Swimming Lessons

The boys tried out swimming lessons for the first time this summer. They did great! My only regret was that I hadn't started them sooner. I have been wanting to the past couple of summers, but never did it. Lucky for me, our friend Shelby teaches private lessons, and she had time for them !! She was amazing with them. I cannot believe how much they progressed from day 1 to day 8...crazy. Beck and I got to chill by the pool every day while the big bros swam, and Bryson came along the last day to watch.

Beck's Blessing

We blessed Beck on July 12, 2009. He looked amazingly cute in his adorable little blessing outfit. Bryson did in amazing job on the blessing even though Beck cried through the whole thing. I had a feeling it might happen so I leaned over just before they went up and told Bryson that Beck would only whimper, but he wouldn't wail so to stay focused on the blessing and it would be fine. That's exactly what happened. Bryson was confident and Beck quit crying as soon as it was over :)

It was a bittersweet day. My grandpas have never missed any of the important events in my kids' lives and in the past year my Grandpa Thompson passed away and my Grandpa Farrell is unable to leave his home. It made me really sad that they weren't there. With only one family I was worried that we might be small in numbers, but I was so grateful for our friends who came and made up the difference. We really are blessed with such good friends, and I am so thankful for them. Heaven only knows how much we need them.

We are also so so so lucky to have my family. They show us unconditional love. As with all families we certainly have our ups and downs, but when it matters most they are always there. I need to thank Sissy and Nate for coming up the night before to help. And I need to thank everyone who came to support us. We love all of you and are so thankful for you.

After a weekend of cleaning, and preparing for the blessing we were spent the following day...Beck especially. The boys feasted on the carmel apple dip the williams' brought to the blessing so I had to put these funny pics on here too...thanks Shelb.

July 4th

Yes, I am very behind...but I'm trying to catch up...

The 4th of July as I've mentioned before is our favorite day of the year! This year Bryson and Brevin decided to start the morning off bright and early and run in the Malad Fun Run. Bryson won the 10K and Brevin ran the mile. I was so so so super sad that they had already started running the mile when we got there, so Sissy and Brevin jumped out of the car and ran their darnedest to catch back up. Brevin still did awesome. He caught up to most of the people running in the race. I had warned Lindsey that Brevin runs like his dad, and sprints the whole time so she was really nervous. When they got to the final stretch Lindsey told Brevin he could leave her and run as fast as he could to the finish line. If you look close she's to the back left of Brevin in pink and black. Thanks for doing that, Sis.

Then we headed over to the parade. Sadly this is our first family photo...very classy background.

Following lunch we headed to the kids races. Kesler did amazing and won the 3-year-old race this year. He crossed the finish line with a huge grin on his face. After Brevin's mom got him late to the Fun Run, his dad didn't hear the gun go off at the kid's races and started him late. He still did great and ran his little chicken legs off trying to catch back up. Bryson and I both gave him HUGE apologies for our being the reasons he didn't have the best running day.

Brothers

I had to dedicate one little post to how much these boys love each other. I never anticipated how much Brevin and Kesler would love having a baby brother, but they sure do. They fight for his attention and for who gets to hold him, but the latest is who gets to change the diaper. I NEVER thought they would fight over that! They do a pretty stinking good job at it too. (no pun intended :) Brevin thinks he's big when he picks Beck up and loves to hold him and bounce him. It's awfully comical to watch because Beck is so big! Brevin can only manage for a few minutes before he starts complaining of his arms being too tired.

Bear Lake

Well there is one thing my kids look forward to maybe more so than anything else in the summer-- going to Bear Lake. Call me crazy for taking a newborn, but I could not let my other two fellas down. They just love to be in the water and sand so much...how could I deny them that :) As hesitant as I was to taking Beck to the beach, we couldn't have had better weather (for him). It was around 80 degrees the whole time we were there, and although I would normally want it much hotter, it made me feel much less guilty.

I found this great craft in Family Fun magazine (thanks Hide) where you glue noodles to cardboard in the shape of fireworks to make stamps. Then you dip the stamps in paint and stick them on a t-shirt. The kids had tons of fun doing them and they turned out super cute. There was one slight problem, however. When we got home and threw them in the wash they came out with much fewer fireworks than before. I had accidentally bought 2 washable colors and 2 not :( Brooke's looked so cute she wore hers on the forth.