Friday was a fun day for everyone!  We started the morning watching Kimball in his 3rd grade music performance.  It was an hour of songs, poems, and dances.  I was amazed.  The students had it all memorized…and did a great job!

The evening brought much happiness…when Justin and Drew arrived.  It was a really quick trip, but we enjoyed having them visit…we were sad to have them leave Saturday mid morning.

Justin got a little wrestling in with the kids.

Drew had some fun holding Sterling…

and liked to help Sterling “walk” back to me.

It was a fun Friday!

Our friends, the Hunter’s, have horses.  On Thursday we went with several families and had a fun BBQ and horse back riding.  No big surprises…I will let the pictures tell the story of our children being close to the horses

Kimball

Calvin

Logan

Bridget

and Sterling

Sterling just loved being outside.  Bridget was way beyond tired and only liked the horses and dog from a distance, she did not ever touch the horse.  Logan and Calvin thoroughly enjoyed riding and could have stayed forever, and Kimball was happy just looking…so we encouraged him to pet the horse.

Here is my favorite picture from the evening.  Logan just loving it all!  Roasting a hotdog over the fire, being outside, watching the horses…pure happy!

It is hard to believe we had snow last weekend.  It still gets cool at night, but the days have been gorgeous.  We really enjoyed the nice days.

A few pictures of Sterling looking good!

Bridget is possessive of the red swing!

Logan is in his happy place!  He loves to dig in the dirt.

We ruined all the dirt fun.  We dug the potatoes and then rotatilled the garden.  The kids were upset when Ammon started the rotatiller, but found great joy in digging the freshly turned dirt!

Sunday we woke up to snow.  It was a cold weekend.  Bridget is an early riser and as soon as I showed her out the window, she was ready for a jacket and to go out, but to her dissatisfaction I felt that 6:30 was too early to go play in the snow.  Around 8 a.m. I caved and three little kiddos headed out for fun!

Calvin, Logan and Bridget making tracks.

Bridget having too much fun.

Logan made lots of snow angels.

Kimball and Sterling chose to stay inside and be warm!

Calvin and Logan helped me finish making applesauce.

The next canning project was grape juice.  Well, this is a funny story.  Our neighbor wanted to share her grapes.  I picked grapes on Friday with the kids.  I did not want to drive to Provo to borrow Mom’s juicer, so I found a friend who was willing to let me use her’s.  On Saturday afternoon she brought the juicer over.  I went into the garage to get some 2 quart jars and to my surprise I found my own juicer…I didn’t know I had one.  LOL!  Thanks to my Aunt Caroline I have a juicer and other various canning items.  What a great find, but best of all I have laughed about it for days.

Yesterday Calvin turned 6!  He had a jumping party with a few friends.  Ammon pumped up the water trampoline (which is quite fast with the shop vac!).  It was overcast off and on throughout the day, but ended up perfect for an outdoor party.

We set up the tramp before Kindergarton.  We had excited kids.

Here Mom…take him back!  The boys just wanted to JUMP.

Calvin blows out the candles on his “trampoline” cake.  The easiest cake ever!

Logan enjoys the birthday cake at the top of the slide.

Look at the happy birthday boy with his fun presents.  What an exciting day.

Tuesday afternoon was the big make applesauce day!  Driel and Moriah came to help.

We picked the apples Saturday in Provo.  That was an adventure.  Logan and Calvin monopolized the ladder.  Thanks to Evan, the top of the tree got picked.

We had a slow start to making the applesauce.  First lunch and getting Calvin off to school.  Moriah got stung by a bee, so she needed her mom and lots of love and finally went down for a nap.  Sterling needed to eat and thankfully took a long nap.  Bridget was overtired, as usual, and after I got her to sleep…we were on a roll.  Logan was the king of the show.  He gave Driel quite an earful of information, while he worked the machine to make the sauce.  Driel cut the apples, I tried to keep the apples rotated from boiling to the “squeezo strainer” where logan worked and into the jars for canning.  Too bad there are no pictures of Logan working.  He lasted several hours!  What a great applesauce helper!

Last Sunday we had a fun visit with Driel, Evan, Moriah, Chan and Breeze!  There was quite an array of activities.  Boxing, babies, writing, eating, tree climbing etc.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

Breezy holding Sterling and looking beautiful!

Moriah and Bridget sharing dolls and strollers.  Sharing can be hard at times

Evan made the day for Calvin.  They spent lots of time boxing.

Driel enjoying Sterling.  Moriah wasn’t too sure about sharing her mom with a baby.

Bridget gets a hug from Uncle Chan.

Kimball read his stories to Driel.  All the excitement made him need to write another one.  He loves to read and write.

Here is Sterling (Sunday September 7th) at seven weeks old.  He is a little man.  He is a good baby and doing quite well sleeping at night!  I hope it just keeps on getting better.  Most nights he is up once sometimes twice, usually just long enough to eat and be put back down.  Cross my fingers and knock on wood, I want him to keep up the great job!

Sterling is smiling tons and quite cuddly.  The kids are very fond of their baby brother.

Sterling loves being outside.  Stroller rides are great and being held is even better.  With the cooler weather we are spending lots of time outside.  Bridget even figured out how to peddle the trike (it helps that she can reach the peddles now:).

The pictures are from last Wednesday.  It has been super busy around here.  Check out what the boys have been up to.

Calvin and Logan helping to pick peaches.  They are not all ripe so we still have lots of peaches to enjoy!

Kimball earned his Bobcat award in Cub Scouts.

It has been a busy week.  Calvin started Kindergarten, so now I have 2 boys to get ready for school every morning!  He is loving school and feeling so big now.  Logan and Bridget have started playing well while the older boys are at school.  Sterling is growing fast and he is alert.  Car rides get unpleasant, he is not too fond of being strapped in his car seat, but for the most part he is a good baby.

Sterling meets Great Grandpa Pratt on August 20th, he is one month old.  By the way, Logan was the photographer!

Calvin took this picture of me holding Sterling.  This was Sunday after Church.  I am amazed Sterling is already 5 weeks old and growing so quick.

Sterling admiring his frog toy.  He has started noticing the toys!

Good morning!  Mornings are happy times for Sterling.  He is all smiles and very cooperative to let the kids hold him.  Exciting times.

Big news…we bought a Suburban.  We test drove it on Monday.  The kids really liked the rear AC and more space.  We debated buying it…and here we are just home from the dealer.  We are the proud owners of our own tow vehicle!