Mystery solved!

We had a big problem in this old house for the past week or so. We started to smell sewer gas coming from the kitchen sink. We did a little research, made some calls, and spent some time cleaning out & bleaching the pipes. We left the window open all week so we wouldn't pass out from the smell.

After all this work, we could still pick up the smell. It was very frustrating!

Tonight I was standing at the sink and noticed the flower pot we have had there for a few weeks. I thought maybe the soil had gotten moldy or something. I picked it up, smelled the soil and then realized this awful smell we have been trying to eradicate for a week was coming from the beautiful bloom.

Christmas Break 2016

Even though I only had seven days off of work, I still managed to get a lot done during Christmas break. Mind you, my focus was not on getting things done. It was on plain old relaxing and having fun with my kids. I like to think back on all that we did so I know that the break was 100% worth it.

Just for fun

• went to a BYU basketball game
• watched the entire season 5 of Once Upon a Time
• lots of fires, movies and popcorn
• made yummy homemade treats
• swimming in the swim spa
• had school friends over
• read a book The Keeper (almost finished)
• watched some adorable neighbor kids so their parents could get home improvements done
• date night- saw Rogue One in the fancy recliner theater while kids had a sleepover at cousins
• went to Peppermint Place on it's last day and bought a bunch of candy at 75% off

Things that were accomplished:

• Balanced the checkbook and set up a Roth IRA account!
• Finally redid the caulking in the shower. Yahoo! That's been on my list for about a year.
• Made a few dreaded phone calls (RC Willey, PG City, Arctic Spa Store)
• trip to DI
• hung up pictures on the walls downstairs
• Kimee got to go to the temple, practice her ensemble piece, and almost finish her math homework.
• Audrey practiced basketball with dad and is almost finished her Faith in God.
• Maddi learned a bunch of tricks on her string and cleaned her room.

Two birthday girls!!

We had a really fun few days for Kimee and Audrey's birthday. Each girl had three days in a row of festivities. It started Wednesday with Audrey's school friends party.
Beaux, Aspen, Kyser, Nan, and Jensyn were able to come. We drove around doing Random Acts of Kindness for strangers. Their favorite one was the Ding Dong doorbell ditching.

Then Thursday, the 21st, Dad took the day off work so that he could spend the day with the girls on their birthday. We started the day off early making breakfast bake and singing Happy Birthday to Kimee at 6:41am. Dave took Audrey and Maddi to their last day of volleyball camp. Then we all went to Kimee's (and Stephanie's) summer orchestra concert at PGJH. The Henrie's came too.
After the concert, we all went out to lunch at Costa Vida. It was a blast. Then we came home for a little rest.

Thursday night, we went to Pizza Pie cafe for dinner and then came back in time to get ready for the party.

Thursday night we hosted a really fun combined neighborhood friend backyard party. We did smore's, watched a movie in the backyard,  and swam in the swim spa. There was: Sean, David (and Sarah for a little while), Isaac and Eliza, Isabelle and Landon came to hang out with Maddi, Michael, Axel, Stephanie, Caroline (Anna was sick and couldn't come). We had sodas and I made popcorn outside. At the end, we sang Happy Birthday and had a big Costco chocolate cake.

Everyone asks me if I am OK with having a teenager. But the fact is, Kimee has acted like a teenager for a few years, so it just seems like I have been waiting for the formality of her actually turning 13.

We discovered that Kimee and Audrey are the SAME HEIGHT!! No more "big" sister for Audrey.

On Friday morning, Hadley and Emma came and picked up Kimee and Audrey for their annual birthday shopping spree. They were SOOO excited for this adventure with their cousins. They shopped at the mall and went to lunch at Applebee's.

Friday afternoon, we went to the Manila pond with the Henrie's. It was lots of fun. We got out the new inner tubes we got at Costco. Friday night we took a break and ate leftovers and watched a movie while mom and dad read their books:)

Saturday was Kimee's final celebration with her school friend's party. We did the Random Act's theme and it was lots of fun! For Kimee's dinner choice, she wanted Big Island Sam's for her birthday. So we went there after her party. YUM!!

Next year we will be taking the year off of birthday parties (hooray) except for Dad's big decade celebration.

Summer To Do List- June

One of my biggest worries about summer, or any break from school, is that I won't get everything done on my To Do list.
This summer, my goal was to keep it simple and really focus on what I really wanted to get done.
June was amazing! I got so much done. Even in just one day, I was able to check so much off my list.

JUNE
Fun Stuff:
Huck Finn day
camping
Lagoon x2
cousin sleepover
lots of swimming
girls camp
dentist- no cavities for anyone, yeah!!!

My Projects:
camp prep
make cards
flex spending solved
classroom painted
Kimee's sax

House Projects:
pocket doors painted & fixed
trim on mirrors
finish painting trim
paint bathroom ceiling
carpet repair done
kitchen decorations

CHOIR Concert

This year has been a new adventure for Maddi, Audrey and Mom:) For some crazy reason, I decided to help out by conducting the struggling school choir. It added a lot of stress into my life, and "choir" became an overused word in our house. However, the girls loved it and so did their friends at school. I loved it too, during choir time when I was singing fun songs with the kids (just not all the prep or the concert stress).

After our spring concert, we went to Smoking Apple for a yummy, relaxing dinner.

Audrey

Audrey is so excited that she gets to be a lunch lady at school this week. Today she got to serve out mini corn dogs. She couldn't believe how quick you have to work. Three of her best friends got assigned to do it with her. How lucky is that! She is excited because on Friday she gets to serve the Valentine's Day cookies. How fun and yummmm!

Amazing Day

We had such an amazing day today. Actually, it started last night. We had our good friends, the Seamons, over for swimming and s'mores. At the end, their mom cam to pick the kids up and we sat around the fire visiting for a little while. She mentioned that she was going to take Caroline in to do baptisms at the temple in the morning. Kimee said how bad she wanted to go and how we hadn't been able to go yet. Mary said she would be happy to take her. It was Caroline's first time going. So this morning Kimee and I went with them to the Timpanogos Temple at 6am. It was perfect. Kimee and Caroline were baptized together when they turned 8, and now they got to be together for another special first. It really was so perfect for so many reasons.

The beginning of this story is that a few weeks ago, I was really stressed out. When school started, I was so on top of everything. I actually thought for a few days that I wouldn't get my normal totally and completely overwhelmed feeling that I get every year when school starts and I think I cannot survive as a working mom. And then everything started going south- Audrey crying every night about not wanting to go to her new school and Maddi was having major clothing issues. Every day, by 8am, I was already completely emotionally drained. I was almost in a daze for a few days. Luckily, I already had the first week of school planned. But with teaching, you can never stay on top of things unless you spend 24 hours a day at the school. So within a few days, I already had a huge pile of stuff to do. We had to go in for 2 movie nights at school the next week, one on Monday and one on Friday to try and catch up!

Anyway, that first week that I was so overwhelmed, I really wanted to escape. I kept trolling Worldmark Reservations looking and hoping for something. Actually, I had been doing that for a couple of weeks, ever since I got back from girls camp. As soon as girls camp was over, I was so relieved. All those months of preparation and thinking about nothing but camp were finally over. And I was ready for my summer vacation to start. I wanted desperately to go somewhere to escape my stress and the chaos at home. On Friday night, I went to lay down for just a minute, and I had the thought to go check for bonus time. Miraculously, there was a Friday/Sat open at Wolf Creek. I quickly reserved it and even found a sub for my class so we could leave around noon to do some fun stuff on the way up and beat the Labor Day weekend traffic. It cheered me up a lot to know I just needed to get through two weeks of school and I could be up in one of my favorite places in the whole world. Unfortunately, Dave couldn't get work off and Kimee did not want to get check out of school. I didn't want to fight through traffic and get up there late. It was a painful decision, but I went ahead and cancelled the reservation this Monday. I was sad about it, but was glad it would save us money and committed to myself that we would have just as much fun, if not more, staying home.

We have had "Hiking the G" on our Fun List for months and months. So when I cancelled Wolf Creek, I decided we were going to fit in some things that we never have time to do. Saturday morning was "Hiking the G". When Kimee and I got back from the temple, we got everyone up, packed up our water and snacks, and left around 8am. We had a great time hiking up to the G. The weather was cool and breezy and we were in the shade or cloud cover the whole time. There were no injuries or complaining. We were worried about Maddi being able to do it, but she did awesome in her too big dress shoes and she was at the front of the pack for almost the whole time. Not to be forgotten was when we went through the forrest of bugs. Even though we stopped a lot to rest and marvel at the view, we made it up there and back in pretty good time. Enough that we were able to come back, eat breakfast, and still make it to a baptism for a cute girl in our ward.

After the baptism we started getting ready for our amazing BYU football game spread. We had planned to have snacky foods for lunch, yummy treats, and watch the BYU game as a family. Audrey and I went and picked up buffalo chicken wings and Cravings cupcakes. It was so fun to watch the game together. I don't remember the last time I have watched that much of a game and really been aware of the score and what was going on most of the time. The team did really well in the first half and then struggled in the 2nd half. Several players got injured. It looked like we were going to lose. Kimee and Audrey weren't watching the game anymore. But with just a few minutes left I called everyone back and said we have to watch the end of this game. They missed a field goal and other chances for a first down. The announcers kept talking about how Nebraska hadn't lost their opening game in over 50 years. With 1 second to go in the game, BYU's freshman second string quarterback throws a 50ish yard hail mary pass, and the receiver barely gets in the endzone to win the game. IT WAS AMAZING!!! It was one of the coolest endings to a football game you could ever imagine and we were watching it together as a family.

Today was such a special day, I don't want to forget about it:)

Summer Fun List

Every year as the school year comes to an end, I actually start to dread the last day because once summer is here, I know it will disappear so quickly. It's almost more fun to think about all that you will do then to be disappointed in all the you didn't accomplish.
To help me feel better, I like to focus on what I DID get done


Summer Fun!
Weekend Trips to: Vernal, Wolf Creek
Day Trips to: HeeHaw farms
Summer library & movie days in the classroom
violin lessons, voice camp, summer band & orchestra
Huck Finn Days, rodeo, parade
pool, Manila Pond
Manti pageant
cousin sleepover
friend play dates
Lagoon
zoo

Summer Projects
school binders (2 years worth)
garage door fixed
camp, camp, more camp

Wolf Creek

We had such a great time on our weekend at Wolf Creek this summer (July 10-12)! We picked up Dave from work at noon, stopped to get Hadley and Zach, and got up there on Friday at 2. We were splitting the condo with the Sinemas so we got to have some time with them before they left.
The Foxes were in another condo just two stairwells away. We got to celebrate Brandon and Katelyn's birthday with a marshmallow war, pasta bar, and yummy, adorable dragon cakes. Easton and Skyler even stopped in on their way down from Logan. After dinner everyone went for a swim. It was so much fun to have time with our cousins and friends.
On the way up to Wolf Creek, we asked Maddi if she was going to go down the slide. Every year she says she will do it, but when we get there, she gets too scared. I think she has even gone up to the top of the slide, but then come back down the stairs. So this year in the car, she said, basically, "No. I am not going down the slide, and you can't make me". Right then, I reminded her, "Maddi, you rode on the Jet Star at Lagoon over and over. You can go down a tiny little slide." And she immediately agreed. When we got to the pool, she didn't need any encouraging. She went down it lots and lots of times and loved it.
After the swim, Kimee and Audrey talked Easton and Skyler into staying for a game of mafia before they had to leave. They played 3 rounds, with Kimee, Audrey and Easton each taking a turn as narrator. It was so much fun! Hadley and Zach stayed for breakfast Saturday and then had to get back home to work. We were so glad they were able to come.
Saturday, we did more swimming, playing volleyball, bug catching, and games with the Foxes. Maddi and Katilyn were inseparable. Kimee, Audrey, Blake, and Derek played a few more rounds of mafia and Apples to Apples. We even squeezed in a few games of Rummikub.
Sunday we packed up, went to the Eden ward, and headed home in time for my camp meeting:) Wishing we could stay up there forever.

the Farm

Dave's friend Cheryl from work has an awesome farm with all sorts of animals at it. We usually go visit once or twice a year. It's been on our summer list, and we finally made it out there on Thursday, July 9 The baby goats are so fun!

This time we brought Sarah with us and also met up with Maddi's teacher and her family.
It had been a stormy week, so we were hoping the rain held out. Luckily for us, it did. Right when we were getting ready to go, the rain came and the wind started blowing like crazy.  We jumped in the car to come home. There was a giant double rainbow that we could see the whole way home. It was so amazing!