Does it get any cuter than this?? This is what I came home to tonight after a long night of our YW activity and presidency meeting. When I see moments like this I am overwhelmed with comfort and gratitude knowing with all the hours and late nights that go into my calling right now, that these boys are totally in good hands... if not better, because Dad is always the fun guy. I will be the first to admit that I don't acknowledge Nate for all his help like I should and I know I can be better. Tonight reminded me that I NEED to be better because every time I am gone doing something for the young women he is at home carrying the load by himself. Thank you Nate for all your support... I couldn't do it without you!

The Piles of Life...

Lately I have felt like my life keeps piling up with long to-do lists, bad news, never-ending hard trials and many disappointments. I feel like I have been riding the "poor Jamie train" FOREVER and its about time I get to my stop and jump off! I was looking at this ever growing pile of clean laundry that I need to fold (Yes, this has been sitting here for a few days, and I have been adding more loads to it all day) and I realized what a "ground hog day" of life I have been living and its driving me crazy! I have been so caught up with whats not right in my life that I have been missing everything that IS right and all the beautiful blessings in it... including these little munchkins! Today I am grateful for the sweet whisperings of the Spirit to remind that I am here to do more than fold laundry and check off my to-do lists. Watching the innocence of these two sweet boys eat their Popsicles together while having so much fun, overwhelmed me with gratitude. Although my life may be hard and not the way I would have planned at the moment, I know I am abundantly surrounded with so many blessings that I could have never planned for myself. I have loved this summer as I get to watch my boys learn and play outside. I have loved the long chats with my good neighbors and best friends as our kids play for hours together. The simple pleasure that comes from a cold popsicle, or a picnic at the park with friends will definitely be missed as we slip closer to the Fall. Until then I hope I can continue to enjoy what is left of this summer and maybe by then "this too shall pass"!

Our Weekend

Friday night we met at Gateway with some of our good friends from Hooper. Stephanie and I went to Weber together and have stayed in touch all these years later. We went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and then let the boys play in the fountains. It works out perfect that we both have 2 little boys and our husbands love sports because everyone is happy and Steph and I get to catch up! Jackson has played in the fountains before, but Andersen wasn't sure about it. He was definitely curious, but wouldn't get too close. He ended up picking a seat on Daddy's lap over playing in the water, but that didn't bother Jackson and Stephanie's boys. They played in the water until they were soaked and shivering. We were there for over an hour so the boys got to play in two water shows. I think Jackson was amazed with how much water would come up out of the holes. The funniest was watching Body and Jackson hover over the water holes until it shot into their faces.

On Saturday we went to our ward BBQ and Bike Parade. Jackson wasn't able to be in it last year because he wasn't Primary age yet, so this year he was SO excited and was counting down the hours until it was time to go. Right as we got there he made sure his bike was all decorated with streamers and balloons. He even made sure he asked our neighbor if I was doing the paper in between his wheel spokes properly. The kids circled around our church  parking lot a dozen times and then we all went to eat. Jackson didn't want anything to do with eating because all he wanted to do was go back out on the course and ride. It was so fun watching Jackson and all of his buddies ride around because they were so concentrated on not crashing in to people. Jackson wishes he still had his decorations on his bike but later that night he was playing in the sprinklers with his bike and the paper got all soggy. You would have thought I threw the whole bike in the garbage! Good thing that tantrum only last a minute but I will agree with him, the decorations were fun while it lasted!

4th of July

This year we spent the day with the Frasers. It is their tradition to do the Park City Parade every year. This was our first time and I will be the first to say it definitely was a different parade then we are used to. The biggest difference is NO candy and water guns! Overall it was an entertaining parade though.

Some of our favorite float entries were the couple that were "just married", the old man on this HUGE bike with his parrot as captain, the superheros, the guys jumping on the tramp in their ski's and Jackson's personal favorite... the Karate boys! Jackson got to break a board in half and loved every second of it.

After the parade we carried on with the Fraser tradition of swimming the day away with a little BBQ mixed in there. My boys are usually not big on swimming but this day was an exception. They were little fishes and loved playing in the pool. I think they actually spent more time jumping off the edge into the pool than they actually swam but either way they were having fun and that's all that mattered! Scary (funny now) story that happened while we were swimming was when Andersen jumped in the pool without anyone around to jump to. Little stinker was out of the pool getting a bite of sandwich that I had in the stroller and the two seconds I turned around to put the rest of the sandwich away he took his half and decided to jump back in the pool! Luckily he floated right back up and we were able to pull him out before he even had a chance to breath in water, but the poor sandwich didn't make the jump. Andersen didn't even get a bite of the sandwich before it was too soggy but you would've never known because he instantly forgot about food as long as he was able to stay swimming. The life jacket became a permanent accessory after that! After a long day of swimming and food the older boys and Jackson played ping pong, but Andersen had reached his limit and crawled up into his stroller and crashed.

 

Later that night we drove home to have pizza with Nana and Grandpa Paul and to celebrate the rest of the night with fireworks. Between the wind and a few sprinkles of rain we were eventually able to burn everything. We started with sparklers. The boys had never done them before because Jackson has always been too afraid of fireworks, but this year was different. He has become some what comfortable with the noise, but was still hesitant to hold a sparkler. With time both Andersen and Jackson were loving it. Thanks to Nana and Daddy they both got a hang of the sparklers quick and Andersen became a little firecracker himself. After holding a couple sparklers on his own he decided he was too big for Nana's help and refused to let her even touch a finger to his sparkler while it was lit.

When the sparklers were all gone, we all watched as Daddy lit off the big fireworks. Jackson was having so much fun, but Andersen was so tired that he eventually crawled up to my lap and just cuddled rather than watch.

It was fun this year to see so many fireworks that used to be illegal just last year. Quite a few of our neighbors were lighting them off, which was kind of scary seeing them so close to my house, but it was a refreshing way to celebrate our freedoms that we enjoy by living in this great country. Overall it was a fun day spent with good friends and family! I think all of us were exhausted the next day, but I still wished every Monday was a holiday.