He's a working man!!!

After EIGHT grueling weeks of waiting for the AZ State Board of Optometry to meet and approve licenses, Matt started working as an optometrist last week!!!!! *HE* was so ready to go to work, *I* was so ready for him to go to work, let's just say I love him SO much more when he's working. ;) Then I can actually be excited/anticipating/desperate for his arrival at the end of the day. Right honey??

I'm super proud of Matt!! He worked really hard to get this job. He was hired by a group that rarely brings on new grads, especially ones that aren't residency trained. That is two strikes against him, but the management was really impressed with a business proposal that Matt put together for the company and they were so excited to have him working for them!! We've thought we had lots of jobs that were THE ONE, but it's finally nice to have a contract signed and mula coming in! Did I mention that Matt got his first PAYCHECK at the end of his first week of work??!??! Bring on the money!! Love you honey!

We stopped by Daddy's office yesterday so the kids and I could see where he works. When we pulled up, I asked, "Do you know where we are?" Blake replied, "Daddy's eye school!" Um, no son, we're done with eye school for good now. We met some of the staff and doctors that Matt works with and everyone seemed really friendly. It was so weird hearing people refer to him as Dr. Palmer!!! That's my honey!

So the point is, anyone need an eye doctor? I know a good one...... LOL!

High in the Sky

This morning, we launched off rockets at a local park. It was hotter than hades outside and the poor little kiddos were all drenched in sweat and had rosy cheekies!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BLAST OFF!!!

Gavin helps retrieve a rocket

Look at Gavin's face in this picture!!!! So funny!

Blake's turn to launch all by himself ************************* Up, up and away!

My new FAVORITE picture of Gavin!!!

Family Reunion #2 ~ Strawberry, AZ

Happy 4th of July!!!

Every year over 4th of July weekend, the LeBarons have their family reunion. We were originally planning on going up Friday, but when we heard it was raining and being that we'd have to stay in a tent, we just decided to drive up early Saturday morning and spend the day.

The moment we arrived, it was time for breakfast, but not just ANY breakfast - WAYNE'S breakfast. This unique event consists of frying bacon on a rusty 'ole #10 can, placing a piece of bread, with a hole pinched out of the middle, on top of the bacon and cracking an egg in the center. Sounds delish, doesn't it!!!!! It takes almost 30 minutes to cook one of these beauties!

Blake cooks, Matt eats

A boy and his sticks are ne'er soon parted

Matt & I hiked with the kids up to "First Lookout." This was the first time I'd been up there and lets just say that I'm outta shape!!! It is a pretty good climb, but I was worried about smashing my precious camera. ;) Brooklyn and Emily were so cute, holding hands on the way up. I kept telling them they had to let go so they could use their hands on the tough spots.

Here are all the kids at the top ~ Brooklyn, Blake , Josh, Gavin & Em

On the way down, we had a little "incident." Please don't call CPS on Matt, he felt guilty enough!! Haha! I witnessed this all from behind. At one point on the way back down the mountain, Matt lifted Gavin off the ground (maybe to lift him over something?) holding both Gavin's wrists in one of his hands. Gavin starting crying and I knew that was an owie cry. I quickly caught up and we tried to assess where there may be damage, but couldn't pinpoint it. Gavin wouldn't move his arm and screamed every time WE tried to move it, so I took him the rest of the way down to the cabin. We were afraid we'd have to make an ER run to Payson, but thankfully we were reminded that Lafe Carroll, a member of the family, is a pediatrician and was at the reunion. So we found the Dr. and had him take a look at Gavin. He suspected nursemaid's elbow and did some twisty thing with his arm, told us to give Gav some Tylenol and to come back if it wasn't better in 20 minutes. Thankfully, Gavin started using his arm again and was good as new! Thanks Lafe!!! :)

The Cummard family was in charge this year and did a great job with activities! After a quick trash tidy up of the field, we played monster kickball....

...and snow cones were provided for a cool mid-morning treat! Blake had an "ice" cone because of course the syrup was pretty much flavored corn syrup. He was happy just the same! :) I love snow cones and had my favorite flavor- watermelon. Yum!

The rest of the afternoon consisted of {another} marshmallow war, making these cute hair clippies ----->, coloring Don't Eat Pete game boards, creating plates, and lots of opportunities to chat and catch up with family members.

I'm so glad to have married into such a tight-knit extended family! It's been four years since we've attended the LeBaron reunion and I'm glad that we were able to finally go this year. The weather was beautiful and cool and the kids had an absolute blast, running around, rolling in the dirt! Good times!

Family Reunion #1 ~ Cedar City, UT

The last weekend in June, we headed up to Southern Utah for my mom's side of the family's reunion. (is that correct grammar??) Some of those family members I haven't seen for YEARS!!! I was so great to get out of the heat into cooler temps and enjoy ourselves on vacation.

Luckily, we were able to meet up with the Barneys Friday morning since Weston happened to be working in Cedar City that weekend! Jennie and I met at the park to let the kids play and we caught up on what had been going on in each others' lives. When Weston was done working we all headed out to lunch. I'm so glad that we were able to see each other!

Friday evening was the start of the reunion. My BIL Taylor (along with the help of Becky and Brittney) provided a taco dinner and his yummy homemade salsa for everyone! Each of my mom's parents and her sibs gave us a little trip down memory lane of their childhoods and we got to look at ooooooooooold pictures that were on display.

Early Saturday morning, Matt took Blake fishing with my dad and the boys. Neither Matt nor Blake caught any fish, but Grandpa let Blake help reel in one of his! :)Later that day, everyone met up at a nearby park to play. There was a water balloon toss that turned into a water balloon FIGHT (of course!) and then a massive marshmallow gun war.


































After going home for resting in the afternoon, we reconvened again for dinner and an auction for which people were asked to donate items to help cover the cost of the reunion. I made a bunch of hairbows, Becky made some CUTE picture frames and my mom's homemade strawberry jam was the hot ticket, each of the three jars going for almost $30 a PIECE!! We bought an old BB gun ( you'll shoot your eye out!) , some beautiful patriotic necklaces for Brooklyn and a sand pail for Blake.

Jerry, Janell, Ken, Kay Lyn, Scott w/ their Dad, then their Mom

My Family ~ Taylor & Becky w/ Lexi, Brittney, Joshua (front), Heston, me, Brooklyn (front), Blake, Matt, Gavin, Dad, Cody (in front), Mom

Just in case we hadn't had enough fun for the day, we decided to light off fireworks!!!! This is a BIG thing for us since it's illegal in Arizona, even sparklers!! Matt bought a variety of TNT and with the help of my brothers, I think we took care of it! Gavin was absolutely terrified of all the loud explosions and ended up inside, poor punkin! We finally got him back outside to try a sparkler.Sunday morning was church and relaxing for the rest of the afternoon. A rainstorm rolled in and it was so glorious to hear a bit of thunder up in the mountains! Mmmm! We had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner with anyone who was still around and took the kids to the park to play then headed back to Aunt Charla's and Uncle Scott's for ice cream sundaes, yum!












Other random pictures from the trip-

Gavin playing in the gutter in front of G&G Adams' house. There is ALWAYS water running here!

My Grandpa & Grandma Sorensen (my mom's dad and his wife) with the kidsMy Grandma & Grandpa Adams (my mom's mom and her husband) with the kids4 generation shot - I'll take one of these every time I get the chance!

Monday morning, we headed back to Arizona and stopped in Flagstaff on the way home to visit the Lowell Observatory. It was a smidgen on the boring side for the kids, but we did actually get to see one star that is far far away (it was still daytime)!

The telescope that discovered Pluto!

Blake peering through the telescope to see Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky!

We had a great time spending the weekend with family and it was so good to chat with everyone and see where we have all been in the past few years. Everyone is so grown up now, it's hard to believe!! Can't wait to do it again!

Keep Scrolling!!!

Been a huge blog slacker, I know! I just put up three different entries below so make sure to look at them all. More to come soon!

Meet kiddo #4

I finally had my first OB appt on June 25th after being rescheduled due to a delivery (darn those women going into labor!) and it finally feels like I'm really pregnant! We know that there is just one baby again this time and everything looks great so far! Baby was measuring right according to my due date and was even wiggling around a bit for us to see. I'll be having a repeat c-section (no chance of a VBAC after two c-sections, darn!) right around my due date after the first of the year. The "big" ultrasound will be in 5 weeks, but we will not be finding out the gender of this baby. Sorry, to all those who are disappointed and impatient!! ;)

Here's our little bug!

Arizona HOT HOT HOT!!!

Through the past couple weeks, we've been under heat advisories left and right with temps near 115 almost every day. It's not hard to beat the heat when you have access to a swimming pool right out your back door! We're so lucky that we get to take advantage while we're living with Derek & Kristin!

Swimming with cousins is fun to do!!

Blake, Andrew, BrooklynGavin and Spence

Gavin is pretty much still a little fishy! He loves to go, go, go and be completely unrestricted. He does little distances under water and likes to float on his belly and see who he can "see" under the water.

Daddy loves to throw Gav in the air and flip him all about, which he goes nuts for! I just close my eyes!!!

Happy Boy!!!

Brooklyn and Blake have made tons of progress too with their swimming skills. Brooklyn doesn't really need to use her floaties any more! She swims all over the pool, dives from the side to get sticks and rings from the bottom of the pool and is working really hard on her strokes. Blake is doing much of the same and I'm just amazed to see their little bodies at work! Makes me really anxious to get them into formal swimming lessons and maybe even swim team! Thank goodness Matt is a former swim instructor and has been able to teach them a lot.

Oh, and I just have to put in a plug for my new favorite sunscreen- Banana Boat Continuous Spray Clear Mist. It's so quick to apply and no need to rub in sticky lotions! The kids prefer the stick on their faces still.