Let the catching up begin...

So, I realized that if I don't get my catching up done soon it will never get done because life keeps going, and there are more adventures coming up real soon! So, here my blog goes from drought to flood.

I will begin with a fun evening up at Girl's Camp! The Bishopric and their wives were invited to go visit the girls on Friday evening. I was so excited to go. I admit that I love camp. It brings back so many memories! It was so good to be back at Camp Shalom. We had such a great time eating, visiting, singing fun songs, and having a testimony meeting. Good times. Good times.

Here are the girls showing their goofy side...

And here's a good picture of them with their fearless leaders

Darin and Me, Bishop and Deborah, Jason and Jamee

I know, I know

I've been a horrible blogger lately, and I've missed it terribly. We've had a crazy couple of weeks around here. I have a LOT to catch up on; a visit to Girl's Camp, a boating adventure, two birthdays in two days, a family picnic, homemade ice cream...after all these adventures, late nights and early mornings, my body decided it had had enough, and it let me know. I flared up for the first time in months, and my mouth exploded with cold sores. Now I have the privilege of catching up; on housework, on sleep, and last of all (sadly), the blog. Luckily I got TAGGED, and it was just the inspiration I needed to get back on the bandwagon! So, here I go!

4 jobs I've held:
1. Wendy's
2. JV Indian Originals (jewelry kiosk in the mall)
3. Nanny in Belgium
4. Teller & New Accounts at Far West Bank

4 Movies I could watch over and over:
1. HAIRSPRAY!!! (love it)
2. Pride and Prejudice (the long one-I haven't seen the newer one yet)
3. Anne of Green Gables series
4. Elf

4 smells I love: (OK, I totally changed this one. The original one was " 4 places I've lived", and since I've not lived a lot of places, I'm including the smell one because I'm always curious what people love to smell, so feel free to change it back if you get tagged!)
1. Bread baking
2. freshly cut grass
3. my deodorant (Secret velvet powder)
4. gasoline

4 TV shows I enjoy:
1. The Biggest Loser (Can't wait for the season premiere next month)
2. The Office
3. America's Got Talent (my friend is on it right now; Go Duttons!)
4. Sesame Street

4 places I've been on vacation:
1. Canada
2. California
3. Las Vegas
4. Paris (when I was a nanny in Belgium I took a little day trip to Paris; It wasn't a long trip, but I'm counting it!)

4 favorite restaurants:
1. Carraba's
2. Costa Vida
3. Winger's
4. Shoots

4 websites I visit daily:
1. Hotmail
2. Gmail
3. Blogs
4. online banking (not quite daily)

4 places I'd rather be right now:
1. Getting a massage
2. In a hammock under some shade trees
3. on a boat
4. Disneyland

4 people I'm challenging to do this:
1. Kelly R.
2. Karla
3. Jodi W.
4. Megan

It's good to be back, and I will update very soon (at least sooner than 2 weeks!).

Aquarium

Here are some pics of a day trip we took to the Living Planet Aquarium a few months ago. We had such a great time!

Olivia and Sean LOVED touching the stingrays...

...and starfish

Warren was a little apprehensive about touching anything with the word "sting" in it, but he loved the puzzles and activities in the sunken ship

I told Darin to do his best imitation of the shark. Striking resemblance, eh?

Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?

I was looking through some pictures on my computer, and found these old ones of Sean. (They were taken when he was about 5 months old, and he's almost 6 years old.) The pictures almost made me cry, especially since he is in a stage where he HATES kisses. So, to answer my own question, YES I just want to kiss those cheeks. I would even be o.k. with kissing the 6 year old version of those cheeks. It's all I can do to refrain from kissing him good night. Every time I kiss him he wipes it off and says, "I don't like kisses!" I wish he were kidding, but he's really not. So for now I'm trying to respect his boundaries, and give him lots of pats on the head, and as many hugs as I can until he decides it's o.k. for his mom to give kisses again. Why can't he love kisses now and hate them when he's 16?

I had to include these ones! We were having a game night with our friends, Dave and Carrie, and Carrie decided it was time to introduce Sean to Red Vines. I think he liked it. So many fun memories!

SO Big!

David has decided it's time to feed himself. Now that he has discovered that he can do it on his own, we have a hard time convincing him that he could use some help now and then! He has a minimum of one bath a day, and several quick splashes in the sink to keep him somewhat presentable. (By the way, we do usually put a bib on him!)
So...while he was finishing off his yogurt, he saw Olivia eating an oreo, and wanted one. He grabbed it, and the first thing he did was pull it apart and lick the middle! I looked to see if he was copying Olivia, but she's a dunker, not a licker. Is it inborn??? Because he also has the ability to decipher the marshmallows from the cereal part of Lucky Charms.

Happy 4th!

I LOVE this holiday! We were so caught up with all the fun that I took ZERO pictures! (pathetic, I know.) Here's the rundown of our day...We woke up and went to my mom's house for breakfast. Darin has never liked the parade (due to crowds, heat, length, and I'm sure I'm missing a few), so we decided to skip the parade this year. We ate a delicious breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, fruit, and juice. While we were waiting for the parade-goers to come back we filled up water balloons (150 of them). After everyone was home we started to play cards and visit while we were gearing up for the water balloon fun. That's when Livvy came in and announced that all the balloons had been popped! Warren and his cousin Bridger had a great time outside (150 water balloons worth of fun), so instead of water balloon tosses and water fights, we played "vacuum" and cleaned up all the balloon remnants. It was almost as fun. After we cleaned up from breakfast we headed out to my brother's neighbor's pool. It was perfect! The pool had a slide and a diving board, and we all had a great time. Next on the agenda was more food! We went to Max's house for fajitas, corn on the cob, chips, and lots of treats. After our bellies were satisfied we headed over to my brother Mark's house to ride horses. It was great! All the kids got to ride, including David, and they even got to help Mark and Janet feed the horses some watermelon. The poor horses have never had so much dirt covered watermelon in all their lives! The kids would obediently put their hands out flat with watermelon ready, and the second the horse lips touched them the watermelon went in the dirt. Horse slobber isn't a favorite of kids, I'm assuming, but it was cool to have the experience! Just as it was getting dusk-ish we headed back to my parents' house for fireworks. We had a pre-show with our grocery store fireworks and sparklers then settled in for the grand Stadium of Fire fireworks (we see them perfectly from my parents' yard). At the end of the day we were all exhausted, but so grateful to be able to have such a fun day, and spend it with our family. I love this country. I know I don't fully appreciate how good we have it, but there are times I sit and ponder how blessed we truly are. It's easy to get caught up in wanting the bigger and better everythings, but if I take a step back I realize there are millions of people in the world who would give anything to be in my shoes. I am so thankful for the men and women who make it possible for me to have such a great life, and for so many who came before who had a vision of what this country could be. In the words of the Hope of America kids choir, "America Rocks!"

Balloon Fest

This has been such a great week (again...I think I love summer!). We found a new tradition this year! We woke up very early (6am) on the 3rd and made our way down to Balloon Fest. We were able to see about 25 hot air balloons fill up, then take off. It was awesome! We all loved it so much we are making it an annual event for our family!

side view of the Smokey the Bear balloon (Warren's favorite)

I'm in trouble! Olivia and her cousin Kamryn desperately want to have a sleep over. They ask every time they're together if they can have a sleep over. Last time I said 'no' they said, "Well, when CAN we have a sleep over?" and I replied, "Um, I don't know, when pigs fly." I guess they're in luck! (Of course this was Olivia's favorite balloon, with the strawberry coming in a close second.)

Sean liked the Brooks and Dunn balloon with the bull horns on it.

Here are some pics of us waiting to see if any of the balloons would come back. Since the balloonists are at the mercy of the wind, they can't always make it back. Sean passed the time reading...

David and Olivia made up a new game called 1,2,3, POOF! David would put a lid from a water bottle on his finger, then Olivia would shake his arm and say 1,2,3, POOF, and flick the lid off his finger. He laughed so hard! (Why do we buy toys?)

After we were pretty sure that the balloons weren't coming back we left to pick up Darin's mom to take her to breakfast. It was such a fun day!

There will be more posts to come documenting our 4th celebrations...stay tuned!