Birthday Boy!

Owen turned seven! He's the middle child and a classic one at that. He gets all the hand-me-downs and I always feel guilty about that but he doesn't seem to mind. He's good natured but can have a fiery temper (wonder where he gets that from?). He is an excellent student, he soaks up learning and loves reading and math. All his teachers (school and church) love him. He makes friends easily and is very helpful. He enjoys riding his bike and playing video games. We love you, Owen! Happy Birthday!

The special birthday boy donut

(Colby was in the background saying "cheese")

The hoped for skateboard, he's pretty good already.
He got this crown at school and wore it proudly. In fact, he told me that he was going to save it and wear it every year on his birthday. Sometimes his innocence just melts my heart. I hate it when they grow too old for this stuff.

Halloween Fun!

Our Halloween week was long but fun. It began on the Wednesday before Halloween with the church trunk-or-treat. I was kind of irritated because I'm not a fan of dragging it out for so long and five days of Halloween is a bit much for me. I didn't take any pictures there but the kids all had tons of fun, this ward does it carnival style with almost everyone doing a game or activity. They also had pony rides and bouncy castles. Kris got stuck hosting our pumpkin bowling, (I know he was mad at me for even signing up) but he was hilarious and our game always had a long line because all the kids thought it was so fun (mostly because of him).

Friday brought school parties and our own first annual "Wright Cousin Halloween Party." I'm thinking we'll make it a regular event. Everyone had a great time and the kids were just happy with me for even doing it. I probably could have done half as much and everyone still would have had just as much fun.

The Cousin Crew
(Sorry Keith this one was the best of all the kids!)

The No Hands Hanging Donut Eating Contest

(The look on Rex' face in this pic just kills me!

Argh, I'm gonna get that donut!)

He's a rule breaker.

Big kid group

Just a side story for this pic: The bag of donuts was sitting on the table and there was one left. Someone was crying about wanting a donut so I turn around to get the bag and it was gone. We started looking around for the donut snatcher and we see Colby running across the basketball court, donut in hand. Then he jumps in the little car like it's his getaway car and give us all his sly little grin. What a stinker!

Then Pops came out and turned his blower on, which the kids think is hilarious. He hangs it on this cart and lets the kids sit on it while he runs around the court so they can blow things out of the way. It's a really powerful blower, they were blowing chairs, water bottles, and those little cars all across the court.

The big kids went on a scavenger hunt, only because I don't think the little ones knew what was going on and didn't really care to.

The next night was Saturday and by this point we had about had enough of Halloween. Besides we weren't really sure if anyone would be trick-or-treating this night since Halloween wasn't until Sunday. But while Owen and I were on a bike ride through the neighborhood we saw people out so we came home and let the kids get dressed up again and took them. Luckily for us there is a highly Mormon populated neighborhood a few streets over and there were tons of people trick-or-treating. I love trick-or-treating and I have a hard time letting Halloween go by without taking the kids.

The crazy crew!

Paging Dr. Grover...

Earlier in the week she was a zombie bride by this night she was just a bride.

Here's the Hippie Zombie. Don't ask me how he came up with this one.

Argh! Pirate Rex!

Super cute Jack-O-Lantern! (Of course the only picture that he smiled in was the one showing all my bras hanging on the door.)

Sorting the loot is always fun. Got some full size candy bars this year, that was a first.

To top it off Kris and I had to speak in church on Sunday and then we had family dinner.

Whew! What a week! We were so glad when it was finally over! (Even though we had lots of fun!)

Birthday Boy!

I can't believe my baby is two!

We told him to say "cheese" for the picture, so he did.

Again.
And again.

That evening we had a double party at Peter Piper's.

Colby and his cousin, Walter, are just one day apart.

The kids had loads of fun.

Colby's scooter. He loves this thing. He calls it his bikel. He didn't know how to make it go at first, he would just stand on it with both feet or push it with both feet on the ground. By the end of the night he had it down, it's pretty darn cute.

Mom and Birthday Boy at the end of the night!

What a fun day!

Making Up For Lost Time

Fourth of July Fun! (on the 3rd)

This summer Matthew participated in summer band so that he could be in the 4th of July parade. He sacrificed sleeping in many mornings (so did I!) But in the end I think it was all worth it. We enjoyed watching him in the parade and he had fun marching in it.

We even had some of the guys from Star Wars come.



After the parade we went straight to the park for Matthew's concert in the park.

The kids got to play in the jumpy castles and slides.

After the park we enjoyed lunch at Eric and Lynne's and lighting off our fireworks in the backyard then sitting on the back steps under blankets and watching what we could see of the county fireworks. Oh, how I love the 4th of July in Rexburg. I'm practically in tears posting this. Hopefully, we can go there every year to celebrate!

It's Been a Busy Month...

It all began on July 17th when we fed the fish at Warm River

trying to take advantage of some of

our favorite scenery in Idaho

luckily the fish were happy to see us

and we're gonna miss them and the
beautiful drive through Ashton...

The next day we celebrated my (ahem) 33rd birthday(it's ok, I'm not sensitive about my age but sometimes I think, wow, it's kind of weird how old I am!)

and also my wonderful sis, Michelle's birthday (she's lucky- she's only 23!)

we miss these guys! (a whole bunch!)

On July 19th we took one last trip to Yellowstone for awhile (sniff, sniff)

and had a perfect day
we visited my favorite part- the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

and did something we'd never done before-
swam in the freezing river by the hot (really, really hot)
springs and created our very own hot tub!

and had so, so, so, so much fun!







(here's the part where we moved back to Arizona and it was so stressful and crazy and total mayhem for about a week that we just want to forget most of the things that happened (like cutting my toe and having to get stitches or leaving a day and a half later than we planned on) and I didn't take any pictures the whole time and we're just glad it's over so we can forget the whole thing except for the part where we had so much wonderful help from all our lovely ward members and friends (but I'm kind of still embarrassed they had to see our home in such a state.) We were only in that ward for 10 months but it is going to be hard to beat!)






Moving on to AZ...




The kids built a Lincoln Log town (they took about a hundred pictures and it's pretty funny to see them from their vantage point, like looking out the windows from inside the buildings, etc. But we don't have time for all of them here...)

chilled (as much as we can in this heat) with Grannie and Otter Pops

Rex' went to his first day of preschool

(his shirt was all wet cuz he got toothpaste on it:)

Gracie celebrated her 9th birthday

(seriously, is she only 9?!?!?)

(Krispy Kreme's was a huge splurge and that won't be

happening again anytime soon, but it was seriously so good!)

She received all things girly,

which included tons of earrings that she has been coordinating

with her outfits and wearing to school every day.

(Those flowers are for her hair, not her ears.)

played at the splash park to have a little fun before the first day of school

(All five of them are in this picture, can you spot them? It was the best I could do.)
had their first day of school

(Thankfully all went well.)
and played in the sprinklers!

Whew! Now, I bet you'll agree we've had one crazy busy month and this wasn't even all of it. We also had a visit from my sister Tara and her family, cousin sleepovers, too much school shopping, family dinners, played in the wonders of the irrigation, AND Kris went to Rexburg and back to retrieve the rest of our belongings that wouldn't fit in the giant moving truck in the first place! I'm exhausted just thinking about all of it. Hopefully now things can calm down a bit around here and I can get back to blogging!