West Bountiful 4th of July Parade

Since Brett and Kallie moved right onto the street where West Bountiful has their parade, we have made it a tradition to go to their house, have yummy breakfast (this year Kallie made cinnamon rolls), and watch the parade. It was already really hot by the time it started at 10:00, so most people hung back by the house to be in the shade. The kids got lots of candy (mostly taffy), and we had lots of fun. I was excited to put Leila in her 4th of July outfit! Her bow gave me a glimpse into what it will be like when she has hair! Okay, not really, but I thought it was too cute!



Here she is with Daddy watching the parade.


Jace, Nixon, and Beckett hanging out in the shade.

Luckily Grandma K brought an umbrella!

My cute, festive kids.

I love dressing for 4th of July!

Leila's main mode of transportation was still crawling at this point.

Nixon wanted me to take his picture. He pulled this sweet pose out, and when I took the picture he said, "Was that a cool move?" He's into doing "cool moves" all the time, and asking us if we though it was cool.

Leila and Griffin can't get enough of each other. Every time they see each other, they both get so excited!

Cute Griffin. He's 6 months younger than Leila.

Jace Climbing the Rock Wall

On July 1st, we went to Centerville Park for some fun and games. They have a huge party after their parade, and had everything set up the night before so we took advantage. We didn't stay very long though. We watched Jace climb the rock wall, the boys fished for prizes, we got a sno cone and a funnel cake, and then headed to Chili's for dinner. I only ended up getting pictures of Jace on the rock wall.

I couldn't believe he made it all the way to the top! He pushed the button and a siren went off. It was awesome!

He wasn't even scared to jump back and be lowered down.

Silly Leila

While I'm busy cleaning, in this case, emptying the dishwasher, Leila likes to find fun things to do to keep herself occupied. This day it was emptying the cupboard and then trying to fit into the bowl! This was after, of course, she had emptied out all of the silverware I had just put in the dishwasher.

"Let's see. If I could just get my other leg in here somehow..."


"TaDa! I did it Mom!"


"Now how in the heck am I supposed to get out of here??"

Leila's Surgery

Our sweet Leila had to have surgery today. She has had blocked/clogged tear ducts since she was born, so her eyes are always goopy and teary. Her doctor had us wait until she was 1 year old before we did anything about it because generally, by the time kids are 1, it clears up on its own. Hers didn't. If they don't clear on their own by 1 year, they will never clear up and they will have this problem for the rest of their lives...unless they have surgery. We decided that it would be best to go ahead with it.

We checked in at 8:30 this morning, and got Leila changed into the cute hospital gown and pants. She wasn't too sure about it at first.


Then she was fine.

I got a bunch of pictures! I just thought she looked so cute!

I had to get one of the back. So cute.

We went from one waiting room to another, and then the doctor came over to talk for a second, and then the anesthesiologist came over to go over some things. He then led us down a hall as far as they would let me go, and then told me to give her hugs and kisses. I got a little emotional, but held it together. Then he said it was time to hand her over. She went right to him and then realized that he was taking her away so she started to cry. So did I. They went through the double doors, and I could hear her crying all the way down the hall.

I then headed downstairs to call Brock and let him know to be there in about 30 minutes. Yeah, it was a short, very routine operation. But I was still nervous none the less. They put her under general anesthesia, and that alone made me nervous. The doctor had to go in and "probe and irrigate" her tear ducts.

After calling Brock, I headed back up to the 3rd waiting room until they called saying Leila was done. I got to go to her bed and see her. She was lying there peacefully. They said everything went perfectly, and that she was doing great. I got to hold her while they finished some things up there, and then they took us to another room where Brock got to meet us. He held her there until she woke up. She was scratching her nose a lot. They said that that is normal. They seem to be itchy when they wake up. Her tears were a bit pink, but other than that, she looked great. We sat with her until they released her, which was about 45 minutes or so.

They wanted to make sure she would drink something before we left.

I tried to get a close up of her eyes, but my camera was blurry.

She has a blood pressure cuff on her right leg (which was taking her blood pressure in this picture, and she wasn't a fan), and the IV is in her left leg. They have to stabilize the IV with that white thing on her leg.

You can see the IV better in this picture.

Finally the nurse is taking all this stuff off of her.

Happy girl.

Now her foot is all bandaged up.

They let us get her dressed so we laid her in her bed to change her diaper and dress her. She just wanted to play with daddy.

So happy!

All ready to go. We're so glad everything went well, and we're so grateful to all those who prayed in her behalf.

Happy Birthday!

We went to Blue Iguana to celebrate Dane's birthday. It's always fun to hang out with my brothers! Julia cancelled last minute because her friend was going through the temple, and Maria had school stuff.

They sang Happy Birthday to Dane.


The whole group



Dane and Annie brought little Aria, and Brock got to meet her for the first time. She's still so tiny!

Music in the Park

Julia's A' Capella group, Mountain Blue put on a concert in the park the other night so we got some food and headed out there. It was really fun!

Here they are singing. We sat in the back so that we could set out our blanket and be on the grass.


Our set up.


Jace wanted to take a picture of us.