Kids fun for Saturday

We blew up the pool and put it on the porch so the kids could play in it on Saturday. They were entertained for hours. You know what interests me is there was a time that I would have never let them play in the pool unsupervised and even now if there was a friend was over I wouldn't let them swim unsupervised, but for some reason I felt it was okay for my kids to be in a pool outside with out me. Hmmm... Anyways they were swimming while Don and I......

Our fun on Saturday

Drywall, Baby! Okay so I am the glorified screw passer girl. Poor Don. We had to put up the ceiling drywall first and it was whole sheets at a time. We built a T to help Don hold it up while I was to screw it in. Well if you look at the second picture in the far left hand corner I put in one screw. Don was holding up the drywall and putting in screws. Amazing. I'm just not that fast and I can't eye ball it. It was driving me crazy. I did do some of the wall drywalling (Don got the camera, hence the bum shots).

Tah-dah. I now have a drywalled room, lights and ac. Pretty cool, huh? This week we are planning to do some taping and muding. Hey did I mention that I helped wire in the three switches down in that picture, we are also going to wire my plethora of outlets this week I am way excited!

First pic looking from the doorway, second looking from the laundry to the right of the door. Last pic looking at the wall by the closet.

Check this out!

My mother-in-law bought this shirt for Holly at Goodwill. I think someone put it in the wrong section because it says it is a small juniors. It fits Holly fine and I love the texture of it, but it also fits me!! CRAZY. It totally tripped Don out. (oh and by the way I am wearing it over a sundress that is over a t-shirt too).

Did you see that?

Don and I were working in the basement reno and I looked up just in time to see Josh chasing a cottontail rabbit. He later told me that he (meaning Josh) was on the playground when he saw an interesting (yes he did say interesting) butterfly. So he started to follow it around our yard when it stopped next to a rabbit. He thought that he would try to pet the rabbit when it took off. This is the picture Josh drew after the experience, and that is pretty much what it looked like.

Great idea

One of the YW in our ward had this great idea to do a super Saturday for the girls in YW and their mothers. They asked 8 different women to come and speak for about 15-20 minutes and help the girls pass off a goal for each value in their personal progress book. My subject was Divine Nature. I was suppose to help them memorize the sacrament prayers and share some thoughts on motherhood.

I hope that the YW got as much out of it as I did. I loved getting to know the other speakers a little better and being touched by their spirits. You might wonder why so many people are wearing white. All the speakers were asked to wear white and the color of their value. Mine was blue. I didn't share 1/2 of what I prepped and I went over the time allotted, but it was still a wonderful experience and an excellent idea by a special YW. Her heart was truly in it.

Josh's latest artwork

As I said in a different post Josh loves superheros. His latest artwork he likes to color and cut out the person. First up are our hero's. From left to right: Superman, Batman, Spider man and Wolverine.


Next we have characters from Super Why: Princess Pea (I think he did a great job on the eyes and scale), Super Why and oh I forget his name something pig.


















Holly is all into Ariel so he made her a mermaid.

His first day of school he drew this do you remember what he wore? But I bet you didn't see the hole in the knee that he thought was pretty cool. He captured it in this picture. The lady with him is his teacher.

Underwear-bowl?

I told Holly that she looked adorable today. She said, "Thanks, Mom....... What does underwear bowl mean". Big smile on my face. I wonder what she thought I was calling her or what underwear bowl means to her. Hmmm.

It looks more complete than this.

I just can't capture how far we came this weekend on the reno. Don nervously let me use the chop saw. I was so proud to expand my reno abilities. We got three doorways framed in, almost all the insulation put in. Don finished putting up the green board in my laundry area. We have to frame around one pipe, re route some electrical and get ready for a computer socket, and dry wall. Don hopes to dry wall my room next weekend. It would be cool, but his work has been crazy so we shall see. Actually you will see by the pics.

My room looking from the inside out, my closet wall, my room looking from the outside in.

Josh gave a talk

Josh gave his second talk in his primary career. This one was more mommy prep than Josh. The subject was Jesus Christ has power over death. I tried to sit down and discuss this with him. I related stories and asked if he knew what happened to Jesus after he died. He knew that Jesus was resurrected, but he couldn't remember much more. I put some simple things to read on the back of some pictures and made sure he closed his talk with his own feelings. All in all he did a really good job giving it. The mic. was out and Don, who was standing in the back, said he spoke clearly. I am very proud of my little Josh. His testimony of the gospel is slowly growing. He knows he is a child of God and he knows that Jesus loves him. He knows because Jesus was resurrected that we all will be resurrected to. Step by step.

What old people do for fun

My friend had this on facebook. Thought it was so funny.

Special Ring

Today I let Holly wear a ring to church. Not the gum ball or plastic princess sort of jewelery but a real ring. It was my grandmothers ring when she was a little baby to toddler. It has her initisals(spelled wrong) R M on it for Ramona Mae. My grandmother and my great-grandmother (Zelia) hated their first names. They both shared the same middle name which was not so vile to them. When Don and I were figuring out Holly middle name I thought that would be a great honor to them. Holly asked what the letters were for so I told her that it had been her great-grandmothers ring when she was a child. That there was something very special about it that she shared her middle name with her great-grandmother. I told her she could wear it at church every week if she promised to leave it on. It would be a new special tradition. We made it through the first week and now the ring sits in mommies jewelery box waiting for the next Sabbath day.

First day of first grade!

Josh was so excited for his first day of school. This crazy kid loves school. Anybody he can tell he wants to tell them about his new teacher, Mrs. R.

Josh was so proud of this t-shirt. When I was getting end of the summer shirts for next year I let him pick one fun shirt (and by this I mean not limiting him to the $3 price range). He picked out this Marvel t-shirt. Josh is REALLY into the superheros right now. He loves to draw them (future blog). He just couldn't wait to wear the shirt, so I hid it until the first day of school.

Holly is so jealous of Josh going to school. Her time is coming next year, but she wishes it was now. I think that she misses her brother as well. I didn't realize how much they entertained each other.

Here is Josh outside of his classroom and a shot of him at his desk. I think he was ready for Holly and I to leave at this point. Holly left sniffling about staying. I was proud of myself for not crying. He had a great day!

Ah the memories

Two things.

First I love the library for giving us coupons for reading books. So many of the things that usually cost money and are fun come from this coupon book, because we can actually do them for free.



Second. My mom used to take my brother and I to McDonalds when we were little. Where she could get one Happy meal and split it between the two of us and we were full. She loved to tell us that story when we were teenagers and scarffing down a Happy Meal plus food. I flashed back on that memory as I took my kids to Chick-fila and was able to use the library coupon to get our free 8 piece chicken and added 1 small french fry and 2 milks. My kids were full and happy. Oh if feeding children could always stay this price.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate

I was reading Holly her story before nap time and I was sitting on her bed. You know how your stomach gets the bulge when you are sitting and leaning over your body. Well, Holly stops me from reading to ask what I had in my shirt. I told her it was my tummy. She started to giggle and say not-ah. "Mommy what do you have in your shirt?" I told her it was my tummy. "What is in your tummy?" I told her it was fat. She starts giggling again like I am just waiting to share some big secret with her. I told her seriously it is fat. She looks at me unbelieving and asks, "Do you have a baby in their?". I tell her no it isn't a baby, it's peanut butter and chocolate. That seem to satisfy her. By the way, I love peanut butter and chocolate!

Chicks, chocolate and karaoke

Our enrichment this month was really relaxed. We got together at a sisters house and had chocolate and karaoke night. Actually we had some chocolate. Everyone that brought stuff didn't want to get sick on too much chocolate so they brought a non-chocolate treat. Which I thought was funny, but it was still good. I did get up to sing several times, even though I can't carry a tune, but I think that it is fun. Here is a short film of my friend Katie, I wish I had asked someone to film me. Oh well, I am saving your ears. It was a fun night.

Last Playgroup

For our last playgroup of the year we had a combined ward playgroup at the bounce house. The summer is coming to an end. We didn't do everything on our list, but we did quite a bit. Whatever we didn't do this year maybe we will do next year. The most important thing is I think the kids had fun. I hope they have fun memories.

Tender moments

Josh had his first day of school today. Last night Don gave Josh a fathers blessing. It was a very spiritual and sweet moment for our family, I totally cried. Before hand we had talked about the special gift of the priesthood that our Heavenly Father has given us. How daddy could use the power to help others but not himself. After the blessing Josh gave Don a big hug.

Fast forward to today after Josh is at school and Holly and I were at home. Holly said that she was Ariel and she and Eric were in a meeting in New York (her bed). Next time I looked in on her she told me Eric was going to give her a blessing because she was going to school tomorrow. So there she sat on the bed head bowed, and eyes closed. How cute is that.

Zoofastic

Our friends the Zufelts took us to the zoo on their passes. It is always so hard to pick which pictures I am going to include because I always take a bunch. So here are the highlights.

We went to the butterfly exhibit. I got one of the butterflies to crawl onto my finger so the kids kept trying to get the butterflies to crawl on them too. (this exhibit and the monkeys are my favorites).

We went to a show about animals with different skin. Fur was a rat, scales was a lizard and feathers was this small toucan. The kids got to pet the rat and lizard and thought that it was pretty cool. That is Zoe Zufelt in the picture with them. Zoe Zufelt at the Zoo. I love that.

And of course one of the coolest (literally) places at the zoo is the kids fun center. Holly loves there kitchen area where she can pretend to cut food. All the food is wooden and it is in sections that are held together with Velcro.

Josh and Holly playing in the veterinarians area. Look how cute they are in their pretend scrubs.

At the end we always stop off at the frogs lily pad pond to take a dip. Well the kids get wet at any rate. Again this was one of those upper 90's days. We left soon after this.

Sweet little devil

The kids had been so good this day as I dragged them all over the place. So I treated them to Baskin & Robbins. Josh looks like a little devil with his chocolate goatee.

More updates on the reno

We now have the front wall of the laundry area, lights and wiring run, outlet boxes, switch boxes and bunches of more insulation (or however you spell that)!

Playgroup at the park in 10000 degree weather

Two weeks ago we went to playgroup at the park. Oh my, it was HOT that day. All the kids brought their bikes but didn't last long because the wheels started to melt to the asphalt. Okay not really, but it felt that way. Here the kids found the only shade under the play area.

At lunch time we went and ate under the pavillion. Holly is getting some ice water out of the bag I had used to keep our food cool. Did I mention that it was HOTTTTT.

colonoscopy

Gross subject, but I had one last Thursday, and everything went fine. I actually found out that I do not have diverticulitis. So that means I can eat seeds, nuts, and popcorn again. Yeah! I find out next week if I will have to go in every year or every three years for colonoscopies. With the price I hope it is every 3 years. I made it threw the prep, but I didn't drink enough water so I almost fainted the next morning. Oh well it got me in to the procedure quicker. Yeah, so there is your too much info. of the day.

A tu-tu tea party

In my ward I have some very talented and crafty sisters. These particular two have daughters Holly's age, their little girls hair is always adorable, I am totally jealous, but I love these ladies so what can you say. They invited Holly to a tu-tu tea party in the park, how cute is that! All the girls came dressed up and they had hung paper flowers floating from the trees. (here Holly is dancing under them). There was tea (raspberry crystal light) and goodies (marshmallow and chocolate chips) which the girls were totally enjoying. Each girl got a fairy wand and one of the moms, who had been trained in fairy ways passed on some of the information to them. (Yes, Josh is in the picture, I didn't have any where to take him. I will say this though when the girls got their faces painted he had batman and spiderman, while they had butterflies and hearts).

They learned how to fly.

They learned how to play the fairy version of duck, duck, goose or as the fairies call it princess, princess, fairy.

At the very end they joined hands around a tree to make their fairy wishes. Which seems so sweet so imagine all the fairies holding hands around the tree. One of the little girls says in the middle of it,"My butt itches". The mom says itch it. So she does. Now one would usually drop hands and do your own business. But this little girl kept holding hands with the next to her and used that little girls hand to itch her but. It just so happened to be Holly's hand that did the itching. Ah sweet little fairies ;P