The Loughton's

Ben's 31st Birthday

2009-02-08T06:51:00.002-07:00

Ben's birthday is two day's before Christmas so it is always hard to have a big party for him at that busy time of year. So we got him his favorite food from Macaroni grill and made him a cake (I made it early in the morning before we both had to work that day!!) The girls decorated the house and had us 3 girls dress in red to match. They are so cute. It looks like the Jazz must have been playing because Benny has on one of his jersey's.

2009-02-08T06:38:00.001-07:00

My grandparents got Benny this little shaving kit for Christmas. He thinks he is so big when he shaves like dad. Now we just need to convince him to be big and use the bathroom like dad!

Christmas 2008

2009-02-08T06:05:00.006-07:00

We got a train to go around the Christmas tree. Here the kids are setting up the train and playing with it before we even had a Christmas tree.

I took Benny and Baylee to the ward Christmas party. They got to sit on Santa's lap. Benny was not so sure about Santa until he got a present.

We went To my parent's for the annual Christmas eve party. I somehow forgot my camera. I even forgot the clams to go into the clam dip though so this is no big surprise!!

Christmas morning we still could not find my camera. The kids had to sit in our room for almost an hour before Ben found my camera somewhere odd! They got very spoiled as usual!

It worked out that we all went over to Ben's mom's Christmas party later in the afternoon for her annual Christmas lunch. As always, the food was delicious and we had a great time with the family!

Baylee's Baptism

2009-02-08T05:45:00.006-07:00

Here are some picture's from Baylee's Baptism and confirmation. It worked out that we were able to Baptize her on Temple beach in Hawaii just like Skyley. Because of the flooding the beaches were closed for 4 days. The morning before we left the beach gad cleared up enough to do it and I tracked down a Bishop to come witness. It was pretty special because the sun was out just long enough for us to have a beautiful baptism. The Sunday after we got home My dad confirmed her during our sacrament the rest of our families could be there.

HAWAII 2008

2009-02-08T04:32:00.046-07:00

Well here we are headed on our way to HAWAII with my entire family. We worried how Benny would do on his first flight ever. He was so good, he did not even realize he could get out of his seat for the first 5 hours of the flight. We had a really good time together on this trip. as we always do!!

My dad rented an amazing house for us to stay in on the North Shore, that's back yard went right down to a private beach. We were able to enjoy the beach looking like this the first day before massive rain came in. It caused some of the worst flooding they had in that area for 34 years.

Here is our beach after the flood causing downpours. One picture shows how the water from the streets actually came and broke through the beach. We saw coolers, tires and even a fridge washed out to sea.

We headed over to the other side of the Island to Waikiki a couple of times We were trying to find somewhere to play where it wasn't raining and the water was not brown. We only got successful on the water part.

After many days of rain we hit the beach at Waiamea Bay to soak up the sun for the couple hours it was out. I tried body boarding with Jeff, the first time I tried I got triple pounded by the waves into the beach. The second try I rode it all the way in, but I was so exhausted from the beach pounding I didn't try again. I think I scared Em off of it too!

Rain or no rain the kids could NEVER spend too much time in the pool and hot tub!!

Because it rained so much we spent a lot of time just hanging out at the house together.

Right before we left we tracked down the LOST crew getting ready to film. We saw Sawyer and Sayid very close up right between the dressing trailers. We are pretty big LOST fans so this was one of the highlights of my trip!

Our flight home was a red eye, the kids slept all the way home. Ben and I hardly slept a wink.

Thanksgiving 2008

2009-02-08T04:05:00.021-07:00

Well we had two Thanksgivings this year (Except we only got all the way to St. George in time for dessert!). Ben had to stay home to work. I got tons of Christmas shopping done and the kids had a blast as always. We even got Grandma Bown and Tim to play cards a couple times ( I was too exhausted from my shopping spree to play).

This was our first Thanksgiving without Ben's dad. The food was wonderful (of coarse) and we all had a great time together as a family. The kids chased each other around and played hide and seek. The adults just tried not to fall asleep from stuffing our faces.

Polar Express

2009-02-08T03:54:00.006-07:00

Grandma Linda took us on the Polar Express ( Heber Creeper) before Christmas. They told us to have the kids wear Pj's. (The girls wanted footy Jammie's like Benny and we found them at Target!) We had hot chocolate and cookies. They told the Polar Express story as we went to the North Pole. We sang tons of Christmas carols as we waited for Santa to come to our car ( we were pretty much convinced he had forgot us by the time he came!). Benny had a blast jumping up and down on mom the whole time!!

Ben's Grandma's funeral

2008-11-18T14:00:00.026-07:00

We went to Idaho Falls Thursday, November 13th for Ben's Grandma's funeral. Grandma Dee (short for DeEsta) passed away Monday night. She passed away in her sleep at the ripe old age of 97. LuAnn ( Ben's mom) and Ben have had a pretty hard time with this. It was way too close to his father's death. Baylee also had a pretty hard time because her middle name is DeEsta so she felt a special bond with her. The services were pretty special because they made the great granddaughters floral bearers. And the had a police escort for us to the cemetery. We stayed the weekend in Idaho Falls and actually had a good trip with lots of family and some friends. I will blog more pictures from our weekend later.

2008-11-11T22:57:00.002-07:00

I was right in the middle of trying to get our blog updated when Ben's mom called and told us his grandmother passed away. He is having a really hard time with his father and now his only grandparent that was left. He also had to give one of our dogs away this morning because we had LOTS of problems. The kids are upset about all the bad stuff that has been happening to us lately. We are heading off to Idaho Falls Thursday night for the funeral. I will try to post some good news (if we ever get any) when we get back.

2008-11-11T07:43:00.019-07:00

As soon as we got home from Bear Lake (literally) we had a big swim party for Baylee. She had all her grandparents and most her aunts and uncles there. Baylee and her friends and cousins had a great time!!

2008-11-11T07:14:00.019-07:00

We go to Bear lake the 2nd week of August every year. My parents have a time share up there. We always have a great time. The kids had so much fun boating, swimming, playing at the beach and hanging out with the family. Grandma Linda always takes the girls to Pickleville to see a play. We all had fun playing Scene it Jr., but Jessy and Shawn definitely killed us every time! Jeff was the one out there wake boarding. All of us girls were being wimps because the water is so cold!! Emmy was having a great time keeping the kids entertained until she had to go home early to work. Benny of course loved all the attention, the hot tub and beach. The girls went and made crafts multiple times. We obviously wore dad and grandpa out with all the fun. I am always taking pics so I am not in any. I'm sure someone took some of me, I swear I was there somewhere.

2008-11-11T05:53:00.004-07:00

Well we officially feel old!!! Skyley got her braces on this summer!! I was so glad I happened to have my camera on me to snap these great pics!! This is Dr. Graff, Sky loves to go to the orthodontist. I hated going, but Dr. Graff always has fun drawings, fresh cookies and he even takes his patients to Seven Peaks. What's not to love?

2008-10-29T06:13:00.002-06:00

Sorry we have been so bad about not posting for a VERY long time. Ben's dad has been fighting cancer for just over a year. The last month he declined rapidly and passed away Sunday. As soon as we get back on our feet after the viewing Thursday and the funeral Friday(We know on Halloween!) I will try to get some of our fun things we have done updated!

2008-07-26T18:42:00.006-06:00

We took Sky's friend Ally to Trafalga for the day to have the girls get warmed up for the tournament. They hit quite a few balls in the batting cages, rode the go carts and miniature golfed. They loved the go carts. Ally actually got a huge blister on her palm from driving them so much!

2008-07-26T18:10:00.006-06:00

Skyley's softball team that Ben coached took first place in Provo City for the season and also took first place in the city tournament. Next we headed to the state tournament in Ephraim to see how far we can go.

2008-07-25T15:01:00.003-06:00

Because of the high gas prices Ben talked me into letting him get a motocycle. We can't decide which Ben likes it more!!!

Stadium of Fire

2008-07-25T14:57:00.001-06:00

2008-07-25T14:17:00.011-06:00

We went "camping" up Hobblecreek canyon in our trailer for 10 days for the 4th of July. We did have to come down for Skyley's state tournament and to work a couple of times. But for the most part we just relaxed and hung out in the mountains to escape some of the heat and responsibilities of home.

2008-07-25T13:57:00.003-06:00

We only took a couple of naked pictures of Benny on the water slide. It got a tear at the seam so we took it back last night. Now I can not find another one anywhere and the kids ALL loved it. So I am ordering a different kind right now but it will be a week and a half to get. I will definitely try to get more pics next time!!

2008-07-24T12:00:00.002-06:00

2008-06-23T14:38:00.002-06:00

family sticker

2008-06-23T14:14:00.005-06:00

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

JENNY THE EARLY YEARS

2008-06-23T10:05:00.001-06:00

2008-06-21T21:55:00.002-06:00

Well the kids had fun on the water slide even though it was freezing all week. We have been camping a ton and now we are staying busy with Ball. Skyley's team is in the city tournament right now. They have won the first two games and are going to the finals on Thursday. Her team took first place for the season. A lot of this is thanks to Skyley's great pitching. We're already on our way to state even if they manage to lose this tournament some how. Baylee just finished her season with some great hits and a couple good plays at first. Ben told her he would pay her $10 if she hit the ball to the grass. At the end of her game on the way over to the pizza party she asked if she could have $5 since she hit it halfway to the grass. We just laughed. Benny was just climbing in and out of the crib so much, we gave up and bought him bunk beds and finished them for him. I will have to take some pictures and post them soon. I think his room turned out cute!!

2008-06-03T09:13:00.002-06:00

I just bought the kids one of those air blown waterslides. Ben was mad because he said we were not getting them one. I thought that once he saw how fun it was then he wouldn't care. We planned on setting it up and playing on it while he was gone to work so when he came home he would understand. However, one of the girls on Skyley's softball team needed a ride home. She had a bike, so I drove her home in Ben's truck. (Ben does not ever want to be in a situation where little girls can claim he was alone with them). So he took my Yukon home with Baylee and Benny. When He went to put all the softball gear in the back he saw the waterslide. (OOPS there went my great plan!!) He claimed he was going to take it back today, but he forgot it. So I will have the kids try it out and post some pictures later!!

2008-05-21T10:11:00.009-06:00

Skyley started fast pitch softball a couple weeks ago. She is the starting pitcher. The team has lost 3 games in extra innings and won one game so far. Skyley has had a ruff time with this because last year they won every game. Benny and Baylee hang out in the dug out because they are just part of the team.

Ben is the coach again this year and Shane Allman the assistant. The coaches aren't taking losing these games well either.

Grandma Linda came to watch Sky's game. I think I blocked her view most the game standing in front of the fence. I get almost more nervous then the players!!

Sky waiting to bat.

Skyley is a great hitter. In this league it is hard to get someone who can throw a strike so she usually gets walked. She hit this right down center line and we should have scored the game winning run. The girl coming into home did not slide and she was our third out causing us to go into extra innings.

Skyley is our 2nd batter on the line up. Olivia is 4th. The 1st game she hit a grand slam, she has not done much since!

Baylee is just cheering on her team!

This is Skyley pitching . She has a fast arm for such a little thing.

2008-05-21T09:56:00.007-06:00

Baylee just started her 2nd year of coach pitch a couple weeks ago. She loves playing softball and is very good too. Here she is running into home! I think this is a picture of Baylee batting but our security is blocking it. Hopefully you guys can see it.

Baylee is hanging out in the shade, waiting to get up to bat. Ben was filling in as coach.

Again, I think this is a picture of Baylee batting.

Doesn't she look happy to be there??

Baylee likes to play 1st base. One game she got 6 outs. She is a great 1st baseman and quite the little slugger!!!

Ben Jr. 2nd Birthday

2008-05-20T12:42:00.021-06:00

Benny had a fun party. We went to the discovery park by Grandma LuLu's house. Benny was more interested in the balls then trying to blow out his candles. He got very spoiled by everyone. After eating and opening presents, he played tennis with daddy and Uncle Sam. The girls took Abby over to play on the playground. We did not play very long because we all wanted to watch the Jazz playoff game. They ended up losing the series that night. His birthday is May 16. My cameras date is way off!

Mother's day 2008

2008-05-20T12:05:00.007-06:00

The kids woke me up to thier own little cheering section. It was the cutest thing. We went over to Ben's parent's for a BBQ. Derek was pitching to Skyley in the back yard.

We watched the Jazz playoff game before coming over. They won in overtime with Ben and Bennie cheering them on.

Ben's dad was cooking the steaks while Big and little Ben supervised.

Skyley was practicing hitting. Baylee and Maleah are in the backgroung playing catch.

Sam, Abby, Skyley and Baylee are getting ready to chow down.

Grandma LuLu helping the kids get thier plates filled. Dinner was delicious. We had a fun little party.

2008-04-08T13:37:00.016-06:00

We went up to Island Park, Idaho in February. We all had a great time snowmobiling and playing in the snow!

Here's what we look like whenever we stop to make sure everyone is alright.
Grandma Linda is going to kill us for putting this picture on our blog. But this is the only one we got that you can tell is her.

Daddy stayed in the room with Benny a couple of times so mommy could go for a GOOD snowmobile ride!

We were sliding down this snowbank out in front of the lodge. Benny thought it was great fun.
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The whole family hanging out on the snow bank.

Grandpa Clayton gave me a funny look when I took this one!

Benny didn't even make it out of the parking lot on one of our snowmobile rides before he fell asleep.

This is dad and Skyley at Big Springs. This is where the Snake River begins. The water is so clear and there are the biggest rainbow trout that you can feed. Benny dropped one of his gloves in the river, luckily mom had an extra pair of mitten's with her.

Benny totally slept most of this ride in mommy's arms. He made it very tricky to drive.

By the time we got to Island Park the first night it was dark. That did not stop the girls from following uncle Jeff's lead. He thought it would be fun to jump off the balcony into the snow bank.

Turns out it was fun and the girls were out there for at least an hour jumping away. When they came in it took about 10 minutes to pull off all the snow caked clothes.

Baylee was taking a break.

Skyley cheesed for the camera!

Jeff has Benny trying to warm up his hand after he dropped his glove so we could head back to the lodge.

This was such a good time! We were snowmobiling all over Henry's Fork Lake. A couple of times we saw spots of water and it totally freaked Emily out.

2008-04-08T13:22:00.005-06:00

Ben's Grandpa, Ray Loughton died on New Year's Day. We took the kids up to see him the day before he died. Skyley had a really hard time seeing her Great Grandpa looking so sick. Baylee and Benny were not affected as much. We went up with Ben's family to see him this summer. These are the last pictures we got of him. This one with four generations of Loughton's is especially neat!

The Cabin March 15, 2008

2008-04-08T12:59:00.008-06:00

When we went to The Cabin a couple of weeks ago. We had tons of fun in all this snow. Jen's parents cabin is at Strawberry. We got soooo much snow this year. We haven't spent as much time enjoying the snow as we should. Jeff is taking Benny sledding off the roof. Casey and Skyley are here for moral support. We had a fun weekend hanging out with the family.

Jeff and Emily are helping Benny because he wanted to come sledding too! Mom , Uncle Tim, Jeff and Grandpa Clayton went on a great snowmobile ride the next day.

Here's Baylee all ready to tear up some snow!

Benny is all bundled up to go sledding. We have to snowmobile into the cabin so we made sure he was super warm!

Look at all the snow we got at the cabin! We were all sledding off the roof. Tim was trying to break the snow off the very tip of the roof.

Easter 2008

2008-03-30T10:56:00.029-06:00

We left the Loughton's party to head to Grandpa Clayton's and Grandma Linda's house. There we had our 3rd and final Easter egg hunt! The kids had a great time hunting with Casey and everyone else ate dinner but we were already stuffed! Easter was such a beautiful day especially considering it was a month earlier then usual. We enjoyed hanging out in the sun. The kids each got an outfit from Grandpa and Grandma. What can I say except they are SPOILED!!

After all the Easter fun we had at our house we headed to Grandma LuLu's and Grandpa Jon's house. They had us a delicious dinner. Then we had our second Easter egg hunt. The kids love that they hide money in the eggs! Grandpa Jon was helping Benny to put the nickels and dimes in his pockets of his shirt. He was too distracted from that to even finish the Easter egg hunt! The kids have to find the egg with their initial on it to get a present! Benny is obsessed with Baylee's Curious George that Grandma Linda gave her when she got her tonsils out. Ben's parents gave him a monkey and we call him Curious too! He makes us change his diaper and change his clothes whenever we change him! It's pretty cute! The girls got scrapbook journals and old fashioned games that they love.

Skyley and Baylee had fun decorating sugar cookies for the grandparents.

The Easter bunny hid a bunch off eggs for the kids to find. Baylee decided to fill her basket with eggs before Skyley and Benny were even thinking about starting the hunt!

All three kids got so much from the Easter bunny! Benny didn't care about anything else except this cheap little Nerf basketball hoop that Ben is trying to put together for him. It is supposed to hang on the back of the door but that is way too high for him, so it hangs on the side of his crib.

The kids had a great time dying their Easter eggs. I told them all to get big T-shirts on so they wouldn't ruin their pajamas. Benny loved that T-shirt so much we couldn't get him to change out of it until noon on Easter. Baylee even had the scissors ready to cut the shirt off of him!

Skyley and Baylee in Willey Wonka Play

2008-03-28T15:38:00.011-06:00

Skyley and Baylee have had a very busy last couple of weeks. They performed in the Scera Youth Theater's performance of Willey Wonka's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They performed on Tues, Wed., and Thursday nights.(March 25-27) They were both Oompa Loompas and town people and Baylee was also a squirrel. All of our families came and watched them. We even had Casey here from his mom's house in Hawaii. The girls did an awesome job and it was a very good show!! They love performing and being on stage. Benny watched the show with mom last night and was trying to sing along to a bunch of the songs quite loud. He had me rolling!!!

Family Pictures June 29, 2007

2008-03-26T09:20:00.011-06:00

We had a very busy Easter, with 3 Easter egg hunts and 2 dinners, and lots of great presents! While we were at Ben's parents Easter party we finally got a copy of this picture disc that was taken at the end of June. In June 2007 we found out Ben's dad Jon has terminal cancer. Luann (Ben's mom) decided we better have family pictures taken before he started chemotherapy. He has since had 2 major surgeries and multiple rounds of chemo. Jon had a miracle surgery at the Huntsman Cancer center that removed all visible cancer. ( His original tumor was the size of a small football that was intertwined with his spleen, colon and major blood vessels.) A few weeks later they told us he was still microscopically full of cancer and had him start chemo again. We found out a couple weeks ago he now has a golf ball size tumor in his liver. The prognosis is not good. We enjoy all the time we get with him and he is trying really hard to keep his spirits up and play with the grand kids as much as possible!!

2008-03-21T18:22:00.003-06:00

Grandpa Great (A.K.A. Spike) gave skyley a blessing in the bishop's office before we confirmed her. She had this very rare cyst on her neck very close to major blood vessels. She was scheduled to get it removed the next day, December 19, 2005. The cyst was originally cm wide. When the surgeon went in to remove it he said it had shrunk 33%. He was going to have to remove some of her parathyroid and was very near vessels making it a scary surgery. He told us that the (unexplained) shrinkage caused the cyst to pull away from the parathyroid and blood vessels. Even though Sky didn't feel well for a couple days the surgery was a huge success!

2008-03-21T18:08:00.002-06:00

As soon as we got home we had Ben's dad Jon confirm skyley in our church. We were very proud of her. Grandma and Grandpa Wright and all the Wright family came to witness it. Also Jon and Luann Loughton were there of course to confirm her.

2008-03-19T19:47:00.000-06:00

I am just trying to figure this out to see if it works.

2008-03-19T19:31:00.000-06:00

Skyley and Baylee are excited about our new blog. They wanted to see if we could put some of the web cam video on. We are not getting it to work right now, but I'm sure you will enjoy it when we do.

2008-03-19T14:39:00.000-06:00

This is our first blog ever. We have no idea what we are doing but friend have said it's easy so we'll give it a try. Our computer crashed the other day and we lost tons of pictures. We could only recover some older pictures so bear with us until we get more recent ones downloaded. This is our trip to Hawaii in December 2005. We had a great trip and are booking tickets to go back this December.