Matt's 30th at the cabin!

Heather and I

Natalie, Felicity, Addy and Nems

My handsome hubby

One of the MANY beautiful views from the cabin



Kristina, Brooke

Nothing like a little ping pong


The girl's always want to get in the "bath" when we go up there

Holly

We were lucky enough to have the cabin the weekend before Matt's birthday so we invited a few friends and headed up the mountain for a fantastic weekend! All the kids had a blast and we had very few squabbles which was awesome because we had 11 kids 4 and under! It got loud at times, but they had so much fun together!!! The last night there, we celebrated Matt's 30th and Natalie was turning 2. Can't believe I'm married to a 30 year old:)
This year Matt got to celebrate 3 times! At the cabin, then on his birthday, the girl's and I decorated the house and made his favorite dinner of bbq'd ribs, then we got to celebrate with my family at Texas Roadhouse for both Matt and Dan's birthday! I'm so glad we got to celebrate him so much this year! He works so hard for our family and does so much for us that it was nice to be able to do something fabulous for him!

First day of school 2011

They look so big! These two have been SO excited for school to start and kept asking how many more wake-ups before school started! It took them an hour to fall asleep last night because they were so anxious to go! This morning we had their favorite breakfast of pancakes and chocolate milk and they got to put on their new school clothes and head out. They were pros when we dropped them off! At their new school, they come out and get them out of the car and they got out and had the biggest smiles on their faces, ready to go in! When Matt and I picked them up they walked out with even bigger smiles on their faces and told us all about their day,including the awesome playground! I hope that they always have a love for school and learning that they do now!!! I love these two!!!

Our summer

Miss Savvy learning to drive the mini 4-wheeler on her own! She's a pro and the girls love her!
After a long evening of playing, these girls taking a break in their jammies! The LOVE Lifity:)
At Heather's work party, they had so much for the girls to do and it was a blast!!!

As Robyn said,"the best kind of girl, a dress on and ready to ride the 4-wheeler" Addy loves her dresses, but loves to get them dirty:)
The slip-n-slide

watching fireworks at mimi and papas! This is the part where you can see Miss Maddy getting ready to run to momma, she did not love the noise!

So patriotic

Matt would chuck them down the slide! It was so funny to watch!

Buddies! At the Johnson reunion
Ummmm, I think this pool needs some clean water:) They could care less!

Not Emerie's first horse ride, but she definitely enjoyed this one more than the last one!


Sweet glasses!

Trip to Lagoon for their first time!


Missing Maddy and Bee in this pic, but look at how big these kids are! Especially the two giants in the back! I sure love all these kiddos!!!
Lots of swim time at our neighborhood pool!!!

Savvy is always so sweet with the girls! She is a great mini-mom!!!

Playing at the pool again

The most beautiful dancers!!!

Concentrating so hard on doing what Miss January was doing! IT was the cutest thing ever!!!

Not sure why Addy is pulling this face, but they sure are cute!

Christian and Maddy


Our summer hasn't slowed down and despite being constantly exhausted, I wouldn't change a thing! WE have had so many adventures with both friends and family and have done so many fun things! The girls are busy, busy and keep both Matt and I on our toes! They are up for anything and could play 24 hours a day! I love that they are getting to be so adventurous! We took all the grand kids, minus Maddy to Lagoon while Christian was visiting and I told the girls that the rule was they had to try everything once. They did great and ended up loving everything! We didn't see much of the 3 older boys during the day, but had a blast with Savvy and Luke!
We traveled to Star Valley for the Ervon Johnson Reunion and had a blast! The girls loved all the activities and playing with cousins from sun-up to sun-down!
We've been to the cabin and of course, had to convince the girls that we would come back to get them to leave.
Our great friends Chris and Heather invited us to go for a fun night at her work party that was Harry Potter themed. Us adults had gone to see the last Harry Potter movie the night before. The girls had so much fun and there was food, games, treat, snowcones and prizes! They love being with their friends! We then came back to our house and roasted marshmallows!
We have spent many hours at our neighborhood pool and are so grateful for it being so close and convenient!!! The girls are turning into little fish and remind me of me when I was little! I could not spend enough time in the water! I sure love these two little girls!
We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 3rd little sweetheart and can't wait to see what she looks like and discover her personality! This has been a pretty rough pregnancy, with a couple of stints of bed rest, which for me is the worst thing ever!!! I have a hard time holding still:) Luckily, modern technology has enabled me to get things under control and be able to enjoy all these fun times with my little family! We have been so blessed during this time by incredible people in our lives that have helped in the way of meals, or especially my parents taking the girls day after day! We are so incredibly grateful for everyone in our lives and count each person as a blessing:)
Ok, enough being sappy! Bring on the rest of the summer and more adventures!!!

The reason for not blogging lately!

Matt and I are blessed with a 2nd pregnancy and a 3rd baby girl! Matt might not use the words "blessing" and "me being pregnant" together, but he has been wonderful to me! I have, up until the last few weeks, been sick everyday! It has been a completely different experience from the girls!!! We've had a few little scares, but I am starting to feel like I can join the land of the living(most days;)
Baby Halle will arrive sometime in November. And every time I feel her kick, it makes me more and more excited for her to get here!!!

Yuba Lake

Some good friends of ours are about to have their 2ND baby and called to see if we would be up for one last kid free weekend before this little boy arrives! Of course we were in:)

We went to Yuba Lake, and it was the first warm weekend in what seemed like years(crazy weather) We had tin foil dinners, dough boys(the best thing ever) fried foods from a teeny little store, lots of sun, snacks, diet coke, laughs, loud camping neighbors and tons of fun! Matt wake boarded for the first time and loved it! He also did a little cliff jumping(not his favorite;) I also tried to ski and wake board....completely unsuccessful, but in light of my "current condition" that's what I blamed it on:) Holly totally wins an award for being an absolute trooper! 9 months prego and heads out for a camping and boating trip and even got in a little tubing. Oh, and the water was like a nice warm ice bath!!! Seriously, it's a good thing they had hot showers there!

Thanks Dixon's and Moon's for a fabulous and relaxing weekend! And a huge thank you to my parents who took the girls for us and said they loved every minute!

Random Happenings

So, I haven't been the greatest at pulling out my camera lately, so I have some random shots of things that have happened here or there! We've been pretty busy though! These two little kiddos keep us on our toes! We got to go to gymnastics with Maddy! Addy cried when we had

to leave! They loved it!

We've flown kites, and gone to new parks, we took the girls to their first 3-D movie! Addy went through almost a whole tub of popcorn by herself:)

We've seen some very dear friends, who we don't get to see very often anymore! We took the girls to a local water park that they beg to go to every time we pass it on the freeway!

We also got to go see Grandma Shirley for a little while before she was off to California! We love this lady so much! She is so sweet and kind and from day one has made me feel like I am a blood granddaughter! She just celebrated her 89Th birthday and we were so sad that we couldn't get to Oregon to be there for a huge surprise party for her, but we were so happy that she got that day to feel so special and loved!!!

It's been a fun time for all of us and I can't wait for all of our future adventures!

Matt and I both decided we wanted to do something weekly with the whole family! Something where we get out of the house and go out together! We want to make some fantastic memories with these crazy kids and want them to always want to hang out with us(even during those teenage years, which we are kinda nervous about;)