Ella's Baptism

Ella was so happy and just beaming the entire day. She is such a smart and beautiful girl, growing in so many ways everyday. Jeremy and I can't believe we are old enough to have an eight year old already. Ella is such a blessing to us. We are so grateful for the many people in her life who show her love and encourage her to develop her talents. Thankyou Grandma Muriel for being so incredible and doing such a wonderful job with the music. Ella holds a special place for each of her grandparents and loves them.


Ella with her cousins, Tatum and Haylee
Before the baptism

So beautiful all in white. At first Ella didn't want people to see her in the jumpsuit and wouldn't come out, but as soon as a couple of her Aunts saw her, they told her how beautiful she looked in white, and Ella just couldn't stop smiling, she was so happy to be getting baptized. She ran down the hall when it was time, she just couldn't wait.


After the baptism Ella in her new white dress with a white rose.
We felt so much love and support and really felt the spirit in the talks from grandpa and Aunt Kallee. Thankyou so much for helping and to all those who came on Ella's special day, it meant a lot to her and to us.

Ella's 8th Birthday

Ella has been so excited to turn 8. She is funny because she talks about her birthday party all year long. Then when it gets close she is sooo happy, she has this little excited giggle and can't wait. She planned a couple of the games, egg on a spoon relay and pin the tail on the donkey. They all went swimming for awhile and had pizza, cake and shave ice. ella made sure we had a block of ice because that is another thing she wanted to make sure she had for her party.

The theme was tinkerbell so the girls all had wings, a headband and a little tutu. They were so cute.

This was her actual birthday, the party with her friends was the day after.

Taylor trying to steal Ella's birthday wish, he'll still burst out singing "Happpy birthday to you" every once in a while.
Ella with her flowers from daddy and Tinkerbell stuff, while Taylor tries to keep his hands out of the cupcakes.
This is Jenna, Becca, Ella, Kiley, Jordan and Caden, they had so much fun playing games in and out of the pool and all the yummy treats. It was such a fun little party.

One of Jeremy's Favorite Pastimes

Over the years Jeremy and his brothers have gone on numerous tubing and kayaking trips down the salt river. Generally not spending much time in their kayaks, but in the water treasure hunting (Jeremy doesn't really like that term). They have found all sorts of crazy things including a wallet with a KKK membership card, boom boxes, CDs, crack pipes, necklaces, rings, money, knives, watches, cameras but mostly keys and sunglasses (I still wear my $100 pair some goofball dropped from their tube a few years ago.) Its just a fun time for the Bingham boys to get together in the hot summer.
Jeremy has even converted some of his fellow residents, who have caught the bug kayaking down the river, but really just diving and searching for river crap. The fun is the presentation of coming up out of the water with open umbrellas or wearing crazy thick glasses from someone who must have been nearly blind. We love talking about the poor saps who lose their goods on the river.
Most recently Jeremy was on a sports medicine rotation "wilderness survival outing" with a fellow resident, preceptor, and his brother Ryan when he pulled up his best find ever.

Olympus waterproof /shockproof 10mpix camera. Thanks Olympus for inventing a waterproof digital camera. Who knew it could survive three weeks underwater. Keep floating down the river drinking and taking pictures tubers.

Last picture taken by original owner (by the way if you recognise yourself in the picture, Jeremy says finders keepers losers weepers).
Three weeks later Jeremy at the river after Jon Manwaring realized the camera still worked. Wish I'd taken a picture of how corroded it looked before Jeremy cleaned it up so well.

Making good use of new camera.
Taylor thought his dad was trying to drown him after he came up sputtering.
Ella looks especially cute underwater.

Caden turns Six

Caden's sixth birthday was August 2oth. It's so fun with little kids because there is such tremendous buildup for the countdown to their birthday. It's just so exciting for them (unlike us old adults). Everyday, starting about a month before his birthday he would ask how many days until his birthday. The day finally came.
Caden's cake was camo frosting with a tank on top. He thought that was pretty cool.
One of the highlights of their birthday cake is they love to light their candles, the one time they are allowed to touch the lighter and ignite it.


Taylor starts blowing out the candles as soon as he hears the last note. As you can see Caden had plenty of help blowing out his candles.

This trunk is his prize gift this year. He shows it to everyone that comes over. He had been asking for a treasure chest, I had no luck at Ross, thankfully Jeremy found this one for Caden and he LOVES it.
Nana and Papa came over to wish him a happy birthday. Caden is holding a remote control tarantula. He tried scaring Jeremy when he got home from work.

I can't believe how quickly he has grown. He is such a funny little boy and is easily impressed with little things. Taylor reminds me so much of Caden. Love my little boys.

First Day of School was Aug. 11

After a very busy summer and being out of town and family in town all the way up to the weekend before school, the kids could finally get back to normal and school starts. They were excited/nervous for the first day of school. Caden started kindergarten; and Ella started 2nd grade this year. They are both getting so big. Of course Caden is one of the biggest kids in kindergarten, being naturally a big kid and almost a year older than some of the kids hopefully he likes being taller than everyone. They both like their teachers, which I am very grateful for it makes such a difference. Caden's only complaint is that school takes up the whole day. I have to admit I wish it started a half hour earlier or ended a half hour earlier. They don't get home until about 3:45 and we do homework then there is very little time before dinner. I see where Ella and Caden are coming from about not having enough play time.

I do enjoy my time with Taylor during the day. Taylor is still asking to go to school, and where is his backpack, or if its time to go get Ella and Caden at 11:oo am. He was funny on the first day of school. He and I are walking back to the van and very concerned he asks where Caden is, he was used to having his big brother home while Ella was at school. It was pretty cute.