Nothing says summer like...

SNOW CONES!!!

4th of July....

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays... but its also a sad one. It marks the half way point of summer for me and that makes me cry a little tear. I don't want school to start!!!

This year we celebrated all weekend long! We went to my parents house for a BBQ and the Riverton Fireworks. They didn't disappoint. They always put on a great show and my kids absolutely love it.



On Monday we went to a neighborhood party in the street. It was super fun. Everyone who had fireworks brought them and we had a SPECTACULAR display! Rain and all. We have such great neighbors and I love love love getting together with them. We are very lucky to live in such a nice place!!

( I didnt take many pics...whoops!)

Cousin Camp 2011

We did our 2nd annual cousin camp in Heber this year. My cousins friend, Anita was nice enough to let us stay in their family cabin. It was a fun time. Tho we missed A LOT of our cousins. For the most part it was just us three...

The first night we went to the store and got all the goodies and stuff to make dinner. We were going to make chicken fajitas. We got up to pay and all that we had grabbed for the chicken fajitas were peppers and cheese. But don't you worry...we had all the candy. So we had to do a mad dash through the store to get the other ingredients for dinner. I guess you can see what was most important. I also saw a local there. Man they grow em good in Heber!!


The next...ahem...morning. We woke up early enough to get..lunch. We went to one of my favorite places in Park City (Squatters) and got some yummy yummy food!!!





Then off to get pedicures at an awesome spa they have there. Its located in some ritzy shop called...Walmart... Ever heard of it? Probably not. They supplied us with massage chairs and gossip magazines. What could be better then that? I can only think of.. a few things..




Melissa and Todd then came up and joined us for dinner and the Alpine Slide and Coaster. That never gets old.




There was lots of board game playing too! It was nice getting to go to bed and waking up whenever we pleased!!!




We hope to do it next year too!!!

Strawberry Days

Can't have summer without going to the Rodeo! It was so so so windy. I was dodging orange construction barrels flying across the freeway driving to PG. I thought for sure we were going to be stormed out. But lucky for us the wind subsided just about the same time the rodeo started. The kids loved the rodeo and for (I think) the third year in a row my brother participated in the cow milking portion of the rodeo. Its always fun seeing three men run after a cow trying to milk it. They didnt win it this year...but next year for sure...right??

Yuba 2011

Brinley has been looking forward to Yuba since last year. Seriously. For at least the last six months she has been counting it down on a calendar. She loves going to Yuba because its the only time she gets to see one of her best friends, Krista. So of course...

She gets sick the first day shes there.

And I know how bad she feels...because I gave it to her.

Poor thing. She was so sick she ended up coming home. She was so super bummed! But we were able to bring her back on Saturday where we went back for a little visit. Jentry stayed the whole time and had a great time!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for putting up with a sicky and ... Jentry.


Brinley with Krista (can you believe they arent even a year apart!)


Sparklers! How fun!



I love this picture of Jentry on the tube..

Butterfingers....

More then once...or twice... I have found THIS when Ive opened the butter.

Im not naming names.

Rough'n it.

The other night the kids and I had a camp out in our back yard. They had been dying to use the new tent we bought and it was finally 'warm' enough to sleep in the back yard.

The girls and I were able to put the tent up by ourselves. We were pretty impressed with our mad super woman skills.

We had a great time!!! But there were a few things that I learned.

#1. Make sure to turn the sprinklers off before you pitch a tent in the back yard. Or you will be running like a mad woman across the grass to turn them off.

#2. Never drink 2 water bottles before you go to sleep. Or you will be AGAIN dashing across the lawn like a mad woman at 1:30 a.m.

#3 Spanish Fork wind is loud. As is every diesel truck and train that goes by.

#4. Ty tells THE funniest ghost stories EVER! That boy was cracking me up so much. Jentry had a stomach ache from laughing so much. He impressed me with his vocabulary. He was telling me that most people think that his story was just a "myth" but it wasn't...

#5 I need an air mattress.

Tyism

Im going to wear you all out with these. But I want to remember them.

Ty was getting in the tub and he said "Mom, I eat a lot of meat, dont I?"

I said, "I guess you do, why?"

"Well, I eat a lot of meat and I still don't have any meat on these bones."

He's right. He has no meat on his bones. Skinny boy!

Ty-isms

I used to do a lot of Brinley-isms with the cute things Brinley would always say to me. Now its Ty saying the cute things...so I'm going to have to start doing Ty-isms. Let me just say Ty is good for the soul. He always says the nicest things to me and in the cutest little voice. Here are two of his recents;

"Mom, I feel such comfort when you are around."

Last night he was coloring a picture and I was folding laundry. He looked up and said "Mom, you are a queen to me."

I don't think I could love this boy any more!

Ty's New Glasses

We picked up Ty's new glasses today and he is loving them! He had a hard time for about 30 minutes walking around. He said it felt like he was walking off cliffs. He was walking very carefully with small steps. But now he is doing just fine with them. I thought they would be hard to keep on his face but he doesnt seem to mind one bit. He kept looking over his glasses and then through his glasses saying... "Why is everything so blurry without my glasses?" I think they might be working!!

Chase turns 4!!!

For Chases 4th Birthday Grandma and Grandpa came down and we took a trip to Nickle City! The kids love this place! They always end up with tons of tickets and fun prizes!! We had a great time there!!



We then went to Sizzler for dinner. Its one of our families favorite places to go together. I think... We always seem to end up there, anyway!
The next day, (his real birthday) Kyms family came over and we did a mini birthday for him.


He got a "lawn mower" for his birthday from Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa and My Grandma and Grandpa (Whoever gave him $ for his birthday!! LOL) This boy loves loves loves lawn mowers and weed eaters. He is so funny.

Ty had had Chases present that he wanted to give him hidden under his bed for weeks. He knew it was Chases favorite and when he saw it on the shelf (food storage shelf in the basement) He knew Chase had to have it...

He also got a tag blanket that he calls "Taggy" for his tag obsession!

I cant believe my "baby" is four!!! Thats just crazy to me!! I love you Chasers!!!

Brinleys 9th Birthday!!!

I've got some birthday posts to do around here!! Whoops!!! Even though Brinleys birthday was back in March I thought Id better document it!! Especially since she had her first friend party. I know, Im pretty lame. We usually do family parties. But, Brinley wanted a friend party this year. Here she is all dolled up with her necklace and purse...

Heres her cute cake I...um...made...bought...you decide...

For one of the activities we painted pillow cases.


All went good until I gave a 3 year old a paint brush and permanent paint...


We then opened presents and had cake and ice cream. We also watched Mega Mind and had Popcorn. She had a great time! And Im ready to do another friend party... in 9 years.

A Big Day Around Here...

Ty got his shots for Kindergarten. He has seriously been looking forward to this day for months!! He has asked me and asked me over and over again when he was going to get his shots. Finally, the day came. I didn't want him to be scared but I didn't want him to be surprised either when they pulled out a needle and poked him. So I said, "You know these shots are going to hurt." He would just tell me that Shaylee told him that they only hurt a little. (my niece). Well, I wasn't going to argue with him there.

When we got there the nurse had to prick his finger. She asked him if he knew how to count and he proudly said "YES! I know how to count to 100" And that he did. She pricked his finger at 20 and then had to wait while he counted the rest of the way to 100. He sure was proud of himself.

He didn't do too good on the eye exam. I'll have to take him to an eye doc for that. Ty didn't seem concerned though because he said he could see them just fine when he got up close.... One funny thing is he was covering his eye with one hand reading them. When he was having a hard time the nurse said, "Let's try it with both eyes." So Ty covered both eyes.

The doctor came and gave him a check up. He weighs 36 lbs and is 42" BIG! And everything looked great!

Then the time came that he had been anticipating! SHOTS!! They gave him four in his legs (because the boy is so skinny everywhere else). There were two nurses that did them two at a time so it went fast. And all he did was say Ouch the first time and OUUUUUUUUUCH the second time he got poked. But no tears. He got five treats from the doctor because they said he did so good! He was pretty excited about that.

When we were walking out to the car I told him how tough he was. He looked up at me and said "Mom, I'm not tough...I was crying in my head. Just not on my face." That's what makes ya tough, Buddy!!!

Today he woke up with a fever and is VERY sore in his legs. Poor kiddo.

Let's Hear it for the Boy!

Today is Scott's 33rd birthday and I don't know if in all my blogging years Ive ever done a post about him!

I love this boy!!! We met when he was 18 and I was 16. Ive pretty much liked him ever since. For the most part. ;-) He was THE sweetest boyfriend. Always leaving me flowers or love notes in my car. He even did the love notes long into our marriage... but for some reason they have stopped...I'm going to have to talk to him about that one...




THINGS ABOUT MY BOY TOY..
1. He is always worried about me (and the kids) . ALWAYS.
2. He is a great provider. He is a hard worker!
3. He is a great dad.
4. He knows how to fix cars. I never have to pay a mechanic.
5. He loves helping people.
6. He is a great son, brother, uncle.
7. He's pretty dang smart. Well, I think so, at least.
8. He is pretty good lookin'.
9. He is older and taller then me.
10.He loves loves loves black Friday. (I think that's pretty funny)
11.He teaches my kids.
12.He puts up with me. Believe me!! This is not easy. I used to do some mean stuff to him as he slept and I was up with Jentry in the nights. Many of times he went to work with a map drawn on his back or his nails painted when we first got married...
13.I never have to tell him something twice. If I say something needs to be fixed or done...even if I'm not meaning by him or its just in passing and I'm not really worried about it...he will get it done ASAP!
14. He brings me flowers for no reason.
15. He likes Cindy Lauper.
16. He talks in his sleep. He constantly is hiding under the blankets from his brother or yelling out funny things. He makes me laugh almost every night.
17. He can pick out a deer/elk/moose (whatever) miles away.
18. He is a Toyota man.
19. He loves learning new things.
20. He loves Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica and AC/DC...who woulda thunk it...
21. He can eat a box of orange sticks in one sitting. (GROSS!!)
22. Everytime we go to North Orem he takes us on a tour of his old neighborhood. He had a great childhood.
23. He cant cook. This saddens me.
24. He still opens doors for me.
25. He would love love love to be a cop. (But I would never let him be. Dont tell him that though. I like to pretend I support his dreams)



What Chase likes about his dad.
Everything. He lets me go to bed. He hugs me. And he kisses me. And he hugs me. And he hugs me. And will kiss me. And hug me. (get the point?) He lets me write on the driveway. And I WUV HIM! I'm done.

What Ty likes about his dad.
Sometimes he helps me and lets me play Angry Birds on his phone. He lets me play on his computer.

What Brinley loves about her dad.
Why does he hunt? He lets me play a lot. And he is really nice to me sometimes. I said sometimes. He took me to Disneyland and I liked it. A lot a lot. Once when I lost my tooth I kind of woke him up and I told him about it and he slep talked and said "Oh man!! I didnt mean to fall asleep! I just lost all of my teeth" It was so funny.

What Jentry loves about her dad.
He lets me have sleepovers with my cousins almost every weekend. And most the time he doesn't complain. He likes cool 'electronical' things like ipods and iPhones. He stops every five minutes when we are listening to something in the car and explains things to me.



Scott, I hope you have a great birthday! You are pretty much my favorite person, ever. And I love you AAFE.

The Food and Care Coalition

I almost forgot to post about this until I watched this video today. This is a song that Ive heard a million times (since I'm a country music listener). But it never hit me like it did today.



The reason it hit me hard today. (hard as in I was bawling lol) Is the part where the homeless man is eating out of the garbage can. It reminded me of something that happened when Jentry and I went to the homeless shelter a few weeks ago.

Scotts mom had set it up for us to go MONTHS ago. Which is awesome that it takes THAT long to get a spot to volunteer. We went with his mom, sisters, nieces and his brother and a couple of his brothers friends. So there was about 11 of us there. They have a new building and its GORGEOUS! Wow, I was taken back by how nice this building was. We went to serve dinner and showed up at about 4pm. We got ready for the people to start showing up at 4:30. Dinner is served until 5:30. We were told instructions about not telling 'these people' our names, schools, or offering them rides.

When they started coming through the line was I very surprised at the variety of people that were coming through. There were the obvious homeless people. But then there were couples that came through that you could just tell they needed a little help. There were some people that were obviously on drugs. (one kid (18 years old maybe???) was higher then a kite). There were some that were probably mentally ill. There was also one lady that I swear didn't look homeless or destitute...but what do I know? But, there were no children. Which I was surprised about and which I was also grateful for. I didn't know how I could have handled seeing a child go through the food line. (Tho, I know they do it every day).


I was grateful to see the meal that they got. A hot bowl of soup, a casserole, a piece of bread, fruit, corn and a dessert. Jentry, Shelbey and I were in charge of dishing up the food. And Shelbey and I totally think the same. We were both trying to give them the biggest helpings we could. (Three hot meals a day are served from here)

But the thing that got to me the most was when we were cleaning up. We were throwing away the casserole tins and one man came in and asked if he could have the garbage so that he could lick the tin foil. I about lost it right there. I thought...how blessed are we?!!! My kids throw food away like it will be there tomorrow. And it most likely will. But what happens when it isnt. It definitely made Jentry think. She is our most picky eater. But, she got to see that these people eat what they are given. They dont complain and they were very grateful. We got "God bless you" from a man about 100 times.

I could go back to that place 100 times over and come back with different experiences, Im sure. I should go more often. It was a great experience and I highly recommend everyone go!

What do you eat when you are hungry...

Chase wraps up a carrot in a piece of bologna.


Poor kid. Maybe your mom should feed you once in awhile. Later that night he was also caught with a bologna/ grape wrap.