Happy Independence Day!

I just love Summer and doing fun things with my little family! Here are some pics from our 4th of July celebrations!

Jarom used his Ham radio skillz to work at the Provo parade on the morning of the 4th. He had a block of the parade he patrolled, making sure kids stayed behind the line and didn't throw poppers at the horses. Isaac got so excited each time he say Jarom walk by, he stood up and clapped and cheered!Here we are watching the parade!Les, Mindi, Kaleb, and Kate watching the parade too!That evening we went to my sister's house for a BBQ. Aren't we adorable in our matching shirts?Emmie with Grandma and Grandpa Sugden.Isaac playing with Gemille. He had so much fun running around with so many cousins!I just loved this pic of the kids playing on the bean bag!Hope your holiday celebrations were filled with as much fun as we had! I love my country and am so grateful to be American!

Temple Open-House

Last Thursday we took the kids to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house in West Jordan. We had a wonderful time seeing the inside of the beautiful building and the kids seemed to have a nice time too! Here are some picture highlights!

One of the really cool things they did at this open house was have volunteers standing around in the front of the building to take pictures of groups. Brilliant!We took turns carrying Emilie while we were inside (I didn't want to worry about stroller and the elevators) so I think that by the time we got outside, she was thrilled to be able to walk around! I think this is one of my new favorite pictures of Emmie!Isaac loves to pull the silliest faces when the camera comes out, and this night was no exception. Sure am crazy about that silly boy! Jarom worked pretty hard on this shot, and I really like how it turned out!Did you know that Angel Moroni was hit by lightening during on of those crazy storms that came through Utah in June? I guess he's getting a little touch-up before the temple is dedicated!We thought that going to the temple open-house as a family on Thursday would be a great way for our family to celebrate our little angel baby's birthday. It was her 5th birthday and we love her and miss her so very much.

What does $128.83 of groceries look like?

(plus 3 gallons of milk, a dozen eggs, and two more boxes of cereal)

And how much did it cost me today?

$46.53!!!I've started using the Savvy Shopper these last few weeks and I'm accumulating quite a few coupons. I'm still not very good at using the system, but it's getting better. I think I did ok today. I'm eventually going to be utterly fabulous at getting things for super cheap.

End of season

Isaac had his last soccer game on Saturday, and now that it's over, I think he finally started to enjoy it! The two kids who usually carry the game were gone, and there was only one kid to sub, so Isaac ended up playing for most of the game. He even kicked the ball a few times and did a few throw-ins. At the end of the game, he got a medal for participating and he is very proud of it! After the game we went to our niece Michaela's birthday party and he had to wear his little medal to show it off to everyone there!

Here's a pic of the adorable little birthday girl! She was supposed to have a swim party, but the pesky rain prevented that so the kids just tore up the house instead!Emilie's been pretty busy lately too. Besides getting a nice little bump on her forehead from crashing into the couch, she also got 3 teeth in 4 days! One incisor and two molars. No WONDER she's been so cranky lately!

In case you haven't heard...

We have a walker!


And a jabber box!


Emilie's vocabulary now includes:

Sit Down (dee dow)
Thank you (day doo)
Mama
Dada
Isaac (Ah-da)
Meow (Ow) (used for Gabby too)
Bye-Bye
Grandpa (pa pa)
Hello (ee-ya) (she uses everything to talk on the phone - keys, remotes, shoes, etc.)
Plus lots of other cute little sounds that I can't quite understand yet, but I'm sure are brilliant.

She can also sign more, milk, and all done!

Welcome Baby Justin!

Julie and Nathan had their adorable little baby boy Justin last week and we are so excited to have another cute little Hatch baby join the family! They had estimated that he would be a little guy since Julie was so small, but he was a big 8 lb. 14 oz. baby! Isaac is excited to have another boy cousin and Emilie is enamored with him.

Here's Isaac holding Justin the day after he was born. All the adorable little Hatch cousins: Michaela, Isaac, Emilie, and JustinIsaac holding Justin on Monday night, we dropped by for a little visit.

Keeping Afloat

Now that the weather is nice, it seems like we are spending most of our time outside, which leaves less time inside to play on the computer, but we've been having lots of fun! Here are a few highlights of the last little while:

We had a fun little pool party at Chelsea's today with some adorable kiddos and mamas in the neighborhood. Both Isaac and Emilie had such a blast playing in the water, even though it wasn't a super hot day.Tonight, we went with my dad for the maiden voyage of his *new* fishing boat he got this weeks while my mom's been out of the country. See what happens when he is left unsupervised?!? We had a great time, even though Emilie didn't seem too pleased, but I don't know if she was just cranky to be cranky, or if she didn't like her life vest and wind blowing in her hair. At least she looked cute though! Isaac was so thrilled to take a ride in the boat AND ride down to the lake in Grampa's big, loud truck! I guess there's a perk to living a just a few minutes away from a big lake!What a handsome man!!!While Jarom's been working on the yard, the never-ending project, I've been trying to find ways to keep Emilie entertained, and the other day she kept trying to climb on Isaac's trike, so I put the steering handle back on and took her for a little lap around the driveway. That one lap turned into many and she had a great time! I think she really feels like a big kid on that bike! She's even figured how to ring the bell.