The little Girl is Gone!

Hopefully the third time will be the charm, because we haven't had such great luck with the dogs to this point. Shelby the Jack Russell, and now Charlotte the Labradoodle have now moved on to new homes that they are much better suited for! So our family is on the hunt for a toy poodle. We will keep you posted if we find one, but in the meantime it's been WONDERFUL to be down one less kid!

My little girl!

After 13 years of marriage, Jason and I decided(Ok, I decided) that it was time for a dog! My kids have wanted one for a very long time and had resorted to making comments like, "We are not like other NORMAL kids because we don't have a dog!" and "It's just not fair because everyone has one except us!" I have had one really good reason to wait and that was because three years ago Ryder was tested as being allergic to both cats and dogs. If you remember the blog entry from two Christmas's ago, you'll recall the failed attempt to adopt two little kittens. Over the last few years he has seemed to tolerate being around many of my friends dogs just fine. I decided we'd give it a try and I wanted to rescue a dog from one of the animal shelters in town. We went to one and found this adorable little Jack Russell Terrior. I grew up with one and it felt so good to have this little dog in our home. The kids adored her, however after day 5 Ryder broke out pretty bad. We had to get rid of her, which I had the hardest time with, but was determined to get one that would work!

SHELBY!

I started researching hypoallergenic dogs and found that Labradoodles are a wonderful breed for those suffering from allergies. We bought Charlotte from a local breeder and now I have my little girl! So far so good with Ryder too!

Easter Sunday 2010

The Kelly family came up last month and spent their Spring Break with us. Which also meant that they were able to spend Easter Sunday with us! Kathy went back to Utah early and I had her boys and Megan on Easter. Here is what a house full of 7 boys looks like first thing in the morning!

The Easter Bunny came!!!

Getting ready to watch conference....and take a nap!

Everyone got their own set of Easter Bunny gummy teeth!

Jeannie and Gordon were also with us and it made for a lovely Easter Sunday!

Meghan and the boys heading off to the airport! We love you Kelly Crew!

A Weekend in Boise!

We went to Boise a few weekends ago to participate in an eventful weekend for the Seeley family! My oldest sister had one of her sons leaving for a mission, one getting his eagle scout, and her newest son getting blessed! What a sweet family she has indeed and it was so much fun to see them all! My boys especially love playing with their cousins. My brother William and his family live in the same ward so it was fun to get to see his family as well!

Justus and Jonah

Jonah with little Jeremiah who is 4 months old!

Beth, Sara and I

Ray, Jerom, Zack, and Johnny

Ryder and Anna

I hadn't seen Justus in almost 3 years! He is such a wonderful, intelligent, and handsome young man! It made me feel SO old to see him getting ready to go on a mission. It seems like just yesterday I was babysitting him! He did such a beautiful job on his talk and he has such a powerful testimony already of the gospel, I am sure his mission will be a great success! The high council speaker that attended their ward that Sunday thought he was RETURNING from his mission! He has quite a maturity about him and our whole family couldn't be more proud of this young man and what he has ALREADY accomplished in his life! We love ya Justie!

Kathy and her 3 boys went to pick up Justus that week at the SLC airport and took him to the MTC! What a great example you are to all your cousins Justus!

Here he is ready to serve the people of Chile!

Happy 9th Birthday Zack!

Happy 9th Birthday Zack! It is so hard to believe that our sweet little "Pumpkin Head", as we used to call him, is now 9 years old! What a wonderful young man our Zack has turned into. He has always played the role of peacemaker in our home and has such a loving and sweet demeanor. He is always so willing to help when I need him too, he is always the first to say he is sorry, he is always telling me he loves me and he always wants to kiss me goodnight!

Zack is quite an athlete. He played up a league in baseball last year and did really well. He also enjoys playing soccer and has been with his team for three years now.

We love you Zack so very much, thank you for choosing our family!

Zacks 1st Birthday!

Being sealed to Mom and Dad at 6 months old!

Zack at 20 months and already a big brother!

Preschool Graduation!

Zack's 4th Birthday!

Kindergarten Graduation!

Zack was sick on his Birthday this year, poor guy! I had to call 12 boys and tell them that Zacks party had to be postponed a whole week! Bummer! So we had a little family party for him on his actual bday.

Thank goodness he got better and we had a really fun party for him the next Saturday! It was a sports theme party and they all had a really fun time!

Look at all these BOYS!

Field Trip!

We hit our year mark of Homeschooling this past January!

Things are going wonderful with it and one of the perks is that we can go on a field trip every Friday with the Homeworks program if we choose. This last Friday was a field trip to one of our local news stations, KHQ. The kids were able to tour the entire facility and also meet the morning weather man George. They had a lot of fun learning all about how television programming works!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009!

Again, I can't say how wonderful it is to have my Mom living so close! She stayed over Christmas Eve and we did our traditional "open one gift" that night. It is more like "open your new pair of jammies night", but somehow the kids forget each year and are still really excited. Even Grandma Jo got a new pair.....and what a sexy Grandma indeed!

Grandma Jo working her black satin jammies!

Well mine are all about comfort at this point, but the kids thought they were cool!

Christmas morning and Santa has come!

Santa ate his cookies and left a note. Santa is so thoughtful!

Dad has gone to work with the video camera.

Ryder's first two wheeler!

Let the games begin

Brock is such a little teenager now. All he wanted was an ipod.

That was exhausting....time for a break!

The missionaries came over later to say Hi and hangout!

It was a wonderful Christmas and we feel so very very blessed to be where we are and to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.