HaPpY bIrThDaY Daddy!!!

We celebrated Lydell's birthday in August. We are so blessed to have him in our lives, he is such a good dad and husband.

I asked him what he wanted to do for his big day, and he said he didn't care. I told him we had to do something fun because the kids were so excited about his birthday, so he said we could just take them to McDonald's. So that is what we did! They had a fun time playing in the play place and eating their favorite food, Happy Meals! I didn't even get a cake made for him this year. I'll have to do one soon.

We had bought him a new drill, but I let the kids pick him out a little present from the dollar isle so they could have something to give to him and help him unwrap. This is what they came up with:

Ash really really thought Daddy would love this pink super girl purse, and I'm sure he will look great taking this up to the barn to milk the cows!

Dayce got him this grabber

Shaylee got him some outlet converters

and Brendyn chose this football duck

Dell loved his presents and the excitement that the kids had in giving them to him. He is such a great guy and we were lucky to be able to celebrate his special day with him!

Happy Birthday!!!

The "beach"

I had never taken my kids to the reservoir that we live close to. It seems I've always been pregnant or had a new baby and so it has been hard to take them all out. This year the kids were all old enough to really enjoy it.

I have a lot of fun childhood memories of time spent at "the Rez" and I wanted my kids to have that too. We packed up a picnic lunch and met some friends out there to splash and play with.

Shay, me, and Brendyn

Ash

Dayce, Brendyn, and Shay

Our cute friends

The kids loved digging in the sand and splashing in the water

My mom came out and watched us and had lunch with us

Shay wanted me to write her name in the sand

My hubby and I got engaged out at the res 12 years ago!

It was such a fun day and the kids thought the "beach" was great. The water is sure not crystal clear, but they didn't care. They had a blast playing in the muddy water.

We did get to go out to the res one more time before school started and took our Daddy with us.

Swimming is not his thing but he enjoyed watching the kids play.

Pioneer Day

To celebrate the 24th of July (the day the Pioneers came to Utah) we took the kids to the Hinckley town rodeo on Friday night. They had fun seeing the animals, but got bored after a while. Shay, Dayce, and Ash tried to get some money off of the money calf, but they didn't get any. They did get a sucker for trying though, which they thought was great!

They played on the rails when they were bored of watching the rodeo

Brendyn was sharing his sucker with his cousin, Maylee

On Saturday morning we went to the Hinckley parade and the kids got tons of candy!!

After the parade, we came back home to our town program and luncheon. We had a fun time celebrating our great state and pioneer heritage.

Fishing

Lydell took the kids fishing up the canyon, he is such a great dad. They didn't catch anything but made some good memories had fun spending time together!

Delly

Ash

Walking down the road

Daycen with the worms

I love this pic of my handsome hubby and cute kids

Brendyn

Shay

Cranio clinic-July 18th

Every year we have to take Shay to see her cranio facial doctors at Primary Children's Hospital. She has to her see her plastic surgeon, orthodontist, ear-nose-and throat doc, a speech therapist, a social worker, and the cleft nurse. It took what seemed like FOREVER this year........3 1/2 hours to get to see everyone.

We were able to meet some amazing little kids and their parents while we were waiting! These little, special spirits always amaze me!

Shay was really cooperative at first, she even opened her mouth and didn't cry (for the 1st time EVER) when Dr. Yamishiro looked at her, but then she started getting tired and hungry. She got a good report from everyone and gets to wait another year or so until they do the bone graft on her. They will graft bone from her hip and put it in the roof of her mouth and her gum line. It is supposed to be a really hard (and painful) surgery. I'm hoping to put it off for as long as possible since she is so delayed developmentally and won't understand not to put her hands in her mouth. Nor will she understand that we are doing it for her own good.

She is sure a brave little girl and I love her so much. After we finished with all of the appointments, we took her out to the wishing pond and let her throw in some money and play in the water. Then we went and ate at the cafeteria where she got to carry her own tray and choose what she wanted to eat. P.C.M.C has the best food ever in their cafeteria!

Random pictures

We've had some really strong winds lately. After one of the windstorms, Lydell found that this HUGE branch had broke off our big tree out back.

Daycen thought we should just leave it there because it would make a great tree house for him.

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Dell fell asleep on the couch one day after milking and when I looked over at him I found that Ashlyn had put her favorite kitty, Saraphina, on top of him. She thought he needed someone to nap with!

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We went to a fun scout activity at the park and the kids got to have chocolate ice cream cones. I love their little chocolaty faces!

Brendyn

Shay

Ash kinda had a goatee going on

This is Brendyn a different day when he had some chocolate pudding

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Daycen came running up so excited because he had made a surprise party for me and his Daddy. He told us it was down in the basement. He had hung his cat from the doorway, put a bunch of candy on top of it, and then he hit it with a long stick and the candy went everywhere like a pinata.

He really makes me laugh, he is a pretty inventive kid, always thinking up something. It was a great surprise party for us!