White Water Rafting and other random pics

The Monday following the fourth of July we decided to go white-water rafting down the Snake River since my sister and her husband were in town as well as Caleb and everyone had the day off because of the 4th falling on a Sunday. It was a little cold/windy but we still had a great time. I grew up with my dad taking us rafting every summe and it holds so many fun memories for me. This was Caysja's second time going and she did pretty well. She only got a little scared at the biggest rapid "Kahuna".

Group shot

Kiki and Caleb

Kiki and Crewser

I know you can't see them very well but this is my mom and Crew peeking through the fence. My mom was so sweet to watch Crew while we went.

Soaking up "daddy time"

Caysja playing dress up with her cousins whom she adores. These four are the closest in age and they are standing in order. They can disappear and play for hours.

Swinging on the teeter-toter with Mariah

Crew is happiest when he has a ball in his hands no matter where we are.

I love this little cheesy grin!

4th of July FUN

Caleb surprised us and came home a whole day early from his rotation in Detroit! He got here July 2nd. We were so glad to see him!!!

It was fun to be able to go to the parade this year. I always missed that since it was so hot in AZ and they never had parades. Crew would hardly let Caleb out of his sight and just wanted to sit on his lap the whole time.

It was the coldest 4th (well, 3rd) of July I can ever remember. We were all bundled up to watch the parade.

Caysja with her cousins closest to her age--Mariah and Nelah
These girls are such good friends and love to do everything together. Here they are watching the parade and dancing to the music.

The highlight of the parade was watching for "kitty grandma and grandpa" to come along. My dad teaches high school band and so he always marches with his band every year and this year he convinced my mom to join him. We cheered for them pretty loud!

We spent the afternoon at Caleb's Aunt and Uncle's house for a family BBQ. They have a HUGE, beautiful backyard--perfect for kids.

There are actually four of the six sister-in-laws that are pregnant right now but one couldn't make it to the BBQ, so here are the other three of us in order of when we're due.

An inside shot of this COOL little playhouse Caleb's uncle built

outside view
Caysja LOVED this place, as you can imagine, and spent hours here with her cousins

My sister Chalise, her husband Steve and my grandpa came for the fireworks that night but unfortunately I forgot to get any pictures of that. My parents, sister and I played in a little patriotic orchestra for several of the senators/representatives of ID which included a dinner and program at the Shilo Inn.

How grateful I am to live in this free land of AMERICA!

The month of June/Caysja's 4th Birthday

Okay, bear with me... still catching up on posts here...

Here's the month of June in a nutshell:

Lots of playing with "Kitty Grandma and Grandpa" (i.e. my parents)

(Caysja adores their two cats, Dusty and Floyd)

Lots of playing with cousins (Crew and Davis are only 14 weeks apart)

Lots of birthday pics

I baby-sat for my sister-in-law and her husband while they were in Peru for several days and it was Caysja's birthday the weekend we were at their house. Here is Caysja geting her hair done by her cousin Adria the morning of her b-day.

*(On a side note, the baby-sitting went fine, but I am definitely NOT ready to have 6 kids as a single mom while seven months pregnant! We went to McDonald's one night and the cashier was like, "are all these kids yours?!?!")

The Birthday girl! How can she be FOUR already?!?

We went to a fun kid's place called "Blast Off" for Caysja's Birthday (Crew and Davis were in heaven because of all the BALLS!)

My parents came over that night and my mom made Caysja a b-day cake

Opening presents

This was one of her favorite presents--a crown for the princess

Fun with friends
We had some visitors come stay with us--the Morris family, our good friends from AZ. Caysja LOVED seeing Halle and didn't want her to leave. Luckily they will be moving to Pocatello in about a month so we'll get to see them more often.

Little buddies--Camden and Crew

Sunday, June 20th was Crew's first day of nursery--hallelujah!!! It was a VERY wonderful day for me, I can tell you that! This was taken before we left for church that morning. Doesn't he look all grown up?

Somehow we survived those loooong 5 weeks without Caleb but we missed him so, so, so much!! Caysja cried several times for Caleb and Crew tried to look for him everywhere saying "dada" over and over again. I am so glad the month of June is over and Caleb is now doing a rotation in Salt Lake and can come home on the weekends! Thanks to all our aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends who helped us pass the time. The first month of this long year is over!

Chalise's Wedding

This post is so late...sorry! At last I have the internet where I'm living now AND Caleb was able to come home this past weekend and bring the cord I needed up upload pictures so I'm going to try and get caught up. My sister Chalise got married the day after we moved from AZ in the Draper Temple. It was such a beautiful wedding! A big thank you to my friend Alissa for watching my kids that morning during the sealing!

Crew and Caleb waiting outside the temple

Our little family

"Mr. and Mrs. Steven Southwick"

"kissies"

Extended family

Our Immediate family

I loved her table centerpieces--flowers submerged in water with candles floating on top

Aunt Chalise and Caysja

She had a friend make her cake as her wedding present--isn't it beautiful?

Chalise looks gorgeous here but don't look too closely at me--I was super tired from moving the day before, driving 10 hours from AZ, going to bed at 1am. getting up at 6 am and then being 7 months preggers on top of it all!

Chalise and Steve, you make the cutest couple! We are SOOOO happy for you!!

We're still alive...

Yes, we're still here. Sorry for the lack of posts. Caleb has the cord that I need to be able to download pictures to my computer so for right now I can't add pics. I will as soon as I can!
The move went pretty well for the most part. A million thank you's to all the people who helped us take things over to our storage unit, load up our vehicles, clean, etc. We couldn't have done it without you!!

The 14 hour drive home went okay. Crew threw up at one point because of car sickness and the highway near Anthem was down to one lane for over an hour because of a fire the day we left, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. We made it to UT just in time for my sister Chalise's wedding the next day. She was a beautiful bride and the weather even cooporated for her outdoor reception that night.

We really miss the SUN and all our friends in AZ! I think it's only been sunny once in the nearly two weeks since we've been here. For the most part it has been gray/cold/rainy/windy, etc. I forgot how much I hate the wind in ID! We miss Caleb a lot but he seems to really like Detroit. Caysja's birthday was yesterday and we had a little party for her with her cousins. I can't believe I have a four year old already! I don't have the internet right now where I'm living so blogging has been a little difficult lately. I'll post more as soon as I can!

Goodbye AZ

This is such a sad post for me to write. We're down to 3 days now. Here is a quick update of what we've done our last few days/weeks here:

Preschool Graduation!
We had a little celebration with a picnic and "award ceremony" at the pool. The girls all did such a good job and learned so many things this year. I am so proud of all of them.

Halle, Caysja, Kate, Miah and LeiLani

Certificate of "graduation" from Ladybug Preschool

Pool Party
Miah, Caysja, and Halle in the shower at San Lagos

Kate, Halle, Caysja in the hot tub

Alissa and Me

We went to the Gila Valley Temple open house with the Hamblin family. Before a temple is dedicated, anyone and everyone is invited to go inside. The Hamblins are from that area so they took us home with them for the weekend and we stayed Fri. night with their parents so we could go to the temple Sat. morning. The temple was so beautiful! Our kids LOVED getting to go inside a temple for the first time. It was dedicated just last Sunday and broadcast to all the Stks. in the whole state of AZ. Thanks for taking us with you, Hamblin family!

Caysja and LeiLani--everyone kept asking us if they were twins!

Group shot outside the temple

We went out to eat after the temple. There's nothing like REAL, authentic Mexican food and the Gila Valley has plenty of it!

Moving pics
Caysja thought it would be fun to climb our shelves and take a nap

I probably boxed up their toys too soon, but not to worry! It never ceases to amaze me how entertained kids can be with just a cardboard box!

We had a goodbye party with all our good friends last weekend. We played "Rate Your Mate" (HILARIOUS!) ate yummy desserts, talked, laughed and reminisced. Thanks for coming everyone!

(Matt and Kristy Hamar, Sara and Rhett Frei, Carlie and Ryan Skinner, Isac and Jen Simpson, Britni and Travis Hamblin, Amanda and Jordan Glenn, Joanna and Adam Smith, and us--we're missing Ben and Leah who had to leave early as well as Becky and Zac Freestone who couldn't make it)

Am I ready to leave? Not even close--(especially since it SNOWED in Idaho yesterday--aaaagh!!!!) But since I don't have much choice in the matter, goodbye AZ! We'll never forget you! Thanks for being our "home away from home" and making the last three years go by so fast. You'll always hold a special place in my heart. WE LOVE YOU!