The cast comes off.

After only four weeks of having a splint on.... it came off, and the pins that were in his bones were taken out. Boy.... Little ones heal fast! But at this time, the bone still had a miner fracture, so we had to be super careful with him. (No tramps, play grounds, or even nursery.) But he has endured it well. Two weeks later, he had another X-ray, and the bone was completely healed, but he still doesn't have total mobility with it yet. (Meaning that he can't quite put it all the way straight, but the doctor says that should be fine in another couple weeks. And he can put it more and more straight every day.) So the Broken Arm ("Bad, Bad, Owie" --as Scott says) is pretty much over. Thank heaven. He is so cute. You just hate to see your little guy having any problems. But he really was a trooper, and just so cute.



Here he is just before we went to the Doctors.

And here he is when we got back.

"Look how cute we are, you should take our picture!"

My kids seriously came up to me tonight asking me to take their picture. And when I asked why, they possed for me and said, "Look how cute we are, you should take our picture!" So I did. And yes...they are super cute. I should take their pictures more often!

Cast Buddies!

Grandpa Mortensen and Scott-- showing off their cast together! Scott (who broke his arm), and Grandpa (who had knee surgery). Luckily, both will recover quickly, and wont need to look like this for long! (But it makes for a super cute picture!)

Happy Birthday Julie!

My birthday this year wasn't exactly a "thrill a minute", but that was perfect! I just can't run around a lot right now. But the parties we had were a lot of fun, and I got to have Wingers Sticky Fingers and Papa John's Pizza that night for dinner! And I got lots of wonderful presents!!! Thank you everyone!!! I really like the things I got to hang on my walls...because they are beautiful, and because it motivated me to finally hang something on my walls. So now the house looks a little cozier, even though it is still under construction, and even though many of the picture frames are still empty. Oh well. But Jared did a great job shopping for me! I was very pleased with everything. Life is good! The best present is that I have such an awesome family!

WE FOUND TT!

This cute, but very LITTLE teddy bear has been missing for over a year! It was my teddy when I was young, then I gave it to Joshua a couple years ago who named it "T.T.", and LOVED it. It was his favorite! And I thought his name choice was cute and creative. So we were all super sad when it mysteriously disappeared last summer. We had family visiting, and in the chaos, I figured it got taken into a car, probably fell out somewhere, and was gone forever! But last night Jared found it in his closet, stuffed inside a sock! Now there is a place where mom would not have looked! (And I had looked in a lot of places!) So we are thrilled with his return! Hopefully T.T will not go missing again any time soon!

Visiting Family!

We were blessed to have Seth & Caroline and Adam & Christine's families come and visit. (David and Missy came the week before, but I actually didn't get any photo's of them....sorry.) We all had a really good time together. We managed to keep busy, and got plenty of time to play and socialize. It is always fun when we can get together!

Here we are having a "party" in the back yard.
This was something we did just to keep the kids busy and entertained. It wasn't very long, but it was a lot of fun.

I even made a "pinata". But it wasn't strong enough. Oh well...the fact it's filled with candy is the best part.

Playing "Clue". With our books for privacy as we fill out our sheets to see "who done it." We always play lots of games together. One of my favorite parts of our get togethers.

The Sprinter Van test drive. Kip is looking at getting one of these for the business. And who know's....maybe we will want one someday too. So we thought we'de take it out for a ride and show it to Seth and Caroline.

"The wheels on the bus go round and round...."

The trampoline is always a highlight for the kids.

Kip and Josh.

Breanne and Carlie.

Preggo Mommy! (I finally got a picture of me pregnant with baby #5.)

Breanne and Ella enjoying a popsicle.

Sadie and Scott, having popcorn and watching a show. (Too cute!)

Playing games together. Here we are playing Spoons, but we also love Catch Phrase, Settlers of Cattan, Clue, Tumblin' Monkeys, and many more. Plus lots of video games!

Here's Breanne with here stuffed animals on her bed. (She just wanted me to take this picture of her, and it turned out super cute.)

Makin' cupcakes with Megan and Lucy.

Another "keep the kids busy" project. We had the girls make and decorate their own cupcakes. They had a blast! It was super fun and they were yummy!

Pretty cute huh?!

"Want a cupcake?"

Lucy

Scott

Happy Fourth of July! We did fireworks with everyone! It was fun, and special because they can't do fireworks in Arizona on their streets. So it was a new experience for some of our nieces.

Primary Pioneer Parade and Carnival

My job in the primary presidency is to do our quarterly activities. And I loved doing the primary parade and carnival so much at our old ward that I thought I would start doing it in this ward. It was a huge success! Everyone had a lot of fun and we had a great turn out. 8 month pregnant me did not walk the parade route, but I got it started then waited for everyone at the carnival site. The kids played "drums" and "shakers" and threw candy as they walked the streets of our ward. They then ended up behind the church where we had 12 different carnival games for them to play. It was really a lot of fun. We'll see if it becomes a tradition.


Jared walking with the boys.

Here's Josh at the carnival.

Breanne.

Scott, taking a turn to knock the bull down.

The Broken Bone

So we had our first major E.R. trip. Scott fell off G-ma's trampoline because he was trying to sit on the edge with his popsicle, and broke his arm just above his elbow. It was a really bad break that required him to go into an emergency surgery to have 2 pins put in to hold the bone in place. Luckily it looks like the pins were a success and he didn't have to go in for another surgery. Now we wait another week, then do another x-ray to make sure everything is healing properly, and then put a cast on for a couple of weeks, then eventually...pull the pins out when his is all better! We are just grateful for the wonderful surgeon who has done a great job, and for all the modern inventions and medicines that make it to where this injury was able to be fixed. He has sure been a trooper throughout the whole thing, and has gotten pretty used to his bulky arm. But it sure was a scary and tramatic experience for Mom and Dad.

Here he is at the E.R. before the surgery.

No fun seeing such a little guy like that.

Field Trip to Sweet's Candy Factory

We had the best time going to the Sweet's Candy Factory! It was so neat because they took you all in the factory. But they wouldn't let you bring a camera in....so no pics of that. These are just the pics I got after the tour and in the candy shop. The kids loved seeing how all the different types of candies were made, and we all learned a lot! This is definitely my favorite field trip of this year! Too Yummy!

We had to wear these hair nets while in the factory. Scott just looked too cute with his on.

Grandma Mortensen with the kids.

"Cheese!"

The kids favorite part was at the end when they could pick out candy of their own (mom let them pick out 10 candies each.) And it was fun, cause then they could leave with their own bag of candy. (Mom left with plenty of treats for herself too!)

What a fun place to go! If you haven't been...I highly recommend it!