can you believe it?

of all the things, who'd of ever thunk?

me a fireman? ok, so its volunteer; same thing right? well not quite - i don't get a pension. but other than that, iget to do everything that the paid professionals do.

the kids sure were thrilled to see me in all my gear.

as much as they were to see me riding the truck the other night.

i'll let you know how it goes after my first real run....can't wait. so far, its just been training, but i sure am excited!

Our Summer so Far!

We tried to go camping but kept getting rained out and had to cancel our reservations a few times. So we decided to just do it in the

backyard this time. Maybe next time

we can venture away. :)

The kids made up our camps name.

We even had our own little campfire and cooked several meals on it.

We also discovered Letterboxing. It is similar to Geo-chaching (sp?) but a lot more primitive. People plant boxes in public parks and areas and give specific directions on how to locate the box. They give it a name and have a specific rubber stamp in it along with a small notebook. You stamp their stamp in your own "Letterboxing Notebook" and then you take your own family stamp (found a great one at the Dollar Tree) and stamp it in their notebook. Then you hide it again for the next person to find. We've visited many interesting and fun places as a family and have also planted one of our own. :)

Brianna found this one. Good job Bree!!

We discovered the Bamboo portion of the Mercer Arboretum. The kids had a lot of fun posing and climbing (or attempting to climb) the bamboo.

INTODUCING...... THE AMAZING BAMBOO CLIMBERS!!!!!!!

First up.... Colton, always the Army Tough Guy.

Next..... Taylor.....G.I. Jane

Brianna the Monkey Girl....

And last, but definitely not least, Cameron....... always the Funny Guy.......

Today, the kids decided they wanted to go to Cow Appreciation Day at Chik fil A. I wasn't going to complain about a "FREE-99" deal, so the kids and I got creative and took some pictures with our cow Chloe and Oldie Goldie before we went to collect our loot. (The extra kid in the picture is Cameron's friend I have been watching this summer.)

long time no....

work has kept me quite busy, and today is the first time I've not been completely preoccupied with other things.

I love my new job...hope to be there for many moons. i get to work on many projects, large and small. frequently, i'm working on projects for local hospital expansions, new hospitals, and even some petro/chem plants in the area.

best of all...i get good feedback from my co-workers occassionaly.

talking of feedback, one of the hardest things about parenting/housekeeping is the lack of it; the absence of acknowledgement, notice, commentary. the other day, we were sitting in church, and behind us was a couple..he's a cop. after sacrament meeting, they pulled us aside, and told us how impressed they were with how we handled 6 kids for the 75 minutes. they went on and on about it. made us feel really good, especially coming from a man i look up to.

now if i can only borrow a feather from his cap, and stick it in mine. i realize that becky works soooo hard to keep our house together, to rear the kids, and teach them to live the gospel, etc. and frequently i don't notice - and she desn't have co-workers or a boss to give her praise, compliments, or a raise. its simple not to, because we try to keep the yard looking nice; with kids, we're always cleaning up one mess or another, or ten others. what i'd fail to recognize is the effort it takes to maintain the status quo....its not about new accomplishments, but about the daily grind.

so here's to you becky: you do a great job! the house looks good. and most importantly, the kids are happy.

so, i'm trying to make the effort from here on to notice what my lovely and wonderful bride does while I'm gone all day...invite to all you other guys out there: you're wives work too, even if they are home all day (those are the hardest jobs). compliment them on what they do. it'll make their day, and you can both smile! :)

Life is good. :)

Life has been very good to us. Rob has a great new job, everyone is healthy, we're all happy (most of the time), and we're a all a little crazy - which just adds to the fun of life. Here are just a few pics from the past month.

Worlds Best Piggy-Back Ride Ever! The Triple Decker Piggy Ride!!

Bree and Grandma Allred loving on each other.

Taylor and Colton just being buds... well, after I made them be buddies. Sometimes when two of the kids are fighting with each other, I assign them to be buddies and they have to stay with each other the rest of the day and help each other out. Most the time it works great and they end up like this. Ah.... sweet inspiration.

It's so fun tickling your kids to death. :) Cameron, you're a good sport with an infectious laugh. :) Nice smile there too!

The newest member of our family. I know we're a bit crazy... we've established that already. She's a Great Dane rescue. We decided Harley needed someone her own size to play with -- well, she's a little bigger, but just a year old so she'll grow more. She's so much fun and has such a goofy personality. She's a puppy in a huge body.

Harley and Chloe staring each other down in the backyard before tearing off again to romp and play and jump on each other. It's so fun to watch them just play together. :) Everyone should have a Great Dane. :)

Oh, and of coarse, Tayter Tot turned 9 on February 5th. Happy Birthday Taylor! We love you!

Happy New Year!!!! -- It's going to be AWESOME!!

Finally!!!! We have a new job! Rob starts on February 2 at Siemens Building Technologies as a Sales Application Engineer. So life is looking up, we have a plan and we're going to push ahead this year.

Here are a couple of pictures from the past few months.

Christmas morning going through the stockings.

A typical scene this past year. We've been watching my sister Gloria's kids after school every day, so it gets a tiny crowded.

Stitch, our bengal cat, broke his pelvis a few weeks ago. We're not sure how. The vet said that he will be o.k. in 4-6 weeks. Poor guy. He is the coolest guy. He has the personality of a laid back dog .

Harley hardly has any fur so she gets cold in the winter. So she wears one of my sweatshirts.


This is our foster dog that became permanant. We fostered her and her four puppies awhile ago and when taking her back to the shelter when the puppies were old enough, I couldn't let her go. She is the sweetest thing in the world. She is about 9 years old and is heart worm positive. She's missing most of her teeth and has a cateract in one of her eyes. She's too old to undergo treatment, so we will just love her and give her a nice retirement in her final stage of life. Although she seems to have been defying the odds. She still has a lot of energy and doesn't show any of the symptoms yet. We've had her for almost a year now.

Taylor being her typical self. She went as a rock star for Halloween.

She loves to play guitar hero and rock band.

Colton got his face painted with Christmas lights during a Christmas party.

I thought it was so cool looking. Colton is doing awesome in school and loves to

cook and love on all of the animals.

Cameron wearing his daddy's cowboy hat. Cameron is into coin collecting and loves reading the Spiderwick Chronicles and Harry Potter.

Brianna, is just one of the kids now. There is nothing they can do that she can't. Except for riding the bus and going to school. She thinks that is so unfair.

Rob and I are as happy as can be. We are best friends and love to hang out together. We love to read, watch movies, do the grocery shopping and have picnics at the park together.

So, that's our update for now. We will try to post more often. Love all you guys!