A precious life.

One glorious Saturday we gathered together to support our United States soccer team. To tell you the truth, I don't remember who they were playing this time. I'm pretty sure we won though, or at least that's what I hope. The Salmon's and Ayer's were the other participating families. We enjoyed some good food, and lot's of play time. Here is Parker with his adopted parents; John and Lindy.
I was very impressed with James and his ability to keep all the kids occupied at the same time. All the kids really loved hanging out with James. Jonah, Anya, Austria, Joshua and Parker. Lincoln still hasn't really warmed up to too many people so he did not join in.
Jen and Austria.
After the game we enjoyed a late evening (for the kids) of swimming in the pool.
Lincoln and Austria had fun running around the hand rail.
Lincoln spending quality time with daddy.
Anya, I don't think she will sink. She and Parker both wear the floaties on their arms and the ring around them.
Austria and Lindy.
Joshua.
Jonah. He is fantastic at swimming. All the younger kids just love him.
What else are the dads going to do?

Now the reason for the title on this blog post. The adults were enjoying some dinner and keeping an eye on the kids. The conversation must have become more intense because no one really noticed what Lincoln was up to. Willie turned in time to see Lincoln slip over the edge of the pool and into the water. He dumped his plate of food. At the exact same moment John also was taking off for the pool. Both men splashed in the water at the same time, Willie pulled Lincoln up out of the water. At the time I did not realize the severity of what could have happened had none of us noticed. Did the Holy Ghost whisper to Willie and John, perhaps not but maybe. Willie was shaken up a little. Lincoln didn't realize what had happened. We are grateful that we are still blessed to take care of Lincoln. We are grateful that we get to enjoy his wonderful spirit still. Ever more do I want to relearn CPR and other life-saving techniques. Thank you for letting us keep Lincoln with us.

Visiting with Georgia Family.

We were excited to make a special trip down to Salt Lake in May to see our wonderful friends from Georgia. When we left from Georgia last summer to go gallivanting around the country and into Europe we didn't realize we were going to miss out on some quality time with our friends before their unexpected move back to Utah. As we kept touch through email we found out that the Merkley's were headin' home. Luckily home is close to our home too. :)
While living in Georgia we have been blessed to have welcomed two new families into ours; the Merkley's and Salmon's. They are family to us and when they are gone we miss them so much. Even though our time was short we tried to make the best of it. As usual Camille and I took our boys out to play while the two older boys went and had their fun. Willie and Jake enjoyed playing some golf, sorry we don't have pictures. They little boys had fun at the playground, we did have plenty of pictures from this event.

Lincoln and Ethan.Parker and Christian.
Camille and myself.


I had the cutest video that just won't load. Maybe it's too long. Anyway the boys had fun at the park and so did Camille and I. After the playground we had a great dinner, a Merkley traditional (Hawaiian Haystacks). The Merkley boys went to bed and we attempted with our boys. Parker didn't do as well as we had hoped. We did get to play a game (Dominion), just the adults. We enjoyed catching up on fun events from each others last few months. We enjoyed our time together and we hope we get another opportunity down the road to do it again. Thanks for letting us stay at your house for so long.

Little Lincoln.

My little Lincoln is growing up. In the last week he has become so much more independent. He has decided to go down the stairs on his own holding onto the railing. Slowly he goes, but enjoying his freedom. He loves to eat with utensils now, he still needs help to get the food to stay on. He has enjoyed all of his moments in the pool. We could easily loose this kid in the pool because he has no fear of getting into the pool. Lincoln does so well at playing with Parker. Lincoln loves to make Parker laugh and vice versa. Lincoln has begun to lay down for us when he needs a big diaper change. He also has learned to hold up his hands so that we can pull his shirt off a little easier. Lincoln is becoming a very obedient child. I love his smile and when his eyes light up. Lincoln is really picking up on his vocabulary. He says many things that we can determine if we see what he is looking at. We enjoy hearing him say;
Dadda
Ball = ba
Balloon = boon
Woof = woo
track = tra
train =
dog = da
bubble = bubb
Parker = papa
Golf = gofLincoln has become more involved in prayers. He will fold his arms and put his head on the table. As of July 10th-ish he has begun to say prayers. He loves to get involved with prayers, as long as they are kept short. We are very impressed with his ever-increasing vocabulary. He loves to repeat what we say.

The Air Show.

We attended the Dekalb Airshow again. We had so much fun last year that we just had to visit again. We kept the boys up during their nap time, but they had a great nap on the way home. The airshow was great this year. We were able to enjoy more of it and see some pretty cool flying.
Lincoln was a great sight at the beginning. He was so excited to see the airplanes.


Parker didn't really want his picture taken at the moment, but he gave in a little later.A common sight among spectators, eyes in the sky.We didn't get firehats for the boys this year but we did get to show them the few firetrucks that they had. These two airplanes put on a great display of flying. They flew right at each other a couple of times, it scared one lady pretty good. It was a nice hot day with a little breeze every now and again. We convinced Parker to wear a hat but Lincoln wouldn't fall for it. We did our best keeping them hydrated but they still had red cheeks most of the day.Parker loved the playground and had fun on his own. There were so many kids that it was kind of scary thinking that anyone could have taken Parker without us knowing it. Lincoln was content to watch the planes a lot.

Happy Father's Day.

What better way to spend Father's Day than with your kids. The boys gave Willie a make-it-yourself bird feeder. They had so much fun on Saturday morning spending some time together. The first part of the project was painting it. I must say that the boys did really well. Willie was teaching the boys about mixing colors to get a new color. Lincoln accepted help when provided.
Some of the pictures are blurry because I didn't want to use the flash. When I used the flash it would make it look like it was dark outside when really it was a beautiful morning.

The finished paint job. The boys did pretty good and only ended up with a little bit of paint on their shirts.
The second part of the project was to assemble the bird feeder. The hammer was a hit! ;)

Little hands. I love the next two pictures. The first is with Parker and the second is with Lincoln.


Lincoln is great at making faces. Only on occasion do I get a photo of his brilliant looks. Yeah, the finished product! The boys had fun spending time with dad and using the hammer.What cute boys. I did have a cute video of the boys really loving the hammer, unfortunately it was too long to post. On the real Fathers Day (Sunday) Willie took it easy. Parker took this picture of Willie, not too bad.A yummy Father's Day treat. This was enjoyed all week long.

Grandma turns 80!

Happy Birthday Grandma. We are excited that we could be with you on such a special day. Thank you for being a wonderful example to us. We hope that we will be as positive, happy, energetic, and entertaining as you are.
You have accomplished so much in your life and you have shown us how to be happy through all the trials that you have faced. Parker and Lincoln played on a see-saw for their first time. I watched as Grandma came outside to enjoy all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren playing. Grandma you do find so much joy in life.
On Grandma's actual birthday we celebrated at my parents house. This was a fun night and we loved to see Grandma's smile and hear her laughter.
Another person that we enjoyed watching this night was Daxton. He would take one grain of cupcake at a time and eat it. Dax kept us entertained with his eating habits. What a kid.