Pioneer Day*

Megan and Carmen- their new little one who looks just like my brother, Jarin. So cute!

We went to Yvette's house to swim- they are remodeling the guest house in the background and just got done remodeling their total inside- it looks beautiful Yvette!

Almost all ten of my siblings were there except Jody, who lives a distance off, and Cameron who is in the secret service covering the white house, so we miss them like crazy when we all get together- even if we are still large in numbers!

We all hung out all day long swimming, watching movies on the outside projection screen, lit some fireworks- and pretty much ate a bunch of food all day. Yvette and Marcus were nice enough to host all of us but it was so much fun.

All the little cousins occupied each other all day playing princess party, Little Mermaid, and other things that I don't think even they were sure what they were playing. Such is life as a kid.

Heath was taking all the kids on surfing rides- He was very popular with them!

I was mean and had Veronica give Brooklyn (and Jason) a haircut that day too. Davis and Draden were sitting in front of her trying to make her look at them so her head would be straight- thanks for the help boys :)

Let me explain... Marcus was going above and beyond the call of duty as a daddy by letting his daughter dress him up in makeup and her hats. He's a good sport- and so pretty! Then, he jumped in the pool and it all came right off.

A little neighbor boy brings out his little red car everytime he sees Brooklyn and Beckam outside. We don't even say a word and he comes over to bring us his little car!

You can tell they thoroughly enjoy it! Brooklyn chugs on the gas in a stop-go-stop-go motion giving little Beckam whiplash in the passenger seat- but he still sits back and enjoys the ride.

This is Brooklyn's photography...she takes the camera and shoots pictures all over the place- she has captured some interesting things, but she happened to get Beckam to do his wierd little smile so I had to post it.

Brooklyn's Scissor Snipping

Yes, it happend! I have always been so excited that neither Brooklyn nor Beckam ever got the idea in their heads to cut their own hair...but I also knew my turn would one day come. And so it did. Brooklyn botched her bangs. I told her it wasn't pretty and put her in front of the mirror to see what she did. She stood there and started laughing!

I have my own story to tell with this too- who doesn't? When I was little I kept asking my mom to cut my bangs because they were in my face. She kept putting it off, so I looked in the mirror with the scissors and said, "fine, I'll do it myself!" and snipped away. My brothers called me "butch" because my bangs stuck out like short prickles on my forehead. Brooklyn is lucky Beckam is so young and so sweet and won't make fun of her for this. My mom later told me that she took me to my brother's baseball game after I had cut my bangs and a group of girls were staring at me because of my crazy hair-cut and whispering to each other about it. I looked up at them and said, "yeah, and I did it all by myself!"

A Frequent Visitor

This is our frequent visitor to our backyard. He always walks up the porch to sit and eat something. He comes and goes from the same spot- we'll be taking care of that!
He would be much cuter if he wasn't in our yard all the time- sorry little creature.

Movie Night!

We took the kids on a date to see "How to Train Your Dragon" at the MOVIE THEATER. This was their first movie theater experience (other than when Brooklyn was a baby- not fun!) We held out for quite a while, but they were definitely ready at this point. Yes we were cheapskates on this one and waited until it came out to the dollar theater. For their first experience, we had to make sure they could handle it before taking them to the theater to ruin peoples night who spend a lot of money to be there.
Beckam was sitting with Jason, but would randomly appear at my knees with a friendly "hello mom!"
They were really good and pretty quiet except when during the intense parts Beckam was shouting from the top of his lungs, "Oh no!" and "what happened?"

Brooklyn kept saying she didn't want to see it because "it must be scary if there is an ugly dragon in it." Since she is the sensitive child in the family, she plugged her ears in some parts, until she saw me laughing at the movie, then she started to laugh too.

Beckam testing out the floppy seats that almost ate him whole.

A bag of popcorn makes everything fun! We had so much fun taking them to see a movie. They made us laugh the whole time as they would interact with other people around them, click their seats front and back with their little legs, and stare at the screen with popcorn hanging out of their mouths. Good times!

Here it is again on the way home- the 'I'm tired and about to fall asleep face'

Once they got home, however, they perked right up and started playing Dragons. Beckam roared like a Night Fury Dragon for the rest of the night.

Helping dad count the coins in our change box that night. This occupied them for a long time too- maybe I'll start bringing it to sacrament meeting :)

Brooklyn celebrating our victorious count of $20- YES!!

Post-Independence Day

I love how Independence Day was celebrated Saturday, Sunday, and Monday too!
It made for lots of fun events all weekend long. We ate at Magleby's for a yummy breakfast to start the day off. Jason said Steve Young was also eating there, but I didn't see him.

Beckam's beginning phase of getting ready to doze off on the way home.

Celebrating Our Freedom!

This was Beckam the night before the 4th of July playing with his new Buzz Lightyear and screaming dinosaur (thanks for that one Aunt Sue). He was so content playing with these toys- I mean literally hours of play in his own little world. He didn't anything else in the whole world...just these. He found little corners around the house that he would plop down in and just play. I couldn't stop watching him from the other end of the room because it was so cute listening to all the sounds he would make up and the actions he would have the figurines do. He was just such a little boy- so cute!

We went to a huge Farmer's Market down south. We found so many fun things at amazing prices! I was having a blast shopping around seeing all the different booths- Jason, on the other hand, had to visit the ATM machine a couple of times :) We must have walked miles that day between the Freedom Festival and the Farmer's Market alone.

He thought he was so funny standing on the grass and the cement at the same time!

See, Beckam is as excited as I was the whole day.

Brooklyn and Grandpa and Grandma Kizerian

We stopped at a Sunglass booth where the kids found their own entertainment trying on sunglasses too. Jason refused to buy me any because he said I lose them too quickly, so his mom and dad bought me a pair and I got myself one earlier. Well, they are already both gone...I left one pair at preschool registration and the other at a property we looked at in Heber. Two people called me to tell me they had my sunglasses...shoot! No wonder Jason won't buy me anymore :(

My animal-lover little boy thought this huge dog was the coolest thing ever. When the dog stood up he towered over Beckam. I'm surprised it didn't scare him at all to have this large animal breathing over his head.

After the morning festivities Jason took Brooklyn to our neighborhood party. They had big blow up toys all over, waterslides, food, and other fun stuff. I stayed home with Beckam who happened to take a 4 hour nap! I guess we wore him out pretty good.

Our little energizer bunny sprinting through the toys- she can go all day long.

FIREWORKS!!!
I love fireworks, but this year I have to say it was a disappointing experience...but funny at the same time. We arrived late, so to spare us an overly crowded piece of grass, we just sat in this distant dirt field that was hard as a rock. We also had a water pipe of some sort under our bottoms. It was pitch black around us, so we couldn't even hardly see where we were. Thanks to the flash of our cameras we see we were not in a very good spot.
The fireworks were super short, one at a time, and looked like fireflies off in the distance. Good thing we kept ourselves occupied with our senses of humor as we sat and made fun of ourselves for giving up Stadium of Fire tickets with Carrie Underwood. Wow!

This is a genuine expression of love for fireworks from this boy.

...and believe it or not, I'm pretty sure that's a genuine expression from Papa too.

I love America and am so grateful to live in the land of the free!!
This is one of my very favorite holidays because it always reminds me of the blessings that I have and the history of this incredible nation. I know that our freedom is not free- never has been and never will be. We will always be asked to continue fighting for our beliefs and for the things that make our Country what it was meant to be!
It was coincidental timing that right around the 4th I was reading in the scriptures that this land was meant for a special purpose for those who would take care of it an dwell righteously therein. It also said that no one should enter or find this land except it be by the hand of the Lord. How amazing it is to think of Columbus finding this land followed by other amazing people such as the founding father's who sculpted and shaped its future. And now here I am! I am so grateful to be allowed to live here as well with all the blessings that come with it.