Halloween - Sneek Peek

I am a planner...I like to have things done. I know that Halloween is still 2 months away but yes, my kids have already chosen their Halloween costumes (and yes, I have already stashed things away for Christmas). I learned a few years ago that if you don't decide early all the really cute costumes are gone. This year my kids both want to be fairies. Gabby wants to be a "Berry Fairy" and Kaylee wants to be Tinkerbell since we just went to Disneyland and saw Tinkerbell there. I ordered their costumes online and they just got them and of course HAD to try them on. I am not a fan of Halloween at all (not the gross, scary, creepy halloween stuff), but I love when my girls dress up in cute costumes.

Weekly Review - August 22 - 28

Sunday, August 22 - I had the kids get ready for bed. As they were picking out what books they wanted to read I left the room. When I came back I found Gabby wearing a build-a-bear Santa coat backwards. That girl can really make me laugh.

Monday, August 23 - I got a call from my sister-in-law Jess that she was about to go in and have her new little baby. YAY! I picked up her kids from her house after they were out of school and after things had settled down a bit I took them up to the hospital to see their new baby brother. They named him Eli Clay, he was born at 4:38 p.m., was 7 lbs. 10 oz., and 20 in. Here is a picture of my niece Anna holding her new baby brother Eli.

Tuesday, August 24 - When it comes to cleaning, and it sounds like it MIGHT be fun doing it then you can count on Kaylee and Gabby. They each got a Swiffer Wet Jet (my swiffer, and my mom's) and were going to town mopping the dining room floor.

Wednesday, August 25 - Paul, Kaylee, and Gabby all started school! Well, I guess since we decided to homeschool the girls again for a little while longer (until we figure out where we will be living) I pretty much started school as well. The girls were pretty excited and got done with their school stuff pretty quick. So, in the afternoon Wendy needed to take some papers downtown and they wanted us to go with them to play in the fountain at The Gateway.

Thursday, August 26 - After the girls were done with their school work for the day I needed to go get the oil changed in my Subaru. I went to the Subaru dealership near my sister's house and my mom picked me up and we went over to the mall to kill some time. Wendy and her boys met us over at the mall and the kids played on the little rides a little, and went on the carousel.

Friday, August 27 - We finished up our school week and the kids are doing really well. I NEVER would have guessed I would actually be homeschooling my kids. I know it's temporary, but it is so amazing watching them learn and grow and they are doing their school work.

Saturday, August 28 - My little sister Marla and I took the girls to the Downtown Farmer's Market...one of our favorite summertime places. The girls found a balloon artist that made them big flower hats. I found fresh cherry tomatoes, and peaches. Then I went home and made fresh peach cobbler. It was so yummy!

Flashback Friday

I believe this is from the summer in 2006. We were walking through University mall one day and as we were walking past Kiddie Kandids they asked if I would like pictures taken for free so a new photographer could practice and I would get a free print from the pictures as well. I didn't have anything going on, and my kids were being pretty pleasant, so I decided to go ahead and do it.

Family Picnic up Mill Creek Canyon

For Marla's birthday my whole family went up Mill Creek Canyon for a picnic up in the mountains. We have always loved Mill Creek Canyon since my grandparents had a cabin up there for years, and years. We found a nice picnic area right next to the Mill Creek, which of course meant Paul was right there playing in the water. While we were eating dinner Paul had been sitting on a log. When I looked over to where he had been Paul was gone, and so was the log. I asked what happened to Paul and the log (even though I already knew the answer) and sure enough both Paul and the log were in the creek.


Since it was Marla's birthday she got to open all her birthday gifts at the picnic. She let Roman and Ariana help her open her presents (since the other kids went off hiking with Paul). I gave her some SPAM socks from Hawaii and when Wendy pulled Hudson out of his sling he was missing a sock, so, they remedied that problem by putting a SPAM sock on him.

We had so much fun while we were up there. We saw a family of dear pass through, and enjoyed spending time with my family. Here are a few more random pictures from our family picnic.

Weekly Review - August 15-21

Sunday, August 15 - I am so terrible at taking pictures on Sunday. We went to church, and had lasagna for dinner...yum.

Monday, August 16 - My dad took all of us to the musical - Big River at the Sundance Resort Summer Theater. It was a musical about Huck Finn at the outdoor amphitheater at the Sundance Resort up Provo Canyon. Gabby fell asleep toward the end of the play and I ended up carrying her down the mountain and back to the car.

Tuesday, August 17 - The movers came to deliver all our household good that FINALLY made it here from Hawaii. Since we are temporarily at my parent's house it made for an interesting move. We pulled out our beds, clothes, and a few other things. The movers piled all the rest of our stuff into my parent's garage and then we took it and loaded it into a storage unit.

Wednesday, August 18 - Still trying to get things organized from the movers bringing everything. Our storage unit is pretty much full.

Thursday, August 19 - I had to go out to Ikea to get replacement hardware for the kids bunkbed because the movers in Hawaii took it apart and dropped half the hardware into the frame of the bed. Since I had to go out to Draper to go to Ikea I had to stop at the Sweet Tooth Fairy to get some cupcakes and cake bites. Marla and I LOVE to get the double fudge and coconut cake bites, then we cut them in half and put half of each together to make fudge coconut cake bites...YUM!!!

Friday, August 20 - My brother Chris and his wife Melissa came over to bring Marla her birthday present. They had bought her a card game and wanted to show her how to play it, and they showed Kaylee and Gabby how to play it too.

Saturday, August 21 - Happy Birthday Marla! For my little sister's birthday we went up Mill Creek Canyon and had a family picnic with almost my whole family (my bro. and his wife didn't come). It was fun being up in the mountains. A family of deer even walked by.

Flashback Friday

Here is a picture of Paul with his older sister Lisa. I don't know how old they are in the picture but I would guess that this picture is probably from about 1982 or 1983.

Big River - The Musical

On Monday, August 16 my dad took us to the Sundance Resort for the musical Big River (a story about Huck Finn). It's an outdoor summer amphitheater at Sundance Resort (up Provo Canyon). We had to hike the steep mountain to get up to the amphitheater but the kids did really well hiking up the steep mountain. We found a nice spot to lay out our blankets to watch the show where we had an excellent view of the stage.

The show started at about 8:00 (which is the kids bedtime) and the opening number was...well...not what I was expecting...ok, let's face it, it was HORRIBLE!!! Once we got into the play we realized they just shouldn't have sang that opening number because the rest of the show went really well. I enjoyed the rest of the show. Paul's never enjoyed plays and musicals so he was ready to head for home. By the time the show was over Gabby was fast asleep on my lap. I tried to catch the tractor ride back down the mountain but it was full, so I decided to hike down the mountain with a sleeping Gabby in my arms. If you ever want a really good workout then that will definitely do it to you. It was so nice to go out to a play with my family. Thanks Dad!

Weekly Review - August 8-14

Sunday, August 8 - (No picture) We got up and got ready for church...I realized that Kaylee was supposed to give a talk in primary so I quickly helped her prepare a story for her talk (Which she did an excellent job on.) After church Wendy's family, and Janeene's family came over for Sunday dinner.

Monday, August 9 - (No picture again...sorry) I honestly can't remember what we did on Monday. Life has been so crazy it's hard enough to remember what's coming up on my calendar. Well, I'm sure whatever it was that we did it must have been fun!

Tuesday, August 10 - The girls and I went to Thanksgiving Point with Wendy and her boys. We went to the Children's Discovery Gardens. The first thing they did was play in the Noah's Ark water area (and got completely soaked but had SOOOO much fun!), then we explored the different nature areas, and building areas in the gardens. After we were done at Thanksgiving Point I went over to Wendy's house and she cut my girls hair. Kaylee got about 4 inches cut off, and Gabby just got a nice trim to get rid of the dead-ends.

Wednesday, August 11 - Gabby has some amazing fashion moments. Here is her in her pajamas and dressed up to be a tap-dancer. We went over to visit my sis-in-law Jess at her new house. Jess is 39 weeks pregnant and people think she is only about 5-6 months because of how amazingly tiny she is. She looks great! We had fun playing, and eating lunch with them.

Thursday, August 12 - Marla and I made some fabulously delicious raspberry freezer jam with a case of raspberries we bought at the Farmer's Market last Saturday. The jam turned out so good! We discovered that a potato ricer is a wonderful tool to get rid of most of the raspberry seeds.

Friday, August 13 - Wendy, Spencer, Nicola, Kelly, Paul and I all got an adult's night out without any kids!!! It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! We went to and excellent Mexican restaurant by my parent's house for dinner. Marla was so sweet that she took all of our kids, fed them dinner, and entertained them for 2 hours of sheer bliss! It was so fun to go out with friends for the night. The kids had the time of their life too: Pizza, friends, bubbles...I mean really, who could ask for more?

Saturday, August 14 - For once in I'm not sure how long my calendar was EMPTY! Paul didn't have anywhere he needed to be, I didn't have anything going on. (I love having a full calendar...but it's nice to have a break every once in a while). Gabby and I sat around in our pajamas all day long and we all just stayed home and enjoyed it. We got the house cleaned up, played the Wii, and had a nice Saturday (with no picture...again)

Flashback Friday

Today is Friday the 13th!!! In October of 2000 my dad had to go to the east coast for a seminar or something. My oldest sister Janeene, her friend Rebekah, and decided to meet up with them in Boston (on Friday the 13th, that's why I did this post today) for a quick trip. The east coast was amazingly beautiful, especially in the fall when all the leaves were changing colors. So, from left to right: Janeene, me (Becky), and Rebekah in Boston, MA.

Thanksgiving Point Children's Discovery Gardens

Yesterday Wendy and I went to Thanksgiving Point for $2 Tuesday (it's every Tuesday in August). We decided to go to the Children's Discovery Garden since we have never been there and it would probably be the least crowded place. We also figured it would be least busy if we went right as it opened. The gardens were scheduled to open at 10:00. We got there about 9:45 and they had opened the gardens early to get ready for the busy day. Wendy hadn't made out the door as early as she had hoped but the girls had lots of fun waiting.

Just inside the gate to the garden is a big Noah's Ark water play area. Because they were expecting such a busy day, and the ark is such a popular area they gave each of the kids a wristband and each color wristband had an assigned time that they could play in the ark area. My kids got the color wristbands for the first time slot, and since we were early they got to play right away. Right about the time Wendy got there it was almost time for the next color wristband to have a turn. Roman got the next color wristband, so, while he was playing in the water I got my kids changed into clean, dry clothes. As soon as Roman was done playing in the ark area and was changed we set off to explore the rest of the Children's garden.

We walked through the rest of the gardens and so the tunnels, swamp, lighthouse, and more.