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

Random Reviews

Mozilla Firefox- Such a better browser then Internet Explorer. My favorite part? You can open websites in tabs. So I can have 20 sites open at the same time and just click from tab to tab at the top of the window. I'm not explaining it as cool as it really is. But you can download it here for free. Also- you can open favorites in tabs as well. Makes browsing favorite blogs fast and easy. Check it out (it'll also let you import your favorites from IE). Really, really check it out though. Did you do it yet? GO NOW!

Coppertone no rub sunscreen- Seriously the best stuff ever. Here we have to sunscreen for every event that we'll be outside more then 10 minutes- and with four kids it's a lot of work and time to rub them all down. This stuff is SO fast. It's also effective. I still do lotion on their faces but yesterday at the park I started to sunscreen up my three girls (the baby was sleeping) the same time as my friend did her one. By the time I finished she was just finishing up his back and shoulders and still had to do everything else. Worth every penny.

Dyson- I love mine. Seriously LOVE. Not sure if I've shared that before. Works wonders- also it's fun to see how much crap it picks up...

My mom- I know she's not really a product- but having her live close is so nice. I'm worried she's going to think less of me now that she sees how dirty my house can get and how obnoxious my kids can be. It's fun to have her to hang out with and to have her be a part of my kids daily lives.

My NBF (new best friend) Emily- As long as I'm commenting on people... Seriously she's awesome. She's so fun to hang out with and talk to and doesn't judge me for my dirty house or messy/mean/peeing constantly kids. The best part? Her girls and my girls play so well together. It's fab. She's also cool to just hang out constantly- which I love.

This site- I'm seriously loving the political comedy and irreverant humor...

I'm a good friend... but not really- an open letter to Sabra

Dear Sabra,
I know that when you called me and asked if I would store 'something' for you that I said it wouldn't be a problem. I didn't really think that it would be. But well, I'm really not that good of a friend. It's now a problem. You see, when the 'something' was delivered my kids played with it- for an hour- nicely. This doesn't happen often at our house. So I'm sorry, you can't have it. Then I started playing with it. I never knew that 'boy toys' could be so much fun. We don't have much experience with trains- but I think we're in love....I don't think that my girls play with the trains the same way that boys would though. Their favorite part? The 'train wash' and the 'round house' where they can put the trains to bed. Building tracks? eh. Bridges? eh. Abandoned mines? Not so much. But K will find his new trains nice and clean.. and well rested. Also, you'll be happy to know that there are 'twin trains' and 'mommy trains' and 'daddy trains'. Also, a little green one? Annika's favorite, it's the 'baby train'.

So anyway, don't worry about coming down. I know you want to see us and stuff- but we'll be busy- playing trains- and you can't have them!

Another cake, another old man

Here is the cake I did this weekend. I guess that 30 is the 'making fun of getting old' birthday. There were sayings around all the corners of the cake. It is all butter cream.