Happy Birthday, Afton!

Cute, cute Afton. I can't believe you are 6 years old! Where has the time gone? You are such an independent little girl now who is trying to teach herself how to read. You love being a big sister and want to "mother" every baby you see, little or not. Your favorite colors are purple and pink and you love princesses. But your favorite Disney character is Goofy because he makes you laugh. You are an excellent artist and love to draw pictures and write notes to people. You love to give hugs and can almost always be found sitting on someone's lap. Your favorite foods right now are Mac-N-Cheese and hot dogs and pretty much anything sweet that you can get your hands on. You are so mischievous that you keep us constantly on our toes and guessing at what you will come up with next. We love you so much! Happy Birthday!

newborn

a couple of days old. You were our first girl, so we dressed you in pink constantly.

your big brothers were excited to have a baby sister even though we had them convinced that we were going to name you
Afton-boxdudderdox-berkhummer-snu.

cute, cute smile

1 year old

almost 2 years old

3 years old w/ your favorite kitty at Grandma's house


4 years old

5 years old

last month at the Mt. Timpanogos temple. You are such a big girl!

Mt. Timpanogos Temple

On July 5th we drove up to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple to walk around the grounds and learn about it. We really love visiting all of the temples!

Father & Son's camp out

Last Friday night was the Stake Father & Son's camp out. Marshyl took Kaiden, Nic and Luke. We don't think Garrett is quite old enough to appreciate a camp out yet. They camped up at Koholowo in Payson Canyon and had a blast!

a hiking we will go...

Tree tipping. Helping out Mother Nature by pushing over the dead quakies so that they can't get hit by lightening and start a forest fire.

Views from the top.

Quite a few people brought their hammocks and slept out. Kaiden slept out in his, but Marsh and the other boys slept in the tent. It rained that night, so Marshyl and the boys were nice and dry and Kaiden remembered his tarp to go over him, so he was dry too. Not many others were as lucky!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

We went to the open house for the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple on Nic's birthday. It was beautiful and we are so blessed to have these opportunities to take our family to the temple and let the kids go inside and see how beautiful and peaceful it is. Garrett thought that it was way too quiet inside, so he took it upon himself to make it not so quiet. He sang and made happy (loud) noises the whole time we were walking through! Silly boy.

Happy 11th Birthday, Nic!

Nic turned 11! Woohoo! For Nic's birthday we went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. It was beautiful and a great way to spend the day together. Grandma & Grandpa Morris, and Alex met us there. After the open house we went out to lunch. That night we had Pack Meeting where Nic recieved his Arrow of Light, the highest rank that a Cub Scout can earn, and was then advanced into the 11 year old scouts. Happy Birthday, Nic!

Birthday breakfast muffins

Birthday Cake! Yummy!
Luckily we took this picture before we took the cake to the fridge downstairs to set up because on the way down the stairs, Kaiden wiped out! Luckily he caught himself just enough to save the cake. The berries went flying all over, but he saved the cake. We had more berries in the fridge to put on top, so everything turned out okay.

Wow, that's a lot of candles!

At the restraunt, the waitress came and sang "Happy Birthday" to Nic and brought him this birthday cake. It was brownies surrounded by pineapple and jello sprinkled with cheese and bacon bits with ice cream on top. He blew out the candle. But this was definately NOT an edible birthday cake! Gross.

Nic got a yo-yo and a Shrade (pocket knife/tool thing)

and a Wave Board!

Timberline

Kaiden went to the boy scout youth training program, Timberline, this month. The camp is out of Mt. Pleasant at the Mountain Dell scout camp. He was up there for a week and had a great time leaning more about boy scouts and how to be an effective troop leader. Marshyl & I got to go up for the last flag ceremony and then bring him home. He had a blast!

The 3 boys from our ward that went-David, Kaiden and Brycan

Kaiden's patrol-the Mighty Tiglins

Closing flag ceremony

Scout pack-in to the Pine Forest

Last month for the scout camp out, they packed in to the Pine Forest. It was about 2/3 mile hike. All of the boys made hammocks, so they really could pack everything in. They had a great time and Marshyl and Kaiden have decided that hammocks are the way to go. If we had more trees in our yard, Kaiden would probably sleep out every night. All of the boys had a great scout camp.

Marshyl, ready to go

Kaiden, ready to go.

A fun game of hacky sack with the troop.

Marshyl's hammock all set up. The tarp keeps the rain off.

Rise and shine, sleepy head! Kaiden, first thing in the morning.

We win the prize...

Well, it is official. We win the prize. At Garrett's head surgery follow up this morning we had to see a different doctor since our doctor moved. The doctor that I saw today has been a plastic surgeon doing these surgeries for over 25 years. We are the FIRST time in his career that he has seen 3 kids with this in the same family. He was amazed and slightly flustered the rest of the appointment because he just couldn't believe it.

With all of the stress involved with this condition and surgeries over the years it is nice to finally get a laugh out of it. And this doctor's face, once he realized that I wasn't pulling his leg about this, was priceless. I laughed the whole way home!

I think the odds of us having 3 kids with this same condition has got to be equivalent to the odds of winning the lottery. Maybe we should play the lottery...

Temples

In this last General Conference the following quote really spoke to me:

"You are never lost when you can see the temple. The temple will provide direction for you and your family in a world filled with chaos. It is an eternal guidepost which will help you from getting lost in the 'mist of darkness.' It is the house of the Lord.
The First Presidency has invited adult members to have a current temple recommend and visit the temple more often. Even our young children have been encouraged to visit the temple grounds and touch the temple. President Thomas S. Monson once counseled, 'As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us.'"

"Sacred Homes, Sacred Temples" by Elder Gary E. Stevenson Of the Seventy in the April 2009 General Conference

So during the summer of 2009 we have decided that our family would try to visit most, if not all, of the temples in Utah. We want to walk the grounds and take a picture there as a family.

So far this year we have been to the Draper Temple (in Jan. for the open house), the Manti Temple and the Vernal Temple. We have been finding out interesting information about the temples at www.ldschurchtemples.com. Here are some pictures from our recent trips.

Draper

Vernal

The Vernal Temple used to be the Uintah Stake Tabernacle until it was converted into a temple in 1997. The temple is right in the middle of town and in the 5 years that my parents have lived out there we had never visited it. We are glad that we finally took the opportunity.

The Vernal Temple

The old Uintah Tabernacle

The kids on the grounds.

Manti

Marshyl's parents were married in the Manti Temple in 1973(?).

Garrett's hair cut

Garrett's hair never freaked out after his surgery like Kensi's did, so it has just been growing, and growing, and growing. I was constantly pushing it out of his eyes and I could twirl the back around my fingers. Both of those things mean - TIME FOR A HAIRCUT! He did better than I expected a one year old to do for a hair cut. Here are before and after pictures. It took us a few days to get used to his new look. But we love it.