Catching up.. a LONG post..

Get comfy, grab some popcorn.

Ready?

Okay-

July 24th celebrates the day that the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley after being kicked out of every other place they called home by angry mobs who either wanted their land, were afriad of their voting power or didn't like their religious beliefs. Utah at that time wasn't part of the United States (or even called Utah for that matter) and was a desert that didn't look habital. The the largest water source? The Great Salt Lake- which must have looked so refreshing and inviting from a distance, until it tasted like salt.

So we celebrate every year to remember the pioneers who walked across the plains of what is now the midwest of the United States- but at the time was 'The West' which was largely unexplored and dangerous.

So we had some friends over, ate Mexican food (because really what better way to remember the pioneers then by having a fiesta?
Apparently there is a table hierchy at our house- you've got to be female to sit at the table...
Or willing to eat your feet (isn't she so cute!!)

And what good is a fiesta without a pinata?? It's a covered wagon- which is how the pioneers carried their stuff to 'the west' while they walked (and walked and walked and walked).
Yes I made it myself....


Here is Steve helping Annika taking a swing..


This is possibly the cutest little boy ever isn't he? The only thing that makes him cuter??
He has a twin sister!! Seriously- so cute!

This is my best friends little girl Hannah showing off her loot. Seriously so much candy!! Kid heaven.

It was a great party. Tons of fun. If you want to know more about the Mormon Pioneers go here.


Then Tuesday Emily flew to San Diego to hang out with her husband while he was on a business trip. So I had her three kids and my four kids for two days. Really it wasn't that hard- I even took all seven of them to the park (with my mom). But they play well together and enjoy spending time together. When Emily came home they weren't ready to leave. Really? Does it get better then this? What a package!
Here are Sarah and Cori taking a bath after a particularly messy dinner. They're only like 2 weeks apart in age.



Last night we went on a triple date. Steve and I went out with Emily and Scott and Julie and Brad. We went to dinner at Red Robin and then went to Walmart and bought gifts for eachother. Sounds cheesy (and it is) but we had $3.50 per person and we split up into guys and girls and the two women who weren't married to the guy got to pick his gift and visa versa with the guys. We got some hysterical stuff (miracle grow hair stuff for the bald guy, some hideous 80's earrings for Emily, a three pack of 'baby boy' bibs for Steve (with the comment that they're expecting triplet boys in nine months- yes my friends hate me). It was really fun. Then we got ice cream at Coldstone. I should have known something wasn't right when I really didn't feel like eating ice cream- by the time we got home and found that Ashley had been throwing up I was joining her. That wasn't so fabulous.

Now it's Sunday evening and we've all taken a turn (except Cori) and my kids have spent the day watching videos (I think they've watched Chicken Little at least three times) and I slept until 2:30pm. Just as I was wakingup Steve was going to bed because he was getting it. Being sick sucks- but even worse when everyone takes a turn. The girls are currently eating dinner made by Ashley (mac and cheese) so I think they're feeling better- but the whining? It's not stopped.

So if you're still with me you deserve a cookie. Good job.

Where have I been?

Um, I've been using spare computer time hunting down pictures of goodies and working on my other blog. I'll be back soon with pictures of pioneer day fun, my pinata, kids with their feet in their mouths, and me with seven kids seven and under at the park... it's been a busy week.

New things...

I've got a new hair cut...And a new table...
Doesn't it look nice?? I'm getting a couple benches to replace the folding chairs with so it won't look quite so tacky... Plus I'll be able to fit 3 kids to a bench- so we can have 4 adults and 6 kids sit at the table.

My life...

Yesterday I walked into the kitchen and saw this... (entire box of ziploc bags)
Followed by this...See how cute her finger sucking is??
She's finally decided that walking is easier then crawling. She'll fall down and stand back up and keep walking rather then crawl from there. She's also venturing out into the house by herself. Which means I track her by following the empty tissue boxes, open cupboards and trail of destruction. Just what I need. At least she's cute right??

More bars in more places..

That's what commercial these trees by my house remind me of every time I drive past them...

YAY!!

So we set an attendance record! Wahoo!! We had 42 sisters at HPFE (enrichment)! Seriously it was awesome. Everyone I talked to was so excited and said that they'd never had this much fun at HPFE. I met several people that I didn't really know and got to know them (and will remember their names now) and had a great time. It really was minimal planning and minimal set up and clean up.

Since there were so many people it really wasn't possible to meet everyone- but people met just over half. I hadn't thought about people coming in late- but it's what made everything work. The late people offset it just enough so that by the time you got to the person you started with you skipped them and went to the next person- so it was perfect!

Also the girl that talked at the beginning said just what needed to be said about meeting people and putting yourself out there to make friends. It was perfect. I'm thrilled with the results. I was really worried that not too many people would come- I'm glad that we got as many out as we did. YAY!!

Sorry I'm a slacker..

I'm busy okay! Well, at least that's what I tell Steve. I've offically recieved a calling in my new ward. I'm the Enrichment leader in Relief Society. For those of you who aren't LDS (Mormon) I'll translate... Enrichment (short for Home, Personal and Family Enrichment Meeting) is held quarterly and is a "meeting" mostly for socialization of the Relief Society (Women's organization in our church ages 18+) and for spiritual growth and learning new skills... So my job is to set up these quarterly Enrichment meetings and then also set up smaller 'interest groups' for the women in the ward (our church congregation). Confused yet?

So since our ward is new our first Enrichment meeting is going to be for getting to know eachother. There are lots of new people and it was so large before that it was had to get to know people. Anyway, I'm doing 'speed get to know you' set up like speed dating. Basically you spend 3 minutes with each woman and get to put names and faces together and get to know them a little bit. When you find out where they live in relation to you, and how many kids and what ages you can say, 'we should get our kids together' or 'we should have you over for dinner' and make some new friends! I'm excited- it should be fun.

Here is the problem though... (there's always a problem isn't there??) I have long tables set up with chairs and thought if everyone just rotated then eventually everyone would meet. But it doesn't work- if everyone is numbered then all the even numbers just meet odd numbers- and all the odd numbers just meet even numbers. So you only meet half the people in the room. With speed dating that is great- because if you're a woman you're only there to meet the men! But it doesn't work if you want to meet everyone. I've tried and tried to figure it out- but I've not been able to- any suggestions?

Happy 4th of July (a little late)

I love the 4th of July. I LOVE fireworks. Not the little dinky ones you buy at the stands on the side of the road- but the huge professional shows. The bigger the better. I love the BBQ's, the summer food and fun and the casualness of it. There aren't gifts to buy or to expect- no pretensions.

We went to a big fireworks show put on by our city on the 3rd. It was at a park not far from our house so we picked up dinner and headed down there. They were supposed to have a large 'mountain' of snow for kids to play in but apparently there was an ice shortage? Yeah, so no snow- to make up for it they had bouncers with a line a mile long. So we skipped that. Megan saw a popsicle stand and wanted to get a popsicle but we wanted to find the snow first. When we found a place to sit down Megan and I went back to get popsicles. The lady said they were out and I told Megan and she made the most pathetic sad face I've ever seen. Apparently the saddest that the lady had ever seen either since she 'found' the last three and gave them to us. Apparently they weren't even selling them- the city was giving them away. If we'd known that before we'd have gotten some sooner!

Here is Megan enjoying her popsicle:

Here is Cori clapping and dancing to the live band. She LOVED it.
Here is Annika enjoying her popsicle:
Megan being shy:
I didn't forget that I've got another kid- but she's spending the week in AZ with her cousin. My Mom went down to watch my sister's kids while she went to girl's camp with the ward (as a leader). So Ashley got to go with her. She's having a blast- but she called today and was feeling homesick. She's coming home tomorrow though.

On the 4th we spent it with my NBF's family and some other families BBQing and playing games. We had a blast and stayed until the wee hours of the morning. We've decided that we need to do an all night BBQ once a month it was so much fun.

So I got all crafty last week...

and made cards... apparently it's the thing to do? I got together with a couple friends and we put some together. It was fun (but really I'll do anything for a little bit of adult conversation). Here is the finished project: They say 'enjoy' on the front.

A little contest...

I'm looking for a name for this cake. It's six layers of moist chocolate cake brushed with melted chocolate before frosting and topped with dark chocolate gnache and chocolate curls. YUM! So what would be a good name?

The Week in Review

I live in Las Vegas. Now it's the end of June and *Newsflash* it's hot in Las Vegas at the end of June. Now don't take this as complaining- it's not- I'll trade 115 degrees for a couple months over snow any day. Especially when snow play means long underwear, three pairs of socks (a person), coats, hats, mittens and on and on and on and brr! While summer play means swimsuits, spray on sunscreen and water. I'll take that anyday. We just play at the water playgrounds...


Swimming..

Megan didn't want her picture taken.
My NBF's baby (isn't she cute?)

Summer also means summer haircuts. This is Megan (W- not our Megan), Ashley and Hannah after I cut all there hair. I LOVE Ashley's hair short. It's a good length for her and always looks nice- I'm glad she decided to stop trying to grow it out.
Meanwhile Cori is learning how to walk. She loves walking in the pool. My inlaws have a shallow part in their pool and with the floaty Cori was cruising. It was so cute!! I'm apparently not smart enough to figure out how to load just one video so there are some others there too- several of her practicing walking from daddy to mommy, annika wanting in on the action, and cori playing peek-a-boo with the camera.

My Recent Shots