The Happenings

2.12.2012 - 2.18.2012

2012-02-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

sunday, february 12th | dave mentioned first thing how he wished he could see paisley today. so while he was off speaking in another ward i talked awburn into a visit with us later that day. then while getting ready i found a sweet little note in my bathroom drawer. dave might not be the best at spelling, but he's always been a great love note writer. :) less than an hour after he got home from speaking we were all headed to our ward. mason gave the talk in primary today and he did a good job. i really wanted to climb into my pj's when we got home like i usually do on sundays, but we had a meeting at church at 4. it was a long meeting and seemed even longer knowing that paisley and awburn were waiting at the house for us. as we pulled around the corner i told dave you have a visitor waiting for you. it was fun to surprise him. awburn's so good to put up with our requests.

monday, february 13th | i dropped the kids off and went into make the homework packets for the 3rd graders. after that i started on the many errands i needed to run. first stop, costco to pick up the pictures for the kid's valentines. next, party city for a couple extras for the valentines. then, target for some last minute valentine gifts and the last stop was sports authority for the boys' valentine gifts. then after a quick stop at home i headed up to o' callaghan to work some basketball games. i got back about 6:30 and we went straight to work on the valentines. [procrastinate much?] grace and i did hers first while mason was at basketball practice, they went together pretty quick. she filled the baggies, wrote her name and glue stick-ed the pictures and i slapped them together. by the time mason got home we had grace's finished and we got started on his. he wrote his name on the back of all of his, complaining the whole time that he had to write his name 27 times. really dude? i did the rest. got them all finished about 9pm and sat down to rest and enjoy bachelorben. poor dave has been worried sick all day. people have been let go right and left today. he's just waiting for his call to hear his fate.

got the sweet picture of kaelin via text. it's her 1/2 birthday today - 6 months old. sure do miss her, hopefully i'll be seeing her soon!

tuesday, february 14th | valentine's day. dave headed off to the airport around 7 for his flight to philly where he'll be working this week, but not before he brought grace her own roses and the boys some chocolates. she's been saying over and over ever since dave gave me my flowers... "boy, this is the first year you haven't gotten me flowers like mom". :) later that morning i enjoyed what i like to now call "tuesdays with paisley". she had her valentine's day dress on and was looking so cute. i had to try on a pair of the glasses from mason's valentines on her. she was not a fan of them, unless of course she could chew on them with her new tooth. :) at about 11:30 i got a call from the nurse at the elementary school saying grace had a fever. ugh? not another sick kid. went to get her and give her some tylenol. she seemed just fine the rest of day. around 1:30 i got "the call" from dave saying he had gotten "the call". he had survived another round of firings. his job will be changing though, hopefully for the better. sounds good so far, but he really doesn't know a whole lot yet. glad he can finally relax. i picked up mason and clark from school. grace's teacher sent home her valentines with mason so she was excited. we had a surprise visitor that afternoon. brother jacks our new home teacher, and he came with a gift. a box a sees chocolates. yum. later that night we headed out. we dropped off jacob at the church for his basketball game, then went down the street and dropped grace off at the rec center for cheer and then mason and i drove farther down the street to vegas high school where i had to score keep a playoff game for the girls team. [vegas lost ): ] then we headed home, someone dropped of jake and awburn dropped of grace (thankfully she was on our side of town so she could help me out and grab grace) and then they finally got there valentine gifts.

grace: purple duct tape, shirt, and pink tilly's "tom" shoes + candy

mason: new cleats, an outfit + candy

jacob: baseball pants and a batting shirt which he didn't think he'd use so i'll be returning it :) + candy

dave: new shorts. 1 pair size 34. they fit! he's lost over 40 pounds now and looks great (he opened his gift before he left this morning)

i don't think i usually buy such "big" gifts for valentines day. but all of it was stuff they needed. (except for grace's gift. hers was just fun and cute)

wednesday, february 15th | it's always fun when dave is out of town. i wake up at 5am and get jacob up. then at 5:50am i get grace and mason up and we take jake to seminary. they love it. not! grace's fever came back in a bad way during the night. she FREAKS me out when she gets a fever. she does a lot of talking in her sleep and she woke up in a panic and said her hands were huge. craziest thing ever and the weirdest part is.. is that she did the exact same thing the last time she had a fever. she dreams or hallucinates that she looks at her hands and they are huge and then she wakes up and jumps out of bed scared to death. it's so real to her that it takes a few minutes to calm her down. it scares the crap out of me. i drill her with questions like what's your name? when's your birthday? cause i'm afraid she's lost her marbles. but she's wide awake and can answer them all correctly. we took mason to school at 8 because he had choir. no blog meeting today because jodie has sick kids too. grace ran a super high fever all day long. she had another episode that afternoon. it was really just freaky. i hated it. made a call to the dr. and we'll go see him tomorrow. we took jake to baseball practice, but did little else the whole day.

thursday, february 16th | another long night trying to keep grace's fever down. we took the boys to school and went out to her dr.'s appointment. she had a fever of 104 when we got there. poor girl. hodapp was not concerned about her "episodes" as long as she was only having them while she was sick. he tested her for strep throat since her throat was looking pretty ugly, but it came back negative. so we headed home to wait for it to run it's course. [i was actually hoping for strep, then we could get some medicine and she could be feeling good by tomorrow - she was hoping it wasn't because she was scared of the medicine. she won.] mason had scouts that afternoon and jake had the day off from baseball. after i picked up mason from scouts i dropped him off and picked up sandy and calie so we could head out to the cheesecake factory for jamie's birthday dinner. it was yummy. [missed you awburn]

friday, february 17th | grace's fever is still here. she is feeling pretty good between the spikes of it though. another sick day for her... she was sad to miss another day of school.
got a picture of kaelin today. guess she hasn't been feeling well. glad to see she's still got that sweet smile and that she's starting to feel better. jake had basball practice today and when i got back from picking him up awburn was there with paisley for her sleepover. mason had a basketball game that night so grace stayed home to rest with jacob watching her and paisley and i went to watch mason's game. she was so fun. she loved every minute of it. bouncing around watching the boys play and talking the whole time. with only a couple minutes left in the game i noticed that she had gotten quiet and realized she was dozing off. so i grabbed my phone and recorded her.

so precious. :) dave was home from his work trip when we got back. i got paisley in her jammies and ready for bed. she was pretty exhausted and went to bed without any problems.

i also got the cutest pictures of kaelin tonight. looks like she's pretty comfortable and enjoys hanging out in the sink.

saturday, february 18th | spent the day cleaning, playing with paisley and getting things ready for our "fancy" family valentines dinner. dave helped out and did all the grocery shopping for me. grace was feeling pretty good and ran around with her dad all morning. jake had a baseball scrimmage that afternoon so dave ran him there. awburn came over after doing hair and my mom came over early so we could get dinner started. we had: tri tip, sausage, jodie's yummy potatoes, bbq beans, spinach dip (both made by jamie), stouffers mac n cheese, broccolli that dave made on the bbq and rolls. of course there was plenty of dessert: grandma dee brought chocolate, banana and coconut cream pies. mom brought cake balls and chocolate dipped strawberries and jamie brought some cookies.

when everyone was stuffed we played bingo with our family bingo cards we made last year. we will for sure need new updated ones for next year though. everyone won a little box of chocolates.

then we all sat around the table and wrote one thing we loved about each person and passed the papers around until everyone had wrote something on each person's page. it was fun to see what everyone had written. [especially the kids :)]

then we ended the night with the kids exchanging valentines and a mini photo shoot with their new props. it was another fun valentines dinner. wish all the kids would have been feeling better though. grace was feeling pretty crummy by that night and piper had to stay home with matt. quincy and beckam were getting over being sick all week too. [please bless we didn't pass it on to anyone else]

2.5.2012 - 2.11.2012

2012-02-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

sunday, february 5th | super bowl sunday. mom and dad, and jodie and her family came over after church. we had yummy carne asada and cheese enchiladas. then the guys watched the game and i dragged the others into the game room to play just dance. we ended the night with a quick run through of my whole blog. made me really sad that i don't keep up with my family blog anymore. there's just so much you forget. going to try harder this year to keep up with it.

mason had the chills and body aches all day.

monday, february 6th | mason has a fever, cough and sore throat. no school for him today. in fact neither one of us even left the house today. dave's dealing with a lot of stress right now. pepsico is going through another huge re-org. lots of people are going to be losing their jobs in the next week. poor dave. he doesn't stress about much, but he's pretty worried about this.

tuesday, february 8th | i really enjoy my tuesday mornings with paisley. she comes and spends time with me while awburn goes to zumba up the street. when i open the door and she gives me a big smile i feel like the luckiest girl around. :) i also received this adorable picture of kaelin via text from tauni today. sitting like a big girl in the high chair. :)

dave headed out to florida to work for the week. mason was home sick still from school. that afternoon jake went to baseball practice. then that evening grace had to be dropped off and picked up at the curb for cheer at the rec center and we dropped jake off for church basketball.

wednesday, february 9th | had a blog meeting with the girls today. got an invite for madi's birthday party. then that afternoon i took jake to baseball practice and grace and mason out to the orthodontist. i was pretty embarrassed. mason had absolutely no wire left in his mouth and grace had a big piece of wire just hanging loose. i'm always stressing we are going to make my mom look bad out there. then we went home, grabbed jake and ran him to mutual and then jodie and the kids came over so we could work on the blog's email. we barely made a dent.

thursday, february 10th | mason woke up with a fever. still. lots of coughing and still has a sore throat so he stayed home again. jodie came over so i could edit some pictures for quincy's class.

jake had to stay home from baseball because i had to work basketball games at vegas. they were only moving dirt on the field so i don't think he felt too bad about it. vegas was playing rancho tonight and as i was getting the book ready for the girls varsity game their scorekeeper came over and i realized it was the triplets mom darla. it was so fun to be able to see them all. unfortunately darius had left with his dad before i could get the picture. it's been at least 13-14 years since i've seen them in person i think.

friday, february 10th | mason's fever was finally gone and i sent him off to school. he probably should have stayed home one more day, but he refused to sit and rest so i figured he might as well go to school. i went in and made my copies for the 3rd grade teachers. dave got home just in time to ride with me to pick grace and clark up from school. grace got to spend some time playing at her friend nicole's house. those two are obsessed with duct tape right now. :) duct tape flowers, duct tape wallets and anything else they can think of. jake had baseball practice, dave had school work to do so mason and i finished organizing all of his room and closet. it feels so good to be cleaning things out. that night we made mason skip basketball and he wasn't very happy about it. (later we found out that there were no games scheduled for that night afterall, so he didn't even miss a game)

saturday, february 11th | we rushed out of the house and straight to the mall this morning. we were on the hunt for a birthday present for madi. the gap had nothing so we headed into tillys and found her a super cute outfit and necklace. then we rushed over to the party. only 10 minutes late and borrowed a gift bag from jamie. i believe i'm suppose to be working on my procrastinating this year. not doing so well so far. she had a fun valentine themed party. even included a cake walk that i tried REALLY hard to win... with no luck. the party ended in a just dance competition. which i did win. maybe it wasn't a competition, but i did go undefeated. even against the young whippersnappers. (i may have high kicked a couple times. not during the dances. during my celebrating)

that night dave and i planned to celebrate valentine's day since he'll be heading out of town again on the 14th. he surprised me with this huge arrangement of roses and flowers. it's so pretty and smells so good. my mom and dad joined us for dinner at outback and a movie. we saw big miracle... it was pretty good. we should have taken the kids to see it. they would have enjoyed it too. our night almost ended early. while we were at dinner jacob called to let us know mason had thrown up. thankfully he made it to the kitchen sink. the side with the disposal even. and the best part was that is was caused by coughing... not a sick stomach. mason called about 4 times during the movie to see when we'd be home, but no other up-chucking that night.

new years eve 2011

2012-02-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

we had a fun new years. we brought jacob's xbox 360 out and tried out the new just dance 3.

we were happy to find out that it's just as good as just dance 2. i made jodie dance with me until she was too tired to go on.... or maybe she was just tired of losing?? haha

grace, quincy and grandma all played with their new kindles.

(they all have the same cover too :))

and guess who was awake when the clock struck 12?

EVERYONE!!

so we got out the pots and pans and let them make one heck of a ruckus for about 2 minutes.

less than 10 minutes later... the house was empty and we were in bed.

let's see what 2012 is going to bring.

hopefully good health and good times!!

2011-06-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you by now have heard about the Grimshaw family. If not let me introduce you. There is Rob and Amber and their sweet daughters, Joslyn 8 and Savannah 2.

Rob has recently been diagnosed with Epitheliod Sarcoma Cancer. This form of cancer is so rare that there have only been 8 cases in the US in the last 15 years. Because of this, there isn't a lot of research available, and treatments are all experimental. Unfortunately because it is "experimental" it is not covered by their insurance.

I cannot even begin to imagine what they are going through.

I believe the most important thing that we can do right now is show our love and support for him and his sweet family.

A Bake Sale is being put together for this Saturday, July 2nd. It will be held at my home from 10am-5pm. We would be most appreciative of any help you may be able to give. Here are some of the things we are in need of.

- donations of baked goods or other homemade items. we are not limiting it to just sweets. homemade salsas, jams, rolls, we even have some tamales coming so anything that you are good at making.... we'd love to have.
- donations of crafts. we will have a table or two set up for homemade crafts.
- we are also trying to put together one heck of a raffle prize. we would love to get a couple more donations from companies or individuals. gift certificates would be wonderful. an example of a couple things we have so far are: a free full set of braces, nothing bundt cake gift certificate, crafts and gift certificates from some of our favorite online shops. raffle tickets will be sold for $10.
- please take a minute and come by on saturday and buy a cookie or two. every little bit helps!
- if you are unable to make it, maybe you'd like to head over and make a straight donation. you can do that HERE.
- please help spread the word. tell your friends and family about this and the other fundraisers that are planned for the near future.
and please keep them in your prayers.

read more of their story HERE.

the week of 2.13.2011

2011-02-20T17:01:00.000-08:00

-sunday after church we went to a quiet little birthday party for madi.

it was a picnic theme... and jamie had some really cute decorations.

the kids all had lunch on some blankets in her living room.

-for valentine's day. i made the kids some pink pancakes for breakfast.

pink pancakes really aren't that cute once they brown, but that's ok.

they were still fun.

(jake had already left for school... but he got pink pancakes too)

after dave dropped off jake at school he came home with red roses for me.

pretty pink ones for grace and a monkey for mason.

grace and mason were very excited to pass out this years valentines at school.

mason was totally excited about his. (which actually surprised me... i didn't think he'd go for it)

once again the second grade teachers banned candy on valentine's day. pretty dumb if you ask me... we had to switch up grace's valentines at the last minute. they worked out though (thanks to jamie) and she was happy with them.

i also made cute candy dishes for their teachers and my girl steph. then later that evening we delivered one to grandma dee and the kids each gave her one of their valentines.

dave and i went on a lunch date to the cheesecake factory. we are totally hooked on our favorite meals there. pasta carbonara for me and salisbury steak for him. yum. we passed on the cheesecake. (that wasn't my idea)

that night i gave the family the little gifts i had bought for them. the kids got a box of hershey's chocolates. slim jims and mechanical pencils. jake also go an itunes card. mason got some baseball cards. and grace a little lalaloopsie doll. i'm pretty sure they were most excited about the pencils. :) dave got a UNLV shirt, some cashews and pistachios and the book true grit.

-jake had 3 basketball games this week. he got to play a lot more than usual. i've been score keeping for his games. it's really nice to get paid to watch him. haha.

-mason also had basketball practice and a game this week.

at his game he put it in the hoop twice. :)

-grace cheerleads for mason's basketball games. it's pretty entertaining. haha. she is LOVING it though. i can't tell you how many times a day we have to watch her high kick or (just about) do the splits.

-we were suppose to head to the utah house for the long weekend. but with the promise of snow... we pretty much chickened out. we are big time wimps. instead we've had a movie marathon. i watched eclipse by myself..... finally. it was actually a decent movie unlike the others. then we watched red (pretty good) and charlie st.cloud (not very good).

baking day

2010-12-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

we had a great baking day... yet again.

it was the usual baking day participants. sandy, calie, grandma dee, mom, jamie and jodie. kati just happened to be in town so she was here for a little while, bobbie lynn visited for a little bit after she dropped off jodie's kids. and my aunt wendy and her family came a little bit later to hang out. (oh... and my dad too. he came and left and then came back again)

there were all kinds of goodies. sandy pre-made her stuff and put it in tins for all of us. grandma dee brought a pan of brownies for us to share. my mom brought her oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and made bakerella's cake pops and snickerdoodles. jamie made sweet chex mix, pretzel hugs and pretzel turtles. she also tried to make some salted caramel brownie ball things. i never got to taste those though. sandy, calie and i made... a TON of white chocolate popcorn. i bought the stuff for fudge and my mom whipped up a couple batches of that deliciousness. calie, grandma and grace made little pastries filled with all sorts of experiments. (cherry filling, chocolate)

these 2 little cuties discovered the sprinkles. they were hilarious. we let them go at it for a good couple minutes. my favorite was when they just went down and slurped them up with their tongue. haha.

it was a fun day!

2010 Halloween Decor

2010-10-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

i loved our halloween decorations this year!

it took me awhile to get everything just like i wanted it, but when it was finally done.. i was loving it.

i have 5 years of halloween pictures now. i get so excited to add another one each year!

(what i wouldn't give to have every year since they were little babies like Lisa)

still love my glittered haunted houses i found at joanns!

and i thought my new EEK frames fit in just perfectly.

added some bats to my clock wall.

another fun decoration i added this year was the branch. then i used clothespins to hook halloween pictures all over it. i'd love to find a huge branch next year and add lots of old halloween photos next year.

and of course my jars were filled with yummy candy. :)

it'll be fun to get it all out next year... and i'll already know where everything goes so it'll be a cinch!

excuses, excuses

2010-09-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

we had a fantastic summer!

i mean really fun.

there was probably 3 or 4 days in all of august when something fun wasn't planned.

we squeezed in as much as we could.

of course all that fun has put me way behind in my blogging.

(and in lots of other areas of life too!)

i was looking forward to getting the kids back to school and having some quiet days at home to catch up on everything. but on that monday, the first day of school, i started feeling crappy.

well that crappy-ness hung around for 2 weeks. in fact i'm still coughing up a lung.

but i do finally see the light at the end of the "i feel like crap" tunnel.

i'm hoping to get caught up on some things this week. including blogging.

grace is way into crossing her fingers for good luck right now.

so cross your fingers that i can get some good blogging done this next week!

it really stinks to be behind.

(although i should be used to it by now)

Back to School Fashion Show

2010-08-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

this is such a fun day!

we had our yummy sandwiches and mom's macaroni salad.

{i think grandma even brought a pan of brownies!}

then the kids went off to get dressed in their fancy new school clothes.

they are all becoming quite the models. :)

jacob had baseball practice but made it back just in time to model his new skinny jeans. still not sure how he talked me into them. i do have to admit... he looks pretty cute in them.

after the fashion show.. mom gathered all the kids and let them load up on snacks for their school lunches.

they loved it!

first day of school

2010-08-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

the first day of school went smoothly for everyone this year.

jake started his last year at jr. high. 8th grade.

mason's now in 3rd grade. which is kinda freaking me out...

and little miss gracie started 2nd grade.

and boy howdy does she love her boots. she says she feels like she's atleast 10 years old in them!

grace and cutie clark.

mason could not wait to get back to school so he could play wall ball!!

our camping trip

2010-08-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

i have been wanting to go camping for YEARS!

so we got together and picked a date. there was going to be quite a few of us going.

i was so excited!

then the closer the date got... people starting dropping out.

till it was just us.

then the day before we were suppose to leave we read that it was suppose to rain the whole weekend.

we debating back and forth whether we should go or not.

but dave was set on going so we went for it. and it turns out it never did rain.

we stayed at ruby's inn campground right outside bryce canyon.

it didn't have as many trees as i would have liked, but it was still nice. and it had warm showers!

this was the only game (and it broke pretty quickly) we brought to keep the kids busy. mistake. next time we'll be sure to bring a lot more. especially their bikes!

we took the drive through bryce canyon. it was really pretty.

we only stayed for two nights. and on the second night chris and tauni ended up joining us.

who knew tauni was like the pro at making smores?

it was a lot of fun.
hopefully we can do it again this next year... and maybe everyone won't back out on us!!! :)

a trip to disney

2010-08-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

we got to join kati and her family on a trip to disneyland!!

it was our first time going there with friends and we had a great time.

there was just one very, VERY bad part. and that was the traffic. it took us 7 and a half hours to get there. yes. you read that right! it was horrible!

this is what traffic looked like pretty much the whole way until we got between baker and barstow.

UGHH!!

here's our disney fun in pictures...

(don't mind grace's face she is making... she does this all the time. drives me crazy.

i've been trying to help her break this habit!!)

thanks kati for letting us invade your vacation!!

it was such a fun trip. we were glad awburn could join us too. we are ready to go back already though!!

a week with the browns

2010-08-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

(minus 1- josh)

i've been pretty much beggin pam to spend a week with us during the summer for YEARS!! well it finally happened!! and i had a blast... not sure about her. haha.

we tried to keep the 7 kiddos as busy as possible!

here's what we did:

-had a backyard movie night.

-went to sky zone.

- snuck off for a target trip... kidless after everyone was in bed.

- went rollerskating. the kids did great. even the first timers!

- dave pulled out the slide for them.

-everyone got apron-ed up and we baked a chocolate cobbler.

- went to the water park and finally got to see miss kati and her family!

- got to visit and have dinner ALL together. :)

- had to say goodbye. not pretty. never fun.

i think i'll give her a couple more weeks then i'll start bugging her about coming back again next summer!!

who knows maybe kati will be able to come across the ocean to see us again!!

2nd annual flea market trip

2010-08-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

we had another fabulous girls trip to LA. i look forward to this trip all year long and once it gets here it goes by way too quick!

unfortunately i've waited too long to blog about it so i don't remember the exact order of things ...

but here's what i do remember. :)

* yummy lunch at the corner bakery.

(sorry to the chick who we had to steal the parking spot from.

it's not easy to park a suburban in cali)

* a stop at ikea.

* pedicures at international nails & spa.

* jen getting the lucky chair.

never mind that it has a big sign on it that says.... out of order.

*jen did flip me off about right here... i think cause i was laughing about her "lucky" chair. i'll spare you the picture.

* don't worry jen's chair seemed to be working just fine.

*unfortunately at some point the lady moved jen's super cute purse that you see hanging up in that picture above to next to her on the floor like you see in the picture below.

* amber getting her nails painted pink. not the pink she wanted but the pink the lady insisted on her having.

* $5 dolla mor to remove yor callus?

* $5 dolla mor for fancy top coat?

* getting outside to find out jen had a gallon of water in her purse. soaked. everything. dripping wet. i guess her chair didn't work very well after all.

* curse you international nail.

* the segregated El Torrito. ummm... in the ghetto. yikes.

* rrrrroberto. the word of the trip.

(ali the bachlorette's pick... said in our best senorita voice)

* breakfast at the griddle. french toast heaven!

* the fabric district. hello michael levine.

*santee alley.

* popular purchases this year. purses and rubber watches.

*jodie and jen passed on these glasses... not sure why?

*dinner at el cholo

* pinkberry. watermelon flavor... with cucumbers and watermelon on top. yum.

* LA farmers market.

* shopping at the grove.

* our first visit to sprinkles.

* hopefully it'll be part of our trip every year!

* red velvet.

*milk chocolate w/ sprinkles

*coconut

*banana with chocolate frosting. surprisingly my fav!

*another stop at santee alley. a couple more purses. another watch or two?

* finally the flea market on a nice cool morning.

* seeing some celebrities. they were filming a new tv show called flea market flip.

* hello lisa rinna.

* lara spencer. not really sure who she is though.

* also saw Emily Henderson the winner of design star. followed her around a little but never got the guts up to ask for a picture. haha.

* the cool morning turned into a hot afternoon. jen applied sunscreen though.

* our favorite painted furniture booth. amber got a great green chair from here.

* the fun task of stuffing it all in the car.

* last stop .... pinkberry.

* safe drive home.

*now to wait till next year so we can go again!!

just a couple things...

2010-08-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

- mason and grace took swim lessons. they had so much fun and learned so much! especially grace... she gained so much confidence in those 2 weeks. she went from refusing to jump of the diving board... to holding someone's hand while she jumped... to jumping with someone there to "catch" her... to jumping all on her own and swimming to the side by herself. this was so HUGE for her. she always been afraid of the water and now she's a little fish.

i was surprised out how well mason could already swim. he became much stronger and learned some new strokes as well. they enjoyed going each time!

-jacob (and dave's) allstar team made it to the semi finals again. they had a couple really great games!

(they took a beating in this game though. oh well. they'll try again next year.)

- jacob went to his first year of scout camp. we didn't think he was going to be able to go because of baseball, but at the last minute was able to sneak in. i was a little nervous. it seems like every year you hear at least one awful story about a scout at camp. he made it home safe and sound though and had a great time.

- still no luck on my material. i may have to give up on it and start to look for something else. :(

- august is going to be one crazy month! i am so excited though!

so much fun stuff planned and i'll get to see two of my most favorite people!!

it will be a great end to our summer!!

my new clock wall

2010-07-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

as most of you know...

i'm the best at being indecisive.

and i'm the perfect procrastinator.

two talents i wish i wouldn't have been blessed with.

where does all that useless info fit into this post you ask?

well i've had this idea for a clock collection in my head for a couple of years now. so i finally bought all the clocks and then let most of them sit under a bed for the last 4 months. just waiting for someone to come hold my hand and help me decide how to do it.

finally my sisters came to my rescue.

so we...

put kenzie to work cutting out kraft paper in the shapes of my clocks.

that way, we could move things around and get them exactly where we wanted them without putting a hundred holes in the wall.

when everything looked right.

we measured for the nail holes and hammered the nails in.

then we took off the paper and hung my clock collection.

then i fell in love...

and wondered why the heck i waited so long to get them up there.

oh and just in case you are wondering...

large black clock came from target. yellow one came from rodworks. (a couple years ago though) and the 3 smaller clocks were bought at hobby lobby for 50% off.

...

(sorry, most of you have probably already seen this... but i wanted it over here on my personal blog too!)

San Francisco

2010-07-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

a highlight of my summer was definitely my trip to san francisco with dave.

he had to work out there for a couple days so we made a trip out of it!

this was the view from our hotel.

those are the cable car tracks down there so we got to see and

hear the cable cars a lot.

the first thing we did was went down to see if there was some possible way to get Alcatraz tickets. we knew they were sold out on line, but we were hoping for a small miracle. no luck... they were sold out for about 10 days out. that will be a great excuse to go back someday though. we really wanted to check it out.

that night we saw wicked.

it was wonderful and dave even enjoyed it! now that's saying a lot!!

it gives me goose bumps every time. i'm so happy it was still there and we got to see it!!

the next day we bought tickets for these double decker tour buses. the best decision we made! we took them all over the place! definitely the best way to see the whole city.

i think we saw the beautiful golden gate bridge every day we were there. the first day though we really lucked out because it was a perfectly clear blue sky. i really did think it was beautiful. so fun to be able to see it in person!

we spent some time down at pier 39 and fisherman's wharf.

we saw a great show put on by some street performers. it was really entertaining.

we tried to stay away from a lot of crazy street "performers". people will try all sorts of things to make money.

this is what the golden gate bridge looked like the next day. still just as beautiful. :)

one day we went over the bridge and into a cute city called Sausalito. we grabbed a big fat ice cream cone and then continued on to Muir Woods. it was really pretty there. there were the tallest most beautiful redwoods.

that night we went to dinner at Espetus a brazilian steakhouse with a co-worker of dave's and his wife. it was really good. i'm not a big meat eater... but when it's cooked right. yum!

the next morning we tried to get up before the crowds so we could ride the cable cars. they are always packed... and hard to get on. so glad we did. the are so cool and the driver (who was a bit pushy at first) ended up being really nice and told us how they worked and even snapped a picture for us.

we went and visited chinatown. it's very colorful. lot's of really cheap stuff for sale and gross food everywhere. dehydrated fish and all sorts of "tasty" stuff.

we decided to have lunch in little italy. seemed like the safer choice. :)

we met back up with Dave's coworker and wife and did a little more sight seeing. since they had a car we were able to visit a couple spots that the buses can't go.

this is the steepest street in san francisco. and let me tell you there are a lot of steep streets there. haha. it's hard to tell in this picture but this street was CRAZY steep. rollercoaster steep!

then we of course took a drive down the crookedest street...

the famous lombard street.

there are gorgeous houses and flowers down the whole street. so it may not only be the crookedest it's probably one of the prettiest streets too.

we went to visit the bridge one last time that day too. but up close and from below. ahh... so pretty.

while on the tour bus we got to drive through most of the neighborhoods. my favorite though was all the victorian houses called the painted ladies. we did learn while we were there that to be considered a painted lady the house had to be painted with 3 different colors of paint.

my most favorite picture from the whole trip is of the famous seven sisters. the most popular of the painted ladies. the Full House house itself. please click on it so you can see it better. it was just beautiful. with the city as the backdrop it was breathtaking.

we had the best time exploring the city together. it had been too long since we had taken a trip with just the two of us! thanks honey. lets do it again soon. :)

(and of course thanks to my mom and sisters who watched the rugrats! it's nice to be able to enjoy yourself and not have to worry about the kids!!)

her first pedicure

2010-07-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

one thing on our summer to do list was to get pedicures. (girls only)

she was very excited to say the least.

it wasn't the most relaxing one i had ever had. haha

she was constantly moving around and playing with the chair massager controls.

she actually had a "mini pedi". i asked them if she could just soak her feet and get her nails painted.

they only charged me $5. well worth it! she was in heaven!

she is such a girlie girl. i'm sure she has many pedicures to come in her future!!

her party

2010-07-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

with only a couple days separating grace and max's birthdays we decided to have a combined party and rent out the crystal palace for a private party!

there was lots of rollerskating being practice in the days between her birthday and her party. if we were home those skates were on her feet. it ended up working out perfectly because by the day of her party she was feeling pretty confident on them and pretty proud of herself! it was so fun to watch her!!

it turned out to be a great party! (besides being a little rushed and a few injuries)

grace loved every minute of it though. and that's what it's all about!!

thanks for everyone that came! and for the awesome gifts... she loved everything!

(i'm the worst at sending out thank you cards!... that's just rude! sorry.)

her birthday

2010-07-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

do you know how brides are often called bride-zillas?

well our gracie was what you could call a birthday-zilla.

this girl was out of control. haha.

the night before she let us know she wanted little poems

on the walls like mason had.

(of course i planned on doing that early the next morning.

she doesn't usually wake up very early)

so when i woke up at 6:30am to do them... she was already sitting on the couch.

as soon as i walked out she asked if she could open her presents! this girl meant business. birthday business!

i told her we should probably wait till everyone was awake.

then we put her in the shower and while she was in there i made all the little birthday poem signs and hung them on the walls. when she came down the hall she said, " i didn't even see these before".

phew! i lucked out there.

not long after her shower she was asking again for presents!! we had a couple of them wrapped and ready for her "birthday week". i talked her into this one first though...

i think it's safe to say she was happy with her gift.

they were pretty tricky at first though.

there were a lot of slips and falls the first day.

to celebrate that day we headed to the movies and dinner. uncle mark was here so he joined us and grandma becky came too! she picked red robin for dinner... and she probably told us 20 times she wanted them to sing to her! she was very concerned they weren't going to.

but they finally did! and all was well again.

she really enjoyed her birthday, but she was really looking forward to her party a couple days later. and she had lots of practice to do on her skates to be ready for it!!!

i'm a desperate woman...

2010-07-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

{hopefully that title doesn't bring any weirdo visitors. haha}

what i'm desperate for... is to find some more of this fabric. or at least find the name of it so i can search the internet for some more of it. i purchased it at joanns. but of course there is no more. anyone out there know the name.... or have a couple extra yards of it laying around?? :)

there might be a reward for information leading to the name or a joanns that still carries it....

what we did last week {6.28.10 - 7.4.10}

2010-07-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

~ jodie and i made a stop at hobby lobby and chik-fil-a before the long drive home from lehi on monday. why is the drive home so much longer than the drive there?

~ i don't have very many 4th of july decorations so we had a craft day with lots of glitter and made a few.

they are both really fun, but i really like how the framed ones turned out.

~ i had a birthday. dave planned a little lunch for me. invited my sister over. ordered us olive garden. he went out of his way all day to make sure i felt special. that was nice. enjoyed getting birthday wishes from friends and family.

~that night jake had their first all star game. they played great. they played again on saturday and won that game too. there's nothing like watching baseball in 105 degree temperatures.

~ we celebrated coda's 2nd birthday at the sprinkler park. once again calie planned a super cute party. mickey mouse this year. the birthday boy was in such a lovable mood that day. it was great.

~ on friday night dave took me to see the viva elvis show for my birthday present. it had some great parts and some not so great parts. but i still really enjoyed it. it was nice to be on a date with hubby too...

~ on the 4th of july we went to church. then later that evening the family came over for a bbq. the kids played on the slide and trampoline and there was even a water balloon fight. there was tons of yummy food like usual. i think everyone stuffed themselves.

at one point someone got the hose out...

i'm sure you're not surprised who it was. :)

when it was just about dark we headed to the front yard. the kids went through their boxes of snaps/pops in record time. then we sat and enjoyed our safe and sane fireworks and a few not so safe and sane fireworks of the neighbors.

my dad always says... safety first!

once again after all the fireworks were over the kids had fun playing with their glow in the dark necklaces. some juggling was attempted. and lots of contests to see who could throw theirs the furthest.

what we did last week {6.21.10 - 6.27.10}

2010-07-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

~ monday. the boys went off to baseball practice and grace and i headed out to jamie's for our eighteen25 meeting that didn't happen last week. :) we had a lot to chat about. running that blog is a lot of work. but we are enjoying it. at least i think we are... right girls? later that evening dave and i took the kids to see toy story 3. i luv-ed it! i laughed. and i cried. of course. i kept reminding myself that it was just a cartoon about toys, but it didn't help. toy story has been a big part of our family for the last 10 years. it's my favorite. i'll have to share a bit of news too. it cost our family of 5 under $25 to see this movie. josh and awburn told us about a theatre out in henderson (cinedome 12 henderson) that is only $4.25 for matinee. and the regular price is only $6.50 and children are $4.25. it's an older theatre. but it was nice and clean. we'll be going back... i'm sure. after our movie we met up with josh and awburn for dinner at buffalo wild wings. it was pretty good. then we headed over to coldstone for a little dessert. ( 2 things off the summer to-do list in one night )

~ tuesday. dave left for dallas in the morning. grace, mason and i headed out to the mall. we are all in need of some new clothes. especially grace, but i'm just not having any luck finding anything i like for her. then we headed back towards home. a quick stop and walk through at the DI. only came out with a book for each of them. even though there was a hutch i was loving. dave wasn't having any of that though. maybe next time. then a quick stop at target. for snacks for our trip. we did find grace a dress. i had to talk her into it though. the top part is like a tank top. she doesn't like to where things without sleeves. :) that night we just finished packing for our trip.

~ wednesday. got busy right away to leave for our trip to utah. dropped jake off at baseball practice at 8. he was all set to spend the rest of the day, until dave got home that night, with the swains . (thanks again lisa!) once everyone's stuff was packed in the car we were on our way. jodie and i in the front, mason, piper and beckam in the middle and my mom, quincy and grace in the back. we made a stop in cedar for some lunch. passed up cafe rio (we still aren't over the bugs in the salad) for arbys and then we were back on the road. once we reached provo we stopped at one of the great parks they have there. the kids were ready to run and play and burn off some of that built up energy.

from there we went and got jodie and my mom checked into their hotel. after they were all set we met tauni over at carrabbas for dinner. it's one of my new favorites. it was so yummy!

~ thursday. we went back and forth trying to decide whether or not we wanted to go to lagoon. we finally agreed to go for it. i'm so glad we did. we had so much fun. especially the kids! we spent almost the entire day in kiddie land. they could ride all the rides by themselves. they had a blast.

after we ate lunch we headed over to these water sprinklers to cool off a little.

they kids were soaked. it must have been pretty warm though because no one complained about wet clothes.

after they had been on every fast spinning ride they had there we decided to head out for dinner. we went to goodwood... one of our favorite utah restaurant. and we were happy with how good the kids were considering how tired everyone was. another yummy meal!

~ friday. pam arranged a sitter for us for a couple hours. so we drove all the way out to salt lake to check out a store called nps that i had seen on a blog. on this blog she shared all the fun finds she purchased there and it seemed to be a store we wouldn't want to miss. it ended up being a total waste of time! so we hit up somewhere we knew we'd enjoy next. the training table. cheese fries. check. onion rings. check. yum. check. then we had about 6.4 minutes to swing by hip and humble and then back to pams so the babysitter could get to her real job. my kids and i stayed and visited with pam while jodie and my mom ran to costco. by the time they got back it was time to head to springville for part of the family reunion. we got together to look through old pictures and have a ice cream bar. there was even a short program. i enjoyed myself. :)

(poor beckam had to sleep whenever he could get the chance)

david, sandy, mom, grandma, marvin

~ saturday. we started the day with a group of 19 at ihop. it went surprisingly well. until the balloon lady started making 4 feet balloon swords then all heck broke lose. so we removed all the balloons from the table and finished our breakfast. after a quick stop at costco we headed up into the beautiful mountains for the reunion. we had a great time hanging out and visiting. the kids ran free and enjoyed the swings up there. it was a really nice day.

this is the only picture i took worth anything... whats up with that? i hate when i do that.

after we left there we decided to make a stop at rodworks. unfortunately they had just closed. so we grabbed tauni and stopped by the park by her house. there jodie had the great idea to play tag. we almost killed ourselves. our bodies are not used to running as fast as they can. haha. pretty funny. and painful! that night for dinner we wanted to go to texas roadhouse. our party of 20 squeezed into 3 tables. it ended up being our worst meal of the trip. the kids were beyond tired! it was hot in there! it took forever for our table to get our food because our server slipped and fell with all of our food. they never even brought out all of our food. it just wasn't meant to be. the food was good though. so i'll have to try it again sometime. with less tired kids. or better yet no kids at all!

mason and beckam were best buds on this trip.

grace and madi have toothless smiles right now. funny!

~sunday. went to the hotel to grab jodie and the kids. we had decided to stay one more day. so after a quick breakfast we said good-bye to jamie and my mom. then we headed to walmart for some things we needed. ended up leaving with a lot more than we needed. it was a fun walmart shopping spree though. besides the fact that we both had a little girl that asked for about 50 million things!! that afternoon we went on a hunt for onion rings. haha. did you know it's almost as hard to get onion rings as it is to get a beer on a sunday in utah. no fears though. we hunted some down. that evening we all went over to pam and josh's for dinner. it was yummy. i always enjoy myself sitting around their table chatting. josh lets us talk our girl talk (like nameing our stray hairs that aren't there one day and then bam there they are an inch long growning out of our neck and chin. what? tmi? sorry) only rolling his eyes every once in a while. we stayed way too late, but it's hard to say goodbye to them browns.

what we did last week:

2010-06-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

~ monday. took grace and mason along for some shopping. i was in desperate need of a new swimsuit. seriously lucked out and found one at our first stop. dave was out of town so their was no guilt when i sat myself on the couch to watch the bachlorette that night. bye bye weather man. i'll miss the quirkiness you brought to the show.

~ tuesday. took the kids to the other sprinkler park. tried to have a eighteen25 discussion while they played. they kept buggin us so we didn't get much accomplished.

(swiped these pics from jamie's blog)

that night i went to the book swap. (teara babysat) i've been craving the grand lux since the last time we went almost 3 months ago. it was so good... again! we were all stuffed but we sat and chit chatted for so long that we decided to have dessert. i brought home some good books. i'm looking forward to reading them!

~ wednesday. headed to jodie's to work on a project. by the time i got there i was not feeling like crafting. plus it took us all morning to figure out our plans for that night. so we headed home. then later we headed back to jodie's to pick her, her kids and my mom up and headed out to meet jamie and her kiddos and awburn out at spring mountain ranch to see willy wonka. it was a cute musical. it kept the kids attention. i wouldn't say (all) the talent was top notch, but i enjoyed watching it.

~ thursday. woke up at 5:30 so i could be ready in time to take my grandma to her eye appointment. went to pick her up with one of my new books in hand excited to have the quiet time to read. she ended up bringing me 2 magazines to read too. only seconds after finding a spot in the waiting room we were joined by a mother and her son with a very LOUD imagination. so much for reading my book. i did get through the magazines though. thankfully grandma's appointment went very smoothly and i took her home to rest. after dave and the kids got home from the first all star practice we headed back over to jodie's to meet up with everyone. my mom was taking us girls for pedicures. yipee! my mom and i sat across from jamie and jodie. it was fun to watch each others face. we are pretty much wimps! haha. we were all pretty entertained by the massage chairs too. (sorry your butt massager didn't work on your chair jamie) all our toes are looking pretty hot now though. later that day mason went to scouts and then the boys headed over to the minters to watch the laker game. they came home happy.

~ friday. jodie and her kids came over. we jodie worked on a new project. she almost got it done. piper tried to go for a record of being the sleepiest baby without giving in to sleep. later that day mason and i ran to redbox and grabbed some movies and dave and grace ran to get some panda for dinner. we watched invictus and valentine's day. i really liked both of them.

~ saturday. that morning the boys went off to baseball practice and grace and i slowly made our way over to jodie's. stopping by yard sales and the donut shop on our way there. we picked up jodie, her girls and my mom and headed over to ham hall for madi's dance recital. she did awesome. even nailed her back handspring! she was totally a smooth criminal. we headed home after that so i could put together sharing time.

~ sunday. we tried to make dave breakfast. the boys lost interest fast so grace helped her dad make eggs with peppers and onions while i made everyone else plain eggs. the kids gave their dad some homemade gifts and cards. we went to church. i had sharing time. went pretty smoothly. i think the kids enjoyed it. a little later we went and picked up grandma and headed to my mom and dad's for dinner to celebrate father's day and my dad's birthday. (since we'll be in utah on his actual birthday) we had mexican. it was so good! and dessert was so yummy too. josh brought the rest of dave's father's day gift. we had keyless entry put in his truck. i'm pretty sure he likes it. he kept trying out all the buttons. :) for my dad we went in on a gift. it was an electric hammer. some new fancy craftsmen tool. hope he can put it to good use. it was a good day. we went home with very full bellies. when we got home dave, grace and i watched our last redbox movie "when in rome". i thought it was pretty cute and grace really liked it to. :)

flashback friday

2010-06-18T22:59:00.000-07:00

ever since mason was a little baby he has loved to play with my hair. as he got a little older he would play with it and twist it around his fingers. when he got a little bigger and was walking he would climb up by me if i ever sat down so he could just run his fingers through my hair.... and sometimes he would even get it into a huge knot. at some point, when he couldn't get to my hair, he started to twist and play with his own hair. right up on the front of his head. he did it so much that he gave himself a bald spot. so we ended up having to buzz his hair. that solved the problem with his hair but he still to this day LOVES to play with my hair. one of his favorite spots is at church. where he gets to sit for a whole hour playing with it. or when i'm on the computer he'll climb behind me in the chair and play with it. i'm curious to see how long this will continue. hopefully for many more years to come!

randomness part 2

2010-06-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

for our last tuesday treat day of the school year

we decided to do something a little special.

so we headed down to uswirl.

lucky for me, steph had some coupons for free ones and then grace and clark just

happened to bring out their own coupons from their teacher that day.

what are the chances of that?

jake j. hands down won the prize for the most (disgusting) toppings.

they may be the last kids out of the gate after school.

but they are darn cute.

.....................................................................................................

grace had her dance recital.

she did really good this year.

she was looking pretty darn cute up there too.

thanks so much to miss jolynn for all her hard work.

flowers are her most favorite part of the whole night.

after the recital the kids and i, jodie and quincy, jamie and her kids and grandma and grandpa all went to outback for dinner. (for the second year in a row dave had to be out of town on recital night) us girls reminded our mom that last year dad had bought. she acted like she wasn't having any of that but she did spoil us with a free meal!

we've done it twice now... so that makes it a tradition! can't wait till next year. haha!

on the way home grace had a little meltdown.

she was sad her dad couldn't be at her recital.

we recorded it though. so they got to watch it together when he got home.

..............................................................................................................................

i love our summer to do list.

(except now i get 10 million questions from the kids asking when we are going to do it all)

things we hope to do: go bowling, go to a cabin, go to the drive in, coldstone, go on a hike, summer reading program, game night, water park, picnic in the mountains, surprise someone, tent camping, back to school fashion show, rollerskating, write a letter, discovery museum, visit the beach, backyard movie, make popsicles, mini golf, sprinkler park, library, go to a baseball game, family reunion, set goals, achieve goals, toy story 3, disneyland, back to school shopping dates, free movies, bake some cookies, see aunt connie and uncle mark, slip n slide, utah house with cousins, get pedicures (girls only), try a new recipe together, craft, grace's birthday party and sky zone.

we better get busy! :) let me know if you wanna join us for anything!

.................................................................................................................

we met at the sprinkler park this week.

thankfully there was a nice breeze most of the time.

the kids played really good together and had a good time.

we raced home because awburn was picking up grace. i think she asked 5 times if she could call her on the way home because she was afraid we would miss her. but she was at the house when we got there just like she had promised. grace loves to hang out with awburn. they did some baking and hanging out at the pool. mason was jealous. so he's anxiously awaiting his day with josh. haha.

randomness part 1

2010-06-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

we had dinner for my mom's birthday.

yummy chicken enchiladas.

then pie for dessert.

not before singing happy birthday though of course.

.........................................................................................................

we didn't get to go to quincy's recital.

dave was out of town and mason had a baseball game.

but we did get to see her looking all cute and stuff in her costume.

.........................................................................................................

we attended mom's and muffins.

except we never eat the muffins cause they are blueberry.

we are not fans of the blueberry.

i'll have to request something berry-less next year.

mason was in a hurry to get out to the playground.

because wall ball is way more fun than hangin with me.

..........................................................................................................

memorial weekend.

we headed up to the utah house.

from the moment the boys stepped out of the car

till the time we got back home they were arguing.

made for a delightful trip.

and to make matters worse.

while mason was swinging the plastic bat

it flew out of his hands and broke a window. nice.

it was time to head home and lock them in the closet. (just kidding)

jodie and jamie had planned a bbq for us when we got home on monday.

the kids played on the slide.

they jumped on the trampoline.

they had water gun fights.

there was a fight for the hose. thankfully for us adults jacob did not win.

then my favorite part of the day.

shooting the little white bodies with the nerf dart gun.

they were pretty good at dodging the darts.

but i always won in the end. whahaha.

it was a fun day!

his baptism

2010-06-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

mason was baptized on June 5th.

it was a really special day.

his grandma and grandpa gave some wonderful talks.

grandma dee led the music.

tauni sang a beautiful song....

and we were joined by some wonderful friends and family.

it was a good day!

.................................................................................

his party

2010-06-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

(the date did get changed to the 22nd)

mason had a rocket party.

all the kids picked a rocket and decorated it with stickers and colored tape.

it took the boys about 2 minutes to decorate theirs.

the girls put a little more thought and creativity into theirs.

after everyone had decorated their rocket and scarfed down a quick lunch

we headed over to the school to launch the rockets.

these rockets rocked.

they went seriously high. the kids LOVED it. (and the adults too i think)

there were a couple that went so high it was hard to see them. CRAZY!

when it was their turn for their rocket to fly they would take off across the field chasing it.

max was by far the funnest to watch while his rocket was launched.

he was so excited he could barely stand it.

and then he was off to chase it down. :)

most rockets were destroyed after one flight. but the boys didn't seem to mind too much. there was one little girl though. quincy. who was quite upset when the tip of her rocket caved in on impact. she needed a little time alone. poor girl. haha.

after all the rockets had been launched. we headed back to the house for some cupcakes and ice cream.

we had a candle malfunction. that's why he looks a bit concerned in that first picture. one of those sparkler candles tried to burn my table down. thankfully someone put it out before it did too much damage.

we did a quick switch of the candles and tried again.

then he opened all his fun presents. i think a good time was had by all!!

thanks so much abbotts for loaning us the awesome rocket launcher!!

his birthday

2010-06-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

on his birthday:

he woke up to find silly poems all over the walls about himself.

he went from room to room with a smile on his face reading each one.

(thanks jenna)

he had eggos (his favorite breakfast) on the celebrate plate.

he took donuts into his class.

he was very excited to have a game ON his birthday.

his team sang happy birthday to him when he went up to bat.

lots of family came to see him play in his special game.

jacob gave grandma and jodie a gun show

they were impressed

the girls passed out cupcakes to everyone.

we sang to him one more time when we got home.

he made a wish and blew out the candle.

then he opened up his birthday gift. (a video game of course)

he also had received a (little) gift everyday during his birthday week. for some reason dave was under the impression we didn't celebrate his birthday last year so he was trying to make up for it...

but that's the beauty of having a blog. it's all just a click away.

i think we'll keep that idea around though.

it was fun to spread the fun out for a week!

field day

2010-06-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

grace and mason had a great time like usual.

i think the popsicles are their favorite part.

unfortunately within minutes of all the kids making it back to their class their school went on lock down.

as i was walking out a lady was reporting that a man was on top of a house behind the school with a shot gun. i really didn't think much of it. i guess because my dad likes to shoot himself some pigeons every now and then and there really didn't seem to be any commotion or anything going on over there. but within minutes of being home i started to hear the sirens... and more sirens. when i drove by the whole street was blocked off. probably 15 police cars. and then came the helicopters. after a couple hours everything seemed to calm down. when i picked the kids up from school the guilt came flooding in. the kids said they had to be in their classrooms on the floor with the lights off. poor grace was pretty traumatized. one of her classmates had told her that there was a man in their school with a knife. she said the teacher was reading them a story but she couldn't take her eyes off the window because she was afraid the man was coming. mason didn't seem to be too bad off, but i could tell he did not enjoy going through all of that. then he announced to all of us that he had peed his pants... cause he had to go so bad but they weren't allowed to leave their classroom. i asked him if he peed like all down his legs... he said no. well that's good. poor kids. i wish i would have went in to the school when i had heard the news just to make sure everything was alright. i wish i would have been with grace so i could have comforted her. or with mason to try to take his mind off of having to use the restroom. hopefully they'll never have to go through something like that again.

and it did just happen to be a man shooting pigeons.

probably not the best idea when there is an elementary school on the other side of your fence.

randomness from the last month... or so

2010-05-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

~ crazy hair day. the kids had crazy hair day at school a few weeks ago. mason's hair got a spiky do. he was cool with it. grace got 3 ponytails across the back. nothing too crazy. but she had a total meltdown. i refused to take them out. she eventually got over it. she is so emotional when it comes to her hair! if every hair is not in place in the morning when we are getting her ready for school. she'll lick her fingers and smooth down the strays. silly girl!

~ eyelashes. about a week ago i went and got eyelash extensions. can i just say... i'm in love!! i am not a make up girl. but these eyelashes have a way of making a girl feel great!! sorry about the close up of the bushy brows... she took care of those for me while i was there too. i didn't want my eyebrows competing with my lovely long eyelashes. haha. love!! go here and let savannah know if you need them too.

~ blog book. i started on my 2008 blog book. i'm about 1/4 of the way done. i just added my trip to new york. man was that a fun time!! i need another girls trip! and i also want to plan a trip for dave and i for our anniversary this year. i think 15 years deserves a trip, don't you?

~ grace's tea party. dave helped gracie put together a tea party. complete with easy bake oven treats. (blech... haha) she of course was in heaven!

~ jake's 1st home run. jake hit his first out of the park home run! i of course was not there. i had to take mason to his game. i almost started to cry when i heard i had missed it. he's been working really hard for awhile now. way to go jake!!

~ a mini boutique. a couple of us decided to have a little mini boutique. jodie and i had fun making over a couple of things for it. we didn't have the "best" turn out. but we had fun hanging out together and visiting with those that could make it. we also got to meet some new friends that heard about it through the eighteen25 blog. that was cool. :)

~ a vegas hobby lobby. well technically it's probably a henderson hobby lobby. but that's a heck of a lot closer than south jordan, ut. during the boutique someone let us know that they heard we were getting a hobby lobby. i tried not to get my hopes up too much until i saw the sign myself. right there across from the galleria mall. lucky us! yipee!

~ headboard makeover. picked this headboard up at a yard sale for about $5. gave the top a good sanding to get all the scratches out. then sprayed it with a couple fresh coats of white.

i'm really happy with the way it came out. now if i could just finish the rest of grace's room. it's not coming along like i planned so i've been putting it off. i need someone to come share their creativity with me. (jen?) i did pick up a dresser off the side of the road last week. that will be getting a white makeover too. i can't believe how lucky i was that day. i've never found anything worth picking up just sitting on the side of the road before. :)

~ the bike rodeo. the much anticipated bike rodeo has come and gone again. the kids loved it like usual.

womens conference

2010-05-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

i lucked out when cami's usual women's conference bff found out at the last minute that she wouldn't be able to go. so i was asked to step in and fill her spot and i'm sure glad i was able to. it was nice to be able to spend some days with cami. chit chatting and catching up on each others lives and our families. we stayed in the dorm rooms and stayed up late laughing about old stories and memories. it was easy to picture what it would have been like had we been college roommates.

we attended some great classes while we were there.

participated in the huge service project.

felt the spirit. cried.

got lots of exercise walking all over the campus.

had a little contest with cami.

to see who spotted the most people they knew.

i won. pretty much thanks to the duke girls. :)

grabbed tauni and went to the oh sweet sadie craft boutique.

i always thought it would be bigger?

never could work out a time to see pam :(

shopped at hobby lobby.

tried to solve our deepest darkest struggles.

wondered why it had to snow... everyday we were there.

committed to teaching our kids to WORK.

i got a lesson on wheat and gluten. from cami.

who knew you could do so much with wheat??

we had a great time.

i'm sure her "regular" women's conference friend will be back next year...

so i'll be looking for someone to go with me. haha.

why the heck didn't i get a picture of us together? ugh!

mini photoshoot

2010-05-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

with quincy going to preschool over by our house. i've gotten to spend more time than usual with these 2. one day when jodie was off to pick quincy up i tried to get a couple pictures of piper. but beckam must have felt left out cause he kept squeezing in by her. cute kids!

do you think she's saying "help me" in this one. :)

easter... finally

2010-05-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

{i totally had to re-read jamie's easter post just to remind myself how our day went. haha.}

i do remember that we had a really good day though.

i remember grace woke everyone up early so they could see what the easter bunny had left for them.
i remember how an unhealthy amount of candy was consumed by the time afternoon rolled around... and it didn't stop there.

i remember we had so much GOOD food. we all stuffed ourselves. we ate so much we barely touched dessert. (oh how i wish i could get my hands on some of that dessert right now!)

i remember how good it was to see everyone. especially david and cindy and their family. we don't get to see them enough. i also found out my uncle david reads my blog.... i remember thinking that was pretty cool!

i remember how much fun the kids had on the trampoline. and how happy i was no one got hurt since our net for it is in the garbage.

i remember how excited the kids were for the egg hunt.

i remember i had the great idea to have the golden eggs with moola in them. then soon found out what a horrible idea it actually was. kids were whining and pouting about not getting a golden egg.

last time we do that. :)

i remember when everyone scrambled to this part of the yard when cindy announced there was a golden eggs still hiding back there somewhere.

i remember how happy these two were when they found the golden eggs.

i remember we had SO MUCH candy that we filled the eggs back up and did another egg hunt.

no golden eggs with money that time though. just stuck the money in a regular egg.

amazing how much drama we alleviated by doing it that way.

i remember being sad that jacob didn't participate in the egg hunt for the first time.

he's getting too old!

and then i remember how the kids went back to taking turns showing off on the trampoline.

i remember how jamie and i freaked out when madi decided she was going to do a back handspring for the first time by herself. but we freaked for no reason cause she did like 4 of them.... nearly perfect each time.

and now i'll never forget any of it cause i finally have it here on the blog.

our not so spring-y break

2010-04-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

last week for spring break we loaded up the car with

grace and i,

my mom and grandma,

jodie and her kids

and ALL of our stuff.

my big suburban was packed to the max!

we took our time driving up to lehi.

a stop in cedar for some cafe rio.

a stop in beaver for some squeaky cheese and ice cream.

a stop in philmore for some gas, candy bars and playtime at the little park at the gas station

a little nap for most

it took us about 7 hours from start to finish.

but all the kids were so good. it was a pretty enjoyable ride.

the rest of the week consisted of:

(in random order)

shopping.

breaking in chris and tauni's new house.

shopping.

aunt gloria's lemon meringue pie.

my first time to carrabbas. yum!!

a little shopping.

chick fil a.

pam's warm out of the oven cinnamon rolls.

took full advantage of hobby lobby's awesome sale.

snow.

shopping in salt lake with pam and jodie.

(thanks to mom who stayed with the kids)

lunch at the training table.

enjoyed the cute store hip and humble.

snow.

finally visited the store dear lizzy.

super cute! super expensive!

a late night trip to target while the kids slept for easter goods.

dinner at the browns.

(i miss them already!)

snow.

chick fil a

cough. cough. hobby lobby again.

worried about dave and the boys.

found out dave was sick as a dog. not going to be joining us.

decided to come home a day early.

took chris and tauni out to dinner to goodwood.

shopping.

a quick visit to say good bye to pam and the kids.

sniff. sniff. always the worst part of the trip.

wondered if that was the last time i'd go to that house.

since there's a for sale sign in the front yard now.

picked up grandma from aunt gloria's and started the drive home.

wasn't as glorious as the drive up.

never is though, is it?

all in all it was a great time.

we had to leave a stroller and a pack n play just to fit all our new goods in the car.

definitely a sign of a good trip!

thanks again chris and tauni for letting us all take over your new house for a week.

love you guys!

something new and exciting

2010-03-18T07:10:00.000-07:00

see that cute button over there on the right. give it a click and go check out my sisters and i's new blog. a place where we can share all our crafty ideas with everyone. we have a bunch of fun easter and spring ideas all lined up ready to go so i hope you like what you see!! thanks. :)

10 on today

2010-03-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

1. poor mason has a stalker. he receives one of these notes at least once a week. last week she gave him 5$ with a note that said "please buy something for me". he returned it to her the next day. i asked him what she wanted to be picked for or as? he said that's what drives me crazy i don't know. haha! this is this weeks note. i went in to show it to dave. he said wow. that's good. she had to have help with that, right? um no. us girls are just good at things like this. :) i thought it was so funny how impressed he was with her love note skills.

2. baseball has begun. i really don't mind baseball season. actually i really enjoy it. it gives all the boys something to do. gets them out of the house. away from the video games, but there is one thing i JUST CAN'T STAND. dirty baseball pants with the belts still in them in my laundry. seriously it's a pain to get the big metal belt pieces out of the tiny little baseball pant loops. come on baseball moms tell me i'm not the only one that this drives crazy!

3. we had the first of hopefully many of our book swap club "meetings" on tuesday night. jamie, jodie, jen, amanda, michelle, carol and i were all able to make it. it was really fun and dinner was so yummy! i came home with 4 books. i'm looking forward to reading them!

4. i've given up on my project 365. as much as i would love to have a book of a picture a day for a year, it was way too stressful. ha! i was so paranoid of forgetting to take pictures and then i did forget a couple days in a row... and i just knew i wasn't cut out for it. i'm such a loser. a project 365 loser!

5. my house is going through a major makeover right now. 6 out of 10 rooms have been painted in the last couple weeks. now they just need to be put back together and redecorated. i don't think dave realized that there has to be so many changes in the decorations after you paint. of course if it was up to him there wouldn't be, but i know better. :)

6. we are nevada's family in the great american postcard swap. i'm very excited. we are in the 3rd group though and it's not totally full, but hopefully it will fill up fast. i think the kids will have a blast getting a postcard from a different state each week.

7. i sent grace with dave to get a trim a couple weeks ago. she came home with half her hair chopped off. who lets their 6 year old just decide while she's at the hairdresser to chop her hair off. that would be my husband. i guess it was too much trouble to pick up the phone and see if i was ok with that. i mean the person who has to brush and style the hair every morning should get a say on the cut right? she loves it though. so i guess i've gotten over it.

8. my blog is all caught up. so glad i stuck with it. now i just need to get the last 2 years made into books. why do i always have to be behind? why can't i be ahead of the game... ever?

9. we have a snack food eating night owl that lives with us. i swear jake can clean out the pantry in just a few late night snack food binges. when everyone else is tucked in bed at night that boy is sneaking food to his room. it drives me mad! someone was just saying they were thinking of putting a lock on their pantry door. i'm totally considering it!

10. i can't get off my mind who went home from idol last night. i was so shocked and sad. alex broke my heart again. seems like such a sweet kid. i don't think i've ever been so upset over someone leaving. i'll always remember your awesome sounding voice and you're cute little mullet. :) and then wow. lilly. wasn't expecting that and boy neither was she. was i the only one surprised?

some ai chat

2010-03-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

just my 2 cents about a couple of the contestants...

katelyn epperly
i think she has a great voice. i haven't really made up my mind if i like her or not yet though. she comes off a little snooty? yes, no? and i did not like the red lipstick last week! thought she looked much prettier this week.

michael lynche
another i haven't made up my mind about. again seems a bit full of himself? we'll see what happens in the weeks to come...

casey james
he would be in my top 3. he's a cutie and has a great sounding voice. i just hope his head doesn't get too big. i think kara did him a favor the other night by not gushing over his performance again.

andrew garcia
another great voice. his straight up performance was so awesome during hollywood week. i hope he has something else that good up his sleeve... soon!

lee deweyze
he's at the top of my list of favorites too. just a really good singer. hope he stays around for awhile.

katie stevens
each week ellen tells her she needs to act younger. i really think the problem is, is that she has such a deep mature voice. it makes you think she's older than she is. to me she's a tad annoying. but she's only 17 and she definitely has a great voice.

lilly scott

i think she's pretty awesome. she's not in my top 3, but that could change.

lacey brown

i really like this girl. i was so glad that she did better this week. another voice that i love. i hope she stays around and starts to gain confidence. i think she could be really good.

haeley vaughn

16 year old african american country singer with a lisp. she's adorable! i'm thinking she might not be around too long though, but hey. she makes some pretty cute headbands so if singing doesn't work out for her an etsy shop might be in her future.

didi benami

i LOVE the sound of didi's voice. i guess that's just my style. i feel bad for her that she's struggling to impress the judges. i really hope she doesn't go home tonight.

crystal bowersox

one of my favorites from auditions and hollywood. but since the top 24... i'm not loving her. not sure what it is? maybe cause the judges all love her? ha.

siobhan magnus.

do you think that's a stage name? i can't even pronounce it yet. ha. well the little black horse is growing on me. i was not a fan, but her quirky style is kinda cute and boy can this girl sing.

alex lambert.

the first lambert i've enjoyed watching on american idol. i don't think i've ever felt as bad for a contestant as i did for alex last week. he was so nervous!
but i LOVE the sound of his voice. and i LOVE that he does get so nervous. i'm pretty sure he's my first favorite!

so... who do you like? who needs to go home? for me i'd be ok with any of the contestants i didn't talk about here going home. but we will see...

quick trip to disney

2010-03-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

no school a couple fridays ago so we woke up early and made the drive to one of our most favorite places... disneyland! dave was working in san diego so he was going to meet us there that night. it ended up being the very first time the kids and i have been there by ourselves. it was really fun!

i didn't take very many pictures, but here's what i did get.

the boys made these faces when we made them stand in line so grace could get her autographs.

she loved it so it was worth all the those faces.

on the first day we talked grace into going on some new rides so the boys didn't have to miss out on some of their favorites. first was thunder mtn. she was not very happy about me making her go on it. half way through the line she announced she had to go potty. there was no way i was getting out of line. i was pretty nervous she'd pee her pants while on the ride. but she didn't. and she had a huge smile on her face when it was over and asked if we could ride it again.

that went so smoothly and the boys were begging to ride space mtn so i figured we'd give that one a shot. she again was not happy about having to ride it. but i made her. lets just say i was feeling pretty crappy about 5 seconds into the ride. it was a lot faster than i remembered it. by the time we jerked to our stop i looked at her and the big crocodile tears filled her eyes. she told us it shook her brain in her head. i felt horrible! later that night though she told her dad if he wanted to ride it the next day that she would ride it again with him. (they'll pretty much do anything for each other... ha)

the kids and i had a great day. we rode tons of rides and enjoyed the billy hill and the hillbillies show. by the time dave made it to anaheim i was exhausted. just enough energy to meet him for dinner and then off to the hotel for bed.

...

we woke up early the next morning. returned dave's rental car and headed over to disneyland again. it was suppose to be a rainy day, but the sky was beautiful and blue. we enjoyed lots of rides before the park started to get busy. we had lunch while watching the hillbillies again. the boys went off and rode the big rides at california adventure (which is 75% under construction) while grace and i stood in a couple lines and got some more autographs. by about 2 we were ready to head home, but not before a quick stop at chick-fil-a.

...

i tried to get a good pic of the boys while they waited for grace to get an autograph.

it didn't happen. but i think they are pretty funny. dave was really the only one trying to help.

here is who grace was visiting with...

we rode thunder mtn a couple times that day...

it's was a fun quick trip! i think we all really enjoyed it.

our valentine's day dinner

2010-02-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

on valentine's day we had a very fun dinner. i had lots of fun setting up a pretty table.
i ended up using white tablecloths and then cutting strips of a pink plastic tablecloth to add some color.

every one had a cute heart shaped red jello.

plenty of "i've got a crush on you" for everyone.

lots of pretty candles to set the mood :)

we had yummy tacos and chips and dips. so easy... so good. i did completely forget to cook the taquitos. oops.

after dinner we decorated heart shaped sugar cookies that my mom made for us. we were also spoiled with some of my grandma's brownies in the middle of february.... we usually only get those at thanksgiving and Christmas. haha.

my cute parents

my dad trying to be as cheesy as his valentine from the kids.

then grandma dee passed out to each kid a stuffed animal she carefully selected for each one of them. the kids loved them!

then the kids exchanged valentine's. i wasn't sure if we should even bother with this... but it ended up being so fun. we went in alphabetical order and let them pass out their valentine's to each kid. kenzie tried to change her name up the whole time so she didn't have to wait for the m's. sorry bakenzie. it didn't work. :)

i'm pretty sure the kids were on a sugar high by the time they went home.

another fun family get together. they are crazy and loud and a bit messy. but they are my most favorite days of the year!!

2.23.10

2010-02-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

there are many reasons why i love my side of town.
pretty often you can spot these trucks full of pabco sheet rock.
a reminder of how hard my dad works.

then there are the trips to target.
not very often can i go in without seeing someone i know.
twice now in the past couple weeks i've seen one of my most favorite people.
my grandma. last time i was with dave and he gave her a little butt rub and he about got smacked before she realized who it was. then today i spotted her coming down the aisle. she moved her cart to go around me so i moved my cart in front of her's again. i could see the irritation building in her face. then she looked up to see it was just me teasing her. we had a nice visit before i had to rush off to pick up kids from school. i love her so much.

2.22.10

2010-02-24T15:20:00.000-08:00

mason's room went from blue to light grey this week.

maybe too light for him. after i spent all day working on it he walked in. looked around. and then honestly stated um... i don't really like it.

ha! nice.

it's not really even grey he says.

oh... well i've worked hard on it all day today. that stinks that you don't like it i tell him. (guilt trip)

oh... i was just kidding. i like it... he fibs.

good thing. :)

2.21.10

2010-02-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

mason knew exactly what he wanted to spend his disney gift card on.
a pin bag? 24.00 dollars later he was as happy as could be.
he kept saying all day long. i love this bag.
he only left it on one ride while we were there. space mtn.
thankfully they had it there for him when the boys went back looking for it.

2.20.10

2010-02-24T14:44:00.000-08:00

what a great way to spend a long weekend!

2.19.10

2010-02-24T14:32:00.000-08:00

waiting in line to see woody and jessie. don't the boys look happy?
grace's autograph book is just about filled up now.
she's really only missing the princesses.
they were the main reason she wanted the book.
but the line to see them is always way too long!!

2.18.10

2010-02-24T10:25:00.001-08:00

the basketball season is a little over half way through.
jacob's really enjoying it... especially when he gets to play.

baseball season is right around the corner.
sign ups - drafts - team meetings - all happening now.
we'll be sitting out at the field every night before we know it.