Hoggard Reunion

To kick off our family vacation we went to Delta, Utah for a Hoggard Family Reunion. We arrived Friday night in time for a BBQ and the kids to swing on the round clothes line. It was nice to see the men pushing 4 kids in a circle continuously for hours on end. We then pitched our tent and slept in Shiloh's grandparents backyard. All I need to say about camping is "Five people do not fit in a four man tent." On Saturday I went walking to sight see the booming metropolis of Delta and then Shiloh and Sean went golfing with some Uncles and Cousins. Midway through golfing I had to get the keys from Shiloh so I got in a golf cart and drove out to the furthest hole and it was a complete blast! I now know why men all rent their own golf carts. By afternoon we were ready to get wet and went swimming at the indoor city pool. I was reminded how scary the high dive is, after commenting that I use to jump all the time- my kids then wanted to witness the event. WOW ITS HIGH! That night we went to the park for the main reunion event of dinner and a show. Shiloh's side is definitely musically talented. That night we got a motel room and therefore got a decent nights sleep. On Sunday we went to brunch at a local Cafe and then we got to ride grandpa Hoggards Harley. This time Sean got on for a ride and Emma learned how to drive. I even got a ride- wooohoooo. We then went back to great grandpa and grandmas house for more visiting. After vegging on the lawn and watching each family leave we decided to move on to the next segment of our vacation.

Ryan found the hose and got completely soaked

Waiting for the festivities to begin

Shilohs cousin (Girls- he's a RM)

Grandma and Grandpa Hoggard and all the cousins (Maya)

Emma on bike

Sean on bike

Go Mom!

Vacation

I know that all my devoted followers will be truly saddened to know that I will not be blogging for the next couple of weeks due to the fact that I am going on vacation. Hopefully I will resume blogging again around July 8th or so. Until then I bid thee farewell!

Law Firm Bowling

Is bowling a true sport? I have never heard of anyone ever getting sore from bowling, but I have heard of injuries. I was under the opinion that it was not a sport until today and here are my reasons why 1) it can become very competitive and 2) my left butt cheek is incredibly sore today. It's a good thing I don't play 3 games of bowling every day. My scores were embarrassingly low, but at one point I was playing two games at once and I consecutively bowled a spare and then a turkey (3 strikes in a row.) HELLO~ I was on fire! After we bowled Shiloh's boss took us to Johnny Rockets for dinner. Yummy! Here are some good blackmail pictures.

Seans Party

Sean is not the most outgoing social kid and so all he wanted at his party was Ryland and Parker. Therefore I made the executive decision to just invite the whole families to make it a little more exciting. We had the Rigg and Sorensen families over for pizza and cake. It was a blast, the kids played and the parents just talked. Ryan slept through most of it. The picture below is priceless- it was taken at 9:00 when everyone was getting ready to go and it took forever to get it to look this good! Sean now wishes it could be his birthday every day- I just love this kid!Sean doesn't know how to blow out candles yet and so he blew really hard and I had to catch his drool before it got on the cake. He sure put a lot of effort into it and did succeed! Way to go Sean.

Happy 3rd Birthday Sean!

On June 23rd in Phoenix Arizona, Sean joined our family and it has been fun ever since. Today he is celebrating his third birthday. He informed us 2 months ago that he wanted "a batman cape with a batman sword, and a batman mask." When he woke up he went into the front room and found batman pajama's and then opened up the batman outfit and immediately put it on. He is actually taking a nap right now with it still on. It was givin by Ryan, Emma gave him Kung fu Warrior figures and a Transformer. Shiloh and I gave him a basketball hoop. Grandma and Grandpa Hoggard gave him the talking Hulk hands. Michelle and Aaron gave him the Remi figure. He's been playing hard all day. Tonight is the party and I made the cake and am showing it off to my mom. I'll post more later! Enjoy the pics!

Lookin Good Sean! Happy Birthday!

King of the castle

I give up- I will have a heart attack by the time I am 30. Yet Sean imagined a castle from the table and then created a throne on top. I do not want to know how he got up there or how he got down. I took the picture because he asked me to and I love him, but then I went in the other room to read books to Emma and Ryan and prayed he would be safe or would learn a lesson. Notice the cape- it has now been a constant for about a week and he loves going outside and letting the wind blow it because it means he's flying.

Laundry

You know it's a toss up as to which I hate worse- laundry or dishes. These are also the two jobs that keep getting larger the longer I am married. Today I did 8 loads- GOOD GRIEF! Sometimes I think it would be worth it to go to a laundry mat and get it all done in 90 minutes and you know the kids would have a blast. I always get the question as to whether or not I ever use my laundry lines so here is proof that I do. When the temperature outside is at 105 and you can choose to dry towels in the dryer for 40 minutes waisting electricity or hang them outside and they will be dry in 10 minutes using our natural resources, I choose the later. (Note: I never dry underwear or shirts outside) It's also fun seeing them drying because I have memories of my grandparents and my parents doing the same thing. I need to know if I am totally old fashioned or if anyone dries their clothes like this or wants to?

Happy Fathers Day/Happy Birthday

Happy Fathers Day!

(This is me when I was a baby-turning Michael S. Conder into a DAD.

I was born the day before Fathers Day)

This is my dad just a few years ago showing off his muscles, one of my favorite pictures.

I want to wish my Dad a Happy Fathers day and thank him for all the smiles he has brought to me and my family. He has been a wonderful father for 29 years, he is one who thinks everything through multiple times and is always a great example to follow. He has a great testimony and is a solid rock to lean on. Thanks for always being there for me.

This is Shiloh and Emma 2003

This is last Easter with Emma, Sean and Ryan

I want to wish my Husband a Happy Fathers Day. Even though I give him grief he is truly a wonderful father to our three children. He has a wild imagination that he shares with his children and they love to wrestle with their dad. He works hard to provide for his family and give them what they need and want. He has a mind that won't stop, and is the king of trivia. Thanks for all you do Shiloh! We love you tons!!

OK so I am not going to brag, but my husband and kids bought me a bike for my birthday. I love it, and they thought of my safety with the helmet. Thanks to everyone else for the cool gifts. Below is Ryan enjoying my birthday cake, yellow cake and chocolate frosting- YUMMY!

My Movie Reviews for the week

We went with the Riggs on Saturday to see Kung Fu Panda. It was AWESOME, and I highly recommend it to anyone with or without kids (which is everyone :)) All the kids were having some big belly laughs, and the adults loved the humor, and the movie came with a pretty good moral. I enjoy Jack Black humor without looking at him. My second movie is one that is a few years old, but one that I hadn't seen before. With the new batman movie coming out, and my son dressing up as batman every single day I decided that I would watch one. FX is famous for showing previous sequels before a movie is due out and so I watched Batman Begins. I came into the movie knowing very very little about him and walked away impressed wondering why I had never watched this movie before. It is great- not intended for children or anyone that hates violence. I am so looking forward to "The Dark Knight" and wish is wasn't already taken as a Mankino night. I might have to go see this one by myself unless I have a crazy friend who wants to go! (Come on Christian Bale is a hotty!!)

ABC Tag

ABC Tag

1. Attached or single: Attached
2. Best Friend: Shiloh of course
3. Cake or Pie: Cake (Chocolate)
4. Day: My perfect day would be sleeping in, going to Disneyland with my entire family and then ending it with a camp out under the stars.
5. Essential item: Friends
6. Favorite color: Right now it's Yellow
7. Gummi bears or worms: Gummy bears
8. Home town: American Fork, Utah
9. Indulgences: Sonic Happy Hour Drinks and Frosty float from Wendy's
10. January or July: July, I love the beginning of a monsoon after all the heat
11. Kids: 1daughter and two sons
12. Life is incomplete without: Laughter
13. Marriage date: April 28, 2000
14. Number of siblings: 1 and her name is Michelle
15. Oranges or apples: Apples
16. Phobias or fears: I am afraid of loosing friends or family
17. Quote: "If you can't reach for the sun reach for the stars be the best of whoever you are" (or something like that)
18. Reason to smile: Goofy comments from my kids and my husbands face hehe
19. Season: Summer- no school and all the fun in the water you can handle, vacations together
20. Tag: Stacey Hinton
21. Unknown fact about me: I welded for a summer job after I graduated from BYU
22. Very favorite store: Barnes and Noble
23. Worst habit: Sonic Happy Hour Drinks during the HOT summer
24. X-rays or ultrasounds: Ultrasounds to see babies
25. Your favorite food: A good Tamale
26. Zodiac sign: Gemini

Cottonwood City Luau

All I have done for the past week is swim, and I have the sunburn to prove it. The kids have truly loved every minute of it. We had 5 sessions of swim lessons, and am now finished. (Neither one passed, but they have made huge leaps in their swimming ability.) We went to the Camp Verde Pool for playgroup, we went to Sean's nursery swimming party at the Backus home, and then we went to the city Luau. Tomorrow we are going to a friends birthday party and swimming at their home too. Yep- this is Arizona living. Emma has an awesome tan, Sean is either red or white, and Ryan has been with babysitters or too covered up to get much sun at all. Although his first time in the pool he was a dare devil and loving it. Hope you enjoy some pictures.

Emma at the Luau

Sean and Shiloh at the Luau

Julie Emma and Sterling at Luau. By the way, at the Luau it only cost $1 a person to get pizza, drink, knots, swimming, and a raffle ticket. We also got some fun dance music to listen to, Lei's, Hawaiian dancers and tiki lights. We actually stayed the whole time. 6-9 We had tons of friends there and with the fun atmosphere it was an experience I will always remember.

This is Emma's final day of swim lessons, and this is as far as she got on the diving board.

This was Sean's final day of swim lessons and he was able to enter the big pool. Maybe he will pass next month when we do swim lessons again.

My Name

I went on a website that my friend had on her blog and found out that there are 529,365 people in the United States with the name of Julie, and 5, 324 people with the last name of Hoggard, and only 9 people with my same name. COOL!

Swim Lessons

My kids are the reason why swim lessons were invented. They refuse to get their hair wet and they tell their teachers "I don't like the water" or "My mom is making me do this." I thought that they would enjoy the experience as much as I did when I was their age! The first day it took me 45 minutes to convince Sean to go and then when we got there he wouldn't get into the pool until he had assessed the situation and tested the water, finally joining in the last 10 minutes. He has been a successful "guppy" (class name) ever since and it is nice to watch him play well with others and have fun. Emma was very willing to go but when we got to the pool her nerves kicked in and she just clings to the wall and when she is suppose to bob she puts just her lips under the water. I do need to confirm that after four days of swimming lessons we had major breakthroughs- they both put their full heads under the water intentionally and Emma moved away from the wall which is what I caught on my cell phone she will soon be a wonderful "minnow." We still have six more classes and the kids are coming along faster than I thought. By the way, the whole time Ryan is crawling around the picnic benches looking for dropped food if he doesn't find any he tries to eat the tables. It is a wonderful half an hour!

Happy Birthday Grandma Jabr!

I wish we were closer to come over for the festivities and so that your present would actually get to you on time! Hope you had a wonderful birthday! Thanks for all you do for us silly Arizona Hoggards, can't wait to see you in a few weeks and to eat your cookin. :) 5 things everyone should know about Marci 1. She is an awesome chef- and is willing to help me out all the time. 2. She takes great pride in her yard, and it always looks the best 3. She is so strong to have her husband work in Iraq for 50 weeks of the year, be in control of her MS, and have a teenage daughter. 4. She is very open to talk about anything which is interesting and very fun! 5. She loves her family a ton, and would do anything for any one of them even in a seconds notice. She's always worried about her parents, siblings, kids, grand kids, students, neighbors, and the country -she has a countdown (down to the last 1/10th of a second) to when Bush will no longer be president. I'm telling ya- she's fun. Here's looking to another great year! Love ya Grandma!

Emma's new dress!

To start off- my daughter is tall and skinny. Buying clothes can be a bit of a trial, but it is working out fine except for in the dress department. Everything is tooooooooo short and if we buy a bigger size than the neck is too low. So I decided to get my sewing machine out and make her a dress. Not out of my curtains! (I want her to actually wear it) We went to the store and I let her pick out the pattern and the material then at home I let her help in little ways with the dress. I got stuck at the zipper and had my highly resourceful friend Denise Steinert come over and help me- thank you, thank you! Anyways here is the final result, she loves it and did wear it to church. (As a matter of fact Sean loved it to and threw a huge fit because he wanted it. So we let him run around in the dress until his dad threw a bigger fit and we took it off- but it was a good chuckle.)