Our Fourth of July and 24th of July Holidays 2026!

 I am way behind on blog posts, but I don't want to miss these memories for us. We had a wonderful Fourth of July (though different than past years) and Pioneer Day. 

We started off the day with a Red, White, and Blue breakfast of pancakes with whipped cream and berries. The kids love when we do berries and whipped cream with our pancakes and they had a lot of fun making their pancakes festive. 

I forgot to take pictures the rest of the day. I was feeling extra tired and going through morning sickness as well as starting to get a cold, but we still had a fun day. After our breakfast, I took the kids over to Grandma Lindi's house for a water party while Ben stayed home during Leah's nap. The kids got in Lindi's pool and had a blast with cousins. We had licorice, Hi-chews, juices, and watermelon as well some chips. After Leah woke up, I grabbed Ben and Leah from the house and we spent the evening at Lindi's doing a hot dog roast. The kids got ice cream treats afterward. I took Leah home early to put her to bed while everyone else stayed for a night swimming party (Lindi had bought special pool lights for it) and fireworks. The kids came home late, tired and happy. 

Pioneer Day was a relaxed morning for us. In the afternoon, Ben took the older kids down to the park for a pickleball event they had going on there. The kids had a lot of fun there with him, so much fun that they were late getting home. I stayed home with Leah for her nap. 

After Leah's nap and after the kids finally got back with Ben, we went over to Lindi's house and the kids swam with cousins. Leah loved getting in the kiddie pool, especially with Grandpa Danny. 

Parker and Thomas swam some, but mostly they played in the lawn.

The kids had so much fun getting in the pool and always love when any of the adults get in. 

We did another hot dog roast for dinner and cleaned up to come back to our house in time to put Leah down. While we waited for fireworks, the other kids watched some Bluey. 

When it started getting dark, cousins came over and we sat on our lawn to watch the fireworks at the park down the street. We also did some of our own fireworks in the driveway and Lindi brought leftover ice cream treats from the Fourth. It was a late night, but everyone had fun. 

While we missed going out to West Jordan for my grandma's party this year, it was fun (and a little easier) to stay in town and do some fun things here. We love all these holiday summer memories we get to make with our family. 

Oliver is 5!

Oliver is 5! I can't believe how much my little boy has grown. Oliver is sweetheart. He loves his sisters, especially Leah, and hopes the baby is a girl because of how much he likes them ❤️ he loves playing video games, building with magnet blocks, drawing, swimming, and doing whatever his sisters are doing. He asks for tacos for dinner every night and won't wear new clothes because no one has seen him in them yet. We love our Oliver and are so happy he is in our family! 

What is your favorite thing to do? 

Play games, like robots with magnet blocks and games on the Switch like Boomerang Fu. 

What are you best at? 

Making robots out of magnet blocks, and playing games that I made up

What is your favorite color? 

White  

What do you love to eat? 

Tacos 

Who is your best friend? 

Ashtyn, or Parker

What do you love to learn about? 

Gymnastics 

What is your favorite book? 

Go of Boomerang Fu that I made, or one I didn't make is The Pokey Little Puppy

What is the best movie or show to watch? 

Avatar the Last Airbender and Bluey 

What is your favorite animal? 

Dog, no monkey

What do you love to play with? 

Magnet blocks 

If you found a genie, what would you wish for? 

For me to be an actual robot 

What do you want to be when you grow up? 

A game player 

What was your favorite thing that you did while you were four? 

Play with blocks 

What do you want to do while you're five?  

Play with blocks 

Rylee is 8!

 Rylee is 8! Rylee is such a fun, happy girl to be around. She loves her friends and hanging out with them, and loves meeting new people. Rylee loves to ride her bike, play pickleball (she has her own special paddle she bought), draw, read, dance, and play Minecraft. Rylee loves her siblings and her cousins. She is always looking on the bright side of things and always up for a having a good time. We love having Rylee in our family! 

What is your favorite thing to do? 

Read, or probably movie night. 

What are you best at? 

Drawing robots 

What is your favorite color? 

Purple  

What do you love to eat? 

Cookies, cake, ice cream, and apples too

Who is your best friend? 

Lela 

What do you love to learn about? 

New things and different types of stories 

What is your favorite book? 

Another Kind, Barb the Last Berzerker, Wings of Fire

What is the best movie or show to watch? 

Avatar the Last Airbender 

What is your favorite animal? 

A snake 

What do you love to play with? 

My dolls 

If you found a genie, what would you wish for? 

Probably skill for drawing 

What do you want to be when you grow up? 

I want to be a teacher, not for school, for church. 

What was your favorite thing that you did while you were seven? 

Played games with Thomas and Grace, swim in the pool, play with friends, play pickleball, and watch Avatar 

What do you want to do while you're eight?  

A lot of things like swimming, get baptized, reading, learning more in piano, drawing more pictures

Our Family Memories in June 2026!

Time feels like it is flying by! I can't believe June is already over and we're already almost halfway through July. We had a great month in June, just enjoying friends and family and summer. We also got to celebrate Parker's 10th birthday and Ashtyn and I got to do a little date to Lagoon together. 

The story behind this is a funny one. For one of Parker's no screens activities before her birthday, I painted the litte dragon in this picture but I am definitely not an artist and struggled with the head. Ben and the girls teased me about it, but Oliver loved it and traced it a whole bunch. For one of his no screens in June, he wanted to paint and he decided to copy my dragon. It's so funny to me how much he likes it. 

We did some more field trips in June, including going to Vernal's local history museum. It's a cute little museum and I was surprised at how much the kids loved it. They all liked it more than the Dinosuar museum.

We hadn't had the chance on Memorial Day to go visit Grandma Leah and Grandpa Gary's gravestones, but the kids really wanted to this year, so we headed over in June. We sat and read some stories from their life out of a book Grandma Leah had given us one year for Christmas. It was really nice.

Ashtyn and two of her friends XD

We also did a cousin Bluey party to watch some new minisodes. It was fun!

Even Leah liked watching!

Leah loved the rice krispie treats and would dance like this every time the music came on. 

She was also showing off and being silly for the boys, who kept laughing at Bluey and she thought they were laughing at her.

Leah loves playing in water 🩷

And watermelon!

We love hot dog roasts at Grandma Lindi's.

Father's Day dinner with Ben's family.

Leah loves that she can walk around and start trying to keep up with all the big kids. 

She loves to go into a room and close the door. 😂

Leah loves dancing and she loves Signing Time.

Leah got some cute little night gowns and I can't even handle her in them 🩷

Grandpa Danny gave Ashtyn a squash plant and she loves taking care of it.

They love Leah 🩷

😂😂

Leah put on Ashtyn's swimming suit like this 😂

Leah loves Aunt Melissa's chicken pot pie.

Oliver made this Pikachu out of blocks.

Leah's books!

We've had a crazy hot summer and we've had some crazy storms. 

This was when it started hailing in the afternoon one day. 

Ashtyn saved up and bought a 3D printer. She (and all the kids and Ben) have had a lot of fun with it. One of their favorite parts is when it "poops". 

The first thing they made, with the sample filament. 

Then Rylee bought some black and they made a lot with it while Ashtyn was waiting for hers to come.

I guess I don't have any pictures of the others, but Oliver bought blue and Ashtyn bought pink. 

They've loved making all sorts of creations and Ben has had fun with it too.

We had a wonderful month of June that I was able to survive despite not feeling the greatest for some of it. The kids have had a blast making new summer memories with family and friends and we're just enjoying the stage of life we're in with our growing family.