Thanksgiving point's Dinosaur Museum

We went to the dinosaur museum with Grammy and our cousins. It had been years since I've been to thanksgiving point. Grammy Bair has a grandparent pass, so she invited us to come with her. The kids had a lot of fun. They got to look at a lot of displays. We played on the dinosaur scale. Our favorite part was playing in the great big water sand box, there were little dinosaurs and trees. The kids were able to make little homes for the dinosaurs, and lots of mountains. Finally Max got to play with dirt. He loved it. Ruth was pretty excited too, they did have a hard time not throwing the dirt in their excitement. :) Thanks Grammy we had a fantastic time.

A Hike a week.

I've decided that we need to go on a hike a week. Last week we (Chris and I) went with the kids and hiked Ensign Peak. It was quite enjoyable. The kids had a great time. Audrey and Hailey were really eager to get to the top. Max and Ruth were having fun exploring rocks dirt and bugs. Max threw a few rocks. Max and Ruth also liked jumping down the dirt path anywhere there was a step down or rock to jump off. Crazy little people. We insisted that they hold our hands at the top where there was a little ledge they could fall down. I think we'll do it again some time it was really fun.

1 year ago Today.

I looked for some photos to post today and I don't have any right now. So I decided to look back to one year ago from today. On July 14th last year. We were camping with the Greene's. One of my cousins brought their dog. Max and Ruth found the dog kennel and decided it was a fun place to play. These photos always make me laugh with them getting in and out of the cage. Look how much they have grown in one year. I can't believe they will be 3 years old this year. Time sure flies.

All the work is paying off.

Cucumbers, aren't those little yellow flowers pretty? I really like cukes, Desiree you'll have to come have some with me when they are ready to harvest.

Green Beans. I've already sampled two they were yummy. Just like I remember at Aunt Karen and Uncle Ron's farm.

Zucchini yum I love zucchini There is a little green one growing in the center there, it is hard to see though. I'll bet it tastes good in a couple of weeks. :)

This is the first time I've planted yellow squash. I love the color of the leaves, with the light green weaved into the dark green they are just beautiful to me.

I can't tell you how satisfying growing a garden is. There are lots of things to learn and still some plants die and bugs come. But when I pick my first yellow zucchini squash and eat it with my dinner. I am truly happy! This year I decided to expand my garden. It is almost 3 times the size it was last year. I had to dig up lots of my hill put new dirt and wood in to make the new space. I've been working on it babying it for a while now and my plants are finally getting strong enough I don't worry about the wind blowing them over anymore. I've taught the girls how to deep water them and they had so much fun picking the vegetables last year when it was time. It is also fun to try new things. I did green beans this year. I love green beans, my kids do too. I have 20 green bean plants. I figure that if I have a bunch of green beans I'll have some kind of crop. Well I'm excited about it anyway.

Stitches

Here are photos of Max with his stitches. We ran to the hospital at 8:00 while it was still light, and by the time we got back at 10:00 it was dark and Matt and Sarah had put our kids to bed (which was wonderful, thank you so much). So our kids didn't get to make smores. We didn't make smores until Sunday night when we had been home for a day. So here is a photo of Max with chocolate and marshmallow on his mouth.


Here is a photo of him in the hospital waiting for the doctor to stitch him up. As you can see he wasn't too happy. Poor guy.

Happy 4th of July

We bought this gazebo because last year at the Greene/Printy camp out it was so hot with no shade. We really wanted some shade. It has been nice to have this portable shade.
As you can see in this photo of Ruth her eyes look pretty straight (lined up) since her surgery 3 weeks ago. :) Good news.

For the 4th of July we were able to finally spend some time as a family. We joined my Greene cousins up Logan canyon for a camp out. We had lots of fun visiting with family. Ruth made friends with (my cousin) Sarah's daughter Amber. They were really cute together. I wish I would have taken a photo of them together. We did have one little accident. While we were camping, a group of people were playing horse shoes and max ran behind them and got himself clocked in the head with a horse shoe. So Chris and I ran to him the hospital to get him stitches. Thank heavens for the GPS that directed us from the canyon to Logan Regional Hospital. I'll post photos of his stitches in my next post. Other than that little incident we had a fun camping trip. We even went on a hike that was really hard. I'd like to do it again some time when I'm in better shape and have less toddlers to carry.

Mount Timpanogos

My sweet friend Elaine came to visit from her home in Michigan. We decided while she was here we would take a hike up to Timpanogos cave. I had never been there it was really fun. Someone left LeRoyne's car door open when we went to get our tickets. Who could that have been?

Ruth's surgery went well.

The surgery went well. Every one at Primary Children's Medical Center were so kind and attentive to us. I was very impressed with the doctors, nurses, and other staff. There was one woman from child life (a certain department to help kids get ready for surgery) who was also very kind and helpful. She brought a box of medical items for Ruth to familiarize herself with. The most helpful item I think was the breathing mask (which Ruth hadn't seen before) that they put on her to give her the sleepy medicine. She loved putting the mask on herself and mommy and daddy. After the surgery Ruth slept on mom for quite a while before she wanted to get up and drink. But she didn't cry which was amazing. She did get a bit upset when I wouldn't let her rub her eyes. Daddy had a great idea to put her glasses on so she wouldn't rub her eyes. What a good idea, it worked of course. Daddy is so smart. The hospital had big wagons with pillows and blankets for the children to use when they left instead of wheel chairs. I thought that was neat. She liked riding to the elevator in the wagon. I just carried her to the car. We got her home she took a good nap, then ate two plates of yummy pasta, compliments of Grammy. That night Chris and I just sat with her and let her watch movies and rest. The next day she seemed just right as rain, dancing all around the room and singing as happy as can be. I'm so glad everything went so well.

Ruth's eye surgery

Here's our cute Ruth. She is having eye muscle surgery this week. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully it will help her eyes not to cross. Wish us luck.

Oh and look at that cute bow. I love it!

Our little Man.

This layout was the one I designed. I copied Tamara's layout pretty much exactly. It could never look as good as hers though, everything she does is so wonderful. But I thought it worked out pretty well. I was really excited because I designed and printed out the pattern paper all by myself on my (fancy) new printer the Epson R2400. We just got the printer from ink jet art and I love it. Chris got a continuous inking system for it. It is wonderful not to run out of ink. :) I had a lot of fun making the paper. Now I just have to think of some ideas to make more paper. I thought I'd try to make swirls for my next layout exchange. Wish me luck.

Christmas

This page was designed by Holly. She put together and stitched every one's layouts. All we had to do was put on the brads and the word "Christmas." Thanks Holly!!! I put photos on it, of me opening my fun Christmas present. Chris got me a silhouette craft cutting machine. I really wanted one. I got to play with a Cricut machine before Christmas and I decided that it was really fun. So Chris and I did some research to see if there was a cutting machine that didn't need the expensive cartridges. There is one that hooks up to the computer and you can cut anything you want. We decided that we wouldn't get it now. But he got it anyway, with the help of my sister Tamara, and they suprised me for Christmas. I have had a lot of fun with it. I used it to cut the letters I put on the last page. What a sweet husband, thanks Chris, I love you!!!

Ruth's eye patch

I knew that when I had taken photos with Ruth with her eye patch on, that I would need to make a scrapbook page about it someday. Sarah made this layout last exchange and I finally finished it last week. I think it turned out well. I still need to journal it about her doctor and eye and why she needs the patch.

Toy Room Fun

This Layout was designed by LeRoyne. She had it a little different. I knew what it looked like ahead of time so I cut out letters to spell out "Toy Room Fun," and the words "play" and "family." It was neat to have photos and letters ready to put on a layout. I like how it turned out. Some day I'll journal on it too.

Scrapbook Layouts

Last week I had a scrapbook exchange I did quite a few layouts with photos on them. This layout was designed by Marie, LeRoyne's neighbor, whom I haven't met yet. It was one page but I stretched it into two. I think it turned out well. My children look really cute of course.

Tag Tag Tag

I've been tagged a couple of times so I think I'll just combine them all into one.

How to play this game of tag. Post these rules on your blog. List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself.

Joys:
1- Chris, my husband makes me deliriously happy. He works really hard for me to stay home. He comes home and helps with the kids or makes dinner. He does anything that I've needed him to do and never complains, and he is pretty tidy, I rarely have to clean up after him. He is my biggest joy. Thank heavens I have someone so wonderful who I'm so much in love with.
2- My sweet children. Spunky Audrey, sweet helpful Hailey, fashion fun Kate, chatty Ruth, and all boy Max.
3- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm sure I would be very unhappy with out the knowledge of the Gospel. I know Christ is my savior and he made it possible for me to be with my family again.

Fears:
1-If something ever happened to Chris or my children. I'm particularly afraid of one of the children drowning.
2- I'm afraid of gaining lots of weight. Or having my husband have health problems because of weight.
3- I'm afraid of not making it to heaven. That seems weird. But I'm afraid I will never be a good enough person. I will endure to the end but what if what I do is not enough? I can always to more, I just wonder if I will make it.

Goals:
1- To be a kinder person, not judgemental, and to serve with a happy heart. To be more loving to my children, and spend more quality time with them.
2- To have a clean house. I try and try to get it all clean but it doesn't last long before old habits kick in and I leave thins lying around. I have my kids doing jobs everyday and that helps a lot. I just have to get into the habit of picking up constantly.
3- To save money and use it to purchase things (a self propelled lawn mower). To pay off our van, credit card, and hospital bills. To have money set aside for rainy days on emergencies.

Obsessions/Collections:
1- Scrapbooking! I love to scrapbook it is so gratifying to me. It helps me love my children to see photos of them happy after a particularly hard day.
2-Unfortunately I obsess about my new bigger house for some day in the future. I use to be satisfied with my house and there are things I still really love about it. But I feel like we're bursting at the seams sometimes. So I keep making lists of things I want in my next house (someday) a pantry, a toy room, craft room and enough rooms for my children to fit 2 to a room instead of 3. I also want in my next house a bigger kitchen, and a bathroom on every floor.
3-I collect a lot of things. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a pack rat. I have a LOT of hair things for my girls. Shoes for myself of course. Craft things, sewing, quilting, scrapbooking, crocheting, stamping etc.

Randoms:
1- I've been going to the gym with two good friends every morning at 5:30 to make it to the 5:45 class. I don't love cycling but it is good exercise.
2-I want to have a garden every year it is really fun. It is hard work and I can't grow things as big or beautiful as everyone else. But It is so great to go outside and grab a tomato to put in my salad for dinner. Also in the fall I really like canning and it is fun to can my own vegetables. This year I am going to try green beans which I haven't grown in the past. I'll have to learn new things about beans.
3- I really like to eat dinner as a family every night. Even if it is sometimes crazy. It is nice to sit down together, to laugh at Ruth when she sings to her potatoes. Also it is nice that Audrey and Hailey help out to prepare dinner and set the table. I always wanted to eat dinner as a family when I was young so I've tried to make it something we do together now.

ABC Tag
A-Attached or Single?- Attached
B-Best Friend?- Chris, my mom, Holly, LeRoyne, Sarah, Elaine, Brandy, Tawnya, Well there are really a lot of friends, Jennifer, Becky S, Eldie, I'm sure there are a lot more that I consider my really good friends.
C-Cake or Pie?- warm pie with ice cream or cheesecake
D-Day of Choice?- Sunday
E-Essential Item?- unfortunately my cell phone, I really like being connected to my husband.
F- Favorite color? depends upon when, brown, red, and pink I'm leaning towards this season.
G-Gummy Bears or Worms?- Bears of course :)
H-Hometown?- West Valley
I-Favorite Indulgence?- cheese cake, potatoes, watermelon.
J-January or July? Either
K-Kids? A few, Audrey, Hailey, Kate, Max and Ruth
L-Life isn't complete without? Chris my children and the gospel.
M-Marriage Date?- May 6
N-Number of brothers and sisters? 4 Brothers
O-Oranges or Apples?-Apples, but both are good, just every once and a while you get a really bitter/sour orange.
P-Phobia and Fears? Spiders, not as much as it use to be. I have to show my children I'm brave.
Q-Quote?-"indeed"
R-Reason to smile?- I love it when my kids say something that is so funny. Ruth makes the cutest face when we read the Thomas book we have, and she says, "He is sad he wants to stay he wants to play." It makes me laugh so hard.
S-Season of choice?- Spring
T-Tag?- I won't tag anyone.
U-Unknown fact about me?- I wish I had naturally red hair. (it's a new development)
V-Vegetable?- Green Beans, I love green beans. and Zucchini. I also really like green cabbage.
W-Worst habit?- Sitting on the computer and doing nothing all day.
Y-Your favorite food?- Potatoes, watermelon, cheese cake,
Z-Zodiac Sign?-I don't' know or care really. How about something else for Z
Z-zipper. When I was younger I had the coolest shoes with zippers on them.

I'd be really surprised if anyone reads these. But there they are.

We do most everything twice! Audrey's first oral Report.

Audrey turned in her first oral report today. It was about Giraffes. I'll write what was in it. Giraffes are herbivores, animals that only eat plants. They eat leaves and twigs. Giraffes live in Africa. They live in forests and plains. Interesting fact: Giraffes are pregnant for 15 months. They live about 25 years. They run as fast as 35 miles an hour. That is it. I hope she can remember the big words.

Hailey's first oral report!

Hailey's first oral report for school was due today. She had to pick an animal and research it and write a report about it. She was really excited. She needs to tell her class today. I hope she uses her "loud voice." She choose to write about a tiger because Grammy Bair gave her a tiger stuffed animal that she really loves. Thanks for the inspiration Grammy. I'll tell you what it says. The tiger is a carnivore. It eats other animals. Tigers live it lots of places, like forests and mountains. The tiger is a mammal. Here is a skeleton. That is it. She had to write the whole thing so I tried to help make it easy so she could remember what it said. She can read most of it. She just had to memorize carnivore, forests and mountains.