June 2010 Update

MADELINE
Maddy is starting to enjoy dress up and play acting with Abby. Here they are having an un-birthday party.

Maddy loves to play in the pool, not that she loves swimming, but because she enjoys buckets and dumping water on things.

Here is Maddy trying to hide the fact that she colored all over herself with markers when I wasn't watching. Luckily they were the washable kind.

JARED

Here is Jared enjoying his new BBQ grill. It was a birthday/Father's day present that the whole family is enjoying.

Jared with Nathan on Father's day morning. You can tell Nathan loves his daddy.

The girls painted him pictures and each gave him a jar of Nutella (one of Jared's favorite snacks).

The girls used the recipe from their favorite Blue's Clues book to make Jared some muffins for Father's Day. Other than barbecuing and being a great dad, Jared has been busy this month gardening, doing home improvement projects, and trying to figure out what his new career goals should be. He also spent a week in Atlanta attending the National PA conference, and was sorely missed here at home, although the kids loved the whale shark toys Jared brought back for them.

ABBY

Since Abby doesn't have her own prince charming yet, she decided to dress up her dog as her dance partner.

Abby loves to dress up and play act. Here she is pretending she is Alice in Wonderland.

Abby is a little fish, and is always begging to play in the pool.

Abby's new favorite past time.

NATHAN

Here is our handsome, happy boy.

Nathan loves to roll around with the living room pillows. He has just started army crawling and loves being able to move around more.

He loves splashing in the water too.

MARY

Here I am with my friend Jamie who is spending the summer in Tri-cities while her husband does an internship. She was my Freshman roommate at BYU 13 years ago. It was fun to catch up with her and remember our lives when we were 18. It is crazy to think that I'm now 31 and running around after 3 kids and loving it.

TRIP TO BOISE

Jared's parents bought us tickets to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. It was nice to enjoy good theater and see family.

On Saturday Jared's brother Bryan took us out on his boat. The girls had fun riding up to the lake in his truck. When he started driving they yelled "weeee!"

Riding in the boat.

Bryan did some amazing water skiing, and Jared made some good attempts.

Abby driving the boat with her Uncle Bryan.

Maddy of course had to try it too.

Nathan had fun, but got a little worn out.

We went swimming in JoyAnn's friend's pool on Saturday night. Do you think Abby has enough flotation devices?

Maddy had a lot of fun kicking her little legs.

Nathan's first time in a swimming pool.

Abby's First Ballet Recital

Maddy was a little jealous of all the attention Abby was getting, so we had to take a few pictures of her with the flowers too.

Isn't she cute?

Abby got a little impatient waiting for her performance, so she started doing somersaults in the grass, which of course messed up her hair. Oh well.

The girls all stood a little too close together so they didn't have room to move their arms.

Big smiles. Abby loved the pink tutu and the flowers in her hair.

Abby's short solo portion. I think she was a little thrown off by the music stopping right as she was turning around.

Trip To Boise

We drove down to Boise so we could welcome Jared's youngest brother home. He has spent the last two years in Brazil serving as a full time missionary for our church. Here he is being welcomed home by his parents.

Here is a happy, but very tired Elder Collett.

Nathan trying on Kevin's Brazilian hat while he hangs out with his Uncle Bryan.

The girls had a fun trip to the zoo with their cousin Courtney. The Boise zoo isn't very big compared to Philly, but it was just the right size for kids this age. The girls had a lot of fun looking at all the birds, lions, giraffes, and monkeys.

Here they are exploring a tunnel with the ground hogs.

Nathan's first trip to the zoo.

These aren't real elephants, but the girls enjoyed the cool shower on such a hot day.

Aunt Jessica and Courtney trying out the tiger.

Abby pretending to be a turtle.

Of course Maddy had to try it too.

Jared's mom cooked a nice birthday dinner for Jared.

She also made him a delicious German chocolate cake.

The weather was perfect all weekend. Here are the girls enjoying some shade.

Nathan hanging out with his cousin William.

William teething on the table.

Abby had lots of fun on the tramp with her cousins and Uncle Bryan.

At church on Sunday Kevin gave an amazing homecoming talk, and Jared and his brothers sang a beautiful musical number. Afterwards we had a nice family dinner outside.

We loved our trip. It was fun to see Kevin and catch up with family. Good times.

Mother's Day and other May pictures

On Saturday morning Jared decided that we should go down to Boise to see one of his good friends who had just gotten married. I told the girls that we had to hurry and pack so that we could go. Five minutes later Abby shows me this pile and proudly announces, "Mom, I'm all packed!"

Abby was sweet and made me a little mother's day cake out of play dough.

After finishing up some mending, I came out of my room to find that the girls playing Peter Pan. Abby was Tinkerbell and Maddy was playing Captain Hook and trying to lock Abby up.

Here I am with my kids on Mother's day morning. Jared and the girls got up early and made me pancakes. The girls are sitting on my mother's day present, which was a step stool for my kitchen. It was very nice, although the highlight of my day was Abby singing with the Primary in sacrament meeting for the first time. She was very excited about the performance and had spent the night before practicing mother's day songs in her bed at the top of her lungs. Every Mother's day I am reminded of what a blessing it is to be a mom of such sweet children.