madalyn's 11 months old

madalyn is 11 months old today! i can't believe she is almost one.

she is such a little tease! she loves to act like she doesn't see you watching her, and then all of a sudden pop-up and give you a big smile.
she loves her daddy and really expects his full attention when he walks in the door.
she adores her brothers, and they adore her even more.

she waves hello and good-bye.
she says "hi", "mamma", and "dadda"
she loves to swing.
she will be walking soon. she hangs onto any chair in the kitchen and pushes it around as her walker. the computer chair, her highchair, and the bar stools. just about everything except for her actual walker.

she loves to empty any shelf she can reach. she does it several times a day. not sure why i keep putting them away...but, i do.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

memorial day in malad

me and madalyn at the park


owen and his beloved "gold bullet". i think wes took this picture.

my wesley. i can't believe i only got one picture of him. and i didn't even take it. owen did!

after we got home we had staci and kyle come and enjoy some icecream cones with us. we enjoyed our day! hope you all did as well.

memorial day in malad

owen probably gets his trigger-happy picture taking from his mom. i like to take self portraits too!


me and owen

me, owen, and his "gold bullet" from the 21 gun salute at the cemetery. he actually didn't run and and retrieve this shell fast enough (it's a a rat race for kids to pick these up). but, an older kid saw him crying about it and had pity. god bless that little kid!

natalie and aunt kim

memorial day in malad

owen took off with my camera and took about 100 pictures. i think i know what i will get him for his birthday next month. here are a few of his pictures. i left about the other 96 that mostly featured the park toys.


kate

carter

owen's self portrait. notice the battle wounds. wesley got ahold of him.

t-rex

memorial day in malad

i didn't mean to just take pictures of madalyn. but, since the boys were so busy running around it was just easier to get her.


she LOVES to swing

and don't you love those thighs!

madalyn also loved the grass...such a novelty for my kids. ahh, if only we had a grass in our yard.

this year we played some tball and horse shoes. since i have been coaching owen's tball team we have invested in bats, balls, and a tee. so the kids (and adults) enjoyed themselves!

memorial day in malad

my cousin derek and his girlfriend katie (i think that was her name, but you can call her leona lewis because she looks JUST LIKE HER)

when we were little kids running around on memorial day our "rich uncles" would give us each a dollar and we would go buy "penny candy" at the local store, bees. well, bees is now a bar so the tradition ended. but, my mom brought her own candy store this year and all the kids went to their "rich uncles" for quarters to buy some candy. it was fun. and alyssa and mccall were great storekeepers.

dad and mom

uncle bob

memorial day in malad

madalyn looking like the princess she is! (;

this will sound strange to some. but, when i was pregnant with owen we were having a hard time agreeing on a name. we went to the malad cemetery on memorial day and i saw this head stone and it came to me...let's name him owen! and kevin liked it. so, when he was born july 13th we did that exact thing. so funny!

aunt nadine
my grandma's sister. her kids left her a coke...her beverage of choice!

kevin was running around as a marked man. he couldn't get his marking from the race off his leg. funny.

memorial day in malad

we spent memorial day in malad last month. one of my favorite traditions. i LOVE to visit old headstones with my relatives. it seems a new story is shared each time. on sunday afternoon we visited the cemeteries around idaho falls to visit those from my dad's side of the family. then monday morning we drove to malad and spent a good portion of our day there...picnicking, visiting, and playing with my mom's side of the family.



i loved the "mamma" and "father" headstones on the sides. these are the headstones of my grandma's grandparents, ralph and martha harding (right, mom?).

elena and carter

so glad the jarom manwarings were able to come this year. it would have been a VERY lonely group without them.

ralph and kathryn harding...my grandma's parents
i love all the beautiful flowers. mom said kathryn's favorite color was purple, so she is loving this arrangement.

great uncle ralph
my grandma's brother, who i was actually blessed to know.

kevin's sprint triathlon

after the 20k bike race he hopped off the bike and did a 5k run. kevin finished the race in 1 hr 49 minutes. he was really hoping to finish it under 2 hrs...so he was pleased. we were all so proud of kevin and his dedication to training and completing this race! pretty sure i couldn't have done it. one little side note...see the race number on kevin's bike? owen insisted on having that number taped to his bike. so funny!

special thanks to his sister, staci, for spending that rainy morning outside with me and my three little ones while we watched!

kevin did the triathlon with his buddy from work, phil. here they both are after the race.

kevin has already started training again for the august race. stay tuned for a fitter, slimmer, and faster kevin!

kevin's sprint triathlon

well, he did it! kevin completed his first sprint triathlon last month. he thought it would be a great motivation to lose some weight and also has always wanted to participate in one. so...he signed up, trained for a several months, lost 10 lbs in the process, and completed it in better time than he hoped! and the first thing he was talking about afterwards was how he wanted to do the august rush sprint triathlon in rexburg. i think he even signed up for it that same weekend!

kevin did the rigby sprint triathlon. the weather that morning was LESS THAN DESIRABLE! it was freezing cold, raining, and blowing wind. he started the race by swimming 1/2 mile in the rigby lake. it was so cold just watching him...i can't imagine how it felt swimming it.

then he was off to do his 20k bike race. kevin said that this part was by far the easiest. and he was able to push hard during his ride.

here's a picture of madalyn watching for her dad to whizz by on his bike.