Unsupervised fun...

Wow, it's been a while. I can't say that nothing blog worthy has happened since that not's entirely true. Today I just happened to think of snapping pictures with my cellphone. :) Madelynne, Jacob and I went to play group this morning for 1 1/2 hours. They had fun and were both played out when we got home. We did our lunch then Jake went down for his nap and then all of a sudden I couldn't keep my eyes open. I talked Madelynne into lying down on my bed with me with her books then when she relaxed and actually put her head down I figured it was safe to drift off to sleep. The next thing I remember an hour later is hearing Benjamin come pounding up the stairs after getting home from school asking why it smelled like fingernail polish. I barely lifted my head to look around at him and caught a major whiff of polish. Madelynne was at it again. Although after this latest little spree of craziness I only have 3 bottles of polish left. She emptied about 6 of them into her squirt bottle that I use for her hair. So here are a few pictures for fun. She was quite sad from getting in trouble, she's a funny girl for sure! Oh and she had dumped out 3 different games on the playroom floor. Makes me wonder if she just waits for me to not pay attention and goes wild. haha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=email


I absolutely LOVED this! It gave me goosebumps and we've played it over and over a few times. lol. Enjoy!

Easter weekend

We had a great weekend! Saturday morning we left for Glenrock to stay with my brother Hyrum, his wife Kristi and their 3 kids. It was relaxing and nice to get away for a weekend. Kristi and I had fun hiding all the eggs for the kids and they all had fun finding them all. Hyrum was addicted to some word games on the computer and my kids had fun watching him. haha! Hyrum and Kristi's church starts at 9am and amazingly with all 8 children and 4 adults we made it to church 20 minutes early. It was unbelievable. hahaha! A first and probably a last for a while. On the way to Casper we saw a herd of horses going the opposite direction from us and slowed down to rubber neck and check it out. It was way cool. Then when we came home today we saw the same herd just about to Shoshoni. After our little break we went back to the edge of town and stopped at the rest area and watched the herd go by. I don't know how many for sure, but 200+ easily wild horses when right by us. There's a video down below of them. So all in all we had a wonderful Easter vacation and are glad to have an extra day off tomorrow to get things unpacked and back to normal before school on Wednesday. Thanks for a great weekend Hyrum and Kristi! I definitely say REMATCH in phase 10....lol.w

all of the kids except for Owen...he and his big brother were matching!!





Marley is their new dog and quite a fan of dad. Whenever dad came around he'd light up and follow him or curl up next to him. Pretty cute.

The wild horses going through Shoshoni this afternoon. (my guess is they were on the way to Riverton to the auction the state holds...don't quote me.)

And then we ran out of gas 3 miles from home!!! My dad and I did not even think about it the whole way home or even look at the guage. hahaha! The kids were that distracting!!! haha...no not really...maybe a little, but I can't blame them entirely. :) We called up our neighbors, Jean & Roy, to rescue us with their lawn mower can so we could at least make it to Maverik. It was pretty funny. My dad and I got a good chuckle.

Flashback Friday!

I couldn't think what to do for Flashback Friday this morning so I found an old box of pictures in my dad's room and grabbed a couple for fun.

This one is when Theron and I were volunteering together in Benjamin's preschool class in Salt Lake City.
This was taken in 1994 or 1995...I think. All the girls in the family. My sister Andrea, my mother and me. My black hair phase. hahaha...drove my mother nuts. :)

This is how old our kids were when we first moved to Wyoming. Too funny. They grow when we're not looking. :) (2004)

I can't believe it's April!

I am amazed at how fast time flies. We've been busy lately. I'm way behind in the blogging department. Lots has been going on. The biggest news was that Dad announced yesterday that he's engaged to be married. We're all very excited for him. He's marrying Jennifer Haynes from the Glenrock area. They'll be married in Glenrock by the bishop then as soon as her sealing cancellation goes through they'll head up to the Billings Temple and be sealed. The wedding date is June 27th. That's actually pretty major news. Wow! I am totally stoked for him. We'll miss having him close by though. We've been very lucky to have him down the street for the past 4 years then living with us for the past 6 months. I told the kids that Grandpa was getting married last night and I swear I thought I was going to start bawling with how sad they reacted. It was almost hilarious! Michael wouldn't even finish his dinner he was so bummed out. They didn't like hearing that Grandpa is moving away. After talking about it some more they got over the part of him leaving and were happy that he's getting married and they get a new Grandma Jennifer. That will be different for me since I got so used to having him around since Theron's gone on the road so often. Also today is the 5 year anniversary of my mother passing away. I've been an emotional wreck...ugh. I am normally so good at keeping it together and today is a sunglasses day. hahahaha! Crazy how memories of the day she passed away flood back more today than any other day of the year. I'll have to plan to be in Disneyland on April 1st next year and turn it into a party memory! haha...i wish. :) Anyway, miss you mom! Thanks for giving me the years you did. :o)

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.

Jacob got his ears lowered :)

a little rug cuttin' going on :)

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!!!

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.

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! :)