A Girly Couple of Days

Landon and Daniel have spent the last three days down in Mt. Pleasant with their Grandma and Grandpa McAllister. They've worked with Grandpa and had a good time- even though Landon has had a rough time at night- maybe just a little homesick. They are coming back home today, and it's been a nice (quieter and cleaner) break! Emma and I have spent time doing girly things. Yesterday we went to the mall (I love shopping with her) and today we did these beautiful nails that she is so happily displaying. She has kind of been eating up all the attention and alone time. She and I have lots of fun together! Last night I had the opportunity to do a fireside for a Stake YW camp. I was nervous about it but had spent lots of time pondering and organizing my thoughts and songs. It went very well and I was so pleased with how it all turned out. Richard helped me with the technical end of it all and my mom came along for support- which was great because a portion of my talk centered around her and it was nice to have her there. The camp was at the Heber Valley Camp, otherwise referred to as The Temple in the Mountains. And it really is! It is the most beautiful, clean, peaceful camp I think I've ever seen. If any of you have been there you know what I am talking about. Or, if you ever have the chance to go, take it! Just an amazing place and it was fun to be a part of it and enjoy a wonderful evening in a beautiful place!

FISH LAKE

We had a wonderful four days at Fish Lake. The weather was perfect and everyone from my family was there. We enjoyed being together in the beautiful surroundings and having a great time on the boat, playing games, relaxing, eating and fishing, of course! Thank you so much Mom and Dad for the wonderful trip, all the planning, the memories and Mom, your boundless, amazing energy! Early birds with worms ready for an early morning fishing trip! Daniel, Emma, Landon and Carter
Daniel helping Grandpa drive the boat and wearing Grandpas hat too!

So proud of their catch....even though Daniel screamed like a girl when the fish wiggled out of the towel they were holding it with!
I'm havin' fish tonight! (can you name the movie?)
I love this picture.
It's always a thrill to catch 'em!
On one particular trip Emma was the only one to catch a fish...that's my girl!

We really had a lot of fun and enjoyed every minute! We love Fish Lake!

Fourth of July Weekend

We had a really great weekend. We started on the morning of the fourth at the annual Hague Family Breakfast. I love it because my Grandma and Grandpa do so much for it to make it special and patriotic and they are two of the most patriotic people I know. We had fun at the park eating lots of food, hitting baseballs, visiting and Grandpa led all the grandkids in a parade! I love red, white and blue!

It was cute to watch them march around the track behind Grandpa waving their flags. We spent the next part of the day (after a short nap at home) in Mt. Pleasant. We went to the cabin and enjoyed much food, family and perfect weather...much better than the 100 degree city! We did fireworks with cousins and spent the night at the cabin. Everyone loved the sparklers. They're still kind of my favorite!
Check out this amazing moth we found! This is a great shot Richard took because you can really see the detail if you zoom in. It was seriously like six inches, at least. Crazy!
Love this picture! The kids were fascinated. Landon actually let Richard put it on his head for a minute.
Ooops! Picture out of order- sorry. Emma riding with no lead rope. They all loved it!

We took a hike in the morning at the cabin and Emma loved collecting wild flowers.
The boys loved shooting anything and everything with thier BB guns.
This is a favorite spot at the cabin. So pretty!
The kids really loved riding in the pasture. They've been begging to ride for weeks and are already planning the next riding trip.

Lehi Round-up Week

This week was round up week in Lehi and we tried to attend some of the many activities that were going on. We didn't get tickets to the famous rodeo, but we still had fun at the things we did do. I took the kids to the Hutchings Museum and watched a "Birds of Prey" show. (I always remember how much I loved the Birds of Prey assembly when I was in elementary school.) It was really cool! We went to a family BBQ at Wines Park and played on jumpy toys. We went to to Stock Parade on Thursday, which we estimated to have about 200 horses. Its a fun, short parade that we always enjoy. Richard told Emma to wave to all the "Cow Princesses"....I told him I'm pretty sure they're "Rodeo Queens". She loved all the beautiful girls on horses and floats. Saturday we went to the Big Parade that lasted over 2 hours and had a fun time. We all have lovely sunburns to prove it. We also went over to the pool a few times during the week. We love Lehi and Round Up Week! Daniel and Emma got all decked out in cowboy gear- completely on their own.
For this parade we had a nice, shady spot.
The BIG parade. We brought and ate many, many otter pops!
The kids got lots of candy and sun!

Holy Robins.....Batman!

A few weeks ago we noticed a little bird nest outside our bathroom window. It had three beatiful blue eggs in it. (I wish we had taken a picture of the eggs because they were so pretty.) A few days ago the eggs hatched and we have a nest full of baby robins. We check on them multiple times a day- or at least every time we go to the bathroom. First thing in the morning the kids run in to see them. They are really quite ugly and all they do is sleep, eat and chirp itty, bitty chirps. Yesterday I asked Richard if he thought they just pooped in the nest. Of course they do, he said. Where else would they go? But yet their nest is so clean. So while I was watching them, mama robin brought them a worm and as they were eating it, little white balls came out of their other end. Birdy butts, if you will. The mama immediately snatched them up in her beak and flew away with them. I was intruiged and called Richard to tell him what had happened. He looked it up on the internet and read me an article. Here is what we found out. The baby birds only live in the nest for about 13 days. The mamas job is to constantly feed them and clean up after them. Those little white balls are actually fecal sacks and every time they eat they poop in what is basically a little, tiny birdy disposable diaper! The mother takes them away and either eats them or drops them somewhere. Amazing! I've seen it happen now 2 or 3 times and I think it is just crazy! Here are some pictures of what we see outside our window. The baby birds are sleeping. But they must have thought Richard was their mother when he climbed up the ladder and made sounds of a dying worm in the mouth of a mama robin. As you can see, they woke up and were crazy ready to eat!!
Look at that amazing color and those huge mouths! Ooooh, they just loved the big, juicy worm Richard fed them straight from his own mouth!
Here is aother angle of them. They only just opened their eyes a day or so ago. We'll keep a close watch on them until they make their way out into the world. There may be more pictures too come along with fascinating information. Aren't you happy you learned something new today. Did anyone already know that? I find it quite interesting. Today two of the birdies got the same worm in their mouth and were fighting over it. They were connected by this long worm down each of their throats. The mama watched them for about 10 seconds and flew off. I think she was waiting for a diaper deposit, but those silly babies were too busy fighting. Sometimes it would be nice to fly away for a while.

Emma the beautiful songbird

On Saturday Emma had her ballet performance. She was a songbird in the production (and holy cow, quite the production) of Sleeping Beauty. She's in the Academy of Ballet and they did the full on, entire ballet! Emmas little class was just a small part, but definately the cutest. She was darling! She saw a ballet performance a year or so ago and the littlest girls had their dads help them off the stage and give them a flower. Ever since then Emma has said, "When I'm bigger and I dance on a stage my dad will give me flowers, huh?" So she was thrilled to recieve her very own special flowers and she displayed them proudly on her dresser the minute we got home! It was so fun to get her all dressed up and do her hair and make-up. We both loved it!
Grandma and Grandpa McAllister came up to see the show!
Landon and Daniel were so cute to tell her what a good job she did and how pretty she looked.
Flowers from Daddy!
I just love this picture to pieces. It is so stinkin' cute!

It's A.....

We had our ultrasound today and its most definately a girl!!! My kids were thrilled because that's what they were all hoping for. Everything looks good and the due date is still estimated to be Nov. 1 or Oct. 31. I'm not exactly pulling for a Halloween baby, but we'll be happy whenever she decides to come! I asked the kids what they would name her if they had to name her today.
Daniel piped up first without hesitation- Violet.
Emma was next and said- Flower.
Landon couldn't think of one, so he settled on- Hermione.
Anyhow, we are thrilled to even up the girls and boys in our family. The pictures we got from the ultrasound were'nt very easy to decipher anyway, so I chose not to try to post them. We'll just wait until she's here on the outside!