July 4th

 We went jet-skiing for the 4th of July and also participated in our neighborhood parade.

4th of July

Austin on the 4th of July

10 months old!

At 10 months old, Austin is pulling himself up to stand. This caused some problems with sleeping for about 4 days, but he's back to falling asleep on his own again.

4 boys in a tub

Carter pulled out his tooth yesterday in the middle of my Sharing Time lesson at church! He raised his hand and said, "Mom, I pulled out my tooth."

July Happenings

 Our boys participated in the neighborhood parade/pool party for the 4th of July.

We spent the evening with friends and fireworks.

We won yard of the month out of the many thousands of houses in our neighborhood. It's a tribute to our hard work each Saturday--Matt mows/edges, the boys and I weed, and I trim bushes. Matt planted our flowers this time, and he does our mulching twice a year.

And random visitor that we had a few weeks ago. It spent the night in our tree and hung out at our house for 1/2 a day.

4th of July

Is it sad that I didn't miss the fireworks that were banned here in the south? Ever since having kids, fireworks = crying babies and no sleep for the whole house until like 1 am when they finally seem to taper off. We enjoyed a family breakfast and baseball game with my family in the morning and swimming and hamburgers with Matt's family in the evening.

I truly am grateful for the freedoms of this country. As I am teaching about temples to the children in my church this month, I'm also appreciative of the opportunity to worship freely. My beliefs influence everything I do in my life, and I'm so grateful for this freedom.

Our Vacation

I am FINISHED with my master's portfolio, and it feels so good. Now I can concentrate on other projects on my 'to do list' that I've been wanting to get to, namely scrapbooking for Caleb. As soon as my portfolio is graded, I'll post the website so those that are interested can look at it.

The week of June 29th through July 6th, my family took a vacation to San Antonio. We rented a house for a week, relaxed, and did some sight-seeing. Everyone was there except Lindsey, who is taking summer classes at BYU, and my sister-in-law Kari, who was put on bed rest for the last month of her pregnancy. We even had a last-minute extra: Clayton's girlfriend, Cayla. The week was a blast. Here are some of the things we did:

Monday we walked along the RiverWalk, and then took a tour of some of its history on a small boat. We also visited the Alamo.

Tuesday we went tubing down the San Marcos river. The water was surprisingly cold. Caleb was a trooper and sat with me in a tube the entire time. At the end of the river, there are some fun waterfalls that we did over and over and over again.
After tubing, we drove by the temple.

Grandpa and Caleb

Wednesday we went to Sea World. This was probably the highlight of the week. I love the shows and the fun rides.
At the water ski show
4th of July

Caleb and Dallin's matching outfits

Before we went to look at fireworks, we stopped at the Japanese Tea Gardens. They were so beautiful, and it was free!

Besides the sight-seeing, we did lots of games, volleyball, whiffle ball, and croquet. It was nice to get away for a week.