Cousins & Birthday

Brandon told them at work just to not plan on seeing him in July. This is a crazy, fun month for us. Tuesday we got some visitors! The Kangs stopped by on their way home from visiting Washington. It was fun to see them, and we got not one, but two trips to their hotel pool! I told Chloe I need credit for those. We are leaving on our own vacation soon, and I know she's not going to get to swim as much as she'd like. After swimming on Tuesday we went out for pizza. They came over the next morning to have breakfast with us, and then we went back to the pool one more time before they left.

Yesterday we celebrated Sophie's 11th birthday. She just keeps growing up on us. I normally don't allow my kids to have birthday parties two years in a row, but last year after I got her owl party all planned we remembered that she had requested a Lion House party. They used to only host parties for 8-11 year olds, so I knew we'd have to do it this year if she was going to get one. When I went to their website to book it, the age had changed to 8-10. I felt so bad, but I told her I'd call and see how strict they were with that rule. Turns out they didn't care, so she was in luck! They were even very accommodating with the menu. They had given us the choice of turkey or tuna for lunch, so I called and asked if there was any other option, and they were happy to change it. Funny thing was the lady I worked with didn't think veggie sandwiches would be hearty enough, she thought we needed to PB&J to give them something substantial. The PB&J wasn't that good, but that's ok; they were so kind to help us out.

First things first, though! A couple months ago Sophie and her friend were "bored," and as they sat around thinking of ideas they decided to make blankets to donate to Primary Children's Hospital. They went door to door around the neighborhood asking for donations. Then they split up the money they earned and each went and purchased fabric. Then they got together again and made these blankets -- ALL ON THEIR OWN! The only thing I did was drive them to the store to buy fabric. And then they waited until Sophie's birthday when we'd be taking them to Salt Lake to deliver them. See what amazing things kids will do if you let them get a little bored.

Just to side track for a minute (since I'm thinking about it)... I know parents who stress about trying hard to make their house the "fun" house so that their kids friends will want to hang out there. I know my house will never be the fun house, because that's just not who I am. But I have been amazed at how much my children and their friends play at our home. I really believe they don't need junk food, video games, TV, endless toys. Just give them a peaceful environment and they will want to be here. So now I'll get off my soapbox and show you these amazing girls at the hospital.

Then it was on to The Lion House. We waited out front for a while for the guests to all arrive. A couple were a little late, so we had to start without them, but we were so happy when they showed up!

Once the party started they kept moving us back and forth between rooms (I think to keep the children from getting antsy, but these kids didn't need that). Our host told lots of stories about Brigham Young's life and pioneer time period.

We played "Button Button" and "Hide the Thimble," they got to write on a slate, and have a taffy pull.

They served us a little lunch (our PB&J).

And then we went outside to open gifts. Sophie had to close her eyes while the person giving her a gift disguised their voice. Sophie had to guess who it was before she could open then gift. Some of the kids were pretty good at fooling her!

Chloe got to spend some time with her very best friend. You don't think she's happy about that, do you?

Then it was back inside for cake! They gave Sophie the option of chocolate or white cake. She was having a hard time choosing, so I told her if she picked chocolate I'd have some. If she picked white I would pass. She made sure I got some cake. The baker hid a gum ball somewhere in the cake and everyone had to search their piece for it. No one at the party got it :( but we got to take the rest home, and Sophie ended up with the piece with the gum ball.

My daughter has some amazing friends. She is very lucky to get to know each one of these guys. Two of them came up to me at the party and told me it was the funnest party they had been to. And the host commented on how well behaved they were. They are just a good batch.

Getting Through the 4th of July

I tried to do an update like a month ago, but other things have taken priority and it obviously never happened. Chloe made it to girl's camp and had the time of her life. The whole ward saw a different side of her, and it's been a very positive change for her. I was hoping she'd do a blog post of her own about it, but she hasn't even gotten the pictures off her camera yet! She's as bad as her mother :)

While Chloe was at camp I signed Sophie up for an art class. It was a good distraction during those mornings, and then we fit in lots of fun activities during the afternoons.

We drove ourselves crazy looking for a house. I thought we were doing good taking our time, looking at all our options, making sure we found just the right place. And then we got sick of looking. It felt like there were no good options. Everything sucked, or was under contract the day it was listed. That's when we put pressure on ourselves. After two failed attempts (one was an error on my part, the other on the sellers) we found something that fit our criteria: tiny house on a big lot, no stucco, no HOA. And it's only 2 miles from Brandon's office, and really close to the library! It needs a lot of work, but we're excited about all it's possibilities, and Brandon LOVES projects! Maybe his blog will get some action.

Once we got the house under contract we've been so busy with all the paperwork, screaming at loan processors, getting inspections done, and then the appraisal. Now that that's final, I think we can breathe for a bit. Chloe is packing her heart out. She is such a great help around here.

We even made time to go to Bloomington for the 4th. Not that our kids would let us miss it, but we went and stayed a couple extra days at my parents. Here is some of the fun we had:

Memorial Day

My husband had to go to San Francisco this week, so I took my kids to Idaho for Memorial Day. It was just a small family gathering, but those kind don't give me a headache! We left early enough that we got there in time to go to the cemetery (at least one). They had already visited the one in Paris, but we went with them to Bloomington Cemetery.

Ross got to put the flowers on the graves. Grams is very particular about who gets which flowers, so I hope we did it right.

This little guy was there, so that means I get to take lots of pictures of him. Babies don't care if they're getting their picture taken, they just keep on acting naturally, so maybe that's what I love about them.

Hanging out at my grandpa's grave.

Nigel and his momma. He sure had fun with this flower...

Which gave my girls the idea that they needed to go pick some.

Hooking up the buggy. This was my grandpa's wagon. My dad just refinished it so we can use it in the 4th of July parade.

After we rode it around. I hope we find some new horses for the parade. These horses need to get out more!

Chloe sure loves her cousins! Maybe we should nickname this kid Frank.

Sophie was also willing to get her picture taken with him... actually, she was excited if it meant she got to hold him.

Grandma taught the girls a new craft.

I got a family portrait! Nigel had a good grip on the piece of cantaloupe.

He wasn't letting his mom get much crocheting done.

Ross did a great job getting the lawn mowed. I took Nigel out with me to get a picture of him, and Nigel ended up on the mower as well.

The lake was so pretty as we drove into the valley that morning. On the way back I decided I would actually stop and get a picture. I still don't think this does it justice.

Balloons * Diamond Take 2

I'm going to call this a picture post. There's not much to say, but I have a lot of pictures that tell the story better than I ever could. I was just going to upload the pictures from our recent camping trip, but when I turned the camera on there were a bunch of photos of the girls playing with their water balloons. They came and asked me to take pictures one day of them playing with these balloons. I did a few, but then they ended up taking many more on their own. So most of these belong to Chloe or Sophie.

I'm including this one to show my daughter's obsession with the 4th of July. She talks about it EVERY DAY. She sings about it. She tells people she loves it more than Christmas, even though she has to keep the Christmas songbook out on the piano year round.

Now on to camping... We needed to use up our free voucher we got from our last trip to Diamond Campground. We didn't have to go back to the same campground, but we did because it was easy. We went on Tuesday night, and finally found a nice time to camp in Utah. You just have to go on a weeknight while school is still in session. We had a good time, the weather was nice, and there were no people to bother us. Chloe was a little sad we only planned one night, but she got over it once we were there. She is going to love girls camp (coming up in just a few weeks!). Anyway, on to the pictures.

Acting Debut

One of the field trips we've gone on since I last updated was out at Deer Creek State Park. They had a falcon demonstration for us, and then afterward we did a service project, cleaning up the park.

I told you about the 9 year old who purchased the glasses Brandon wanted just before he got in to buy them, so he had them order him a new pair. Well, after a couple weeks (when they were supposed to be in) we stopped in the store to see if by chance they had come and they just hadn't gotten around to calling him. They didn't have them. But then a day or two later he got a call saying they were not able to order the color he wanted. So, we had to go back and look at the other color options. I honestly can't tell any difference between the color he wanted and the color he got. And I think he looks very handsome in his new glasses.

We've had to spend a couple Saturdays in Centerville working on the house. That is no sacrifice for the girls.

We got rid of a ton of our junk at a homeschool swap. Our ward in Centerville did these each spring, so I was glad when I found a lady here organizing one. We got rid of a lot more than we took home. Sophie even got excited about it. She's been cleaning out her drawers and desk. I'm so proud of her. Chloe is the ultimate minimalist. She's willing to get rid of even more than I am! She's good for me, and she helps me get things cleaned out when I'm too slow to get to it. We've also been selling a lot on KSL, so they've been able to make a little money as well.

I have a friend who is in the movie business. She's been in several commercials and things, and you can see her in the upcoming "Ephraim's Rescue"! Her husband is a director/producer. They are working on a project for The Hole-in-the-Rock that will be shown at the visitor center in Bluff. They needed some extras for the movie, so I volunteered the girls and I. We filmed it yesterday up at This Is The Place Heritage Park. We had to be there at 6:30 AM. That made for a very early morning for us, and we were there until after 4:00. It was a long day, but the girls were great. I think they now know they don't want to go into acting, but hopefully they gained some appreciation and understanding of the whole process.

As usual, I didn't take my camera. I'm always so scared of lugging it around with me at things like this, and then I regret it! There were several people there taking pictures, so hopefully I'll get some of us soon, but here are a couple generic shots someone else took.