Celebrating Summer . . .

. . . or at least what summer we can get. Last week was really nice. Sunshine and in the 70's. This week it is cloudy, rainy, and a chilly 65*. I have already seen a few leaves begin to change colors. As much as I love fall, I really would like to enjoy more summertime! We have been trying to take advantage of the warm days and head to the park. Coleman and Teegan trying to climb the tree (without success)!


One of the parks here, has a church group (I think it's a church group) that comes Monday-Friday and provides a free lunch for all the children. The other day, they also had the firetruck come, and boy was Coleman excited! He had the biggest smile on his face. I didn't ever get a picture of him checking it out, but it was still fun to see!

I'm not sure if this is because of our crazy summer schedule or what, but every time we get in the car, it seems like Teegan is always falling asleep. The other day, he fell asleep in the shopping cart at Walmart. Right as I realized he was asleep, he did the bobble head thing, and smacked his face on the front handle bars. It left a bit of a mark above his eyebrow, and I felt so bad. No pictures of that event, either. Just him sleeping in the car!

Since we don't live in Utah, our ward had a picnic at a park on July 24th to celebrate Pioneer Day. A member of our bishopric read a pioneer story, and then after dinner, we played pioneer games.
Here is Phil winning a game of stick pull against Dusty Butler.

Here is Phil losing a game of stick pull to Kevin Thomas.

They even let the kids try and Coleman loved it. He played this round with Jake Wood.

Another game they had was water balloon baseball. Not exactly a pioneer game, but still lots of fun!

Phil was holding a water balloon and trying to get it to pop on Coleman. However, he missed, and it totally soaked Teegan. Teegs was such a good sport about it though, and hardly even whined!


Anyway, that's a little update of our summer happenings!

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime?

Some of our favorite summer activities are enjoying Phil's dutch oven cooking. A few weeks ago, he did a pot roast, and it was delicious! Just an FYI, Phil wants me to start documenting his cooking, so you'll probably see lots more food pictures in the future!
Before:

After:


If you live in North Dakota, you get to enjoy baby birds in the Summer time. A swallow built it's nest right in the upper corner by our front door. At first I was annoyed, but now it has been a lot of fun to see the little babies.


We also LOVE the fresh produce we receive (it doesn't happen very often this far North, unless you want potatoes or sugar beets!) Here are my boys lovin' the watermelon!



And one of our most favorite summer activities is to go CAMPING! We went this weekend with some friends and had a BLAST!

Coleman and Teegan on our LONG drive to the campground. We had planned to go to Warroad, Minnesota, but when we got to there, we weren't very impressed, so we continued on down the road for another 45 minutes, and we found this FABULOUS campground called Zippel Bay State Park.

By the time we arrived, both boys had peed through, so we had to sit in the car until dad could get the tent set up and our bags out for clean clothes. I was doing my best trying to keep them occupied, because they were going CRAZY!

Enjoying the great outdoors (and some cookies)!

The park was right on the bay of Lake of the Woods, which was a HUGE lake on the border of the U.S. and Canada. It had a nice beach, and the boys just LOVED playing in the sand.

Phil and Teegan playing on a Big Rock!
The boys digging in the sand.

Dusty trying to wade out to the rock, but he chickened out! :)

Our beautiful campsite with the bright sunshine on Saturday afternoon!

Coleman had so much fun spending all day and all night outside.

Teegan taking an afternoon snooze in the tent.

Anna and baby Samantha!

Phil making us a delicious BBQ Chicken dinner with Potatoes, Rolls, and Blackberry Cobbler for dessert! Yum!

This is what happens when you give a 13 month old some licorice . . . a very sticky mess!

Dusty was nice enough to let Coleman watch "Cars" on his laptop. I think this might have been one of Coleman's favorite activities of the whole trip! He couldn't take his eyes off the screen!

There was lots more happening, but my camera died, so I don't have anymore of our little outing. It was great to go camping and enjoy time with friends. Thanks Butlers and Piersons for letting us join you! We can't wait for the next one!

Drum Roll Please . . .

We FINALLY have decided where we will be moving to in a few months, and couldn't be more excited! Our answer came today, and Phil and I are CELEBRATING! And now, drum roll please . . . . . . . . . . . . .

























St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, Idaho!

We are so happy and so excited. This interview truly was a miracle. Phil had been calling this group for months, and the last we heard from them, just last month was that they weren't even accepting informal interviews. As in, they didn't even want Phil to spend his own money to fly out and just stop in to say hi. Then, two days before he was supposed to fly out to Boise for his St. Lukes interview, they posted a job opening, and called Phil to see if he was still interested. Of course, he said yes, and the next thing we knew, not only did they want to interview him, but they wanted to take him out to a nice dinner. Phil and I definitely feel that this job is a blessing from our Father in Heaven and are so grateful for this opportunity. Let's just hope, now that everything else runs as smoothly!

More Interviews and other Updates

Right now, Phil is here:
(Boise, ID)
going through the interview process again!

Yesterday he interviewed at St. Alphonsus Hospital

and Today he interviewed at St. Luke's Hospital

It sounds like both interviews went really well, and Phil was especially excited about St. Al's. Now we have to play the waiting game until we hear from them. This part just puts me in knots. I shouldn't be too worried, seeing how Greenville, NC has already offered him a position, but Phil and I have started to really feel like Boise is where we should go. I guess now we cross our fingers and say lots of prayers! :)

Also, here is an update of our 4th festivities!

We started our celebrating by meeting up with some good friends from Fargo, the Webers. We headed to McDonalds for breakfast and then downtown for the Kiddie Parade.

Here are our parade watchers!
Brodie, Maggie, & Coleman

It's not a very good picture, but here are more parade watchers: Webers, Piersons, Bartletts - Justin (sorry JB!), Roylances, and Valarie Wood who was waiting for her family (who were in the parade)!

Phil and Teegan

Coleman playing in a Bounce House

Phil enjoying a Snowcone and apparently not sharing fast enough!


After enjoying the sites of downtown, we headed over to the park for a big BBQ with friends. The food was delicious, the weather was PERFECT, the company was superb; you just can't ask for more!
Phil enjoying some football . . . maybe a little too much!

Our family with our cute Old Navy shirts!

Teegan at the Splash Park

Coleman with his buddy Austin warming up on the cement!

I forgot to bring Teegan's swimsuit, so he just got to wear his onesie! He didn't care though! He had so much fun in the water!


After all the food, sunshine, and water, we headed home for a much needed shower and relaxation before heading out again for fireworks.
I took some popcorn with us, and Teegan thought he was in heaven! He would grab huge handfuls and try to stuff it all in his mouth! So Cute!

All the kids lined up to watch the pre-fireworks show put on by Dusty and Phil.

Me and Teegan, still enjoying the popcorn!

Coleman and Maggie playing with their glow necklaces while waiting for the big fireworks to start!


Phil with both the boys, enjoying the fireworks!


And to finish off, yesterday, Teegan went in for his 1 year check up.
His stats are . . .
Weight: 26 lbs. (85%)
Height: 31 1/2" (90%)

What a chub!

Weddings, Parties, and a Little in Between!

We have been so busy lately! We just got back after spending almost two weeks in Utah! My youngest sister Chelsea got married and her wedding was beautiful! Congratulations to Chelsea and DJ! Love you guys! We also spent time doing some fun activities with family and friends. I loved meeting up with friends at the park and getting to see their adorable children! We had a BLAST boating at Yuba Lake with the Roylance family. We also got to enjoy a night in Park City with the Mott's. We hated leaving family, but were glad to be back in our own little neck of the woods!

To start off here are some pictures of Chelsea's Wedding!
Her Trousseau/Gift Table.

The signing book table.

Cake Table

Close up of the Cake

The Eating Tables (and Phil's fabulous photography skills!). I love the upside down umberellas.

Teegan and I waiting for the ceremony to start.


Chelsea and DJ did this sand ceremony where they combined her white sand and his black, to represent their union.

Colby was the Ring Bearer and Autumn was one of the Flower Girls. They dressed the flower girls up like little fairies, and I loved Colby's cute top hat and tux! (The girl on the right was another fairy. I think she is DJ's niece.)

All the Mott siblings together!

Coleman enjoying a brownie! What a goof!

Cutting the cake!

Tossing the bouquet!

A few more details . . .


Chelsea and DJ leaving.


While spending time with Phil's family, we headed down to Yuba Lake to do some boating. The boys loved spending time on the sandy beach!
Here is Uncle Nate and Coleman playing in the sand.

I love Teegan's smiles!

Cooling off in the water from the hot sun!

Grandpa Roylance and Teegan snoozing before church!


This is the only picture I took while we were in Park City! The cousins were all being a bit rowdy so we turned on a movie in one of the bedrooms, and they all climbed on the bed to watch! Too cute! From L to R: Autumn 4, Colby 5, Coleman 2, River 2, Tyson 3.


And now to back track . . . while the boys and I made our way to Utah, Phil flew the opposite direction for an interview in Pensacola, FL. The interview went really well, but we are still waiting to hear back from them. Phil really enjoyed his nice little vacation to the Sunshine state. I am not going to lie, I was a bit jealous! :)

Phil drove down to Destin, FL, and absolutely loved it! I think I can see why!

I'm glad he thought of us! Love you too babe!

Isn't it beautiful! I think I could definitely live there! :)


Right before leaving for Utah, we celebrated Teegan's first birthday with a little Luau party!
This was my attempt at a tropical table centerpiece. The brown blob is my "Volcano" cake!

I found the idea for his cake from Family Fun Magazine. The lava is red candy melted down and drizzled. It isn't as cute as the original, but I was still proud!

Teegan playing with his Lei at the party!

The kids waiting for us to take the cover off our mini "ocean" so they could play!

Teegan on top of the giant boxes sent by the Grandparents. Thank you so much!

Loving his gifts!

Coleman already taking over Teegan's new toys. The joys of having an older brother.

Singing Happy Birthday to Teegan! I forgot to get him a candle, so instead, we lit a votive candle!

Teegan LOVED destroying his cupcake!



We also had a little party in Utah for Teegan. We did a camping theme and roasted s'mores, and I made a campfire cake! It was so cute! However, I didn't have my camera because it was with Phil in Florida. So anyone who happened to take pictures, (Amber & Kathryn) I would love it if you would send some my direction please!

Well, now that this has been the LONGEST POST EVER, I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!