My boys. Love them all.

Me & my girl. She's the best.

I can barely look at this picture. It makes me want to cry. She's so pretty. And look at her big brown eyes.

I am so lucky.

I want to eat him for dinner.

Now, here are some of the un-edited pictures - just so you can see what our family is really like.

Thanks, Chels. Love ya:).

10 Year Reunion & Peach Days

Any of you who know me well, know that I don't do things that are hard for me. If I don't get it the first time, I give up. Not one of my better qualities, but mine nonetheless. I'm learning to get over that, and thanks to my friend Aubrie, I decided to try something I knew would be hard for me.

Another thing that most people know about me is that I hate running. With all my heart and soul. I don't even particularly like exercise. I don't think I'm necessarily LAZY, but I just don't want to get off my butt and do something. Plus, let's be honest. Three kids? A husband with a hefty calling who is also in a PhD program? When do I find time to leave the kids home and go? I know, I know, my life isn't really that hard. I'm not even saying it is. Just that there are other things I'd like to do when I leave the house un-shackled to my children. Like shop. Or listen to music in the car. Or just go to the store all by myself. Or drive somewhere and stare at the sky interrupted for five minutes. Anyway...

Aubrie talked me into running the Peach Days 10K. Now, this is a challenge because not only is it 6 miles, but it's in my hometown. Where everyone can laugh at me as I ran up Main Street. Lucky for me, I grew up and didn't care. So, I decided to do it. Along with my two sisters Amy and Angie, my dad, and my friends Channa, Alisha, Andrea, Mindy and Helena. My only regret is that we didn't get a picture of all of us after the race. That's because they were all showered and sitting with their families by the time I finished.

I was so excited to see my family at this point. Seeing Travis and the kids was awesome. They were so excited.

And I'm off again. After I passed them, I had a hard time staying motivated. Except that I didn't want to finish dead last.

Here's dad and Amy. Apparently no pictures of Angie because Travis was probably mad at her that day. He's a little jealous of her. He sort of has a crush on her husband Steve.

Here we are. Angie, Dad, Me and Amy. Stupid dad went home and showered. We worked hard and had a good time. I hope we can do it again in the future. My dad has always been a runner, so it's kind of fun to have something like this to share with him. And PS, Angie wasted us. She's super tough.

And the night before, my 10 year reunion. Super fun to see people, although a little disappointing that I mostly saw people I usually see anyway. I wish more people would have come. But they did a great job, and Andrea of course is in charge next time, so I'm sure we'll all get to help.

Here's a group of my friends 10 years after the fact. My how life has changed.

Here's our table. Again, mostly people I still talk to.

Here's the whole gang. It was a lot of fun. I would encourage anyone to go to their reunions. Who cares who you were in high school, or who anyone else was? People change (lucky for all of us) and I think we all have more in common now than we did then. Brigham City was a good place to grow up, although Travis thinks it's pretty lame.

On a sad note, Chad's friend Ian Miles passed away during the race. I didn't know him, but he and Chad were roommates for quite a few years. They made some seriously bad choices together, but ultimately he was a good friend and a good person. I'm thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who is the only one who knows the intents of our heart, and is therefore the only one who can truly judge us fairly. I think he will be nicer to us than we have ever been to each other and ourselves. Chad has lost several friends in all his years of drug addiction, and I'm so glad to know that the Atonement gives everyone the chance to live with our Heavenly Father again.

That's it for now:). Chelsea took our family pictures and I'm anxiously awaiting the results....hopefully soon.

Uh Oh

I'm behind again! Couldn't get the dang camera to connect to the computer. Travis says it's operator error. I told him to shut up.

Here's the first day of kindergarten. Surprisingly not as sad as I expected it to be. He loves it, although he says they don't teach him anything he doesn't know. Someone thinks he's smarter than the rest of us. Here's him and his friend Parker waving goodbye.

These little boys are all from our neighborhood and are all the same age. It is so much fun.

My little man grew up super fast. Good thing I gave birth to his clone in March.

Here's Boston and Bowen. They're the only boys this age in our ward, and Bowen is a month older. Do you think my baby is skinny???

This little kid is special. I love him.

My favorite thing ever. Emory and Daxton at preschool. For some reason Em is a little more shy than Jax, so it's harder to get her to leave me. And I don't do clingy, so it's been a little rough. But she loves it, and I get three hours off from my older kids two days a week. School is the greatest thing ever.

Isn't she pretty?
They're probably going to get married. Won't this picture be cute on their wedding video? He gets her backpack for her and holds it while she puts it on. Kids grow up too fast. Have I said that yet?LOVE this boy. Doesn't he look just like Jax?

Ya. I have four monkeys. Really, is climbing trees that much fun when you're 30?

Have I mentioned how much I adore her lately? She's my best buddy.

Why is it cool to take pictures of your kids jumping off things?

Birthday party at the park for a friend's birthday.

He loves his mama best. He giggles when he sees me.

We took the FrontRunner to Salt Lake to play in the fountains with the Sumkos. That was a journey. The kids had a blast.

We also met the Brillster and Angie there. Don't you just love this girl's face?

More pictures from Em's birthday party. Grammy bought her this fun scooter thing.

Grandma and Bo Bo.

I can't get over how pretty she is. Teeth are a little weird, but whose aren't at this age?

Love my kids. And where we live.

Sometimes just watching the kids play with dad makes me tired. Do you think this fort ended in tears? Yep, pretty quickly.

If you know the Price family, you will see how my children fit right in. Probably my favorite picture of them ever.

They have turned into the best kids. Who knew it got easier as they got older? They are so helpful and fun.

Well, I'm off to get four little boys to school. This ought to be fun:).

Epic Post

So, where did summer go? I'm not even going to try to catch up on the last two months. I'm just going through the camera and posting the stuff I can remember. So here goes....

Jaxon played t-ball for the first time. It was super cute. Except the first time he hit the ball and ran right to third base. He's still cute though. And his head is huge.

We moved Aunt Amy to Ephraim. She's going to Snow. I was sad for us, happy for her. I was very jealous when we left her. What a fun phase of life. Emory is still recovering from her leaving.

Here's me with my mom and two of my three sisters.

I love this child. Talk about huge heads.

Aunt Angie & Bo Bo.

She looks super excited to be there huh?

We're buddies.

Turns out I have the damn cutest kids ever....

He's so scrawny. But I love him.

We spent much time at the pool....

...doing sweet moves...

...and teaching each other to jump in.

Went to the ward campout.

Celebrated Em's 4th birthday. What?? Where did my baby girl go?

Bo got some quality time with Nana.

My sister Mandi had her little boy in August.

Bo had his first taste of ice cream. Grandpa Kurt doesn't know what "no dairy" means.

And Jaxon's 6th birthday. He'll start kindergarten next week. I'm a little emotional.

We took a new life insurance policy out on Travis for when he kills himself doing something stupid.

And he went to Chicago with some random chicks. Just kidding. They're his students and they were there for a conference.

Just in case any of you were wondering who my husband really is, I found this picture. Yes, that really is urine in that cup.

Here's the staph infection that kept him home from Africa. Did I mention he should have been in Tanzania for two weeks teaching? Free of charge for us? Well, being the smart guy he is, he went tromping through a bunch of weeds while fishing and ended up with a staph infection four days before he was supposed to leave. It was a bad week. But hey, we bought a new camera for it, so at least we have great pictures of him NOT going on safaris in Africa. These are super old. I don't even know if these are my favorites but I got tired of searching for them, so here's the few I picked. I think these were taken in May.

And just in case anyone wonders why we live where we do, here's the answer.

I'm sure I will find more to post from our summer, but for now we are focusing on Emory starting preschool tomorrow and Jax starting kindergarten next Monday. As much as I love summer it's going to be nice to get back into a routine.

What Time Is It? Summertime! It's Our Vacation.....

It's been a crazy month! We've had lots going on this past month. Here's a few samples of what we've been doing.

The kids flew some kites and discovered it gets really boring after a while.

My baby turned three months old!

Jax and Em spent lots of time hanging out...

And went on their first date. Awww.

Amy graduated from Weber High and from seminary.

Bo bonded with his brother and sister.

Do I not have the cutest kids ever???

And we celebrated Kristin's and Amy's birthdays.

We also finished our basement! Which is part of why I've been out of commission for awhile. We moved the Internet connection downstairs, but not the computer, so I've only had computer access when Trav brings his laptop home.

It's rained A LOT the past week. We've missed out on lots of pool time.

Travis started his third semester of his PhD program and I discovered that we may just not really get along until he's officially done with school. We actually do pretty well, but I am so done with him being in school.

We had stake conference this weekend and Elder Holland came out to split our stake and make a new one. It's awesome that there is so much growth in this area. We love it here so much. The adult session was one of the most powerful meetings I've ever attended. It's nice to have a reminder not only that Heavenly Father loves each of us no matter what, but that we have an older brother who understands how we feel and that He has called such good men to guide us and lead us here on earth. Where would we be without them?

We're loving summer. I don't even mind the rain. But it's a little sunny today so we think we'll hit the pool while we can. Life is good!

Mother's Day 2009

There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family...What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else. - Elder M. Russell Ballard


I spent some of last night laying around feeling sorry for myself. After Travis had fallen asleep, and I lay in bed thinking, I had a small epiphany. The first part is that my life is not hard. Anything that was weighing on my mind could easily be replaced by one hundred blessings. The second was that I was so grateful for my children. Being as they are the reason that I get to celebrate Mother's Day. I would like to say that I dedicated today to my children, but I still kept all the attention for myself.

There are many typical "motherly" things that I am not good at. I don't love to cook. I would rather stick a thousand needles in my eye than make a scrapbook. My house is sparsely decorated and I've almost paid my friend to come decorate it for me. I don't garden, I don't make things for my kids, I don't sew, etc. There are many traditional motherly talents I wasn't given when I came here to earth. But there are other talents that I was given. They may not be traditional things, but they are valuable anyway. I am thankful not only that I was given those things, but that slowly I am learning how to value them more and worry about the things I don't do less. That I am becoming more okay with myself as I recognize the divine gifts my Father in Heaven did give to me.

I am a daughter of God. That's pretty special. I have been entrusted with the most sacred of roles. He has given me three beautiful little babies to take care of, and He has trusted me to help them return to Him. Today, on the day when I feel honored for doing what comes to me naturally from Him, I'm so happy that I have this chance.

Now, happy Mother's Day to me. Since I have recently developed a "small" obsession with High School Musical, this was part of my gift:
The best part about this gift is that I took this picture while laying down on my bed looking up at my ceiling. Can we say sweet dreams to me?

Happy Mother's Day to every single mother out there. I value the example of each mother I come across.

Funny Stuff

We told the kids they were going to get shots the other day and instead went and bought them a trampoline. That was a traumatic half hour long car ride.

Travis asked Emory what she wants to be when she grows up and she thought about it and said: a window.

Emory called me a snotface earlier today. And Travis got mad at her the other day and she said: "Fine, I'll just go hit mom." What? How did I even get involved?

She also wants a Monsters vs. Aliens vs. Dora vs. Princesses birthday party this year. Wonder who would win? My money's on Jasmine.