Enjoying our First Summer in Ohio

In Franklin county they always have fun "learning" days that is put on by the Park and Recreation . My friend Brittney told me about this Fire day and when I heard there was going to be a fire truck there I could not pass it up. The boys loved it!!

Lennix was a little bit hesitant because the guy that helped him in the engine had a really big beard and he was a pretty big guy. I think the man won Lennix over after he let him honk the horn.

It was the first time Lennix had ever learned about Stop, Drop and Roll and that is all he talked about for days. He would even remember details about the presentation and remind me of what Bob the Fireman taught him.What am I to do with Jensen? This is one of his favorite things to do right now. He must be his mother's son. I think he just likes the feel of picking up the dirt out of my plant and letting it run through his fingers onto the couch and floor and I really think he feels that there is nothing wrong with it. . .

As you can tell by his "I did something wrong?" look. The smearing of dirt on his clothes and face is a nice touch. I have learned something and I want to share it. . . Everytime my kids get into something (for the 20th time) and there is a big mess . . . before I lose my temper and say things that don't help the situation, I go get my camera. By the time I find it, turn it on and figure out the angle that makes it look the worst I am smiling and thinking of what a funny memory this is going to be down the road when it is all cleaned up. Don't worry, there are still consiquences, I just handle it a lot better than I would have. So the next time your kids get into something that makes you mad enough to lose your temper . . . go get your camera! It probably will make a great picture and a memory. This is the Bunny Park. It is the best place to take the kids during the summer. It remindes me of Gateway in SLC, only better. It is free and we always bring lunch and meet our friends there. They play so hard that everytime on the way home the boys can't keep their eyes open and they just crash.

We decided to go to the zoo as a family. I get to go quite a bit but it is so much more fun when Jay comes. This walk way was awesome. I can't even imagine how much time it took to make that. All of those trees and shrubs are all man made.

I think Jensen was getting a little tired

He loved the Sting Rays. He kept on telling me that it was Mr. Ray off of Nemo

This turned out so well. We caught him eating his lunch

It took some convincing but he did end up touching his nose.

In June there was a going away party at are apt. complex for all those who were done with school and going out into the "real world." I think there were about 8 couples just from our ward that moved out last June. That is going to be crazy every year while we live here.

This is the boy's favorite thing to do with Jay.

The boys never tire of it and I can imagine it's a pretty good work out for Jay
There is this beautiful park, Batelle Darby, and this was at the end of the day when we were letting the kids play on the playground. I just thought this picture was pretty funny!

Look at those dirty feet!

Hang'n out with my boys on the back porck. They still love to play in this chair.

Jay and I were able to go to a Clippers game together. We met some of the guys in his dental class. Our seats were awesome. We sat right behind home base and a couple of rows up from the field. We had such a good time and everytime we go on a date we remember how much we love to just hang out together.

It is a sweet stadium!

This is how many of our days are spent. We grab our neigbors hose and keep filling up the bowls with water. I think of you Mom evertime we do this!! I bet everyone of your grandkids will have memories of playing in the water with your kitchen items on the back patio of your house!

Jensen enjoying his yogart after a hard day of playing in the sunshine

Lennix is awesome when it comes to memorization. We read his Book of Mormon together before he goes to bed and his favorite stoy is the Iron Rod. Well, one day I started to read it and I realized he was saying the whole stoy word for word with me so I let him take the stage. He knew every word!! I was so impressed that I showed Jay and then we decided that we had to get it on film. Here it is. . .

They love having each other to play with. Especially in their favorite chair on the back porch, in thier diapers and with their blankets. Life can't get much better!

Some of the chior member of our ward got together and went to Batell Darby to play some games and eat dessert.

The boys were obsessed with the poor dogs tail.

Jensen loving it

So, I have to say that I feel so spoiled being far away from my family. Every holiday, or anytime my Mom feels like it's been a while, she sends us the best most random packages. I LOVE them! I always know of one of two items that will be in there (the reason why she sends it) but 90% of the items are just for fun and to make us all smile. That's exactly what they do. Now whenever my boys see any type of package they get so excited and say "It's from Grandpa Skip and Grand Barbie." Here are some pictures of the swimming tubes that my mom sent and a little snipit of how much fun they had with them.

Nice Shot!

Those are great faces :)

You will not see this very often in our house anymore so I had to take a picture.

I wish some of the other pictures worked because they were so funny. They were having a great time making faces at me on the screen.

Rainy Day in Ohio

There was a span where it seemed like it rained a lot and the rain was actually quite warm. The olny thing is that if my boys see water, it's as if something pulls them right into it and then they look at me dripping wet like "I don't know what happned?" So, a bunch of us decided that we were just going to put our kids in their grubbies and let them go wild in the mud puddle in the back of our apartments.

Lennix was a little unsure (which is weird) but Jensen didn't even hesitate.

Lennix had more fun picking the dandilions and blowing all the petals off in the wind.

Lennix gets his first BIKE!!

Lennix got a Lightning McQueen bike!! He could not have been more excited. There is this girl, Hope, in Jay's dental class and she told him that her son grew out of his bike and asked if we wanted it. Talk about Lennix being excited!! As I opened the door when Jay got home, he had set the bike right in front so that was the first thing Lennix saw. He jumped right on!!

It was dark outside but none of us cared. Jay took him on a ride down the sidewalk and this was Lennix's smile the whole time!!

Excited Lennix - Proud Dad

When we got inside he did not want to put the bike away. He was being so cute that we had to take a little video.

Just documenting!

Part of my responsibilities for the Young Women High Adventure was to help come up with a good meal plan for the whole week using all different outdoor cooking sources. We wanted them to learn new things to cook so I looked on line and there was this great dutch oven pizza recipe that I needed to try before we put it on the menu. So, we called some friends and this is our get-to-gether to try Dutch oven Pizza.

This was the yummiest pizza I have ever had. The crust was almost 2 inches thick!! So good. Here is the recipe if you have a dutch oven and would like to try it.

2 boxes of Jiffy pizza dough mix

Pizza sauce or Spaghetti sauce (Traditional Prego is our fav.)

all the toppings you like

of course mozerella cheese

(I think we almost used a whole large bag of shreddes moz.)

Line the dutch oven with foil. Make the Pizza dough like the box tells you. Flatten the dough with your fingers into the dutch oven. Spread the sauce over the dough and use half of the cheese over the sauce. Add toppings and finish with the rest of the cheese. Set the dutch oven over hot briquets and put about 12 briquets on the lid and cook for about 15 min. That's it.

It was so simple and it cooked in only 15 min. Mmmmmm. If you make it, let me know how you liked it!

These are most of the wonderful Young Women and leaders that I get to serve with. There is a tradition that every spring Conference - the Y.M. and Y.W. get together to have a brunch and watch the first Sat. session. It was a lot of fun.

This is where Jay spent his first semester semester of Dental School. We called it the cave.This is located in the very back closet of our apartment. It was a little quieter but quite cramped. Jay said that when I did the laundry it would shake the whole wall and I'm sure it made reading a little bit more difficult. :) So, we searched many places for a desk and found a good one. I wanted to take of picture of this before he had a bigger and better study area.
I helped one of my friends decorate her house and while we were putting up pictures Lennix decided to step through the glass of a picture frame. He got a pretty good cut so we elevated his foot and fed him popcorn to help with the pain. Well, that wasn't working so he said that he wanted a big band-aid on it so it would stop hurting. Yup, the big band-aid made it feel much better. After that, he was so proud of his hurt toe.

Everytime I let Jensen play out side without his shoes he comes in with bloody big toes. He has this thing that when he runs and walks he drags the tip of his toes on the sidewalk until one of them bleeds. He seems to not mind a bit but it gives me chills just to think about it. I know it will be one of those things that I will talk about when he is older so I had to document it!

This is my hair salon. It's Jensen's turn to get his hair cut and he's not quite sure what to think about it. Now, I'm not quite sure what Lennix is doing :)

Oh! he looks so handsome all clean cut!

That is some great hair. I wish my hair was that stylish right after a nap!

Lennix and Brooklyn are the best of friends. She came over to play with Lennix and brought him a bee costume so they could be dressed up together. I think that Brooklyn really beleives that she should have been born an animal! :)