Thursday, March 26, 2009

Derby time!

Wow, I am completely amazed! Benjamin & Michael raced their cars in the Pinewood Derby tonight. They had a lot of fun. They were kind of lazy if you ask me on working on their own cars. So when Michael got 1st place and Benjamin got 3rd, i couldn't help do a mental victory dance since I'd never in my life made one before. Theron says I'm Nascar material now. LOL! I remember my brothers doing cars when I was little, but I've never participated. So it was a lot of fun. They were good sports about it. Michael came home saying it wasn't about the winning it was about having fun. I was impresed. Must have learned that one from Dad. hahaha! :) jk. :) Anyway, here's a few pics of their fun.






















Thursday, March 19, 2009

Jacob got his ears lowered :)
















a little rug cuttin' going on :)

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Sandbox fun!

My dad's house in Cowley has the best sandbox ever and my kids were on it like...well they were always there. :) It was awesome. So we've talked and talked about getting one and finally we did it! Dad was able to locate some railroad ties and the sand was from Cowley's sandhill and voila! So far today they've spent about 4 hours all together out there. haha! Can't wait for warmer weather.






Friday, March 6, 2009

Flashback Friday!

I'm flashing back to my bridal shower. :) It was a blast. It was a Saturday and the day everyone ended up going trick-or-treating since Halloween was a Sunday that year. My mom and Tali threw it for me up at her place in North Salt Lake at the time. Lots o fun.
if you click on the picture it gets bigger and names are there if you recognize faces, but can't remember names. I'm doing this too late to add more. haha! ok ok, the truth is i'm sucked into a good book and want to go read! :) Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

chili & goodies for a cause :)

Tonight we went to the ward Chili dinner fundraiser for the Young Women's group to raise money for camp. We took baked goods to be auctioned off and had some enteretainment as well. It turned out to be a really fun night. The kids all had a blast playing and I was really getting into the bidding. haha! Dad really wanted the German chocolate cake I made with pecans on top. I think Theron put the bug in his ear to buy it back since that's his favorite cake. Then I won....snickerdoodles, chocolate chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls, caramel popcorn...and I think that's it. haha! It was fun. We came home with quite the loot. They had three of the girls up on the stage drumming on tidy cat boxes and here's a video of Madelynne feeling the groove. My cellphone stopped recording before she started jumping and twirling all around. She's a nut. Any music comes on and she's ready to dance.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

upgrades are good! :)

I was so excited that I found a decent deal on a new computer desk that I thought I'd share. :) haha! My old desk was literally held together with duct tape since particle board is so awesome after many many years. I got the other desk back in high school so it has served me well. :o) Dad and I put it together and didn't have to unscrew more than 4 screws to get things facing the right direction. ha!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Flashback Friday

Well hello there! I had good intentions of doing Flashback Friday this morning and it didn't happen obviously. I've had a neck from heck :) lately so not motivated other than in thought. LOL.

I'd thought I'd share a funny fishing story on Theron. He and I were living in Price, Utah and Benjamin was 10 months old. I was about 7 months pregnant with Michael and we decided to go spend a few hours at the lake and go fishing. We'd never gone together before and Theron was excited to show off his skills. I took along the play saucer thing to put Benjamin in on the ground next to me so I was hands free to test out my own fishing pole. Theron was showing me how to throw out the line while holding the reel just so and next thing you know his hook gets caught on his shirt and his fishing pole goes flying into the lake. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. I was in stitches from laughing and he was carefully trying to pull the pole out by the fishing line. He caught quite the fish on that little trip. LOL!

For some reason I can't think of a story to tell on me....(smile). OK, I'll tell a story from the mission that cracked me up. I was serving in Middletown, California and my companion was from Peru. She learned English in her MTC and was doing pretty good at it, but had never been behind the wheel of a car before. There were a lot of roads to nowhere in mountains near there and we'd start up a road and have to back down or do a 30 point turn to get turned back around. Oh and a little more on the companion was that she was very....I can't think of the word. Prissy comes to mind, but she wasn't that at all. She just didn't like to get dirty and was appalled at the thought of physical labor, etc. Anyway, we went up this muddy narrow road in the mountains and come to a chain across the road. One side of this road is a steep hill going up the mountain and the other side is a nice drop off going down...ugh. Anyway, I am attempting to cut it as close to the up side of the road in my 30 point turn...lol...and I get stuck in mud. I start spinning out and ask if my companion will go and push a little so I can get unstuck. She goes out and gave it her best effort with her fingertips. It was ridiculous. After a huge drawn out sigh, I traded places with her and spent ten minutes going over what the brake was and the gas pedal, etc. So I go around to the front and try pushing and she floors the pedal and mud goes all over me as she spins in place. She stops and I go around to the side and open the passenger door and push on the door frame. I had to tell her to lightly push this time around. So I give it a good push, she gives it a good push (sadly) and the car goes flying backwards and in that brief moment of time I totally pictured the car going over the edge and the open door behind me pulling me down with it. It was insane. I yelled for her to hit the brake and she slammed on it just at the right moment then got out shaking and hyperventilating. We exchanged places in silence then halfway down the mountain I couldn't hold it in any longer and started laughing hysterically till there were tears in my eyes. I figure laughing and crying are excellent releases and I've always chosen laughter...for whatever reason. She thought I'd lost my mind and wanted to cry then she finally started laughing as well as we played it back. She never asked for driving lessons again though. hahahaha!

Have a great weekend!!!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Fun in Thermopolis!

This past Friday night we stayed in Thermopolis with rooms next door (almost) to Hyrum and Kristi and Dad. It was nice to hang out and visit and hit the Dinosaur Museum then Tepee Hot Springs for a couple hours. I totally forgot my camera so the pictures I do have are from the cellphone and I didn't get any at the hot springs...darn it. The mental ones are there for sure. It was fun. Theron was able to have the time off and went with us. Here's a slide show of the pics I did get.



Friday, February 20, 2009

FLASHBACK FRIDAY!! is back! lol

My flashback today is from my 11 day trip the end of May 1996. I planned this whole trip to Maine, Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island and had been asking around for someone to go with me. Then when it came time to book my rental car I wasn't able to since I wasn't 25. So I finally got around to asking my mom to go with me and she said she thought I'd never ask. I felt bad...oops. It was the BEST! We stayed in bed and breakfasts when we could. Lots of fun.
I became an expert at reading a map and telling mom where to go. haha! Cheese and crackers were sustaining us and keeping the grumpy bug away as we cruised through Maine here.
Mom's climbing up the West Point Lighthouse, Prince Edward Island. It was also a bed and breakfast and we got to stay in the keeper's quarters.
I remember thinking my mom was standing too close so I look a little worried or annoyed...not sure which. ha! Awesome view!
Mom on the beach with the lighthouse in the background....that one window is one of the ones in our room.
At night if you looked out over the ocean you could see super far away the light from a lighthouse on the coast of New Brunswick. The grass behind me here was so cool. It reminded me of the movie Anne of Green Gables. We saw that house too while on Prince Edward Island. Loved that show. I even wrote a poem about the grass and actually got it published.
Mom and I are on a 9 hour ferry ride here in our cabin. I got majorly sea sick so we ended up going up on top and sitting in the sun on deck chairs. I got burnt to a crisp. This is mom's "finger in a light socket" look. :)
We actually look related here. :) We're in a bed and breakfast in Boothbay Harbor, Maine here. I was reading ghost stories all night and my mom grabbed me and hollered and I screamed pretty good. It was hilarious!
Mom and I got these HUGE ice cream cones and stopped at a light house to eat them. She was in a silly mood that day. Too fun!
This is another bed and breakfast in Camden, Maine. We were driving along and I swear something jumped up and nipped at my hand hanging out the window as we're parked on the side of the road and when I looked in the mirror it looked like a snake. So we get back to this place and the owners son is at the door and my mother asks him if Maine has jumping snakes. I was mortified! LOL
Mom inside the place we stayed in Camden and this is the closest I've ever seen her stand to a dog! lol
Mom was famous for her purse. She bought a new one in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia before we headed back to Bangor to fly home.
Totally unrelated to this trip and totally related to mom's purse's was a time when I went to a nice dinner with her for some function or other at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Mom was looking for something in her purse and started pulling things out. The people around our table stared in AWE at all she started pulling out. She had scotch tape, a stapler, scissors, all kinds of make-up touch ups, dental floss, nail file, pencil sharpener, band-aids, neosporin, lip balm, hand sanitizer, LOTS of tissue, fingernail clippers, aspirin, Tylenol, LOTS of pens and high lighters...everything but the kitchen sink! :) Miss you mom! :)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Random weekend fun :)


Stevie and I are Top Ramen buds. It all started 3 or so years ago when he and I had some midnight bowls of soup while watching Tali play a game and while he's slurping his noodles, a piece of it flew back and hit me and I screamed thinking it was a bug....so started the tradition of top ramen when we get together...no i don't scream anymore. hahaha!

Dad is getting a few lessons on the Wii from Stevie.

Dad and Andrew playing gameboys. This was hilarious. I turned around and got quite the chuckle out of seeing dad quite engrossed.

The kids had fun playing Smash brothers and we swear they all need glasses from how close they were standing to the tv. haha!

I lost 12 games straight in tennis...but it was a blast. I think I finally won one game then Steve went on to beat me another 3 times. LOL

Madelynne was taking pictures by the dozens all weekend...silly girl.

Steve was supposed to take a picture of us and took one of himself instead so we scrunched into the picture as well.

Dad and Lexi coloring.

Madelynne had fun walking around with this and playing High School Musical songs...or maybe that was the microphone thinger. Anyway, FABULOUS from the second movie was stuck in my head all weekend. "I want more!" lol

belated Valentine's fun


Valentine's was a lot of fun. We spent the weekend in SLC with the Dent's. Tali is so darn creative that we had lots of tasty treats. It started with heart pancakes for breakfast.
Hot chocolate with pink heart marshmallows. It was a major hit. We thought the boys might gripe with all the pink going on, but they loved it. Then there was chocolate dipped strawberries. :) Mmmmm!
Tali got a great idea off a cooking show to blow up water balloons then dip them in chocolate and let them set up. As you can see some of the balloons popped before they should have.
Then the balloons are popped and you have chocolate cups.
Perfect for a scoop of ice cream! It was great fun!