Family Christmas card

Here is what we put together on the computer to send out to people this year. Only trouble was, we didn't have all of our addresses together and thus didn't get enough printed to send out. When all the cards from other friends started arriving, we had to quickly print off some more. Next year, we will be ready!

https://acrobat.com/#d=Kn6WnZMqxpcdIIMdSSgCIg

Tried to post this on facebook, but would not allow posting pdf file. If this link doesn't work, let me know.

Random Christmas Memory

This week I had a funny Christmas memory pop into my head...

The year was 2003 and Aaron was in medical school. Becca was about 7 months and Sarah had just turned 3. I had picked up a few things at yard sales and stashed them until Christmas but didn't really have a wow present, we just didn't have the money. Christmas Eve I was passing by the large garbage bin (really a fenced in area where you could ditch couches, bikes, larger items) and I saw a cute slide and thought that was a perfect wow gift. After the kids went to sleep I went out and got it and brought it in. I started to wash it off and it cleaned up really well. Then I noticed ants, lots of ants, lots of big ants crawling out of the wholes of the slide. They had gone into hibernation in the slide but when they came into the warmth of the house they woke up. This did not phase me. I took the slide apart and took the yellow part up to the bathroom where I rinsed the ants out. I added bleach and rinsed and rinsed until all the ants were gone. I assembled the slide put a bow on it and the girls loved it in the morning. Becca was only 7 months but she could climb and slide like a pro!

graham cracker houses

Every year growing up we made graham cracker houses...we have carried on the tradition with one exception, Aaron thinks it is just gross to wait a whole month before eating the houses so we only wait 24 hours. Becca's is a temple, Sarah was making a spaceship but then changed to a frog, Aaron's is a tree house, and mine, David's and Emma's are just normal houses. Emma ate more candy than she put on her house. Hum, we probably all did :)

Actual conversations

David: Emma, tackle me. Hey Emma, tackle me.
Emma daintily tiptoes over and tickles him making tickling noise.

David: No, no, no. I didn't say TICKLE I said TACKLE. Like this...
Emma: Wah, wah, wah.

Poor David, no one to tackle him.

In the car.

David: Moooooom, Emma learned how to say the word bum. (like he was tattling on her for using fowl language)

Too cute!

Sometimes life is just too cute! I have the best video of Emma feeding David popcornn but it just won't load! I don't know why. I have tried twice and even let it run over night.

David is my most affectionate child. He loves cuddling, snuggling, playing with my hair and sitting on my lap. Emma is all girl. She loves cute things, lip gloss, babies and shoes. If anyone has a good suggestions on how to make my movie work please share!

Happy Halloween...almost.

Tonight it rained on and off while we went trick or treating. Emma LOVED it. She was fascinated that people would give her candy. She would open up one candy and lick it and then open another candy. Half way through the night David fell down (it was kind of hard to walk in the box) and half of his Lego pieces fell off so we made him into a domino. Sarah was Yoshi (a dragon from super Mario brothers..you can't see her spikes and tail.) Becca was a cat...you have to love the simplicity of a cat :)

Can you guess who's pumpkin is whose.

Happy birthday and a happy trip too!

Sarah celebrated her birthday 4 times this year! Her first party was about 10 days before her real birthday. She had a dragon party with about 8 friends complete with dragon games, pizza, how to train your dragon movie and dragon cake. She really enjoyed it! Then we went to California this weekend and had cake with Grandma and Grandpa Smalley and then we went to Great Grandma Smalley's house and he cake there too. Becca said, this is the birthday that just doesn't end! Then we went to Disneyland on her actual birthday and she had a button that said Today is my birthday so EVERYONE in the park wished her happy birthday. I think she felt really special :)

Poor little Emma conked out right before the carousel. When we were standing in line for Peter Pan (probably the longest line we had to stand in ~ 15 minutes) she wanted to ride the carousel SO bad, but they were closing the park so she never made it!

The girls went on the "fast cup" and dad, David and Emma rode in the "slow cup" I was so proud of the kids for trying almost every ride (space and splash mountain not included...next time...)

A little swimming fun at Grandma's house...it was chilly, but the kids loved every minute of it!

I had never been to Tom Sawyers island before and it was AWESOME. We had a blast exploring the caves and climbing up and down things. Can you tell Emma just woke up.

First ride was Finding Nemo. It was cool how they played the movie in the water!

Last but not least we met mickey. He was really the only character we saw the whole day. We mostly stuck with the rides and apparently missed the parade, but Emma LOVED seeing him. She gave him a great big hug and kiss.

Saying goodbye to grandma...it was just too quick of a trip. We will have to make it again soon :)

Last one for the day...

Sarah had her last soccer game Thursday. They won 2-1. She scored BOTH goals! Go Sarah! I wish I would have been a good mom and taken my camera (even to ONE game, oh well, next year!) She started off the season really timid and not very aggressive. They one their first game, but then none after that. I think she realized that if they were going to win she had to do something about it. I wish soccer was there when I was in High School, I think I would have loved it!

Hiking Stewart Falls

Mine and Aaron's first date was hiking at Stewart Falls, 12 years and 4 kids later we returned. It was a 4 mile hike and there was a little bit of grumbling but all in all we had a fantastic time. Aaron was a trouper and carried Emma the majority of the way. I didn't think the colors would have changed because in the valley we are still green, but the colors were great! It made me miss fall in the East, looking out my back door and seeing so many beautiful colors. I guess I just have to be grateful for 4 seasons and any color I can get!

clear creek

The fourth graders in my kid's school go on an overnight camp out at Clear Creek. I was fortunate enough to be a parent volunteer. We had a great time. It was full of games, activities, hiking and team building experiences. The kids thought it was great fun staying together in one big cabin. I LOVED it. I was going to post a picture of the kids but then thought that some of the parents might not want me to...

underwear bandits

Emma loves putting underwear on her head! One day I was doing laundry and Emma started putting Becca's dirty underwear on her head. I gave her clean ones instead. David thought Emma looked great so he thought he would join in on the action. I came down to put the laundry in and this is what I saw




I asked him why they were eating cherries and he said because Emma wanted some. Nice convenient scape goat!

New fish!!

Yesterday, we got some new fish with 2 tanks. Julie found them on KSL.com. Sarah won one fish at school and bought another (both goldfish) and the tanks came with a beta fish (in David's room) and a silver tetra, an orange dwarf molly and an algae eater (the biggest fish). We put the big tank in the TV room and the water filter noises are a nice calming sound during the day. The kids have also named all the fish already! Enjoy the pictures.

This is Oscar, outside his "trash can." He's a little shy, but big and fast.

Brutus (small orange goldfish), Nero (Big orange and white goldfish) and Nacho (small dwarf orange molly).

Flame (silver tetra).

Bob the Blob (the beta).

My poor neglected blog

Sigh, I thought with school starting that I would be less busy...ha. We are attempting to get all the summer projects done before it gets too cold. We are in the process of sanding our stairs before we can stain it the same color as the deck (which was unfinished wood when we moved in so we had to clean that too). It has been a good little project. I hope to be done with it by the end of September. Then there is the kitchen cabinets. I have not liked them from the minute we bought the house...hopefully by the time Thanksgiving rolls around we will be done with that little project. In the mean time it is harvest season and today I bottled 12 pints of peach jam and 7 bottles of peaches and there are grapes in the steamer for juice (which this is my first attempt so we will see how it goes.) I have also been trying to get out of the cooking rut...I have been quite successful with recipes from several cooking blogs. Really I don't know how they do it! The sites I have come across that I like are recipeshoebox.blogspot.com crockpot365.blogspot.com 365daysofcrockpot.com and the old standbys sisterscafe and melskitchen I have tried to be more organized by planning meals. It really works so much better this way! I have so great pics of the David and Emma that I will post maybe after I check on the grapes. We also had a FUN cookout with my sister and her family. It is always great to get together with them!

First Day of School

Sarah is a big 4th grader, Becca an amazing 2nd grader and David is in Mommy school. Sigh, they are growing up too fast!

Camping

Last weekend we went camping and had a blast! We roasted marshmallows, saw TONS of beautiful stars, slept on rocks (literally) and boated in the lake. We wanted one last hurrah before school starts. the boat was a little awkward and I kept going in0 circles, but we had fun anyway.

Locks of Love

Becca's hair FINALLY was long enough to cut. You have to have 10 inches to donate. I think we will do it again, and I might just do it next time :) Sorry I have the after and before pictures mixed up :)

riding on the bull

Last Saturday we had to get our cars inspected. We had a coupon for $10 inspection which saved us about $25. Well, so did a lot of other people. When we dropped our cars off at 9 in the morning the guy said, we will have these done by 2. What do you do then...you ride a bull of course.

we didn't realize that it was a local festival going on so we had a great time at a petting zoo, inflatables, rock walls, and watching burly Scottish men chuck heavy things. after spending the money at the carnival, lunch and the Hawaiian shack we still saved $15 AND made great memories :)

top 10

Top 10 reasons why I don't want summer to end

10. We can't go to the pool when ever we want.
9. David's playmates will all go back to school
8. The girls will be gone all day!
7. I will have to do my "chores" all by myself
6. Homework
5. It will get dark and cold
4. I love having the kids home with me
3. No more lazy days and adventures
2. I have to think about what to make for dinner
1. I love summer!

David jumping off the board

This is David going off the low diving board. He went off the high one too. That kid is fearless. Kinda scares me.

Off the board

Here is a video of the kids going off the board. I dove off the high dive and realized that I don't know how to dive off the high dive because it HURT!

Only 15 days left!

I can't believe that we only have 15 more days of "summer!" We have had such a great one. We have been frog hunting, swimming, balloon gazing and more swimming. David can now go off the diving board by himself. I get a little nervous when I see his little head bob up and down as he swims to the side, but he loves it. He even went off the high dive. He climbed the stairs and just ran right off.

We only have a few more days of our Thanksgiving Point membership so we went last week to the big gardens to look for frogs. We started at the waterfalls and worked our way down the stream to the pond. We saw 6 frogs, numerous dragonflies but Emma's favorite part was feeding the huge fish.

Friday morning we went to Sandy to see a hot air balloon festival. They were supposed to fly 15 balloons, but it was too windy. They blew up about 7 balloons just to see some color. It was fun, but we had to wake the kids up to go and they were a wee bit grumpy by the end of the day (can you say David had a screaming tantrum at the pool and I just kept walking...yeah, not fun)

We have been getting together with my sister and that has been fun. Last week they came here and we tie dyed shirts (she forgot to bring hers to AZ) and then we made snow cones.

We are still looking forward to going camping (next weekend), Aaron and I are going to Sundance this weekend for dinner and an outdoor theater show (thank you UVRMC), classic fun center and a lot more swimming.

Waterman Family Reunion

We had such a blast getting together with my parents and all of my brothers and sisters. The first three days we stayed at a resort which was fun. We swam, hung out, and went canoeing. The weather was okay. It rained a lot, but I guess when they are praying for rain you take it when you get it. When the kids went to bed the adults played some fun group games. On Saturday we went to my parents house. We went to a parade (which made me realize that our parade here is really good) then we made tie die shirts. It was fun although Grandpa didn't get to make one and at the end we were only down to camo colors.

We have been swimming a lot. Sarah stays the whole time on the diving boards. It is fun to watch her. Emma likes the water more now but still prefers to hang out on the side of the pool. Becca loves the slide and diving board and swimming with David. David likes to swim underwater. He likes swimming for the torpedo.

Here is a cute video of Emma at the beginning of the summer.

You know you are having a great summer when...

You don't have time to blog about it!

Man this summer has FLOWN by! We went to California to a Smalley family reunion. We had such a great time just hanging out, swimming and playing games. I just love them! I was so bugged that my camera battery died! Hopefully I will get some pictures from others in the family.

Last weekend my sister watched my kids while I went to youth conference. I had a wonderful time. The girls are incredible. We had fun games and great classes...it made me want to be a better person! I also realized that I am grateful that I will never have to go to a stake dance again! Whew, I never knew how awkward it is!