Our puppies!

Shiloh's new nap spot.

Dude dug the ground out underneat to keep it nice and cool and Shiloh stole it.

Dude seems just fine in his back-up hole.

This is "our baby" Nylah.

We just love her!
(She's not really ours, we just pretend!)

For those of you who know Jay really well you know that on a weekday he is ALWAYS wearing one of his orange work shirts. They aren't required, he just really likes them. He got over 50 of them for free a year ago and has worn them faithfully since.

Here's the part that cracks me up. He came home from a Scouts a few weeks ago and they had been working on the Swimming Merrit Badge.

He was in his swimsuit and an orange work shirt.

He does own other clothes! I just wanted to let everyone know that!

OK, new game!

I am going to post random pics of places in Mesa and if you can guess where they are you will get a premium place on the side of my blog under the title of "Meg's Smartest Friend". I know the excitement is too much to handle, but try to get control of yourself!

Good luck!

These lizards kindof wierd me out!

HINT:

I took this picture on the day we remodeled our bedroom.

Lots of trips were made here with my dad.

(I need a location, not just the name of the store!)

KAYLANI IS THE CLOSEST!!! It is at Riverview...

Ashley Fuller wins...Home Depot at Riverview!

Here we go again...

Does anyone know what kind of plant this is?

At the beginning of August the Billings girls did a craft class for the kids.

They loved it! Each child got to paint a christmas window ornament, make a rocket ship, make a visor with their name in foam letters and they did sand art with picture frames.

Ali Patchett & Sami Rowley

Bel & Athen Rowley
Playing house
Jayne made this rocket ship for her cousin Thomas.

I still haven't mailed it. It's on my to do list. hahaha

Rachel showing off some of her creations!

So proud of her frame for Mimi and Papa
Bel Rowley and Jayne
Rachel and Athen Rowley playing house

My shoulder was giving me heck a few weeks ago so I stayed home from church, took some Lortab and tried to rest away the pain - hahaha.

Anyway, Jay got Rachel ready. Notice her socks. Nice, huh?

Yes, there's the man I love. He does this more often than I would like.

Whether it's a noodle, green bean, carrot... anything,

he just sticks it up his nose, grosses us all out and then eats it.

And he wonders why I won't kiss him afterward!

A few weekends ago we went down to Casa Grande to Tim and Lorna's house for a barbecue. It was so fun to see their house and hang out with them again. My parents drove us down and we all had a fabulous time. It was really fun to meet some of Lorna's family who moved here from Costa Rica about a year ago. Of course baby Dean was the best part of the trip - he is so cute! It was fun hanging out with Rusty and Tim's dad again.

Great food and even better company! Does life get better than this?

(For those of you who don't know Tim, I met him when I worked at Deseret Book. His last day was my first day. We hung out with the same group of friends in college and he became an adopted member of our family. Jay and his cousin Tyler shared an apartment with Tim and his brother Rusty while Jay and I were engaged. Basically, Tim is the big brother I never had!)

Baby Dean

Jayne and her new friend Evan (Lorna's nephew)
Lorna & Tim

For those of you who ask,

"What type of Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms does Jayne have?", here's the answer.

In the middle of the frustration I did remember to take a picture!

Jayne will not go to sleep at night until she has an hour by hour schedule set for the next day. This gets dangerous if I change anything because she has logged it into her brain and that means NOTHING can change.

On this particular day there were a lot of things going on and she wanted proof that I wasn't going to change anything.

I drew clocks on her chalkboard with her help and wrote which activities were happening at which times. She loves this.

One of the many ways she makes life so interesting!

I love her!

This is the Cinderella dress that Jayne bought with her birthday money!

My three princesses:

Cyanna Budge, Jayne & Rachel

Whenever Cyanna comes over the girls run for the dress-up room and "princess up". They dance around and watch Cinderella 3 over and over.

Aren't they adorable?!!!

I found Jayne making her first honey sandwich by herself a few weeks ago. When I asked her what she was doing she simply replied, "That's what makers do. Makers make messes!"

I love her little Sharon Osborn dance thing at the end. Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I got this off of Jennie Whiting's blog:

Take the Quiz here!

Yes it's been a week since I last posted. Things are a little nuts right now. I went to the doctor last Monday and I finally schedule my shoulder surgery - whoohoo! September 20th can't come soon enough!

We decided to finally get around to laying the laminate wood flooring in our bedroom that we bought in February. Well, you know how it goes... "If we are tearing out the carpet we really should replace the baseboards and new paint wouldn't hurt. Crown molding would look nice......." We are still living out of our living room. The kids think our bed is a trampoline. Hopefully our lives will be put back together by the end of the week and I can post some pics of the whole adventure.

Jayne started Kindergarten today at Franklin West Elementary School. We switched her to all day Kindergarten last Thursday so it's been a whirlwind weekend trying to set up therapies, etc. through the school. So fun. Good news is that Jayne LOVES school, she absolutely is in love with Mr. Abrams (he is JUST LIKE Uncle Josh!), and she loves life. It can't get much better than this!

Check in later in the week and hopefully I'll have some sweet pics for ya! :-)

I just added some of Katie's pics from the MTC. Check them out on her blog... hit the link on the side of this page....
:-)

This is a song that Josh learned in High School from one of his Christian friends. He taught it to the girls last year and they love singing it. They have written their own version substituting "mommy" and "daddy" for Jesus and Satan. Crazy kids!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

July 28th was a very special day. Grandma and Papa Bowman were in town and they spent the entire day with us! We were still kindof celebrating Jayne's birthday so Jayne got to pick the events for the day.

She had a pioneer primary activity day so she asked Grandma and Papa to come.

I was asked to be the photographer and I recruited Sara to help so we had Rachel there as well. It was really fun being together!

Jayne in her pioneer get-up with her "pet" Shiloh.

The children made ice cream in bags and it was wrapped in a towel with ice.

They had to shake it and "play" with it so it would actually freeze and turn into ice cream instead of sugary milk.

Hence, the "pet" idea instead of carrying babies on their trek.

(Shaken baby syndrome is not something we really wanted to teach them!)

Papa and Jayne
Grandma and Rachel

We went to WalMart to let Jayne buy her Cinderella Princess Dress with her birthday money - all by herself. She was so happy!

Then we met Grandma & Grandpa Clifford and Joyce at Cracker Barrel for dinner.

We didn't plan on matching, but what can I say - don't we have great taste?!

(My pink one was dirty or I would have worn it instead)

Rachel and Jayne
Papa and Rachel

Aunt Joyce and Mom

Grandma & Grandpa Clifford
Jay & Meg

I LOVE these pictures!

Grandpa Clifford decided to teach the girls how to play checkers

He has so much patience!
What a handsome man!
Grandma - not the best picture (sorry)
Jay peacefully pushing mom in the rocking chair

Yeah right! He had her rocking so hard we thought she might fly out!

Ahhh, Bass Pro! The girls think this is heaven!

They have been waiting to share it's glory with Grandma and Papa for months and now the day has finally arrived!

Jayne and Rachel showing Grandma the boats

The fish pond

If you look really close you can see a black bear behind mom making the same pose
Cute face mom!

Not sure what kind of animal this is, but it sure is cute!

Jay is adorable too!!!

Looking at the fish tank
Grandma & Joyce checking out the rhino with the girls
Jay and Papa

I bought a new (very inexpensive) Nikon camera so I could have sound with my video clips.

Jayne and I were playing around and I just love this pic of her.

First day playing dress up in Jayne's new princess dresses

That's Rachel for ya!
Showing off her "new home"