The Thatchers: First Half of Summer

Ok so this is a doozy so I'm not going to be quite as wordy as usual. My phone is already full of pictures again! So here goes!

Family home evening learning about carborators :) (or starter)

Sarah's drawing of our family.

From our walnut tree.

First day of track practice

Sarah got a big treat from Daddy's work cause she let the doctor get the big piece of ear wax out of her ear without crying.

Spring burn.

Costco grocery shopping.

Field trip to the BYU museum of art. Sarah really liked the statue of Jesus laying down in the tomb.

Late spring snow storm

She had twins!

We have awesome neighbors!

A gift basket I made for a baby present.

Cool cod-a-pillar from Uncle Dylan!

The kids loving visiting Daddy at work and playing in the dance classrooms.

And eating popcorn from the breakroom.

We still love Hullabaloo!

Track season 2017 - Anne and Rachel loved it! Anne loved the longer distance runs. Even though she pretty much always can in last she was as happy as could be and always ran the entire race. Rachel liked the sprints better and had fun competing with all the older kids.

Keeping entertained during track meets.

Western heritage day field trip at school.

Playing baseball in our garden before we planted.

James' first slurpee.

Our new sand pit courtesy of sand from the aquarium from Jen.

Sarah finished her preschool workbook! She had so much fun doing her lessons and can't wait to go to kindergarten....in another year.

Our kids love bugs.

Can I say again how awesome our neighbors are? Our tiller broke and the Walkers volunteered to come over and till our garden for us.

Sushi date night. It's just so pretty!

Some spring/summer cleaning and purging. Yard sale!

4 Year photo shoot with this cutie

The kids always want me to wear this dress in my closet. It's my high school graduation dress.

Mother's Day. I am so blessed to have the privelege to be these kids' mom.

Helping plant

"I'm coming Packers!"

Crossing my path on a run

Grandma Thatcher came for a visit and watched the kids while I ran to Costco and grabbed a bite at my favorite eat-out. Mmmm rumbi!

I feel like most of the captions for his pictures could say "Such a boy."

Showing us her guns.

Hey there stud. :)

Figured out how to take these guys all for a walk.

Anne's class play of Peter Rabit.

For a couple months we rented the annex to a mom and daughter in need of something temporary to escape a bad situation. We were so blessed to get to know them and be a small part of their lives. I only ever got a picture of the daughter Kimberly. What a sweetheart. We wish them all the best.

Last day of school. Hilarious choice of shirt Rachel. She wasn't thrilled that school was over.

"I'm coming Cougars!"

This summer we've discovered Rachel is extremly allergic to cats and somewhat allergic to perfume.

Beautiful, amazing, heart-warming trip to see family in Colorado. Aunt Rhonda and Uncle David were very gracious is having our family and Dawn's and Justin's family to visit for the Fourth of July. Crested Butte is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

(More pictures to come below)

We took down the old spruce in the front corner of our yard so our other trees could grow.

Having a game of catch with Dad.

Fishing at the local pond.

My kids love doing this kind of cleaning. I mean love it. But asking them to clean their rooms is like pulling teeth.

A night of softball with some friends.

So excited to do summer school with Anne and Rachel to help Anne "catch up" and Rachel to get a head start. We were also fortunate to have a neighbor, Emma, join us while her mom watched James so I could focus. We had a lot of fun with some major accomplishments. Definitely a success.

At Zac's work.

Celebrating Nation Doughnut Da!

Breakfast with the Fire Dept.

James accidently got his fingers smashed in the van door. Turned out they weren't broken. Thank goodness for the squishiness of babies. He was completely fine before we even reached the Urgent Care.

Fun family dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Jen, Gordon, Loren and Carrie.

Hike up Battle Creek Falls

On our way to the sand dunes we stopped at our favorite breakfast restaurant in Nehi.

Coral Pink 2017

Rachel wanted to make a hygiene kit to give someone in need.

He was so funny. He wouldn't eat the green ones cause they looked like veggies.

Pleasant Grove Rodeo!

Lego Batman movie in Uncle Loren's backyard with cousins.

PG Days Parade

We had so much fun at the pool this summer! We went probably three times a week!

Father's Day Cheesecakes

We had a fun visit with Uncle Kenric and two of his kids, Katie and Benson

The girls giving Zac his father's day presents. We are sure blessed to have this guy.

Our kids' first sleepover! Katie and Benson got to stay the night and watch Night at the Museum!

Emma and Rachel having fun decorating the school white board.

Rachel had a pretty scary incident this summer. She didn't stop at the end of our sidewalk like she normally does and just flew into the street on her bike. A van hit her bike and she flew off and the bike landed on her. A neighbor across the street heard the loud thump and came running out to see if she was ok. The man in the van stopped and got out and my neighbor ran to get me (I was putting on James' shoes to come outside). Without thinking I left James (my neighbor thankfully grabbed him) and ran (the scariest five seconds of my life) to her. She was huddled crying, but not hurt. She had a scrape on her leg and knee from the bike landing on her. But other than that, nothing. Absolutely nothing. She was very shook up and scared. I talked to the man, thanked my neighbor, and then carried her home. We sat in the front room both of us crying. The other kids asked me why I was crying and I kept saying I was just so glad Rachel was ok. That's not always the case when these things happen. Later, we took a look at her bike, expecting it to be all dented up, and nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not a scratch. I truly believe the Lord protected Rachel. Something took the impact from the van but thankfully it was not my precious daughter. There must be a purpose to why she was spared when others aren't. I think she has a lot to do on this earth. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for this miracle.

For family that is reading this, if we didn't tell you about it, it's because Rachel asked us not to. She was embarrased and didn't want any attention, so if you can, please don't bring it up with her, she doesn't like to talk about it. Just rest assured she is ok :)

This picture is the very next day. She wouldn't go near her bike the day of the accident. But the next morning, without any prompting from me, she put on her helmet and got right back on her bike. A little more cautious, but it just amazed me how strong she is in her ability to overcome scary things.

Candyland with Grandpa

Matching cards with Grandma

All riding in Grandpa's truck to go get ice cream.

Waiting for Sarah's swim lessons to finish.

Anne is a life guard :)

Pool party with neighbors.

Fun at the pool

Rachel's first time jumping off the diving board.

First products of our yard and garden. Unfotunately, that's all the rasberries we got this year. Definitely not the only cucumber.

The girls playing with Kaia from school.

What happens when you leave a newly bought container of gummy vitamins in the car on a hot pool day.

New hair cut :)

What I did with the gummies.

Sarah's last day of swim lessons. She has come a long way this summer and has overcome her fear of going under the water. She now puts on the goggles and tries to swim to the wall in the shallow end for hours. She also likes to put on the life jacket and be in the deeper part with her sisters.

New color :)

Fire truck breakfast

Cherry from our tree.

Rodeo cash cow

Little helper

Zac's work party at the lake

Crested Butte Trip

The kids got to ride in the 4th of July Parade on the Tough Enough to Wear Pink float with Mimi

This just cracks me up...duh.

Rachel and William are buds.

Rubber duckie races

:) What every Mom wants to hear from her fortune cookie.

Late night pit stop on the way home after James pukied.

Another awesome neighbor thing. Same neighbors that plowed our garden gave us this awesome play set that their grandkids outgrew.

Thanks to my brother Kenric, he gave us an idea of how to help our kids be more obedient. We implemented an OK Mom program. Each time we tell the kids to do something or not do something and they say OK Mom and do it they get a point. When they get to a certain number of points they get to go get a treat. Believe it or not, Sarah was the first one to reach the goal and asked to go get slurpees. I'm telling you what, this has changed our lives and my sanity.

My awesome buddy Carlie and I before our half marathon in Hobbler Canyon. What a beautiful, fun, run!

After the run.

My awesome family came to support me

I had been trying to not drink any soda during my training for the race. So on the way home I stopped at Sodilicious and got a NICMO. The names of their sodas are just hilarious, especially to us Utahns.

A garden starter basket for a wedding present.

Our new renters :)

These two finally got to their OK Mom goal and we got to have a night out in the topless jeep! Slurpees and frozen yogurt.

All 4 kids asleep on a shopping day.

Why he's such an awesome Dad.

Working in the yard.

Always gets tuckered out after swimming.

Aquarium day with our buddy Julia.

Movie time.

Made some delicious rasberry jam with Loren's rasberries.

Jet's first day of nursery! He's such a big boy! He cried for about 10 seconds, like he does every week now. And then he's totally fine. The leaders just gush about how good and cute he is in class :)

The kids love helping with the laundry. They empty their baskets down the laundry chute (usually on to someone at the bottom, you can see Anne in there), then they load them into the laundry and can start it now.

So excited for soccer to start.

Beautiful new cernterpiece for our dining room courtesy of Rhonda.

Holy cucumbers!

We ran the Temple to Temple 5k as a family this year! Everyone ran the entire way except James and Sarah, but Sarah ran two miles of it! So proud of our runners.

The buses that were supposed to take us back up to the starting line to get our cars were running extremly slow....so I ran back uphill to our car. That was my pioneer effort for the day. It was actually pretty fun to run around Provo again. Lots of memories there.

Anne, our daughter that was absolutely terrified to put her head under the water two summers ago can swim! Not only that, she wanted to jump off the diving board, and she did! This girl amazes me sometimes. I am adimately against putting people in boxes and categories, personality types, that sort of thing because I believe God gives us the strength to be anything He needs us to be.