Fall Break

On our way to San Diego!

Posing outside the San Diego Temple (Jarom, Joel, Jess, Lacey)

Me, Paul and Joel outside the temple.

So beautiful!

We drove up the California coastline and then randomly picked a place to park and walked to the beach.

(Lacey, Joel, Jarom, Jess)

I did not bring bathing suits or towels because I assumed the water would be freezing and we'd only want to put our feet in. Well I was wrong.

Joel was a little nervous at first.

It was actually a warm day so the kids decided to just get wet and have fun.

I think this is a cute picture of them. Thankfully I took one of them facing forward or I would not have remembered which girl was which.

Jarom, Joel, Lacey, Jess

So much fun!

After getting soaked we decided to rest on a patch of grass while the kids ran around in the sun trying to get dry. So here I am relaxing a bit.

We had to kill time before Sea World opened so we walked around a marina.

(Joel, Jess, Lacey, Jarom)

Erika & Joel

The entrance to Sea World. The kids thought this car was hilarious because looked like Shamu.

Joel at the polar bear display. This picture was taken after the polar bear wandered over by us and took a dump. Ha.ha.

Taking a break. (Lacey, Jess, Paul, Jarom and Joel is in the stroller.)

Waiting to watch the Shamu Show.

Lacey riding the sky ride over the bay.

Jessica on the sky ride.

Jarom, Erika, Lacey & Jess.

Jarom's 10th birthday was the day we got back from California. It looks like he got jipped on presents but he didn't. In addition to what is on the floor, he got money, a gift card and the new diary of a whimpy kid book that doesn't come out until Nov.

Yay! A new lego building set from Grandma and Suzy & Jill.

Okay so I look totally haggard, but that's what happens after you spend 5+ hours in the car with 4 kids. Anyway we bought him one of those ice cream cakes and it was quite delicious.


And now we are back into the swing of things again are already trying to figure out where to go next year. The kids want to try LegoLand and in a couple years we'll attempt Disneyland. All in all it was a pretty fun Fall Break.

What we've been up to...

THE GIRLS ARE SEVEN!

Wow - look at my hair! I was taking a trip down memory lane last month because our girls turned 7 on August 19th. I can't believe it's been that long. This picture is me holding them on their blessing day in dresses my mom crocheted for them. Lacey is on the left and Jessica is on the right.
Here they are at about 3 months of age. It's so funny that they don't even look anything like they do now. Except the face, you can see Jessica has the round face and Lacey has the longer one. That is still the case.

This isn't the best photo but it shows the girls around 15 months old. Can you guess who is who? Lacey is on the left and Jessica is on the right. And Jarom isn't making the best camera face, but I thought the picture illustrated quite well how his life was going at that point - "surrounded by sisters!"

Lacey and Jessica at 15 months. They look so sweet and innocent. Honestly, they were really good babies, at least I think they were! I frankly can't remember the entire first year of their life. So I am glad I took lots of pictures. (Oh, Lacey is on the left and Jessica is on the right.)

Fast forward six years and here they are on their birthday. August 19, 2010. It was a Thursday and they had to go to school but we opened presents early. This time Jessica is on the left and Lacey on the right.

I can't even remember all the stuff they got. We bought them some dresses, markers, club penguin toys and who knows what else.

Looking so grown up - hard to believe I used to carry both of them around at the same time!

Lots of club penguin figurines.

JOEL IS POTTY TRAINED!
Now let's skip forward to the potty train. We put this train on the top of our fridge about 6 months ago to entice Joel to start using the bathroom. (He will be four in January). It did not work. I kind of let potty training him go because we had tried so many times and he just wouldn't cooperate. About a week after the girls birthday I went grocery shopping and came home to find him in underwear. Paul had just changed a poopy diaper and declared he had "had it" with diapers and we were done. I raised my eye brows a bit knowing it would probably result in disaster again but whatever. To our surprise he did great. He had a couple of hard days in the beginning but then he just got the concept and ran with it. He was even pooping on the toilet earlier than any of our others kids. (I seem to remember a couple of them using diapers to poop in for awhile.) So we happily pulled that train off the fridge and he has been loving it ever since. And I love not buying diapers or worrying about changing him.

LAKE PLEASANT

We went to Lake Pleasant for the first time ever yesterday. Our friends David & Gilda Hill invited us up for a day of boating, jet skiing and playing in the lake. We had such a good time. We all got really sunburned and we totally wiped out by the end of the day, but it was great! None of our kids can swim that well so I was really glad there were lots of life jackets around. Poor Joel had to wear a girly one, but I don't think he noticed. It took like 2 hours to convince the girls that they really could float when they
had life jackets on.

We took turns taking the kids out on the jet ski's and then David took us out in the boat on a tour of lake pleasant. He is a fast driver, we hit some waves pretty hard, but all the kids laughed and begged for more.

Here's Jessica getting ready to go play in the water. The water was really dirty but it was cold and being that we broke a heat record on Saturday, 111 degrees, it felt awesome!

Lacey was ready to try out the water too.

David docked the boat on the shore in between uses and the kids had so much fun just climbing in and out of it all day. They even had water fights with the other kids who were swimming in the lake.

Paul and Jarom getting ready to get on the boat.

Here is Erika posing in front of Lake Pleasant.

Erika and Jessica heading out for a ride.

Paul and Lacey coming back in. We took Jarom and Joel out as well but didn't get pictures. Joel LOVED the jet ski, I actually had to take him out on it several times while he would yell "Go faster mom..."

True to the nature of kids, there was lots of playing in the dirt, collecting shells and building dams.

Joel hung out on the boat for most of the day. After laying on the horn for about 15 minutes, we had to give him strict instructions to quit pushing on it because it was starting to get annoying. But he didn't get sunburned at all so that's a relief. All in all we had a great time and the kids are already asking when our next trip will be.

First day of school

The first day of school - (and mom's around the country were shouting for joy). As you can see only three kids made it to school. Poor Lacey was home for a couple of days with a high fever that turned into a lovely whole body rash- yep she had roseola. But she started back to school mid-week and seems to be enjoying it.

She actually has matching PJ's, but for some reason decided to wear the top of one set and the bottom of the other.

Joel, Jess, Jarom (don't you love the gradual looks of doom as you move up to each child? Joel is thrilled out of his mind, Jessica is slightly happy and Jarom is totally ticked! Ha.Ha.)

The girls have been in separate classes since Kindergarten but both wanted the same teacher for second grade. I didn't feel like I could say yes to one of them and no to the other. So I gave in and said we could try it this year. But if they start competing with each other or having issues, next year they are going to be separated. Sounds so mean, but really they have such different personalities that being able to be their own selves is important. Jarom is in the 4th grade, with 3 other kids from our ward in the same class. We are thrilled about that. And Joel is back in his early intervention preschool. When we started him in January he only said about 50 words, now we can't get him to stop talking, we are very pleased with the results. Now if he would just get potty trained.....he will be 4 in January and it is an an embarrassment that he is still in diapers. But what do you do? It was becoming a power struggle and we know who wins those. So for now we are just waiting....and waiting and praying he takes the plunge before he is 4. Ah good times. I haven't been able to really enjoy the first week of school because I had a sick child home for most of it. But tomorrow I will have a whole morning of peace - after I go to the gym.

End of Summer Report

Can I just say how much I hate blogger.
All of my pictures are in reverse order. Augh!
And I am sure there will a million spaces between each of the pictures too. Someone at google needs to address this problem.

Okay then... on to the pictures. My niece Kaylee introduced my kids to "Club Penguin" about a year ago and for some reason they are always wanting me to take pictures of these little guys.
On to the reverse order pictures. Last week we went to Greer and rented a cabin. Each of Paul's sisters, their families and his mom got cabins too. We had so much fun and the weather was awesome!

Here is Joel playing with our traveling version of Connect 4.

Jessica out by the ponds where we were all fishing - look at that view!

Trying....and failing...to get a nice family picture.

We look pretty cute though - although all this traveling has made me gain a few pounds.

Here's all the cousins.

Jessica is really getting serious about fishing.

Technically we were not supposed to use bait, but the fly fishing poles were not working and we wanted the kids to experience catching some fish. So we baited some hooks and when the fish would grab on Paul would quickly cut it free and toss it back in.

Paul helping Jessica

Lacey caught a fish and Paul was unhooking it in this picture. She was getting a little queasy watching him as you can see by the expression on her face.

Catching another one!

Jessica getting impatient while waiting for her turn.

All the kids gathering around to see who caught a fish.

We also did some bike riding - man it is so beautiful up there.

Joel playing a solo version of candyland.

This is my sad attempt to take a picture of myself and Joel while I held the camera.

Jessica and Joel playing around with a new Jenga game.

More crankiness from Jessica about not catching any fish. (These pictures are so out of order - sorry)

This is all Joel did the whole trip...run. It took all of us adults to chase after him from fear he would get lost in the woods. Infact we thought we lost him once only to discover he had fallen asleep on Grandma's bed.

Paul was trying not to go out of his mind with boredom while listening to the fly fishing instructor.

Now he's climbing...

I did grab him for a picture.

Jarom and Colton trying to snag a fish in the net.

Taking a walk around - Jessica, Lacey and the backside of Joel.

Paul trying out the fly fishing with his sister Jill next to him and Colton.

Joel doing a cool trick.

Making faces.

Posing in front of the cabin. This is what happens when its my turn to chase him around- he ends up in all the pictures. Ha.ha..

Our first morning in the cabin by the fireplace.

We had another bed for the boys to use, but they all wanted to sleep together in this king size bed. So cute!

Okay, now we are at the Evans family reunion that was held about 2 weeks before the trip we took to Greer. It was so awesome because my sister in law Becky (who is married to my brother Nathaniel who is currently doing his OB/Gyn residency in Ohio) came with their kids and my sister Allison who lives in Texas came with her family and I haven't seen either of them in like 4 years, so this was a wonderful occasion. (left-right: Andrea, Erika, Mom, Becky, Allison, & Emily (who is pregnant!))

So the whole black tarp thing on the window looks my parents are remodeling, but they're not. My mom was trying to block out the early morning sun that comes through these windows for the kids sleeping in the livingroom. We teased her about her new "white trash" curtains. Anyway it was her birthday and my brother in law Kory's birthday so we celebrated a bit. This is Kory reading his new book about "Poop - everything you need to know."

My brother used a bit too much zoom on this picture of me and Allison.

More opening of presents in the "demolition zone"...

All of us ladies went to look at Emily's new house and while we were gone we got caught in a major monsoon storm and had to wait it out a bit until the road was visible again. When we got back I discovered Joel passed out on the couch.

Joel making faces at me.

More smiles.

Allison in the resident eyebrow plucker and was helping Becky out.

Lacey messing around with a pair of 3-D glasses.

Joel and Darren playing trains.

Andrea, Erika & Mom chatting around the island in the kitchen.

Jessica, Sophee, & Lacey.

Playing computer games. Andrew, Jarom & Austin.

Clearly Josh outweighs Joel, but they still had fun.

Over the 4th of July we went to Bullhead City to visit Andrea and her family. Here is picture of Joel sitting at Uncle Kory's computer and using his headphones.

Lacey was showing off her dressed up self.

Joel decided using the doggy door was far easier than using the sliding glass one.

My sister has a huge playroom in which she has an air hockey table and a pool table. Do either of them get used properly? Not very often. Mostly the kids just build little villages on top of them and play. As long as they aren't fighting, it's so worth it in my opinion.

And here are the kids on the pool table. Jessica, Joel & Sophee.

Now we are back to our house in late June and the kids were out back jumping on the trapoline and spraying the hose.

I am not sure where Jarom is but here are the rest of kids.

In Early June, my brother Stephen finished his mission to Ogden Utah. Because my hubby rocks, he offered to stay with the kids all day so I could drive to Tucson and see my family-alone. I never had such a peaceful drive in my life. I almost forgot that silence can exist in a minivan. The kids just can't be in it!

Mom, Stephen, Dad.

Stephen, Candace(my sister in law), and Hannah.

Erika and Stephen

Elder Evans just getting off the plane.







Alright so that is about it for our summer. It actually went by surprisingly fast. And now that I will have so much more free time, I should be able to keep up on this blog a little better. But don't hold your breath!