Mike's Father's Day

I had found this idea on the Internet somewhere and decided to make one for Mike for Father's Day. I sat down and asked the boys some words that described their father. So we each have our words in this framed piece of art. I printed it to be an 11x14 and framed it for him. I think he really liked it! The kids love telling you the words they added to it.

This day always makes me really miss my dad!! He was such a good man and had so many good qualities!!! I often think of how different it would be in our family if our father was still here to be able to ask questions to, or to watch football with, or to go on family trips with, or our most favorite would have to be the camping trips!! I loved to go camping with my dad!! He was a ton of fun!

He had this contagious smile that would make others around him smile when they saw him! He was a happy person who was a hard worker, dedicated father, spiritual leader with a good heart and was always serving someone!!

Days like this make me miss him so much and I wish he was here!! I know that my boys would loved him as much I as I do!! He loved playing with kids and always fought over them, to be able to play with or hold them!! I know that he would have been a great example to them and would have taught them about the gospel or the importance of a strong testimony of the Savior and His teachings!!

I really gained a lot of my testimony from my Grandma and her amazing example in my life! (which was his mother) So I often wonder how different our lives would be with him here! I am trying to share his legacy with my children so they can know who he was and what a great guy he was!!

I am glad they have a father who can teach them good things!! Mike is a wonderful father to them and a great example of kindness! He has a good heart also and works hard to provide for our family!! I am so blessed to have him as my husband and the father of our children! He is teaching them how to work hard and to be grateful for what they have and I am so appreciative of this!! He teaches them how to pray for things they need and how to love the Lord and to be obedient to the commandments. I love how he spends time with them doing things they want to do! He cares about being a dad and family man! He is loyal to our family and our purpose together and I love that!!

We woke up and got our King for The Day stuff ready and his chair. We filled a cooler with lots of stuff he loves and wanted him to have a good day!!
Then each of them handed him their gift from them. They were games that they could play with dad and a card that they made for him.Later in the day he wanted to take the boys to Hill Aerospace Museum and looked at planes and talked to the boys about men (fathers) who had given their lives in service to our country! It was good and the boys loved seeing all the planes of course. It was finally a nice day without any rain!

Of course we had one of his favorite meals, pork roast mashed potatoes and asparagus. I made homemade wheat Cinnamon rolls that were sooo yummy and his favorite wheat bread!
We had a great day together as a family and it was a rare treat. Here lately with all the Swine flu going around Mike has been very busy at work and so we haven't seen him much! I think it is going to continue throughout this summer! I hope it gets better!!

How was your fathers day??

Some fun for summer!!

Okay so I can not believe that you all don't have any ideas for some summer fun!! But just in case I decided to find somethings to do because I have trouble keeping the kids busy allllllll summer long!! The first two weeks are always fun!! I love having them home I just seem to get NOTHING done so I thought and thought HOW can I get all the things done I need to and still have a ton of fun with the kiddos???!!! So I have pulled together a bunch of ideas and thought I would share them on here for all of you who lack ideas!! :) I must admit I looked all over the internet for some of these and most of them are the good Ole day fun things! Really all they want is your attention!! I have decided you don't have to go to Disneyland to have fun, although that is a ton of fun also!! :)

Watch the sunset together.

Water Balloons

Make popcorn balls

Go on lots of walks

Play at the park and do a picnic (done plenty of these!!)

Make wood boats and let them paint them and use your swimming pool to have races

Make bird feeders and feed the birds

Feed the ducks

Teach them old maid, war, skipbo

Play frisbee

Build a fort ( done this a TON!!)

Paper airplane contests

Make a house out of cardboard

Put your tent up in the backyard and camp in it! (done this also, fun, not nearly as messy as the real thing!!

Plan a trip to another country and find out what it is like there and teach them about the country even make some of the things they eat there (sounds fun huh!)

If all else fails result to the sprinkler!! :)

Seriously people let me know if you have any other ideas!! LOVE to hear them!! Good luck on your summer fun! We are going to sit down tonight and put some of these on a calander and make sure we do them!!

Here are some pictures of our summer last year (love pictures, they bring back so many memories!!)

When mom's away the boys will play!!

Ok so I told you I went to Time Out for Women this last weekend. Well when I got home this is what I had to look forward to!! Yes you see this shirt, it was a very nice white shirt!! So Mike took Austin and Tucker to Scout Camp on Friday and then that evening they went to the Father and Son's Outing. Yes EVERYTHING smelled of smoke in my laundry room. Well as I was sorting the clothes to get rid of the wonderful smell, I ran across this shirt. It was one of my favorites on Austin. It was a crisp white color with blue sleeves. Well it now is brown with blue sleeves. I called Austin in and asked him what happened to his shirt. To which he replied, " I was climbing a mountain." All I could do was smile and say "I see you had a ton of fun!!" He smiled and said "yes I did mom." I put the dirty white sock up there so you can sort of visualize what this shirt looked like before his climb! I also thought "I bet you rolled to the bottom!!" :)



As I was washing these boys' laundry I was thinking how there is this major BIG difference between boys and girls!!! Smiles came to my face and it was so clear to me how we as women like to make sure we have all the things for our trek on the mountain side. We are caretakers and we see to it that everything is packed and we are ready for our climb. Now for the boys they are just wanting to get as dirty as possible and they are all hands on!! For them that is really where the pure joy is! I often get jars with spiders, bugs or flies in them. Occasionally they pick flowers for me out of the grass or my garden beds. My favorites are the little strawberry flowers. :) Of course we never see the strawberries but we have plenty of flowers. Another favorite is when I hear this clanging noise in my dryer and I open to find a pile of rocks or marbles someone forgot to take out of their pockets. It just means they were having a good day!! I know that when they get older I will miss the messy hand prints on doors or muddy footprints across the floor when you have just mopped!! (at the time you are ready to scream and kick something because you just spent the last hour on your hands and knees cleaning it.) Another favorite is mud pies and they just keep adding more water to it.


Here is a good picture from last years mud pies.


As you can tell my boys have no idea what stay out of the mud means!!


I wish I could have been there for Austin's climb! I imagine it was another moment like this one. With a shirt like that he had to be a beautiful site!!


That night they came home and went to bed and got up Sat. morning for Scout camp again. They left early from that and went to Austin's soccer game where he scored his first goal!! Missed that also!! Then onto Salt Lake to play wheelchair sports with Tucker. The two of them have not stopped talking about how much fun soccer was in a wheelchair and how they liked playing together!! I guess I missed out on a lot of fun around here! Yet dirt and smell in my house shows that I am glad I went to fill my bucket of things I need to help my journey here on earth be better and so I can climb my mountain and so my boys can continue enjoying their journey of fun!! :)


That is what I have decided to do more of!! Enjoy my journey!! The relief society have been bringing around tiles for birthday's that have the quote from Pres. Monson that reads "Let us relish life as we live it and find joy in the journey." I have really been thinking about this lately and seeing how much fun my boys are always having and I am going to try to do this more often. I know we all have different roles and that we need to make sure we are getting things done also but so often I forget to enjoy the journey.


Onto the next thing Sunday Mike had to teach Elders Quorum as soon as he was done he went to work in the ER. The rest of us are having a nice relaxing day at home when I here Austin yelling "hurry Bryson, come on let's get mom, HURRY, HURRY. So I meet them at the top of the stairs and Bryson has blood running down his face and is crying like crazy. I am trying to stay calm so I can find out what happened. Austin is saying "mom I don't want you to be mad at me." I am thinking if you don't tell me I am going to get mad. I calmly say your brother is hurt and I need to know what happened so I can help him. Well the story is that we have a small exercise trampoline downstairs and they were throwing their trucks at the tramp and bouncing them up. His truck bounced and hit Bryson in the head. All while I am cleaning him up and getting ready to take him down to the ER so his dad can have a look at it, Bryson is explaining it over and over to me only his Truck is the F word. He has yet to pronounce it TR uck. We keep working on it. So he is yelling the F word at me while he is crying and so intent on telling me what happened. I am smiling thinking please stop saying that word.


We get to the ER and he tells the story again with the F word for everyone there. :) I feel like I have to explain it every time so people don't think that I have taught him the F word!! He ended up with about an inch cut on his head. And they ended up just gluing it shut. We are hoping that won't leave a huge scar!! Needless to say Mike was surprised to see his own family there!! There are some benefits to having someone work in the ER!! :)




I love these boys so much and I am so glad Heavenly Father has sent them to me I just pray I can be the kind of mom they need me to be!! I want to have a ton of fun like I said earlier and enjoy the journey. I want to ask all of you for some fun boy ideas to do this summer. I am all mud pied out and tired of doing laundry so I am hoping for some new ideas of what to do!! Mike has a very busy June and July schedule so I need to get them out of the house and doing some fun things!! Can't wait to hear your ideas!!

So much going on I hope it slows down!!

Oh I don't even know where to begin!! We have been so stickin busy around here!! I keep thinking that I will get some time to sit down and write some things that have happened and well I can't even believe how the time is flying!!

So the last two days I was at Time Out For Women in Pocatello Idaho!

It was exactly what I needed!! I think I have been running on an empty spiritual bucket for a long time now!! It was such a good thing for me and it was really fun to be able to go with a friend I have had since 6th grade!! Thanks Harley for inviting me!! We got a hotel there in Pocatello and my mom watched my little one while Mike stayed home with Tucker and Austin so Tucker could go to Scout Camp and Austin could play his last soccer game (which he scored his first goal) I was a little sad I missed it! He is so cute and loves to play it is fun to watch him get aggressive!! This is his first year and he has loved every minute of it!!

Anyway Harley and I stayed up until 3 am talking which was another thing I needed!! Just some good girl talkin!! BUT we were definitely tired after noon the next day!! I left there feeling spiritually, emotionally, and physically drained!! So many awesome reminders that we are doing ok and that we have some things to improve upon! Love it!! My bucket is full but I can't wait to go again!! Great speakers and Hillary Weeks was amazing!! Love her, she is so fun and so real! I love that!

Another thing that has happened this last few weeks. Was my sweet husband took me shopping for my birthday and out to Cafe Rio!! Loved it!! Now that we have been doing Body for Life I am actually slimming down some and it wasn't so bad to go shopping! Can't wait to go again!! Thanks sweetie for a great birthday!! A friend gave me a book I am really excited about it is called Traditions creating memories to draw your family close. By Kimberly Bytheway and Diane H. Loveridge. Very excited about this book. Those of you who know me know I love traditions!! Thank you Chelle I am excited to read this and try some new ones!! I received lots of birthday calls and wishes so thank you all for a great day!!

Austin graduated from Preschool. He has done so well this past year. And is now reading so good!! I am proud of him!! He has done well!! He loves homework, and reading stories.

Austin and his teacher Ms. Stephanie. She was a great teacher and taught him lots!!This is Ryan one of Austin's best friends!! They play a lot together!A friend, Brandon.Jack, another friend.

This little girls name is Hannah and she is a cutie pie. Austin for the longest time would come home from school saying I don't know why Hannah likes me but she does. I kinda think he liked her also!!! :)

Big Drum Roll Please!!! . . . . . . . . Tucker got his Sports Wheelchair!! YAH!! Thanks to all your help!! He LOVES it !! If he could sleep in it he would!! He has told everyone about it, including his class. Mr. Rob asked him to bring it a few days before school got out and he was so excited about that!! He would love to take it everywhere but you have to take one of the wheels off to get it through the doors it is so wide!!

Thank you all for help and support in this fun project!! It truly is a sweet wheelchair and he loved picking out the color and the lighted wheels, he is so excited to use it now!! We had so many sweet people donate and we are so lucky to have such a great family!!! Thanks again for all your help!! We love you!!

The next day we headed to Idaho to my sisters Wedding Reception. It was so nice and I saw a lot of people from my home town I hadn't seen for years! Lots of catching up to do!! Loved seeing the friends and family!! She was a beautiful bride and looks so happy!! Congrats Colleen and good luck on your wonderful life together!! Make it an adventure!! Love you!!

Mom was having such a hard time letting her last one go!! They pretty much have been inseparable since her accident and mom has been there to help her like crazy I think she isn't sure what to think now!!

Isn't she beautiful??!!! Her dress was amazing also!! Can't wait to take your bridal shots Colleen!! I love you, you looked amazing!!

Can you tell how much the kids were just loving getting their pictures taken?!! :) Aren't they cute?? There is one grand kid that was missing from this photo for some reason. Here she is . . .
It was a lot of fun even though I had to make 300 chocolates that we didn't get enough gone! :0 So now we are eating them. . . not good!!

Another fun thing for Tucker was at the school assembly Tucker was awarded Citizenship Award! Way to go Tucker I am so proud of you!! You amaze me every day and I love being your mom!!! Great job!!

Here is a picture of Mr. Rob (his teacher) the last day!! He really was having a hard time and I also had a hard time!! He is such a great teacher and I have really loved how he has helped Tucker's self esteem!! He has been an amazing teacher and he really cares about his kids as you can tell. He is moving to 6th grade this year and Tucker is really hoping that he gets him again!! I do too!! He is going to be greatly missed!! I cry every time I see this picture!!

As you can all tell we have had an eventful couple of week's here at the Rady home. Well as if all of this hasn't been enough, today Bryson came up the stairs with blood just running down his face. Austin and him had been playing downstairs and they were bouncing cars off the exercise trampoline and a truck bounced up and hit him in the forehead. It left an inch gash in his head. Mike was already working down at the ER so I loaded the kids up and headed to the hospital. He has lots of glue now I hope I can get him to leave it alone!! It never ends with kids around does it?? So much for a quite relaxing Sabbath day!! Thanks for letting me get all these memories down and I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Weekend!! If you get the chance to go to TIME OUT for Women. I highly suggest it!! It was amazing and so good for me to go!! It is what every woman needs, the filling of our buckets!!!