FHE Strikes Back

We made this movie for Family Home Evening. --Kelly

Small Town, USA

A film crew was on our street shooting a new Toyota commercial today. They sent out fliers in advance telling us to keep our cars off the street and stay out of the way of the film crew. They chose our neighborhood because of its "Small Town, USA feel". It was fun sitting on our porch watching the filming and seeing all the cars. It was amazing how many people it took to shoot the commercial. I brought my camera out to capture the memories, but I only took a couple of pictures before a security guy told me to put my camera away. The car that was shooting the rolling footage was an all blacked-out Mercedes SUV with a camera mounted on top. It was not a Toyota. In fact, most of the people in charge of the filming were driving non-Toyotas. It was interesting. It will be fun to see our neighborhood on TV. --emily

Darth Vader

Andrew is still dressing up. Emily bought this Darth Vader mask at a garage sale a few weeks ago and Andrew wears it all the time. He likes to wear Jacob's black Batman cape and carry a light saber while wearing the mask. Last weekend we found the T-shirt at H&M where his uncle works. We got one for each of the boys. Now his outfit is complete. --Kelly

New Pool

The weather was predicted to be very hot this week, so I thought it would be fun to buy a small backyard pool for the kids. We went to our local ACE Hardware to see if they had the pool I had in mind, and sure enough they had exactly what we needed. We went inside to pay for it and the gal sent someone out to help us put it in our car. The guy wouldn't let me tie it to my car and surprisingly it was too big to put inside my car. He was freaking out about how dangerous it is to tie it to your car! I live maybe 7 miles away on a non-freeway road, and he obviously wasn't aware of my superior knot tying skills! So another employee said he would drive it to my house for me. That was nice but not necessary. The other guy still insisted that we not tie it to my car! So the employee dropped it by in the afternoon. Despite the crazy people at the store, we have a fun inexpensive new backyard pool. And we are lovin' it. --emily

4th of July

Happy 4th of July friends and family! We love the 4th of July around here. We live in an amazing neighborhood for celebrating our independence. As I write this, I am sitting in my bed watching the fireworks still going off all around us through the window. What an amazing sight!

Today we went to church as a usual Sunday, then came home to have a fun BBQ with neighbors and friends. We ate good food and enjoyed good company in our friends' garage because it was raining Northwest style--not to hard but just more than a drizzle so you get soaked.

This picture says it all, too much fun to stop but I am soaked to the bones.

I was trying to get a picture of Andrew and he just kept running toward me with his sparkler in direct fire mode. I am glad no one got hurt.

Jacob was telling me a story as I took this picture. He was telling me that he likes this type of sparkler best because they shot out fire. Such a boy!

I hope you all had a happy and safe Holiday! --Love, emily

4th Comunity Party

Our neighborhood always has a fun celebration on the 4th of July. This year they had the party a day early since Independence Day is on Sunday. We started the day with the traditional bicycle parade that started at the school around the corner from our house, and ended at the community park where they had all sorts of fun activities waiting for us.

Jacob rode his bike the whole way. He's gotten really good at riding his bike. Andrew rode his trike part of the way and walked the rest of the way.

Emily made us matching tie-dye shirts in festive colors. The shirts look cool, and they made it easier to find each other in the crowd. --Kelly

Natural Wonders

Today was a sad emotional thoughts day for me.

I have always found comfort in rainbows. And on my way home I saw not kidding 5 different rainbows. This huge one was right over the freeway exit to our house. I see it as my Heavenly Father looking down on me and saying it is all part of the plan and all is well. And Today he was shouting it! I know that my Heavenly Father known me and my thoughts and today he brought me comfort when I needed it! --emily

Kangaroo Farm

Today we went to the Kangaroo farm! What a great day.

In the picture below you you can see a baby Joey if you look closely. The baby is 6 months old. So cute!

We where able to feed the kangaroos also. Grandpa and the boys fed them wheat bread. The boys loved it. What healthy little kangaroos.

This one jumped up to give my mom a hug.

Andrew was bit by a donkey. He was so sad. Luckily he still has all 10 fingers.

The birds on the farm where amazing. The had all kinds of chickens, roosters, ostriches, emus, and peacocks. My favorite was a peacock that was in the trees way above us. I couldn't get a good picture, but it was an amazing sight!

The llamas liked to eat their pebbly stickish food right from your mouth. It was entertaining to watch other people do it.

Andrew and I got to hold a baby Kangaroo. She was so darling. Jacob wasn't interested in doing this he was having more fun swing on a huge swing with Grandpa and his cousins. Boys! --emily