When I returned home from Back to School Nite tonight, I found both my little people still up. Natey needed me to lay by him. Maryn said her legs hurt (growing pains)! So I whispered to her that I would be right back and went to lay with Natey for just a minute. When I got back to her, she was in tears, she was crying out for me and she was hurting. Now I know about growing pains. I suffered from them too so I'm always very quick to rub her legs because I remember how bad they hurt. I'm sure many of you remember "growing pains". So I layed down next to her and rubbed her legs and helped her calm down. She said through her little tears and sniffles, "I had growning pains." I told her I know... everyone has to grow. She fell asleep in about 10 minutes. My dad used to always rub my legs for me to calm me down too. Thanks Daddy!

I was thinking how much that is just like life. We have to go through growing pains. Thankfully, we have a loving Heavenly Father who we can cry out to through our tears when we are hurting. He has been there and knows how we feel. He loves us more than I even love my little Maryn. He will rub out our "legs" and calm us down so we can move to the next day. She'll be fine in the morning. She'll be smiling and ready for a new adventure! (If I were really clever, I would have a picture of her little legs on this post! So much for clever!)

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to "blog it". Let me set it up a tiny bit, Maryn and I have this silly little conversation often:
I say: I love you Maryn
She says: I love you more!
I say: That's impossible
So, while we were out in our trailer, Natey says to me "Mommy, say I love you to me". So I say, "I love you Natey" and he says "That's not impossible!" I started laughing and he started saying it often. One time I said "That is so cute Natey, I have to remember to write it down." He says "Blog it Mom!" So here it is blogged for him.

April, Stacy and Heather had this on their blogs, and I thought it was pretty cool. I added a few things to make it more interesting and challenge you to add your own. I’ll keep checking back and update as we go. So here's mine.

Three jobs I have had: Heavy Equipment Mechanic, Green Chain Puller, Cowboy. (Anyone know what a Green Chain Puller does?)
Three places I have lived: Medford, Oregon; Reno, Nevada; Provo, Utah;
Three shows that I watch: Heroes, Lost, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles
Three places I have been: Taiwan, China; Washington DC; Downtown LA (Can you believe I'm still alive?)
Three people who email me often: Aunt Gwen, Duane Reese, Allison
Three of my favorite foods: Anything Chinese, Lasagna, Peanut butter and honey sandwich (on soft white bread).
Three places I'd rather be right now: Camping in our trailer, Pulling our trailer on the way to go camping, Picking up our trailer to go on the trip that we've been planning to go on.
Three friends I think will respond: Friends?
Three things I am looking forward to this year: Christmas, Death Valley camping trip, anything but the "Twilight" movie.

Three cars I’ve owned: Chevy Luv, International Travelall, Geo Spectrum.

Three of my happiest moments: My wedding day (cause I knew Alli was mine), The births of my children (I know that’s really four, but they were all wonderful), and camping with my family.

Three of my most embarrassing moments: When I was in grade school I was asked to do the Pledge of Allegiance and I started it, “Our Dear Heavenly Father”; While learning Chinese on my mission I called myself cockroach instead of Elder; I’m still too embarrassed to say the third one.

Three things I want to do before I die: Go to Hawaii, go to Europe, and go back to China.

Well, here I am all caught up on my posts. You really need to go down and start at "Camping in Moro Bay" and go up from there to get them in order chronilogically!
I could go on and on about why I love my little boy but since he's three, here are the top 3!
*He's my only boy!
*I get lost in his eyes!
*He loves to kiss me all over my face!
*He says things really cute like "bowana" for banana and "Mowan" for Maryn and "all on board" for all aboard, and well lots of cute things like that! Ok, I'll stop there!
Happy Birthday big boy!

Natey had so much fun at Travel Town. Monday was a great day to go. There was hardly anyone there. It was not like that on Saturday. Look at that boy kiss his mama. He gives the best kisses and I give him the best kisses. (Gush, gush)


The little train ride was really fun too. Wondering who that cute little baby is on my lap? That's our part time little brother, Brayson. I started babysitting him 4 days a week. His mom and dad are our backyard neighbors, Maryn and his sister, Morgyn are best friends and his Mommy is Maryns new 1st grade teacher. He's so much fun. He's such a good baby. We'll have to take more pictures so you can see him better later. He has a great smile.


He even poses cool! What a 3 year old that boy is.

Natey's birthday was on Sunday, the 17th. He was turning 3. Like many 3 year olds, his favorite thing is trains. So we decided to take him to lunch and to Travel Town to celebrate his birthday and ride the train. He chose his favorite restaurant; Macarroni Grill (ok, so his dad chose HIS favorite) and they even brought him yummy cake which he only ate the whip cream off of!


As we're getting out of the car, I commented that there must be a fire nearby because I could see the ashes and smell the fire. As we were walking in Travel Town, an announcement comes over that everyone must evacuate the park because there is a fire and it's very close. So sad. Poor little Natey. He could see the trains and was so sad that he couldn't go on them; until; he saw the "siresighter" or as most people call it, a firefighter! He thinks those are pretty neat too. So here is the fire in the hill behind Nate and the kids and then a couple more pictures of the fire. We promised him we would come back on Monday. We did, we just didn't have the girls this time! Emalee and Chayse didn't seem to mind that they wouldn't get to ride the little train. Well, I guess Emalee was a little sad. That's something she just loves to do! LOLOLOLO She's so much fun to torture.

Chaysie went off to 7th grade, Maryn went to 1st grade with Mrs. West

Emalee is a sophomore this year and Natey gets to hang with Mama for as long as I can keep him with me. They all had a great day. They're happy with their teachers and their schedules and they all said they're going to work really hard this year and be great students!

Should we worry about this kid or is this normal for little boys who have 3 big sissys? These are Grammies shoes that Maryn is hanging on to because she just knows she's going to fit in them one day soon. She will before I know it!

So, here is Miss Maryn all excited to cut off her hair for "Locks of Love."

The cut and the wash and all she was really concerned about was getting "side bangs!"

Here she is with her cute new "doo." She just pretty much takes care of it herself now.

The weekend before we started school, we headed out to Moro Bay with 9 other families from our ward; the Bowens, Hoskins, Mowers, Miles, Grants, Voges', Cioffi's, Joosts and Johnsons. We had such a fun time. We went Kayaking or Canoeing, saw the Elephant whales molting, had a yummy treat at Linns bakery, went on walks, ate salt water taffy (lots of it), played games, went on the trolley ride to the farmers market and spent fun nights by the fire. It was a great way to end the summer. Still so sad it went by so fast. So glad we have such wonderful people in our lives! Love you all!
Since I'm so behind in my posts, I'm just gonna tell who has great pix on their blog and you can visit them to see all the fun times: Bowens, Hoskins, Mowers & Miles. What are freinds for? Blog peeping?

My Aunt Jeri and Uncle Kent have a beautiful cabin (or chalet as I call it) up in the hills in Huntsville. It's the house set back behind the barn. It's such a fun place to go. We rode horses, played on a huge water slide pool thingy, played ping pong, took lots of pictures and got to see all or most of our family. We went up there for our family reunion on my moms side of the family and to celebrate my little grandma's 90th birthday. There's grandma sittin pretty!

My Aunt Linda and Uncle Mel are the pig roasters. We have been having "pig pickins" for as long as I can remember. They and their crew (which I'm not completely sure who that is since I don't stay up) but they take shifts all night long roasting this pig to perfection. My cousin Tyler (with the apron) is part of the crew. So are Kim and Russ, my cousin and her hubby.

Here's all the family out on the driveway ready for the pig pickin. It's really yummy and it feeds all 70 of us. I think that's how many were there this year. It was really fun to see all my cousins. I love my cousins and my aunts and uncles very much. My Uncle Kent gave a beautiful blessing on the food and thanked Heavenly Father for our sweet Grandma Lena and Grandpa Mel (who has passed away) for starting this whole bunch. She may not know who we all are in such a large crowd but I know she loves each of us and in her memories, she knows who we all are and we're all special to her. How much do you think you'll remember when your 90, jeez!

Oops this is actually suppose to be after the next post. It's really late! Anyhow, Here is Chayse with Daddy and Natey. There's Maryn out in front leading (imagine that... Maryn leading; typical!) Maryn even ran with her horse. She's all ready for barrel racing now!

Even Emee managed to stop texting (sorry for the interruption Emee's friends) long enough to take a little ride. Her horse ran with her.

There were horse rides at the reunion. Aunt Jeri knows how to keep lots of kids entertained. They had so much fun. Here is Maryn, Leah and Storme.


This is my cousin Kelly who brings the horses and takes the kids on rides ALL DAY LONG. He has so many best friends when he brings his horse friends! Thanks Kelly. Natey loved riding with his daddy!

We always go to BYU so Nate can get some new "uniforms" or shirts. His cousin Aaron lives right by BYU with his cute little wife Jen so we stopped in to see their cute little newlywed pad!

Daddy bought Natey a model airplane and had to put it together right there in the cougar-eat!

We saw this great class going on of ballroom dancers. How many people think Emalee should take a ballroom dancing class? How fun would that be! Here's Emee and Grandma too.

Natey's birthday is coming up so we thought it would be fun for him to celebrate with his cousins. Sissa made yummy cupcakes and made him his very own cake which he promptly smushed up (typical Natey)! He really had fun with all his cousins!

Zack, Maryn, Storme, McKenzie, Steele, Natey birthday boy, Leah and Justice!

Remember when I went to Utah to be with Lolo when she had her little Georgia Peach? Here she is 2 months old with her Uncle Nate! She's such a sweetie peetie!

We found Coachland and stayed there for two nights. It was a nice place with a fun playground that Natey and Maryn played at. They needed something to do besides act like "Mork". How do they even know Mork? Dad and Nate were tired after all that driving from the Redwoods to Tahoe. That's Dad and June's new 5th wheel behind them. It's really nice and it has a great game room in the back. Thanks for letting us game while you were trying to sleep!

We drove around Lake Tahoe and stopped to watch some Kayakers. A whole family of them. Even their little dog had a life vest on. So cute. Natey, Maryn and I were the only ones who wanted to Kayak. Maybe some other time.

We stopped in Reno to play games. Grandpa and Grandma went right to the "Adult Games" and we stayed with the kids in the money pit! It really was fun though. We won some really fabulous stuffed animals, a hot wheels for Natey, some candy and Emee and Chayse each won "a" stuffed dice so now they have a pair! Yippee.

Next we stopped in for some yummy ice cream. Natey and Maryn loved their bubble gum ice cream. Ugh! I'll stick with caramel of course! Daddy was worried about the meter running out and us having a ticket on our car when we got back. Maybe that's why he looks like that. No ticket! Fun day!