Happy 9th birthday to my sweet Carly!

Happy birthday Carly! I am so thankful for this little girl in my life. She is so sweet and so considerate of others. I love her. The only problem is that she is growing up way to fast. Slow down! This year for her birthday I told her we weren't going to have a friend party just family. I let her decide what to do and we ended up going to Pirate Island Pizza! For those of you who haven't been there it is a great family place. We ordered the Kraken ( 26 inches of pizza!) It was huge! We had a fifty percent off coupon and that is what motivated us to get it. Needless to say we have been eating pizza ever since. We also went to see the movie planet 51 and the kids loved it. It was a wonderful day ending with cake and ice cream at grandpa and grandmas house. Wonderful day for a wonderful girl.

Halloween Pics!

Here are some pics of the kids carving pumpkins! You can tell they really enjoyed pulling out the seeds, and of course the kids posing in their costumes. They are really good at that!

Latest attempt at being crafty!

For a long time I have wanted to learn how to knit. I just think you can make the cutest things while knitting. I decided to give it a go last weekend. My mom came over and started me off with some simple stitches so I decided to make a scarf for Carly. After much frustration and lots of redoing my project her scarf ended up very very skinny. I couldn't take it any more I wanted it finished. The important thing is that she loves it. I also knitted Hayden a scarf that turned out much better since I had a little more practice and I was using an easier stitch. Well today I tried to knit a hat. While searching on you tube for some how to videos I didn't come across any that were simple enough for me so I went back to the old trusty crocheting. I finish the hat in one hour with no redoes and a lot less frustration. I still want to learn how to knit more things but for now I will just take what I can get. Here are some pictures of Carly and Wolverine (aka) Hayden showing off their scarfs.

The Soloist

I was so proud of Carly today. It was our primary program and she sang a solo. Yes people all by her little self. She sang the first version to I wonder when he comes again! I could have never done anything like that when I was her age or at any time in my life. I know that her taking voice lessons has made her a lot more confident in herself. Today was just another day to melt a very proud moms heart. I love you Carly.

Question

Ok for all of you experienced people out there, here is a question. I was just wondering if you have a birthday party for one of your kids and invite the guests somewhere that costs money, are you supposed to pay for all the children, or expect the parents to pay for their own children? What do you think? I was just wondering what the proper thing to do is in that situation.

Saved by the Bell

Well guys here we are, another school year has begun. For me the school year brings mixed emotions. First, I love to see my kids excited for school. They are still at the stage that it is fun and they love school. I know this won't last much longer. Plus they both have awesome teachers this year! Carly has Mrs. Leslie Stilson (the class with the stability balls), and Hayden has Miss Carolyn Pothier. They are great and I know my kids will learn a ton from them this year. Second I have to start work! This brings good and bad feeling. Good because it is amazing being able to work in the school where my children are. Although my job is entirely frustrating and exhausting (because I work with the special ed kids) I love it and I would not want to be anywhere else right now. Bad because this means I have to give up my summer off and go back to work. I feel like one of the kids getting ready to return to school. This is not good because I am not a morning person so I will have to get used to waking up early again, but I do need the money now since I am completely out having not worked for two months, so I welcome the pay checks back. I am also excited to see friends made from last year and see some of the kids that I grew to love. Notice I said SOME, not ALL. Some I would not care to see again, but I pretend and do the best I can. The kids were very excited after back to school night. They got to see their classrooms and see what friends were in their classes. They were both just beaming from ear to ear. Life is well and I can't complain about anything. It wouldn't do any good anyway!

Great Birthday!

Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes! I have decided that birthdays don't get worse as we get older they get better. Maybe because we just spend more time with the people we really love or maybe we have just learned to appreciate things more. I don't know, maybe its a combination of the two. Mom came down to watch the kids for us while Steve and I went to dinner and a movie. We ate at Joe Banditoes (YUM), and we saw Angels and Demons. The movie was good but I still like the book a lot better. This was a great enough birthday for me, but when I got home mom, Angel, and the kids had a surprise waiting for me. They decorated the house and mom had a cake and some presents waiting. I couldn't believe it, it was great! Mom gave me grandma Carters Wash Board! Geez I am spoiled! She also gave me her favorite purse that I have teasing her about for the last little while. I know how much she likes both of those things and for her to give them to me meant a lot. Thanks Mom! I have a wonderful mother. She always thinks of the neatest things to do for people. So generous and giving. The kids were so excited. They helped decorate and pick out the cake. Carly even sang a song for me, which was beautiful. I love my family I am so lucky. And wait there is even more. On Saturday Randy and Saundra threw a birthday party for Norman and I and it was really fun. I have great in laws also. They gave me some money to go pick out what I wanted so I decided to buy another bed set. I love it. Life is great and I am so thankful for everyone and the love they show to me and my family. Thanks again!

Happy Birthday to me!

Well I am 32 years old today, what more can I say? One more year has flown by that I feel like I haven't accomplished much, but in reality I have accomplished a lot of little things. Getting my kids dressed everyday is a major accomplishment! I feel like I am at the point in my life where I am asking myself, whats next? My kids are both in school and I am going back to work at the school, but is that what I really want to do with the rest of my life? I don't know. That is the problem I am very indecisive. O well I will just take it one day at a time and enjoy the simple things in life because that's what its all about. Here's to another great year!

Swim Lessons

This is just one of our fun summer activities. The kids have taken swim lessons for the past three years now and have loved them. They both ended up in the same class this year. I was a little worried about it at first, but when I told them they were really happy. Sometimes they like each other even if they don't tell you they do! I was really impressed with their teacher this year. Its the first boy that either of them have had and they learned a lot from him. They were both actually swimming when the two weeks were over. The kids loved being in his class. He was really funny and really good with them but did not give in to them too easily. Who knows what the rest of the summer will bring. Only three weeks left until school starts. Yikes! We better do something fun before the time is gone.

ok

Ok you guys convinced me to keep blogging. Not only for you to read but mostly for me, what can I say I like it!

Does anyone read this thing? Maybe its time to stop blogging.

Camping

Camping was such a blast this year. We went to Reservation Ridge as usual to spend some time with the Thomas'. Randy left early so it was Steve, me, the kids, and Saundra. It was so fun. We got to sleep in the trailer which was the first good thing because the older I get the less I enjoy tent camping. The kids loved being able to sleep in their own bed up above the rest of us. They thought this was pretty cool. Hayden loves everything about camping. He was just happy to be out in the open with a whole world to explore and be a boy in. He collected every bone he could find and because of this I think I have half a deer body on my front porch. He played in the dirt, shot a sling shot, found geocaches with grandma and whatever else he could do to keep busy. Carly also had fun. Her favorite thing of course is riding the four wheelers. The faster the better for her. She makes me laugh because she reminds me of me when I was her age. She also loved her coloring books that grandma and the fairies brought to her. She spend about half of the time in the trailer coloring and doing mad libs. I love mad libs. We had fun taking turns answering them and then reading them aloud to everyone. It just shows how immature I am because I always want to use potty words in them and have to refrain from it in my kids presence. We went on some really pretty four wheeler rides and the wild flowers were beautiful. I took a picture of every new flower that I saw. My favorite is one called the Sugar bowl. Its the purple one that looks like a bell. I had never seen it before and was quite happy to. I didn't get to see a bear or cougar this year but I did get to see lots of deer, three beaver and a snowshoe hare. I love wildlife, and I love being outdoors with my family. Saundra is so fun to be around and she is so good to the kids. The fairies (aka grandma) made sure to bring lots of fairy surprises to the kids so they could find fun things hidden around the camp. Their favorite thing that the fairies brought were their sunglasses. They have been wearing them everywhere and didn't take them off while camping. It was definitely a fun and relaxing trip.

The fourth of July!

The fourth of July was really fun this year. We went to the park by the Provo Fire Dept. to watch the fireworks with Steves cousins and Dixie and her friends. It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast because they were with their cousins and friends and they had plenty of room to run and play since it was at a park. The fire works I think are getting weaker and weaker every year. I think Provo city needs to spend more money on the fireworks and less on the entertainment! Of course I am not a big fan of the Jonas brothers so what do I know! It was a blast. Jo and Christine brought a grill so we had grilled hot dogs and a lot of other treats. We have done this every year since we have been married. I love having it as a tradition.

Summer

Ok so our summer has been ok so far. We have done a couple of really fun things but I feel like this summer is kind of lacking. Maybe because I feel like it just started being nice outside where we can actually enjoy it. We tried to go to Black rock for our anniversary and on the way down the battery died in Payson. We stopped at checker and had the battery tested and bought a new one and then continued on our way. We thought we were doing good until we reached Fillmore and then the car broke down again. Well we had to call a tow truck to tow us back to Provo. The trip that never really happened actually ended up costing us about 600 buckaroos! It turned out to be a bad alternator. So much for our ten year anniversary! O well. I was really bummed when we didn't get to go to the Draper open house so when I heard about the Oquirrh Mt. Temple open house I was determined to go. I have been telling the kids for about a month about it. They are so cute, as soon as I told them they both started jumping around saying whoot whoot! I was so proud of them for being so happy to be able to go to the Temple. I don't think they even get that excited when I take them to do fun kid activities. Anyway we went last night and the kids loved it. They could hardly wait to go inside the temple and they kept asking me cute questions about everything with bright smiles on their faces. At Least I have don't something right as a mother and made the temple an important place for them. Afterwards I asked Hayden what the name of the temple we went to was called and he said the Mt. Dew Temple, lol! Maybe I should cut down on the soda. Bryce is here from Colorado so on Monday Mom and I took my kids and Dixies kids to the Payson swimming pool. What a fun place it is. The kids had a blast and so did I. They have a really cool lazy river and lots of other fun things for the kids to do. I will definitely be going back this summer. I was proud of myself for talking my mom into going swimming with me. Her legs have not seen the light of day in about forty years. Sadly they got burned because of this but I think she really enjoyed herself anyway. Today we went to Payson Lakes with Jo and Kayson. I think we are cursed when it comes to that place because it always rains or threatens to rain when we plan a trip there. As soon as we got all of our gear set down in the perfect fishing spot it started thundering and lightning really badly. We quickly ran back to the car and watched the storm from the vehicles. It was kind of fun to be right in the middle of the storm. We are kind of nuts that way and enjoy the thunder and lightening. The kids even liked it. Well the rain finally let up about a half hour later so we went on with our usual plans of fishing. It was beautiful! Everything was so fresh and crisp. I walked around the lake a couple of times and just enjoyed the scenery while the others fished. This is what I usually do because I am not a big fisherman. Steve and the others did have a good time catching about seven fish all together so it turned out to be a success for everyone. This weekend is the forth and Steves cousins are coming down from Salt Lake to watch the fireworks with us. They are really fun to be around and its a cheap fun thing to do. It has turned out to be a tradition in our family and I can't imagine a forth not going somewhere to watch the fireworks. I love the summer and all the fun things that come along with it. So I guess it has not turned out to be a bad summer so far after all.