Can Never Have To Many...

I love doing Briana's hair every morning and adding cute bows and ribbons to it. Now maybe in a couple years I'll think differently but for now, I enjoy it. There might also be a day that she won't let me do her hair anymore so I'm going to take advantage of the time I have now to do it. I have been given almost all of Briana's hair accessories from friends and family that it filled up a whole bathroom drawer and I'd forget about some since they would get lost under the rest. I had been to this girl's boutique store a couple months ago and had remembered these cute wall hangings with ribbon to attached hair clips to. I decided to make one myself and headed to Hobby Lobby and bought a block of wood for $2.99 and some letter stickers for $2.99 and made this at home. It came out so cute (at least I think so!!) and it was so cheap compared to what I would have spent buying one in a store. I hung this is her room next to her dresser so that every morning I can just look over and pick the one that matches her outfit best.

Love for Balloons

What is it about kids and balloons? My kids go crazy over them and can be entertained for hours because of them. The next day after their cousin Brooke's birthday party, I snapped a couple pictures of the kids because they were happy that the balloons lasted the night and that is the best time for a photo op!!

Family Pictures and Birthday Celebrations

Here are some family pictures taken around Temple Square and while celebrating our cousin Brooke's 1 year birthday at our house this week.

Craig's Family Picture:

Craig's parents, Craig's sister Kathy, cousin Brooke and Uncle Tyler, us, and Uncle Scott

Birthday party lunch at our house

Baby Brooke's 1st birthday

Aunt Kathy let Brandon blow out the candle

Briana and Brandon even got some presents to open during the birthday party

Grandpa Jack

This week has been full of family activities surrounded around the gravesite burial of Craig's grandfather Jack. Craig's parents, sister Kathy and her family, and his brother Scott all were in town to attend the service at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. When we heard the news of his passing, it was hard for Craig because he had a close relationship with his grandfather. He gave the eulogy and had a difficult time talking about his grandfather without getting too emotional. Unfortunately, I didn't hear any of it because of Brandon. He was so bad that I had to strap him in a stroller and walk around so he wouldn't disrupt the service. I really didn't think he would be that bad or else I would have had a neighbor watch the kids for me. We ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry in downtown SLC afterwards and I was impressed. I've never been there before and the portions were huge. I knew that had great rolls but the cafeteria style food was pretty good. A lot of Craig's extended family that attended the servie had lunch with us too. It was nice to meet all of them and to hear stories about Craig's family I've never heard before. Overall, it was a beautiful day and the service turned out very nice, short and simple with no fuss, just the way grandpa would have wanted it.

Brandon's Birthday

Now it is Brandon's turn to celebrate his 3rd birthday. It fell on a Sunday so we attended church in the morning. We just switched our church schedule at the beginning of September and I'm so excited to have 9am church for the next year. Here in Utah they change church schedules at the start of the school year. Different than the rest of the country, I know. Once we got home, we had lunch and then put the kids down for naps (another reason to love 9am church - they get naps again on Sundays). I decorated Brandon's cake during that time and got dinner ready. We did presents first, had dinner, and finished his birthday with cake and ice cream. He scored big time with his presents. I was worried at first he wouldn't have much to open so the last couple weeks I added some items and then he got packages from both grandparents so he was set.

They each got new toothbrushes - Tinker Bell and Peter Pan

He loved the airplanes and they are perfect for church

This was his favorite thing by far since he is crazy about Star Wars. I got one for both kids but they were gone by the next morning. Brandon was hitting everything in sight so I think they'll stay hidden for another year or so.

He kept followng Briana around trying to get her to take her lightsaber so they could fight. She wasn't into it as much as him.

Brandon's racetrack cake

Happy 3rd Birthday Brandon!!!

Girl's Camp Pictures

Here are some pictures from Girl's Camp and as you can tell from the pics, we had a blast!!

Our "camping grounds". This cabin in Bear Lake is owned by our Camp Director.

I know, I know...we totally had it easy.

Me, Angie-2nd counslor, Leslie-Beehive advisor, Ken Morley-priesthood leader, and Cindy-camp director just hanging out waiting on the girls

All the YW and the pillowcases we made for them during mutual the week before we left. They turned out so cute.

Leslie and me

(I look huge in this picture. I swear it is the sweatshirt....I swear!!)

Our YW Leaders:

Cindy-camp director Lisa-YW President, myself-MM advisor, Kathy-1st counslor

We ate so good while at camp. Dinner this night was salad, spagetti, and breadsticks

This became the usually after dinner was cleaned up every night for the leaders. Occasionally some of the girls would join in the game too.

Beach Time!!

My horrible canoe experience. We could not keep that thing steady!!

Tubing!! I am on the yellow tube on the far right

This round I'm on the smalll red tube (far left) by myself.

Bro. Willmore who was driving the boat was trying to get me to fall off but he did not succeed. As you can see though, a couple times he got really close!!

Our final night after testimony meeting.

Star Wars Monsters

I think I've made a big mistake. It all started on this particular Friday (a week and couple days ago) that I did deep cleaning in the house and organized the garage and cleaned it out so it basically took me most of the day. After showering around 3:30pm and having the kids wake up from their naps soon after, I was so exhausted that all I wanted to do was sit and watch a movie. But not a kid movie. I wanted to watch one of mommy's movies (as I told it to Briana). Looking through my limited DVD collection, I decided on Star Wars thinking that maybe the kids will be okay with it and maybe watch it with me. They were fascinated and watched it with me with big eyes while Luke Skywalker and friends defeated the Empire. We ended up watching the whole movie and as soon as it was over, Brandon turned to me and said, "More Star Wars?" repeating it over and over. My first thought was, "This is great. We can take a break away from Toy Story and Cinderella for awhile." Little did I know that both kids would ask to see Star Wars all day long and everyday since then. Even after Brandon's naps, the first words out of his mouth when I go to get him is, "Star Wars? Star Wars?" We went to Walmart this week and passed the toy section and at the end of the row were tons of lightsabers. They both pointed together and said, "Star Wars". I went over to them and handed each of them one and once I did that, there was no giving it back. Luckily they were only $7.00 and Brandon's birthday is next week so I gave in to the impulse buy. They both ask about Darth Vader during the movie and wonder where he is when he is not on the TV and they know C3PO and R2D2 or "the robots" as they call them. Tonight when we turned the movie off after having watched it for the 2nd time that day, Brandon freaked out and cried for what seemed like forever. I'm starting to regret introducing the movie to them in the first place because they are crazy about it now. I guess there are worse things though that they could be into then loving the Star Wars movies. Hmmm.... I wonder if I did this to my mom when I was a kid because I loved the Star Wars movies too?

3-Part Day Trip

My aunt was having a birthday party Saturday afternoon at her house in Orem so we decided to make a day of it with a couple stops along the way. We told the kids we were going on a trip so everytime we stopped Briana would ask, "Is this part of our trip?". So here are the 3 parts to our day trip.


Part 1: Park City. We left the house at 9am and headed to the outlet mall there in Park City. We weren't shopping for anything in particular but Eddie Bauer was having a 70% sale so both Craig and I got some things. I wanted to look at the Carter's store for the kids but the line was out the door so we just kept on walking. We lasted about 1 1/2 hours until the kids and I were ready for lunch. We had lunch at Bajio (kinda like a Chipotle) and then headed to Heber City.


Part 2: Midway. We thought we'd check on Swiss Days which is held in a small town called Midway west of Heber. I had heard about Swiss Days from ladies at church who said how fun it is to go to. We drove down the main street first just to check it out and it like driving down a country road of Switzerland. It was the coolest little town. We had to park forever away and take a shuttle to the main area of the festival. Unfortunately I left the camera in the car too so I don't have any pictures of this cute town. It was so crowded that it was hard to even get close to any of the craft booths to see what they were selling. We stopped to get some drinks and find some shade from the heat. We hadn't been there long but the kids were tired since we skipped their naps and it was so hot that we decided to head back to the car. Instead of taking the shuttle though I decided we should walk since our car was down at the other end of main street. Craig complained the whole time since he had to deal with Brandon while I pushed Briana in the stroller and enjoyed passing the local stores and homes on the way.


Part 3: Orem. On our way to Orem, both kids slept in the car and Craig and I enjoyed the beautiful drive through Provo Canyon. We got to my aunt's house early but I was able to help out in the kitchen getting ready for the barbeque. All my cousins and their families were there and we celebrated birthdays for 4 kids all turning 3 years old. Briana is the oldest with her birthday on 8/19. Then my cousin Rachelle's daughter who's birthday is 8/21. Then my other cousin Aaron's daughter turned 3 on 9/1 and then finally Brandon who's birthday is 9/14. This is the 2nd year we've done this so I was prepared this time bringing the kid's bathing suits and pajamas. The kids played in the kiddie pool while the adults ate and then we had cake and ice cream. The weather had cooled down a ton so it was nice sitting outside and visiting with family who I don't see very often. Before we left, we bathed the kids and then got the car loaded for the hour long drive home. We pulled into our driveway at 9:30pm and both kids were asleep. It had been a long but great day for us. We don't do day trips like that very much and now that the kids are getting older, I hope we can do this more often.

The birthday kids

My aunt Dana and cousins Rachelle and Shannon (in chair)

Brandon got a huge piece of cake and ate every bite!!

My cousin's wife Christine did body outlines of all the kids

A family photo before heading home with everyone's eye on the camera and smiling...this is a first!!

Beautiful Sky

We finally got some rain over the weekend. This is our 2nd summer here and it just doesn't rain at all for months. I guess I have to remember that we are in the dessert even though there aren't cactus anywhere and people don't have rocks for yards. On Sunday afternoon a storm was rolling in and I got some great shots from the backyard of the sky promising rain.