First Day of School

Here are a few pictures of my two kiddos on their first day of school this year. Parker is starting 1st grade this year and Alexia is in 3rd grade.

Sunday Wrestling Session

Sunday afternoons can get a little long around here with the no tv rule and 115 degree weather. I had to finally put my foot down with Parker and declare it unsafe for him to be outside in this hot of weather. Now in my family, wrestling was inevitable on a Sunday afternoon. I love wrestling with my kids. It involves mostly tickling, squashing, pinching little buns, and lots of raspberries on necks, arms, cheeks and tummies. But right now I'm in no condition to get down on the ground with kids.

Yesterday they got a little bored and needed to expend some physical energy. So since I couldn't do it with them, I enlisted the next best thing. Now you need to know that Darren's family didn't wrestle. He cringes when my family does it. It is usually a loud obnoxious activity and he isn't crazy about it. But he was a trooper that day and took one for the team.
The kids had so much fun! Daddy does it so different than mom! They can play a whole lot tougher and there isn't any pinching or tickling going on - Darren HATES to be tickled. Just a ton of running and jumping on dad. Getting squished by siblings and daddy-o, and throw downs, lots of throw downs.
Parker ended up with a huge bruise on his knee, a small one under his eye and a hickey looking thing on his arm. Lexi banged her head hard and had to sit out for a minute or two, but the fun being had by her little brothers soon lured her back in.
Look at the fun these kids are having. I may seriously be out of a job.

Potty Talk

So July around here is crazy hot. And with our time of use program with the electric company I make my house a cave from the hours of 1-8pm. The kids are home, there isn't much to do, and so we hibernate and watch movies all day long. It isn't a very fun month in Arizona. I decided that since we weren't going anywhere all month and it was too hot to get in the car and play around town, it was time to potty train Elijah. For three weeks we didn't go anywhere. After the first week I thought of giving up. He would go into the bathroom if I told him to, earn a sticker, and then leave a puddle on his sister's bed five minutes later. But seriously we had nothing better to do so we kept at it. By week two I was able to take the kids out for about an hour and he could stay dry. Somewhere in the middle of week three he started telling me himself that he had to go to the bathroom. We've been all over town and frequented many public restrooms but by golly, I think he's got it. Nights and naps are still done in a diaper - changing sheets just isn't worth it for me right now. But no more stinky diapers (for two months at least ;p ). It's a beautiful thing.

Now with all of these bathroom visits for Lije and being 8 months pregnant I told Darren the other day that I had to be in the bathroom all day long. Good thing mine are pretty colors. ;) I actually counted one day and just me - no potty training trips included - I was in there myself 9 times! Add in Elijah's trips every hour and I am sure I was in the bathroom over 20 times that day.

With all of those trips to the bathroom, and two different kinds of toilet paper in the two bathrooms - I buy what is on sale with a coupon - we have come to a monumental conclusion. Despite what the bears say, the little quilting ladies win out. The voting is unanimous here. Our family prefers Quilted Northern over Charmin. My mother is probably reading this saying, "Duh honey, I could have told you that." Long live the quilting ladies!

4th of July

Around here the 4th of July stinks. Seriously. Fireworks are not for sale and it is blazin' hot outside even after the sun goes down. A thirty minute firework show used to be the best and now it seems like it goes on and on while we swelter in the heat. So most of our holiday revolves around the food. And oh the food was soooo good this year. Darren was on a diet at the time, trying to win the Biggest Loser jackpot at work, (Which he did, by the way, losing 30 lbs in 10 weeks!) and so our menu consisted of lean proteins, and lots of veggies and fruit and grilled on the bbq - love grilled pineapple! We threw together our red, white and blue jello as well -sugar free this year. There was so much good stuff to eat. I'll forever be grateful that our kids aren't picky eaters. It allows us to ALL enjoy a great meal.
Later that evening we busted out the contraband sparklers that Grandpa Wells gave us. Elijah wasn't too sure about them though.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

Ten Years

Wow it's been ten years today that Darren and I were married. We had a lot of history then, or so I thought. We started out our marriage with $400 from his last check in Ogden and the first month's rent already paid on an apartment in Orem. We were living on love and a prayer that things would work out. Hey...we are still doing that. Darren and I were married at 21 and now as I write this I realize that I have been in love with this guy for half of my life. I realize that we could have easily become a statistic, but it wouldn't have happened. I had seen that picture of the Manti Temple on my parents wall for years and knew what it would take to get there. Plus I was bound and determined to marry a returned missionary and we knew what it would take to get him there too. It helped a ton that Darren was a good guy and felt no shame in being good. It is one of the reasons I was drawn to him.Ten Random Things About Darren & I Together:

1. The first time I cut Darren's hair was in highschool. It took me three hours. He looked like I gave him a buzz cut in the end. He never complained once about it. I still cut his hair all these years later. He still never complains.
2. I barely talked to Darren for two months after he bought my engagement ring. Talk about cold feet!
3. The first time I saw Darren after his mission the gap in his teeth took me by surprise. I had forgotten he had it.
4. Burger King holds a special place in my heart because we always went there after his baseball games and he would eat the other half of my whopper.
5. Our first fight after being married was about how to arrange the books on the bookshelf. We both wrote about it in our journals.
6. Darren and I generally like the same books. He finished all of the ones we were supposed to in highschool for our English class and then told me the endings if I didn't get it done.
7. Darren once cut a slice off of a stump, carved our initials into it, and sent it to me while I was away at college.
8. I still have tapes that Darren made for me just talking to me. I WILL NOT let him throw them away...ever!
9. Aerola, Colorado...nuf said.
10. When we were 18 I was on a cheerleading trip and shopping with some of the other girls. We must have been in Hallmark because there was a machine that you could make and print your own custom card. I made a card for Darren that day. The message inside said... "Even after all of these years together, you are still the one I run away with in my dreams." ...that message still applies.

Rare Photos Indeed

While we were in New Mexico I made a point of getting some pictures of Darren's family. Anytime his dad sees me with my camera he tells me, "Don't take my picture hon." If he sees me trying to sneak a picture of him he stops whatever it was he was doing. That's what happened right after I took this picture of him playing with the bubble gun and all of the little kids. I was determined to get a great picture of Darren's parents with my kids. I don't think I even have one with them and all three kids in it and we are getting ready to add another.The sweet little lady in this picture is Darren's grandma - the kids' Great Grandma Stewart. Alexia loves to measure up against her whenever we visit. If you look closely you will see Alexia is seriously on her tip toes trying to look taller than Grandma. It's close, but Grandma still wins. She lives right next to Darren's parents in this house.

This sweet little girl with Alexia is the other grandchild of Darren's parents. Her name is Olivia Ruth aka Sweet Pea. She and Lexi share the same middle name and coincidentally so do their mama's.
Teressa is always telling me how much Oliva reminds her of Alexia at that age. Once I headed to my scrapbooks I could see why she says that. Here is my girlie at about the same age.
You can't tell they are related can you?

PS. Thanks for holding still Jerry! ;)

Wells Family Reunion

This year's family reunion was a working vacation. We all converged on my parents house with the lofty goal to re-shingle their roof. It was a huge project to undertake, but with some help from the EQ and a friend of my dad's things eventually got done.

Because of my six month baby bump at the time, Darren told me there was no way was I getting up on that roof. My three sisters (Alena, Becca, and Melissa) probably logged as many hours on the roof as my brothers did though. Way to represent, girls!Down on solid ground we kept busy with a project of our own...humanitarian Education Kits...36 of them. I brought 20 that the YW in my ward had started which needed some tlc and a missing item here and there and then we did 16 from start to finish. It to turned into a lofty project.
Pictured here are Rebecca, and my SIL's Lindsay and Kristin doing the all important material sort.

Kristin showing off her mad sewing skills.The finished product.

We capped off the weekend with pinewood derby races for the kids. They thought it was so much fun.
While we didn't really get to spend a lot of time talking to each other besides meal times, it was fun to see and spend the weekend with everyone. Having the cousins get together is important to me, as there are some in my family that I wouldn't be able to name. It's always fun to see how much the little ones have grown.
Most everyone went home on Sunday, but there were a few stragglers left and they all headed back outside early (6am) Monday morning. Alena ended up seeing the project to completion later that week.

We pulled out the home videos and had a few laughs. We even found one that must have been the first we ever took. I was probably ten years old in it. I don't remember ever watching it before. It gave my brother Scott a good idea for next year's reunion which he will be in charge of organizing.

Girls Camp

I was counting the other day and in 10 years of marriage, I have been working with the Young Women for all but three of those years. In that same amount of time I have been to seven girls camps as a leader. Whew! My family has come to realize that every summer includes a few days of fun with just dad while mom is off in the woods some where. This year was the first time I had been on just a ward level. Wow it was a lot of work but we had an amazing camp director.

We had 29 girls at camp this year and it was so much fun. What was amazing was that we didn't have one fight or any girls in tears the entire time. And if you have spent any time at girls camp you know how incredible that is.

They were such a fun group of girls to go with!

This was my favorite view of nature. I took so many pictures of the blue sky, white clouds, green needles and dark brown tree trunks. I'm starved for color here.

This game (Storm the Castle) was a huge hit. It was done with bungee cords and a helicopter net. It looked so fun. I wanted to climb up it but was so afraid to get up there and get stuck.

Three of the leaders, including our camp director, were pregnant this year. The three of us roughed it a tent and still managed to crawl out of bed each morning. Maybe next year with a new baby I'll get a bye.

Jump Around...Jump Around...

Jump up jump up and get down.

That's really all I think of when I see these pictures. They have been sitting in a folder waiting to get posted for a while now. So while I get organized with my pictures from the last three weekends I'll get you something new to look at.
These pictures were taken the weekend of Alexia's baptism. My youngest sister Melissa is a pro at these shots and she was trying to get us all in on the fun. The idea is to strike a great mid air pose and catch it (in focus) on film. She was busy giving pointers to my sister Rebecca and Alexia. It took a lot of tries to get anything good.

Here they are getting started...Lexi just kept forgetting that she needed to bend her legs mid-air.Apparently Lexi jumps better with her tongue stuck out. Sound like anyone else you know?Pretty soon Melissa stopped giving pointers and got in on the fun. I told you she knew what she was doing.They finally got one with everyone jumping up at the same time.
This next one is my favorite of Alexia. Look at the height she gets and that tongue and hair. That's my girl!