Shingles!!!

Not the roofing kind :/

So Jeff's skin on his stomach area started not feeling well.  He described it as a sunburn without any sunburn.  The pain actually went down his leg.  After a little google hunting and webMD, Jeff was guessing he had shingles.  He didn't have the rash though so it was a bit of a waiting game.  

Then there was the rash!

Once the rash showed up he got into an urgent care and got on some medicine to help the shingles not spread farther.  

The rash continued to grow though.  The doctor said it would go all of the way down to his foot :(

It got darker and more ugly!

It actually didn't hit his foot, but it was still pretty bad.  His leg was just so sore.  It took a few weeks before he was starting to feel normal again.  Jeff has had a lot of stress with having his own office and keeping up with everything.  We think the shingles were stress induced!  Ugh, now to not keep doing this.  Let's just say I don't think the stress will be going away anytime soon, but we sure are glad the shingles didn't stay too long!  

Splashing with Friends!

We met up with the cousins and our friends, the Meyers, to play at the splash pad!  All of the kids really love each other so it is great to get together!  I tried to walk around and take some fun photos of the kids.  

Mhari

Owen and Ella

Abby and Sandra getting Talmage with the water.

Talmage and Ella with the water bucket

Lorna

The kids were sucking up the water in their mouths and then spitting it back out.  It was seriously so gross to watch.  I had them stop after I took photo evidence ;).

Owen, Clark and Mhari

Lorna

Grant helping one of the twins with the monkey bars.  

Such a good kid!

Lorna's turn!

She is so happy to be getting to do the monkey bars!  

It was a fun day together!  We are sure glad we get to hang out with such awesome friends!

Houston we have landed ...

a new office!

Work has been so good in Houston that Jeff now has an office there.  He was originally set up as a virtual office so he only pays for so many office hours a month.  That worked out well, but now he gets to stay and work late and not have to worry about using up all of his hours.  It also works well that he has enough space to stay the night and skip on paying a hotel bill every time he goes down.  It seems to be working out well for now.  

It's always nice to have work, even if we have to go to Houston to get it.

His couch/bed :)

Scouting through the summer

We signed up Talmage and Grant to do some merit badges at a museum down in Houston this summer.  Jeff is already going down for work so he just takes the boys with him and drops them off and picks them up from class.  They have gotten the Environmental Science, Emergency Preparedness and Swimming merit badges!  It is great because these are all required for Eagle.  

This has been a fun experience because Jeff gets to spend more time with the boys.  They have been stopping at Carl's Junior for dinner on their way home.  The boys must eat the huge burger!

Here is Grant

It's as big as his face!

Talmage

This boy can eat... no problem with the burger and then finishing off the fries too!

They are too cute ... and growing up so fast!

JUMP!

We got together for a 4-H swim party on the 9th.  It was fun to get together and swim. Clark was jumping and swimming to the side all by himself.  It was so great to see him be so brave!  By this time Lorna has had lots of time in the pool and gained the courage to jump off the diving board.  Since she can't swim to the side by herself she would have me catch her.  The best part was how much she loved it!  She would do it over and over again!  She is fearless!

I had the opportunity to give a talk in Sacrament meeting.  It was on repentance.  While I was preparing for it I thought of Lorna jumping to me.  It really sunk in how much we are like Lorna.  We are here on earth trying to come back to our Heavenly Father, but we can't get there on our own, just as Lorna couldn't swim on her own.  Yet, we jump and have faith in our Heavenly Father's plan, and our Savior to catch us and help us make it back to them.  How much faith do we have in the plan?  Are we willing to take that jump and make the changes we need to make to use the atonement to make it back to our Heavenly Father?  He is waiting for us!  
I am grateful for this experience and seeing Lorna's trust and love in a perspective on how we need to relate to our Heavenly Father!

Independence Fun!

We celebrated the 4th of July nice and quiet with our kids at home and watching a movie.  We really tend to take it easy and just enjoy being together :). 

However, for the 3rd of July we got together with Nathan and Tiffany and kids to celebrate early!!  We had a Nerf war around our house, grilled up yummy buffalo burgers, filled up water balloons and had a water fight, and enjoyed fireworks.  It was fun to celebrate together!  I didn't get any pictures of the Nerf war because I was participating ;).  It was hard to get photos of the water balloon fight, but I tried.  

Lorna with her balloon

Talmage ready for war!

Daddy comforting Clark

We ended up at the local elementary school to watch the fireworks.  Uncle Nathan was nice enough to let the kids sit on his van to see the show.  They loved watching together!

Here are just a few pictures of the show.  

At the end there was an explosion... I think that happened last year too.  It is always kind of scary when the show ends like that... fireworks are pretty dangerous.  

We are grateful for this wonderful country that we enjoy and the freedoms we have!  Happy Independence Day!