Sleeping Thomas

Thomas gets very bothered by any noise when he is reading or going to sleep...even Nicholas' breathing bugs him. As a solution, Jackson lets him use the headset he used when riding in the deafening C-130. It is amazing at blocking out the noise. When we go in to tuck the kids in before going to sleep, this is how Thomas usually looks.




Poor Thomas is stuck in a little corner right now and doesn't have room to stretch out his legs while he is sleeping. Is this going to stunt his growth?

Essie's First Violin Lesson

Estella has been begging and begging to start violin lessons. While I am practicing with the boys she is climbing all over me and is incredibly disruptive. I thought it might make my life easier if I started her. Grandma Chelle kindly accepted my request for lessons and Essie started about a month ago.

We are doing about 10 minutes lessons each week and 5-10 minutes practicing time each day. Essie is learning the parts of the violin, how to pick it up, how to handle it, how to hold the bow(the stick), how to bow (bend at the waist), and singing some fun songs. She brought her violin home a few weeks ago and didn't follow to rule to only get it out with Mommy's help. We decided it needed to stay at Grandma Chelle's house for a while until she was ready to remember the rules. She is looking forward to getting it back on Thursday at our lesson.

I had some leftover quilt blocks from a project I did for some young women years ago. Essie and I decided to turn them into a violin book bag for her. We both love how it turned out. I think it displays Estella's personality perfectly.

10 Year HS Reunion

My 10 year High School reunion was held on the 4th of July weekend also. It was so fun to visit with many of my former classmates. I only wish we could have had more time together.

Groesbeck Fun in the Canyon

While in Fillmore we went up the canyon and had a barbeque. My mom and dad make the best dutch oven food ever! While Dad was cooking, Jake, Kaci, and the boys were fishing. One of the boys saw a snake in the water where they were playing. They called Uncle Jake over to see it and he recognized it as a baby diamond-back rattlesnake! He quickly killed it by chopping off it's head. We were very grateful that it didn't bite one of the boys. That would have been traumatic.



Aunt Kara brought the portable crib and set it up for Cooper to sleep in.

Aunt Kaci beat both Grandma and Aunt Kara arm wrestling. They were both close matches.


Later that evening, back at Grandma's house, Nicholas found some dress ups and decided to give them a go. I thought he looked smashing! He thought it was hilarious to be dressed up like that. I think these pictures just might come in handy some day :)