July 18th Celebrations

On July 18th we celebrated our family birthday by going up Big Cottonwood Canyon to have a BBQ for dinner.  After dinner we went and explored Silver Lake a little. 

That night I just kept thinking to myself,.............
 well in between Lilly's bloody nose, Afton's scraped knees,
 and four kids who are ALWAYS making some kind of noise......

 THIS IS EXACTLY HOW OUR LIFE SHOULD BE! HOW LUCKY WE ARE!

Our Family (if you include the person who took the picture :))

We told them to act like they like each other!

Me and the very different personalities of our 3 girls.

My new FAVORITE picture!

-Jim and I will be heading up to Park City this weekend for our own time just the two of us.   We plan on  going to see Chicago the musical at the Egyptian Theater in Park City, go out to eat, relax and actually have uninterrupted and finished conversations :)

14

Happy Family Birthday to us!

Happy Family Birthday to us!

Happy Family Birthday,

 Dear Jim, Alisha, Ethan,

 Lizzie, Afton and Lilly (and Lucky)

Happy Family Birthday to us!

14 years ago today our family began when a boy named Jim and a girl named Alisha were married. 

As always, thank you Jim for asking me to marry you! 

Happy Anniversary!

Unexpeted Milestone

With summer vacation close to being halfway over,

 I thought I would write a few things that we have been doing-

 

which includes....

Swimming a lot!

   This summer was a big milestone for me as I can now safely and comfortably (well mostly) take all four of my kids swimming BY MYSELF!!!!

 Since the girls were born I just didn't feel safe enough with only my two arms for everyone's skill level and age to go swimming with them by myself.  I always had my mom come with for extra help and arms.   While I SO APPRECIATE her extra arms these past few years it is so nice to make impromptu trips to the pool whenever we want.  Ethan and Liz are amazing in the water and the girls are much easier in the water than even just last year.    Most of the time the girls play in the shallow end but sometimes I put a lifejacket on them when we all want to go to the deep end.  They think it is amazing to be able to "float"

We now go swimming 2 to 3 times a week at Draper Pool!!!!  FABULOUS!!!!

Other things we have been doing since school got out. 

• Summer jobs*
• Worksheet pages*

 * I need some sort of incentive for swimming or other activities.  So once they get jobs and worksheet done we can go or do!

•  Making Slime

 

• Saving plastic animals and princesses from icebergs

 

 

•  Weekly trips to the Sandy library

 

Eating homemade smoothie popsicles

Making Hot Rocks

 

 

 

Discovering and playing with Crayola Model Magic (better than Play-Doh in my opinion)

Catching yourself trying to figure out what day of the week it is

 

I REALLY love summers with my kids. 

 Even though it is noisy and crazy and chaotic (more than usual) and my house is messier than usual, it is so nice to have them all home.

 

Summer is also a good time for them to  work on problem resolving skills by practicing with each other (aka-  arguments. ) :) Good times.

 

  But overall,  it is fun to see them just be kids and explore and play and relax.

 Sleeping in+ no schedules+good summer food + late nights =

Seriously my favorite season of the  year!

A click of the heels

5 years ago today we moved into our house......

• Originally I was thinking of doing a blog post with some pictures of how our house looks now compared to when we moved in. 

 But....as of last Saturday  we made an impromptu decison to paint our bedroom (blue) and tear up the carpet in the girls room to put wood floor laminate.  Thus most of the girls room is either squished in Ethan's room, our room or their room.  Our bedroom is also in painting prep stage.

How about if I just show a picture when it is all done? :)

• Then I thought about getting all sentimental with quotes like these....

-Home is where one starts from.- T.S. Eliot

-Good homes are still the best source of good humans.- Neal A. Maxwell

And then talk  about  some of the moments we have experienced so far in trying to raise our family in this house.  You know like Lizzie's surgeries, having twins, getting a dog, Jim going out on his own (business wise), starting public school, hanging out in the backyard, finishing the basement, Lizzie climbing our trees, Afton coloring on walls, and on and on.

SO MANY  small moments and memories of all of us hanging

 out in  our home (like picture above) I treasure.

  This is the only house and yard these 2 girls have known. 

  

 

We plan on staying here for awhile... This is the longest we have ever stayed anywhere.

When we moved in we were a young family of 4. Now there are 6 of us (plus a dog) all growing older quicker than I would like. How can Ethan already be 10? He was 5 when we moved in. How can our babies be 4?

As long as we stay for awhile longer, this will be the "home" our

 four children will think of when they are adults.

• But then, I came across this from a book Lizzie worked on in 2nd grade and brought home the last day.

YEP, THAT ABOUT SUMS IT UP PERFECTLY!

  

THANKS LIZZIE!

Something Borrowed, Something Blue -Part 2

 Just because I know my dad will probably enjoy these.... I will post them on Father's Day :)

Lilly Age 4

Afton Age 4

If you would like to see what Lizzie and I looked like in

 the same dress around the same age go here.....

http://www.jimlishfamily.blogspot.com/2008/08/something-borrowed-something-blue.html

Vegas, Baby

Jim's sister, Liz was graduating (YAHOO!) so we decided to use her graduation ceremony as an excuse to take a mini vacation and go down to Las Vegas.  Plus it was a perfect way to kick off the summer and the kids being out of school. 


While there we.....

Learned how to make really huge bubbles.  This was one of the smaller ones though:)  Of course right when there was a perfect big bubble I couldn't get my camera ready fast enough.

Got ready to work the pit  for the next Nascar race.

Did a little grocery shopping.

Saw an awesome frog made out of plants and flowers at the Bellagio.

Took in a little art.

Let a 4 year old take some pictures like this (above)
Or
take pictures of a 4 year old with a banana chip like this (below)

 as you try to keep them entertained during a 2 hour graduation ceremony.

Congratulate the graduate- Liz Higley

Look adorable!

It was a long and hard hike down to the
 bottom of the Hoover Dam to get this picture- but we did it! :)

One of Lizzie's main reasons for coming... to spend time with Kathryn and Mal (the kitties).

And here is how we felt about having to leave... 
How did the weekend go so quick? 
 I still have this ribbon to play with?


It was a great weekend with wonderful hosts! 
Thanks for graduating Liz and letting us share that with you!

Since last time....

Here are ten things we have been up to...

  1.  These cute girls finished their first year of pre-school.
  Here they are on their last day- 5/25/12

 2.  Enjoying the pretty flowers in our front yard. 

  3.  Lilly learning she does not like
 wheelbarrow rides given by her sister :)

  4. Ethan's new summer job- mowing the backyard



 5.   Lizzie is really good at rock climbing



  6.  Cowgirl Liz and a horse

 7.  Lilly learning the art of  fishing




  8.  Family Hike Night up Bell Canyon

9. Working on our garden




  10.  Lizzie teaching us that Jesus really likes
 people with blonde hair and purple glasses :)