Mother of The Year Award...

I know, I know 3 posts in 1 day!!!! I haven't updated in a while, and we have had a ton-o-stuff going on! This post is dedicated to me, and my nomination for mother of the year. Or at least that is what I definately WON'T be getting!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the kinds of things the mother of the year would DEFINATELY not do...

Cayden's back, the angle isn't great, but it is bright PURPLE!!!

and it still hurst today! Just for the record I told him to put a shirt on, and he wouldn't!

I thought I had applied tons of sunscreen to Halle, apparently I forgot the back part of her body! What can I say other than I SUCK!!! But...I made up for it in the next picture.

Halle and her Pink soccer cleats! She told us she would play soccer this year, if we would buy her pink cleats, and a pink ball. Her dad quickly said "OK"! I found them online, and they are so stinking cute!

Here is a closer look at them, her shin guards go all the way up to her knees! She looks so cute!

Parke Family Reunion '08

As a Parke family tradition, we have a family reunion every year the weekend of the 24th of July. Every year, we meet at the Parke's and have a camp-out breakfast, (the part the adults look forward to), and then the fun begins...

They have rented a gigantic waterslide for the last 3 years, and it is proving to be quite a ton of fun! They get to play, slide, jump, scream...(you get the idea) for 8 hours! The kids look forward to this as much as Christmas! Halle even went as far as to say that this was the best day of her life!

Then Grandma always cooks a great meal, we play bingo for some great prizes, and then the kids smash a piniata. I don't think you could plan a better reunion, the kids are entertained and fed the whole day!

Clay, Kylee, and I missed the breakfast this year, because we were at Kylee's championship soccer game, but we got there around 12:00. I am sad that I missed the breakfast, because I don't ever make bacon, or sausage, and I really look forward to that! Oh, well, the things we do for our children.

Here are some pictures of the big event!

Kylee on the big slide

Halle & Boo, she loves on this dog more than he wants her to!

Clay resting in the shade

Cayden, I mean Mr. Muscles...notice the velcro burn on his stomach from the slide!

A note from my kids to Grandpa & Grandma...Thanks for a great day, great food, and great fun! Until next year!!!

(Notice that was written in sidewalk chalk...my kids have never, I mean never used that, because of who their dad is. They thought that was the coolest stuff ever, and it entertained them for hours! Halle was a little hesitant at first, because she thought she would get in trouble, but she quickly joined in!!!)

And the champions are....

The CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!

After 5 tournaments entered, they finally won the Gold medal at the Strikerfest over the 24th of July weekend. They picked up some new players this last spring, and man are they an amazing team now! They had a lot of great players before, but they had some serious weak links...that is no longer!

They won this tournament with 3 of their starting players not there! It just goes to show how solid of a team they truly have. We have had a few injuries, but everyone stepped up and played AWESOME!!!

They played 3 games, winning all three of them, in one game we had 9 goals by 9 different players! Pretty unreal!

With that said, WAY TO GO CHAMPIONS!!!!!

Here is most of the team with their GOLD medals!!!

Kylee receiving her medal from coach Stromberg

Kylee right after she won! Notice the bicep bands...such a trend setter (and very supersticious I might add!)

Clay & Ky with the team ball

Kylee signing the winning team ball, the whole team signed the ball, and they are going to put it in a case!

Ok, seriously...

We were at the local grocery store this afternoon, and we went by the sample table, the nice little old man offered Halle a piece of sausage. Now, if I was a good mom, and remembered what happened less than 2 weeks ago with Halle and a very large hot dog, I would have quickly passed.

I am not a good mom, and said it was ok if she had one. NO KIDDING 2 seconds later, Halle. was. choking.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, I am not kidding, I had to do the little finger trick again, even though Jessi warned me about killing her that way.

Halle has since been banned from eating anything round. For.ev.er. period.

It shook her up pretty good, but obviously not enough to chew and swallow properly. The end.

Bee's game with Aunt Sonya

Clay's sister Sonya has a summer work party every summer, and she always invites us! We are so lucky that she loves the kids so much to invite them every year. We may have out worn our welcome this year however.

When we got to Sonya's house, the kids were playing with her dog "boo", Halle has a special love for boo, and she gets him REALLY wound up. Sorry Sonya, and sorry boo! Halle was wearing a halter top dress, so her back was open, and boo was trying to jump on her, and scratched her back up pretty good. She was fine, and didn't even realize it until we went up stairs to use the bathroom, and she saw a little blood on her back...THEN she was a little histerical! We recovered from that, but soon to be out done by the next incident!

At the game, they have a catered dinner of hotdogs, and hamburgers...and all of the picnic type stuff. We waited in line, grabbed our food, and then tried to find a cool place to sit on the grass and eat. We sat down, and as soon as Halle put her plate down, Clay accidentially stepped on her watermelon and cookie. She was already a little emotional from the scratching, and she quickly broke out into a cry. There were about 1.5 million of Sonya's co-workers around, so I quickly tried to make everything ok, and told her she could have my watermelon and cookie. She sat down to take a bite of her hot dog (that was about as big around as one of those sausage rolls), chews, swallows...or at least that is how it was supposed to happen?.? I saw her take a drink of water, and then she panics and starts pointing to her throat. I noticed that she was indeed not breathing, and I asked her if she was choking? She nodded yes, and stood up completely freaked out!

I jumped up, reached into her mouth, and could feel the hotdog with the tip of my finger, so out of sheer shock, I just leaned her head back, stuck my finger as far down her throat as I could, and flung a hot dog, about 1"long, and 1.5" wide out of her mouth. She then puked up everything else that she had eaten in the last 15 mintues! Needless to say I was sweating, and was so shaken up that I couldn't even eat. People were just staring at us. We had made enough of a spectacle of our selves that we quickly exited the premises.

We went and found our seats, and enjoyed the rest of the game! It was a perfect night for a baseball game, it wasn't too hot, besides the fact that the Bee's got killed, there was an annoying, drunk fan a few rows infront of us, and Halle nearly choked to death, fun times were had by all!!

Thanks Sonya for a fun night!

Kylee & Cayden having the players sign their baseball
Halle & Sonya (she doesn't look like she nearly died!!!)
Cute Halle!

I promise you that Clay and I are accompanying our kids everywhere they go, we just don't have the pictures to prove it!

So glad it's over!!!

Girls camp that is! I have spent the last 10 months planning and executing girls camp. I have a new appreciation for my girls camp leaders (even though I hated girls camp, and only went 1 or 2 times!) You will never realize the amount of time it takes until you have that calling (which I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy!!!) And, so help me if I hear 1 more person say:

"It's was only 3 days and 2 nights...how hard could it be?"

I may have to single handedly kill them~!



Here's to 3 weeks of freedom, and then we will be off to plan for next year..unless I get fired! I did go over budget by $600!!! Can I say that the price of food is so OUTRAGEOUS?!?!?!?!?! I'll keep you posted!!!

Crazy summer fun

For the 4th of July weekend, we usually go fishing at the "Berry" with my family, and then spend the afternoon on the lake....this year we started a new tradition?!?

Cayden went fishing with my mom and dad, we had him at their house in Orem at 4:45 am! Thankfully Clay took him over there, and I slept until 6:30! Kylee and 3 girls from her soccer team played in a soccer tournament at BYU, the Freedom Festival 3X3. They played 2 games on Friday, and then we headed to Deer Creek with Grandpa & Grandma Olsen, & Greg & Whitney. We had a blast on the lake, it wasn't crowded at all, the kids rode the tube, and we just relaxed! We were home and in bed by 9pm!

Saturday we got up bright and early, and headed back down to BYU for 3 more games. Cayden once again opted to do something besides watch Kylee play soccer in the 100 degree heat! He hung out with Grandpa & Grandma Parke. Kylee played 3 games on Saturday, and out of 12 teams, they took 2nd! It was fun to watch her and her team play so well. It wasn't the traditional 4th of July, but it was fun none the less!

Kylee, Katie, and Courtney getting ready for the final game!

Here they are with their 2nd place medals! WTG team!

This has been a really crazy year for our garden, we usually have tons of peas & tomatoes by now, but because it was so cold this spring, we are just starting out the harvesting! Here is what we have so far! YUM!!!

I forgot to take my camera with me on the boat, but got some great pictures on my mom's, I will post pictures of the other 2 children that I have soon! Until then...

Happy 11th Birthday KYLEE !!!

This post is dedicated to my cute Kylee who turned 11 today!

Here is 11 reasons why I LOVE her!

1.Because she is so darn cute, and she is turning into a BEAUTIFUL young lady!

2. She is the BEST big sister to Cayden & Halle

3. She stands up for what is right

4. She has a strong testimony of the gospel

5. She loves to "hang" out with me and shop for clothes!

6. She has an infectious smile

7. She always fights for the underdog, and befriends them

8. She is super responsible, and is a great babysitter (even for the neighbors now!!!)

9. She is an amazing athelete, but yet she has a little girly side to her as well! (see below!)

10. She is my oldest daughter, and she loves to talk and tell me everything...something that I really struggle with!

SO...Kylee I hope you have an AWESOME birthday, and remember that I love you, and am so proud to call you my daughter!

Here is a picture of Kylee with her cake! We celebrated her birthday with her grandparents on Sunday night!

This is one of the presents that my dad gave her for her b-day!

Ok, so for her party, she invited 5 of her friends, they went and got pedicures, had pizza, watched a movie and played games! It was a super fun party, and she LOVED it

Here is a picture of all of the girls...she even let her little sister come, that is what I mean by she is the best big sister!

Here is her birthday present that she got from us...Hello this thing cost more than my first car! (jk) She plays a pretty mean guitar!