We are the Champions....

Attention: insert the "We are the Champions" song by Queen into your head before reading further into this post:
Waterfall Ward Mens Basketball team: Highland Hills Stake Champions, April 2010! We cheerleaders/wives are quite proud of our men and their accomplishment last week. These guys play ball together faithfully once a week and sometimes twice: time and gym availability permitting. Furthermore they are really great guys and friends of Jared's. We have been extremely blessed to have very nice people in our ward who enjoy so many things we do. GO WATERFALL!! I wished we could have all been there to support the guys, but the games are usually after bedtime and Jake had a baseball game during it.

Let's Pretend.....

Our kids are really good at pretending. I think it all stems back to Carter who has such a great imagination. He has always been able to pretend and entertain himself and they have all grown up as his understudies, I guess! Some of our friends have even commented on this when they have had the kids over to play. Just how well they play together and never run out of ideas for things to do. It sure makes my job easy! I rarely hear the words...."I'm bored!"

Since its Sunday and we have 1:00 church (insert a dreaded sigh), we have gotten in the habit of slow, lazy Sunday mornings of playing, sleeping in, and playing some more. I try not to intervene as our weeks are so busy they don't get to play together enough even if it means the house gets really messy. A small price to pay:) Its not all bad having 1:00 church after all!
Today they have been playing store. Each kid has his own store set up with couch cushions, pillows, chairs, tee-pee tents, media chairs....whatever they could find. Then they went in search all over the house for items to "trade" in their stores. They found all kinds of toys, medals, instruments, and necklaces. Then they found things to dress up in so as to attract customers to their trading post stores. Hence the numerous accessories! Lastly they take turns running between stores and trading their items for something new. Mom got in on the fun with the camera and a bag of homemade cookies that she traded for a triathlon medal, a play food banana, a remote control, and a homemade boy scout catapult. I think I scored!
Carter's store called "Ye Old Tee-Pee"

Cute Jake at his trading post...looks like you have a drooling customer to wait on!

A perfect evening

The weather is so perfect in Vegas right now. I want to be outside all the time and soak in every last ounce of Spring before the heat comes. We decided to all go to the park after early out day on Friday. The mommy's brought their cameras to practice and get tips from each other. The kids ran and played and had such a great time. Hour turned into hours and we finally had Jared order pizza because we had lost all motivation to go home to make dinner! .....Four hours later we finally went home in the dark to put the kids to bed. Jake was even begging me several times to please take him home! He even snuck home at one point and Casey Thornton found him hiding in some bushes as he was driving by. Casey asked him what he was doing? He said "I want to go home I've been at the park for hours" and burst into tears. It was so funny!
Jake was being such a good big brother to Cole

Mr. Ammon

Josh and Luke
The Mommy's TRYING to learn more photography!
Andrea sells jeans, so we took turns trying to find some cute ones...Melissa needed us to try them on for her to see if they would fit post partum....she's do in about two weeks! Jared came home from work to an empty house and joined us at the park.
I had so much fun playing with Melissa's portrait lens....I want one bad
Carlee Q



This is the only picture I have of these girls. They played at the far end of the park the entire night. They played store where they barter with rocks and leaves as money and then they played horses. They have quite the imaginations and are always being silly!

Tri-Tri Again

St. George Triathlon part II. Carter, Jake and Hanna joined me this time. It was awesome to watch my little athletes try their hardest and cross the finish line. Way to go guys!! Just remember that we can do hard things.....it helps to be prepared and have a support system cheering for us. You can do just about anything you set your mind to do if you aren't afraid to work hard.
love, MOM
The ward kids all lined up: Jake, Carter , Hanna, Aspen, Jess, Hailey, and Dean

Getting Started....can you feel their little nerves??

Oh the concentration on Hanna's face
Jake smiled almost the entire race he's been looking forward to this since November

Run for your life!!

The finish line yeah!!
We have practiced for about 8 weeks, at the gym on treadmills, swimming laps at the "Y", and running around our block. Jake got 3rd place in his age group, Carter 5th, and Hanna 15th (there were a lot more girls her age that competed than boys....she improved her time by 6 minutes from last November) So proud of you !
This is my amazing friend Jen who motivates me and keeps me coming back for more of these triathlons. It helps that our cute daughters are best friends. They like to do everything together! And we are lucky enough to have them live right next door. We'd be lost with out you.

As for me, I was able to improve my time by about 9 and a half minutes. I was happy with the outcome for now, but want to shave off another 12 minutes before I will be where I want to be. I have to get a new bike and hire someone to teach me how to swim before that will happen. But hey I've got six months until November and I'm not afraid of a little work.
Lee, Cathy, me, Jen, Lorna, Karen, Marilee--could you be anymore humbled by this experience? Look what we have to wear then add a swim cap and goggles, then hop on a bike all wet, then run with your hair windblown and wet. You know you're all jealous!

St. George

On thursday, we packed all morning and hit the road for St. George for two nights. We got checked into the Fairfield Marriot (the condo was already being used for Easter weekend by one of Boyd's kids). We relaxed for a bit and then headed for a park. It was beautiful! We ate at the Cracker Barrel for dinner. The kids loved it. We shared an awesome apple pecan streusal dessert. It was like apple pie and apple crisp all in one! We headed to the SHAC pool so the kids could swim. They have been wanting to swim here since the last triathlon weekend 6 months ago. The pool did not dissappoint. The water slide was fun, the lily pads were fun, the water fountains and froggy slide....they loved it all. Hanna and I practiced our lap swim too!

Cole is so attached to Jared right now! If Jared even leaves the room without him he starts crying and panicking. He does this with me all day too, but as soon as Jared walks in the door, forget mom he's all daddy. He is a very jealous baby and really doesn't like when any of the other kids get hugs or loves from Jared or I! Its cute and exhausting sometimes.