The First Half of Our Summer

Summer is FLYING by! I can't believe it is more than half way over!

I am adding pictures of what we have been up too. :)

LJ and I were able to go to Cub Scout Day Camp together. We had a ton of fun!

We had the Sibbett Family Reunion at the end of June, in Lava Hot Springs. Our Sibbett clan was in charge and put a ton of work into getting it organized. We had a blast camping along the river, and hanging out. We really enjoyed the big Lava pool and loved seeing everyone at the big Picnic on Sunday. Our family looks forward to this every year. (We missed Megan, Annemarie, and Lucy's family.)

We roasted strawberries dipped in marshmallow creme. They were AMAZING!

LJ and his pose, while exploring the town. HA!

The boys have really enjoyed fishing this summer. They go out to the lake in the early mornings when AJ goes to run. This is BJ fishing at Nana and Grandaddy's ponds.

This is IJ at the lake after catching his first fish!

We had a great 4th! In IJ's words, "This is my favorite holiday!" AJ and SJ ran in a 10k in the morning and then we went out to Mom and Dad's. We had a yummy dinner followed with apple pie and ice cream.

The boys, all of them, love lighting off fireworks. They get this from their Dad! (Here they are lighting smoke bombs, so no worries of them blowing up in their faces!)

 

Me and my boys. <3 

 

We celebrated BJ's 16th birthday. I can't believe I have a 16 year old! He wanted apple pie for his "cake." He wanted camping stuff so we took him shopping and we also ate dinner at Cafe Rio, his pick.

We bought AJ a "new to us" car. His car was on it's last leg and he deserved a new one! He loves it. It is a Jeep Compass.

I was our Ward Camp Director and camp was ... INCREDIBLE! We have such AMAZING girls in our ward. I was nervous going up to camp not knowing the girls, but I really enjoyed getting to know each one of them. It was really hot and dusty, but we survived. :) I had really AWESOME women that served with me and I love getting to know them, too. I can't wait until next year. We made the girls the cutest things and we received darling stuff from our secret ward. I will treasure my memories of that week.

Since being back from girls camp, we have made a ton of jam. The boys were such great helpers making the jam, I will always ask for their help in the future. Our boys LOVE homemade jam and I think I made enough to last the next year. :D

We have also made YUMMY ice cream. It is really simple and DELICIOUS! I got the recipe off of Pinterest. (My very favorite website right now.)

 You use only THREE ingredients.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz. tub Cool Whip
1/2 gallon chocolate milk

Mix these together and pore them into your ice cream maker. (Our ice cream maker is smaller and only uses half of this recipe. We were able to make it again a few nights later with the other half.)

We are off to enjoy the second half of our summer!

First Week of Summer

Our first week of summer went by way to fast! We have been super busy getting ready for a reunion this weekend. We have made really cute crafts for the family auction. SJ also competed in the Jr. Olympics in Boise on Saturday. We love to watch him run and we got really nice comments from his coach. I have also been really busy getting things prepared for Girls Camp! (which is July 10-14)

I thought I would share a few pictures of some things we have been up to.

Last Day of School Sundaes provided by my parents. They sure were yummy! (Thanks M&D!)

Last Day of School dinner at Joe's Crab Shack! MMMMM! (BJ has been in this kick of being goofy in pictures!)

A really cool picture I took for Photoaday of a low angle.

Our 4 AMAZING boys!

BJ and LJ having fun.

Photoaday

One of my favorite apps on my iPhone is Instagram. It is like FaceBook, but with pictures. One of the fun things that I have done is "PhotoaDay". I got a list of photos, off the internet, to be taken on a certain day of the month.

I really enjoy doing this. It encourages me to be creative and to take more pictures. I thought I would post some of the pictures here, although I may not post all of them, some are silly and not important.

Here are a few of my recent ones

Morning - Waiting for the bus, only one week left!

Empty - Our empty paint cans, after 2 long days of painting.

Close-up - A close-up of our willow tree that blew down with our storm tonight. :( It was finally recovering and was looking great after loosing part of it last fall. We are really sad, especially the boys.

A week of Pictures

IJ had D.A.R.E. graduation last Friday. This is Officer Baldazo with IJ. He really enjoyed D.A.R.E. and we are so grateful that our school has this program.

AJ had a Birthday on Monday. He choose Key Lime Pie for his cake and it was so good!

AJ's parents came over for Memorial Day Weekend. We had a ton of fun. We went out to dinner, watched movies, played games and they helped us get our house ready to paint. They were a HUGE help, we never could have gotten it done without them.

LJ working on his Pinewood Derby car.

I LOVE this picture!

LJ with the final product on the day of the race. He really had fun racing his car.

Mom and Dad starting the painting on the house. This is another time when we could not have gotten this project done without the help of others! They were a BIG help the past 2 days.

This is before and after shots of the house! We LOVE it!

 Dad and AJ afterwards. <3

I especially love my red door!

As you can see, this was a crazy, busy week! Thank you to ALL of those that helped, it wouldn't have gotten done without you!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Those of you that know me, know that I love to find and try new things. Here are 2 of my favorites lately.

Strawberry Eggo Waffles

The other day we bought the boys waffles for their breakfasts. (We go through cereal so fast, and you only have 2 waffles, so we are thinking this may save us money. Hopefully!) We decided to try a few different kinds and I LOVE the strawberry ones. I kind-of hoard them! :)

Dried Coconut by Philippine

We discovered these on Saturday and I can't get enough! Sooo yummy! I am going to have to limit my intake! (We found these at Costco. This is the same brand as the dried Mangos. We can't have the mango ones in our house, because I eat them all and get sick!)

What should I try next?

Our Happening

My new goal is to blog once a week!

A few bits of info on what we have been up to:

• AJ and I went away for a weekend in February. We went to SLC and had a ton of fun. (Thanks, M&D for watching the boys!)
• SJ just finished up Track for the season. He ended up going to districts and placing 9th in the 1600m. His time was 5:17!
• LJ did a presentation at school on Abraham Lincoln. He did so good!

• We are finishing up the school year, we have 3 weeks left! I think our summer is already jam-packed with activities! We can't wait!
• I got released from Cub Master at church. I am now the wolf leader (LJ is in wolves, so this will be great!) and the YW Camp Director! I am a bit intimidated by the camp director calling, but I am super excited. I am excited to get to know the girls and I am serving with AMAZING woman and I know we will have a blast!
• SJ and AJ ran a HALF MARATHON yesterday! I am so proud of them, they had been training hard for a while. SJ finished in 1hr. 28sec. and AJ finished in 1hr. 52sec. SJ took second in his age division and finished in 35th place!

• We are all training for the Color Run. I am super excited to do this with our family, it will be my first "race".
• BJ had to complete a big "Innovations Project" for school. He did it on Indian housing and made models of them. It turned out really neat and I know he enjoyed doing it. (He will be turning 16 in July! I can't believe it!)

•  I had a great Mother's Day! My boys are awesome. LJ brought me breakfast in the morning. (Eggo's and Diet Coke!) They bought me awesome gifts and made neat things for me. We went to Star to have dinner with my parents. It was great to spend Mother's Day with my Mom. She is the best!

•  A few weekends ago, AJ, BJ, SJ, and IJ went on a Scout Camp-out. They had so much fun. IJ and BJ built their own shelter and slept in it. :)  Those two sure love stuff like that!
• We had a good Spring Break. We slept in and enjoyed each other. We did the Mom/Son dates again. I really enjoy these and I know the boys LOVE them.
• AJ and I celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary last weekend! Crazy it has been that long! I love him so much and am so lucky to have found him. He is a great husband and dad. <3
• Next weekend we are going to get our house ready to paint! I am really excited about this, it has needed it for a while now. The following weekend, Dad will come out and help get it painted. YAHOO!

You are all caught up! 

December

We had a great Christmas! We were able to see every member of my family! We had so much fun. I love the Christmas Holiday for this reason, I love spending time with family.

We played some fun games!

We celebrated LJ's 8th Birthday.

We had a blast Christmas day. So much fun, that we forgot to take pictures! But believe me, we had a blast! We had Megan and Annemarie, and their 2 dogs here for the week of Christmas.

Erin and her family were here for the weekend of Christmas. 

I LOVE having my sisters around. I wish we all lived closer to each other.

Lucy and her family arrived on New Year's Eve. We had not seen Derrick in 2 years! It was great to reconnect and play with their kids.

Lucy and I

This last weekend we held LJ's Baptism. It was a neat experience. AJ's parents were able to come over for it. My parents were also here. (They live in Star, about 20 miles away.) I can't believe my baby is baptized! I am so proud of him. He is such a cute kid. He has such a sweet spirit and I love hanging out with him. He is very talkative and can hold his own with the boys. 

LJ and AJ

We are all proud of you, LJ!

Stockings

The boys have always had lame stockings. Just ugly dollar store ones.

Not anymore!!!

A really good friend of ours made us stockings this year, and I must say, they are AMAZING!

She even made AJ and I some. 

She used ties to make the cuff edge. I can't get over how much I love them! Thanks, Jamie!

November

Our November when by in a blur! 

SJ finished up Cross Country with Sage Middle School and was asked to join a Cross Country Club. He had a lot of fun and really pushed himself. He had a regional meet on the 12th, which he took 16th place in. He ran soo fast!

The following weekend, AJ, BJ, SJ and IJ entered the Turkey Trot. This was a 4 person, relay race. We were really proud of all of them! They really enjoyed it.

For Thanksgiving, we headed over to Rexburg, to spend it with AJ's family. We stopped off at my sister, Erin's house for a few days first. We had so much fun! We love spending time with them. We had a great Thanksgiving with AJ's family. We had such a relaxing, enjoyable time. I also had a great birthday!

 Luke wrote this in school,after our Thanksgiving Break. I love how he spelled Erin Rebecca!

We did have a scare! I accidentally turned on a stove burned under a Pyrex pan and it exploded! I was standing right next to the stove when it happened and my knuckle got cut up by one of the flying glass shrapnel. By the time AJ walked into the kitchen, the shortbread that had been in the pan was on fire, there was glass EVERYWHERE and I was dripping blood everywhere. It took us over an hour to clean up the mess and we were finding glass shards for weeks! We were really lucky that the boys weren't in the kitchen at the time or that I didn't receive more damage.

SJ and AJ were in the Boise Christmas Run today. SJ took 2nd place in his age division! (There were about 100 kids in that division.) We love that he has found something that boosts his confidence and that he enjoys.

We are really excited for Christmas! Through out the break, we will get to see all of my sisters and their families! We have not seen Megan, Annemarie, Lucy and her 2 little ones since May and we have not seen Lucy's husband for 1 1/2 years. I LOVE Christmas time!