oquirrh mountain temple service

Tim and I were lucky to be able to volunteer at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Everyone in our Stake was allowed a couple of opportunities to volunteer. Unfortunately, our first assignment was canceled so we only got this one opportunity. It was a great experience. I feel so blessed to have a temple in our area.
We got to be parking attendants and wear these awesome neon vests.

This was my post!

I got to look at this empty parking lot for most of my shift. My job was super easy since the lot I was assigned to was overflow ADA parking with not much overflow happening. I had a nice time chatting with people as they headed in and out of the temple. I was definitely grateful for the opportunity to serve in anyway that I could!

back to school

The nervous smile explains it all. First day of school. New grade. New school. New teacher. New friends. New Bus. New Bus Driver. Lots of new experiences for Payton. Payton started back to school today. It's unbelievable to me that he is already in second grade. First grade changed him so much. I can't believe how instantly independent he became and is still becoming.

As I mentioned, he is at a new school this year due to some boundary changes. This made him a little more nervous. Hello, he doesn't even know where the office is!!! I know, life is stressful. However, he was lucky to have one of his best buddies in his class again for the third year in a row. I'm not sure these boys will know what to do if they aren't in the same class.

Waiting. Wondering. Worrying. The joys of the first day of school!

Good news; he survived and he's loving school!

jones family fiesta

The Jones Family Reunion is a much anticipated event in our family for many reasons. Of course we love to spend time with family members that we only get to see a few times a year. We also love heading up to Island Park to enjoy the Jensen's amazing cabin and the incredible atmosphere of the island. It is beautiful! The past few years, one of the highlights for me, is seeing the fun theme work put into our family reunion. We have some serious party planning talent in our family. This years party did not disappoint. We had an amazing fiesta complete with incredible decorations, games, activities, food and fun!

Within hours of arriving at the cabin Payton (my seven year old) was driving the four wheeler!

This squirrel had absolutely no fear of us. It was fun to watch him eat his peanuts.

When we arrived we had to do the usual check-in. We were all required to do a Mexican hat dance.

The annual Jones Family picture with our matching t-shirts just before the race around the island was about to begin.

Yes, I am a LOSER, because I took third place to a couple of teenage boys. Actually, they are both super tall and FAST. I'm not ashamed. They deserved to win!

These kids (and all the others at the cabin) were party animals all weekend!

So were these kids...

We played lots of fun games...

and enjoyed earning lots of fun prizes!

Ole'!

our wind up toy

His name is Cooper. Seriously, this kid is unstoppable these days. Once he wakes from sleep he's wound up and doesn't stop until he hits the bed again. He is a climber. He climbs on anything and everything. Most recently he was found climbing on Grandpa & Grandma's coffee table. Once on top of the table he proceeded to show off his dancing skills.

He LOVES balls! He is obsessed. He is constantly carrying around a ball. Any shape. Any size. Any sport. Doesn't matter. He loves throwing the ball and has quite the little arm. He also loves shooting hoops. He has a pretty nice shot for a 1-year-old. The only downside to this obsession and his amazing skills is that Payton & Parker have taken a few golf balls to the head...ouch!
This kid also loves to eat. He out eats his brothers every single day. I'm amazed at how much this little guy can pack away, but he definitely needs the fuel for the crazy amounts of energy he's putting out!

He is an explorer. He loves to be outside. He loves to play with water. He loves to be messy and dirty. He loves being a BOY!

He can also throw a fairly good tantrum, especially when his Mommy is ignoring him and not picking him up.

Our little Cooper is still the sweetest little baby, but he is a lot of work these days. He keeps us on our toes all day long. We're never sure what adventure he's going to take us on, but we love it (most of the time)!

tim's birthday

Our main man had a birthday. We celebrated with a couple different parties. The Sunday before Tim's birthday we had a party with his family. Tim had lots of help opening presents, blowing out candles and reading his cards!

It was a pretty mellow party. This is about as exciting as it got...just the way Tim likes it!

Look at this party animal. Isn't baby Gygi adorable?
On Tim's birthday we had another party with my family.
The boys were so excited to give him their presents (except Cooper who was mostly wondering what I was doing with the camera).
When we went to the store to pick out Tim's presents I told the boys to think of things that Daddy likes. Cooper gave him Chocolate Chex Bars, Parker gave him peanut M&M's and Payton gave him Vault. Do you think Tim likes to eat?!

It's a good thing Tim likes to eat because I made him some Aunt Annie cupcakes. Tim's mom makes a Caramel Annie cake that everyone loves. Well, Tim is a chocolate lover so we substituted the caramel with chocolate. Apparently, Tim named this dessert Aunt Annie. I'm not sure why. Wouldn't it just be Chocolate Annie?!

Aunt Annie, Chocolate Annie, Who cares...they were yummy!

Along with Tim's favorite foods, we gave Tim a Bocce Ball set. Here are the guys being serious about the game.

And the girls having fun watching.

How sweet! My Grandma forcing a hug out of Payton...he can't be too old for that yet, can he?

Of course Cooper made his way into one of the chairs.

Payton LOVES this game and does take it very serious!

Earlier in the day we had gone to the 24th of July Parade Preview. They had face painting there, but the line was way too long. I told the boys that I would paint their faces when we got home. They didn't forget and at they end of the night we were painting faces. Parker wanted to be an Indian and Payton wanted "Cavaliers", "Jazz" and "NBA" written on his face.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIM!