Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween!

Yes, I'm slow, but I wouldn't want to shock you all by posting things on time! So here are the kids on Halloween at Grandma's for our annual Soup Party! This is all of the Stephens cousins...fun, fun!

Here are K & A at their Halloween Program at preschool.

My photo quality isn't that great cuz I broke my good camera a while ago, so I use the still shots on the video camera, which doesn't have a flash...

Green Goblins and Yellow Stars!

Saturday was the girls' last soccer game of the season. Taylee's team was the Green Goblins. She does a great job, and she loves it! She scored 5 goals this season, one of which was in this last game. She's pretty aggressive, which her dad likes to see, as long as it stays on the field!

The twins team was the Yellow Stars. This was their first year and they loved it, as soon as they were done throwing fits about their socks, shoes, shin guards, etc!

You can see here that Karly (#3), didn't want her socks over her shin guards, Alexa (#2) only wanted one sock pulled over.

But they were so fun to watch, and would give us the "thumbs up" sign every time they ran by us! Or they'd watch their shadows as they ran, and wouldn't really know where the ball was ! It was so cute!!

Why do I do it?

I don't know why I wait so long to update, because then I just get overwhelmed. But here is what we've been doing lately...

We went to Lagoon back in August...

(that's me in the bottom left corner; my husband isn't much of a photographer!) ...and had the twins Birthday at the Roy Aquatic Center. They loved it, of course!

And here are the annual 1st day of school pix! These two are such posers... Contest: if you can tell me which is which, you win! (Sorry, no prizes...just for fun! HEHE And those that know the trick, don't tell!)

...as is Taylee, but Caleb hates getting his picture taken!

So, there's my update...short, sweet, and to the point!

Crazy Fun Summer!

OKAY! OKAY! I realize this would have been a lot easier if I had posted these as they happened, but I didn't.

So, here goes!

The summer began as baseball ended. Caleb's team did ok...not great...but ok. I'm not sure he loves it enough to play again next year, though.

The end of May, we did our 1st trip of the summer up to the cabin at Bear River Lodge.

This is Gavin (Cole's bro.) and his girls, Macklie (brown hair,) and Addie (blonde) and some with Grandma Jo and our kids and Emily's (Cole's sister) kids.

They all love the fishing pond!

Here are my kids hangin' at the fishin' pond...

These are Emily's kids at the pond- Jaxton in blue, Kennedee, and Dallas (the baby). He pulls some dang cute faces!

It was too cold to swim in the big pool, so they "swam" in the hot tub! This is Macklie, Addie, and Kennedee (Emily's) and my girls.

More of my girls: Karly in blue, Lexa in pink, Taylee in blue goggles.

We always have a blast at the cabin! On the 4th of July, the girls were on a float with their gymnastics group, 'Lil Flippers...

...and I got to ride in a UHP Helicopter over the parade! I'll write the whole story behind how that came about in a later post, but it was an awesome experience!

We spent a lot of time in Cokeville this summer, visiting Grandma & Grandpa Birch and playing with cousins, etc. Grandma's cat had kittens, and the kids just loved playing with them!

July 10th - 12th was our annual Birch Reunion with just my immediate family and all 24 grandkids! You can see we have a great time together...and wear each other out! The 1st day we went up in the mountains...

and went wading in the creek...

had a hot dog and marshmallow roast... (that's Alexa with the cheesy grin and Karly with the crazy knee high socks)

did some skeet shootin'... (Caleb had never shot a gun before, and he got the target before his uncle Rob!)

went 4 wheelin'.... (the one sleeping is my nephew, Micah, riding with his big sister, Ashby.)

(Grandma-my mom- had a great time giving the kids a ride.) Karly and Alexa thought they were big stuff on the little 4-wheeler, so they were posin', saying, "Mom, take a picture of me standing up! Now take a picture of me sitting down!" And of course, what one does, the other has to do... But they're just so stinkin' cute!

This is Mikayla. She is my baby sister, Aubrey's baby. Did ya' get that? Anyway, she is the cutest thing, and of course gets tons of attention, being the youngest grandchild, and all. But she found this little pile of dirt and had a great time playing in it, rubbing her face 'til it was black, and having a blast just getting dirty!

We all had a great time! Then the next day, we went to Bear Lake. This is Taylee and Zoe (Amanda's) kayaking with Uncle Buck (Aubrey's hubby). Yes, that's his name...ok, his middle name, but that's what everyone calls him. Funny, huh!

Playing in the sand...

swimming in the lake... We buried Taylee and shaped it like a mermaid. You can see it if you look closely...

And after we'd only been there for about 20 minutes, Caleb cut his leg on a screw sticking out of the kayak. (The earlier pics were taken after the screw was removed.) 2 hrs. and 9 stitches later, we got back, but Caleb couldn't get in the water. He was really bummed! I just really love my family! We always have so much fun together.

Here is our 2nd trip to the cabin on the 13th - 16th of July. The pool was hit, now that it was warm enough to swim.

More fishin'. We brought my nephew, Jake (Marni's) along this time so that Caleb wouldn't get so bored. He's very outnumbered by his sisters. Jake (bottom left) caught his first fish EVER! He was so excited!

After a week back home in Kaysville, we headed up to Cokeville again for the 24th of July Celebration. The top row, 3rd pic, is Karly, Alexa, and their buddy, Michae (Andra's). Then you can see Caleb and his buddies, Antheny (Andra's), and Jake (Marni's). Then the bottom left corner is Demi (Marni's), Taylee, Zoe (Amanda's), and Ali (Andra's). These are the kids at the parade picking up candy.

Then, of course, we had to go ride Uncle Kenny's (Andra's hubby) horses. There was quite a wind storm going on, so we cut it a little shorter than usual. But they loved it, anyway! Karly would ride ride a horse through any kind of storm, if she could! Now we did make one more trip to the cabin last weekend, but I forgot my camera! So I'll post those pics later.

We've had a great summer! But it went by too fast... Caleb and Taylee started school today and the twins start another year of preschool next week!

More "Catch-up" please!

Here are some more things that have happened lately that I'm trying to "catch up" on!

Silly Swimmers!

Back in May, when it was hot like it's supposed to be in June (I think May and June got confused,) the girls wanted to swim. So we found this cute little whale pool at Walgreens, and they had a blast!

Showing me their "muscles"!

My Little Posers!

My sister, Amanda, did their hair one day, so they wanted their pictures taken. They're such posers, it's really funny to watch them get in a pose, and then tell me they're ready!

Karly

Alexa (she's the funniest)

Taylee (she didn't want to show her missing teeth)

Can you see who the biggest poser is?

My Girls!

The Soccer Girl

Taylee was our soccer player this year, and she did a really great job!

Biting her nails with anticipation! OK- probably more just out of habit!

Waiting for the ball to come to her end of the field...she actually did an awesome job as goalie!

The team cheer! (Tay in red goalie vest)

I think she had a fun time, so hopefully she'll play next year, as well.

We love our "Tater Bug"!