Oakley dance...

Here are the pictures from the dinner/dance (very much like a ward party...) in Oakley last weekend. Rustin paid the boys $10 to ask a girl to dance and they totally did it. Actually they loved it--we have been practicing dancing in our spare time now. Lots of fun! (Do we seriously have kids old enough for this????)

Rustin and Neil (mission companion--guitarist extrordinaire!)

Dallin and Jacie

Landon and Coleen




I know you are all jealous that your town doesn't have little bar-b-ques where everyone knows each other, all the kids are dressed modestly and there is no alcohol. Pretty awesome we think. If you can't tell from the pictures, the boys are lacking a bit in the --how do I say it?--technique department. We had to tell them that you can't actually throw the girls around. Hmmm...we'll keep working on it. Thanks girls!

Here's what we've been up to...

This week summer finally hit. The temps are in the high 80's and 90's and the nights are nice and cool. The boys have been swimming every morning and are doing great. They had their first swim meet on Saturday and they all did really well.

Dallin is currently obsessed with getting a dog "of my very own." He has determined that a Great Pyrenees is the breed for him. He looks them up on the computer and has been begging every one he knows to give him a job. Somebody help us!!

Jenna has been telling Rustin what she wants for her birthday every single morning since Christmas. Now that the expected day is Friday she is getting very specific about her wishes. We are planning a really fun princess party--her first birthday party! She is starting to back off her previously very determined request to get her ears pierced though. (She got shots last week and that didn't go over so well...)
We'll see if she goes through with it.

Benson is doing great with peeing but we have yet to have much success with the other business. Hope to make good progress with that pretty quick here...

Our baby birds hatched and the kids get a kick out of watching them beg for food.



Rustin went to Pocatello and spent Thursday afternoon riding with Spencer and Tom. Tom came out of it with a big black eye but other than that they had a ball.

The highlight of the week was definately our trip out to Oakley to visit our friends the Justensens and the Hawkers. Horses, four-wheelers and a dance to top it all off. I'll write more about that when I get all the pictures from Ginger.


Kids are currently having a wrestling match to end all matches--I have a feeling it will turn ugly if I don't go referee. Hope you all have a great week!

Week in review...

We started out last week with our 13th anniversary. We are still amazed and thankful for the miracle of happy marriage. We spent the day in meetings and at church. That's okay--it gives us an excuse to do something really great next year!

The weather this week was rotten. The coldest since 1993. We had one day of a low of 29 with the wind chill. Rain and more rain. (This was what the temperature WARMED UP to...)


That meant that swimming was canceled leaving me like this by the end of the week...


The kids did a good job of doing their jobs even though they felt like they worked all day. I reminded them that one of the early prophets said we should sleep eight hours, work eight hours and play eight hours. So they got off easy in the work department.

We had a nice Father's Day yesterday also. We went over to my parents with Kendra and Chad for dessert. (Thanks mom!) We appreciate all our dad's in our lives. I know we feel really lucky to have Rustin as our dad. We couldn't ask for a better father.

Darren directing the fun at the reunion

Hatch Family Reunion at Big Springs

We had a great weekend but it's good to be back home. We weren't sure we would ever get warm or clean again. We had continual rain, snow and WIND. ugg! The kids hardly noticed--nothing matters with cousins to play with! We were very grateful we had borrowed some friends' RV. Overall we had enough moments when the sun came out that we enjoyed ourselves and Rustin found some great riding trails. There really is something soothing and renewing about being in a beautiful place. I think it was good for all of us.

By the way...

I have been completely sucked in (pun TOTALLY intended) to the new Stephenie Meyers book--The Host. I am embarrassed to say I was up until 1 am last night even though we are completely swamped trying to get everything packed for a camping family reunion TODAY. I don't know how but she managed to make aliens totally romantic. More about the reunion when we get back!

A new camera

We have finally been forced to say goodbye to our old trusty Nikon camera. It gave up the ghost this last week. Our new camera is a very handy and user friendly panasonic. You'll have to bear with some trial photos until I get it figured out! My flowers are growing really well and our yearly red breasted house finch pair has again built their nest up in the corner of the patio cover.

Kids have started swim team for the summer which keeps them busy and me happy. We also made up a seating chart (oh so necessary!) and a job list which the kids seem to be pretty happy with. I'll have to write more about that later. Summer's the best!