Big Week for Logan

Well, last week marked a BIG change in Logan's little life. He started pre-school AND soccer, all in the same week! He started school on the Wednesday after Labor Day, and soccer the following Saturday. He was soooo excited to go to school. He was so good in the morning, and got dressed and made his bed all by himself and was ready to go. Tony came home from seminary before going to work so he could be home for Logan's first morning of school. We all ate breakfast together. Logan chose "crunchy crunch" (aka Captain Crunch, or other generic form of the same cereal)for his favorite breakfast. Of course, his first day of school was cold and rainy, so we had to change his clothes from shorts and sandals, to jeans and tennis shoes. The silly kid would only pose silly for me, so this is what you get. He loved his first day of school. I think he was a bit reserved and spent the day observing a lot of what was going on. When I got there to pick him up, he was the only kid left sitting at the table eating his snack. It was someone's birthday, so they brought cupcakes. Anyway...he loves school and is so excited to go every day now! I can't believe how big he has gotten! He has a class with about 20 kids and 2 teachers. It will be good for him to meet some new kids...especially boys! It seems like since we moved here, all the little kids his age are girls! Hopefully he will make some good new boy friends at school. For dinner, I let him choose his favorite meal, since it was his "special" day. He chose mac and cheese, and edamame. My kids LOVE that stuff! I made brownies for dessert. Logan even got to eat his dinner on the "red" plate!We had one growing up, and I got one at the beginning of the year for Tony's birthday so we could start using it in our family, and I have forgotten about it until now!It was a great day!


And here is a picture of Avery in her pretty bib from Aunt Jody!I have to brag, but it's my blog so, I can. I just think she looks so pretty in this picture!


Saturday we made our way to the soccer field. It was INSANE!!!!!!! We had no other instructions other than show up at "this" park at your designated time. We arrive, and the parking lot is a zoo, and there are probably about 10 fields, and we have NO idea which one we are supposed to be at! we wandered around and finally found someone who pointed us in the right direction. We should have thought to look for the tiny goals! We are so clueless! We went up to the coach, who looked like he was in college, and the coach gave Logan his T-shirt and his very own very own ball. He wrote Logan's name on it with a sharpie, adn then told Logan to go kick the ball around until he came out to give them directions. I elft Logan on the field to go sit down in our chairs with Tony and Avery. It was so fun to watch Logan! I was so proud of him that he seemed to know what to do fairly well...especially since we haven't really taught him anything. He kept stopping to check his ball to make sure it was still his, and that was pretty funny. He did a great job for his first time, and he will onyl get better. I am glad we chose to put him in soccer. Check out some of the action first-hand!

Stampin' Up! and other activities

Many of you may know that I have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for the past almost 4 years. More like 3 1/2, actually. Before I moved to Indiana and met my wonderful friend Heather, who introduced me to the Stampin' Up! world, I wasn't into this type of thing. I considered myself "not crafty". I enjoyed looking at people's scrapbooks and thinking that I would love to create something like it someday, but never had the desire. When at BYU, my mom would come to visit and drag me around to the different scrapbook and craft stores, but I was immediately overwhelmed by it all, and never thought I could do anything like it.

One of my first memories of Heather was from an opening social to welcome new members into the ward. Heather and her husband had just bought a house in our ward, so we were visiting. I guess she had just recently signed up to be a Stampin' Up! demo, and began asking me about it. I had never heard of it. She was so excited about it, and she dragged me out to her car to show me a stack of paper that she had stamped to make background paper for scrapbooking. I was actually amazed! I had no idea that you could create something that looked so real! I mean, it actually looked like she could have bought it at the store.

Eventually, I decided that I would try to be ambitious and "crafty" and attempt to make my own Christmas cards. I looked through the catalog and found a stamp set with the matching card sample, and thought it looked simple enough to duplicate. I got together with Heather at her house one night and we worked on our cards together. I was so excited about it! That would of been Christmas of 2002 I think, so some of you were probably lucky enough to receive that creation.

After that, I decided to brave it and join a monthly card exchange that Heather hosted.Some of my first cards were definitely from someone inexperienced, but overall I think I was doing fairly well. It was fun for me to get cards back from other, more "experienced" card makers so I could learn from them and get ideas. It was also really fun to have a nice stash of cards when an occasion came up.

In May of 2004, Logan was born. I quit working full-time and began my new stage in life of being a stay-at-home mom. When Logan was almost 7 weeks old, I lost my little brother in a 4-wheeler accident. My life was turned completely upside down, and nothing that I knew and was familiar with was the same anymore. Usually having a new baby is an exciting time, but for me it was really hard to enjoy it while grieving. I do think that if I didn't have a new baby to take care of, I am not sure what I would have had to hold onto to keep going.

Anyway...enough of the sad story. When Logan was about 9 months old, Heather convinced me to sign up to be a demo. I was very doubtful of my abilities to do such a thing. I almost felt like an imposter, since I was so new to the "craft". But with a lot of encouragement and helpful information, I decided to do it.

While the option of making some money was definitely intriguing, I was first drawn to the cameraderie and fun community that involved other demos. I finally had something that I could be a part of, and involved in. I was involved in things my whole life! I took dance classes, voice lessons, piano lessons, was in choir and drama in school,and participated in church programs. When in college, I joined the Folk Dance team and had that fantastic experience to be apart of, from the classes, to the club activities, to the performances and rehearsals, to the friends (and how I met Tony!) It was something I was involved in and loved. Once we graduated and moved away, I had to find my involvement when I was working full-time. It wasn't quite as much fun as my past activities, but it sufficed. I was contributing,and involved. Everything about my life changed when Logan came along, so the idea of having something like this to be involved in again was very appealing.

Eventually I gained more confidence in my abilities, and really enjoyed doing workshops for people. It was fun for me to meet new people, and of course, get out of the house and socialize. I loved creating something and being able to look at it and say "Wow! I made that!" It was fun for me to see people new to the "craft" get hooked as well.

When we moved away from Indiana, to Kansas, I was in the middle of my pregnancy with Avery, and trying to adjust to a new area. I have such a fear of talking about being a demo to people, because I know that home sales parties and reps get such a bad rap from people, and I don't want to come across as being the "pushy home sales rep". Needless to say, my "business" has not gotten off on a very good foot in the last two years.I don't have any social network outside of church right now, and I still don't feel quite as comfortable with my new friends here, as I did in Indiana. I have had two parties, and a class. I have a few people I know enjoy this kind of thing, but I have yet to get the guts up to encourage it more.

Anyway...the sales part isn't the point of my post. My point is, that I really, truly enjoy doing this. I love getting the ideas, and seeing ideas, and still being part of something. I really enjoy showing people how fun and simple it is to create something to be proud of and share with others. I have often though that maybe I should just quit, as I can't make my minimum on my own. But, I am not ready to give it up yet, so I am going to keep on trucking and hope I can find some fellow "crafters" who will want to learn and create with me.

I do have a business website, and soon people will be able to place orders directly from my site. This I am very excited about. I am hoping it helps. I will also soon be introduced to fellow pre-school and soccer moms, so that might give me some options outside of church. I have let things slide so much lately, but I am ready and gung-ho to get back into things.

I just wanted to share my feelings on this subject, as it is a part of my life right now, and I rarely talk about it.I have also contemplated taking voice lessons again, and maybe even a dance class, or pilates class, or even working part-time at Bath and Body Works, since I love that store. It's just hard to figure out how I would do those things and what I would do with the kids.That's why Stampin'Up! is nice. I can do it when I want, and when it works best for me and my family.

So, what kinds of things have you all found to be a "part" of? Is that even something that is necessary or important to you? Or is it just me? please share! I would love to know!

When the cat's away...

So, finally more about my summer trip! On my drive to San Diego from SLC, I stopped outside Cedar City to stay at my brother's house. Unfortunately, the timing was off, and my brother's family left for Lake Powell the morning I was coming. I was sad that I wasn't able to see them, but it was nice to see their new house. They moved away from California last summer. It was nice of them to let us stay at their house even when they weren't there.

I got there about 4 hours before Tony and the kids, so when they finally arrived the kids were anxious to get out and stretch their legs. I hadn't seen my family for 5 days, so it was fun to see the kids reactions to seeing me again. It's amazing how much they looked like they had grown...just in 5 days!

So, the kids had to test out all the sleeping accomodations to figure out which was the best choice. This post is mostly for my brother's family! These pictures are to show you what went on while you were away!



Avery had a great time in her cousin Tawni's room!Did you find anything missing Tawn? I think Avery found your stash!Jackpot!


Woo-hoo! Fun pillows to throw!


This fabric is so soft!


Where did my binky go?


Ahhh! This is sooo relaxing!



I don't know what to do with myself!


I guess I will just roll around on this slippery blanket!


Wee-ha!I'm sliding!



After little Miss Aves had her fun in Tawni's room, she moved on to see what other fun she could find.


This chair is just right!


Wait! Who is that I see peaking out from Kellen's bed full of animals? Is it Logan? Hi Logan!


The kids soon discovered another fun way to get their wiggles out before bed. This bed has excellent bounce quality!


This is fun! Weee!


This bed is big enough for the both of us!


We've got to get in our morning cartoons to start our day off right!



Thanks Colton, Tawni and Kellen for letting us have fun at your house!

Soccer Mom

It's official. I have entered the world of the mini-van driving soccer mom. I just registered Logan today for soccer. He is soooo excited! He will be playing micro soccer, which is for four year olds. We get to spend 6 Saturdays starting Sep.6th, on the soccer field. I wasn't sure I would be too thrilled about this, since I am sooo not into sports, and honestly know nothing about soccer, other than you kick the ball into the goal, and can't use your hands. That's about it. You would think I would know more about it after having brothers and nephews all play, as well as a few friends in HS who played as well. What kind of a mom am I? Hopefully after this 6 week season is over, I will have picked up a thing or two. Anyway...I am actually getting a bit excited about it! I think it must be the proud mother who is thrilled to watch her little dude starting to do big boy things.Ok, I am sure I will be a bit emotional too. I am such a baby. My little guy will be starting pre-school and soccer all in the same week. Wow! I can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Since I don't have any pictures of my soccer boy yet, I thought I would share a few pix of the kidlets for fun. This one is of Logan, aka wagonmaster, taking his sister for a ride in a covered wagon. This was at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Visitor Center in Independence Missouri. We went there a few weeks ago when Tony's brother Andy and his wife Alicia were here visiting.



I love this one of Avery! She's like "Hey...get me out of here you crazy driver! If I lose my binky you are in big trouble mister!"



And this one is so cute too. Just the kidlets out on the deck enjoying a popsicle on a hot summer day!Notice the super cute bib on Avery? It's my SIL Jody's design! I seriously LOVE her bibs...they are the best! I recently gave some bibs and matching burp cloths to a friend for her baby shower, and another girl there said they were like "a scrapbook page on a bib!" So cute! I think she is working on getting an actual site up to sell her bibs, and other fun things, so I will for sure share the link when I get the info!

Perfect Angels

So, this morning I watched my friend Hillary's kids while she was at an appointment. Last night I had actually tidied up before our Home Teachers came, so the house was in good shape this morning. I have a Relief Society group tomorrow night, so I was hoping to keep it as tidy as possible until then. Of course, it isn't easy, or expected for things to remain tidy with 6 kids ages 6,4,4,3,18 mos, and 17 months around. Naturally, the living room and dining room (aka toy rooom) were strewn with toys.

Hillary called when she was on her way home, so I very excitedly called all the little children to hurry and help me put away the toys before she got here. I was amazed when there were children running around putting things away as fast as they could. It was great! I told them they were such good helpers, that I wanted them to come over all the time to help me clean up!

Anyway...I thought it would be surprising for her when she got there to see the house so tidy. Usually, I don't care too much when they make a mess, since most of the time it is that way to start, so they are simply re-arranging the mess, rather than creating it. So, I had a funny idea. I told the kidlets that it would be so funny if they all went and sat on the couch as good as could be for when their mom came. That way it would look like they had been the perfect little angels the whole time...ha ha! Actually, they were very good anyway. So they thought it was a good idea too and dutifully lined up on the couch to wait for their mom with big smiles on their faces. It was the cutest thing ever!

So, this is what greeted Hillary when she finally got there.Cute, huh?

Summary

I really need to get back in the habit of blogging! I am soooo behind!

So, I thought I would just give a brief overview of what's been going on round here lately!

1.A few weeks ago we had a surprise visit from our good friends from Indiana...Gigi and Craig, and their little people that are the same ages as our little people! Logan and Logan are about 2 weeks apart, and Avery and Bergen are a week apart.It was such a fu surprise and we had a great time! It made me so sad that we can't get together more often.Thanks for pro-longing your travel time to stay with us!

2.Only a few days after their visit, we were lucky enough to get more company! Tony's brother Andy and his wife Alicia came to visit for the week-end. We had so much fun having them here, and the kids loved their Aunt and Uncle being here to play with! Logan was so sad when it was time for them to leave, becuase he wanted them to live with us.

3.Last week, I had the good news (to me) that some good friends here in my ward weren't going to be moving after all. Even though they really wanted to go, they felt it wasn't right at this time, so they are staying. As selfish as it may sound, I am very glad they are staying!

4.My friend Hillary(see #3) and I went to see Mamma Mia! It was so much fun, and a really great, happy-feeling movie! I have had the songs in my head ever since (even dear, sweet Pierce, in all his effort!) There were only a few downers, when there were some things they had to throw in, that of course didn't need to be there. I don't know why they ruin such good things like that. If it wasn't there, absolutely no one would miss it. I really don't think people would leave the theater saying, "You know...that was such a a great movie, but it would have been much better with "this" thrown in, or if so and so were to do "this", or if they said "this". Nope...no one would have ever known it was there. It does nothing to add anything to the story, there is no point of it at all. That's really disappointing to me. But, anyway, it was still a fun movie overall.

5.Friday night I went to a "Twilight" party, and then a few of us went to the midnight release party for "Breaking Dawn" at Border's. I got home around 1:30 a.m. and stayed up until about 4 a.m. reading. I basically read all day Saturday, and finished up the book Sunday night. My eyes are tired!

6.Sunday was Avery's first official day in nursery! I have taken her in the past two Sunday's to get her used to it, and Tony and I took turns staying in there with her. Yesterday, we were subbing in Logan's sunbeam class, so we couldn't stay. I stayed for the first hour, and then snuck out to go be in class with Tony. She was perfectly fine! Yippee!

7. I made a pretty tasty recipe for dinner Sunday night. Honey-Lime Chicken Enchiladas. I thought they had a really good flavor, and were definitely different than the usual.

I have my enrichment night coming up this week, so once that is over, hopefully I will be able to get caught up again!

CG Reunion Day 3 and 4

So, after staying up late talking and laughing our heads off, we again took our time getting up and gettig ready to go. We had a yummy breakfast of bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches (aka egg mcmuffins, although without the mc, cause we aren't McDonalds...but you know what I mean)and cantaloupe. We left our cute little room smelling like bacon, which wafted after us down the halls!

We started our day going to the Park City Mountain Resort.After wandering around the shops (well, mostly one shop), we decided to go on the scenic chairlift ride. It is an hour long ride round trip, so we made sure to get sunscreened up first! While it wasn't as adventurous or exciting as the Alpine Slide, or Alpine Coaster rides that they had, we really enjoyed it. It was fun to see all the beautiful scenery, especially the snow that was still in patches here and there...in June! We had a good time talking, since that's what we do best! It was especially an adventure to keep from losing our shoes! A few of us took off our flip flops so they would't fall off our feet while dangling in the air! We tried to take some pictures of ourselves while up there, and it was fun.It was a little scary trying to lean and not fall off! We even got to smile for a picture half-way up the mountain! See it HERE!





On our way back down the chairlift, we saw a mom and a cute little blond boy riding up on the other side. We all had to comment that the little dude reminded us of our kids and made us miss them!

After we got off the chairlift, we went and had some lunch, and then went and used our Coldstone giftcards for dessert! Yum! Our next stop was Main Street, where we walked around and looked at the shops before we all finally decided we had all our energy sucked out of us, and headed back to the hotel. We got back aroud 5, and almost promptly all fell asleep on the King sized bed! We had a nice little snooze, and then made ourselves a yummy dinner of "favorite pasta", garlic bread and salad. So now our room smells like lingering bacon, and garlic as well! Nice!


(Gina and Heidi all snuggled up for nap time!)


(dinnertime with chef Marisa!)

Gina, Heidi and Marisa decided to go check out the pool, and I stayed behind to try and read. My eyes were too tired to read though, so I popped in my new "girly movie" Some Kind of Wonderful and started to watch it. The rest of the girls came back soon after because the pool was filled with kids. we all finished watching the movie together, while snacking on leftover fondue and other treats. we again ended our night staying up until after 1 talking our heads off. It's kind of funny cause we actually got a noise complaint!

Around midnight or so, Heidi decided she wanted a treat other than what we had in the room. Gina opted to go with her in search of a vending machine. We were all laughing our heads off since they were in their pj's, and Heidi told Gina she looked like Ronald McDonald (her hair was a bit wild and crazy after air drying from her after swim shower). I gave Gina my pink Life is Good hat, and off they went in search of goodies. Not long later, they came back from their adventure, cracking up at their behavior that was reminiscent of what 2 18 year olds would be doing late at night in a hotel, and not 31 year olds!I won't go in to the details, but needless to say, we were all laughing hysterically once they returned! After a while we had calmed down, and were all lounging on the bed chatting away when the phone rang. It was 12:30 at night! We were a bit confused as to who would be calling so late. Gina answered and was informed by the night desk clerk, that he had had a noise complaint, and could we keep it down. Yes sir! Ha ha! How embarrassing! But what a great story!


(Gina and Ronald McDonald hair...sorry G!)

The next morning was check-out time, and we were all getting sad about our festivities coming to an end. We again had our breakfast of leftover cantaloupe and bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches. While all crammed into the elevator to go out to the car, a family got in with us. One of them made a comment that it smelled like bacon. Ha ha! I wonder how long it took for the bacon smell to go away! I bet whoever had our room next walked in and thought "hmmm...it smells like bacon in here" Funny!


(Gina and Heidi)


Before we left town to head back to SLC, we stopped at World Market to look around. Then we went back to Heidi's parents house to go our seperate ways. We couldn't end there though, so Nina (Heidi's mom) suggested a place for us to go for lunch called "Plates and Palates". It was a cute little shop that sold kitchen items and then they had some tables and chairs and you could order lunch too! It was pretty filled up, but we were able to get a seat pretty soo, and had a nice lunch together to end our time.


Marisa, Gina and I all opted to go to Spoon Me one more time before we had to leave. That stuff is soooo good! Once we had our fix, Marisa headed up to Idaho Falls to get her kids, and I caught a ride with Gina down to Cedar City.She dropped me off at my brother's house in Enoch, where I was waiting for Tony and the kids to meet me.

What fun times we had! We really have to do this again, and soon, and regularly. It was so needed, and I am again so lucky to have such lifelong friends. I love you gals! Thanks for the fun times!

CG Reunion Day 2

I have gotten so out of the habit of blogging! At this rate I am never going to catch up!

CG Reunion Day 2

Monday morning, we took our time getting up and getting ready. We had Heidi's mom's famous Finnish pancakes for breakfast! Yum! After eating and chatting for a while, we decided to make our plans for the day and get going.

Our first stop was the Shade Clothing store in Centerville, where I got myself a really cute swimsuit. After that, we stopped at the Gateway in SLC to browse around and have lunch. Gina was having a pregnant woman craving for Thai food, so we ate at a really yummy restaurant called Thaifoon. I have to admit I have never really had Thai food before, and it was sooooooo good! I might be a fan now. We all shared a yummy appetizer of lettuce wraps, and then again shared a dish called orange peel chicken, and beef lo mein. It was all super delicious, and very filling. It was funny, because we were all wearing our scrabble tile necklaces, and the waitress noticed them. She said " what's with the necklaces...are you all sisters or something?" We do not look anything alike...we ranged from tall Gina to tiny Heidi, with Marisa and I heightwise somewhere in between.We got a good laugh from that and then enthusiastically told her our adventure for the next few days.

After we left Gateway, Heidi directed us to a super yummy place for dessert. We went to a place called Spoon Me for frozen yogurt...the likes of which I have never tasted before. I grew up in So. Cal mind you, and frozen yogurt is there, what frozen custard is to the midwest. I love the stuff. Anyway...it was so good, and very refreshing! It was a bit tart and tangy like real yogurt, but still sweet. I got the natural flavor and chose granola, strawberries and milk chocolate chips for my toppings. I am still craving the stuff, and am really sad I can't get it where I live. Sniff..sniff. Anyone want to open a franchise in KC?

After leaving Spoon Me, we finally headed up to Park City. We checked in to our hotel...the Westgate Resort, and then went to get some dinner. We ended up going to Ruby Tuesdays to hit up their salad bar. Heidi, our High School Musical afficionado, kindly informed us AFTER we left, that "Martha" from HS musical, was eating dinner at a table near us. Fun stuff for a celebrity sighting!

We then wandered around the outlets for a bit, and then headed to Smith's grocery store to get some stuff for soome of our meals for the next two days, as well as some fun snacks. We also stopped by Redbox to get a movie to watch. We rented 27 dresses. I hadn't seen it before, and it was pretty cute. We went back to our hotel and watched the movie while gorging ourselves on chocolate fondue. Yum!

Of course, we stayed up until about 2 a.m. chatting again. Good times!

And on a non vacation note...HERE is something exciting for all you Twilight fans!



Enjoy!

CG Reunion!

Earlier this year, I went through a really rough patch. I felt the desire to "get away" from things that were occurring in my life, and I really felt the need to be around friends and people who knew me and loved me.


(Gina, Heidi, Kerry, Marisa- EFY 1994, the summer before our senior year of HS)


I was talking to my longest friend Heidi,and we both were expressing the desire to have a girl's get-away.I had 3 very dear friends in High School. We were a little group that were all members of the church...we went to seminary together, school together, church dances and events together, sang together,went to EFY together, etc. We had our fair share of drama as well. Nevertheless, we have all stayed intertwined in each other's lives since then.Gina married Marisa's older brother, so they are family now. Marisa and I went to BYU together, and interestingly enough, both ended up in Indiana at Purdue together and in the same ward!It was so much fun to tell people that we had been friends in HS, and that Marisa was one of my bridesmaids.Heidi and I have been friends since we were about 1 year old, and I try to make a point of visiting her at least once a year when I am out her way, even if it is only a brief meeting for lunch or whatever.

Heidi and I started planning and emailed Gina and Marisa to see if they would be up for having a CG (California Girl) Reunion. I was already planning to be in Blanding, UT for round-up time, and Marisa was going to be in Idaho Falls for a wedding. Heidi and Gina are already in Utah, so we decided to make Park City our reunion place.

Like I already mentioned, I have kept in touch with Heidi, and have been able to see her at least once a year for the last little while. Marisa and I haven't seen each other in the two years since we both moved away from Indiana, but have kept in touch via blogs and emails. I couldn't remember exactly when I saw Gina last, but I really think it was at Marisa's wedding 8 years ago. While we have exchanged Christmas cards, and I have heard updates about her from Marisa, I haven't talked to her otherwise. I was a little worried that things would be a bit awkward between us since it had been so long.

My worries were for nothing! It was like no time had passed at all! Except for the fact that I have 2 kids, and she is expecting her 5th, and everything else that has happened to us in the past 8 years. It was great. We all had such a great time, and it was so much fun to reminisce about old times,stay up late chatting and laughing our heads off! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, and it felt so good.I love those girls! I don't think I realized how fortunate I was to have them as friends before, but I sure do now. It is so nice to have that kind of "history" with someone...let alone more than someone. While talking one night I brought up the point about how incredibly different each one of us was, but that it didn't matter. We all love and appreciate each other for who we are.It would be interesting to know if we were to meet now as adults, if we would be friends or not. I would hope we would be.

So...now that I have rambled on long enough about our history, I guess I will begin with day 1 of our reunion.

CG Reunion Day 1

We all agreed to begin our reunion by meeting at Heidi's parents house (they live in Utah now, and not California anymore.) It was Father's Day, so Gina and I "crashed" Heidi's dad's Father's Day dinner. It was Heidi and her husband Tom and their two kids, Heidi's parents, and Gina and I. Marisa showed up later on. Then the festivities really began! We tried to watch some videos from HS, and began reminiscing about things. We had also come up with a fun activity so we took care of that. We had a bag swap. We took the letters that spell out "CG REUNION" and assigned each person a few letters. We then had to find something to go with our letters to put in our bag. We were to get 4 of each item, and then once together, we had all the items put in the bags, and we traded bags. It was so much fun to see what we all chose and recieved! This is what we got:

C- CD of songs that reminded us of HS
G- gloss (lipgloss) and a Girlie movie (Some Kind of Wonderful)
R- ring (little CTR rings)
E- Eat! (set of cookbooks)
U- something Unique for U! (cool scrabble tile necklace pendants)
N- notebooks (decorated in cute paper with matching pens)
I- ice cream! ($5 Cold Stone gift card)
O- "Oh my stars!" (This is Heidi's phrase of choice) (cute envelope decorated with stars, saying Oh my Stars, and a little CTR anklet that was a star pendant)
N- Nutty Bars (this was a favorite snack item back in the day)

We finally headed up for bed around 12:30. Marisa and I were sharing a room, and Heidi and Gina were sharing a room. Marisa and I chatted for a bit, and then decided to hit the hay. A little while later, the door to our room flew open, and Heidi asks what we are doing...and then noticing that it is dark and quiet, asks if we are asleep. I say no, not yet. She says she is telling Gina the "Prom Story" and I immediately jump out of bed to go join in on this conversation! Marisa opted to stay in bed. The prom story is one of those "dramas" I mentioned earlier, and a story for another time. Needless to say, it's a good one! we stayed up until about 3, when I decided to head to bed. In the morning I found out that Heidi and Gina stayed up another hour talking. At least Marisa got a decent night's sleep!

That's how our first day began. I will post pictures and more of the rest of our trip next!

Blanding Fun

Blanding

Friday afternoon we loaded up and went camping up on the Bear's Ears where Tony's brother Kenny moves his cows in the summer.It is a really pretty place, and we always have fun and enjoy our time up there when we go. We always see deer, and they almost have no fear! They just come up real close to the camp. We also see plenty of these roaming around.



Tony's parents are currently serving their mission in Benin (West Africa) so their trailor was available for our use. I think I have gotten spoiled! Camping is sooooo nice when you have a comfy bed, a flushing toilet, and a place to get out of the bugs and heat...or cold!

Anyway...we were teamed up with Tony's sister Jody for dinner Friday night. We had barbecue chicken in dutch ovens, baked beans, salad, and rolls, with brownies for dessert. Suzie made the brownies! It was a tasty dinner! Even Avery thought so!




Aunt Alicia (A-lee-see-a)feeding Aves her brownie. I think she had about 3!


I think all Logan ate was the roll...and not even very much of it!Picky little guy!


Avery spent some time getting better acquainted with her relatives.

Avery getting some attention from Aunt Suzie!



Uncle Andy tried hard to win her over, and did a farily good job, as long as mom wasn't around!



I think Avery's favorite person was Brielle! She loves pretty girls! She just laughed and laughed and "flirted" at Brielle and her friends...it was so funny!



Here's my cute Logan!


I love these next pictures, becauase it was one of those happy parent moments! Avery and Logan were sitting in these little camp chairs for the longest time sharing their snacks. It was so cute! Avery would put some of her snacks in the little cup holder in between them for Logan to share. And Logan was content eating them that way, and wasn't getting grabby or greedy and trying to get the whole bag from her. They were getting along so well, and it made this mommy proud!





I ended up leaving the next day with Jody to catch a ride up to Pleasant Grove, and Tony stayed in Blanding with the kids for 4 1/2 more days. I took the camera with me, so he didn't get any pictures. He wouldn't have taken any even if I had left him the camera though, so it's ok.

More to come!

Where do I begin?

Holy Cow! I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted. I don't even know where to start! I guess I will start with my recent trip and then go backwards from there. Hopefully I will get caught up soon!

Road Trip to Blanding

We left our house around 5 p.m. on Wednesday evening June 11th. It happened to be Tony and my 9th wedding anniversary. What a way to celebrate, huh? Anyway...I just have to say how lucky I am to have such good kids on roadtrips! Logan actually likes going on "trips". Avery does very well also for a 1 1/2 year old. Her breakdowns are to be expected, but they really are few and far between. Good kids.






Pictures of the kids watching their movie in the van. I can't say enough how much I love my van, and I love that DVD player! It makes road trips so pleasant!



Lovely Kansas Sunset...taken out of my front windshield while we were driving along. I know it isn't the best quality, but it was really pretty. About 2 hours into our trip, we had to pull off the road at a gas station due to bad weather. I was listening to the radio for weather updates, and they kept saying there were severe thinderstorm warnings for "this" county, and a tornado warning for "this" county, but I had no clue what county we were in! The gas station had a map out, and there were quite a few people inside who had also stopped. Turned out the county we were in was right above the one with the tornado, and it was moving right towards where we were. The weather was better moving west which was the way we were going, so we continued on!



We stayed the night at a hotel in Colby, Kansas.One of the best things about being in a hotel room for the kids is watching cartoons in the morning while getting ready.Funny kids! Later, while eating breakfast, we saw on the news about the tornado that hit Manhattan, KS.Yikes! We passed through Manhattan not long before it hit, so we were pretty lucky on our travels! I think I would have seriously passed out and died if we were on the road with a tornado.

We continued on our way and ended up in Blanding around 8 p.m. Whew! Leg one of our trip was finally over! Stay tuned for more....

Another Tag

I have been tagged again TWICE by my friends Heidi and Marisa, so I guess I better give in. I really think I have done a similar tag in the past, but I am too lazy to go find it. If and when I do, it will be interesting to see how much is the same.

Here goes:

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. June of 1998 I had just finished SPAC (Spring touring team for Folk Dance at BYU)

2. I was at home in San Diego and working at Sea World.

3. I had begun to have a "crush" on Tony at this point, but tried to ignore it since he had a missionary he was writing to and supposedly waiting for.And she was my friend too.

4. I started dating a boy named Pat (the second Pat I had dated in my life).I met him again in the singles ward. I had known who he was when I was in HS (he went to a different HS), but he was a few years older than me. He was goofy.

5. I was getting ready to go be in the Hill Cumorah PageantThat was the coolest experience. I highly recommend it.



5 things on my to do list:

1. laundry

2. fix dinner

3. finish sewing some baby gifts that are LONG overdue!

4. get ready for our trip next week!

5. prepare things for my fun girl's reunion in Park City!

5 favorite snacks/food:

1. chips and salsa

2. jelly belly jelly beans and salt water taffy

3. anything and dip

4. SONIC's lemon-berry slushes

5. vanilla oreos

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire:

1. Get out of debt so I could have a peace of mind and spend lots of time with my family! (I am copying this one!)

2. redecorate my house...or buy a new one...probably buy a new one

3. help family members

4. pay tithing and invest! Blessings! interest!

5. it would be nice to take my whole family on a fun trip somewhere

5 bad habits:

1. staying up WAY too late on a horribly regular basis

2. biting my nails

3. tend to ignore household responsibilities in favor of reading a good book, or dinking around online, or anything (ahem) Twilight related (ahem).Go see the clip from the movie if you want to!

4. Sleeping in on the week-ends and letting Tony take care of the kidlets

5. talking too much


5 places I have lived: (in this order!)

1. Heaven

2. El Cajon, CA

3. Provo, UT

4. Lafayette, IN

5. Olathe, KS

Now that I am done, I hear my sweet girl squealing in her bed, so I better attend to her!

I will really try to find my camera cord so I can update with pictures!I have taken a TON! I have Logan's birthday party and Stephenie Meyer to write about!