Summer is Crazy Busy

This spring we decided that we wanted to get chickens. We got three cute little chickens named sunny, shadow, and blaze. Unfortunately sunny got killed by a stray cat so we are done to two huge chickens now.




Zack turned 4. He loved having sword fights and treasure hunts with his friends at his party

At the end of May Jason and I got to go to Las Vegas without our kids and we loved it. My pictures are on my other camera so I don't have pictures of the cool show we went to.

Then we took our family to Washington DC. My sister, who lives in PA, was nice enough to watch our two younger kids while we went to all the sites. We took her son Bryant so Brock could have a friend and they turned out great for us. I think this was one of my favorite trips just because I am kind of a history nerd. My favorite parts of the trip were bike the sites, where we rode a bike to all the monuments. Then my second favorite part was Mount Vernon, Washington's home.

This is us at the capitol. It was kind of surreal being there.

Brock turned 10. There is no way I have a 10 year old. He and some of his friends did laser tag and their favorite target was me, but I was OK with that.

I have always felt like my inner soul stopped aging at about 22 while my body continues to physically age. But last night at the Daughtry Concert I felt like I was my true age of 30 maybe a little older like 40. I love concerts and the feeling of fun that surrounds them, I really do, but something was different at this concert and I am hoping it’s not because I am aging on the inside too. I am sad to say I had to discreetly plug my ears because they honestly hurt (sure sign that I am getting too old, right?) But maybe the real reason I didn’t love this concert was because Daughtry is just a really bad entertainer. It wasn’t that he sang bad, all his songs that I love sounded fine it was just that he sang his songs and that’s it. He didn’t interact with the audience or anything. He said “ Salt Lake City” a couple of times and that was it, it was like it was a job that needed to be done.

The things I loved about the concert were being with Jason, Hanging out with my brother and his wife and the good food before the concert, OK and the good music just not the Performer.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn turned 2 at the end of March. There are many things I love about Brooklyn here are a few.
--- She has a shoe fetish where she is always wearing everyone’s shoes.
--- How she hip-itty hops everywhere.
--- She still has that sweet smell like a new born baby. (I swear my boys never smelled this good)
--- She loves to strip down and be naked (who doesn’t love that kind of freedom)
--- She already is my biggest helper by getting “the boys” their shoes and pajamas.
--- How she is way more girly than I ever was, she loves to dress-up and wear bracelets.
--- How she is totally a Daddy’s girl but loves to follow mom around “helping” with cooking and cleaning
--- Her love for Doggies and Babies.

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!!

Have you Read a Good Book Lately?

Wow it has been awhile since I have blogged. There is one word that would sum up what I have spent most my time doing, READING.

1. A book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
2. Dear John by Nicolas Sparks
3. Austinland by Shannon Hale
4. Hunger Games by Susanne Collins
5. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (finished today)

They are numbered in the order I have read them over the past two weeks not in the order of preference. My habit of reading really drives Jason crazy, once I pick up a book I can not put it down until it is done. Luckily I am a fast reader but not fast enough to avoid the ire of Jason when I would rather read then put the kids to bed or put myself to bed at a reasonable hour.

I prefer books that are easy reads, ones that I can sit down and enjoy and have a feel good ending (a love story in the middle doesn‘t hurt either). I just feel like if this is my escape from needy kids, endless laundry, meals that need to be cooked, my time sucking church calling, and loving husband than I want to feel good like I am eating dessert. Some of those books don’t fit that description. In fact that last one “The Book Thief” is a good one for those that like classics or tragedies or historical books not me that likes the warm fuzzy books. But I read those meatier books once in a while so I feel well rounded and then I head right back to the dessert section.

I have done other things these past few weeks like celebrating Brooklyn’s birthday, April Fools (yes april fools, I love making food that is different than it appears), and Conference. I will post pictures of the first two at a later date.

I would really like to add to my "must read" list so post your favorite book that you have read lately.

Lehi

Last week was a busy week for us. Jason did this Lehi high school alumni tournament where one graduation class plays against another class and the difference in years is made up in points. For example if Jason’s year of 1995 was playing 2005, Jason’s team would start out with 10 points. So we ended driving down to Lehi (about a 40 minute drive) everyday to watch him play. It was really fun to see him play with his old high school buddies. Jason is actually really good, he always tells me about the glory days of high school but actually see it in action was kind of cool. In the last game he shot a 3-pointer to tie the game against the class of 2010. I just wish Brock had been there to see it, he was to busy running around the upper part of the gym playing tag with his cousins.
There was one more note worthy thing that happened besides Jason’s shooting, Zack cut his head open while going up the bleachers. Luckily my mother-in-law was there to hold him while I scrambled to find something to stop the bleeding. Right when he fell we picked him up and the blood just started streaming out. We laid him back and we had him close his eyes because the blood was filling up his eye sockets. Of course just that night I had forgotten my diaper bag so I had nothing. In desperation I asked the moms around me if any of them had any diaper wipes because I knew a dash to the bathroom would take me to long and blood would be everywhere. The mothers all kind of looked at me with blank stares because they hadn’t noticed that zack had fallen and now blood was streaming from his head. A girl right above us said she had some tissues, I gratefully grabbed the whole wad and put it on his head then ran to the bathroom to get more tissues. On my way out of the gym I passed Jason who was shooting baskets warming up for the game and told him Zack had cut his head open. It was kind of funny to see his reaction, he was so focused on basketball at the time and then to have this happen he couldn’t quite decide what he needed to do so he followed me to the girls bathroom and waited for me to get the toilet paper. We ended up getting the bleeding stopped pretty fast, the cut was a nice clean cut that a butterfly bandaid would work well on so Jason played his game and they ended up winning. In the end, everything turned out well.

All three of the boys were "reading" in front of the fire on Sunday, I thought it was so cute I took a picture, I also thought it was a good picture to show Zack's head.

P.S. I love finding bargains so I thought I would post them when I find them. My bargain of the week was finding ice melt for $1 at walmart. So I ended up getting 150 lbs for $6, now I am prepared for snow for years to come. Also I did Brooklyn's baby book thru Picaboo for free plus shipping (it was a 20 page leather bond book). Just type in the cope AFFLGB when checking out.

Spring was here two days ago

Two days ago I was outside with my kids and noticed my tulips survive my yard reconstruction. It made my day that much better.

But then I noticed there wasn't any grass where I wanted it.

And there was tons of grass where I didn't want it. Oh well I will take the yard work for some warm days and kids playing outside more.

It's about the little victories in life

I missed last week so you will be getting a double dose of me this week.
I work with the young women in my ward and we have a “New Beginnings” every year where the parents are invited and we basically introduce the new year and talk about personal progress. Any time the parents are invited it kind of stresses me out because I don’t want them to think it was a waste of time (like I think many meetings are). But I think this one turned out really well. The Olympics was our theme and we talked about how athletes work hard and some over came a lot to get their gold, then we tied it into them by asking them what they needed to do to obtain their “Gold Metal” in life. (so image that described more in-depth for about an hour).
So the next Sunday I asked the girls if they had changed anything in their life that might be hard for them so they could work toward their goals. One girl raised her hand. Let me give you a little background on this girl, she has had a rough life and has no parents living so her grandmother raised her until she decided she couldn’t handle her anymore, now she is in foster care with 4 other girls that are in our young women’s. So she said that she had decided with her foster mom that she would no longer hang out with some friends from her old school “because they were not good kids”.
It is comments like that, that make all the time and effort I spend on these girls worth it.

Okay if you can use your imagination you can see that these are the Olympic Rings

These are some of my cute Young Women in front of the value flags