Happy day to this Father

Happy Father's Day daddy!!  Cameron made this cute tie at school.  It had his picture on it.  So fun!  

The primary kids sang to the dads.  It was Mackenzie's first time going on stage to sing with the primary (she was supposed to for Mother's Day, but she didn't want to).

 After church we had a whobilation dinner at our house to celebrate.  Of course all we did was sit around and laugh!

I am extremely grateful for my dad and everything he has done for me.  He is the most generous, kind, thoughtful, gentle, funny, caring, hardworking, man I know.  I am blessed to call him dad.  I love you!  I am also grateful for Jeremy and the daddy he is to our kids.  They love him and enjoy spending time with them and learning from him.

So thoughtful

I try to teach my kids to be kind and thoughtful.  Several times I have had them help me to leave a treat and note for the mail lady.  Usually around holidays or something.  So, it makes me happy when I see my kids do things like this all on their own.  Cameron will randomly want to leave the mail lady notes.  So he asked for paper and an envelope. Then I saw him writing this note.  He picked out this treat to leave with it.  LOL  

These two!

I love summer!  I love the these two playing together.  Little Dallin loves Mackenzie and wants to play with her everyday.  She had fun at his house playing in this pool.

My job

January 2015, Jeremy had been out of a job for two months now...and the job front wasn't looking too good.  So, I decided to go back to work.  After all, I had my LCSW and had been keeping up my liscense.  I got a job as a school social worker for Diamond Ridge Elementary.   I HATED to leave my kids and struggled to find people to watch them.  After a few quirks and plans of who could watch them falling through...I ended up having my sisters help!!  They were amazing and I felt sooo much more comfortable leaving them for work.  I quickly learned to love the job.  It was such a great job and a wonderful experience.  However, I still hated working and not being there for my kids after school.  Even though I worked part time, I still felt like I was missing out on being there for them and having to juggle a lot.  So I made the decision to not return the following year.  However, it was a great job and one that I would return to any day (when my kids grow up of course!)  I am a stay at home mommy at heart :)

I ran a few groups for kids with ADHD and other disorders.  I thought it was fun to come up with things to do in groups.  I had 3 boys that loved video games and that was all they talked about.  So, I decided to make a handout about what we are in control of and how we can control ourselves etc.  They thought the lesson was cool, but sure made fun of my "ancient" remote drawing.  I guess the remotes have changed a lot since I used to play video games! 

One day we had a crazy wind/rain storm.  The power went out and it was chaos.  A bunch of us ran outside to help with flying objects.  This trampoline happened to blow over the fence several houses down and managed to hit a few cars along the way!  I took a picture before I ran out to help :)

 

My office :)  I like to put these "take a compliment" papers outside my office.  The kids loved them, and I would usually have to put out several a day.  They were always gone fast.  Then I would have kids knocking on my door asking for compliments!  Lol

I loved the quotes I put up in my office.  I decided to leave them there for the next social worker who worked there.  They are too good to take down!

Another one of my favorite things was going around to the classrooms and doing "prevention" work and class presentations.  I did this with the 1-3rd grades.  I read the book "the crayon box that talked" and then I had each kid make a crayon representing themselves.  Then I put them all in the crayon box I made.  The idea was that we are all different, like a box of crayons, but without all of us the picture would be boring and incomplete!  I hope I made a difference in at least one persons life while at work there.  I loved all the cute kids.  It's sad to know the crap and hard times that a lot of kids have to go through and deal with.

Summertime!

It wouldn't be summer without swimsuits and lemonade stands!  Mackenzie is always in her suit.  She loves to play in the water and if there is any chance she might get wet she goes and puts her swimming suit on.

In between selling Lemonade and otter pops she took some breaks to jump through the sprinklers.  Cameron took the Lemonade stand very seriously!  His friend came over to play with him and I asked him it he was done with the stand....I could put it all away so he could go play.  He said no way, if Jayden wants to play today he can help me with the lemonade stand.   And that is what they did!  I think he was out there until I finally made him be done at 5:00!  

Water balloons for sale

This started out as me filling water balloons and the kids having fun throwing them and having a water fight.  Then it evolved into Cameron's little entrepreneur brain saying "hey let's sell some water balloons!"  So we filled and tied more balloons and he got bowls to put them in.  Several popped as Mackenzie re-arranged them to coordinate colors etc.  Then after awhile I went inside to get my camera,  when I came back Mackenzie was sitting her all by herself.  She said "Cameron told me he was going to go around to some doors and tell people we are selling water balloons.  and he told he to sit here incase we got some business....so I am supposed to keep running the business right now."   Hilarious!

Quick summer trip

We try to get to St. George at least once a year.  It's a nice little vacation, close and convenient.  The kids love to go there.  Mackenzie get so excited to go to the "hotail" and they think St. George is great!

Mackenzie and Cameron watching cartoons waiting to go to the pool.  It was like 7:00 am and we told them they had to wait at least another hour!  So they were all ready to go LOL!

We spent a lot of time at the pool.  It was super hot down there and the kids love to swim!

 Mackenzie wanted me to take a picture of her after I got her ready.  I painted her nails, and she put on some of my make up.  We were headed to dinner :)

Seriously, this picture cracks me up!  We were in the middle of eating dinner.  Cameron fell asleep!  He is still holding his piece of meat that he was eating as he fell asleep.  When the waitress came around to refill our drinks, we said "what do you put in the meat around here, some sort of sleeping pill?"  She looked down and laughed.  The best part about this is he fell asleep last time we were here last year....same restaurant!  Too much swimming and being in the hot sun I guess?!?

Peek a boo!

Doesn't get much cuter than this!  Jeremy helped Kenzie climb up the big rock and then he couldn't reach her anymore, so Cameron came and grabbed her hand to help her up.  He is such a sweet and helpful big brother.  He really does love his sister!

Cameron on the other side of the red rock enjoying the view.

Mommy and Kenzie trying to get in some shade for a minute!

This was one of my favorite trip to St. George so far.  The kids are old enough to hike around and actually enjoy it!  We had fun exploring and enjoying the red rock.