STITCHES

It feels like it is never a dull moment with these two rowdy boys of mine! and Thursday was no exception. Earlier in the day I had my 38 week appointment where I got another week of bummer news that my body is doing NOTHING to work towards delivery day. Luckily my old neighbor Connie was bringing us dinner and man was it perfect timing because it helped cheer me up and distract me from my "poor me" mood I was in. We chatted for a good hour until she went home and then me and the boys enjoyed our yummy dinner while Nate took off for scouts round table. It wasn't even an hour after Connie left, us eating dinner, cleaning up dishes, when I heard the boys running around the kitchen only to have Andersen start screaming. I was walking into the kitchen right as he hit the corner of the table. Andersen instantly starting screaming and came towards me. All I saw was this huge gash on his head that was SQUIRTING blood all over him and the floor. All I could do was grab whatever was closest to me and cover it up. Jacks being the good brother he is instantly knew something was wrong and knew this was more than just a little scratch. As I was holding a dish rag to Andersen's head I had Jacks go grab all our shoes and we quickly jumped in the car to drive over to the instacare. Andersen cried for Nate the entire way, so luckily he had his phone close to him during his meeting because he was able to quickly meet us over there.

They quickly got us checked in and back to the procedure room. Andersen was a little nervous and anxious for it all but was pretty dang brave! They started with the numbing stuff on his head for 25 minutes. After the initial taping and having Nate there to cuddle with he was able to settle down and we started seeing a couple smiles. Next was the cleaning process and once again the tears and screaming were in full force. This time I think it was the cold water running off his forehead into his ear that was scaring him. But as soon as the nurse was done doing that, she got him a popsicle and we were back to a few smiles. Then it was game time! After two doctors opinions on whether we should do glue or stitches, stitches were agreed on and it was time to wrap Andersen up to help him hold still. I think it was the only time through this all that we actually got a laugh out of him. We called him a little "burrito baby", because he loves burritos, and he obviously was a little proud of it. The last step was the actual stitches now that he was all prepped. Andersen instantly was screaming and Jacks had a hard time watching him be so uncomfortable that me and him walked out of the room while Nate stayed by Andersen's side as the Doc did his thing. We were out in the hall for what felt like FOREVER until I heard Andersen screaming for "mommy" that I went back in to watch the Dr finish that last couple knots to his last stitch. Good thing they had turned on Thomas the Train earlier for Andersen to watch because it was a good distraction for Jacks so he didn't have to watch Andersen. 

2 hours from start to finish we were walking out of the the hospital with treats, stickers, the squirt gun they cleaned out his wound with and 2 stitches! Andersen was pretty proud of himself as we kept telling him how brave he was. We got in the car and it was all smiles again like nothing ever happened. A few days later he has continued to be just as brave. He only complained about his head once and that was the following morning, but after some medicine we haven't heard a complaint since. 3 more days of the stitches and we will make another visit back to the instacare to get the stitches removed.

I am hoping now that we have experienced staples, glue, and now stitches between the 2 boys we have taken our share of injuries but knowing how boys work I am sure this is just the beginning. For what could have been worse, I feel like overall Andersen was amazingly tough and we couldn't have had a better doctor. Andersen still to this day says "my buddy?" when we are talking about the doctor. Thanks Dr. Whipple! Let's just hope he has some good "sewing" skills and this one doesn't leave a mark.

Brigham City Temple OPENHOUSE

Last Tuesday I skipped out on our Young Women activity to join the family on a trip to the Brigham City Openhouse. We didn't have a reservation, but we figured they wouldn't turn us away so we'd take our chances and just show up.

 Jackson was so excited to go to the Temple that he asked questions all day. When are we leaving? How long does it take to get there? Where is it at? Is it beautiful inside? He even wanted to wear his white shirt because he knows you wear white in the temple. So cute! He looked like a little missionary getting all dressed. I definitely had a mommy moment realizing that day will be here before I know it. He was able to go through the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain Temples when they were just built but couldn't remember a whole lot about our visits. 

Nate had work so me and the boys met Nate and Nana off the freeway so we could leave as soon as possible. We made up to the Temple around 6:30 only to start the long line waiting process. We parked in the bus parking lot, waited 5 buses until it was our time to get on the bus. A few minutes later we were at the Temple and waiting in another long line for our turn to watch the 12 minute introduction movie and make our way to the entrance. I loved watching the boys get their white booties to cover their shoes and then to enter in as family is always a sweet feeling. This Temple is definitely smaller than the ones we are used to but it of course is just as beautiful as the rest.

After we made it through the whole Temple we walked around the Temple grounds to get some pictures. Andersen's reaction was by far the best. Before we walked through the Temple it was light outside and by the time we finished the sun had set and the Temple was all lit up. We walked up the stairs to ground level from the underground parking garage only to hear and see Andersen gasping at the beautiful sight.

We finished the long night with a late dinner at McDonalds and finally made it back home at 11:30. I really didn't think we'd be gone that long, but I am so glad we made the drive and took the time to let the boys walk through the Temple. Jackson said his favorite part was seeing the "Sealing Room" while Andersen said his favorite was "riding the buses". Got to love the innocence of little children. I am sure the boys will have a few more chances to walk through Temples before they are 12 but if not I hope these visits as they are younger are strong enough memories for them to keep their desire to go through for their own covenants as they get older.

I love the Temple no matter the reason of the visit because its always a good reminder that families can be together forever. I love you boys (and little sister!) and I am glad we will be together forever!

Baby Bump... From 20-38 weeks

I have a hard taking pictures of myself like this but I know it always makes for good memories years down the road. I started taking a few once I hit the 20 week mark. Since then it has just been random times. I am now officially past the 38 week mark and ready to meet this little lady! The last couple weeks have been a little frustrating because Dr. England tells me I am doing absolutely NOTHING... no dilation, not really contracting like I should be 2 weeks out, and he even tried to force dilate me on Thursday and NOTHING!! I feel like I am more than ready for her to get her... Room is all set up, clothes have been washed and put away, car seat all cleaned, her bag is all packed... man I even cleaned out the car and garage! I don't know what more I can do to prepare for her arrival, but until then I guess I get to practice my patience and enjoy our last few days as just the 4 of us. Your brothers are just as anxious to meet you and kiss mommy's tummy and pray for you everyday to get here safely... so if you can't listen to me, listen to your brothers and come join our family soon! 

5 pairs in 5 MONTHS!!

I sure love this kid, but seriously... This is our 5th pair of broken glasses in 5 months! Luckily his glasses are under warranty and we've been able to get a new pair quickly every time. This past break we haven't been as lucky though. They are still under warranty but unfortunately they were on back order for weeks! Poor Jacks has been wearing these crooked glasses for two weeks. They originally told us the middle of October, but just a couple days ago they came in way earlier than expected. Phew... just in time for baby sister to get here. I don't know who was more happy for a new pair of glasses... Mommy or Jacks?? I honestly don't think it phased him though to wear broken glasses everyday because he never complained about it once and still wore them every second of the day. Definitely tells Nate and I how blind this little boy is because no kid would continue to wear them as faithfully as he does if he didn't really need them to see.

Visits from the Sampsons...twice!

This summer we were lucky to have the Sampson's out from Minnesota to visit TWICE! We usually get at least one visit, but two within a couple months was the best! The first visit was for my oldest nephew Jordan's high school graduation. I can't believe he is already done with school. It seems just like yesterday we all were at the hospital waiting to hear his first little cry. Now 18 years later he has grown into this fine young man and is off to college. Aside from the actual graduation day, we partied it up at my brother Jared's house to celebrate and let all the cousins play together. We also spent some time at the splash park and Jackson and Riley had their first sleepover together without his Mom there to tuck him in. The boys were so excited to be together that even one night of sleep away was too much. We brought him home to our house, the boys got bathed and then they snuggled into Jacks bed to watch a movie on the IPAD. Riley had a quick "I need my Mommy" moment but he was brave and we made it through a successful sleepover.

The next visit the Sampson's slept at our place. Mike didn't get to join them this time, but they came out to Utah for my niece Katelyn to go to a gymnastic camp up at the University of Utah. While Katelyn spent the week at camp, Lynne and I had some good sister time while the boys played. We spent a day at the Riverton pool, played at Jared's house and celebrated Collin's 1st birthday. Katelyn was homesick most of the time so that left Lynne worrying about her and joining her for lunch to cheer her up. Even though she didn't have as much time as we thought to hangout, I took whatever time I could get with my sister around since it doesn't happen too often being miles apart. Also this weekend while my mom and sister were both in town they gave me an awesome baby shower! We definitely got spoiled and it was fun to have as many of the extended family members around that could come.

2nd Annual Pie Night

Seems like Young Women's creates a busy summer, and it does, but it also creates some of the funniest times spent with our girls and leaders. Last year another YW President shared her PP activity with us and we started our own tradition. This year it was our 2nd year doing our PP Pie Challenge. We challenged the girls to do as much PP they could from June to August, along with our new challenge this year of learning to index for genealogy work. Needless to say some of the girls took our challenge very seriously and together they earned 154 pies to throw at us leaders and bishopric members. Got to love the before and after pics! Good work girls!

Girls Camp {Heber Valley Camp}

After going through my Youth Conference pictures I realized I never wrote about Girls Camp this year. I don't know how I forgot because this year was by far one of my favorites (as a leader and a youth and I have gone to 10+ years of camp!) Here is our group of girls and leaders about to board the bus to make our trek up to Heber Valley Camp in Heber. This year it was Stake Girls Camp and we had the best ward and stake camp directors. The theme was "Seek His Light and Shine" from 1 Nephi 17:13. Each ward was supposed to pick a light source and we decided to be the Fireflies. We had so much fun with our theme. We used the Aztec definition of a firefly, "a spark of knowledge in a world of ignorance or darkness", to teach our girls.

We seriously had the best group of leaders and girls this year! Once we made it to camp it was time to settle into our AWESOME 5 star camping arrangements. We had these roomy cabins for our group to all sleep together and we even had electricity. Best way to camp at 30 weeks pregnant!

One of my favorite activities among many fun memories that we made at camp was our time we spent on the lake. This activity was meant for the girls to reflect on all the great things around us and all that the Savior has done for us. All the girls got in canoes while the leaders got in paddle boats, floated out onto the lake and then they had a 2 minute of silence to reflect, followed by everyone singing "I Feel My Savior's Love". What a sweet moment hearing all the girls voices sing so reverently. I couldn't help but think of the scripture (my favorite BTW) hanging right before you get your life jackets to go onto the lake "Let your hearts be comforted... Be still and know that I am god"

Another favorite memory of camp, that I miss, are looking down on these cuties rubbing my tummy to feel my little lady or watching them enjoy the swollen cankles that I was sporting all week. Being 30 weeks pregnant I had an easy excuse to miss camp, but man I wouldn't have chosen to be anywhere else during that week. The girls and leaders were so good to me too that it was almost easier to be at camp than at home!

There are way too many spiritual experiences to write down to remember, but aside from the real meaning of camp and teaching the girls and feeling the Spirit, there are many funny moments that happen at camp that we all will remember FOREVER. These are just a few captured on camera. The Olsen sisters cheeto contest, GLOWIA our camp mascot, The "MORPH" suit sighting, funny conversations during craft time, celebrating Nikki's birthday and the best with Amanda burning her fingers and the rest of the time being wrapped up and used as her primary fingers to do everything!

Usually my favorite night at camp is the night the Bishopric joins us, and yes it was pretty dang fun to have them there, but the night before when Amanda surprised us all with little glow worms was a special moment for all. She made a glow worm out of water bottles for all the girls and leaders, put a glow stick in them, got a letter from all parents and husbands and put them out in the Volleyball field so it looked like a field of fireflies flying around. We all went and found our little glow worms and spent the rest of the night in our bunks enjoying sweet words from home.

Bishopric night was definitely memorable though! The girls were at the challenge course right before the Bishopric got up there so we decided to make things easy and ask them to bring up pizza and salad for dinner. They were running a little late and the girls were starving so a last minute joke Amanda and Hollie played on the girls was telling them the Bishopric wasn't coming and that we were going to practice what we had just learned the night before... fasting! The girls faces were priceless! One of my favorite quotes from one of my YW girls right after we told them we were going to be fasting for the night was "Mom, this is bull crap!" So funny! Shortly the joke was over and we were eating and having a good time with our Bishopric and other leaders that we had missed all week. We spent the night celebrating Nikki's birthday, eating yummy (NON CAMP) food, sharing our testimonies, and laughing until it was time to for our guests to go home. I serve with some of the finest women EVER! Not only do we have some amazing Stake leaders we spent the week with but our memories as ward leaders together are my favorite. Love you ladies!

Here is our last picture before we left our week of camping at Heber Valley. If there is ever a place to do girls camp, this is the ideal place! What a great week we had. Glad I didn't pull the pregnancy card and miss such a memorable and amazing week with some of the best YW girls  and leaders around.

Youth Conference {Little Deer Creek}

A couple weeks ago we finished our summer youth camps by doing Youth Conference up Midway area. Our theme this year was "True Believers". We wanted to teach the youth the importance of believing and KNOWING about Christ. We started our conference by going tubing down the Provo River. It took a couple hours from start to finish but it was lots of fun even if we did get stuck in every tree or bush along the side. Being 33 weeks pregnant at the time, everyone was a little worried about me floating down the river. If they didn't have rules against it I wasn't going to miss it! I am sure all the leaders were second guessing me going though because when we got to the end and had to get out, I missed the shallow part and kept floating down the river to fend for myself and have to swim in swift waters to the opposite shore for safety. Definitely an awkward experience when you have no sense to your center of gravity but I wasn't worried and I made it safely out of the water... eventually! The first day we taught them about agency and how important it is that we get to choose what we believe and later that night we taught them about the apostasy.

 The next day we talked about the Restoration and the importance of Joseph Smith. We took them on a "walk" through Cascade Springs and played some fun group activities teaching them about "where they can find the right things to believe in" and teaching them more about the 13 Articles of Faith. The rest of the night, until our yummy chicken taco dinner and testimony meeting, they had free time to play. Of course that included all sorts of mischief like water fights and taking turns rolling each other down the hill in empty garbage cans. The next morning it was time to go home. They cleaned up camp and then all us leaders and youth met at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to close our weekend together. We talked about the blessings of believing in Christ and the ultimate place on this Earth to learn about Him being the Temple and also how important is to not lose sight of the Temple and get distracted by the worldy things around us. 

With us changing plans from Bear Lake to Little Deer Creek a month before I would say this Youth Conference turned out great! We had such a great group of youth so it didn't matter where we were at. As leaders is was a bittersweet experience for us all. Not only could Nikki and I not sleepover because of babies, but it was our last camp before Hollie was getting released! Hollie makes everything more fun and she is missed tremendously now! Definitely won't be the same without her next year.

Random phone pictures from the SUMMER

Some of my favorite pictures I take of my boys happen to be at the most random times and I only have my phone on me to capture the moment. There really is no long post or story on the picture but just a glimpse of time that I want to remember. Seems like most of them are of my boys sleeping. I always think they look so sweet sleeping or they are in the most random positions, which happens quite a bit around here. Others are a little glimpse into my boys personalities or just something funny they were doing. Some of the funny stories behind these pictures starting from the top to the bottom. Nothing better than finding your 2 year old sitting on the toilet with an IPAD, Jackson putting olives on his fingers for "hook 'em horns!" for his Uncle Bob and Aunt Leeshie in Texas (added bonus with his hand in his pants like a typical Rothe boy), Andersen crashed in his car seat during a CARWASH.. how does that happen?, Andersen not making it to the toilet fast enough... enough said on that one!, Andersen got caught eating right out of the ice cream maker at Nana's and the last and funniest picture for Nate and I is of the boys running around naked with their horses. Man I love these boys and they bring so much happiness into our family. Seems like they are always doing something to make us laugh. Many times as a tired mommy I get caught up in the daily tasks or them fighting or whining about everything, but they really are the sweetest things I could ask for! Wish I could bottle up their little smiles and laughs so I can always have them when they grow up to be big boys one day.

We {HEART} Ms. Kim!

 I think this is our third year of swim lessons with Ms. Kim and Jacks loves every second of it especially because his best buddy Landon was in his class too! She does a class for 5 days in a row teaching him all sorts of things for their age group. I think this year Jacks finally got a hang of the swimming thing. He is definitely more confident in the water and gets the floating thing for sure. He can actually swim when he's not thinking about it, but more times than not he relies on the edge of the pool or the fact that he can touch the ground in more places than all the other kids his age because he is so tall. His favorite was jumping off the diving board again and Ms. Kim's new game playing "London Bridges" in the pool with a hula hoop. Andersen and I enjoyed watching every day but I think will have more fun next year when its his turn to take lessons as well.

Lake Powell 2012

 Towards the beginning of the summer our neighbors, Scott and Alison, planned a couples trip to Lake Powell to stay on their family houseboat. Unfortunately we were the only couples from the neighborhood that could join them but that didn't stop us from having a good time. It was a quick trip leaving early Thursday morning and coming home late the following Saturday. All excited to be there we jump on the boat to go out for a drive and the boat DIES! Come to find out it was something major and the boat was out of commission for our whole trip. Good thing we still had jet skis to play on because those were the perfect toys for this pregnant momma. After all our fun in the sun and before we took off, Scott took us all on a hike (or more like a walk) through some narrows. It was a guided tour with them showing us all sorts of cool things that the water from Powell has created over the years. Just like all trips without kids, they seem to go too fast, but it is always nice to be home to see the kiddos. Hopefully next year we can do it again... not pregnant and with a boat!

Hotel Park City GETAWAY!

Back in May I was helping my boss schedule his anniversary stuff for him and his wife to celebrate when I heard about this great deal Hotel Park City was doing. They were offering "buy one night, get one night free" and I thought it was too good to pass up. So after scheduling with Nana to babysit I reserved us a weekend together to get away. It just happened to be on the seven year anniversary of the weekend my parents moved to Colorado and Nate proposed to me. We spent the 2 days shopping and eating some good food. We also saw the movie "What to expect when expecting" which was perfect timing with us being 20 weeks pregnant. Its amazing how little munchkins distract you from each other so it was SO nice just getting Nate all to myself.

 

Seven years later I still LOVE kissing this boy! Happy Anniversary Nate. Very grateful for all our memories we've shared and created together over the years. I love you!

Another Colorado Trip

Back in May, Nate was gone for a work trip all week and Woodbadge all weekend so the boys and I made a quick trip to Colorado for Mother's Day and my Dad's birthday. The boys LOVE going to visit so it is always a nice get away. It has become a tradition for the boys to feed the wild horses with Grandma and Jackson's favorite, shoot Grandpa's guns. This visit was Andersen's first time getting to shoot the gun all by himself. This trip was also the mark of Andersen being completely potty trained. I told him if he kept his underwear dry all the way to Colorado we would go get his scooter he wanted. The bribery must have worked because we were at Walmart that afternoon. Jackson has always reminded me of myself and my Dad growing up. I was always his little shadow, but this weekend Jackson took over my role. My dad told Jackson he would get the guns out in the morning once the chores were done. I don't think Jacks slept very well because he tossed and turned all night long and was out of bed at 6am! After waiting an hour he was asking for my help to get him dressed and ready to help Grandpa with chores. They worked for a few hours spraying weeds and then went to McDonald's to surprise us ladies with breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. After breakfast the guns came out and he was a happy camper! Definitely another fun trip to Colorado and even better that we got to celebrate Mother's Day and my Dad's birthday with my parents. 

Love this picture of my parents and my boys!

Silverpup Graduation to Kindergarten

Seems like yesterday I was just going to Jackson's preschool orientation and now its over and he is onto Kindergarten. Back in May Riverton High did the cutest graduation program for Jackson's class. All the parents were invited to come watch the kids perform everything they learned that year. Each child had a speaking part. Jacks did awesome and remembered every word although he was a little scared to make eye contact with the audience. It was so fun to watch and listen to all their cute songs and see them with their friends and teachers. After their program, every child had the cutest cap and gown (Jacks was more a shirt!) to wear and had a chance to "walk" for their preschool diploma. Of course I shed a tear! We definitely enjoyed Riverton High School Silverpup Program and Jackson really loved Miss Sarah (his high school student teacher) and Mrs. Hicks (the actually class teacher). Still to this day he says he misses Silverpups! Must have been worth the money for all his fun memories he made.

 Only a few months later Jackson was onto Kindergarten

... A bitterweet Mommy day! He has finished 3 weeks of school already and LOVES it! He was so excited to start Kindergarten. He kept asking to go get school supplies (just like his Mommy! That was my favorite... new crayons, markers, pencils, etc!) even though he didn't need anything for class. Of course I was just as excited as he was so off to Walmart we went for a few things we could keep at home to do his homework throughout the year. As soon as we got home from the store, I asked him to do something and his response was "I can't right now mom, I have all this stuff to do! AKA... Sharpen a box of pencils!) Love this boy! 

Two days later it was his first day of Kindergarten. I think I was more nervous than he was. I got out and walked him to the Kindergarten grounds to watch with all the other moms. Luckily for Jacks he has some good buddies in his class this year. (Landon Christensen, Jackson Mather, and Deacon Smith). It was fun to watch him and all his friends play on the playground and then eventually line up to go into class when the bell rang. The hardest part was watching his teacher come out to gather her class and then they told the kids to blow a kiss to their moms... the tears were already puddling in my eyes, but that was the breaking point! Of course 3 weeks later it is no big deal to drop off and pick him up, but at that moment you realize your child will spend more time with their teachers at school from this day forward than they do with you at home playing and being your little buddy during the day. When his first day of class was over he came running out to me with the biggest grin on his face. Here he is posing with his Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Calhoun. So far she has seemed great for Jacks and a great teacher. Jackson's favorite part of school is definitely his homework folder. He is always so willing to get to work on his assignments and wants to do multiple days of work in one night. Lets just hope the excitement continues since he's got many years ahead of him.

ROOMIES!

Our bunk beds FINALLY came yesterday!! With sister being just weeks away and her stuff starting to pile up in Andersen's room, we've been planning and moving him into Jackson's room for a while now. It started with painting and rearranging closets and dressers and ordering their bunk beds over a month ago. We weren't expecting it to take 6 weeks to get their beds shipped and set up but they eventually came. You would have thought it was Christmas because the boys were so excited! Last night was their first night in their new beds. Jacks of course slept like normal because he is used to a big boy bed, but it was probably the easiest transition from crib to bed for Andersen. He was a champ! He went right to sleep, woke up to go potty around 3:30 and then back to bed until 8:30 this morning. He looked so little in this big bed. There definitely is pros and cons to little ones having their freedom in bed, but him being able to join us in the morning as soon as he woke up was so nice, plus I think he liked it too. He even wanted to take a nap on his bed this afternoon. He keeps saying, "sister is going to sleep in my crib!". We are still waiting on the quilts my mom has made the boys so only a couple more weeks and their room will finally be complete.

Lets hope the excitement lasts and they continue to love being roommates!

More FUN in the SUN

Thanks to Lindsay's last minute idea to take the kiddos swimming we got to beat the 100 degree weather we've been having lately. We probably only swam for a couple hours but the kids still had fun and were able to stay cool. Andersen and Jackson probably spent half their time jumping into the pool (thank goodness Andersen is liking the water again) and the other half eating lunch and treats we brought to snack on. I loved the picture of the 3 older kids and their individual bags of chips the were enjoying. Can't believe we've all been friends since middle school! We don't see each other very often now that we all are busy with our kiddos schedules but its always fun to catch up. Thanks for the fun afternoon ladies! Hopefully we can do it again with all of us.

(Sorry we missed you Michelle in the group picture of us moms, Jacks took it before we all packed up to leave)

GO Mariners!

Back in April Jackson played another Spring season of Baseball. This year it was coach pitch and Nate was the coach (when he was in town). Our team was a group of boys from our neighborhood (plus Dr. Elison's son Nicholas) and then we got a few more just randomly assigned to our team. They were a good addition to our team, especially the girls because they could definitely hit better than half the boys! Jackson has always loved baseball and shows to be a natural when he is really concentrating on hitting the ball. He even got a homerun this season! Another memory from this season is Jacks hitting a ball right at the other teams pitcher hitting him in the "junk". Poor kid dropped to his knees, started crying, and walked off the field. After Jacks made his run around the bases he went over to apologize and make sure he was ok... So sweet to watch Jacks be so sensitive to someone elses feelings. Hope he keeps that quality about him because he definitely can be a big teddy bear when he wants to. It definitely was another relaxed/fun season of Baseball with his buddies, but I am sure the older Jacks gets, the more intense it will be... So until then we will enjoy the innocence of our little rec leagues.

Good Job Mariners!!

Kamas with the Marsings

Last weekend Nate's friends, the Marsings, planned a little get together of some of Nate's guy friends and their families from high school. It was been quite some time since we have hung out with some of his buddies like this so it was a fun night in Kamas. We spent the night riding the Marsing's parents horses, catching up and of course eating. Our boys, especially Jackson, have wanted to ride horses for a while now so it was a perfect opportunity for them. We are still hearing about "Sassy" and "Trumpet" (the horses they rode). I love seeing Nate with his buddies from school because it brings out a relaxed Nate that our family doesn't get to see very often, plus we get to hear all the crazy, funny stories from their high school days. This picture of the 5 of them is only probably half of the crew, but I love how Andersen wanted to join the big boys for the picture. We definitely need to do these get togethers more often because its always a good time catching up and letting all the kiddos play.

America's Birthday

We started our 4th of July celebration by joining the Whiteside's, Bailey's, and Ball's at the Riverton Parade the night before. We got there around 5:45 (it started at 6:30) so we grabbed a pizza and had dinner while we were waiting for the parade to start. You would think being there that early we would have plenty of time to get some spots for the parade, but it was crazy busy!! We ended up sitting in the driveway of the Riverton office buildings which wasn't a bad spot besides it was towards the end of the Parade route and they weren't throwing much candy by then. It was nice to have an evening parade but it didn't do anything for the heat. It was so hot and the parade was extremely long. An hour and half later our friends were leaving so we bribed the boys with Slurpees if we could leave too. They didn't think twice about it and we were off before the crowds.

That night Nate had a sleepover in the family room with the boys on the air mattress. They always love to do this so they couldn't be more excited. We popped popcorn and watched movies for a couple hours until the boys finally gave up and fell asleep. Being 6 months pregnant I headed off to my bed because there was no way I was sleeping on the couch. Good thing I did because the air mattress had a slow leak in it and Nate had to jump up to the couch in the middle of the night while the boys stayed on the mattress.

The next morning we enjoyed some family time just hanging out. It was nice not having to worry about getting up and going anywhere like we usually do on most days. The boys were being so silly and making us laugh! Jackson was making silly faces with his glasses while Nate taught Andersen the art of "brewing" Looks like its a genetic Rothe gene!

That afternoon we got ready to go swimming at the Riverton Pool. We stopped at Subway to bring with us for lunch and we were off to meet the Ball's for some fun in the sun. We spent 3 hours at the pool playing. Jackson and his buddy Cannon enjoyed their squirt guns and practicing all his new tricks from swimming lessons, while Nate helped Andersen become more comfortable in the water. Last year Andersen loved the water, this year he loved it too until he about drowned at my brother's pool. Ever since then he has been very hesitant of the water. At first he had to have his life jacket on and would scream if we put him in. He felt very comfortable just sitting on the sidelines watching everyone else have fun. Gradually Nate got him to warm up to the water and the last hour he was swimming around in the shallow end without us and jumping off the side to Nate.

 Its amazing how just a few hours in the sun can wipe you out. I jumped in the shower as soon as we got home and this is what I found when I got out. The boys were crashed! So I joined them for an hour or so until it was on to the next party.

After our naps we had the Christensen's over for a some dinner. We enjoyed some Pacos (their family business recipe of Quesadillas) for dinner...They are my favorite! Once it got dark we played outside with all the glow sticks Alison brought for the kids and watched all the neighbors light fireworks.

Besides the 4:30 am fireworks going off in the neighboring streets by some punks with nothing else better to do that early in the morning, I would say we had a fun and perfect 4th of July this year! The glow sticks were definitely the hit of the night though. (Plus they were fire safe for this years crazy fire scares).