Weekly Review 2011 - June 19 - 25

Sunday, June 19 - Gabby was playing with her fairy wings and decided that they were just the right size for our dog to wear. She put them on the dog and then held him still so he couldn't get out of them. What a cute little doggy fairy.

Monday, June 20 - I babysat my sister's 2 oldest kids today to add a little variety to their summer. I talked to my mom and she agreed to go with my to the zoo. We made sure to get there when it opened and it was so nice to be at the zoo when it wasn't to busy. We ended up staying at the zoo for 5 hours. We went to the bird show, and the small animals show, found all the dinosaurs in the summer dinosaur exhibit, and saw all the animals. The kids had tons fun, and the best part was that they were worn out and ready for some quiet time when we got home.

Tuesday, June 21 - Tuesday has become the girls favorite day of the week. It's the day they get to go to gymnastics. After gymnastics we went to Taffy Town and I let them pick out their favorite taffy flavors, and then to the library to return a pile of books, and restock with some new fun books to read.

Wednesday, June 22 - I got Paul a small pool for Father's day to play in the back yard. Paul pulled it out and filled it up, and the girls (and Paul) were very anxious to get in and play. They had tons of fun, and were shivering when they got out of the pool.

Thursday, June 23 - I got together with my sis-in-law and her kids. It was tons of fun. We went to her house and then went to the park for lunch. After lunch, and playing at the park we loaded up and went over to the Church History Museum. We looked at the exhibits, the pictures drawn by kids from all over the world, and played in the children's area.

Friday, June 24 - My little sister came over and babysat so Paul and I could go out. We had fun, they had fun...it was just a fun night for everyone! Kaylee and Gabby got to scratch pictures into some scratch paper Marla brought, and then Marla read them a chapter in Harry Potter book 6, while Paul and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, and then went and saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean at the theater.

Saturday, June 25 - We were just hanging out, cleaning the house, the usual Saturday stuff and realized we didn't have ANY plans really for the day. We decided to see if some friends wanted to come over to play in our pool, and have a BBQ. They came over and we had such a fun BBQ, the kids played in the pool, and I got to see their tiny new, adorable baby boy.

Weekly Review 2011 - June 12 - 18

Sunday, June 12 - We went to my parent's house for Sunday dinner, as well as to celebrate my nephew Roman's birthday (which is coming up, but they won't be here, so we celebrated early). Kaylee wore her sunhat to my parent's house, but left it lying around in the family room. I put it on Hudson's head, and he rather enjoyed wearing the hat. Photo is courtesy of my sister Brenda, thanks Brenda!

Monday, June 13 - SPRING CLEANING! I have been cleaning, de-junking, and getting a huge amount of stuff together to have a nice HUGE yard sale in a few weeks. I am getting rid of so much stuff I am not sure why I have hauled around the country, and over the ocean and back. I got the kids play room closet so nicely organized, and their games stacked neatly where they can reach them. I can't wait to get rid of all this extra stuff, and have that much more space in the house.

Tuesday, June 14 - The kids had their summer gymnastics class today. They LOVE gymnastics, and I LOVE their new couch. Their couch is amazing at teaching, and so patient with kids. One of Kaylee and Gabby's favorite thing to do is to walk down the beam and jump into the foam pit at the end.

Wednesday, June 15 - It was the member's only time slot at the children's museum today. Since we have a membership I decided to take advantage of the membership time slot and go check out the new summer exhibit. There is a "Play" exhibit with a bunch of life size games: Billiards, Dominoes, Bowling, Foos-Ball, and a few others. We pretty much had the exhibit to ourselves, and the girls had fun playing the life size games. After we played in the summer exhibit for a bit we went and played in the kid-size town, and the helicopter, before heading out just as it was opening to general admission, and getting pretty busy.

Thursday, June 16 - This last winter and spring there has been record rain and snow levels, and a lot of concern about flooding. The rivers are running extremely high, and some are over their banks. We went to Murray Park to see how the river was there and we got to watch the firefighters practicing swift water rescue in the river through the park. We walked around the park and saw how high the river was through the different areas of the park, and talked about water safety.

Friday, June 17 - Paul got home from work Friday afternoon and did a basic tune-up on our lawn-mower and got to work at mowing the lawn. Gabby also did a quick basic tune-up to her lawn-mower (she added bubbles) and got to work helping Paul mow the lawn. She followed just behind him with her bubble mower.

Saturday, June 18 - We got up and headed to downtown Salt Lake to go to the Farmer's Market, and then over to the Chalk Art Festival. We drew our own pictures in the kid's corner section of the chalk art festival, and then walked around to look at the artists drawing pictures. We saw some absolutely amazing drawings as we walked around to the different artists.

Weekly Review 2011 - June 5-11

Sunday, June 5 - My nephew turned 15 on Friday (June 3)! My Sister-in-law invited us over to their house to celebrate his birthday with homemade (from scratch) dark chocolate 4-layer cake with toasted coconut pecan frosting. It was amazingly delicious. My nephew got a new bike for his birthday and was immediately out riding it. (photo courtesy of Paul's brother Chris)

Monday, June 6 - This week Kaylee and Gabby are trying out 2 different gyms for gymnastics to see which one they like best to take gymnastics at for the summer. They LOVE gymnastics so much. They need an extra outlet for all their energy that they have.

Tuesday, June 7 - The kids went to another trial gymnastics class this morning and decided that they DEFINITELY want to take gymnastics at the one they went to today. We got them signed up, and they are counting down the day to their next gymnastics class. Wendy came over for the afternoon and cut six inches off Kaylee's hair. She hates brushing the tangles out of her hair, so we decided in this case shorter would be better. She loves her cute new haircut and told me that she thinks it looks like on the movie Tangled when Rapunzel get her hair cut off at the end of the movie and her hair is short and brown. She is happy with it, and is keeping is well brushed which makes me happy.

Wednesday, June 7 - My mom called me and asked what my plans were for the day. I told her they just included things like stacking the dishwasher, and cleaning the house. She asked if I would mind picking her up so she could drop off her car to get her tires rotated, get the brakes looked at, and such. I picked her up and we went shopping, and to run a few errands. While we were out we went to JC Penney and there were some little play tents for 70% off. I got a mermaid tent for my kids and they were so excited to earn the privilege to play with it. I snapped a quick pic with my phone, so the picture quality isn't very good, but you can see how happy Gabby is about it.

Thursday, June 9 - Kaylee, Gabby, and I went to my sister Wendy's house so she could cut and highlight my hair. After we were done Roman really needed a nap so he went to bed, and the girls and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium. The aquarium was pretty busy, but we enjoyed looking at all the different exhibits. Here's Kaylee and Gabby checking out the Rubber Eels.

Friday, June 10 - We went to the Heber Valley Railroad with Wendy's family to ride the train. It was an hour and a half scenic train ride. The kids loved watching out the windows, and being on the train. On our way home we all stopped and ate dinner at Iceberg. After we were done with dinner we hurried home because some people were coming to look at our Dodge Stratus that we listed for sale. Our car sold immediately and the people were thrilled with their new purchase, and we were thrilled to finally have sold that car.

Saturday, June 11 - Paul spent the entire day looking at trucks and suvs so he could get him a new car to drive to school and work since he just sold his car. He spent the whole morning going around to different dealerships, looking at cars online, and then after Roman's b-day party we went down to a dealership in Orem where he drove a few Nissan Xterras and then a Nissan Pathfinder. He really liked the 1997 Nissan Pathfinder and decided to buy that one and is so happy with his new vehicle. Kaylee, Gabby and I went to Roman's birthday party at Wendy's house. He had a construction theme party. The kids got to decorate construction hard hats, make necklaces, dig in the sandbox for treasures, play red light green light, and build tool boxes. Wendy did a cute photo booth with fun accessories for the kids to take pics with at the party.

Weekly Review 2011 - May 29-June 4

Sunday, May 29 - We went to church first thing Sunday morning, and I taught Kaylee's primary class. After church we had a nice relaxing day just hanging out at home, and enjoying not having to be anywhere, or do anything.

Monday, May 30 - For Memorial Day we went over to my parent's house for a BBQ. It was a lunchtime BBQ and was just your basic hot dogs, hamburgers, and such. After the BBQ, Marla and I headed upstairs to play Super Mario Bros on the Wii, we were joined by my bro-in-laws Spencer and Dave. I think we ended up playing for at least 3 hours. It was tons of fun. While we played on the Wii the kids played outside on their scooters, and on the play house in my parent's yard.

Tuesday, May 31 - After a week off last week with family fun, and then the Memorial Day weekend it was time to get back to real life. Paul headed back to work, and I worked on tackling piles of laundry, and housework, ran a few errands, and such.

Wednesday, June 1 - While I was working on scrubbing down the kitchen the girls were outside playing and riding their scooters. At one point they came inside and got a notebook. When I went to check on them they were sitting on their lawn chairs at the edge of the yard with a sign that said "Money you don't need." As someone (I have NO clue who it was) was walking by they gave my kids $6.00! Our neighbor across the street gave them some change too. We had a nice talk about earning money, and just expecting money.

Thursday, June 2 - My cousin Tiffany had her adorable baby boy on Sunday, May 29. They went home from them hospital on Tuesday, and we were so happy to be able to go visit her for a few hours. The kids were interested enough to hold Jacob for a few minutes before running off to play with Tiffany's older boys again.

Friday, June 3 - Today we pulled out some workbooks for the kids to do a few school pages before running outside to play. While the kids were working on their pages the dog was very happy to curl up and cuddle into a blanket on the couch. As soon as the kids were done with their pages they woke the dog up, and got him running around, and thankfully took their energy outside.

Saturday, June 4 - Paul, Kaylee, Gabby, Marla, and I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 in the theater. It was a really well done sequel to the first movie, with a good message to it too. We really enjoyed the movie.

Weekly Review 2011 - May 22 - 28

Sunday, May 22 - After church I made some mint chocolate chip brownies, AND some chocolate chip cookies to take to Daren Hale to thank him for helping Paul with our tent trailer all day Saturday. Then, we went over to my parent's house for Sunday dinner. We went early so that I could help with the major project of helping with an amazing homemade Chinese meal. We had Sesame Chicken, Orange Chicken, Cream Cheese Won Tons, Rice, etc. It was so delicious, but it took us a little over 2 hours to get everything done...delicious, and worth it...but not too often.

Monday, May 23 - This week our family is going camping down near Richfield so we got everything cleaned up, packed, and organized. I did laundry, packed bags, packed food, and cleaned the house. Paul cleaned the trailer, fixed the trailer door latch, organized the things into the cabinets, and got things ready outside. Our first camping trip with our tent trailer was ready to go.

Tuesday, May 24 - We left at about 9:00 to head down to go camping for the week. On our way to the campground we stopped for lunch at a dairy in Richfield. The lunch was so delicious and we really enjoyed it there. We got on our way the last little bit to the campground and got things set up at our campsite. It had been raining all morning and was still pretty soggy, and cold when we got there. There wasn't ANY dry wood to start a fire, but eventually Paul succeeded in getting the fire going. The girls were THRILLED to find a creek with a bridge right next to our campsite. They had fun walking on the bridge, and throwing rocks in the creek.

Wednesday, May 25 - We went hiking at Fremont Indian State park in the morning, and then after going back to our campsite for lunch we went over to Cove Fort for a tour, and to learn some more about Utah History. We learned a lot about how they lived, and what they did. The tour guide was VERY knowledgeable and showed us how they did a lot of things. One of the things we got to try was a game the kids used to play with a stick and ring. Gabby was really good at keeping the ring rolling across the ground.

Thursday, May 26 - We had gone on most of the hiking trails (all the ones that the kids could do easily), so we went over to Big Rock Candy Mountain which wasn't very impressive AT ALL. It looked more like a toasted marshmallow than a candy mountain. Since we were done with everything we had wanted to do we decided that rather than staying one more night we headed back home with the plan to go to the zoo on Friday instead. Before we packed things up to head home I remembered to take a picture of our new tent trailer.

Friday, May 27 - Friday morning we unpacked and got things cleaned up from camping, and as soon as my little sister Marla got off work and came over here we went to the zoo. The zoo has a dinosaur exhibit for the summer with animatronic dinosaurs all over the zoo, as well as a bunch of dino fact places and things to do. I bought my zoo membership (and split it with my oldest sister, YAY!) and we spent the entire afternoon wandering the zoo, watching the bird show, and just having fun. It was the perfect day for a trip to the zoo.

Saturday, May 28 - After a week of fun and adventure we decided to have a nice relaxing weekend. We went with my parent's and my Grandma to my Grandpa's grave to put flowers there for Memorial Day weekend.

Weekly Review 2011 - May 15 - 21

Sunday, May 15 - After church we got things ready to go over to my parent's house for Sunday dinner, and to celebrate my bro-in-law Spencer's b-day. Kaylee got changed out of her church dress, and I just had to smile at her amazing fashion when she came in, and I HAD to take a picture.

Monday, May 16 - The weather has changed again...and it's scheduled to rain ALL week. We did some school work, and I can't remember what else...but, I'm sure that whatever it was must have been entertaining...or maybe boring...who knows.

Tuesday, May 17 - My dog Falkor is a people watcher. He likes to sit on the back of the couch and watch out the window and any time he sees ANYONE walking past, or down the street, or anything he just make a really quite noise. He doesn't bark, but I always know when there is someone outside. I also know when the mail has come because he almost always barks once at the mailman. I guess he knows that one bark is enough for the mailman to leave.

Wednesday, May 18 - My kids have been really into making Jello lately. I found some fun little single serve Jello molds, and they think Jello is the greatest thing ever now. Gabby loves red Jello, and Kaylee likes blue (unless she can't find blue, and then she's up for whatever the day brings)

Thursday, May 19 - Ever since Paul installed a trailer hitch on our Subaru he has been eyeing things to pull...he has been especially looking at tent trailers. He found one online that he was especially drawn to and has talking about it all week. He went to look at it and decided that he REALLY, REALLY wanted to get it. He went to look at it by himself because I had babysat Ariana all day, and then my cousin's little boys Corbin and Carter that evening...so, he is all set to go look at it again and buy it on Friday.

Friday, May 20 - Gabby has had a SUPER loose tooth that was barely hanging on. She wanted toast for breakfast and as she was eating her toast her tooth came out....and...she SWALLOWED it! She was so completely devastated that she had swallowed her tooth. Once I had reassured her that the tooth fairy would still come she seemed to find the humor in the whole situation and was laughing so hard about what had happened. We went to look at the tent trailer that Paul was absolutely in love with and decided to buy it. We're going camping next week so it will be a fun time in our tent trailer.

Saturday, May 21 - The brake lights and such weren't working on the tent trailer so my parent's neighbor Daren Hale agreed to help Paul with getting it to work. On our way to Magna our trailer didn't hitch up right and unhitched while we were on the freeway, but we had the safety chains attached and Paul did great getting off and getting it hooked back up. A couple guys stopped and helped us get it hitched back up, and then we were on our way again...for a minute anyway. Then the trailer got a flat tire!!!! WHAT A DAY! My parent's had been planning to go to a family reunion but were waiting for us to get to their house, and at this rate we were WAY behind schedule. Paul went to change the tire and didn't have a lug wrench to fit so my parent's neighbor came to the rescue. After they got the tire changed he followed up the rest of the way to his house and they got to work on the trailer. My little sister Marla took pity on my bad morning and went to get me lunch at Cafe' Rio while Paul was changing the tire. Lunch definitely helped my day get better. My parents didn't make it to the family reunion because of our freeway adventures. Since Paul was in the driveway across the street working on the trailer Marla and I decided to take the girls to the new Magna Library grand opening event. They had fun making crowns, watching the "Yoyo Man", and seeing a pirate at the library. They're excited to go to the new library for our library trips. Our day ended MUCH, MUCH better than it began with a working trailer, a fun trip to the library, and a safe trip home.

Weekly Review 2011 - May 8-14

Sunday, May 8 - Happy Mother's Day! I was so lucky to receive breakfast in bed from Paul, Kaylee, and Gabby...although I moved to the couch instead of eating in bed. We went to church, and then over to my parent's house for a nice Mother's Day dinner. Paul got me some side shelves that I wanted for our food storage shelf, and I also wanted a zoo membership for Mother's day, so, he told me I could get one.

Monday, May 9 - Kaylee and Gabby wanted pedicures. They love everything girly! We got cotton balls out to put in between their toes, and then painted them in beautiful colors. Gabby also had fun playing with the cotton balls by blowing them out of her hands, and throwing one at me.

Tuesday, May 10 - Kaylee helped Paul make some pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes (which she also added a few M&M's into them too), and then she added the icing all by herself, and topped them off with a single M&M on each one.

Wednesday, May 11 - This week for schoolwork Kaylee, Gabby, and I have been learning about amazing animals. We learned about Lemurs, and that they ONLY live in Madagascar (or the zoo), and all the different types of lemurs. I printed out a lemur printout for them to color and put together. Kaylee decided that lemurs just weren't colorful enough, so she made hers nice and colorful.

Thursday, May 12 - Our seeds that we planted in the little planter box have gotten pretty big, and are ready to move into our garden...if only the weather would cooperate. In the background we didn't actually plant the strawberries, and big tomato plants, we bought starter plants. All the rest of the plants in the little planters we started from seed, and hope that they will grow LOTS of yummy produce for us this year.

Friday, May 13 - My cousin Josh got married to his beautiful new bride Kelsey. We went up to North Ogden for their reception. On our way up we ate dinner at Brick Oven Pizza which was so amazingly delicious. We enjoyed visiting with my relatives at the reception. My uncle came from California, and my cousin was here from Texas. It was so fun just visiting and spending time with my extended family.

Saturday, May 14 - We took all our plants from our tabletop garden, and went to my parent's house to plant our veggie garden. We got them all planted before it got to warm out. Hopefully our garden will be amazing this summer!

Weekly Review 2011 - May 1-7

Sunday, May 1 - Nothing to significant to write about for the day. We went to church, and then just stayed home for the day. Sunday is the day that is the hardest to remember to take a picture.

Monday, May 2 - Kaylee and Gabby have gotten REALLY good at giving our little dog a bath. They herded him into the bathroom and then gave him a good scrubbing. It's so nice to have a clean dog.

Tuesday, May 3 - We bought a mini greenhouse planter, and seeds to start our garden and get the seeds going on our kitchen table in the planter greenhouse box. I didn't get any pictures because although I thought about it while we were working on it my fingers were covered in dirt, and I didn't think about it after I washed my hands...so, you can just imagine us planting seeds.

Wednesday, May 4 - Okay, since I am way behind on my weekly review I can NOT think of what we did this day. I know we did schoolwork, and the kids probably played outside on their scooters, but beyond that I have no idea.

Thursday, May 5 - On the side yard of our house there is this one, single tulip just growing next to the pear tree. It seems so out of place, but was such a bright spot of color in the dirt.

Friday, May 6 - We have been working on planning a camping trip so Paul figured it was a perfect time to pull out our tent and make sure everything was there, and nothing was wrong with it. Kaylee and Gabby had so much fun setting up the tent, and playing in it they even managed to convince Paul to have a backyard campout. They got out the firepit and roasted Starbursts, hung out in the hammock, and slept in the tent.

Saturday, May 7 - For my mom for Mother's day all of my sister's families as well as me and my family got the supplies to get my mom's veggie garden fixed back up, and ready to plant. This included some planter boxes, as well as 2 yards of garden grade dirt delivered to my parent's driveway (which actually ended up being closer to 3 yards of dirt because the driver didn't want to dump any back after he filled his truck)...So, after digging up the weeds, and grass from the garden bed and building the planter boxes Paul, Marla, and I took LOADS, after LOAD, after LOAD of wheelbarrows from the driveway to the backyard to fill it in. There was SOOOOO much dirt. Janeene and Israel came to save us after a while which was a good things, because I don't think we would have made it otherwise. My dad was also extremely helpful. We were working so hard the only thing I was thinking about was getting all the dirt moved...I didn't even get my camera out.

Weekly Review - April 24-30, 2011

Sunday, April 24 - Happy Easter! We got up and going for the day. The girls had just enough time to see what was in their Easter baskets, and their beautiful new Easter dresses. Then we got ready and headed off to church. I snapped a quick picture of the girls in their new dresses. Then after church we went over to my parent's house for the cousin's Easter Egg hunt, and family dinner. The clouds threatened to rain on the egg hunt, but the kids had so much fun!

Monday, April 25 - I had pulled out the box of the girls spring/summer clothes to figure out what would still fit them this year. In the process of bringing the box up it broke so Gabby had tons of fun playing with her box sofa and making a house with her parasols. After the girls colored the box, and put it in the recycle bin we headed to the mall to get Gabby's unstuffed build-a-bear dog that she got for Easter stuffed.

Tuesday, April 26 - Gabby got my camera out of my purse and took the picture of the day for me...wasn't that so nice and thoughtful of her? Yeah, I thought so too. Here is a nice picture of her new build-a-bear dog that she got for Easter. It's exercising on the bike in the living room. Now, if only his feet would reach the pedals.

Wednesday, April 27 - Paul's cousin Jared got married to his beautiful new bride Natalie. We went to their reception and got to visit with all of Paul's family that lives in Alaska. I made sure to grab my camera...but I didn't check to make sure it had a memory card in it. On our way down to the reception we stopped at Thanksgiving Point and the flowers there are amazingly beautiful. I pulled out my phone and took a picture of some really cool flowers. I would love some of these flowers at my house.

Thursday, April 28 - One of my favorite things is when Kaylee ASKS me if she can fold a batch of laundry. She folded the whole batch of towels and put them away...not because it was her chore, or because I asked her to...but, because she LIKES to fold towels. I hope she doesn't outgrow this. Sorry this picture is a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.

Friday, April 29 - We had another wedding reception to attend today for an amazingly beautiful happy couple. Paul's best friend Mike's little brother Danny married his sweetheart Azlyn. When we got to the reception we learned that Mike wasn't even there, but was at the hospital with his wife who had gone into preterm labor at 32 weeks. Looks like they will have their new baby boy within the next few days.

Saturday, April 30 - We got quite the shock when we woke up, looked out the window, and found about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. The last day of April, and snow was everywhere! Kaylee and Gabby had a birthday party for their friend in the afternoon. They had rented a bounce house for the party, and the kids didn't care one bit that it was cold outside. They had a ball at the party, and the snow melted pretty quickly.