Utah in August -Smith's

In August we went down to Utah again for a couple family reunions. My grandparent's celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, my dad and sister had their 50th and 17th birthday, and we had a Pratt family reunion. I made cakes all weekend, which was crazy, but they turned out well. It was fun being able to be there for the momentous occasions.

Rachel's 2nd Birthday

I didn't realize until last night that I never blogged about Rachels birthday... oh more than three months ago... oops! Rachel is obsessed with babies, so she wanted a baby cake. I really like how it turned out! The girls all love dressing up, so for the outfit Rachel is wearing is the dress-up dress she got for her birthday. She's such a cutie. We love her lots!

Our trip to Utah in July

In July my sister Brianna left on her mission to Texas, so we headed down for the 4th of July weekend, and were able to stay the next weekend for Jared's 10 year highschool reunion. We celebrated Aliza's birthday with the Jared's family (it was also Jared's dad's birthday) and spent the rest of the week running around Utah County. We were able to go to the Okur Mountain Utah Temple open house with Jared's mom and afterwards went to the Dinosaur Museum and the Animal Farm. It was a very fun day.


Sometime during that week we also celebrated Jackson's birthday by going swimming and having a little party afterwards. We had a lot of fun on our trip to Utah.

Rachel puts Diaper Rash Cream on her Baby Doll

Rachel was a little too quiet while we were watching a football game. When we checked on her this is what we found.

Fall is Here!

Our camera got broken by one of our girls (it was on it's last leg anyway), and I haven't quite figured out getting images off of our video camera, so I'm just going to blog without pictures....

• Amaya got her first two teeth last week!! She is 6 1/2 months old and crawling everywhere! She's been scooting for about a month, but she's actually crawling now. She's growing up way too fast!
• Rachel is our mischievous little one.... we'll have to put on one of the videos of her recent invasions :) People often comment to me about her cute raspy voice. My mom says that I had the same voice when I was little and told me I sounded like donald duck. She always does whatever Aliza does and is obsessed with babies. My favorite thing she says is "can me have that..."
• Aliza is growing up so much. She is starting to get into the phase where she has to wear skirts or dresses and loves the color pink... She loves her doll stroller. The other day I overheard Aliza say while pushing the stroller, "lets go to a garage sale". (I'm training her well:)) I'm doing a little preschool thing with a couple friends who have daughters similar ages to Aliza. She really likes coloring and is starting to try to color in the lines. I love my little Aliza.
• Madeline is such a good helper. I'm also doing a little preschool thing for her with a friend, which she really loves. Madeline was so shy at first, but I think she's opening up more now. She could color and cut paper for hours and loves working on her "school books". Madeline is very good at memorizing songs. Every night we have music playing in their room, and every time I'm in there with her she's singing along to one of them. I've never even heard most of them before now. She's a great oldest child.

Life is great and I'm thankful for my family. I'm trying to find a balance in life, but I know that family is the most important thing. I love my kids and husband.

Cute kids

Just some fun pictures. These little people are what keep me so busy all the time. I love them very much!

Time to Blog!

Jared often mows the lawn with one of the girls on his shoulders. I think one day he was carrying one and had the other on his shoulders. Talented. I thought only women could multi-task :)

Wow! I feel like I've been SO busy lately. I'm loving the weather outside right now so I'm trying to spend as much time outside as possible. I feel really blessed lately because we have been given so much produce from our neighbors and friends. We also have our own little garden, so I've enjoyed making fresh salsa all summer long. We planted a fruit tree 3 years ago and were able to eat 5 peaches from the tree this year. Not very many, but they were Delicious!!!

Right now I'm canning salsa, making spaghetti sauce to put in my freezer, preparing peaches to freeze, making lots of zucchini bread (which you can also freeze), playing with friends, and entertaining the kids... or at least trying to :)

Life is great. I am so thankful to live in Idaho and to have great friends here. I love gardening and fresh produce. It makes me happy.