August 2015

Georgia turned 8 years old on August 2!  She invited some friends to Extreme Air Sports!  Everyone loved jumping and swinging around!

Opening presents!

Georgia wanted to go to Cheesecake Factory for her birthday dinner.

Our local corn wagon has a steal of a deal on shucked corn.  I bought 10 dozen ears of corn.  The big girls helped me put all the cut corn into baggies to put in the freezer for winter.

We also canned a few quarts of tomatoes and cut up some peaches.

We have four weeks of swimming lessons.  I love the home where the pool is located.  It is surrounded by trees and beautiful gardens.  It is so peaceful and serene!

The kids took a few bike trips up to the local snow shack ALONE!  They were super safe bikers and enjoyed their snow cones on a hot day.

These girls love to go back to school shopping!

We had several neighborhood friends join us for history camp this year.  All of our big kids went and loved learning about the civil war.

While the big kids were at history camp, Georgia helped me can spaghetti sauce!

The final history camp battle.  

We went to the Young Living Farms right before school started.  The kids loved all the knight and shining armor!

On the way home from the farm, we stopped by the big red barn for some yummy home made ice cream.

I decided to do an experiment for two weeks at our house!  I decided not to go to the grocery store for two weeks.  So we had to eat what we had in our food storage or what we grew out of the garden.  It was a major success.  It took a some extra planning on my part, but no one starved!

We have really gotten into playing games lately.  Especially Uno!

We had some trees trimmed in our back yard.  This tree climber was amazing.

Georgia and her friends at back to school night!

Ice cream for breakfast on the first day of school!  It is certainly a day for celebration!

Annie, Abby, and Carter - 6th grade......Georgia - 2nd grade

Tim turned 38 on August 20!

Major growing in the garden in the span of 8 weeks!

Vegetable choppers for canning salsa!  Having helpers makes canning so much faster!

Annie and Carter catching grasshoppers in the garden.

We went to JCW's for ice cream for family home evening.

Abby decided to run for 6th grade student council.  We are so excited that she is trying something new.  She had to do 8 hours of service.  She painted signs for our ward country fair parade.

 Tim and I went to Sundance to the Bluebird Cafe concert for my birthday.  I love the music and the mountains!

Our ward country fair parade.  All the 8 year old girls got to ride in a convertible and wear princess crowns.

All the kids and Tim ran the 5k race.  I rode Abby's bike to cheer everyone on!

 Abby helping me can spaghetti sauce for student council service hours!

Georgia swiping raspberries out of the garden!

July 2015

In July, we had three beauties turn 11 years old!  Tim usually takes the day off work and we celebrate all weekend long!

Abby, Annie, and Carter

I can't believe they use to be this little!

Opening presents in the morning!

For the past few years, we give our kids the options to have a birthday party or get $100.  The girls always choose the party and Carter always chooses the cash!

The girls went to Cravings Bakery (the same place Annie and Georgia went to cupcake camp).  They got to decorate aprons, baking hats and cupcakes.

 Every year after the big kids birthday, we head up to Logan, UT for the 4th of July.  We stopped by Napoleon Dynamite's house.  The kids are loving that movie and were thrilled to see this old house. 

Our neighbor, Jen White wrote a young adult novel "Survival Strategies of the Almost Brave".  We went to our local Barnes and Nobel for her book signing.  Both big girls read the book and loved it!

I've been dealing with hip pain for the past year and decided it was time to get it fixed.  I had a hip arthroscopy.  In a nutshell, they shaved off a bump on the top of my femur bone and cleaned out the hip socket.

 I was on crutches for four weeks.

We participated in running camp again this summer.  This is our 4th year of running camp.  I love to watch our kids run!  I helped coach the clamp up until had I had hip surgery.

Grocery shopping after hip surgery provided all sorts of fun opportunities.  We really loved the handicap parking pass!

The girls really got into doing puzzles this summer.  They even completed a few 1000 piece puzzles!

The Salt Lake City Apple store hosted a kids "Apple Camp" for free!  They learned how to make iMovies.  Our Abby was in heaven!

Running camp had a final race at the end of July.  The Barlow family swept the podium again!

Carter received his cub scout Arrow of Light!  Go Carter!  He is officially an 11- year old scout now!