Falo Family Sealing

Our dear friends, Julie and Kulesa Falo, adopted Mahonri when he was born 11 years ago. They have continued throughout their 16 years of marriage to try to have children of their own, but haven't been successful. I'll have to tell the long story later, but the short story is that little Kailia miraculously came to their family, also through adoption. Saturday, August 30th, we were privileged to attend the sealing of Kailia to her parents. What a beautiful experience it was to see Mahonri bring his little sister into the sealing room at the Timpanogos Temple. They both looked like angels. Congratulations, Falo family!

Yukon

We finally have graduated from our dear little Camry...

...to the Yukon. :)

It's a 2004 GMC Yukon. 64,000 miles, checked out well with our mechanic. We're not thrilled about adding to our debt, but we are thrilled about having a vehicle that is much newer than anything we've ever owned, in better condition, and of course larger than anything we've had. I'm sure I'll get used to driving the beast soon. It's not as long as the truck, so it shouldn't be too bad.

You can't tell from this pic, I know, but the boys were thrilled to ride in it the first time on Thursday when we officially purchased it (private party). Sam is staring at Toy Story on the DVD player. :)

I love how roomy it is.
Plenty of space now for our family plus our junk... and then some!

Headsets for the kids if I don't want to listen to the movie, too.

You can almost see the cup holder in the back.
There are a total of six cup holders I've found.
That is one of the most welcome luxuries, right there!

Anyone want a ride? :)

Bran & Ashton Graduation Celebration

My brother, Brandon, and his wife, Ashton, chose the Olive Garden for a large dual family lunch to celebrate their graduation from BYU a week or so ago. I tried really hard to find a sitter, but in the end we brought all three boys. They were very entertained with all the happenings, so it wasn't the nightmare I was sure it was going to be. It was nice to chat with all the relatives and the graduates. Congratulations, Bran & Ashton!!

The Grads!

Michael & Aria

Toi (Mom), Phil (Toi's brother), Kevin (Dad)

Nick (Ashton's dad), Michael (Toi's brother)

Michael, Niko, moi

Ashton's Grandma

Amber & Ashton's mom, Suzanne

Grandma & Grandpa Clawson

Sam & Corban

Misc. Clawson Visit Pics

Mom left a few strawberries when they departed on August 17th and made me promise to eat them before they went bad. I decided to warm some fudge and stir in the strawberries. Decadent, I know, but boy! Was it yummy! Thanks, mom! :)

Clawson Ladies in Yellow
(hey, they were on sale)

Aria was a huge help this trip with the boys.
This was one of her ways of containing them. j/k

Yes, she did them at the same time, too, but those pics were blurry.

Seven Peaks the day before they left

All the boys loved it, of course.

Ice cream sandwich faces

Niko sharing with Aria

Niko loved riding Papa

Wish this pic could capture how cute he was,
sitting enthralled by the sunscreen bottle.

Aria with the boys in our backyard on August 1st

Fun, fun! Thanks, Clawsons!

Resurfacing...

I am finally resurfacing back to reality. I've spent most of the last two weeks reading the final books in both the Twilight and Harry Potter series. This morning, I finished the Deathly Hallows. I did cry last night at about 1am right before I just had to put the book down. I didn't want to finish it half asleep. Chris let me read in peace this morning. It was a nice treat to not be interrupted several times during the final pages. I don't want to ruin it for anyone, especially my sweet hubby who is now allowed to have the book back and is finishing the last couple hundred pages, but I loved it. Truly a masterpiece. I'm so glad I read it.


The other book I read was Breaking Dawn, the latest book in the Twilight series. Yes, I practically disappeared for several days, at least as far as getting-anything-done is concerned. I liked it. I was pleased with the action and the closure - finally! Thank you, Stephanie Meyer. Great job. :)


Now, on to the less dramatic, but so far interesting book for Book Group this month...

Blog Browsing - ABCs

Chris & Genn - if you can make us out ;)

Ashton, Amber, Brandon, Dustin

I was blog browsing a bit tonight and realized I hadn't checked out my bro and sister-in-law's blog in a while. I came across a couple of pics that I didn't have from our rafting trip a month or two ago. Thanks for sharing, guys!

p.s. Thanks, Leah, for pointing out that most people can't log into their site. :)

July Sibling Movie Night

I think Chris was out camping with the young men in our ward one night when we had an impromptu movie night. We were pretty silly by the time we got around to watching the movie, but that's ok. :)

We were so silly, we even recorded Bran
doing a cool "stupid human trick".

Side view :)

July Ranch Visits

These two are sure cute, eh? (Sam & Corban)

My dad has never loved surprises. He resists imposing them on other people due to this personal preference. However, because he realizes a little spice is appreciated, he conspired a tiny bit for my mom's 50th birthday this 24th of July. Well, a couple days later actually. Many of us were gathered for dinner at my Grandparents' house. Weeks prior, he had taken the banner you see here and made it "Toi" instead of "Kevin". The same banner had been used for the big "Surprise 40th" for my dad and then modified for a mild "50th" celebration. Now it was "50th Toi". After we explained that our Aunt Roxanne had brought it out specifically for this, she said, "That was thoughtful of you, sweetie, but which one of my daughters did the sign adjusting?" She was even more surprised that dad had done it all himself. *smile* "Points for dad!"

Decadent Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting
or Strawberry Cheesecake? Why not both?!

The boys were a little wary of the big dog-like animal we sat on.

Niko's first ride - about 90 seconds long. He loved it. :)

Horseback Riding at the Ranch for Vero & JP

Niko stole Tata's cowboy hat when we first arrived at my Grandparents' house. He said, matter-of-factly, "Comme Woody!" ("Just like Woody!" - Toy Story).

Vero (Chris's sister), JP (friend of the fam), moi :)

Love the view

Vero and I were glad to have JP's muscles to open the gates.
Yes, I was feeling wimpy. :)

Thanks for a fun time, guys!
And thanks, Clawsons, for watching the boys for me!