Family Pictures

Yay, family picture time! My amazingly talented and beautiful friend Julie took some pictures for us a few weeks back. It turns out the twins were totally sick (which we found out the next day) so they were a tad grumpy. And Andrew was grumpy and insisted on holding a stick the whole time, but since they were outdoor pictures, we decided to embrace it.

I'm starting to miss it.....

I'm been trying so hard lately to learn new things and to really stretch myself. Canning, sewing (lol......it ain't pretty, I need a lot more practice) making magnets, you know...all that crafty stuff that I've never been interested in very much 'cause I wasn't good at it. I'm kind of tired of making so many mistakes and starting over, or just sort of pretending I know what I'm doing. It makes me miss stuff I know I can do, like catering. We've taken a couple of years off, but I think I may be ready to jump in again. I miss the fast pace, the craziness and then everything coming together in the end. So intense, so stressful, so tiring and so incredibly fun!

Sigh..... I miss tablecloths.....

A Life Worth Remembering....

On Sunday night Jesse and I attended a memorial for my friend Dave. He would have been 30 on July 4th of this year. It was so wonderful to see Robin and Janene, it's been too long. We had dinner in a Pavillion behind a church house and then went inside and watched a video. It was so surreal to see Dave in the videos, so full of life. It was so great. Robin then got up and talked about how they wanted to have this memorial because all of his grandchildren didn't know a lot about Dave. He said everytime they asked about him, he just cried, and he wanted them to know more about him than that.He said, Dave's life was a life worth remembering. So we then took turns standing and sharing memories about Dave, with the children gathered in front, while they videotaped it. It was really fun to hear some of the fun memories people had of him and the touching ones as well. Afterward, we all walked across the street to gather at his grave. It was crazy, I hadn't been there in soooo long, but I had spent so much time there. Hours and hours and hours. Luckily Sarah had brought some pennies with her and so we were able to leave some. Just like we used to do for YEARS. Good memories. It was an event that shaped the rest of my life and taught me a lot about life, love and living your life to the fullest. And it helped me form some of the most important friendships of my life.

Some of the most precious people in my life, Sarah, Robin and Janene.
( and yes Janene is holding firecrackers. That's just how she rolls!)

More info on Dave (this was more for my benefit so I have everything electronically)
:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/494248/UTAH-BOY-DIES-ON-REMOTE-HIKE.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/494487/BOYS-RUSHED-FOR-WATER-IN-TRY-TO-SAVE-SCOUT.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/494703/DEATH--DAVID-BLAINE-PHILLIPS.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898555/

Old Friends and Treasure Hunts

Jesse and I went to my friend Jeanette's concert at the Assembly Hall. It was AMAZING! Seriously, this family is so talented. It was so awesome to hang out with Sarah and John and to see Jeanette!!! She looks absolutely fabulous. Here is some pictures from the concert:

( Yes I stole this from you Jeanette, thanks!!!)

While we were at the concert, my sister Cherilyn did the greatest job babysitting all the kiddos. Here is a post about the fun they had. Thanks Cherilyn!!!

My babies

My amazing friend Julie snapped some pictures of the babies today when she babysat. We're planning on doing a formal picture taking with all the kiddos next week, but these pictures are just too cute. Thanks Julie!!!





Next time you babysit Julie, I'm sending the babies over in their Sunday best and their hair all done up!!!

Wee wee wee, all the way home...

Maddi made a animal diorama for the school animal fair. She was assigned to do a pig! Which is PERFECT since she LOVES pigs! We gave her lots of ideas of how to make a cool diorama and then gave her some materials and she went to town. She had me draw a barn so she could color it in and put it as a background. She then went outside and found some dead grass and glued it in there for hay on the barn. I asked her if she wanted me to make play-dough so we could mold a pig but she wanted to draw it herself and then water color it, so that's what we did. She then made a fence and tree out of pipe cleaners. The tree doesn't have leaves though because "it's the fall" she said. She glued cotton balls on the blue sky and made a hay stack. And then for a finishing touch, she glued some corn on the "ground" She had a BLAST! She then typed up her OWN report as I told her what to say (yes it took a long time to write a little paragraph, but it's ok) We were so proud of her! We had a lot of fun!

Grandma came to the little fair they had at the school and here we are outside, it was COLD that day!

Here's one with me, so that we remembered I was there!

And this is me realizing there are about a billion parents all sitting in their cars watching us as they pick their kids up."Did you get the picture? Let's go!"

Maddism

Mom is making Pink Lemonade and Maddi asks to stir.

Mom: I'm not sure that's a good idea, there is alot of water here, I don't want you to spill.

Maddi: Oh, it's ok. I've had a LOT of underwater training...

Well, good to know....if I ever need to go on an emergency submarine mission, you're my gal...

Maddi doing some under water training