I debated the best way to blog our summer in Utah. And after feeling very overwhelmed because of the HUNDREDS of pictures taken, I think the best way is this...One long post in chronological order with just a couple of my favorite pics from each event. I know it may be boring to some, but I am thinking about posterity.
The long awaited day came and we went to see Toy Story 3. Of course the kids LOVED it and of course their favorite line and most often quoted, "Hey I thought I told you kids to stay out of my butt," by Mr. Potato Head.
Oh, he wishes...
Another favorite thing: the coaster cars. The kids spent hours of time outside riding around in circles. And the girls got a special treat...making jewelry with Aunt Gyla...fabulous!
My birthday...oh yeah, when you get this old it's just another day! :)
July 4th equals parades, "fishing," and swimming. We got to spend it with both Matt's family and mine, but unfortunately, not Matt...still in Tennessee. At the end of the day we got to see a couple of different fireworks displays from grandma's house. Although, I think most everybody fell asleep before they were over.
This is one of their favorite pastimes, hanging out with Aunt Amy.
Night swimming...yep...just in case we didn't get enough swimming in during the day we always had night swimming. Actually, some times we did both...swimming ALL day and NIGHT! As you can see, they usually lasted in their swimsuits WAAAY longer than me.
Happy Father's Day! The kids and I got to celebrate Father's Day with grandpa. We cooked him a yummy breakfast and after chruch we went out to Grandpa Blaines for a visit which happened to include some scrumptious marshmallow roasting.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Summer, Summer, Summer (part 1)
Happy Mother's Day
Mother's Day was great this year with breakfast in bed, gifts from Matt and the kids, teaching a lesson AND giving a talk in church (I know, Happy Mother's Day to me). It was a great day and I am very blessed to be a mother. Oh, and I got this funny in my email in honor of the occasion that I thought would be fun to share.
THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES
Six married men
will be dropped on an island
with one car
and 3 kids each
for six weeks.
Each kid will play two sports
and take either music or dance classes.
There is no fast food.
Each man must
take care of his 3 kids;
keep his assigned house clean,
correct all homework,
complete science projects,
cook,
do laundry,
and pay a list of 'pretend' bills
with not enough money.
In addition,
each man
will have to budget enough money
for groceries each week.
Each man
must remember the birthdays
of all their friends and relatives,
and send cards out on time--no emailing.
Each man must also take each child
to a doctor's appointment,
a dentist appointment
and a haircut appointment.
He must make one unscheduled and
inconvenient visit per child to the Emergency Room.
He must also make cookies or cupcakes
for a school function.
Each man will be responsible for
decorating his own assigned house,
planting flowers outside, and keeping it
presentable at all times.
The men will only have access to television
when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.
The men must shave their legs,
wear makeup daily,
adorn themselves with jewelry,
wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes,
keep fingernails polished,
and eyebrows groomed
During one of the six weeks,
the men will have to endure severe
abdominal cramps, backaches, headaches,
have extreme, unexplained mood swings
but never once complain or slow down
from other duties.
They must attend weekly school meetings
and church,
and find time at least once to spend
the afternoon at the park or a similar
setting.
They will need to read a book to the kids each night
and in the morning,
feed them,
dress them,
brush their teeth and
comb their hair
by 7:30 am.
A test will be given
at the end of the six weeks,
and each father will be required to know
all of the following information:
each child's
birthday,
height, weight,
shoe size, clothes size,
doctor's name,
the child's weight at birth,
length, time of birth,
and length of labor,
each child's favorite color,
middle name,
favorite snack,
favorite song,
favorite drink,
favorite toy,
biggest fear,
and what they want to be when they grow up.
The kids vote them off the island based on performance.
The last man wins only if...
he still
has enough energy
to be intimate with his spouse
at a moment's notice.
If the last man does win,
he can play the game over and over and over
again for the next 18-25 years,
eventually earning the right
to be called Mother!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Welcome Baby Crew
The newest addition to our extended family, our new nephew/cousin...Crew William Taylor. So sweet!
The Blue and Gold
Our first ND Tailgate experience...the Blue and Gold game. The tailgating was fun and the game was good too, oh all except for the cold and rain.
Spring Break
We stayed and played in Iowa over spring break. We made a trip to the park and played with our bubble wands from Easter.
We were there about 30 minutes before it started pouring buckets of rain, by the time we gathered everything and loaded into the car we were sopping wet! Also, no trip is complete without a stop at the Children's museum. This time there was a cool aviation exhibit which the kids had fun exploring and testing their skills as a pilot.
Gotta Love the Midwest
Matt came home from our weekend in Iowa while we stayed back for our spring break. This is what greeted him when he arrived.
At first we thought that some of the teenage kids were playing a trick on us, but when Matt inquired of the neighbors they said that there had been some pretty strong winds that weekend that could have easily flipped our tramp over. Luckily, it looks like the wind just lifted it up and set it down in the same spot, only upside down, instead of crashing into someones house and causing some real damage. It kinda looks like it won't ever be the same, huh?
Happy Happy Birthday
We celebrated Matt's birthday while visiting Iowa and he had some yummy (at least he thinks so) crab legs, courtesy of Aunt Jen's recent trip to Alaska.
Easter
We got to spend Easter with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Jamie in Iowa. We did all the usual festivities like coloring easter eggs, hunting for them in the morning, finding baskets, and eating a yummy dinner. This year was a special treat and we got to listen to General Conference on Easter Sunday and were able to remember the real reason we celebrate...the resurrection of our Savior. I love it when Easter falls on Conference because it really becomes a time of reflection of all we are blessed with and a time to commit to be better in the coming months.
Superhero
Parker loves getting dressed up, and isn't afraid to mix superhero legends. Here he is at BatKnight.
Mr. Lego
While the girls went to American Girl the boys made a trip to the Lego store. They make it look so easy, but lets face it...not so much.
Here's the Deal
OK, so I had all these big plans to update over the summer so when we got back for the fall and winter festivities I would be able to just post as we go. Well, that would have been a great plan, except for my computer crashed....completely losing the hard drive...including all my pictures! AARGGH, to say the least. We were able to recover most of them (after a lot of time and money), but needless to say I was a little disenchanted with my computer, we had a love hate relationship for a while. But it is true what they say, time heals all wounds, and I am back and ready to start updating, so even though these posts won't be of current life events, they happend, and I just can't bear to skip them and not record them. And two HUGE lessons learned from this little experience 1. Don't believe the commercials...macs really aren't superior to PC's and 2. BACK-UP BACK-UP BACK-UP, so much easier and costly to back up your stuff on an external hard drive than to try recover everything after it is gone.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Time For A Little Big City
We couldn't resist heading into Chicago for a couple of days. We started out with a birthday dinner for Allison and then got a birthday treat at the Ghiradeli Store...scrumptious ice cream. We also spent time at Navy Pier, the Childrens Museum, the bean statue, the American Girl doll Store, and of course a little shopping. 
Yeah Visitors!
We got a special treat and got to have an early spring break and visit with my sisters and their kids, and my mom. Since Haylie just got home from her mission, we all wanted to spend time with her, so we decided to meet here in "the middle." Mostly we just hung out and chatted and the kiddos played and played and played. I am sure the neighbors thought we were crazy because even though it was spring, we were having a little cold spell and it was pretty cold, but the kids loved playing outside. We also got to have FHE together, we did a little bowling, a little mini golfing and a couple of rides on the go karts. It was so fun to visit and catch up and hear about Haylie's mission experiences.
