{reading with ike}

we love books at our house. it is something we hope our kids will grow up to love to do. we have been reading with all of them and this is usually how it goes. it starts out with all the boys behaving.

that changes very quickly with ike. he usually reaches for the book and wants to put it in his mouth.

and more reaching.

so much, that nolan starts to hold ike's hand back just so they can finish reading the book.

at this point nolan and luke are getting a little frustrated with ike. but they are still nice.

then ike was getting frustrated and lunged backwards. luke apparently liked it because he could see the book again.

even with all the grabbing and the "i can't see" the boys love hanging out with ike. i really love seeing the relationship between them. they really make life that much more enjoyable.

{another season come and gone}

nolan is really starting to get the hang of soccer. if you remember, last season, nolan was so nervous before each game and didn't even touch the ball till the last game. this year he was crazy! he was getting in there pushing and shoving (not really part of the game but we were just excited he was doing something) and kicking the ball. he even scored some goals. (they were for the other team but who cares, right!) we were so proud of nolan. he loves soccer!

this season as a little different because when we signed nolan up there was no coach. so jake volunteered us to be the coach. i think we learned a good lesson, NEVER be a coach of a bunch of 5 year olds that are total space cadets. we really got a team full of butterfly catchers. non of the kids would listen and none of their parents would get involved to help their child. this was the most frustrating season for jake and myself. all the other teams beat us by many, many goals. and the other teams actually listen to their coaches and did what they said. soooo frustrating!

even with us being completely sick of coaching we loved seeing nolan stretch himself. i hope that he can get on a good team with lots of excited players next time. i think it would only help him get better and better.

{picture perfect}

at the end of the trip my siblings and their incredible spouses decided to have a redo of our jumping picture from back in july. i, apparently, am the worst jumper and always jumped first and landed first. so while everyone was in the air i was squatting down like a dork.  everyone thought they were so funny and just sat there for the first attempt. hahahaha......not funny people!!!

  so mean. but i love them still. with all the fun they were having teasing me we did nail our picture.

i have to give props to kim, she is jumping after just having a baby 10 days ago. and yes, we are sisters and do the same pose without even telling each other. i love and miss these guys so much!

after all the hooplah, i started taking a bazillion pictures of the beautiful sunset. utah is so beautiful. i miss the mountains and incredible sunsets from my parents house.

as we drove away from those awesome mountains i got a little emotional thinking about how long it will be until we meet again.

this sunset was a fire in the sky. so pretty!

we had a great trip. it's always hard to say goodbye. we are starting to miss our family. going on 6 years of being away. hopefully we can get closer soon!

{luck}

as luck would have it, haley and judd overlapped us in utah. it was as if the stars had aligned. so haley and i made it happen. the boys went golfing in the morning, while haley and i went shopping with the babes. then we met up with the hubs for lunch at iggy's. yum!

i was lucky enough to be pregnant at the same time as haley. our babies are only 3 weeks apart. and yes, they have an arranged marriage. berkley jo is the cutest baby, seriously.

our husbands enjoyed us taking out our second exact cameras and snapping ridiculous photos of each other.

after lunch the boys went to a movie and haley and i went shopping again. {note to self, never shop in layton. worst mall ever.} since shopping didn't do us any good we headed to the sweet tooth fairy.

these kind of stores should not exist. i have no self control.

and right next door was the red mango. oh wow! pretty much all we did on this 4 hour excursion was eat and shop. oh, and had a nursing party in the car, totally embarrassing.

and here is the future mr. and mrs. they are so cute together. berkley is a ball of fire. way more active than ike. and i'm not jealous one bit.

i seriously love this girl. we have been so close for 6 years now! can't wait to get together again. but next time it will be with all the gals and we will be celebrating my 30th birthday!!!  ahhhhh!

peace out lady!

{friends like them}

everyone needs to have friends like joel and tera. they are crazy and always up for an adventure. they really stretch us to try new things. this time around they decided to take us rock climbing. i was a little hesitant because i get nervous with heights but knew it was going to happen anyway.
we met up at the junction in ogden to try this rock climbing shenanigans out. this was a very simple and easy climb. (for them)

jake, of course, climb up like it was no big deal. (drives me crazy how good he is at everything!)

i, however, was stuck in this position for most of the climb. for some reason, my brain didn't want to signal to my legs to just stand up. i came to the conclusion that i am a lazy old mom. freak!!  it was still fun but i only got halfway up and thought that was good. i think this picture really accentuates how long my arms really are.

half-way in to our night things starting to get a little goofy. it never takes us long to take ridiculous pictures that will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

jake started doing some funny poses. i didn't quite capture the best face he was doing. but it was funny.

it's always a good time! after we decided we were too tired to climb we headed over to wing nuts at the junction.  wow, was it good!!!!  i had the best nachos ever!!!!!! so all you utah people get the nachos. amazing!
thanks joel and tera for driving up to hang out with us. you guys are the best!

{rabe time}

the main reason for our trip back to utah was this guy. marv turned 90!!!! can you believe it? he still is as active as ever. truly amazing. he had a big party with a band and a "surprise" singer.

that "surprise" singer was marv himself. he was good! mckell and lukie thought so too.

marv brought out his beauty. i asked marv if we named our last son marv, would he give us the car. i don't think we'll get it. ike just didn't look like a marv.

we also took the train down to city creek. wow, i was totally impressed!

the kids had a blast playing in the water.

the fountain show was pretty cool.

when we headed back to catch the train north we missed it and had to wait another hour. this was their sad face.

because of the wait, we had lots of these going on.

cute little colter. his hair is the best!

we had a great time seeing the sites of salt lake. made me miss utah so much. oh, and a little family too.

{russell time}

at the beginning of our 2nd trip back home we spent the first half with the russell clan. and boy was it crazy fun! we were lucky enough to meet the latest and greatest grandchild, kellan vause. oh my gosh he is cute!

we went down to see the proud mama and her babe and the other crazies that came along with it.

kellan was just about 5 days old when we saw him. so tiny and so cute.

love these two. there's something about a baby that melts your heart.

we then headed up to logan to hang out with eric and kimmy. it was so fun to see their cute apartment and see what logan really has to offer.

love this shot of my bubba. he makes me smile. and notice the duck that wanted to get in on the picture above. watch out, they bite!

we did lots and lots of wiggle car time.

 nolan, literally, went everywhere in his batman/decepticon outfit. this kid is so funny.

i was taking a picture of kellan resting on kim when i noticed he was totally flipping the camera off. i guess he wants us to know what he's really thinking. kim was laughing so hard. i think she might have peed her pants.

iker's spent a lot of time in grandpa's lap and loved every second of it.

and these boys got in to nothing but trouble. yikes! i don't know if it would be good for them to live close. between them knocking down kim and dan's tv, breaking a key off of the piano, etc. they sure do love each other though.