Saturday, September 29, 2012

Family Reunion

This year it was my turn to be in charge of the Stephens Reunion.  So we had it here at our house.  It was a blast having everyone here!  We did miss Julie, Ashley, Brian, Kailynn, Jayanne, and Jackson due to sickness and Jason on Saturday due to work.  We wish you were there!

We started out by sleeping in tents in the backyard.  The kids loved it!  But I didn't get much sleep.  I'm not the best tent sleeper. 

 

The next day we had the 2012 Stephens Olympics!!! It was good times.

After dividing into teams/countries, we started out by making flags!  Make sure to check out Emily's awesome face!


The events included basketball,
 bean bag toss,
 discus throwing,
 and shooting (yes, we played Duck Hunt on the super old school Nintendo!)

Gold medal goes to Team AMERICA!  (Doug, Mom, Emily, McLain, Bridger)

Silver medal goes to Team Timbuktu! (Avery, Kris Jaden, Ben, Adilyn...who only participated in the medal ceremony!...)

And Bronze medal goes to Team Turkey! (Allen, Brooklyn, Dad, Zach) I love how Zach is looking respectfully at the flag for this! And sorry the picture is blurry.

Later that day we broke out the slip n slide!  It was a hit.  The kids had so much fun!

ZACH...



BRIDGER...

I love how his face is exactly the same in every picture!  He loved it!

BEN...




AVERY...


BROOKLYN...

I love how in this picture Avery is putting her face right in the shooting water, and Brooklyn is walking down the slip n slide with her hands covering her face.  She did this every time and was so excited when she would get to the end.  "Mom, I did it!!!!!!!"  She was so proud, and it was SO funny!!!
We eventually got her to let McLain push her, but that's as far as it got.  And I think she only let him do it once!


Now for the adults!

MCLAIN...


KRIS...check out that form

She even let the boys push her.

EMILY...


DOUG...


ALLEN...


And to end the slip n slide fun we had all the big kids go at once.  It was hilarious. 

Ready...


Set...


CRASH!!!!!!

Thanks everyone for coming.  We had a good time!  And I'm sure glad I've got like 7 years until my next turn!!!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

First Day of Preschool



They both love their classes!!!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Playset!!!!

Our playset is done!!!!!!!!!  The kids love it!  Now they are excited to go outside for a reason other than looking at the plants!

  
We couldn't be more thankful to my cousin's husband, the amazing MATT MCKENNA who built it for us!  He made up the design and everything.  You can find him on facebook as Handyman Matt McKenna, or on his website http://handymanmattmckenna.wordpress.com.  He is so stinkin' talented.  Go check out his work and then hire him.

Here are a few more views, some with children, some without. 





 


 

 


Two words......

TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Matt!

Monday, July 30, 2012

Summer Fun!!

 ****WARNING:  LOTS OF PICTURES AHEAD!****

We've had lots of fun this summer!  Let's start with the zoo. 

We went with all my siblings and their families to Hogle Zoo.  I haven't been there for years and it was so much fun!  The kids loved it!

This picture cracks me up because you can see pretty much all of the kids, except Brooklyn, who is turned around telling everyone what to do.  I hear she's like that in nursery too...yikes.  
 


This is how Adilyn was pretty much the whole time.  She was so good and didn't even mind being trapped in her stroller for a whole day.

Ben and Brooklyn absolutely loved the merry-go-round!

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Brooklyn turned 3 this summer.  She wanted a flower cake, so we made do with cupcakes arranged in flower shapes.  

She got a princess outfit, and loves it.  She still wears it at least once a day!!

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Ben and Brooklyn got to go swimming in Gramma Merrie's pool in Moab, and they would have stayed in there and floated in their tubes all day if we would have let them. 
 


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And the kids still talk about the hike we went on.  

Adilyn was so intrigued by McLain's funny hat!  So cute!


Right by one of the creek crossings, there were tons of butterflies.  It was amazing. 
 

 I'm offering a prize to anyone that can tell me the correct number of butterflies in the next picture.  

And this would have been a great family picture, but we didn't realize til we got home that the baby carrier was smashing Adilyn's face!!  Oops!

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For the 4th of July, we went to Willard and had a good ol' time!  The kids had fun playing the games.  They both got a ring around the pop bottle!

Although Brooklyn did have to step forward a little!  
 

They loved the train ride, 

and especially the airplane ride!  They couldn't stop smiling.  Brooklyn was a little scared though, and wouldn't let go of the sides of the plane for anything!  White knuckles the whole time!


The main reason for us going to Willard for the 4th was for the entertainment!  McLain's band, With One Accord, was part of it!  They played for half hour and they were a hit!  No surprise!  Everyone that hears them loves them! They did a great job!
 

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And now some pictures of Adilyn, who is getting so big!  She will be one next month!  Crazy.

She's standing and walking all along the furniture.  She's into everything, and she's quite hilarious!

She woke up from nap the other day, and apparently it was hot in her room.  Her hair was soaked with sweat, it was so nasty!


I guess she has some fascination with laundry baskets.  Besides the fact that she's always throwing clothes out of them, we found her like this on one occasion.

And like this on another occasion.  

What a cutie!


And I had to put this picture on here.  It describes the kids so well.  Ben always trying to protect and love Adilyn, while Brooklyn is the never-ending torturer.  So funny!!!