to be such an important part of my life. I can't imagine living life without her. I am so grateful to know that families are forever and that we will be able to see her again.

I'm starting to see a trend....

I am a very routine oriented person and I like to do things my way and I have to do the same things the same way EVERY time. I have gotten better since having kids and marrying a man who is the antidote to OCD. But there are two things Jared has not been able to get in the way of and those are exercise and laundry. I'm pretty sure the one inevitabley leads to the other because I would never choose to do laundry everyday if it were avoidable. Perfect strangers (on several occasions) have come up to me at the gym and handed me a towel, hence the reason why everyday is laundry day around here.

SO I have noticed a trend when I do laundry, I have been trying to avoid it and pretend I don't actually buy the same pair of pants every time I go to the store, but I think it's time to admit that I might have a problem.

These are all the workouts pants I own. I ventured out and bought some gray shorts, but those are not to work out in. I wear them when I have to do laundry. And the blue capris was just an affair I had a long time ago. I keep them around for times I feel like living on the edge.



I have tried to overcome my problem, but I have realized that I am genetically pre-destined to be a little obsessive compulsive. Almost all of these shirts are from my mom.



Jared's starting to catch on too. I don't remember the last time he went into Target or Walmart without coming back out with a new pair of shorts. And yes, the ones on the left are swimming suits. But he still wears them as everyday shorts. I'm guessing because he doesn't have enough regular shorts to get by.



I don't mean to sound dramatic but I'm pretty sure Jared has a problem.

300 lbs+7 1/2 months pregnant=SALSA!!

What do you get when a 7 1/2 month pregnant girls decides to hand pick over 300 pounds of tomatoes?!? 175 JARS OF SALSA
Jared's sister Sharidee makes the best salsa in the world. I told her next time she does it I want to join her, so she called me last Monday and said they were going to be making salsa. All I needed were 75-80 pounds of tomatoes, 16 green peppers, 9 onions, spices and jars. I did the math and figured I'd spend over 200 dollars on salsa. I don't actually have a million dollars to invest in really yummy salsa, so I had to decline this year. But Luckily she called back and she said she just got done hand picking tomatoes and she got them for less than 25 cents a pound. That's when I got really happy that I decided to call her back AFTER she was all done picking the tomatoes. So off to the Weavers I went for 2 looooong days of jarring salsa. I never knew how much work goes into farming and picking and jarring. I have to say, IT'S WORTH IT (as long as someone else does the farming and picking) I'll never touch another jar of Pace again! All I need is a really nice sister-in-law who will do all the hard work while I sit back and eat fresh salsa. Life's not too shabby around here for me.
Here's Sharidee still smiling after all her crazy hard work!!

Here's Shaylee after blanching, peeling, and processing over 300 pounds of tomatoes.

Here are all of us you husbands can thank for all the home made salsa!!!

Thanks Shanna for being the muscles, and Shaylee for not stabbing us with that knife, and Kenz for adding some spice, and Mom for letting us make a mess of your house, and Shar for making us work really hard!

Weaver family fun

A couple of weeks ago Jared had a fun idea to go ride horses at Grandmapa Weaver's house.
Here's Jackson and Jared. Jackson takes after his whimpy old mom and is VERY cautious of animals.

Tanner is not so cautious...about ANYTHING!

Here are the boys and some of their cousins.

I've ridden a horse twice. The first time the horse fell over while running and the second time we got lost up in the mountains at night. But even after all that Jared convinced me to get back on, but I don't think we even made it around the whole backyard before I wussed out. So here's me trying to get off the horse. I enjoy a lot of things. Handing my life over to an oversized animal is not one of them. But the kids really had fun and so did Jared despite the "raw hide" :)

Here's Jared, after a long day of riding horses, he thought he'd give his hide a break. That's just about what happened when he sat down fast into that hammock.

Summer Funtivities

This last weekend my cousin Tiffany and my cousin Amy's son Cameron had a birthday so we celebrated by having what Tiffany called a "DI fashion show" I was a little worried that we were going to show up and be the only ones that looked so good, but EVERYONE dressed up and it was really fun. I bought a sweet red leather skirt for a couple of bucks for Jackson but he said, "Mom, I be NEVER a girl" so he ended up wearing one of his Dad's old nasty t-shirts. Tanner really loved being a "princess" despite Jared's concerns.

Here's the whole gang. Pretty good looking bunch wouldn't ya say?!?

Here's the birthday girl struttin her stuff on the runway

Here are Grandma and Granpa showing us how it's really done

And here are the guests of honor. We're glad Cameron came all the way from Arkansas to show us how to really party!

Happy Birthday Tiffany and Cameron!!!

Then to add to our great weekend we got to spend Saturday with some of our friends from Virginia. I was actually suprised at how excited I was to see them. It felt like a mini family reunion. The Stoddards drove all the way down from Moutain Home Idaho and we met the Saunders in Roy to catch some rays. The three of us all had babies within three months of each other (Tanner, Ryker, and Daxton) and they've both had girls since then. I hope I didn't miss the boat on that one. Oh well.

Here are the Saunders. I don't know how but I missed snatching a picture of the Stoddards. Guess they'll just have to come back!!

Here are Tanner, Ryker, and Daxton

Here's Jared coming down the big slide. It's pretty fun to watch people after they land in the water. Some people know what they're doing and they skid a long ways, but other people crash pretty hard and it's funny to watch them surface while frantically pulling up their swim suits. One bad run on this was enough for me to convert to full time spectator.

It was really fun seeing you guys!!

Cousins cousins cousins

If I had a quarter for every time we've caught Jackson and his cousin Spencer peeing together Jared'd never work again! Boys..boys..boys..

Anyway, we have been really busy since moving back from Virginia. We've been able to spend tons of time with family. I knew we had a big family but I didn't realize how big until just recently. Back in Virginia Jared and I had a favorite show every night of the week we HAD to watch. So were so excited to get our new flat screen and DVR but I think we've been able to watch it a total of zero hours since we've been back. I'm sure things'll change once the snow starts falling but for now we are enjoying our time outside and with our family. And another thing...Red box is awesome, except when you rent a DVD and keep it for a week never watching it. I don't even know how many movies we've rented in the last month without watching. I know I should just return and not rent, but it's one buck!

Jackson and Tanner so far have 22 and a 1/2 cousins. And Jared still has 4 brothers and sisters who haven't had kids yet. So to say the least, Jackson and Tanner have had A LOT of instant friends since we've moved back.

Soo...My brother John and Misa came out from Texas and we got to watch their kids for a couple of days. They are three of the funniest little people I've ever met. We went to Kangaroo zoo and then stayed up late singing about monkeys jumping on the bed.







Then We got to go watch Jared's sister's Sharidee and Jerrin's kids for their anniversary. Jackson and Tanner LOVE going to their house because there's just a ton of boy power over there. The new thing now is for Jackson to rip his shirt off everytime we walk in their door.






My sister Jamie and Brian also came out from Colorado and stayed over. I tried to get some pictures of them, but Brain's face broke my camera...j/k!!!! I don't know why I don't have pictures of them. I guess they're just going to have to make a trip back right away!