All my siblings!!

Hooray!!! I finally figured out how to photoshop my two sisters that missed the first picture I took while I was in Portland. Now all I'm missing is Jen!

portland

So I just got back from Portland yesterday, I had a blast! I didn't take my kids so I was able to really spend some good time with my siblings. Which I haven't ever really done since I've been married. I just have to say I have the most amazing siblings in the whole world. I'm so proud of all of them! I went mostly for my sister Becky's baby shower. I had volunteered to make the cake and this is how it turned out. I will post more pix when I get done photoshopping my two sisters into the big picture of the rest of us kids, since the two of them were at work.

Brenden's new pet

Brenden has a new trick! He LOVES to catch grasshoppers and he's really good at it! They are everywhere out here where we are, pretty much out in the country and he catches them all the time. You would think he would have been spit on by now, but the grasshoppers seem to like Brenden too!

Brittany Speer comes to Utah

My sister Brittany came down to Utah last week to audition for American Idol. While we all figured they would want her in just for her name (Brittany Speer) she unfortunately didn't make the second cut. Ridiculous! She can also sing really, really well. She's amazing. What a stupid show, huh? Anyways, we went down to Utah to spend some time with her and Jen and her kids. Monday we went down to Provo to see some friends of ours, the Drapers, that used to live across the street from us in Idaho Falls. They moved down there last summer so we haven't seen their kids in over a year. We had a blast! Holly is expecting another baby in Sept., finally another boy! That will make 3 girls and 2 boys. I had my niece, Brynn with me and we got a picture with all the kids together. How cute!!!! Brittany had fun hanging out with my kids, as you can see from the picture of her sleeping with Carter. More like Carter was sleeping on her. She loved it though! I was also there for my nieces' first day of school. They have year-round school and are on tracks, so they started July 28th. They are all growing up so fast!

fun in the sun

My poor kids went from having their own backyard and a street full of friends to a townhouse with just grassy areas and no friends. So I've had my work cut out for me, making sure they have enough things to do. Yesterday I bought a slip n' slide and after about half an hour I had a swarm of random children over at my house! Hooray! Kids to play with! Had I known all I had to do was buy a slip n' slide, I would have done it a couple weeks ago. Who knew?

Rexburg

Well, we are officially here in Rexburg, even though we ended up not selling our house like we thought we were. 3 days before we were supposed to close on the house we found out that they guy trying to buy our house has two Social Security numbers and is an illegal. Nice huh? Of course, thinking we were going to close in three days, we had moved everything up to our place in Rexburg. So now our beautiful house that we LOVED is empty and no one is living there. We could have stayed!! It was all a horrible experience and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. Lucky for us, we decided to just rent a place in Rexburg while we took our time deciding to either build or buy. Phew!! I'm adjusting to being here, after having everything you could ever want in a town, without it being huge. We loved Idaho Falls SO much and I miss it!! Not a bad view from our kitchen window though, huh? (the Rexburg temple)