Diaper Bags & Strollers

BYU vs UT

2011-11-26T13:25:00.003-07:00

We are BYU football fans through and through. So from the moment we hear BYU would be playing in Texas we knew we'd be going. We drove to Austin hit the tailgate party where we stocked up on BYU swag and then went on to the game. We took the boys but opted to leave the girls home. Despite the heat we all had a great time.

Natural Bridge Caverns

2011-11-26T13:17:00.004-07:00

We finally made it Natural Bridge Caverns. We've talked about going since we moved here. Our final motivation was to go before the baby came b/c it's not stroller friendly and who wants to carry a baby around for that long in that kind of humidity.

First day of school

2011-10-12T12:31:00.017-06:00

Jack and Alyssa are at the same school and walk to and from school together.

Alyssa is in kindergarten with Mrs. England

Jack is in 4th grade with Mrs. Oliver

Gavan is in 6th grade and has too many teachers to list as he has 7 periods.

He didn't want to cooperate with pictures and kept goofing off so in retaliation I will now post his silliness for all to see.

Sadie is in Pre-K and has Mrs. Renee and Mrs. Jessica

Back to school fashion show

2011-10-12T12:31:00.010-06:00

It wouldn't be back to school time without our traditional jumbo cookie...

and fashion show....

Snake Farm

2011-10-12T12:29:00.006-06:00

Not my idea of fun but, we took the kids to the snake farm and petting zoo. The kids liked the snakes, I found them creepy. We were joined by our cousins, which always makes it more fun.

The kids loved the petting zoo. This particular goat was very brave and kept stealing the kids food bags.

Jack watching in horror as the goat took Sadie's food bag.

sadie didn't like that.

Fire station

2011-10-12T12:27:00.000-06:00

A group of us took our kids on a tour of the local fire station. The kids got to climb in the vehicles, tour the buildings and see where the firemen slept, ate and took phone calls.

They got to see the jaws of life in action and watch it crush a soda can. They had tons of fun despite the heat.

Children's Museum

2011-10-12T12:26:00.009-06:00

I took the kids to the children's museum over the summer thanks to a great deal from Groupon. It was a smaller museum than we were used to but the kids loved it all the same.

The kids loved the ATM. You'd get money out and turn it into the gift shop for a free pencil when you left.

They spent a lot of time in the grocery store.

They also really liked the camping area with the fire pit, fishing poles, caves and canoe

The girls LOVED the hospital nursery.

Jack & Gavan enjoyed looking at slides on the microscope

Sadie turns 4

2011-10-11T18:15:00.001-06:00

Sadie turned 4 in July

Band

2011-10-10T17:39:00.001-06:00

Gavan joined the 5th grade band and now plays the saxophoneThe first few months the sounds heard from our home were very much like the mating call of a moose.

Gavan has since improved and is now very good and easy to listen to. He is currently in the 6th grade band and still loves it. Music comes fairly easy for Gavan and it's nice to see him venture out into different areas and develop talents. He has also continued with piano lessons and has a great teacher.

Karate

2011-10-10T17:22:00.000-06:00

Jack joined Karate

Jack didn't take part in his first tournament as a white belt because of conflicts but they advanced him anyway. Since this tournament Jack is has since advanced from yellow to orange and now to green belt. Karate has done a lot for Jack. It has helped with his temper and respect issues which I totally love. I am glad he has found a sport that he enjoys and brings the best out in him.

Easter 2011

2011-10-09T17:09:00.004-06:00

Easter 2011

I'm pretty sure Sadie and Jack got more dye on their hands than their eggs.

Freddy

2011-10-08T16:56:00.000-06:00

After years of saying "no" to the kids we finally gave in and got a dog. We did a lot of research to find what would be the best breed for the kids and Alyssa's asthma. We decided to adopt a dog that was already trained because who wants to deal with training a puppy?

Introducing Freddy...

Sadie and freddy are bosom friends.

Freddy is a pretty good dog, stupid but good. He tolerates Sadie and her constant malling him. If I were him I'm sure I'd have bite her by now to get her to leave me alone. Having a dog is like having 3 year old child, had I realized how that this I probably would have held out longer. :)

playing catch up

2011-10-01T15:24:00.000-06:00

Has it really been over 8 months since I've last updated my blog? I guess with everyone on facebook I feel less of a need to blog because updating there is so much faster and easier. Anyhow, I will try to highlight the major events of the last 8 months over the next few posts.

Jack turned 9 way back in April

Jack and his new electric skooter

Jack's party consisted of a silly string war...

water gun fight...

I don't think Sadie knew who to get wet with her squirt gun.

and cupcake decorating.

Jack had a great 9th birthday!

Stay tuned for more updates...

in loving memory of my father

2011-01-29T03:51:00.006-07:00

July 2010

Nov 2009, the day I moved to Texas

Nov. 2010 the night before we moved.

We love you and miss you!

Oct 17 1931- Jan 28 2011

Sadie's first hair cut

2011-01-26T09:53:00.013-07:00

The girls both needed haircuts. Alyssa doesn't like it when her hairs get really long because it "itches" her neck, so she says. Sadie has never had a haircut so it was time to even her hair out.

Sadie Before:
Sadie After:

Bangs pulled back

Bangs down.

Back:

Before

After:

Side:

Before:

After

I had thought about bangs for her for some time. I always thought she looked cute when she had little whispy grow outs that hung like bangs. Sadie kept telling me she wanted her hair cut like mommy's, but I knew I didn't want it that short or layered. So I went out on a limb and gave her bangs. Well, I was in shock after I got Sadie's bangs cut. They didn't look like I had imagined and the lady cut them a bit shorted than I wanted. I really regretted doing it. Sadie didn't like them either, she kept pushing them up or to the side. So, for the first few days after her haircut we pulled them back. It has now been a week and we've gotten used to them but we still plan on growing them out.

Here is Sadie getting her haircut. Being her first haircut I *had* to take pictures.

Doesn't she just look thrilled? She was actually looking forward the haircut for weeks but when it came down to it I guess she got a little scared. She asked me if it would hurt when she got it cut. :)

Here's Alyssa's before and after.

Before Front

After Front

Before Back

Back after

I don't have any good after shots of Alyssa, apparently she couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to take her pictures. :)

Gavan's Birthday

2011-01-10T08:10:00.005-07:00

For Gavan's 11th Birthday he decided to have a sleepover party with his two best friends. I'm not a big sleepover person so this was a real treat. We let him open presents before school.

Alyssa made him some artwork at school. She painted the Colts logo on it just for him, (see Sadie pointing to it).
After school we ended up at the doctors office with Gavan and came home with crutches and a split. We had to take his friends home early on Saturday because Gavan had to get X-rays before the clinic closed. :(

Gavan asked us to bake him a cake so here is what we came up with:

Riddle

2011-01-10T07:48:00.007-07:00

What do you get when you take this:
these two children

and add a little teasing and tormenting?

Answer:

One broken tooth and a trip to the emergency dentist.

Fortunately it was a clean break, we found the tooth and it barely missed having the pulp exposed. It could have been much worse.
It was 6 pm on Thursday, all dentist would be closed until Monday because of New Years observation. It took us a while to find dentist with an after hours service but now Jack is as good as new. Keeping our fingers crossed that the tooth doesn't die and start discoloring.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T17:10:00.017-07:00

Get ready for Christmas picture overload...

Opening the "Christmas Jammies" Funny thing is that Gavan just caught on this year that they ALWAYS open pj's on Christmas eve, and the others still have no clue. :)

The stockings

Admiring the loot from the stockings and gifts from Santa.

How many camera's does it take to document Christmas?
1. Grandpa

2. Grandma
3. Mom and
4. Dad (not shown).
I think we got it covered this year.

Sadie enjoying her chocolate.

Alyssa LOVES her pillow pet from Santa.

Sibling Gifts
I think Jack likes his triops!

Sadie LOVED her Ariel doll.

Other Fun Gifts.

The dollhouse
It took the girls long time to notice the dollhouse sitting in the corner of the room.

The basketball hoop
Do you think Gavan was excited?
Now the boys can stop pretending the trash can is a hoop.

Alyssa made gifts for everyone. Here is the football field she made for Gavan.
Gary the Chef.
I made Gary a chef Jacket this year to go along with the hat I made him years ago. Now he can dress the part when he decides to make cheese again.

Alyssa Turns 5!

2010-11-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

Alyssa was so excited for her birthday this year. She got to have a few friends over for a "princess party."

Pinata

Gifts

Decorating Cookies

I have to admit a party for little girls is soooooooo much easier than a party for little boys.

A few days after her "friend party" was her "real birthday." Alyssa got to open her presents before everyone went to school.

Then we had cake for our after school snack.
Alyssa chose Red Robin for her birthday dinner because she wanted to be sung to and she wanted the free ice cream sundae.

Vinyl Sale

2010-11-12T18:48:00.002-07:00

Here's the link to my Vinyl sale. I finally decide to take few orders for the holidays.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-29T11:38:00.012-06:00

I had a lot of fun making our costumes this year. I think I must have been in withdrawal from not making anything new last year, but seeing that my sewing machine was in a storage unit somewhere in Texas last year I didn't have much choice.

This year we have a prisoner.

A mad-scientist.

Jack's only request was to have a cRaZy wig to go with his costume. On the day of the costume parade, Jack decided he needed glasses to wear with his costume. Since Gavan had worn the glasses to school for spirit week we had to quickly make a pair before school, hence the paper glasses.

Cinderella

Ariel

Gary and I were going to have new costumes this year because I got started late. But every year his work does a costume contest with $300 going to first prize. He told me if I made a new AwEsOmE costume he'd wear it. (He isn't big into dressing up). I couldn't pass on that offer so we decided on Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty to begin with. Just over a week before halloween I saw a picture of a Charlie Brown costume with a HUGE paper maché head. I KNEW I had do it. After all I can't just sorta do a costume--I have to go all out--it's just what I do. Then I decided if I was gonna have a fake head I should be Lucy Van Pelt instead of Peppermint Patty because she's cuter. :) The only thing I didn't sew this year was Charlie Brown's shirt and pants, I bought them and cut off the pants and added my own zig-zag. I even dyed my first pair of socks this year. This year was a lot firsts for us for halloween. I've never made heads before either.

Charlie Brown

Lucy Van Pelt

Gary wore his costume to his work contest and we both wore them to the trunk or treat. They were pretty hard to see out of so we didn't wear them as much as we'd like. But, man they were sure fun.

Funny story about making the paper maché heads...We had these heads drying in the garage after we painted them with the door crack open to get a breeze to dry them faster. There was an older couple who walked past and got a good chuckle out of what they saw sitting in our garage. I am sure they thought we were a bunch of perverts. Here is what they saw...

Sadie's purple cast

2010-10-25T19:48:00.006-06:00

Sadie gets to sport a purple cast for the next three weeks. I am really surprised this is the first cast we've had being that we have four kids. Not too bad! Sadie is left-handed so she is trying to adjust to having people help her and doing things right handed. Fortunately it's only a minor fracture so hopefully we'll be healed in no time.

Everyone asks Sadie how it happened and she just get bashful. Once I start to tell the story she chimes in with "teapot, we play teapot". Sadie, Jack and Alyssa made up a game where they run around crazy while singing "I'm a little tea pot". The fun and games ended when Jack and Sadie collided and she went crashing to the ground landing on her elbow.

After I got home from football with Gavan, she headed off to the after hours clinic with Gary. Why do sickness and injuries that require medical care always happen after hours? Anyway, they were unable to determine if it was broken from the x-ray, so we were sent to an orthopedic specialist the next afternoon. Apparently fractures are hard to tell in little kids when they are mild, and often don't always show up until a week later.

Sadie was in a splint for 5 days and then had a second set of x-rays to determine the damage. She is thrilled that her cast is purple and I am thrilled her halloween costume will still fit her with her cast. It even matches her costume.

Conference & Crêpes

2010-10-03T08:27:00.000-06:00

Fresh back from Germany, I decided it would be fun to try my hand at making crêpes this morning. It seemed to require only a tool (for spreading the crêpe batter), the batter itself and a skillet with the right heat. I've never been one for letting a lack of tools prevent me from starting a project, so I forged ahead with the idea that getting the heat right would be accomplished with simple experimentation. And the batter, well, that would be easy--after all, I'm a pancake maven.

Germany. I ended up eating the one on the right,
topped with nutella.

With my able assistant, the young Jackson, I found a simple recipe at about.com and began composing a batter. The kids were antsy, so we only let the batter sit for 30 minutes instead of an hour. The first crêpe tasted like an omelet, more or less, so I decided to add more flour (1/3 C), water (1/3 C) and milk (1/3 C). The next crêpe was spot-on, so we decided to roll with it. I found the spreader to be unnecessary because the batter is so runny that simply tilting the skillet does a good job at spreading the stuff.

Jack, enjoying the first crepe.

We had raspberries and whipped cream on hand in the refrigerator, and there's always plenty of nutella in our house. I wish we had bananas though. Even Nicole, who doesn't care much for pancakes or waffles when I make them, ended up eating one. Double-plus-good in my book.

We had fruit, whipped cream, nutella and powdered sugar.

Today is the second day of General Conference, and we all decided that "Conference and Crêpes" sounded like a fun tradition to start. I'll let you know how it goes when April rolls around.

Yum!

critters

2010-09-15T17:27:00.000-06:00

These little critters are found all around our yard.
We have two that live under our deck. We haven't seen much of them since Jack accidentally got a hold of one's tail and tore it off. The hazards of getting caught by Jack.

At night we can see them crawling all over the bricks on the front of the house. We even get tiny baby ones that get in the house. So far we've found three. The tiny ones are no bigger round than a pencil and only about 3 inches long. They are really cute, but give me the creeps when I find them in my house. One of the baby geckos fried himself by crawling underneath one of the laptops for heat. Apparently they aren't very smart.

We also find frogs and squirrels running around the yard. The frogs come to life when we mow the lawn. I am sure we shall be accountable for many of their deaths.

This cute little guy likes to hang out in our bird feeder.
Let's just say Gary isn't too fond of him. We definately have more "wild" life here than in Utah.

Back to school

2010-09-06T07:15:00.000-06:00

I have 4 kids in 4 different schools this year. It get's pretty crazy getting 3 kids out the door by 8:15 am. We live close enough that both boys walk to school. We are still getting used to how early elementary schools start here.

The school encourage the kids to arrive at least 15 minutes early and meet in the gym/cafeteria before school. They wait in line with the rest of their class for their teachers to pick them up (10 minutes before schools starts) and walk them to their room as a class.

They also have a lot more security features in place than we were used to in Utah. When parents visit the school they have to show photo ID and wear a name badge with their picture printed on it. I really do like our schools here!

Gavan is in 5th grade in Intermediate school. The poor boys has to leave for school by 7:15 and starts at 7:45.

Jack is in 3rd Grade this year. He doesn't have to leave until 7:45 and starts school at 8:15.

Alyssa is in preschool. She goes five days a week from 8:30-noon. She Loves school! All the preschools here are run by churches or daycares and are very expensive.
Sadie had to have her picture taken with her backpack when the other kids did too. She couldn't wait for her real first day of school, which started two weeks later.

This backpack is one Grandma Alice got Gavan when he was about two because LOVED cows.

Here is Sadie on her real first day of school. She goes two days a week from 9-11:30 and I take turn teaching with 5 other moms.

Next year I will have all my kids gone for 1/2 days 5 days a week. I don't know if I am ready to let them go so quickly. I know I will enjoy being able to get things done a little easier, but it will be quite the adjustment.

Sadie Turns 3!

2010-09-02T07:13:00.010-06:00

My baby is 3! It makes me sad to see her growing up, especially with her being the last of the bunch. She is a spunky little kid who always something funny to say or do.
The birthday girl.
Her presents.

The boys used their own money to buy her a puppy.

back 2 school fashion show

2010-08-17T15:58:00.000-06:00

We had our first annual back to school fashion show. The kids really had fun with this, some enjoyed it more than others.

Jack loved the attention.

Alyssa has the poses down.

Gavan pretended he thought it was lame but he had fun too.
Sadie was a bit shy at first.

Each kids got to model two outfits of their choice. Sadie opted to model just one.
Jack and Alyssa had the most fun!

The grand finale.
We will definitely be making this a back to school tradition.

Back 2 school celebrations

2010-08-15T15:57:00.001-06:00

We did several things this year to help the kids get excited about school starting.

I made a Jumbo back to school cookie.
The cookie is kinda ugly because I don't have frosting skills, but it was sure yummy.

Our ward had a back to school swim party the Friday night before school started. We brought football themed cookies for our treat, because back to school also means football season begins. Go Cougs!

The week before school stared we made back to school cookies for our neighbors.

Stay tuned for our back to school fashion show...

Saturday Adventures

2010-08-01T18:20:00.001-06:00

We did several Saturday outings with the kids over the summer. Here are a few highlights...
We took the kids to a farmers market in New Braunfels. It had everything from plants, beef jerky, produce, milk, cheese, pastries and more. I love a farmers' market that has more than fruits and veggies to sell.
After hitting the farmers' market we found a cute little restaurant called "The Red Rooster". They also sold antiques. We really enjoyed the fun decor!This metal Rooster was pretty cool.

We had Elvis starring at us during dinner.

We got our heads stuck in a lion's mouth

Remember this toy? I do!!!
This was the first time we took our new camera on an outing. It was fun playing around with the settings and seeing what we got. There will probably be a lot of picture heavy posts for a while. :)

Picnic with Grandpa

2010-07-06T18:13:00.000-06:00

The 4th of July was Sunday this year. Since we were in Utah all the celebrations took place on Saturday. So on the 4th we took Grandpa to the park next to his nursing home and had a picnic with the cousins.

Grandpa David & Grandma Alice

Dad & Sadie

We made the boys run in order to get more junk food. We figured they need to work off some of the sugar before they got more.

Jack & Dallin

Sydney and Cameron

Sadie caught eating...again

My niece, Sonnet and her family with Grandma and Grandpa.

My family with Grandma and Grandpa.

Most of the girl cousins

This is the best shot of all the girl cousins.

Independence Day 2010

2010-07-05T18:20:00.007-06:00

We celebrated the 4th of July with Gary's brother and his family. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.

Poppers.

Everyone loves poppers.
Sparklers with 8 kids all 10 and under...kinda scary.

They have a great view of the stadium of fire fireworks from their deck.

Grandpa's place

2010-07-03T18:28:00.001-06:00

Our first stop once we got into town was my dad's nursing home. He has been in and out of nursing homes, assisted living and physical therapy homes for the last year. It has been quite the emotional roller coaster for my family. Since we had a new fun camera and don't get to see my dad very often, we just kept snapping pictures.

My dad just sat there with a grin on his face watching the kids run a muck.

He loved every minute of their craziness. It really does make me feel bad that we had to move so far away from from my parents, limiting our opportunities to visit them. We were really blessed to live so close to them for so many years. The kids really miss having them near too.

These lizards always provide hours of fun at our house. I surprised the kids with some on the drive up. Gary likes to play the lizard flinging game. Unfortunately, it usually ends with one of the boys crying because they get whacked in the eye or some other part of the face.This is Alyssa's princess pose. It's also her favorite pose these days.The nursing home had a nice patio where the kids could run and get their wiggles out. It made it really nice to visit and not have to worry about them getting out of control and bothering the other residents.
The kids loved visiting grandpa because they could get free ice cream cones.
Gary's mischievous grin.
I love this grin, it either means he is up to something or just amused himself with some lame joke. I bet he just said something sassy back at my dad.

BYU day

2010-07-02T07:02:00.000-06:00

We love BYU, the campus, the bookstore, the museums, and the Sky Room. We took an entire day just at BYU. Here are the pictures.

We danced in the "tunnel" at the MC.

Random pictures
These are pillars outside the Wilk that prevent cars from driving on the sidewalk. EVERY time we come here the kids sit on them and pretend to be statues. It's the funniest thing ever because they seriously think we can't find them because they are real statues.

We walked ALL over campus.

We had lunch at the Sky Room

Waiting for our table

Alyssa's princess pose.

Gavan and Sadie enjoying one of their many desserts.

The Bean Museum

I love that Sadie has her nose scrunched up on the glass.Alyssa is posing just like the animal. hee hee.

The Reptile show at the Bean Museum
The kids were told to us two fingers to pet the reptiles, Sadie has her fingers ready to pet the tortoise.

Holding the snake skin.

Roswell, NM

2010-06-27T09:37:00.008-06:00

Let our vacation begin! On our way to Utah we stopped and visited with some aliens.

We went to the UFO museum and were a bit disappointed. We had hoped for much more. It seemed their displays haven't been updated since the museum opened. It was still fun and interesting, just smaller than I expected.

It would have been nice to have gone without the kids so we could actually ready all the articles they had posted about the events.
The poster for the movie. After going to the museum I am jonesin' to see a documentary on Roswell and maybe even the Hollywood movie.

friendly aliens

Pint size aliens

green aliens
Shiny aliens

Sadie's favorite aliens were the purple ones.
My favorite alien was the bald alien because I like my men bald.

alien children

Family of aliens

The drive

2010-06-26T19:41:00.000-06:00

It's time to play catch up on the blog. I am WAY behind but I have every intention to get caught up and hopefully stay more on top of it.

We decided to make trip to Utah to visit family this summer. Here are some highlights from the drive there.
This my view of the drive. We had 24 hours of actual drive time, so there will be plenty more of shots like this one to come.

We are a sign picture taking family. We love funny signs, cool signs and welcome to our state signs.
After visiting all the Aliens in Roswell, we grabbed a bite to eat at Farley's. It had an open and fun environment, perfect for restless kids.
Alyssa LOVES to pose for pictures.
Sadie intently studying the menu.

Back on the road.

Me having fun with the camera. I didn't mean to take a picture of myself in the side mirror, but it's kinda cool looking.

Me having fun with the camera.It was nice to see hills and mountains again.

Last stop before Grandpa's place .

This was a a really pretty rest stop just a few hours from my parents house. It was right next to "The hole in the rock"Sadie LOVED the water pump, what kid wouldn't?
Jack was kind enough to show her how to turn it on.
She can find a puddle anywhere.

Summer Schedule

2010-06-10T06:57:00.003-06:00

I love the relaxed pace of summer vacation! But, I hate it when the kids get into the rut of saying "I'm bored, there's nothing to do" and wanting me to magically find something superific for them to do. So I came up with a plan for the summer. I want to limit their screen time (i.e. anything mind numbing and has a screen). I don't mind them having a little more screen time in the summer but I want it balanced with other activities. I don't want couch potatoes that can't remember how to use their brains. :) I want them to come up with things to do on their own and not ask me what they can do all the time. I want them to want to do other things and not complain about being bored. We are on day 4 if this new schedule and so far it's working great. This is how it works:

The boys get 60 minutes of free screen time to be used during the girls nap time and it is use it or lose it. The rest has to be earned. Any screen time that they earn can be rolled over. They can earn screen time by doing things like, extra chores, playing outside, reading their scriptures, exercising, playing the piano and reading to the girls. Some chores/activities get them more screen time than others. For example Twenty minutes of playing outside earns 5 minutes of screen time, 20 minutes of good piano practice gets them 10 minutes of screen time and 10 minutes of reading to the girls gets them 5 minutes. On Saturday mornings they get a free hours of screen time before everyone gets up so they don't wake up everyone in the house playing loudly.

There are a few things they have to do each day such as, reading and certain chores, these don't get them screen time, they just have to be done.

I can't believe how well this has worked! Through out the day Jack keeps asking me what else he can do to earn more screen time. He reads to the girls several times a day and willing does extra chores, exercise and piano.

The kids have come up with great ways to fill their time without using screen time too, lego, origami, crafts, outside play and so much more. They are learning to budget their screen time and think twice before they use it. And my house is pretty clean from all the extra chores they willing do. I LOVE IT!!!! I hope it continues to work this well.

Early Summer

2010-06-06T19:09:00.014-06:00

Summer in review

We packed a lot into the first few weeks of summer.
We celebrated summer by: making magic paper, going to the library, eating out, movie nights, watching Pete's dragon while eating PB M&M's and popcorn. Gary was out of town the first week of summer vacation so we had a sleep over in mom's room. We did this years ago when Gary was traveling and the boys thought it was great, so we did it again. The kids just love sleeping in their sleeping bags in any room other than their own.

The only pictures we have are at from Taco Banana as Sadie refers to it.
The quality is poor because these were taken with my camera since Gary had our camera with him in Oregon.

Wow that was a lot to do during the first week of summer break.

We also made cupcake cones. A favorite childhood memory of mine. My mom used to make these for my birthday and bring them to my class when I was in elementary school.

We made rainbow pudding pops. The kids LOVED these.

Fun Friday Crafts:
Butterflies

We made marbled paper with shaving cream and food coloring.
To be continued...

San Antonio Zoo

2010-05-23T16:12:00.007-06:00

We took the kids to the SA zoo on Saturday. We were there for 3 hours and only made it half way through. We decided to get a year pass this year because it costs about the same as going once. Next time we go we will have to hit the other half of the animals. Here are the highlights of our trip.

The kids brought their camera's to practice their photography skills.

The girls have a little kids digital camera they got from Grandma and Grandpa Prescott for Christmas. The boys inherited our old one after Sadie chucked it a few too many times, causing it to be less than reliable. They LOVE taking pictures of random things.

They even had a small aquarium.

Sadie and Mom.

Sadie plotting our course.

The kids got to see an Okapi skull and learned that their tongues are 12" long. A tube sock is about 12" so each kids put a sock on their hand and pretended it was a tongue.

Each zoo has at least one statue that you have to have your picture taken with.

After the zoo we went out to lunch. There are tons of fun little restaurants downtown. We ate at a cute little diner called Cheesy Jane's.

Jack turns 8

2010-05-19T15:15:00.001-06:00

Time has sure flown by. My once terrible two year old has now turned 8. We didn't do a friend party this year because we did a big friend bash before we left Utah. Jack decided for his birthday that he wanted to see the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" movie. I have to admit it was pretty funny.

It is always a busy time around Jack's birthday, because it is usually conference weekend, it's the day after my April Fools dinner, it's typically close to Easter and this year during spring break as well. Oh and our kitchen was under construction this year too. Talk about busy this year.

So we went to the movie the week before and did cake and dinner on his real birthday.

Jack loves anything crafty and especially likes to draw. So all of his gifts encouraged his love for the arts...drawing book, drawing kit, Benaroos and Legos.
I let Jack choose his cake...

He loves to be different. The cake I thought was so ugly he LOVED.
Jack chose Red Robbin for his birthday dinner. I'm not sure if he enjoyed them singing to him but he sure enjoyed the free ice cream.

Easter 2010

2010-05-18T15:37:00.001-06:00

Our first Easter in Texas! It still surprises me how different the weather is here. It is hard for me to remember that the kids don't need jackets most days in the spring and they can start wearing shorts in April without being cold. I am still surprised that you should always have an unbrella nearby as it can rain at any moment. I can't complain, I much prefer the rain over snow any day!

Egg Hunt:

We had a ward Easter egg hunt at a nearby park.

Sadie and Alyssa entertained themselves while we waited for the egg hunt to start.

Alyssa putting a bucket on her head. Can you tell they are Sisters and they think alike?

We don't have any pictures of the boys hunting for eggs because they were too fast.

Easter Morning:

Easter was on General Conference Sunday this year, it made for a nice mellow morning. The kids loved being able to use their Easter candy for conference bingo. I enjoyed the kids being able to ride out their sugar high at home instead of at church.

Alyssa and Gavan inspecting the goods.

The boys were very proud of their chocolate bunnies. They insisted that I take a picture of their prized possession.
Alyssa tryed to help Sadie open all her eggs to show her the candy. Sadie didn't want her help. She thought she might eat something she found.
Sadie got an Ariel polly pocket doll. She loves Ariel. Unfortunately it only took her 6 weeks for it's head to be broken. Now we have headless Ariel running around the house. I wish I could say Ariel is the only princess that has missing limbs around our place.

Kitchen contruction

2010-05-18T08:45:00.006-06:00

When we bought this house Gary promised me with our tax return I could up grade the kitchen. The one thing I really wanted in a new house was a nice kitchen. We learned from our last house that any improvements we want to do should be done soon so we can enjoy them not the next owners.

Before:

After:

During:
We lived like this for 15 days. The only counter top we had was the island. We had no water, sink or dishwasher during this time. It was quite a challenge but I would do it again for the finished product. Good thing I planned ahead for this. I made 2 weeks worth of casseroles and froze them in disposable pans so I could just thaw and heat them. We lived off of paper plates and plastic utensils.

Finally got our granite counter tops but it took another 4 days to get the water hooked up so we could use our sink and dishwasher.

I LOVE my new sink. I love how deep it is, I sometimes even forget there are dishes in the sink because I can't see them.
The new cabinets were getting custom doors made so they'd match the rest of the kitchen. They were suppose to be ready the same day the tile work was done. When they showed up with the new doors they had cut them too small so we had to wait another 10 days for them to make new ones and install them.

Finally while I was in Utah they finished all the lose ends and got the doors and trim stained. I love how it turned out. I did learn a valuable lesson though, when dealing with remodels take the time they tell you it will take and double it. 35 days from start to finish and we have the kitchen we dreamed up. If only it cleaned itself!

April Fools Day

2010-05-17T15:25:00.006-06:00

I have fallen off the blogging world lately. I will now try to play catch up so brace yourselves for blog overload...

Lets start with April fools day. I LOVE April Fools day. I am not a fan of pranks but I love to make funny meals and trick my kids. This year our kitchen was under construction so I make our April fools dinner a week early.

We had fish sticks and fries:

The fish sticks were wafer cookies with cornflake breading. The fries were bread sticks cut to look like shoestring potatoes.

The boys are getting a little to old to be "fooled" with dinner but they still ask every few months if I will make them an April Fools Day dinner, even though it isn't even close to April Fools Day.

To make up for doing our April Fools Day dinner early I made mini hot dogs for the boys' school lunch. They turned out really cute and the boys Loved them.

They were made from circus peanuts, caramels and yellow frosting.

The Funiture

2010-02-18T07:02:00.004-07:00

It took 7 weeks but it's finally here! The last time we bought couches was nearly 10 years ago and I was ready for a change. The set I really wanted was leather and about double the cost of the one we went with. We decided that leather couches would be a better options on the next go around...when the kids are gone. :)

Now I need to paint an accent wall, get new curtains and dark red throw pillows and we'll be set!

Turkey soup

2010-02-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

If you are like me you have left over turkey in the freezer from the holidays. I can only eat turkey for so many days before I get bored. I like to freeze my left overs in quart size bags, it is the perfect size for casseroles and soups. The turkey soup is a sweet recipe but very good!

Turkey Soup

2-4 C. Turkey, chopped and cooked (depending on how chunky you like your soup)
1-brick fat free cream cheese, cubed
1 Can Cream Style Corn
1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Med. Onion, chopped
3/4 C. Skim Milk
2 Cans Fat Free Chicken Broth
1 TBSP Butter

Saute onion and red bell in a large pot with butter on medium heat. Turn down to med-low. Chop the cream cheese into chunks (it helps it to melt faster). Add broth, corn, milk, cream cheese, and stir. Stir continuously until cream cheese is melted and serve.

Easy French Dip Sandwiches

2010-02-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

I made this on a cold and rainy day and it really hit the spot. This is a very quick and easy meal. We added raw veggies and ranch for a side and everyone LOVED it!

1 -lb Thinly Sliced Roast Beef
1 Can Beef Consomme
1 C. water
Hoagie rolls
Provolone cheese

Preheat oven to 350.
Open rolls and place on a cookie sheet. Heat consomme and water in a sauce pan. Soak roast in consomme for 5 minutes. Place roast beef and cheese on one side of roll. Leave rolls open and toast in the oven until cheese is melted. Use extra consomme to dip sandwiches in.

*Consomme is found in the soup isle usually next to the broth.

Gavan's Birthday

2010-02-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

I keep forgetting that I haven't posted this yet. It has been nearly a month since Gavan's birthday, but here goes nothing.

I can't believe it has already been 10 years since I had my first child. Where does the time go? This once chubby and funny little red head is now a tall and thin sports nut. Since we had a friend party before we moved for Gavan we just did a family party at home. We always let the birthday child pick where they want to eat for their birthday. Gavan really wanted to watch "Cloudy with a change of meatballs" for his birthday, (which was on a school night,) so he opted for ordering pizza.
Gavan is now at that age where the things he wants are costly. So we asked him to make a list of the things he wanted. His list consisted of: a turtle, facebook account, madden 10 for the wii, a GPS (to go geo chasing) and football cards.

Happy Birthday Gavan!

Scripture cover

2010-02-03T17:33:00.004-07:00

I finally broke out the sewing machine and this is what I made:

Front
Side view
I even added matching ribbon bookmarks.

I saw a scripture cover similar to this for sell on another blog and decided to create my own pattern and make one for less. After much searching, I finally found an easy pattern for a fabric flower to embellish the cover. I LOVE the way this turned out. I had a hard time deciding on fabric, so I bought two different patterns/colors so I can have two. My next project is a cover for my mini-hymn book. After that it will be time to find a fabulous pattern for a church bag. LMK if anyone knows of a great bag pattern.

Stuffing Casserole

2010-01-19T15:24:00.004-07:00

If you like stuffing, this recipe is for you. It is very easy to make and yummy too. It is a great way to use left over turkey after the holidays.

Stuffing Casserole
1 large box of stuffing
1 large onion, chopped
celery, chopped
12-16 oz sour cream
2 cans cream of chicken
2 cups turkey (or chicken), cut into bit size pieces.

Make stuffing according to directions on the box. Saute the onions and celery in butter, mixing them with the stuffing. Then add the broth slowly while stirring. Divide the stuffing into two. Place half on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Mix sour cream, turkey and cream of chicken in a separate bowl. Spread sour cream mixture on top of stuffing. Top with remaining stuffing. Heat covered at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated all the way through. The last 10-15 minutes remove cover to allow stuffing to get "crispy".

* can substitute turkey with chicken.

Enchiladas

2010-01-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

I've had a few people ask if I was going to start posting my favorite recipes again, so here I go... I love this recipe for enchiladas. It is so easy and so Yummy!

1 lb ground beef
2 handful dried onions, rehydrate
1 can jalapeno (chopped)
10-12 tortillas (I prefer the size just smaller than burrito size)
2 cans enchilada sauce
1 lb cheese (or more according to taste)

1. Brown beef, jalapeno and onion. Let cool.
2. Stuff tortilla with about 1/4 cup filling and a handful of cheese.
3. Roll it and place in 9x13 pan.
4. Any extra meat can be sprinkled over the top.
5. Dump 2 cans enchilada sauce over top. cover and cook at 350 for 30 mins or until heated all the way through.
6. Uncover and add cheese on top and cook until melted about 5-10 minutes.

*Note:
I often add extra meat (about 1-1/2 lbs total) and make larger batch so I can freeze one pan for an easy meal later. One 9x13 pans feed my family for two meals. If I use 1-1/2 lbs, 3 cans enchilada sauce and 2 bags tortillas I get three meals and only cook once.

I prefer to use smaller tortillas as they are easier to work with. In the picture above I used burrito size tortillas. The burrito size is fine it is just not my favorite and doesn't look as pretty.

To find more of my recipes check under the headings recipes and crockpot in the sidebar.

Farewell Boys

2010-01-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

We did a "Farewell, Jack/ Happy Birthday, Gavan" party for the boys. We were originally planning on moving in December, just a few weeks before Gavan's birthday, so we said he could have an early party. Then our plans changed and we moved earlier.

They each got to invite four friends to go to Jumpin' Jacks. This is the best way to do a party. It requires little supervision and planning on our part. We brought cake and pizza, opened gifts and played. It was well worth every penny! Enjoy the pictures.

Halloween 2009

2010-01-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

Another flashback post to get me caught up on blogging...

With the packers coming the week of Halloween I didn't have the time or the energy to make new costumes for everyone. Not that I really planned on it anyway--I figured the costumes I made last year still fit everyone so I would just make the kids wear them again. The boys didn't like the idea, especially Gavan. Gary and I decided not to dress up because we really needed the packers to take as much stuff as possible. So having them pack our costumes would save us space in the car.

I found glow stick swords and fake scars at the dollar store for the kids to add to their costumes.
Sadie always picked suckers for her treat when she had a choice. She was happiest when she had one for each hand.
I had to tell Alyssa she was a pirate princess in order for her to go along with it.

We were exhausted by the time it came around to go trick or treating.That morning, we unpacked my parents storage unit, with the help of Cameron. We hit the trunk-or-treat, and then went around the block, calling it a night.

Happy Birthday Alyssa

2010-01-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

With all the moving I am way behind on the events that took place the last month while we were in Utah, one of which was Alyssa's birthday. So here is her belated birthday post...

Alyssa turned 4! I can't believe how big she is getting. She really ought to still be my baby, shouldn't she? It is so fun to watch her grow out of the baby stage into a little girl. I miss hearing her say words incorrectly, it always made me giggle.

Before the boys left for school she got to open her presents from the family.

We had a lunchtime party for Alyssa with a few of her friends. This was her first birthday party with friends. We colored while waiting for all our friends to arrive.

We played lots of games.

"Princess Says" instead of Simon Says.

We read "The Princess and the Pea", then played a game where the girls had to find the pea to see if they were a true princess.

We played a princess version of pin the tail on the donkey.

We ate pizza and did a pinata.

This was one tough pinata, it just wouldn't break so we had to break it open when the girls weren't looking.

The girls got so excited when all the candy bags fell out.

We ate cake...

...and we opened presents.

Sadie cried when she didn't have any presents to open. Fortunately Alyssa let her play with some of her new toys.

(Dont mind Alyssa's funny eyes in this picture. I just had to post it because I thought it was funny that Sadie had the ballerina dancing on Alyssa's head).

Happy Birthday Lyssa!

Snow

2010-01-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

I am so glad it snowed once before we left for Texas. It wasn't very much snow but it was snow.

Gavan making a snow angel
Alyssa and Jack making snow angels.

Alyssa trying to make a snowball to surprise someone with.

Jack promptly taught Sadie to eat the snow. Every time we'd go somewhere she'd get distracted and wonder off to find snow. She refused to come inside the house until she found snow to eat.Sadie eating snow.

Gavan making a snowman
Gavan still making the snowman while Jack eats more snow.
Everyone helping Gavan with the snowman.The finished product.
We used all the snow on Grandma's lawn and this is the biggest snowman we could get. Later Gavan borrowed snow from a neighbors lawn and made another snowman (even smaller) with a friend.

First time for everything

2010-01-01T17:50:00.003-07:00

I never saw this in Utah...

I suppose if you are craving a frosty you get to Wendy's any way you can. Things are definitely different in Texas.

LeTs CeLeBrAtE!

2009-12-22T08:05:00.002-07:00

Between Gary and I, we have been paying student loans for almost 11 years. We are now done! As a reward for never missing a payment and never being late our lender forgave the last $900 of our loan.

What an AWESOME Christmas gift! It feels so good to be done (and almost 6 months earlier than expected).

It makes me even more excited for September when our van will be paid off. I can't contain my excitement!

We will be Celebrating tonight by going out to dinner with the family.

Playing Catch-up

2009-12-11T08:05:00.005-07:00

Flashback three weeks to the week of December 7, 2009.

It is that time of year where life gets crazy and time flies right past you. The holidays always seem to bring out the hustle and bustle in people. I'd really like to have a slow paced and relaxed season without all the worry of Christmas parties to attend, neighbor gifts to prepare, cooking, cleaning, etc. I was looking forward to playing catch up with my blog as I still have lots of events to share from our last months in UT.

I thought I had a good handle on things and then life threw me a curve ball. My mom fell and broke her hip and had to have surgery. She will have to go to a rehab center for 2-6 weeks and then she may still not be fully capable of doing the things she did before.

My father is unable to take care of himself in most regards. He can do some things but not enough to get by without my mom around. He can't change the sheets, do the dishes, wash the laundry, clean, vacuum or take out the trash. He struggles to get himself dressed. He doesn't have a very good memory and he forgets a lot of things that are told to him. With him left alone at the house I am concerned about him keeping his medicine straight and making wise decisions with that. He does have a medicare nurse who comes in 3 days a week to get him showered and ready for the day.

I know things could be much worse but it is still hard to not stress over things you have little control over. It is hard to coordinate care for my parents from a distance. Multiple phone calls each day to both my parents and sometimes siblings too to keep the basics covered is making me very tired. It is hard to not feel guilty for leaving, but we did what we needed to do for our family. It is hard to rely on the Lord and leave the rest to him after you have done all you can do.

I know they have a great ward who is willing to step in and help. I have great friends and neighbors in the area that are more than willing to act when needed. Their home teacher has been wonderful and going above and beyond the call of duty. I appreciate everyone's service, love and comfort.

Flash forward to present...

It is amazing all the help that has been given to my parents. All the friends that have contacted me to offer help. I've had meals brought in at the last minute when someone forgot, I've had grocery shopping done, visits made, mail picked up, furniture moved and laundry done. Both friends and family have stepped in to help.

My sister Janell is now there with my parents to help them as much as she can. Her 17 year-old daughter Alicia is spending the holiday with me. My siblings have pulled together to assist in my parents care: paying for airfare and travel for my sister, sacrificing time with family to care for our parents and traveling hours to visit and shop for them. I am amazed how it all turned out. It also appears that my mom will be coming home this week, just in time for Christmas. My sister will have her work cut out for her with both my parents being home and needing care. I hope she is physically up for the task. With her history of health problems she isn't the strongest or healthiest of the siblings but she IS willing.

With things falling into place maybe I will finally be able to get got up on my blog...just maybe. Stay tuned to find out.

(This was written nearly two weeks ago but I forgot to post it. I am posting it anyway because I want to remember these details).

New School

2009-12-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

The boys started at their new school this week. I am amazed at how well organized and efficiently run this school is. I LOVE it!!!!! It is a huge school between 700-800 students grades k-4. There are 8 2nd grade teachers.

They have a gifted and talent program. The kids switch classrooms for reading time and go with the kids at the same level as them. The schools are much farther ahead than our Utah schools. Gavan is doing long division here and basic algebra. Needless to say we are doing some catch up with him. They have PE 2-3 days a week depending on which grade they are in.

They have the BEST drop off and pick up system I have EVER seen. They have two drop off areas. There are at least 2 teachers at each drop off zone to help the children get out of the cars safely. The children go to the gym when they first get to school (unless they are having breakfast), and wait in their class line in the gym. The teacher come pick up their class 15 mins. before school starts and takes them to the class room. The children are never left unsupervised. That means no playing outside with just one teacher on duty before school. Love it!

The last 2o minutes of the day is spent getting the kids ready to go home. Each child has a button on his backpack that indicates how he goes homes, walk, bus or parent pick up. They are taken by their teacher to the designated waiting area for their mode of transportation. The teachers have designated jobs before and after school to insure safety. After school each teacher is in charge of a group of kids. For example one teacher takes a group of 25 kids that walk home to the cross walk and waits until the crossing guards escorts them across the street before leaving.

The parents are given a hang tag with their child's name and grade on it. You drive up to the pick up zone, show your tag at point A. The teacher radio's the staff in the gym announcing your child's name. Then your child is escorted to pick up point B. By the time you get to point B your child is there waiting for you. No delays, no driving around other vehicles because their child isn't ready . All the kids are in the right area before the school bell rings to go home. I had my kids picked up by 5 minutes after school let out and there were at 20 people a head of me in the pick up line. The next day there were 70 + cars a head of me and I still had the kids in the car within 10 minutes of school letting out. Talk about organized.

The child can't go home any other way than what their buttons says. If you change how you want them to come home you must call the school 1 hour prior to let out time so they have time to get the children to the right place.

It truly amazed me how organized the drop off and pick up is at this school. I like it so much better than the "free for all" style that we were used.

In order to volunteer at the school you have to have background check done each year. They assign new kids a "buddy" for the first day to show them around campus and help them learn the ropes.

The more I learn about the school the more I LOVE it! I am curious to see what kinds of things the PTC (Texas version of PTA) does. It definitely makes the transition easier for everyone when you enjoy the school!

Settling in

2009-12-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today is our first Thanksgiving in Texas. It doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving. I don't have any decorations up, they are all packed. We are still trying to unpack and find homes for our things. We have boxes both empty and full lying all over the house. The house is feeling a little bit more like our home the more we get unpacked. Once I get curtains and decorations up I think it I will really start to fee like home. But it all takes time. I REALLY want to paint, it is driving me nuts having so many white walls. I miss my red wall. I miss my butter colored master bed room. I miss my office, it was perfect with all those cabinets. I am afraid purchasing cabinets for the new office are in the near future.

I LOVE my monstrous water pressure. It makes washing dishes a breeze. I love my HUGE pantry, island, open floor plan and new fridge. I need more furniture, our front room and living room look so empty. I can't decide what decorations should go in what rooms.

It doesn't help the unpacking process with it also being time to decorate for Christmas. I love decorating for the holidays but it just isn't as enjoyable this year with the rest of the house in disarray. I have to have the house clean and orderly in order to enjoy decorating for the holidays. The extra mess drives me crazy. I also doesn't help that I've had the flu and now a nasty head cold thus slowing me down.

The girls LOVE their new room. Sadie chatters about her pink room. The boys love their closet, it is big enough for them to sleep in it and they think that is so cool. I love my walk in closet and huge master bathroom. The house is slowly but surely turning into our home. The only thing that would make things better is to transplant on our friends and family here with us.

So far so good...we are really like it here.

Moving Day!

2009-11-19T20:02:00.008-07:00

This post is mostly for me so I can remember the thoughts and feelings I had I as packed up my family and headed across the country to start this next chapter of our lives.

It is moving day! I can't believe how fast the last month has gone by. We have said way too many sad good byes to friends and family over the last couple of weeks. Had too many farewell lunches and treat nights leading to my thickening waistline, (but boy were they good)!

I think I am finally ready/prepared to leave or at least ready get settled into a normal routine. I am ready to no longer be living out of a suitcase and to have my own bed.

As we drive away I have many mixed feelings. I have shed many tears in the last few weeks as I have wrapped up this chapter of my life. I am a bit anxious for all the new things we will be experiencing. I am excited to have a new house, no snow and to change things up a bit. I feel bad for tearing my kids away from their friends. I know they will make new friends but I still feel bad uprooting them mid-year and so quickly.

Some of the things I worry about are:
Will their bey kids their age in the neighborhood?
Will the kids be the kind of kids I want them to hang out with?
Will they make friends easily?
Will they be accepted?
Leaving my parents. Can they really take care of themselves? Who will help them will all the things that Gary and I have always done?

Things I look forward to:
New house
Nice weather year round
Sea World (Annual pass-all the way)
New experiences
Decorating a new house
Making new memories
Living outside of Utah. Utah is a unique state with it's high population of LDS. It will be nice to experience a place with more religious diversity.
Diversity
Coming back to visit during the summers.
Walking to school.
Living 5 minutes from Target.
Living farther from Walmart.

Things that make me sad:
Leaving so our friends and family.
Making my kids move mid-year.
My kids having to leave their friends.
Only being able to drive on 4th south a few times after enduring 11 months of construction.
No more Albies/Smith sales. (albies are hard to find here, though they do exist).
Pinching your Pennies laying out all the sales for me. (PYP doesn't have a strong presence in TX).

Things I'll miss:
Not have a Real Deals store.
Not having a Shade Clothing and Down East stores near by.
Friends
Family
My first house. There were some many wonderful memories made in that house.
The Fall. I LOVE the changing of leaves in the canyon.
Cheap school pictures (that actually look good-Thanks Jamie)
Quilted Bear
Hickory Kist
Brick Oven
Hogi Yogi
Zumba (with the best instructor around! Desree you rock!)
Art City Music Academy
Watching Conference on TV and not via internet.
Walking to church
BYU Women's Conference.
BYU light ranch dressing
BYU mint brownies

Things I am NOT looking forward to:
Finding new doctors and dentists.
Getting new Drivers license and car tags.
Finding a new mechanic.
Finding a new hair stylist.
Driving for 3 days.
unpacking and organizing the new house. (okay maybe I do look forward to the organizing part but definitely not the unpacking).
Finding a new piano teacher.
Being the "new" kid. We'd lived so long in Springville we were one of the old timers in our ward and neighborhood. It will be quite the change.

Booger Bungalow

2009-11-19T19:52:00.005-07:00

We have renamed the booger room to the "Booger Bungalow" It has a nice ring to it, wouldn't you say? We gave the booger bungalow a make over. Check it out.

Not bad eh?

If you want to see before pictures go here

My kitchen

2009-11-13T20:13:00.005-07:00

My husband unpacked my kitchen.

He even hung my plate rack and my CD player. It's starting to look like MY kitchen!
Just waiting for my fridge now.

New House

2009-11-12T13:28:00.018-07:00

I have had several request to post pictures of our new house. So here are a few "before" pictures.

The front of the house. Well, some of it.
Our two level deck. I love it!
The living room just off the kitchen. Sorry it's a bit blurry.
Same room, just with Gary's temporary bed set up while he waits for the movers to arrive.

Part of the kitchen and breakfast nook. There is also a formal dinning room but we will never use it as that. We are not formal people.
different angle, same room.
Part of the entryway and formal dinning room. Looking from the stairs.
Taken from entryway. Dinning room to the left.

The upstairs loft/game room.
same room just empty and different angle.

Upstairs hallway. Very open upstairs. I envision lots of toys being thrown over the railing

The master bedroom looking into the hall and bathroom.
My closet. I don't know where Gary will put his clothes. :)

This is our favorite room in the whole house! This is the boys new room.

We thought about leaving it just like the previous owners and making a guest room and renting it out as a "themed" room. It would be just like the Anniversary Inn only in Texas. Apparently Gary didn't like that idea because he painted this room the day we closed on the house. Gary calls this "The Room From Uranus."

WARNING: those with weak stomachs don't proceed... This next room is "The Booger Room". On the day of the final walk through this is what Gary found.
This is a 4'x3' section of the wall in the girls new room that was plastered in boogers. It is bad enough when it is your kids boogers but a strangers...Just NASTY! (the lighting has been altered to show the details better). You can tell the owner made an attempt to scrape and spackle over some of them and just gave up.
This is part of Gary's cleaning process. Soaking the petrified heebies in wet toilet paper for an hour to "reconstitute" them so they'd wash off. Did I mention I am so glad I didn't find this pleasant surprise?

Needless to say the girls get a new paint job as well. Thanks for painting the kids room Gary!

Blue Raspberry Pie

2009-10-30T16:34:00.005-06:00

Today, I made a delicious berry pie with raspberries, blueberries and a crumb topping. We have made tons of tarts and pies lately trying to get ride of all the frozen berries in our freezer before we move. At one points we had 14 lbs of raspberries, 20 lbs of blueberries and 16 lbs of blackberries. After today's pie I only have 6 lbs. of berries left, Just enough for Thanksgiving pies!

I have to be honest and tell you I cheated and bought pie crusts today. I always make my own crusts but with all that craziness of getting settled in our temporary housing I wasn't up for the mess today.

Here is my eber-lious recipe. Enjoy!!

Blue Raspberry Pie
Makes 2 pies

Ingredients for filling:
1-1/2 cup sugar
7 TBSP cornstarch
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
4 cups blueberries
4 cups raspberries

2 -9 inch pie crusts.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over blueberries. Heat on the stove until all the berries are thawed, stirring frequently. Pour the berry mix in a strainer to get rid of the extra juices.
3. Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust.
4. Make crumb topping

Crumb topping Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cold butter
1 dash ground cinnamon
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over fruit pies. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired.

5. Bake pie on lower shelf of oven for about 50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

New vinyl deadline

2009-09-30T16:00:00.002-06:00

Do to that amount of traveling my husband and I will be doing and the volume of orders I have already received, I must close my doors earlier than I had originally planned.

My new deadline for order submissions is Saturday, October 3rd.

*If by some miracle I ending having more time I will extend this deadline and let everyone know.

Vinyl lettering

2009-09-29T17:10:00.001-06:00

As many of you know I will be moving to Texas by the end of the year. Christmas time is the busiest time of year for vinyl sales. Due to the movers packing up the house at the end of October all vinyl orders need to be placed ASAP. I will not be taking any orders after October 3rd, to insure I have enough time to get orders processed and picked up before the movers pack it all away. Also, I will not being re-opening my business until after Christmas so if you want vinyl for Christmas now is the time to order.

I am willing to ship vinyl so if you still want to order from me after I move we can make those arrangements.

Stuffed Shells

2009-09-29T12:00:00.000-06:00

I have had a lot of positive feedback about the recipes I have posted. I have decide I will occasionally throw in a few non-crockpot meals. This recipe isn't really fast but it is very easy. I sometimes make the filling grate the cheese on one day, then the next day make the shells and assemble it.

The recipe below makes enough stuffing for two batches. I make a large batch and them freeze the left over stuffing so it is faster and easier the next time I make it.

This is one of my favorite recipes. I had never had stuffed shells until Sadie was born and a wonderful neighbor brought us dinner. From the first bit I was sold! Here is the recipe Gary and I came up.

My Stuffed Shells
1 jar spaghetti sauce
8 oz mushrooms, washed and diced
1 egg
1 large container ricotta cheese
16 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
Jumbo shells
1 pk frozen chopped spinach (opt.)
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
2 lbs lean ground beef
3/4-1 lb. ground sausage

Thaw and drain spinach. Brown sausage and ground beef and drain. Cook shells according to directions on box. Mix ricotta and egg well. Add diced mushrooms, spinach, ground beef and sausage to ricotta mix.

Set up shells in a 9x13 pan. stuff with meat mixture. Top with spaghetti sauce and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 350*. Remove cover and add mozzarella and bake for 10 minutes until cheese is melted.

This recipe freezes well. However, when freezing don't top with cheese until after you have cooked it.

RATING: 5 stars. This is one of my favorite dishes to make. The kids love it too. I prefer it without spinach but my husband likes it better with spinach. It is all about personal preference weather you include the spinach or not. :-)

Dear Tooth Fairy

2009-09-29T07:54:00.005-06:00

Yesterday at school my 7 year old son Jack, lost a tooth. He was wiggling it and it just fell out. He has always been very apprehensive when it comes to pulling out his teeth. He cries every time we pull one no matter how loose it is.

One time, Grandma Ruth gave it $20 to make him stop crying and let her pull the tooth. The tooth was so loose Grandma just had to be lift it out, but he was still hysterical.

He was so excited to tell me all about his tooth when I picked him up from school. The first thing he said was "I didn't even cry!" At our house the tooth fairy runs internet specials and her tooth rate varies daily to encourage kids to pull there teeth out in timely manner. I told Jack the tooth fairy pays an extra dollar if you don't cry when you lose a tooth. (I'll do anything to prevent crying in the future). Before he went to bed he wrote this letter to the the tooth fairy.
Ms. Fairy,
My mom said if you dont cry while getting a tooth pulled you get 1 extra dollar. Can I get 2 extra dollars? Because I pulled it out and didn't cry.

From Jack Thank you.

I LOVE this boy! He is so funny!!

A GREAT day!

2009-09-28T16:54:00.004-06:00

Our house is under contract!!! We called our Realtor on Thursday, the house was on the market Friday night, had an offer Saturday night and under contract today (Monday). We close October 26th. We pretty much got what we wanted out of the deal. Talk about moving quickly! We are truly blessed to have our house move so quickly.

On top of that, I got my laptop back today and all the repairs were covered under warranty. The only thing that could have made this day better would been a nap. :-) Unfortunately I don't seen naps as an option anytime soon...to much to do.

The Stars at Night are Big and Bright...

2009-09-25T22:27:00.004-06:00

...Deep in the heart of Texas!

It is official, we are moving to San Antonio sometime in December.

See the person tied to the top of the trailer? That's an idea I haven't thought about...until now.

Spanish rolls

2009-09-22T15:00:00.003-06:00

I got this recipe from a college roommate (thanks Beth). This is one we ate a lot in college because it was a fast, easy, cheap and make great left overs. This isn't a crockpot meal but it is very easy and can be prepared ahead of time, so I am going to post it anyway. I almost always prepare the filling the day before I want to eat it.

Spanish Rolls
8 green onions, cut finely
1/8 C. Olive Oil
1 lb. grated cheese (I like mix like, colby jack or 1/2 sharp and 1/2 mild)
1 can tomato sauce
4 boiled eggs, diced0
1 can (4oz) green chilies
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
12 HARD french rolls

Mix everything together. Cut off the ends of the rolls and hallow out. Place mixture into rolls. Replace the ends and wrap in plastic wrap and microwave to heat. You can also wrap in tin foil and heat in oven at 350* for 20 minutes.

I usually prefer a smaller roll but this is all Walmart had when I went. When hallowing out the roll leave enough so that the outside won't become soggy and leak. This made 9 LARGE rolls.

Dinner Time Savers

2009-09-15T12:31:00.004-06:00

One of my favorite time saving tricks is making freezer meals. I typically know ahead of time when we are going to have a busy month so I plan ahead by making a few. One of my favorite things to make and freeze is meatballs. There are so many things you can do with meatballs. When you make them yourself they taste better and are better for you. At our house we eat a lot of high fiber-low fat meals. The big bags of meatballs you buy in the store are very high in fat...so I WON'T buy them. I make my own. I make a double batch and it makes enough for three meals for my family.

I freeze mine if quart size freezer bags.

Marvelous Meatballs
*Everything is approximate because we doesn't always measure when we cook.

2 lbs low fat ground beef
1 lb ground sausage
bread crumbs, Italian flavored
1 egg
1-2 TBSP parsley
Garlic powder to taste
Italian seasoning to taste

Saute over medium heat, adding a few TBSP of water occasionally to prevent scorching.

meatball dinner ideas:
beef stroganoff
spaghetti and meatballs
crumble and put in Ziti
crumble and mix with ricotta cheese for stuffed shells
Sweet and sour meatballs
Brown gravy and noodles

Many of these meals can be made in the crockpot once the meatballs are made.

Cosmo

2009-09-13T21:38:00.004-06:00

Last week was safety week at the boys school. They always have a walk to school day during safety week and encourage everyone to walk instead of driving/busing. Because of where we live we drive and park at one of the local businesses and walk from there. Every year on walk to school day one of the local mascots show up to greet the kids. This year it was Cosmo! The boys LOVED this especially Gavan.

You can tell Gavan genuninely happy b/c he is actually smiling in the picture.

Rise and Shout the Cougars are out!

2009-09-08T20:30:00.000-06:00

This sale is for all BYU fans! Show your spirit by placing a BYU sign on your window or door.

This window sign is approximately 12" square.
Order by Wed. Sept. 9th and pay just $6.
On Thursday the price goes up to $7.

This door sign measures approximately 5" x 13".
Order by Wed. Sept. 9th and pay just $6.
On Thursday the price goes up to $7.

Show your BYU pride everywhere you drive.

Put this white BYU vinyl on the back window of your vehicle for only $2.00.

Are you blue through and through? How about a BYU plaque?

This plaque measures 6"x 18"
Order by Wed. Sept. 9th and pay just $9.
On Thursday the price goes up to $10.
(Vinyl only price $6 by Wed. and $7 on Thurs. or later).

*pricing does not include tax.

Chicken Parmesan Perfected

2009-09-08T15:31:00.001-06:00

Remember this post? I have since perfected this recipe. The changes I made are in bold italics.

Crockpot Chicken Parmesan

2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, (sliced, chicken tender size.
1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs (I like a high bread crumb to chicken ratio)
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1 T olive oil
1 beaten egg
16 oz mozzarella cheese (sliced)
1 jar spaghetti sauce

The Directions:

1. Spread 1 TBSP of olive oil into the bottom of your crockpot.
2. Whip the egg with a fork in a separate bowl.
3. Mix bread crumbs and parmesan cheese in another separate dish.
4. Dip chicken into the egg, then into the bread crumb mixture, coating both sides w/crumbs.
5. Place the chicken breast slices in the bottom of the crockpot.
6. about 2 hours before serving add mozzarella cheese on top on top of chicken.
7. about 1-1/2 hour before serving add spaghetti sauce. Once sauce is hot turn down to warm until you are ready to serve.
8. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4.
Can be served over rice or noodles. It is also great alone!

My Rating: 4.5 Stars (out of 5). Smelled great all day! Tasted great and was very easy.
Modifications: NONE, it's perfect! By using seasoned bread crumbs I didn't need to add any other seasonings to the bread crumbs and it saved me a few moments in the kitchen. Waiting to add the sauce until later made a HUGE difference in taste and texture.

Hot Dog Anyone?

2009-09-04T19:45:00.002-06:00

Check out what I found at Macey's bakery...

A hot dog donut!

So many things wrong with this I just don't know where to start. It would have been a great April Fools joke for the kids.

Funny things kids say

2009-09-02T13:00:00.001-06:00

I am pretty sure Sadie is by far the most nuts out of all the kids. She thinks she is such a big girl, mind you she is only two. Alyssa who is 3-1/2 still likes help wiping her bottom. Frequently we hear her yelling from the bathroom (with attitude of course) these words: "Someone wipe by butt!" What can I say? She isn't very lady-like, we are working on that.
After Alyssa yells this we hear Sadie yell "Me, Me, Me!" as she takes off running for the bathroom. It is literally a race to beat Sadie to the bathroom. When she does beat us there, she takes a look and we then hear her say "EEEWWW!" She cracks me up!

Jack is always mixing up names of things and calling them something different. At dinner last night he asked "Do you know who John F. Kidney is?"

Herbed Chicken and Tomatoes

2009-08-31T11:57:00.006-06:00

Herb Chicken and Tomatoes

1 lb chicken, cut into bit size pieces
2 cans Italian diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1 envelope McCormick Italian Herb Chicken seasoning
1 Package Bow tie noodles
1 Package mushrooms, thickly sliced
Shredded parmesan cheese

Put chicken in crockpot and cook on low for about 2 hours. Take out and cut into bit size pieces. Combine chicken, tomatoes and soup mix and sliced mushroom in crockpot. Cook on low for another 3-4 hours. Serve over pasta and sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese.

This is the seasoning packet I used.

*Too save time you can cut the chicken before putting it in the crockpot. I personally hate cutting raw chicken so I wait until it is mostly cooked before I cut it.

**I sometimes use stewed tomatoes instead of diced because that is what I have on hand. When using stewed tomatoes pulse in blend a few times to break up the chunks.

Rating: 3.5 stars. It is very easy and fast to throw together. It tasted good and is healthy. Everybody loved it! I will definitely make this again.
Modifications: none that I can think of.

After looking at the picture I realize it is time to get new dishes. These white dishes are boring! Dinner would be tons for fun if the plates had a little character. They have served us well for 11 years I think it is time for them to get replaced, (hint hint Gary).

Crockpot Tuesday returns again!

2009-08-25T08:25:00.010-06:00

Once again we enter the fall season, which brings with it the ciaos of football, soccer, piano, scouts, and many more activities that clutter our schedules. By the time the first soccer game begins we are already looking forward to end of another sports season. For six long weeks we are an on-the- go family.

Each boy has either practice or games three times a week and never at fields close to each other. With Gary being Jack's soccer coach he is in charge of all things soccer and I am in charge of all things football. This means me missing several of Jack's.

Due to the craziness of our lives during this time of year we must have fast and easy meals. I hate the idea of clogging our arteries and wasting money on fast food because we mismanaged our time. So to prevent this I rely heavily on my crock pot (and left overs). On slow nights before the fall gets into full swing I make double recipes and freeze half, making for a quick and healthy dinner later on. Tuesdays are still by far our busiest days. All four kids have piano/music class and we have scouts to boot. Once sports are all over it will really be nice to have only one week day consumed by extra curricular activities.
Here is a new recipe I made yesterday. It turned out great and was very easy!

Lime Chicken Tacos (crock pot)

1-1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts
3 TBSP lime juice
1 TBSP chili powder
1 C. frozen corn
1 C. chunky salsa
flour tortillas or taco shells

Mix lime juice and chili power and pour over chicken in crock pot. Cook in low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is tender.

Remove chicken and shred. Place chicken back in crock pot and add corn and salsa. Cook on low for 30 minutes.

Serve in tortillas with black beans, pico de gallo, cheese, rice, sour cream etc.

Serve in taco shells with olives, cheese, refried beans, tomatoes, sour cream etc.

Rating: 4 stars
Modifications: None. Everyone liked it even the boys which says a lot.

First day of School

2009-08-22T13:28:00.006-06:00

The night before school started we took the kids out for a CeLeBrAtIoN dinner. They really liked this because they all got kids meals and that is a real treat at our house. I think kids meals are a waste of money and the toys are usually annoying. :-)

I made a special Back to School breakfast for the kids.

It consisted of "special toast" and berry smoothies. They love it when I make special toast because I don't do it very often. Special toast is just a variation of cinnamon-sugar toast except you broiling and it comes out crispy. This is a childhood memory of mine. While I was making it Jack came up to me and said, "I am definitely going to past this down to my kids".

I made each of the boys a new lunch box this year.

I had fun making these Capri Sun lunch bags. I think my next capri sun project will be a large tote of some kind.

Gavan at his locker.
We have since bought him a pad lock for his locker and he thinks that is so cool! It is hard to believe that he is a fourth grader. He has grown up so fast! He is such a good helper with his sisters. We are letting him learn to babysit for short periods of time. With Gary working from home it is a great chance for Gavan to watch the kids but still have reienforcement when it's needed.
Everyone with Gavan at his locker.

Jack at his locker. This is the first year he has had a locker. He LOVES having a locker.

All the kids at Jack's locker.
Jack is so excited for his teacher this year. He loves having the same teachers as Gavan had in previous years. It makes him feel special because the teacher usually already knows his name. I can't believe he is already in second grade. He is such a kind-hearted boy. Whenever we take him to school he makes sure to give everyone hugs including the girls.

Where has the summer gone?

2009-08-22T09:10:00.006-06:00

Besides our trip to AL we haven't had much time to enjoy our summer. Those two weeks were a BlAsT and a well needed break from the real world! We've had so much to do to take care of my parents that the summer has just slipped away. I really wanted to do some fun day outings around town through out the summer, but wasn't able to fit much in. In an attempt to reclaim our summer we crammed in few fun events during the last couple of weeks.

Gary took the boys on the father-son camp out. The boys has a blast, rafting and making smores. While the boys were gone, we had a girls night out. We painted our fingers and toes to prepare us for an evening of FuN! We went to dinner with our friends, went shopping and had ice cream. Alyssa LOVED hanging out with her friends and doing girlie stuff. She keeps asking me when we can do it again.

Gary also took the older three fishing a couple of times while Sadie and I had some one-on-one time. I will make Gary post about his adventures with the kids soon.

For our last Fun Friday I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. The kids love earning tickets to buy prizes at the end.

Gavan loved this water shooting game because he always won against Jack.

Sadie and Alyssa shared a lot of rides and had lots of fun together.

Gavan playing Skeet ball.

Jack really got into driving this 4x4. I picture his first car being all decked out much like this one.

Sadie always wanted out of this one before the ride was over.

Check out all the tickets Jack won off of ONE game!

The kids were so nice to each other the entire time. Gavan willingly gave Jack a few tokens when he ran out before everyone else. It was a good day for everyone!

The girls really liked this toy. All it did was go in circles but that was enough for them.

Since the girls were having so much fun on it Jack had to try it too.

Berry Picking

2009-08-22T07:35:00.004-06:00

We found a great little farm in Payson that will let you pick your own berries. It was only $2/lb too. We picked 14.5 lbs. of raspberries.

We explained to the kids what a ripe berry looked like. Alyssa was scared she'd pick an unrippened berry and get in trouble. Every time before she would pick one she'd ask "is this one good?"
Sadie wasn't the most helpful child while picking berries. She'd pick up the full buckets and spill them on the ground. She'd also wander off and get "lost" in the plants a few rows over and cry. She did do a good job picking berries when she wasn't causing trouble.

Picking berries was very relaxing. (Which is something we really need in our lives right now). We picked berries for two hours and had a blast!

Jack got bored fast, like usually. Gavan was helpful and picked a lot of berries.

Back 2 School

2009-08-15T16:40:00.001-06:00

Summer is nearing its end and school is just around the corner. With school getting ready to start in less than one week I am frantically trying to get organized. I LOVE being organized. Few things stress me out more than being unorganized. I am a firm believer in planning ahead to make things easier later. Here are some of the things I have been working on.

Homework Holders:

This is where all the homework folders go. Each child has a slot and it is never lost. The girls even have slot for their "homework" which consists of coloring books and paper. I have mine hung in the kitchen because we do our homework at the table.

Homework Boxes:

I love recycling wipie boxes. I use them for EVERYTHING! This one holds all the pencils, sharpener, crayons, scissors and erasers that they need while doing their homework.

I have another wipie box just for the boys flashcards.

This dishpan holds all the larger items like notebook paper, dictionary & thesaurus. All the homework boxes/buckets are kept on the same shelf in the kitchen cabinet. Everyone knows where to go when its time to do homework.

Lunches:
For school lunches I have the kids help me divide large bags of sides into snack size bags. I also use this as a learning lesson. I tell them how much the one bag costs and how many little bags we can make from it. Then tell them how much we saved by not buying the individual prepackaged bags.

Breakfasts:
My kids no longer get to choose their breakfast foods. It takes them too long to decide and then they want one of everything. So to solve this problem every night before bed I write on the whiteboard what will be for breakfast the next morning. This way when they wake up there are no questions. They always have the option of cold cereal if they don't like what I have chosen. I try to mix it up during the week so there is variety. During the weekend they get to choose as long as they can make it themselves, because I have the weekend off. :)

Snacks:
I have snacks separated out in my pantry. I have one box for fruit snacks where I mix a variety of kinds, a box for healthy snacks and one lunches only (things like fruit cups). This has made it easier for my kids to know what I mean when I say go have a healthy snack. If they don't want fruit or veggies they know what other options they have.

Laundry/misc. stuff:

Everyone in the family has their own dishpan bucket with their name on it. I use these to put their laundry in and random things they leave around the house. This has totally helped me to keep the house clean without having to put away everyone else's stuff. While the boys are at school anything they leave out gets put in here for them to put away after school. Then I can stack the buckets and hide them and my house still looks clean. Everybody, even the little girls, knows that they have to empty their buckets a couple times of day. Sadie will even take Gary's bucket to him while he is working and tell him to put it away. I love that girl!

Calendaring:
Fall is a busy time of year for us. For about six weeks during the fall we run around like a chicken with its head cut off. Between Gary coaching Jack's soccer team, Gavan playing football, scouts, piano lessons, church meetings, and everything else it is vital for us to stay organized.

I have a monthly calendar (above the homework holders) and a weekly calendar. This helps me so I can focus on one week at a time and not get overwhelmed with the entire month. The weekly calender contains a place for notes, my menu and daily activities. I have to admit I had fun making this calender. I bought a HUGE frame at Walmart the day after thanksgiving for $6 and have been waiting to put it to use. I finally decided what to use it for and I LOVE it!!

July 4th alabama style

2009-08-13T20:16:00.000-06:00

CJ found these cool 3-D glasses to wear while watching the fireworks.

Sadie did a lot of this. She doesn't like loud noises and yells "youd youd".

Alyssa enjoyed dancing while the fireworks went off.

Me and the kids.

Jack wearing the lovely wig. We kept finding this orange curly hair EVERY where.

Chris and the wig.

We had a fun 4th despite all the mosquito bites. The ribs were GREAT, the company was even better!

Fish House

2009-08-12T12:03:00.000-06:00

Gary was really looking forward to eating at an authentic catfish house while we were on vacation. He did his research before we left and found a place about 25 miles away.

We set a date (July 6th) to go there for dinner. We got there and this is what we found...

We all thought this was pretty funny because this place is all Gary couldn't stop talking about. Good thing we had a back up.
This place was just a hole in the wall place mom and pop shop. It was great for the kids because it was very open and roomy. I'm not big on fried food but as far as fried food goes it was very good.
How could you not like a place with a stuffed catfish hanging over your head?

CJ impressing us by eating a catfish tail.

Hannah had to try the tail too, along with some of the other kids. Gavan said it tasted like potato chips. Eeeeew!

Sadie was hiding from CJ because he was trying to talk to her.

The best part for the kids was the ice cream. They had 25¢ ice cream cones. So we bought the kids cones and stopped by DQ for the adults. Mean huh?!

This is one of the times Sadie liked CJ, after all he did buy the ice cream.

Sadie sharing with Alyssa.

Even more fun in TN!

2009-08-11T12:32:00.000-06:00

After Rock City we went to dinner, choosing to eat outside. What were we thinking? It was so hot, we really should have eaten inside. The kids loved the boat to play on while waited for our food. It occupied them for quite a while.

Do we look hot?

Sadie feeding Hannah

After dinner we walked down to the pier while the boys did a bit of geocaching. When I say boys I mean CJ, Chris and Gavan. CJ got Gary and my boys hooked on geocaching. Gavan thinks it is the best thing ever...next to football.

I thought I took a picture of the HUGE barge as it went under the bridge we were on but I guess I didn't. Bummer!
This bridge made me a bit nervous. You could see water below you through the slats and holes where the metal pillars came through. Notice the holes near the blue steel pillars? I am sure it was safe and all but gee-whiz, not my favorite place to take a stroll with the kids.

Flashback to Ruby Falls

2009-08-10T08:01:00.001-06:00

While on vacation in Tennessee we went to Ruby falls. I know this post is late but life has been a bit crazy for us recently. I hope to get all caught up before football and soccer season starts.
Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall. You are led through the cave by a tour guide who is there to get you in and get you out. The more people they move in and out the more moola they make. It is another stroller-unfriendly place. The groups were too big to hear the guide explain the tour. You have to pull to the side to let another group who was leaving pass you. The passage ways were narrow and not made for groups coming and going at the same time. But that is what you get at a tourist trap.

The kids liked to feel the cold rocks. We don't have many pictures because it was too dark and our group was split up.Despite the annoyance of feeling like cattle it was a neat experience. The older kids really liked it. Sadie... well none of us liked her on this excursion. She didn't want to be held, she was tired and very vocal about her feelings of displeasure. But that is what we expect of her, after all she is almost two.This is the climax of the tour...

The underground waterfall.
Me and the kids in the cave after we saw the waterfall.

After the tour was over they had huge outdoor play ground and a place to eat. The playground included a place to pan for gold.Being the tourist that we were we HAD to purchase the staged photo. If you don't waste your money on silly souvenirs when on vacation you're not a REAL tourist, right?

Misc. Vaycay

2009-08-09T18:25:00.006-06:00

These are random pictures and thoughts of our vacation.

Yes, signs like this are common in the south. You'd never see this in Utah.

I wish I would have gone inside and done some shopping just to say I've been there.
Gary likes to take pictures of random signs. So here is the hurricane evacuation route sign. Never seen one of these in Utah either, thank goodness.
I wanted to put this picture with post about Gulf Shores but couldn't find it. It's not every day you get to have your picture taken with a giant shark!

Random thought by Jack:
He had to pee really bad on the way home from somewhere. There was no where to stop so we pulled over to the side of the road. He found a pile of dirt and took care of business. (The dirt in AL is really red). As he was peeing he said " It looks like chocolate milk" I wonder what it is like to be in his head. I bet there is NEVER a dull moment in there.

The girls loved to hold hands while in the car.

This next one is for Emily and CJ.

Here is Gary trying out for "A Merkin Idol"