Getting into the swing of things

Now that school's been in session for a bit over a week, I am slowly feeling a little more on top of things and catching up on some of that stuff that I had been putting off until school started. This post is not going to contain even a fraction of all the stuff I would like it to - I am going to be a realist here lol. I did want to share the photo I took of the kids on their first day back to school. It is incredible to me when I compare it with the photo I took just last year... almost 365 days ago. What I especially want to know is how Cheyenne could turn from girl to young woman in just one year! Now if the maturity would just come as quickly lol. She has been told that she can get her drivers license just as soon as she demonstrates maturity - that should be pretty safe for putting it off for a while lol.

The back to school schedule is well underway with lots of stuff to keep us all busy. I am now the Wolf Den Mother in cub scouts and held my first den meeting yesterday. Of course my two boys have scout meetings to throw into the weekly schedule too. Cheyenne continues to take piano and this year we signed up Carson and Savannah as well. Cheyenne is also going to be taking a dance class. Savannah was disappointed that her TaVaci teacher wasn't holding classes this year but she is excited about learning piano. Carson still enjoys soccer and the practices and games keep the schedule full along with Morgan's football practices/games schedule. From the time they get out of school each day until we tuck them in bed we keep very busy! I have pictures to scrap for all of these busy events... and hope I just can get un-busy enough to do so.

Yesterday Clayne and I "celebrated" our 20th wedding anniversary. I say "celebrated" that way because of course we were too busy to even do anything for it lol. Clayne brought me home some beautiful roses and when we have time I have told him that we have a date to go pick out a new wedding band for him. His is more hexagon than round and not very comfortable. We bought what we could afford when we were starting out and as I recall it was about $30 lol. Now that we have made it 20 years, I guess it is pretty safe to invest in a new band. We will also be going on a week long vacation later this month to California - just the two of us. My sister Chelsea will be coming to stay with the kids for the week. See I had my motive for babysitting my niece Megan once a week this past year lol.

Well.... I think that is a pretty quick catch up post for now. I still want to share about our last vacation we took before school started but that will have to be another day. It is almost 3:00 and so I will be playing taxi soon. Hope all is well with everyone!

Credits: Scrap Orchard September Mega: Rule The School, Template Challenge FREEBIE #29
font- Adler

Credits: September Grab Bag by Jennifer Fox, You've Been Framed by Tracie Stroud, Doodled Paper Alpha by Tracie Stroud
Yes... the same kids just a year ago lol!

Back to School and Busy Bee

So school started today for my kids and soon they will be coming home and I can't believe how fast the day has gone! I wanted to do a cute post with their back to school pictures I snapped this morning but I haven't even found the time to do that yet. I have lots of plans for how I will be spending my days when they are at school and I just hope that even half of it can really happen lol. Poor Savannah had a fever of 103.3 yesterday and was even still warm this morning but insisted on spending her first day at school and not at home sick - so I gave her a dose of Tylenol and sent her on her way. All day I have waited for the school to call me and tell me to come get her. I just hope she had a good day despite not feeling 100%. I plan on making her take a little nap when she gets off the bus. Anyway.... just another quick post and a little announcement for anyone who is looking to join a forum for digital scrapbooking. Scrap Orchard is a wonderful place to hang out and they are going to have a fun contest starting tomorrow. Click the image to go to the forums.

As I was saying in my post earlier today (yep I am making more than one post today LOL) I have been working on improving my photo editing skills. Below is a layout I made using some of Chrissy W's great new stuff go check it out in her store here. If it is of any interest to you... I use PSE6 and here are the steps I took to edit the photo below. I still have lots to learn but I am having fun.

The first thing I did was edit the eyes to sharpen and brighten them - select eyes with lasso & create new layer. Filter>Other>Highpass with a radius of 4 px. Change the blending mode to overlay Merge layers. Copy photo layer and then edit copy to black & white leaving the color photo under it in the layer pallet. Use soft brush eraser on the B&W layer to let eye color show through. Copy B&W photo layer and use a soft brush to paint some pink on the cheeks. Change this layer mode to soft light lower the opacity then merge the layers.

The eye brightening trick I learned at The Daily Digi and you can check out that tutorial in full Here.


I wanted to alert you on some fun times ahead at the Scrap Orchard. I have been asked to oversee the challenges at the Orchard and I look forward to participating in as many of the challenges as I can. Points can be earned for each challenge and you will then receive a coupon code for discount shopping at the Orchard store. I hope you will join us in the fun.
I had told those who attended the Craft Classes that Cheyenne and I put on earlier this month that I would share the link for the way fun colorburst cupcakes that we made on the first day of class. Now let me warn you.... this lady has many other fun and great ideas for food on her site so be prepared for some time lost as you surf around there LOL. My cupcakes weren't quite as picture perfect as this one but they were still lots of fun and YUMMO!
Also in our Craft Class we made a "Box of Fun" and I want to site my source of inspiration as The Daily Digi. Yes.... I love that site and get lots of inspiration there. The list of 100 things to do that we put into our box we made are at THIS LINK and you may find that some of the ideas would make great Activity Days for church callings or whatever. Enjoy!
How was that for a random post? Just had lots of tid-bits that I had saved up and decided to blog them all at one sitting. Have a great weekend.

A Little Photo Shoot

So I took about a half an hour out of my evening last night and took Savannah out on a mini shoot. I was really happy with some of the pictures I took and wanted to share. Isn't she cute? I didn't bother to comb or fix her hair or to change her outfit but just took her as is to capture her everyday look. Now I just need to take a little time and get the other 3 kids out for a little photo action. It has been a while since I went out with my Nikon to really try to get some good shots instead of just auto mode LOL. I almost forgot how fun it is. I have also been practicing my editing and trying to learn a few tricks.

Project 365 Week 28, 29 & 30

Another 3 weeks have flown by! I just can not believe how fast the summer has gone. I really did have grand visions about how the summer would be spent and we have only done a few of the things that I thought we would but hey... seems that is how every summer goes. I was reading an article in Woman's Day that asked if you are a Summer Mom or a Back to School Mom. It was really quite humorous. I guess mostly because I could so see myself in the article. If I get a chance I will post some of the article in a later post. So if you had to guess which one I am.... Which would it be?

Also I want to give a big shout out to all who supported Cheyenne's craft classes. They completely filled and we had a waiting list but no one on the waiting list got in because everyone showed up. She is looking forward to some back to school shopping with her earnings.

Jounaling reads: We attended the Pioneer Day Picnic on Thursday. On Friday Savannah came in dripping blood & said she cut herself on a balloon -now how do you do that? It was a latex glove that had been filled with water and then it popped when she was holding it and it snapped the skin off her inner forearm. We are now harvesting a bit from our garden and made yummy taco salads. Meg didn't play with her new ball as much as I thought she'd do. On Tuesday we went to the Chuckars game. On Wednesday I froze peas.
Credits for both week 30 & 29: Thank You For This Day by LCC by Amy Stoffel, template by Brooklyn Designs, Font - 39Smooth

Journaling reads: Yet another week has come & gone. Savannah swam at a neighbor's until her sunscreen was gone. We had our day of babysitting Meg like usual. I started taking the coupon subscription to the paper to get my deals & ice cream was my major deal this time. I got 36 pints for $4. I spent lots of time with Cheyenne preparing for and teaching some craft classes to get her some back to school shopping money. Clayne spent lots of time fixing the sprinkler system.

Journaling reads: 9 Thurs. Went to the library with Savannah. She is a good little reader this summer. 10 Fri. Went to the drive in movie with Savannah & Carson. Saw Ice Age three. 11 Sat. Clayne built me another food storage shelf & then arranged the food for me. 12 Sun. A weird weather pattern wind blew a big poplar tree down in our back yard and that night was a lightning storm. 13. Mon. A fun day with Meg. 14 Tues. A sprinkler head broke at 2 AM and flooded the boys bedroom. 15. Wed. Finding creative ways to use Cheerios that I bought a while back for next to nothing. Since the kids are too picky to just eat them for breakfast.
Credits: Scrap Orchard July Mystery Mega, Freebie 26 Template by Chrissy W., Font - Adler

Cheerio Treats:
Bring 1 C sugar & 1 C light corn syrup to a slow boil stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in 1 C peanut butter. Return to heat and boil 1 min stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour over 6 C cheerios & stir well. Add 1 C mini marshmallows and stir in. Spread in a cake pan and pour 1 C chocolate chips over the top. If the chocolate chips don't melt well enough pop the pan into a preheated 350 degree oven for just a few minutes & then cool completely.

So This Wasn't Our Best Week

So early Tuesday morning (2 am) our sons came to our room to tell us that water was POURING into their bedroom downstairs. Turns out one or our sprinkler heads broke and flooded into the window well and they were right... it had leaked under the window and was flowing like a river in there.... ok maybe not a river but at least a stream. We quickly removed everything from the floors and threw the boys mattresses out in the living room downstairs so they could try to get more sleep while we moved out the rest of the furniture and cleaned up the room. BUMMER is that it was the last room in the basement that we finished... not even 2 years ago. The carpet is completely ruined as is the pad and we now have had the restoration crew here to cut the sheet rock under the window out so that the wet insulation could be removed and fans were placed in the room for 3 days to dry it out. Needless to say that the week has already been VERY long. We got the boys settled into the spare room (luckily we have one) and now we are waiting to get going on the repair work. This is SO not our best week!! Oh well... guess it could have been worse - it could have happened while we were on vacation last week and then it would have ruined more than one room. Thanks for listening... just had to vent a bit. I don't even want to think how much $$ this will be since the homeowners won't cover it since the water came from outside of the house.

Oh and remember that weird weather we had last weekend? The strong winds and lightening? Well the wind blew over one of our big poplar trees in our back yard. Again... trying to see the bright side - if it had waited to fall in a year or two it may have been big enough to hit the house but right now it wasn't quite that big - probably 5 feet short of it. This week is bound to be better!

Oh You Poor Neglected Blog

I kept thinking I'd get a chance to blog but a whole month went by and I didn't find the time. Now I suppose I'll just bombard my blog with my 4 weeks of Project 365 layouts. We just returned home on Wednesday from a week at our Bodily Family Reunion in St. Anthony, Idaho. We had a great time with all the cousins. All but one of Clayne's sisters was able to make it. We hope that maybe next year we'll have 100% attendance. His sister Kami had a set of twins this past year and the travel would have been long and difficult. We attended the fireworks in Rexburg for Independence Day and I was greatly disappointed. Idaho Falls just has such a spectacular show that this one was not even close to being what I am used to. Oh well... next year. Now I am just trying to get things back in order after being gone so much. We had only been home for less than a week from our Utah trip - see below.

Credits for project 365 layout week 27: Scrap Orchard July Mystery Mega, A Photo A Day Templates Set 2 by Chrissy W., Fonts - Do I Like Stripes, Adler

The latter end of week 25 and beginning of week 26 were spent on a Utah trip. Clayne needed to work and so I loaded up the kids and took a trip down. I took them to our Condo up Ogden canyon and then from there we made two day trips on Tuesday and Wednesday to Lagoon. We took advantage of the bounce back deal they do to make it a little more economical and I used some coupons from Deseret Book for the first day. It still was pricey enough - I used to go to Lagoon as a girl when I was growing up in North Salt Lake and of course it was lots cheaper then lol. The kids had a great time and we only lost Carson once. I thought I did pretty good keeping track of 4 kids in an amusement park by myself. After we had our Lagoon days we traveled further south and went to Clayne's brother's house near Richfield where we dropped Cheyenne off for the week. They brought her back when they came up for the reunion. It was good for Cheyenne and I to have a break from each other. Since she became a teen - sometimes there is just too much estrogen in our house LOL.

If you like the templates I used on my layouts for the past 3 weeks you can pick them up on sale right now at Elemental Scraps where Chrissy is the Featured designer for the week and has a great sale going on. You will find a link in the credits.


Credits for project 365 layouts weeks 25 and 26: Lucky by Amanda Heimann Designs, A Photo A Day Templates Set 2 by Chrissy W., Fonts - Soopafresh, CookieNookie

For credits on my project 365 week 24 layout see previous post.

Project 365 Week 23 & Grocery Deals

Have you been out to shop Albertsons deals this week yet? I bought all these groceries this morning (headed over there at 7 am - the early bird gets the selection). For less than $60 I was able to get 10 boxes of Fiber One Bars, 11 boxes of cereal, 6 boxes of Suddenly Salad, 2 bags of Chex snack mix, 12 boxes of Go-Gurts, 6 packages of Trix Yogurt, 3 boxes of yogurt smoothies and 4 boxes of fruit snacks. I was feeling pretty thrifty!

This photo was the final one in this week's series for my project 365. Did you know Friday was National Donut Day? The kids were more than happy for me to need an excuse to buy donuts lol. This week my bracelet arrived that I ordered from Complaint Free World. I just finished reading the book and decided that I really needed to take the challenge. The ultimate goal is to go 21 days without criticizing, complaining or gossiping. After the 21 days it will have become a life pattern. The literature states that it takes 4 - 8 months average to reach 21 days. I have to admit that so far it hasn't been easy but in only a few days I am already so much more aware of what I say.
(Credits: My New Story by Bren Boone, Template by LizDesigns, Font - Adler)

This is a page I made yesterday. I used Chrissy's newest template set. You can go pick up this set by clicking the image below my layout. I think I'll print this layout out small and use it as a card front for Clayne's Father's Day card.
(Credits: I Dream Of Poppies by Bren Boone, Mixin It Up - FIVE Templates by Chrissy W, Worn overlay by Something Blue Studios, Fonts - Adler, LT Chickenhawk)

Project 365 Week 22, Time Out & a Freebie Template

Friday night and Saturday I spent at Time Out for Women in Pocatello with my Mom. I enjoyed a break from the everyday life and time to hear spiritual music and messages. The theme was "Sweet Assurance" and they encouraged everyone there to pick one thing that they "know for sure" or one Sweet Assurance and take it home to share with those they love. Here is what I know for sure.... that there will always be darkness and bad things going on in the world but that you will find what you are looking for and there is also great beauty in the world and many good things. I know for sure that Heavenly Father sent us here to find JOY and that there will always be things in our life that can bring us joy if we seek after these things. I am determined to remain optimistic even when the world tries to tell me that the economy is bad, that nothing lasts forever, that it is raining outside.... whatever the world tries to tell me - I will stay true to the gospel and seek for the joy. Click HERE to find out more about the Time Out for Women event.

Here is my Week 22 for Project 365. The journaling reads:
May 28 Morgan received his Arrow of Light at pack meeting.
May 29 Savannah and her friend performed in the school talent show with the song from Annie, “I don’t need anything but you.”
May 30 We planted our garden starts and are now hopeful for a bounteous harvest.
May 31 This is my new hair cut that I got on Saturday. So far I really like it.
June 1 Today I spent a few hours weeding my flower bed but I hardly made a dent in all the work that remains to be done there.
June 2 Today was Carson’s 10th birthday!
June 3 The last day of school and all the kids just came home and dumped their back packs on the couch. Lovely addition to the clutter - not!
(Credits: At One With Nature by Bren Boone, A Good Life by Designer Valorie Brown, Template by Anna Jenkins, brads by ANAFLOR DESIGN, Fonts - Soopafresh, Wendy Sue)

And here is a page I made recently. I love Carson's joyful expression. It is made using a fun new kit, The Beach Collection: Surfer Dude and Hula Princess, by Ziggle Designs & Amanda Heimann Designs that you can find by clicking the image below my layout.

Oh and I almost forgot! My first Template Freebie was given away over on the Ziggle Designs CT Blog this last week. Be sure to head over there and pick it up by clicking HERE.

Ready for Summer?

Holy Cow I can't believe the kids are at their last day of school today. I want this summer to be FABULOUS! I don't want to spend the whole time bugging my kids about their chores or hearing them say they are bored. I want to feel like we have created some fun memories by the end of the summer. So I have been on the look out for fun ideas and here are just a few things that I have come across so far.

I was watching Good Things Utah earlier this week and they had a fun segment that gave ideas for the whole month of June for things to do as a family. Click HERE. One of the many activities was a family cam pout in the back yard. We have done this before but it has been a few years since Clayne and I joined the kids in sleeping out back. We usually save the tent event for when we really have to do it since we both like our own bed too much to give in - but this year we will do the backyard tent event. I will definitely be checking into the Utah Mama site for more ideas.

Another segment they had on Good Things Utah this week (but I didn't watch this one - found it on their site) was about Summer Work Standards I agree that kids need to know what is expected of them during the summer. They focus on three areas - Neatness Standards, Household Skills, and Reading Opportunities.

Clayne and I have already been talking to the kids about some of our expectations over the summer. Here are a few of our "rules." They will not be allowed to leave the house to play with friends or whatever until they have made their beds, cleaned their rooms and finished any of their chores on the job chart. After their chores they will need to read for at least 20 minutes as well before they are free to go. They must inform us of where they are going and what they are going to be doing and before they leave that location to go to another they must again check in to let us know. The family will gather at 9 PM for scriptures and bedtime prayers. So far that is our list and as we see any problems arise - we of course have the right to make more rules lol.

Of course since the kids will be reading anyway - we will be making a trip to the library to sign up for the summer reading program. The kids may as well pick up a few prizes along the way.

I love to visit The Daily Digi site and this week they too had a summer idea post. Click HERE to check it out. This post has a list of "100 Things I Want to Do This Summer." I'm not even going to try to pick my favorite ideas from her list. She had so many good ideas but I do know that I will be borrowing a few of them to add to my list. If I really am able to compile my 100 list in a decent amount of time - I hope to share it here on my blog soon.

Of course one of the things we often take advantage of in the summer is the free movies at Edwards Theater. Click HERE to see the line up for our theater.Some of the movies they have listed are ones that I haven't seen yet and so I am looking forward to going to these Nim's Island and Inkheart.

Here is a list of 99 Days of Great Summer Games Memorial Day to June 30 from FamilyFun.com
Here are some craft ideas from About.com
And HERE is one more site that has ideas for activities, crafts and summer recipes.
Oh and on the off chance that you are planning a trip to a National Park this summer there is news that for 3 weekends this summer the entry fee will be waived at 147 parks. Click HERE for details.

I stumbled upon this cute letter called Dear Summer on the Rocks In My Dryer Blog and thought you may like it too.

Dear Summer,

Welcome back, my old friend. We’ve missed you.

As always, you showed up right on time, with the shrill dinging of the last school bell one afternoon last week. You rode on the shoulders of my delirious sons, as they bounded out to the car. Their faces were flushed with the awareness that you’ll be their companion for the next three glorious months... {read more at Parenting.com}

So do you have fun plans for the summer? Do you have ideas that will help me in my summer planning? Feel free to share a comment or link me up to your blog so I can learn from you.

Some Scrappy News & Project 365 Week 21

Finally found a few minutes to share my latest Project 365 page. I wanted to share a little more about the photos as well which you can find below as well as credits for the layout.

May 22 we have already had some very nice warm days with temps into the 80's. The kids have enjoyed playing on Slip N Slides and eating many popsicles already.
May 23 we always make a trip to the nursery over Memorial weekend to get our garden starts. We have found that if we wait that things are really picked over. Everyone seems to go out that weekend to get their garden needs. We didn't even end up planting our garden for a week after we picked these up. Well.... actually a few weeks prior we had planted our peas, lettuce and carrots but we always wait to plant our tomatoes for fear of freezing. Turns out we had no reason to wait that week because the weather was super warm and nice. We just hope that now they are planted that we will continue to have warm weather.
May 24 we have our Family Home Evening on Sundays and it always includes a treat. Sometimes I just need something easy. Do you ever make easy cookies? You just use a cake mix, 1/3 cup softened margarine and 2 eggs. Then you can stir in chocolate chips, nuts or other add ins you like. You bake them at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.
May 25 the holiday was spent painting the Master Bedroom. I had painted it just 2 years ago. I loved the color but had used an eggshell finish and it has been very difficult to take care of. It shows all dirt including hand prints from just wearing lotion. I finally gave in and got a different finish and repainted it the same color. Lesson learned on paint finishes!
May 26 on Monday evening we decided to take a bike ride as a family. Cheyenne was not going to go with us because she said her bike was trashed from Morgan always riding it last summer. I told her that if she'd go that she could ride my bike and I'd ride hers. She then reminded me that the bike I called mine was really hers and that she wanted it now. We won the bike in a raffle when she was too little for it and honestly I can't remember who's name was on the ticket. All I know is that when she gets something in her mind - there is no changing it. I decided rather than to hear her reminders of ownership of the bike for the next 4 years that I'd just go get me a new bike and let her have it. I found this cute retro bike at WalMart for less than $100. The only thing I would have liked better is if it were green lol. It is a pretty simple bike with no gears or hand brakes but it is much more comfortable to ride than the mountain bike and should serve my purposes for the time being. Now to just find a cute basket for it.
May 27 we always spend Wednesday nights at Carson's soccer games. I really enjoy watching him play. He is a very aggressive player and is not afraid to go after the ball. It is common for him to zing all across the field. I really don't know where he gets all the energy. I'd pass out after just running the field one time.

That sums up Project 365 Week 21. I am so glad that I decided to just start taking photos of what I feel represents my day or what is going on in our family. I think it will make it much more interesting and meaningful to me.
Week 21 Credits: A Good Life by Designer Valorie Brown, Template by Anna Jenkins, Fonts - Soopafresh, Wendy Sue
I absolutely adored the photos I took of Megan last week when I was babysitting. This was her first popsicle and she LOVED it. I couldn't get the image to transfer over to my blog to show you the cute kit I used to make my page. It is made using Spring at Last by Chrissy W. and a few of her other products that match. You ought to go check them out while they are on sale. SO CUTE! She also has the template below available for free in her store. I used it on my layout below and just flipped it on it's side. That is one of the things I love about templates... how you can use them so many different ways. Click on the image of the template to head to Chrissy's store and get it.

This template set was in the May Mega at Elemental Scraps. This was just a small portion of the Mega kit and these templates were made by Chrissy. I made a cute little card just for fun the other day. You can click the image below to go see the mega kit.

(Credits: A Romantic Garden by Designer Ana Amorim, Yellow and striped paper by Joyce Paul, Template (May Sampler) by Chrissy W, Font - Monster Paparazzi)

Ok... just one more thing to share.... Scrap Orchard has their new Mystery Mega available now. Until the 7th, it is only $3. A fabulous deal. You can click the image to go check it out. Below is a layout I made using the kit.

Fitting to finish this post with a Layout of my BIRTHDAY BOY. Carson turns 10 today. I better get going and get his birthday dinner cooking and frost his cupcakes. Yep.... that is Carson for you. He told me that instead of a cake he wanted cupcakes. Guess I'll put 10 of them in front of him with a candle in each for his photos lol. Here is the lil guy as a baby.

My New Look

I have been wearing my hair the same for a few years now and it was time for a change. I got it cut on Saturday and then got lots of compliments in church Sunday.... good thing or I may have gone into hiding lol. I really like the new style myself and think it was just what I needed for a fun and fresh summer look. Just wanted to share. There are lots of things I want to post including my latest Project 365 and some of my recent layouts but I am babysitting today and Megan just woke from her nap. Maybe I'll get back to my blog later tonight?

Spring Break & Catching Up

Saturday Morning, March 21, we loaded up the van and made the long trek to Sunny St. George to enjoy a week together as a family. We had hoped for the weather to be a little warmer than it was. I think the highest temp was 65 but hey... it was lots warmer than it was back home so we were happy. We just were spoiled last year at spring break with even warmer weather. Now.... I warn you this is a long post with many photos. But just remember that I didn't do daily posts so this one had to make up for it lol.
The boys were anxious to get out of the van and were happy to pose for a photo. This is my photo for Day 80 March 21.
On Sunday we found a local ward to attend our church meetings and the kids were a little worried about going to primary where they didn't know anyone but after the block of meetings Savannah reported that it was just like home and that they even sang the same songs as we do at home. I love that the church is basically the same no matter where you go. After church we spent some time visiting the Temple visitor center where we watched two movies "A Mormon Miracle" and "Just a Stone cutter" they were both very good. We also walked around the temple grounds where I was able to snap a few photos for Day 81 March 22.

Here is where we spent most of our time while at the condo. There are actually 2 pools at this location and so we spent some time at both of them. It is nice that all the kids are old enough for the hot tub rules at the pool now cuz it was cool enough that often they had to go in to warm up. I don't know what photo I want to pick to best represent Day 82 March 23 so here are a handful of pool pictures. Savannah got a new swimsuit as an early birthday gift and did a great job modeling for the photo if I do say so myself lol.





Cheyenne's Birthday was on Tuesday and here is my photo for Day 83 March 24. Rather than a cake, Cheyenne asked for a chocolate cream pie. I really don't know where the 14 years have gone. She is just growing up FAST!Here is a photo from Wednesday and is my pick for Day 84 March 25. I actually did go to the gym at the resort and exercised two days of our stay. Not as good as I usually do at hitting the gym at home... but hey... I was on vacation lol.
On Thursday we took in a few of the local sites. There are lots of historical buildings in St. George. This is just one of them - Brigham Young's winter home. We also visited the Tabernacle (although we were there at the wrong time to actually go inside for a tour) and the Jacob Hamblin home. (Although we didn't go to the Hamblin home until Friday The kids loved searching the yard at the Young home for pecans in the grass under the pecan tree. Carson was able to find the most out of all my kids. He found 20 - what a NUT. I'm choosing this one for my photo for Day 85 March 26.
We also spent some time at the mall where Cheyenne spent her birthday money. She had only asked EVERY day while we were in St. George.... "When are we going shopping?"
On the way home we stopped in for the night at Clayne's brother Jedd's house. Were we had fun visiting not only with Jedd and Kathy and their 2 darling girls - but we also visited their collection of chickens. I can't believe how many different ones they have and I think there are like 30 of them.Kathy and Jedd had some fun activities lined up for the kids when we arrived. We gathered eggs and had an egg roll and a few races doing a "bunny hop" and a "duck walk" for some candy prizes.
This is one of the two cute cousins that we were happy to visit. Poor little Ellen was sick most of the time we were there so we didn't get to smooch on her and play with her as much as we would have liked.
Here is my darling niece Jenny who loved having the cousins visit. It has been reported that there were some tears after we left and not just because we took home our copy of the DVD Bolt.
Kathy made some brownies that were to die for and she wanted both of my girls to celebrate their birthday while visiting. Here is my pick for Day 86 March 27.
On our way home from St. George we stopped in Malad for my nephew, Walker. The poor kid doesn't like water and unfortunately he had to be immersed 3 times before his whole body went under the water. His toes just kept popping up and the poor kid was about traumatized before it was over. He is a good kid and I was happy to be able to be there on his special day. Here is Day 87 March 28.
Since we were on the road all day on Savannah's Birthday, we baked a cake for her on Sunday. I can't believe that my baby is seven and in just one year we will gather as a family for her baptism. This is my photo for Day 88 March 29.Monday was a sick day for me. I felt bad that I subjected little Megan to our flu bug but my sister had no choice since we were the ones lined up to babysit for the day. Both Morgan and I were sick. Megan kept me from taking it too easy though because she has mastered the art of walking. She is so cute and so very busy! Since other photos would have been too SICK to share for the day this is my pick for Day 89 March 30.
Tonight Cheyenne was inducted into the Jr. High Honor Society. She is super excited about the opportunities for service in this organization. I was super excited about her grades being high enough to be accepted. I'm so PROUD of her. This is my photo for day 90 March 31.
Whew.... that is a wrap. Thanks for stopping by and if you read it all and looked at all the photos.... even a bigger thanks. I enjoyed sharing our week with you.