Swimming

Logan's swim lessons

Raegan was really cute with Brielle the other day and dressed her up like snow white, did her hair and jewelry. Brielle loved it.

Doing jumps off the side of the pool.

Logan and friend Brian

Jumping off the side of the pool.



Swimming lessons

He finally jumped in. I don't know why he was scared that day. He doesn't seem to have a tail and gills like the other two girls ;)

Our ward party...who knows where Logan had run off to!

Starting potty training.....hoping if she sat and relaxed she would eventually do her business. No such luck! I thought she was pee trained but after TWO big puddles on the kitchen floor today I have changed my mind.

Raegan and Sarah with twin hair. They had a slumber party and were so cute. I could hear them in bed together giggling and laughing and whispering. Reminded me of all the fun slumbers I had growing up.

This video is for grandparents so they can see Logan ride his bike for the first time. He did such a good job today! We tried a few months ago but the bike was so wobbly he just was scared and wanted nothing to do with it. Last week we went on a family bike ride and he was way too big for the child carrier on the back of Jake's bike, so we decided he needed another try. He needs to practice the fluid, continuous peddaling motion, but seems to be getting the hang of it (as you can see in the video). He also has Raegan modeling correct behavior for him, as evidenced by her zooming past multiple times showing him the good form and feed for which he should strive. The biggest concern at this point is that he's riding his sister's old sissy pink bike- Mom and Dad will have to do something about that...

More pictures from Utah

I want to be like Uncle Rod and be on TV! Playing games with brothers and grandma on Father's Day

Raegan, grandma and grandpa went on a date. She had a great time!

Having fun at my birthday dinner

"State Farm, how can I help you?"

Brielle Ruby and Velma Ruby

We went on a field trip to Hill Airforce Base. Lots of big airplanes and guns that we could hang on!

My grandparents

My dad has a whole bunch of murials painted on his office. This is one Raegan liked.

Grandpa and Brielle at Bear Lake

My piano!

So Jake and I have been looking for over a year for a piano. We actually got his Grandma MGhies when she passed away but because of logistics, it just didn't make sense to ship it out here. We have been looking and thinking and nothing seemed to work out. Well, while I was in Utah some friends said they were getting rid of their piano since all their kids were grown and would we want theirs? Hello!!!! Yes we would!! Such an answers to prayers! Jake found this all out while I was gone and had it moved to our house and when I arrived home there it was in our living room as a suprise!~ The kids were soooo excited for me to come in the house and see it! We have already had so much fun plunking away on it. Today I found Raegan some easy music and she is happily trying to master it. Such a fun thing for our family and a great way for me to destress. I took piano as a little kid but quit because I didn't love it and have regretted it so I am happily reteaching myself and so far it has been great!!

Fishing vidoes--see previous post

Summer Utah pictures

We have been having lots of fun with our family in Utah. We have been fishing, going to rodeos, going to cheer camps, and Logan is taking swimming lessons. Most of all we have had fun seeing all our grandparents and aunts and uncles. Aplanalp grandparents

My kids love to torment my parents cats.

Playing laser tag and then Raegan played "Deal or No deal" and won the jackpot of 200 tickets. She was so excited! I need to get that girl and her luck on a game show!

Fishing with Grandma Jeppesen. We went to a pond that was stocked with hunderds of fish and Logan loved it. Raegan had a love hate relationship and Brielle didn't really care. The kids got a rod that didn't even have a reel and a hook with a square piece of leather on it and once you dropped the line in, you got a fish. Logan was brave and picked them us, the rest of us don't like touching fish. Thank goodness Grandma Jeppesen was there to dehook the fish for us! I am a wimp I remembered!

All of our fish we caught! Raegan had been to a camp where they painted her face as a cat.

Logan and his fish

Church with the kitty

I love this crazy pose of Logan being a pirate

We went to temple square when Jake was still here and enjoyed walking the grounds in the summer. We usually go there at Christmas so it was a nice change. The flowers were beautiful of course!

Raegan's graduation

Raegan had her Kindergarten graduation assembly this week, and it was a lot of fun. She had two speaking parts (one more than any other gifted child), but the funniest part of the evening is that she would mouth every other kids' speaking parts while they recited theirs. About two-thirds of the way through the program we were able to mime that she should keep her mouth still so as not to distract attention from the other kids who were performing.
They sang some cute songs, we had a "picnic" afterward in the lunchroom, and spoke with Miss Browne (her teacher who Raegan will dearly miss this year). Raegan's friend Ryan and our family friend Mayra also came to the show. Again, a great night.
We just can't believe our Kindergartner is about to graduate...

Logan's party

Logan's extended birthday party finally came to a close today. He turned four on the 11th and we had dinner that evening at Steak and Shake (see picture far below). Today we had his PIRATE birthday party with friends at a community pool. He had a pirate birthday cake, pirate pinata, eye patches, and swimming in a pool (cuz we all know pirates hang around water). It was fun, and he made us laugh when he sang "Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirate's life for me" unsolicited when we brought out his cake. What a kid...

Shuttle

We were lucky enough to go with a friend who works at NASA to see the last launch of shuttle Atlantis. It was truly amazing to watch it that close. It was so bright it hurt your eyes to look at it. The rumble that came about 5 seconds later was the best part. My video doesn't quite do it justice. It brought tears to my eyes it was such a neat experience! The weather even was bearable because we had a nice bay breeze. What a great experience for my kids. Logan was upset because he wanted to go with them and I said you needed to be an astronaut and he said, well I can be one!!! Maybe later buddy!


A few things I learned while I was with my NASA store of knowledge (our friend, Michelle). ~The space shuttle is what goes into space (booster rockets and all) and the orbital is what comes back from space (the airplane looking piece) ~ The orbital can lap the earth in 90 minutes ~ The space shuttle leaves the earth going at least 17,000mph with no traffic, we left the site going 5 mph and tons of traffic ~ If a bird is on the shuttle before take off, the launch will be delayed because you can't shew it off, throw rocks or yell for it to move. (I wonder if those environmentalists wait for bugs, birds to fly off their car before they leave or get in it?) ~The landing strip for the orbital is the longest runway is the US and maybe the world. They have to deploy a parachute just to slow down ~ If the crew can't land in Florida because of weather, they land in California and pay $1 million to piggy back on a 757 back to Florida. ~Kennedy Space center deals with manned missions and Cape Canaveral deals with unmanned missions~ Pretty interesting stuff to me.

We had a wonderful day and are grateful we had the opportunity

Pirates, princesses and strawberries

The local theatre sent free tickets to us for their pirates and princess ballet. I decided to take Raegan and Logan (yes Logan too) He is crazy about pirates and so I hoped he would like it. I packed treats and we set off with our friend Mayra. It turned out to be okay. I read Logan the synopsis beforehand so he would understand and he did pretty well. The treats came in very handy at certain times. Overall it was a fun evening going to something new.

We finally made it out to Pappy's strawberry patch to pick strawberries. They have the best strawberries around! We picked a TON! Then we came home and made the delicious strawberry jam. I think we ended up making close to 10 batches, that is a lot of jam. Thankfully a few friends came over and helped and took some home. I am not sure I would have had enough room in my freezer. It is the best jam and I have been gaining weight eating white bread and jam as much as I can. It is scrumptious!

Bucs Field

Pictures of us at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa (where the Buccaneers play, and site of the Super Bowl 2 years ago). Raegan's school has a local chapter of "All Pro Dads", which is an organization that meets monthly at her school and is designed to strengthen Dad/Child relationships. The capstone activity each year is the night at the stadium w/ about 3,000 other people from Central Florida. Kids get to play games and hear speakers at 6 different stations, and Tony Dungy briefly addresses the masses. It was a fun evening- great temperature and fairly fun activities (see Logan running into the blocking pad below). Logan was extremely bummed we didn't get to go on the Pirate ship in the North endzone, but we'll probably go again next year anyway...

Grandpa Zundel would be proud

The pirate ship in the back was the highlight of the night

Brielle's tantrum

By the time I got the video, she had almost stopped but nothing like a rolling on the ground trantrum because mom makes you pick up your drink cup!