Wolfcreek - August 9th, 2010

Aunt Melissa invited me and the kids to hang out with her and her kids at their Wolf Creek timeshare. We had a blast!! We hung out and watched TV and played games and ate lots and lots of treats. We played at the pool and had Family Home Evening. Thanks Becca for the great lesson. We ended the night by picking up all the pieces to the game Risk out in the parking lot in the pitch black night. We used the headlights from my car and a few good samaritan's cars to find all of the pieces. It was pretty hilarious.

Carter and Max hangin out.

I swear these Parker and Jameson are twins because they are so much alike.

Jake and Carson are the other set of twins because they are quite a bit alike.

We played alot at the pool. Normal well-behaved children

Crazy, Silly, Goofy, Weird, Out-of Control Children. You decide which one is reality.

Ashleigh helped Carter learn to float on his back.

Katelynn wore Aunt Melissa out. Katie loved to go down the big waterslide and Melissa was the person of choice to catch her at the bottom.

The Stromberg Family Loses their Patriarch

Kyle's grandfather passed away on Monday, August 2nd. We attended his funeral yesterday. I feel so blessed to be a part of the Stromberg family and to have been able to get to know their wonderful patriarch over the last 15 years. I learned many things while attending the funeral yesterday and felt the spirit many times during the service. Kyle's grandpa left a legacy and lived a righteous life. The blessings of his righteousness were apparent to me as we were sitting in the chapel as a family. Grandma and Grandpa Stromberg have 6 children, 26 grandchildren, and 47 great grandchildren. Grandpa had a strong testimony of the Savior and of our Heavenly Father. He loved people and enjoyed serving others. He loved his wife Bernice with all of his heart and treated her with great respect and love. He also taught his children and grandchildren the importance of treating their spouses with love. Every time I saw Grandpa he made sure to ask me if Kyle was taking good care of me. The Book of Mormon talks about traditions being passed on from generation to generation and Kyle's grandfather passed on a rich legacy full of traditions both spiritual and temporal. When I married Kyle I was introduced to Swedish pancakes and I learned yesterday that Grandpa would make swedish pancakes for his children anytime that they requested it even if it was at one in the morning. My children love swedish pancakes and it was exciting for them to realize that they are connected to their grandfather in that simple yet profound way. Kyle loves vacations and now I know that the love of vacations came from Grandpa and his diligence in going on a family vacation with his wife and children at least once a year. Grandpa was truly a gentle giant and I am so grateful that I know that I will see him once more and that I will be able to thank him for the righteous influence that he has had on me, my husband, and my children. We love you Grandpa!!

Hopefully this isn't too embarassing for the three amigos.


We went to Chuck E Cheese's one night

Another Try at Blogging

I've decided to give blogging another try. My first attempt lasted only a short while but I feel the need to preserve memories. In May my brother found out he has cancer and my neice was diagnosed with leukemia. I am feeling nostalgic and realizing that each day we have is a gift. I want to write my thoughts and feelings down and post pictures and have a way of preserving moments. Hopefully I will be more diligent this time around.


Katelynn and I just returned from visiting my brother in Missouri. We had a wonderful time and it was sooo good to reconnect with Josh and Ali and get to know Conrad and Amelia bettter. Josh and Ali, if you are reading this thanks for being great hosts and making Katelynn and I feel welcome in your home. You two are absolutely amazing and such an example to me. I really look up to the both of you and love your sweet family so much. Kyle stayed home with the other four kids and ended up getting pretty sick while we were gone. Kyle, thanks for supporting me and encouraging me to go and see Josh and Ali. We went to some of the church sites in Missouri but sadly I forgot my camera. We went to Independence, Liberty Jail, and Adam-ondi-ahman. We also went to Jamesport Missouri which has the largest Amish community west of the Mississippi. I was able to see lightning bugs for the first time and experience the awesome humidity of Missouri. The pictures above are from our trip.

CALIFORNIA TRIP - DAYS 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

I am finally done posting about our vacation that we took 2 months ago. Pretty pathetic I know, but that's what happens when you have 5 kids and the holidays...By now most of you could probably care less about our vacation but I can't let a good thing die or leave a project incomplete. So I am sorry about the abundance of pics and the length of this post, but I promise it is the last that you will hear of our AWESOME vacation to CALIFORNIA.

We went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park on Day 6.

We let the 3 older kids buy some nector to feed these Lorakeets. It was pretty fun to watch the birds fly right on their arm and eat out of their hand. Carson had one of the Lorakeets right up by his face just staring at him.

We were able to see the keepers feed the cheetahs, they kept stalking the trams that went past their enclosure.

On Day 7 we were planning on going to Disneyland, but about half way there from San Diego (about an hour into our drive) Carson and Katelynn were thowing up!!! We turned back around and spent a sick day at the Condo.

This pretty much sums up the day for Max!!! If you look in the upper right hand corner you can see that he just chucked his hat.

Day 8 - We finally made it to Disneyland!!! It was a dream come true kind of day. The crowds were really light so we were able to walk onto most rides. We were able to meet most of the characters that we wanted to. We watched the parade which Katelynn absolutely loved!!! She danced and squealed as every float went by and we ended the day with ice cream from Main Street. It was so much fun.

I had to put this picture in because the best thing I did was buy a gigantic sized box of succors. This kept the kids occupied and happy and they didn't drive us nuts asking for treats and food. I also packed ziplock baggies for each of the kids full of trail mix, fruit snacks, granola bars, salt water taffy's, and gold fish.

Parker was not happy to have his picture taken with Minnie Mouse as you can plainly see. We had a few brief glimpses of Parker as a teenager with all the attitude of one.

This guy had the same name as Ashleigh only spelled differently so we had to get a picture of him.

Snow White was by far the cutest princess with the girls. She talked to them for a very long time and both of them couldn't keep their eyes of her.

Eating Ice Cream at the end of a very Magical day.

Day 9- More Disneyland and 3 disgusting diaper fiascos. Katelynn was still trying to get rid of her illness and I saw more of the bathrooms than I did of the park. I packed two extra outfits and we went through both of them plus the outfit she was wearing. We ended up having to buy an outfit in Disneyland because I was all out of clothes. We still managed to have a good time despite 3 diaper blowouts.

Katelynn fell in love with Tinkerbell on the trip. It doesn't show in this picture, but she could hardly contain herself when she saw her standing there. She was jumping up and down squealing. I wish I had video of it, but you will just have to take my word for it. Parker and Carson were able to take part in the Jedi Traing Academy. This was the highlight of the trip for both of them. They were able to fight Darth Maul on stage!!!

We ended up taking Day 9 off and hanging out with Kyle's Aunt Chris!! Day 10 we went to California Adventures and Disneyland. Kyle and I were sick on this day so once again we spent more time than we wanted in the bathrooms, but once again we still managed to have a great time. We didn't take very many pictures of this day probably because we were just trying to make it to the next bathroom. Hahahaha.

On the drive home we saw double rainbows somewhere between Fillmore and Nephi. It was really beautiful. We drove all the way from Anaheim to home in one day and the kids did amazing which was an answer to prayers.