Christmas in July Gift Exchange

During December, I participated in the Craftoholics Gift Exchange.
They had another one called Christmas in July, and I decided to participate again.
This is the craft that I sent to my person.

USA blocks.



A USA themed plaque with the families last name on it.

Playing Outside

Just a couple of fun shots of the kids playing in the sun.

Organization

So we have had this shed that we purchased at Sams Club sitting in our garage for well over 6 weeks taking up lots of space. (The boxes were huge!) We finally decided we were at a point that we could get it put together.

Oh my h#*%!!!! Can I just say. I don't ever want to do that again.

When we went to start, (10:30 a.m.) Kelly decided to change the base that it was going to sit on from a gravel base, to a ply wood base. (3 hours later) We were actually ready to start building the shed.
After getting about 4 of the walls up we found out that we didn't do as good of a job at getting a flat base as we thought we did. Thus the beginning of a really really really long project.

After we hit a point in the directions it said that this step requires three adults.
Great! Now what?
Kelly called his brother Brock, thankfully he was able to drive over from Henefer to help us out.
Brock left at about 11:00 p.m.
After making sure that Zach was asleep I went back out to help again with the finishing touches and loading some of the stuff inside.
Let's just say that after jumping in the shower to wash away the grime of all that work, and finding a snack to eat, I was STARVING! I went to bed at about 2:15 a.m.
What a really LONG day!
So here is a couple of pictures of the whole process.
And this is what the garage looked like after we finished.

More Fence Pictures

A couple more pictures of the fence posts all cemented in.

Starting of the Vinyl Fence

This year we got a little bit of money back from taxes and decided that we were going to put a fence up in our yard. Our neighbors are really who got us looking at it, cause they really wanted to fence their yard and have us share the cost for the piece in between. Which seemed only logical. After getting a few bids and getting the cost to where we felt comfortable spending that amount of money, we decided to go ahead.
Here is a before picture as they were starting to lay the posts on the back lawn.
The view of the swing area. Notice the small dirt pile at the bottom of the picture. It does not stay that small by the time they are done.

Father's Day Card

I am the nursery leader, and I wanted to have the kids make something for their father for fathers day.
I got all the cards started at home, when we got to church we had the kids help to glue on the little popcorn pieces, and then they got to draw a picture inside for their dads.
We sent them all home with a bag of home made caramel popcorn. YUM!

Sleepy!

After a hard day of playing, Zachary tired himself out and this is how he fell asleep.
He sure has been falling asleep in funny places lately.
I think his little body just finally gives out on him.
One day he fell asleep while eating popcorn, and when he woke up, he thought he was still eating it.

Learning to dive

Kylie is now swimming on a level 3.
In level 3, you get to learn how to dive.
When she first started, there were quite a few belly flops.
You will see from that pictures that through the two weeks she gradually gets better to where she is diving pretty darn good and off the diving board too.



Splash!



This one is going to flop!



The splash is much smaller on this one.



Good starting form.



Lookin good!



Off the diving board.
Good job Kylie!
You are really doing great!

Kylie's Swim Lessons

Kylie lucked out this year and ended up in a swimming group with only one other person. So she had a lot of one on one time with the instructor.
She also got to meet a new friend.
She has improved a lot since last summer.
She really surprised me at how well she can swim.

Zach's Swim Lessons

Zach was not going to get in the water with one of the instructors so I got in with him for his first year. On the days that the water was warm he was a little more willing to move around. When the water was colder all he wanted to do was cling on tight.
Here is one of our first attempts to jump in the water. He got a little better at this as the time passed.

First Day Swimming Lessons

Here we are getting ready to leave for our first swimming lessons.
The first picture is blurry, cause Zach decided to try to move just as the camera was clicking.

Playing with Cousins after Sydnee's Blessing

At the end of May we got together with Ryan and his family for the blessing of their little girl Sydnee, and to celebrate Nathan and Rylee's birthday's. I got a couple of pictures of all the kids playing together outside after we ate dinner, but unfortunately I did not get any of little Sydnee.
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Kylie and Allie pushing Zach down the sidewalk.
Plus one of Tristen's cousins, sorry I can not remember her name.





Allie taking her first ride on the mini four wheeler by herself. She wasn't to sure what to think of it when it took off on her.



Kylie and Allie



Zachary



Nathan and Zach



Allie and Rylee



Kylie hitting the ball to Uncle Greg. She was hitting it a lot better than I thought she would.



Zach playing with Buzz Lightyears wings. (At least I think that is what it was.)