Utah State Fair

Friday morning I got to babysit Eli again. He's so easy, not to mention that he went right to sleep once he got here. When he woke up it was time to eat, we went for a SHORT walk, and then it was time to go pick up the girls from school. I've never had a morning go so quickly! After we got Chloe and Sophie we drove down to Salt Lake and met Jason and Shalee at the State Fair.

First thing we did was get some food. Jason and Shalee hadn't had lunch yet, so they were a little hungrier. I let the girls get some snow cones, knowing that wouldn't fill them up, but they had just had lunch at school.

Then we went through all the exhibits. I've never seen so many "infomercial booths" in one place! We got to taste a really yummy smoothie, made with cabbage, celery and carrots plus the vitamin powder. Too bad you have to pay $450 for a blender to get your vegtables to taste so good. Of course, my favorite part was the photography exhibits. They had a guy doing a photoshop demonstration, so I stopped to watch that for awhile. I liked it, plus my feet really enjoyed the rest. After that it was time to go over to a tiger show. We didn't get seats, so we just had to stand, and I couldn't see where we were standing anyway, so I chose to go find a shady spot to sit in. Sophie got the best seat in the house -- on top of Jason's shoulders. He even gave her a little ride around afterwards.
By this point we had worked up another appetite so we stopped for some Pennsylvania Dutch funnel cakes. We got the apples and cream. Yum, yum, yum!
Then it was on to the animal buildings. They sure brought back a lot of memories of my old 4-H days. Not good memories, but memories nonetheless. Here's my super cool Sophie, in her super cool glasses by the cows.
And here's the gang coming out of the pig building.
We stopped to see a little bit of the magic show before heading home. It made for a long day, but I'm glad we ventured out.

One For Brandon

Yesterday Brandon called me from work to see if I'd like to go on a little hike on the hill just above our house. It sounded fun, and we talked about taking a picnic for dinner so I got that all ready and as soon as he got home from work we headed out. Brandon asked me if I was bringing my camera. I asked if he wanted me to, and his reply was, "If you're going to take pictures of Chloe mowing the lawn, you better take pictures of this." So, this post is for him.

We drove up to the Firebreak Road, but it was not the picturesque picnic scene I was hoping for. It would have been a nice hike, but nowhere to eat so Brandon offered an alternative. We drove over to "Cheese Park" on the north end of Bountiful. We've been there 3 times, but can't ever seem to remember how to get there, so the journey is part of the fun of going there. We found it and the gazebo was free so we set up our picnic there. While the girls ran over and played on the playground Brandon and I just got to visit -- and check out this picture I got of the two of us by using my knee as a tripod. Hey, it worked.


We had to pull the girls away from the playground to go on the hike, but we had a good time once we got going.

I was trying to get a picture of Sophie with the V hill (for Viewmont -- I know, nobody gets it, but it's the name of our high school). One of these days we'll make it all the way to the V, but that was not meant for this trip.

I was trying to get a picture of Brandon looking out at the lake. The lake didn't show up so well. I'll have to try that one again, but here's a view of the south end of Centerville.

And last, but not least, my Chloe -- just hiking along. This is the time of year we can enjoy these kind of things, so we'll probably be doing it more often -- before it turns too cold. It was a fun evening. Thanks for the idea, Brandon.

Lawn Mower

This is a picture of Chloe mowing the lawn yesterday. She pretty much did the whole thing -- I saw Brandon help her in a couple of the tough spots, but other than that she did it all!

A few days ago Sophie had a friend over to play. Her mom was just hanging out here a bit, and for some reason Chloe was in the mood to talk her ear off (yeah, not my Chloe, huh?) She was telling her how fun it is to mow the lawn, but her friend (whose mom is even stricter than me, if you can imagine!) won't let her mow the lawn until she's 14! Chloe thinks she's so lucky. Then we talked about how she has really nice parents, because not only do we let her mow the lawn, but she also gets to wash dishes, do laundry, and scrub the toilet. If only all children were so fortunate.

Labor Day

Our Labor Day was cold and rainy. It's a good thing we hadn't planned to do anything. Brandon just wanted to work on his latest project (the shutters). He got to do that. Our house has cooled off -- to the point we decided we needed HOT CHOCOLATE today.


Chloe has been hired as Brandon's assistant for working on the shutters, which is nice for her and it also gets me out of it :) But she does get a little tired of it after a while, and then she ditches him and finds something else to do. Today she decided to get out our crib mattress and fly down the stairs with it.


The girls had so much fun doing it, the thought eventually popped into Chloe's head that she was activity for FHE tonight. Oh, she could hardly wait. She was going to get the whole family to fly down the stairs. I was busy photographing the event. I'm terrible at taking pictures of moving objects indoors, but here they are nonetheless.

3rd Day of School

Yeah, it's the third day of school. I missed posting on the first day -- ran out of time! I used to enjoy doing this kind of thing in the evening after the kids were in bed, but now I'm too tired so I shall have to do it while they are at school.

Monday was the first day -- Chloe's going back to public school, 2nd grade, and Sophie is now in 1st grade, gone all day! This is quite an adjustment for all 3 of us. Chloe's never been to school all day, Sophie's never been all day, and I've NEVER had a whole day alone (that I could count on). I know I should feel very depressed about this new venture, but after the year we've been through I'm thinking this will be my anti-depressant. We could all use a little break from each other -- but I am very glad that my girls come home at 3:25. It's fun to hear about their day and all the wonderful stories they have to tell.


So far, their favorite thing seems to be lunch. I let them pack a lunch on the first day, but I really want them to eat school lunches just to expose them to some new foods. So, the second day I didn't pack lunches. Sophie came home and told me she had a peanut butter sandwhich! WHAT?? That's not exactly what I had in mind, so I may give in and just make them myself.

Chloe loves her teacher -- Mrs. Renie. She TOLD the kids to call her "Meanie Renie"! That must be easier than waiting for the kids to come up with it, and thinking they're so clever for it. I talked to her yesterday and she told me how great Chloe is doing. I had also spoken to the principal that morning. You can really see the concern they have for this poor homeschooled child. At least she's getting some attention I don't think was there when she was in kindergarten.
Sophie has Mrs. Cook. She hasn't talked a lot about her teacher, but I hear every other detail from her. Who she sits by, who was not obeying the teacher, what they did at recess, the rules for the computer lab, what they did in art, her new friend (Kaia), and on and on and on. That girl loves to talk -- nothing new, just new things to talk about.

Are you dying to know what I do with ALL this time I have on my hands? I really have no more time than I used to, it's just UNINTERRUPTED! So far, I'm just working on my grandma's albums. She gave them to me months ago to get all her pictures scanned. I don't know why, but it really takes concentration -- something that I haven't had until Monday, but I'm getting them done now and you can have your albums back soon, grandma!

After doing some scanning Monday morning I got on the treadmill -- popped in my Ipod (it's not really, but I don't know what else to call it) and while I'm working out that Trace Adkins song "You're Gonna Miss This" came on. Beautiful lyrics that really apply to this new chapter of my life. Then after my workout, I had turned on the radio (I'm so excited to get to listen to music again -- something best not done when you're trying to pay attention to your kids) and guess what song came on -- AGAIN? Yup. Yesterday it somehow missed me, but then I heard it again this morning, so I figure I better blog about it. You can click the link above to view the video, if you haven't seen it, but for posterities sake I'm including the lyrics to the verse that apply to me right now.

Five years later there's a plumber

workin' on the water heater.

Dog's barkin', phone's ringin',

One kid's cryin', one kid's screamin'.

And she keeps apologizin'

He says "They don't bother me.

I've got 2 babies of my own.

One's 36, one's 23.

Huh, it's hard to believe, but...

You're gonna miss this,

You're gonna want this back.

You're gonna wish these days

hadn't gone by so fast.

These are some good times,

So take a good look around.

You may not know it now,

But you're gonna miss this.

Yeah, I'll miss it. But just for a few days I'm going to enjoy my peace and quiet.

Let's Get to the Haircut

Saturday was a very full day for us. We got up really early to be down to Sandy to buy a table saw. Brandon's working on a new project (he's going to learn how to make shutters!) and so he needed some new toys. After buying the table saw we went over to another place to buy a router (he found these on Craigslist). Brandon started his own blog where he's going to post instructions on various projects he does, in hopes of helping others out. Last year we had a major problem with our van. The mechanic had priced it at $600 to get it fixed. Well, after looking online, we found a step-by-step guide someone had made to fix this problem. We bought the kit to repair it on Ebay for $90 and fixed it ourselves! So... a couple months ago when a new problem with the van arose -- we discovered it to be a very common problem with our van -- and there were no good tutorials out there, Brandon decided to make his own, and that was the start of his blog. http://brandonsprojects.blogspot.com/ I'm so excited to get my shutters, and he probably is too considering that I refused to put up my ugly, old blinds in the family room after getting our pretty, new windows.

Back to my Saturday... after getting the tools, since we were down South, we went over to Daybreak to register for a Vespa scooter they are giving away. Brandon's getting very interested in alternative forms of transportation these days, so we figured why not give it a try. And we got to look at a lot of pretty houses in the process. We only hit a fraction of what they have, but we had to get going. We stopped at Subway to grab some lunch. My little girls now think they each need their own FOOTLONGS. I let them do it, knowing we could have the leftovers for dinner -- and save me a meal to cook!

When we got home, it was time for Brandon and the girls to go clean the church. I had a photoshoot to go do -- the bridals for Wendy. She also decided to just call these her wedding pictures, so she drug her fiance along. We went up to my dad's cousin's in Layton to use his yard full of flowers, but then she decided she wanted another location for the "wedding" pictures, so we went down to Salt Lake to Memory Grove. It was a long shoot, but we had fun. By the time I got home I was pretty happy to have a leftover sub waiting for me in the fridge.

I also shot a family reunion last weekend. I've been very busy this month. And Wendy wants me to get her some business cards that she can set out at her reception next to the pictures I've taken. She's going to advertise for me! I think I better get busy on finishing up my website.

Chloe's been talking about cutting her hair again. She's been very frustrated with her bangs, so I told her we just needed to go to someone that could do a good job. I had errands to run yesterday, and she was ready to do it, so we drove over to Cookie Cutters in Bountiful (a hair cutting place just for kids). I had taken Sophie there a few weeks ago and she loved it, so we went back. We walked in and there were two employees standing behind the counter and nobody else in the place. They told me they didn't have anytime for walk-ins right then. I thought the lady was kind of rude, so we left and called Brandon to have him help us locate some other places nearby. We went looking for Fantastic Sams, but I couldn't find it, but I had seen a Super Cuts on my way there, so we went back to that. We go up to the door and the place is empty. I asked Chloe if we should just try this another day, or if she wanted to keep looking for a place. She chose "keep looking". Back to Centerville, she had her choice of Great Clips or Dollar Cuts. I didn't feel good about either one of those, but she chose Dollar Cuts. I was happy that they were cheap, and I think they did a nice job. Chloe's been spending a lot of time in the bathroom since, and even though she made such a big deal about the bangs, she's still pushing them off to the side.

Goodbye, Dallas

Wednesday night we got a surprise visit from Jason, Shalee and Eli. I was expecting Jason early Thursday morning, but I guess plans changed without my knowledge. It's always fun to see Eli, so I had to get out the camera. Plus, this was the first time any of them got to meet Makiah so I HAD to document it, right?

Dallas, Jessica, Evan and Makiah are off to Indiana. Jason went with Dallas to help him move. That's the reason for this whole get-together. And I guess my house was just an easy meeting spot. Jason and Dallas left bright and EARLY in the morning, but Jessica's sticking around for a while to spend some time with her family before she has to leave. She asked me to do a photo shoot of her kids before they leave, so we did that Thursday morning. Evan was not so into having his picture taken, so it basically turned into a Makiah shoot. I did get a couple of Evan I included, but there was no way he was going to have his picture taken WITH his sister. I posted those pictures on Picasa, but here's a few that I took Wednesday night while we were just hanging out outside.