Life Through Laughter

I am giving you fair warning; this post is mostly a lot of pictures. I know some of them may all look the same but I swear they are different, I mean, didn't you notice that one hair has blown to a different spot? No? Well, I couldn't decide, I liked them all, and it's my blog, uh journal, whatever, so I am going to post 80 pictures if I want to.

Take a big breath, and go...

I love having this little girl in our family. She is so much fun!

She thinks she needs to wake up every 1.5 hours because she just might stave to death. It really irritates me and makes for a cranky overtired mama. I want to growl at her but then she does some giggle and smiling and, dag-nab-it, there goes my heart melting again. I give up, I will try to resist later... I tell you, this girl is a powerful sorceress:

She still really loves tummy time. She's starting to be a lot more fun now that she's realizing she has these awesome things on the end of her arms. While laying under her toy mat she has just discovered that she can bat and kick her hanging toys around. She thinks she's pretty amazing with her new super woman skills.
I love how she stares at her hands. What is this thing that keeps whacking me in the face and pulling my hair? Does it fit in my mouth - well, wouldn't you know it, that is just about the coolest invention ever, who needs a pacifier?

We took the fun on the road to visit family in Utah. We stopped for lunch and to fill the car up and wouldn't you know it, 30 miles down the road in a serious no-mans land the boys declare, I have to go potty, NOW! With a sigh daddy begins to pull off the nearest exit. Then, all the warning lights, I didn't even know half of them existed, flash on, on the dashboard. Then the car steering goes out (who needs steering in a car anyway?) Then, the car completely stalled and ka-poot. Jake coasted it down the offramp. Jake isn't a car guy but he decided you had to look under the hood anyway, who knows, something might jump up waving and say, me! me! Fix me! Nothing did, next best thing, call the car guy, Jake's dad. When he doesn't answer, Jake's brother. Of course, we are too far away for anyone we know to be of assistance. There were some cows though, at least we wouldn't have starved. Although, there was no fire, so yeah, they would have been useless. And no way to catch or butcher a cow. I want to see Jake do that with his bare hands, that would have been the true adventure.

I quickly put on a big smile and just as fast pulled out or portable kid potty that we thankfully keep in our car. We were all set, we had a potty, snacks, and an emergency stash of water. It was a hot sunny day, I was extremely grateful I keep a stash of water in the car.

I decided we needed to call a tow truck. Of course, the truck had to come from where we were 30 miles before.

I pulled out all the books we had in the car and tried to be a super cool fun mom. Although the atmospheric temperatures were climbing I wanted to keep the human temperaments as cool as possible. In order to do that I knew right away I needed to keep my cool and laugh at this fun adventure.

Here we sat with two toddlers and a baby waiting for a tow truck to rescue us:

(by-the-way; we live in a pretty awesome place. We had at least 6 different cars stop or turn around and come back to ask if they could be of assistance)

It really didn't take much time before a tow truck was on its way. I now have an odd reason why I like having a big Suburban; the tow truck it requires. I was a bit stressed on the inside wondering how we were going to get all 5 of us off the side of the road. Turns out, when you have a big truck, you need an even bigger tow truck to haul you. It didn't take long for the tow truck to show up and wouldn't you know it, a big tow truck comes with a back bench seat. There were enough seatbelts for all of us! I am very grateful for that. Even if their weren't enough seats for us the tow truck driver was nice and said there was no way he would have left any of us sitting on the side of the road, he would have figured something out. Well, thank goodness for that. The boys thought riding in the tow truck was about the coolest thing they had ever been able to do. Yeah, we planned it just for you boys, uh huh. The whole ride back (30 miles to the town we had just come from) they kept squealing about how the tow truck was carrying our white truck.
They took us, and our truck, our course, to a Midas shop. The guys at Midas quickly ran out to push our truck into an open bay. We settled into the waiting room expecting a long wait. Wouldn't you know it, not even 5 minutes later, there's our truck driving out of the bay. Uh, what in the world? The battery had become disconnected! How frustrated, and at the same time, I'm grateful that's all it was. Midas didn't even charge us, another blessing.
Within 2.5 hours, we were back on the road with only an extra 30 miles to travel.

We eventually made it to our destination, and this is all the fun that we had:
Grandma and Grandpa Stevens got to hang out with all seven of their grandkids ... I think they enjoyed it.

 She is really into spit bubbles and her tongue seems to always be tasting the air around her:

There are 2 dogs at the house now; the boys love tormenting poor Tucker and Dixie

The main reason we went was to bless Breahna. Most of you are members of the church but for those few that aren't, here's more info.

I didn't dress the boys in anything too special but Grandma got Breahna a beautiful dress to wear. Aunt Hailey helped me have fun taking lots of pictures ... and commence photo bomb ...

So, the shoes weren't as cute as I thought they would be, and they wouldn't stay on her feet.

What? That wasn't enough pictures of Bre in her dress? Well, I have at least 20 more if you don't feel like you got enough.
Next day was Sunday and time for us all to dress up and head to church:
(I have three kids? Seriously, I don't think they can all be mine)
(also, Jake's sister Hailey played beauty shop on my hair the night before, dyed it a bright red, love it! And, thank you again!)

Bre didn't like her dress. It might have been the fact that it covered her feet, she hates having her feet covered. Or, it might have been the fact that she was being man-handled with dressing and hair styling and picture taking ...

Mom had a good idea for me to embroider Breahna's name and the date of blessing on the inside slip of the dress. I'll have to post a picture when I get that done ... don't hold your breath please, I don't want anyone passing out. It will be awhile since I have 5 projects that are more important right now.
We had lots of family and some friends meet us at the church to share this special day with us.
I apologize again to everyone for the address confusion. I'm glad you all rushed in out of breath at the last second, even if it was just for the closing prayer.
We went right back to the Stevens house after the blessing...let the feasting begin! When I am the youngest of 8 and Jake is the eldest of 5 plus most of them have spouses and at least 2 kids, that's a lot of people!

My sister Laurel flew all the way from Austria to meet her newest niece. Okay, I'm pretty sure she came for several more important reasons. We just happened to strategically plan this day for the day after she got into town.

 My sister Sarah and her daughter/my niece Jasmine.

Alexander lives on a Nutella sandwich diet ... it's working out pretty well for him since he's in the 75th percentile for his height and weight

I met my best friend Holly in 1991 while selling lemonade on a hot summer day. She had recently moved into the neighborhood. We always swore we would live next door to each other so our kids could grow up together ... that didn't happen in the least bit. All these years later we each have three kids and we still laugh together and share inside jokes that only make sense to the two of us. Sadly we only get to see each other maybe a few times a year.
(and now I will resist sharing all our inside jokes that immediately made me start laughing soon as I saw this picture)

This is her husband Brad and their kids.  Thank you for coming down to see us!

My mom enjoying grandkid number 18!

My dad and brother-in-law had the right idea on this hot summer day:

Lots of nieces to love!
Ana

 Sadie and Sabine

Yes, there's another sister popping in ... I have 5 of them.
Love you Michelle!

 One last grandma and grandpa snuggle

 Chilling out after all the commotion

We were planning on only staying the weekend. Then my sister smiled all sweet and commenced to talk about how she only comes from Austria once a year and it was her birthday in 4 days and the whole family was getting back together for a big birthday party ... and ... and ...
There was no good reason to go home. We had nothing urgent.
We headed a bit further South to stay at my parents house:
Let the adventure continue:
Aunt Laurel got to meet her two newest nieces, Breahna and Eliza

It was a lot of fun spending more time with Laurel. The boys thought she was the coolest aunt ever:
She shared the garden snake she found:

 And she was a great storyteller:

The day before the next family party I wanted to get the boys out of the house. I suggested we go down to the outdoor mall where they have a spray fountain the boys could play in. Well, that soon turned into a full day that didn't involve the spray fountain at all.
Our first stop was up the canyon to play in the cold-as-dry-ice river:

 Look what I found ... kind of like Moses floating in the reeds ... okay, never mind ... moving on

 How is it kids never seem to notice the water is bitterly cold?

 I opted to stay out of the water

 Glad Jake didn't get frostbite on his feet

After the river we decided to drive up over the canyon to get some food in a quaint little town. It's not so quaint anymore since it has turned into a more commercialized place with a lot of the big box stores. So much has changed since I was last here!
we drove around for a while trying to decide where to eat. Glad we finally stopped where we did. We ended spending nearly two hours!
There was a train that ran around the top of the restaurant, through tunnels and all over. The boys were constantly looking up instead of watching where they were walking.
There was also an awesome train table that the boys couldn't get enough of:

 Always watching that train

The food was delicious too! (Bre and her spit bubbles, he hehe)

They had a soda fountain machine that had over 100 flavors! It was pretty cool, but too much for me. I hate decisions as it is. I just want water ... push the water button and you get Lemon, Raspberry, etc. What happened to just ice cold water?

 Lego table:

 Train table:

Even a large train outside where you could sit and eat ... but then you aren't inside where you can play with the trains and lego.

(no, we couldn't get the boys to eat much, they ate in the car after we left)
We decided to keep driving further up the mountain. Actually, Jake decided. We all fell asleep soon as we got back in the truck.
When I woke up were driving past hundreds of little lakes. We decided to stop at a gorgeous waterfall. Coincidently it was the start of the river we were playing in earlier that morning. It was hours away from the first canyon though.

 I think this little girl has got daddy wrapped around her finger, just where she wants him

Next day was party time!
My sister brought her super nice camera. I would much rather take pictures with hers. Which I did, and now, they are on her camera and not on my computer ... that didn't work out so well. I hope to update soon as I get the pictures (hint-hint-Shawna :-) I know, 70 hour work weeks, okay, take your time)
Grandma brought coloring pages (with paint pallets on them) for kid entertainment

But kids are good at creating their on fun:

 I love having so many sisters and sister-in-laws.

By-the-way, you need to hear the story why Kaleb's face is tear stained: he was throwing rocks at a shed and one bounced back and hit him. Poor kid, but, it was pretty funny. Also, I can't believe how big he looks sitting on my lap! How can I have a kid that big?

I am so glad we stayed for the party. It was great to spend more time with my family. I wish we had time for a big campout before school starts.
Eventually the fun has to end and we had to head home. Home to our regularly scheduled program of laundry, dishes, cooking, church responsibilities, and just general kid responsibilities.
Can't believe this summer is over in a few weeks. I hope we can squeeze in a Yellowstone weekend trip before school starts up again.

(P.S. I shouldn't write my blog posts late at night. I ramble and make no sense, but it's so funny, I think I'll leave it how it is)