Puppies and fire.

Today we went to see the puppies one last time before they got their tails docked. (Poor little things!) Anyway the kids were delighted to get to hold the babies a little bit. They were pleasantly surprised by it because they thought they couldn't hold them until the puppies eyes opened. The can't wait to see them again. Halle asks a minium of 10 times a day if we "can go see Layla's puppies now." (No exaggeration!)

Afterwards we walked over to Grammy's house and when we looked out the window we saw LOTS of black smoke and great big flames coming off the old greenhouse wall. The fire in the burn barrel had jumped out and landed on the weeds and instantly spread to the greenhouse. It was QUITE the excitement! Luckily Bryon was home and had spotted it too. He grabbed his hose, jumped his fence and put it out, but not before it had burned the wall a bit. I'll have to wait until I have some pictures of it to post them.

And THEN, while we were all standing around making sure the fire was out, Carter hopped on the lawn mower/train, which Alyssa had left running, and put it into gear and about rammed into Mimi's house. Alyssa and I both took off at a dead run, she beat me there and was able to stop it. It was a bit eventful at our visit today.

Fireplace choices

Here is the fireplace I chose. This one is sitting on a custom floor mantle.

This is the pre-made tile floor mat. There are several choices of tile colors.

Basement progress

Since Jarom is gone, I thought I would post a few pictures of the basement progress for him to look at. Of course you all can look too, if you want. :)Standing in the new entry to the bathroom. The lone stud (sounds exciting, ha!) in front is the door frame to the soon to be closet. It will open towards the inside of the bathroom. There will be a wall directly in front of where you are looking now.

The new bath tub. Mulitple shelves for lots of girlie shampoos, gels, lotions, razor, etc. etc.

Standing in the back corner of the bathroom looking at the new entrance.

Puppies!

Mimi's and Bryon's dog, Layla, finally had her puppies last night. This has been a MUCH anticipated event! They arrived at about 2:30 am this morning. She had six, 5 girls and 1 boy, and they are doing well.

Bigfoot!

We took a Sunday afternoon drive to Jackson, WY yesterday. It's always such a pretty drive. We took the long way around Palisades and followed the Snake River. We saw lots of white water rafters in the river and stopped at one of the rapids to watch, but the boats were too far apart for our kids' patience level. So we'll have to go do that again. I think the kids would love to watch the rafts hit the rapids. Anyway, once we got to Jackson we walked around town a little bit and then couldn't resist going into this shop to get our picture with Bigfoot. This store had all sorts of taxidermy animals, just about anything you can imagine, from skunks to grizzly bears. It took a few minutes for Alyssa and Halle to figure out that the sasquatch was only a joke. It was hilarious!

The process begins!!

Oh boy! Here we go! We started framing the basement tonight. (I really shouldn't say "we", but rather my brother-in-law.) We changed some doorways, and made new closets in the bedrooms tonight. It's so much fun to see it starting to look how we want it.
My poor dad was trying to figure out which wires had power in them just as I flashed this picture. It about gave him a heart attack when he saw the light from the flash. It was hilarious!

Carter was so tuckered out from all of the fun at the reunion, that he fell asleep laying on the bed in the unfinished room. He slept through the nail gun, hammering, sawing, the whole bit.

All my efforts to clean my basement turned into a gigantic pile on the floor. So sad, but it will be so worth it!

Emily and Bryon brought their dogs over with them. I just thought this was a cute shot of Alyssa and Trigger. He thinks he's a lap dog, but he's HUGE! He's a funny dog.

The George and Sophia Nielson Reunion

Today we attended a family reunion for my Grandma's grandparent's descendants. I hardly knew anyone there. It's so sad how quickly the generations grow and you lose contact with your family. It really was a pretty fun reunion though and neat to see the faces of so many relatives I've never seen before.
Good ol' Marjorie, (my grandma's cousin) spoke to us about the lives of George and Sophia.

She got a little long winded. Bryon's face says it all.

Then it was my good ol' Uncle Monty's turn. If you ever need some SERIOUS entertainment, you need to meet this man. He was doing a reenactment of somebody, (I can't even remember who now because his stories had me laughing so hard.) and was explaining how to get a mule team to go. He told how they had to go slow at first until the chains were tight and then you should yell, (and yell he did right into the mic) "Get on you sons of *@!#!" It was so funny. And if you know my Uncle Monty at all, you can just imagine him saying it without thinking twice if kids or anyone is listening. He also shot his gun in the air, for effect and made all the sleeping babies cry. It was just a great laugh all together, but he was fun and entertaining to listen to.

Here's the group trying to form some sort of group photo pose. It's nearly impossible to get everyone to cooperate, but I think they managed to get it done in the end.

There were a lot of fun stations for the kids to visit. Here's Carter and Halle doing the tug-of-war.



Carter was so cute doing the 3-legged race all by himself. He didn't have a partner so I had him just get into the sack to jump to the end. But when he saw everyone else running with one leg out he pulled out a leg and took off. It was such a crack up!

Halle was a FIERCE competitor in the pie-eating contest. She nearly won!
Jarom and I left early and the kids stayed with my folks. I wish I would have left the camera because they did some more really fun things. Alyssa even got to drive Uncle Monty's horse team.

Jarom is recovering!

Well, Jarom is getting better SOOOO much faster than usual. Infact, he felt well enough to take me on a date tonight. He didn't eat much, just sat and sipped his soup while I downed fajitas and ate part of his mashed potatoes at Chili's. Mmmmmm....It was really good. Then we went to Home Depot to price things for our basement. We are beginning the process to finish it tomorrow. (Give me strength!) It will be so nice to have done, but I just know the "during" part, will be a daunting task. Afterwards we went down by the river and enjoyed dessert at Brownstones. Our neighbor owns the Snowshack Caboose right there as well, so we stopped in and Jarom got an italian soda. Really yummy and highly recommended. While we were visiting with our neighbor at The Caboose, we saw the fireworks from the new Melaleuca Stadium go off. That was fun. It was a nice evening out and believe it or not, Kate did quite well with the babysitter. I think it was her best experience yet. YAY!!!

On a different subject, Kate poo-pooed in the toilet yesterday (after which she sat and pointed in the toilet and told it "nooooo", I think it scared her a little.) and pottied twice today after telling me she needed to go!! HOORAY!!! We still have a long way to go, but we're on our way to being diaper free in this house. Ahhh, the joys of potty training.

Poor Jarom

Yesterday I found Jarom slumped in the bottom of the shower saying he felt terrible. At first I must admit, I thought he just had the cold that all the kids have and was kind of being a wuss. Then he told he me he had been throwing up and his throat hurt. (Whoops, my bad! Sorry...I DID feel bad that I had assumed otherwise.) So after 24 hours of not being able to hold anything down and a NASTY red throat, we took him to the doctor. (Of course he's sick, because he's got a business trip next week. I swear there is an unwritten law that says: Jarom must get sick 5-7 days before leaving Elena home alone with the kids so that she contracts the illness while he's away. Here's to LOTS of antibac. gel and handwashing!)

The nurse remembered him from his last visit with Strep, (only 4 months ago) because he passed out after she gave him a couple of shots. I decided I had better go with him this time, just in case. So after the strep test came back positive, the nurse pulled out the needles again. She gave him an anti-nausea shot and a dose of antibiotics to get them running through him. Good thing she did the procedure with him laying down because as soon as she was done giving the second shot, out went Jarom. He's not afraid of needles, but I am detecting a pattern. Poor guy. Once his anti-nausea stuff kicked in and he got some apple juice down, he was feeling well enough to walk out to the car.

I went to WalMart for 2 kinds of juices, 2 flavors of Gatorade, 2 kinds of popcicles, pudding, 2 flavors of ice cream, a variety of soda, Tylenol, and a couple of perscriptions. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. From past experiences, I shouldn't be holding my breath. Strep knocks Jarom down flat for a good 5 days. We talked to the doc about the option of removing Jarom's tonsils, so we'll keep you updated on that if we decide to go through with it.

And as a side note, Carter informed me that his ear hurts. I looked in with my otoscope (best present Jarom ever got me!) and sure enough a pink eardrum. I am hoping that Benedryl will clear him out and that we won't be making another trip to the doctor tomorrow.

Splash Park

This afternoon we went to the splash park in Rexburg with Deidra and kids. It was a lot of fun. I sure wish Idaho Falls had something like this. Even though it wasn't really hot out, the place was packed with people. Carter never really got brave enough to run through the fountains, but he had a great time running all around them.

Brylee was a little scared at first, but she finally got brave enough to touch this fountain.

Kayson LOVED watching the big bucket dump the water out. Or as he put it, "the water fall".

Kate and Brylee playing in the little fountain. This is about as brave as Kate got.

Bailey and Alyssa had a blast. They went down the slides, jumped in the fountains, everything. They were soaked!

Here's the little freezy-wheezies. Halle and Liberty would play for a minute and then hang out in their towels on the warm cement.

Visiting with Angela and Holly

My childhood friends and I got together this past Friday. It's always fun to see each other and each other's kids. Angela just had her 4th baby about 2 weeks ago and I couldn't wait to see him. He's just as cute as all of her's have been. Unfortunatly my camera battery died and I didn't even get a picture of him or any of Holly's kids. Angela's mom got out the horses and gave all the kids rides. My kids had an absolute ball. Wish I had more pictures to share.

Emma, Zorra, and Kate. These two little girls are SOO cute together.

Gehrig playing on the fort.

Emma and Kate

It was so cute to watch these little girls jump on the tramp. Kate isn't quite as trampoline savvy as Emma. Emma can just jump and jump.

It must be summertime.

I have been so busy lately. I feel like I am running from one event to the next. My sister-in-law, Natalie, came for a quick visit Friday night. My friends from elementary school, Angela and Holly, got together Friday day. And Saturday we had fun at my in-laws. Here's the highlights from that, the rest will have to come later.

Grandma pulled out the new Bonzai Falls on Saturday. It was a great day for it; the warmest one so far. I think we made it to 90 degrees. I LOVE Idaho Falls summers; so nice and cool! The kids and a few adults (i.e. Ben) had a blast playing in the water. Even Grandma, Papa, Justin, Becky, and Emily went for a few rides. I think Brandon might have too. The rest of us sat in the shade and enjoyed a few splashes now and then. Afterwards, we had a nice bbq and gave Gregg his Father's Day gifts. It made for a very fun evening.

Action shot! These girls had a blast!

Warming up in the "hot tub". The little boys couldn't get enough of this little pool that had been in the sun all day and was warm. Halle had to come warm up several times before going back to the cold Bonzai Falls.

Ben attempting to come down. This guy is part fish I think. He had a ball and was great entertainment for the rest of us.

Fun with Fur

This week my roommate from college, Jennifer, (we always call her Fur) and her family came to Idaho Falls. Her hubby had to do some work in this area so she decided to tag along and hang out with Jennie and me. We had a great time and it is was so much fun to have Fur on our turf for once. I think we did about every fun thing I.F. has to offer.

We started out with a picnic at the park and then let the kids swim in the pool at the hotel. That was great fun until Carter fell in the deep end and about died. I was in the hot tub, he told me he was going back to the stairs of the regular pool, I turned my back to grab his life jacket, turned around and saw a TINY head bobbing and gasping for breath in the deep end. Seriously it took only seconds for it to happen. I jumped in and saved the kid, but in the mean time, I think I about had a coronary. I was SOOOO grateful that he was doggy paddling enough to stay at the top of the pool, rather than sink to the bottom, so that I spotted him quickly. When I got home that night I couldn't sleep because my mind kept seeing him in the water and thinking the worst. It was awful. It certainly didn't help with my fear of water. But he didn't seem to be affected by it. He got right back in, (shallow end), and continued to play.

Carter in the hotel room wearing Jacob's mohawk.

After swimming we all met at Jennie and Adam's for a bbq.

Fur recording the kids playing in the bounce house.

The kids all thought it was hilarious to come down the slide on top of each other. Thankfully no one was hurt. They all had a great time.

Ryan, Adam, and Jennie enjoying some conversation.

All the wee-ones with the BIGGEST Popsicles I have ever seen. Left to right, McKenna, Alyssa, Hannah, Kate, Carter, Harrison, Halle, Jacob.


The next day we enjoyed (endured) a trip to the zoo with all 8 kids. (Yes, I know half of them are mine.) Afterwards, we ate lunch at McD's. Nothing like a germy playland to keep the kids entertained.

Carter had SOOO much fun with Jacob. And Jacob was a great sport to let Carter hang on him. It was so cute to see Carter "hangin" with the boys, instead of all girls.

After McDonald's it was time for dessert, so we treated Jennifer and clan to Reed's Dairy for some ice cream. It was so yummy, as always, but very messy. We were all covered in melted ice cream when we were done, and I have to say, Fur was probably the dirtiest.

I gave Carter my camera to keep him entertained so I could visit, and I just cracked up when I got home and saw what he had taken pictures of. SUCH a boy!

To end the fun, we went to Blast-Off for play time and pizza. The kids had an absolute ball.

SCARY boys....I know Elmo isn't scary, but just use your imagination.

Halle, Hannah, and McKenna played store almost the entire time. They just had so much fun and entertained themselves so well.

Miss Alyssa is getting too old to enjoy this type of thing anymore. She played a little bit in the tubes and balls, but the cell phone kept ringing (Bailey) and was the biggest entertainer for her.

Jennifer, Me, Jennie. We're never too old to have a little fun.

Flying High

Jarom's cousin, Jeremy, just recently got his pilot's license and bought a plane. So last night Jarom, Justin, Jeremy, and Johnny (another cousin) all went flying. They did a fly-by over our house and then flew up to Rexburg and back. Jarom had a blast!

This really is a picture of something. See the TINY dot of light? That's the airplane over our house.

The kids were so cute. I wish I would have gotten one of all of them waving to their daddies in the sky. They were screaming and yelling, waving and jumping. They just thought it was so neat that the airplane overhead had passengers they knew and that the plane circled twice just for them. Unfortunatly, the dads couldn't see them from the sky, it was too dark, but they did see the flash from my camera and knew we were down there.

Carter was completely offended that he wasn't invited to go on the airplane too. (And yes, his sweat shirt is on backwards. He insists on doing everything himself and 90% of the time his clothes are on backwards. We've all learned to just ignore it.)

6th Annual Family Reunion

This past weekend was our 6th Annual Gregg Manwaring Family Reunion. Ben and Kaylin hosted this year and took us to a beautiful place up in the mountains near Kilgore, ID. It was a very nice time to just relax in the forest and let the kids get filthy dirty while having fun.

We enjoyed cool weather, (the nights were downright cold), good food, and great company. Everyone slept in tents, except my family. I admit it, I am a down right wimp. I've endured one too many cold, wet, hard tent trips, so I enjoyed my camper immensely! We took a hike to Aldous Lake where the kids caught frogs, toads, tadpoles, and frog eggs. (Oh what a paradise!) Unfortunately I left my camera back at camp. I didn't even pull it out until the last hour before we left. So, here are a few of the VERY FEW pictures I got.

Isn't a campfire so much fun!!?? The kids LOVED stirring the fire with sticks. Thankfully, no one was burned. I love sitting around a campfire doing absolutely nothing but watching the flames.

This is how dirty an 18 month old gets while roughing it! Mmmmmm....

Good friends, Sami and Alyssa. Alyssa loves it so much when we get together with the cousins her age.

All the little grandkids. Left to Right, Back row:Payson, Sami, Alyssa, Megan, Ellie, Anna, Halle, Front Row: Kate, Jamis, Alex holding Micah and Wes, Gabby, Keagan, Carter, Ogden, Owen

Isn't this a pile of fun!!!

The MEN!! Back: Benjamin, Chris, Gregg, Justin, Front: Kevin (and Ben's baby Meesha), Brandon, Jarom, Blake

The Women! Back: Anna, Becky (and Wes), Katie, Kaylin, Elena Front: Emily, Natalie, Missy, Amber

Jarom doing the Indian Fire Dance, or something. :)

Ellie, Anna, and Halle playing Barbies in the camper. These girls can play Barbies for hours on end. They had a great time.

Alex and Micah.

Baby Wes

The babies were such troopers, I don't think I hardly heard a peep out of either of them. It's so much fun to have them around to snuggle on once in a while. One thing is for sure, there isn't a lack of hands willing to hold them.

Thanks to Ben and Kaylin for a GREAT reunion and fun memories!!!