Hangin' Out

We decided to come home early from Salt Lake, just so we could have a few days of down time before Vaughn had to go back to work and it was so nice. We got a lot of things put together for the baby and set up, Vaughn was also able to work in his garden. Which he loves to do more than almost anything these days! 

We found lots of cucumbers when we got home!!!

Mason's first load. 

Mason's second load. 

Sam and Mason helping Vaughn pick peas and beans. 

The lot of produce.

At dinner we enjoyed eating the fresh things from our garden! I love this time of year. For some reason my tomatoes are still green, but I am anxiously waiting for them to turn red so we can eat them!!! Oh yum!!

Sam thinks for some reason that as she sets the table she has to take a time out break and lay on the table. Silly girl!!

After dinner all the kids went to play outside. I love when they all get along and play nicely with each other! Sam truly loves her two big brothers!! 

 A rare peaceful moment with Sam and Mace. Usually they are running around playing or wrestling! So cute!

Cousins!

After our trip to Costco, I was depressed and mad at everything. We had planned to go to my mom's to see my cousin, Rachel, who was visiting from Arizona and I didn't really want too. Not because I didn't want to see her, I just didn't know if I could fake being happy and be any fun to be around. But we went anyway, because when would I ever make the decision to not go to my mom's?! 

I am so glad I did!

Being with two of my favorite cousins helped so much!!! They are a bunch of dorks and we have so much fun together! We were laughing so hard, we were crying!! There may have even been some wet pants in the mix!! 

Rachel, Malita and me

They lifted my spirits so much!! 

It was SO SO SO fun to be together again!!!

I wish we could get together more often!! 

Lisa and my mom!

We had a yummy bbq and just hung out and visited!!

Sam loves playing on my phone! She is one smart cookie! She can figure out an app on my phone in no time at all! 

When it cooled down a little bit we moved the party outside to let the kids play in the sprinklers. Between Rachel and myself there are 6 kids. They all had fun playing and getting wet! Rachel and I were pregnant together with Mason and her son, Grant. It has been really hard having her live in AZ while raising her family, but we grew up away from each other and always had fun when we got together, so we just need to make the effort to do the same for our kids!!

Sam loves her daddy!

For someone that said he never wanted a girl, she sure does have him wrapped around her little fingers!! 

Grant, Drew & Mason 

Vaughn, Mason, Rachel & Kara, Sam 

These boys had so much fun playing together! 

And these girls had so much fun together as well!

Cami, Sam and Breana 

The dads showing the kids how to kill snails with salt. 

They thought it was soo cool!!!

I know I've already said it, but I had so much fun with my cousins. Every time we get together it is so fun. 

We left the kids with the dads and headed over to get some shakes. While we were there we had a blast and I am sure disturbed the peace a little bit, but it was memorable, so oh well! While we were there we saw a family that had brought in their snake! Holy gross. We went to complain to the management and they said, pretty much, that they didn't care. So we called the health department and the corporate office. Why in the world would someone bring a snake to a family restaurant? There is something seriously wrong with people.

In the end we still had fun and it will be a night we won't soon forget!!

When It Rains....

It pours.

Or they say everything happens in 3's. 

So earlier this year Vaughn and I had to replace our garage door. It had been in a couple of accidents with a wood mirror, my car and the garbage can. It had finally seen the last of it's days and so we splurged and replaced it. Fast forward 6 months and our new garage door was involved in yet another accident with the garbage can. Except this time, only one accident was enough to do it in. And this time there is no way to "splurge" to fix it. We are hoping to at least before winter to have some money saved up to buy yet another one.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to our vacation in Salt Lake. We've been trying to save up for this vacation and prepare for money being tight. 

After finishing with the 5k we headed back to Bountiful to get ready for the day and then to Costco to get our tires rotated. We have been trying really hard to stay on top of the maintenance so we don't have to replace the tires early and what the guy found made me so sick to my stomach.

Who ever knows when, we hit a nail. It didn't pop the tire, but it made a huge bulge on the side of the tire and caused the rubber to expand and crack. 

Since the rubber was cracked and bulged, there was nothing they could do to fix it. The tire would have to be replaced. Which on any car would have been fine, because Costco insures their tires if it still has wear on it. BUT because our car is a 4x4 if you have to replace one tire you have to replace ALL the tires. Oh boy. This was especially depressing because these tires were less than 2 years old and still had at least a couple more years on them. Grrrrrr. Goodbye to our good day.

The third thing is that our less than a month old windshield got a huge crack across the bottom. We hadn't even noticed that we had any chips in the window, so finding the crack was devastating. We definitely had to take a deep breath and remind ourselves to have faith that everything would be ok. 

Annual 24th of July 5k

Once again we attended our annual 5k race for the 24th of July. This has become such a fun tradition and I was sad that I wasn't able to do it with everyone. I had been having some really bad contractions the previous days and a lot of back pain, so Vaughn was adamant that I not participate. It turned out ok, because I got to sit at a check point and help those that needed help across a busy street. I really only had to do it twice and just sat the rest of the time, but it was fun to see everyone and cheer them on!  

McKay, (Spencer hiding behind him), Clark, Jessica and Drew 

Our 5k host this year, Jana! 

We had breakfast over at her house afterwards.  

Mason, Brooklyn and Scott 

Vaughn and Max, with his two sisters, Shauna and Brenda 

Malita was a gem and pushed Sam for me! 

Aaron 

Mason, me, Vaughn and Max

I am so glad that it was overcast and raining off and on! It would have been so hot otherwise! The race was a success and I think everyone had a good time! Next year I can't wait to participate and hopefully beat my old time!! 

Catching Up

Vaughn had the next week off of work and so we decided to stay down in Utah to spend some time. Monday we were able to see two of our really good friends. My friend, Amy and her kids. We met at a park for a few hours and tried to survive the heat! My kids had fun. I'm not too sure about her kids. They are older than my kids and maybe a little too old for thinking a park is fun, but Amy and I were able to catch up, so that was good! 

After the park we headed back to the Hixson's to have a picnic with Sarah and her adorable daughter, Hannah! 

My kids were so excited to be eating outside for the picnic. Even if they were the only ones that did, they didn't seem to care!  

Sarah brought her dog, Blue to meet our dog Max and they didn't like each other very much. Max just annoyed Blue the whole time by wanting to play and sniff him! We were hoping they would hit it off and be best doggie friends! Guess not! Oh well. 

Drew, Hannah and Vaughn

Sarah's little girl is so cute! She is such a little Sarah, it is unbelievable! Thanks Sarah for coming up to Bountiful to see us! 

Hixson Family Reunion

Last week was the Hixson Family Reunion. We went to the Bountiful parade and fireworks and Vaughn's parents rented out the Bountiful rec center pool again. It was so much fun. My kids just love getting together with all their cousins and playing hard with them!

Mason at the parade. 

This year we were so far back from the parade that my kids didn't really know what was going on. They played with their cousins through the whole thing and didn't pay any attention to the parade.

Vaughn with his sister, Brenda's dog, Nilla

She is a cute little thing! 

Sam loves messing with her daddy! 

This year the parade featured 2000 Stripling Warriors.

It was amazing!! To be put in to perspective of what 2000 looks like was incredible! It seemed that the rows after rows of young men just kept going and going! The crowd was definitely in awe!! I am so glad we got to see this and that my kids witnessed it as well.

After the parade we headed over to pick up dinner with Vaughn's parents and then headed to our usual spot to watch the fireworks. The kids had a blast running around playing with their cousins and with so many kids running around, it made it kind of difficult to keep our eye on Sam. She always seemed to disappear and then reappear right in front of us. She is a sneaky little thing!

Sam and Mason LOVE to wrestle! 

They are always rolling over each other and since Mason is on the small side and Sam is on the big side, they are worthy opponents! 

Our view of Antelope Island and the great Salt Lake from where we watch the fireworks. The sunsets are so amazing every year!

Saturday night was the night to head to the pool. The kids were super excited and I was....well not so much. I get very anxious with having to watch three kids in the water at all times. One of my biggest fears is that I'll lose one for just a minute and the unthinkable will happen. I usually have life jackets for the kids, but in my haste to get out of town on Thursday, I forgot to pack them. So I was stressing. 

Anyway, it worked out great. Drew was tall enough that he could touch every where that he wanted to go, even down the water slide, and my sister-in-law had a life jacket that she let me borrow for Sam. So really I just had to really focus on Mason. It made the whole experience so much better!

Sam had fun playing with her older cousins. 

Thanks to Magen and Emma for playing with her! 

Drew loved being free to run around. They had a lazy river, water slide, another pool that connects to all this that had a basketball hoop, and a kiddie section with a jungle gym. Drew was all over the place. If I ever couldn't find him I would just watch the water slide for a few minutes and Drew would come flying out the bottom of it! He is such a good kid!

I don't have any other pictures of Mason that aren't blurry, so I have to put this stupid picture of me on there. I guess I'll just sum it up as to taking one for the team. 

Our whole family had so much fun. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Hixson for giving us such a fun night! We appreciate all you do for us!!!

Oh, How We Miss Them

Living in Jerome, the hardest thing to live without, is the mountains. Vaughn and I constantly talk about how we miss the beautiful mountains in Utah where we grew up. Whenever we drive home and come around the corner of the mountain in Tremonton and see the wasatch front, we always take a deep breath in and sigh and say, "we're home!" 

Last week Vaughn had vacation from work and so we decided to go home for the break. On our way we hit very light rain and saw these two beautiful, full rainbows! The boys were in awe and I couldn't reach my camera, so these were the best I could do with my iPhone. It was so spectacular! 

We weren't the only ones in awe. There were dozens of cars pulled off to the side of the freeway snapping pictures of it! What a great way to be welcomed home!

Projects

The last few weeks have been busy for Vaughn. One of his friends from work asked if he would make a bed for her daughter, kind of like the boys. He was excited to do it and super excited that her daughter, Rachel, was old enough to help him!

Vaughn and Rachel 

Rachel's new bed! She wanted big steps, so she could put storage containers in-between each step and she wants to put a desk under her bed! I think they were pretty excited to see it come together! Vaughn left them to do the sanding and staining. I hope they send us a picture when they finish that!!

Then Vaughn found this picture on the internet. I think he was drawn to it because of the dog, it looks exactly like Max, but he swears the dog had nothing to do with it!

So when I came home from the farmer's market one day I found him working on this.

We have so much crap in our garage and I cannot wait to get rid of all the baby stuff we have been storing and adding to with each baby. At least Vaughn is happy now with all of his babies tools organized and put in their new home. 

As soon as he had finished cleaning and getting everything all set I mentioned that there were a couple of easy projects on Pinterest that I wanted to make. I showed him the pictures and he just started making them and putting them together for me! The best part is that we had everything we needed to build them! I love those kinds of projects!! 

Vaughn and Max building my first project! 

Sammy building her own project. She loves working next to her dad! 

My first finished project.

I'm excited to make other boards to change out for the holidays or even the kids' birthdays! 

My second finished project. 

It is way smaller than I thought it would be, but at least it is done and I will have something for 4th of July next year.