My Baby's 5th Birthday

Today is Carter's 5th Birthday. For those of you who do not know, Carter is our bonus baby. After we had our triplets we employed surgical means of birth control but Heavenly Father sent him to us anyway! Now he's growing up. The deal was supposed to be that he stay little. That hasn't worked out so well.... However, this morning he came into the bathroom while I was doing my hair and asked me to hold him. I picked him up and he asked me to sing Happy Birthday to him so I did. I asked him if he could please turn 3 instead of 5 but he told me that the years don't go backwards but he would still be my baby sometimes. That will be one of my favorite memories.

The Montrose Family does not to traditional birthday parties for many reasons but mostly because I have neither the patience or the financial resources to provide the kind of parties I want to do. So the kids get to choose where they want to go for their birthday. Ethan got to go to Boondocks, the triplets want to go to a water park and Carter wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese. They each get to invite one friend, but Carter ended up inviting two. Conner and Oliver Scoubes joined us for a birthday dinner at the Cheese.

Afterward we had a "Pinata Breaking" at our house with our some kids from our neighborhood where we had donuts (Carter hates cake) and broke the pinata.

Carter got tons of Transformer toys, a new bike and a skateboard. He'll be cruising around the neighborhood for days!! All in all, it was a great day!!

Carter's Bike

Mckenzie helps Carter get on his new bike using a stool.
Too Cute!

Carter playing a game at the Cheese

Pizza at the Cheese with the Scoube boys.

Blowing out the Candles on the "Donut Cake"
The donuts were decorated with Transformer Tattoos and Stickers.

The Scooby Doo Pinata.
It kinda looks like we executed a dog by hanging it....

Cell Phone Fiasco!

So I'm afraid that all the mothers on the block are going to want to hunt me down.... Ethan got a cell phone for his birthday in May. It's a "Go Phone" so it was inexpensive and he has to earn his minutes by being responsible, doing his chores with a good attitude, and other things. Well, today he got his minutes reloaded and showed it to all his friends. I've been bombarded with questions about the cost of the phone and the cost of the minutes and all of that. I've even been asked to call mothers to explain the phone and give their children a glowing character reference. So... to all of you who have been affected by this situation, I'M SORRY!!

However, I do love the kids in this neighborhood. They seem to be permanent fixtures at our house, which I love. It may be the pool or the food or whatever, but I am so happy that they like to be here and that they are so GOOD!! Kudos to the parents of such great kids!!

Fourth of July!

We spent July 4th at my grandmother's in Layton. We made a whole weekend mini-vacation out of it. (We desperately needed to get away!)

On Friday the 4th we went to the Layton park for a pancake breakfast and watched the parade afterwards. There was a little fair set up at the park where our kids got their faces painted and we won a couple miniature frogs! It was really hot so after the parade we headed to my aunt's house and broke out the slip in slide and wading pools. Even Doug and I got in on the action. (thankfully no pics were taken of Doug and I in our sexy swimwear....) We had an awesome BBQ at my aunt's before we headed back to Layton Park for fireworks.

On Saturday the 5th, we decided to try out the Front Runner, the train that now runs between Ogden and Salt Lake. We took the train into SLC where we jumped on Trax and went to Hire's hamburgers for lunch. We cruised around Salt Lake for awhile before heading back to Layton. It was exciting for the kids to be on a train. We loved it, too! Usually if we go anywhere with my family we have to take a separate car because our family is so big. It was fun to just relax and visit with everyone.

Ethan's Baseball

Ethan is on a coach pitch team this year. We wanted him to learn the game before we put him on a league but we've discovered that he could have probably done very well in a league. He's quite the hitter! His coach thinks he's amazing. He definitely has a talent for it.
His team's name is the Red Dragons.

Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

We have been trying to squeeze in as much outdoor fun as we can this summer!
One evening we decided to go for a "hike" up to Bridal Veil Falls.
It's one of our family's favorite spots! It's so beautiful.

The kids decided to ambush Daddy on the way to the falls!
Chase was the first casualty but the kids avenged him by ripping the pocket off Dad's shorts!!

Of course, Aunt Elma, Edil and Baby James came with us! Our kids LOVE their cousins!

After the hike up to the falls and ganging up on their dad, the kids couldn't wait to peel of their shoes and wade into the springs at the bottom of the falls. Even Edil, whose lips were almost blue because she was so cold wouldn't come out because it was "FUN!"

Of course the kids had to climb up the side of the falls, in their bare feet,
and Mom had to go rescue them!



Then Mom and Aunt Elma got the brilliant idea to climb up a "trail"
that turned out to be a rock slide! We slipped and slid all the way down
till Mom fell on her tush. It HURT! But it was hilarious.


All in all it was a fun way to spend the evening!
And it reminded us how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful place!

Mckenzie was so excited to see a rainbow during one of our many summer rain storms so we grabbed the camera and took some pictures. This was the best one and Mckenzie took it.

Holy Cow! This has been such a busy summer! I can't believe it's the end of June all ready. The kids are so happy that the weather got warmer. They're practically living in the pool. We've had some fun adventures so far, so check out our fun pics.

Ethan was awarded his Wolf and has now advanced to Bear!
He just got back from scout camp today where the
highlightof his day was making a
foam sword and buying a $5 popsicle.

Ethan was supposed to pin the Wolf pin on his mommy but he was worried that he'd poke me. (Actually he did poke me when he got his Bobcat!)