Grandpa's Farm, A Birthday, A Reunion, A Wedding, and The Stuff Inbetween

Our current summer activity cycle looks like this:

Monday: kiddie pool in the backyard/ Library
Tuesday: Kidde pool and popsicles
Wednesday: change it up and bring out the water table instead of the kiddie pool
Thursday: Play with friends in the backyard/ eat more popsicles
Friday: Do all the laundry/ Pack/ load up the car for Grandma's house which always takes way longer then it should
Saturday and Sunday: Play in Utah and do tons of fun things/ visit with family/ play with cousins/ swim/ etc. Then drive home late at night

Monday: Lazy day and try and recover from the crazy weekend. 

Seriously this schedule has been on repeat for several weeks now.  We are so boring all week.  We do our chores, the kids work on a bit of school stuff, they play with friends, I get my workouts in, they eat lots of popsicles, etc.  Then on the weekends we head to Utah/grandma's house and we do way more then we ever thought possible in two days.  It is kind of crazy!

And yes I question myself 100 times during the drive back and forth why we don't just live in Utah.  Anyone hiring Engineers?  hehe kidding... kind of.  We really do love Idaho!  We just really love our families too.  Plus it is much easier to do exciting things when there are more people around to help with our crazy crew. 

So here are a few photos and recaps on what we have been up to the past few weeks.

Mommy/daughter date.  Shopping for a new hair bow and getting cupcakes.

Visited Grandpa's farm and helped him with the chores.  Declin declared his love for goat milk over cow milk.  Grandpa also loaded us up with Milk and eggs for our fridge at home which we always appreciate.

Celebrated Great Grandma Pace's 90th birthday party at a little park across the street from her house in good ol' Wanship, Utah where she has lived her whole life.  Many of McKay's cousins were there celebrating with us.  It is impressive how the family continues to grow.  Tons of babies and toddlers running around!  You can tell how much Great Grandma Pace loves seeing her family grow!  She is a wonderful lady!   

Here is Addie posing with her beloved toy of the moment and showing off the new hole in her mouth.  She lost her third tooth at Great Grandma's Birthday party

The next weekend we tried out a pool near my parents house.  It was perfect for little kids/ babies.  This was actually Magnolia's first time in a pool.  She didn't love it, but she didn't hate it.  She was nervous, but as long as we gave her a pool toy to distract her from the water she was good. 

Solomon and Magnolia- sharing toys and germs since 2016

Came home from the pool just in time to go visit Grandma Pace for her birthday.  We ate delicious pizza and played at the splash pad near her house.  Then we headed back to her house and made cookies while McKay fixed some leaky faucets 

Satruday we had a family reunion with McKay's siblings, his dad, and step mom.  We had the reunion up Mueller Park Canyon.  The weather was perfect and it was such a fun place to be.  The kids enjoyed roaming around the campsite.  We roasted hotdogs and had a great lunch.  Then we played Volleyball while the babies napped in the strollers.  You know I am a sucker for happy childhood memories for our kids with their cousins and this is another day that I hope they will remember.

Here we are howling, random I know.  I think they had started howling at the kids to help keep track of them and then we just kept doing it the rest of the day.  Family theme maybe? :)

After the reunion we did a quick clothing change at McKay's brothers house (tried to get rid of the campfire smell as best we could) and then headed to a wedding reception at Wheeler Farm.  We apparently love this place.  Mykelti had her reception here last year and we came and visited the farm area earlier this year.  My cousin Caleb got married to Whitney.  We love them both!  Caleb and I had lots of fun chats about dating, friends, and such before I got married and started having kids.  Obviously that was a while ago and it took him a few more years to find Whitney, but I think he found the perfect girl and they are so cute together.  Once again we got to see lots of cousins that we don't normally get to see.  We took this awesome aunts/girl cousins picture (missing Whitney though, she was a little busy that day).  I love all of these women and think they are amazing!  So grateful to have them in my life!  No the men weren't included the picture taking moment and my dad thanked me later. ;)

On Fathers day we went to church in my parents ward.  Stu and Solomon and Mykelti and Draesen came to their ward too.  Solomon and Magnolia were a bit noisy during church so we kept having to take them out in the hallway.  I stayed out with them during Sunday school.  My heart was seriously going to burst from their cuteness.  They are both at such a fun stage.  Neither of them are crawling offically yet.  But watching them roll all over as they pull their bodies where they want to go is too adorable.  Solomon is such a boy through and through and Magnolia is such a dainty little girl.  I love it!  If I ever thought I could handle twins... oh that would be SO much work... but so cute at the same time.  Ok I am done. ;)  I just really love those babies. 

After church the women made a special dinner and dessert for the dads in our lives.  We were bad and still didn't take any pictures of the men, but here is a quick picture that I took this past week of McKay with our cute kiddies.  Man we have such a wonderful daddy in our life.

Well that is the run down of the past few weeks.  We get to repeat the cycle a few more times this summer.  Hopefully July and August turn out as good as June has. 





 

Rededication of the Idaho Falls Temple

Since March of 2015 our wonderful Idaho Falls temple has been closed for renovations.  In May of 2017 they had a open house for the newly renovated temple and then they rededicated it on June 4, 2017.  What a wonderful day that was.  It truly felt a bit like Christmas morning for me.  Not the adult kind of Christmas morning where you are tired and broke, but the kid kind where you are anticipating something wonderful.

The few months leading up to the rededication I just felt a little bit off.  The desire to go visit the temple was there, but with Magnolia refusing to take a bottle so it just wasn't an option for me.  I love the temple and am so grateful for the peace and joy that come into my life from serving there.  I definitely missed it while it was being renovated.   

The day of the dedication we had planned to have my neighbor watch our kids while McKay and I went to the dedication together.  But in the middle of the night the night before Declin got sick and threw up a few times.  We knew that we couldn't take him to the neighbor's house so we decided to split up and McKay would go to the first session and I went to the second session. 

Honestly looking back now I just really needed to attend the second session.  Many of the talks we different in each of the 3 sessions.  Well the talks in the second session were exactly what I needed to hear at the time.  I received several answers to my prayers.  I felt peace and my Heavenly Father's love during that session.  It was truly wonderful! It also probably helped that I didn't have any small children on my lap distracting me from the spirit and messages.  :)

One of my favorite thoughts from the meeting was that the sacrifices, whatever they may be, to live the gospel are always worth it.  Whether it is raising your family, avoiding sin, choosing the harder right over the easier wrong, staying out of debt, etc.  They are always worth it.  Just keep working at it and you will be blessed for your sacrifice. 

Later that evening we decided to go for a walk around the temple and see the beautiful grounds.  The kids had been a bit disappointed that they didn't get to participate in any part of the rededication.  So they were excited to go walk around the temple and see it.  I hope they can learn and see how important the temple is to McKay and I and will have a desire to be worthy to go someday themselves. 

Since the rededication McKay and I have a renewed sense of excitement for Temple work (as I am sure most members have here in Idaho Falls do).  We have both had the chance to go and spend some time there during the past couple of weeks.  It is beautiful!  I sure hope we don't take the wonderful blessing of having a temple close for granted anytime soon.  :) 

 



 

McKay Turns 32!

32... I think that is right.  Either way, McKay had a birthday!  McKay (aka daddy around these parts) turned 32 on June 3rd.  We love celebrating McKay, especially since he does so much for our family.


But I am slowly learning to not ask him how he wants to celebrate his birthday, because his answer is always boring.  haha!  This year he caught me at a good moment and I let him pick what he wanted to do on his special day.  Instead of me forcing him to celebrate his birthday MY way.  His choice was.... drum roll.... work on the basement.  SO not fun right?!  Well that and NOT have a birthday cake.

McKay is currently off of desserts these days and most processed sugar in general except for the very rare super special moment.  The weekend before his birthday he had had a piece of cake at my mom's birthday party so he decided to count that as his cake too.  The kids were really disappointed when they heard about no cake. 

So in an effort to give McKay more time to work on the basement I decided to take the kids to the park in the morning on his birthday to give him space to work.  But at the last second McKay decided he could work later and came with us to the park.

We were happy to have daddy join us!  He played Disc golf while the kids played on the splash pad and then he joined them at the splash pad while I went for a walk around the park with Magnolia.  In the end we had a very relaxing and enjoyable time and we were so happy McKay came with us.  The rest of the day McKay worked while I kept tabs on the kids while they played outside.  The we had chicken sandwiches (his request) for dinner and chocolate banana smoothies for dessert.

This year for McKay's birthday gift we got him a child carrier backpack to wear when we go hiking.  We actually bought it on our trip to Las Vegas and have already used it once.  But we pulled it back out on his birthday and he gave each kid a few rides in it.  Adalyn even wanted a turn.  Such a nice daddy these kids have! 

After we put the kids to bed that evening I went downstairs with McKay to "watch him work".  Really I just got caught up on a few things on the computer and played some fun music on youtube while he did some electrical work.  But I was there supporting him, even if I didn't actually do any work. 

Happy Birthday McKay we are happy to celebrate with you!