Out of Town

The receptionist and the office manager both went out of town this week at Dan's work.  His dad, NOT DAN, asked me to come in and fill in.  I am so glad that the week went quickly and that I am a S.A.H.M.

Read more...

More Celebrations

Grandpa & Grandma met us for lunch to celebrate Chloe's birthday.  She loves spending time with them and simply adores their attention!

Afterwards we met at Kohl's to search out some twinkle toe shoes.  Seth used his pretend magic wand and 'Alohamora' spell to open the doors for us, after he found a penny in the parking lot.  Celebration #2!

On our way home we drove past Tom and Jenn's and witnessed a miracle and the biggest celebration of the day, lawn!!!  This poor yard has been barren for over 12 years and I think all of the neighborhood cheered today.  Celebration #3.

Read more...

Chloe's Day

I let her sleep in a bit in the morning, she went to school with her lunch packed with a special birthday note and a Hershey bar (her favorite).  As soon as I got Seth on the bus, I rushed to the grocery store to pick up a few more laffy taffys for her classroom treat for her to share.  I made the cutest note on them.  It said:

Chloe Davis

+ 1 more year

= 8 is great

I went into her classroom with a balloon for a surprise and to scrapbook with the class.  She rode her bike to school so Seth and I drove home at the end of the school day.  She was so excited when she saw the 8 balloons with her presents.  We watched her open them up and started to play the wii Glee Karaoke game that was her favorite.

We took her out to dinner, her choice. 

Can you imagine going to Subway for a sandwich of turkey on a bun?

Maybe this cookie helped her make her decision...

Seth loves 'See Food'

 We went to Boondocks for a game of miniature golf:

 and a ride on the Bumper Boats:

Chloe and Seth were so excited that they could drive their own boat.  Seth was so excited that it came with a shooter that could squirt every one!

 Including Me!!!

Dan kept squirting me and made it look like I had wet my pants!

 When we got home we served up brownies and ice cream:

We planned to watch Rio in 3D but had to wait while the electrician in our family hooked everything up...  While we waited we put together this puzzle of Chloe:

This is a puzzle called Ji Ga Zo.  You upload your own picture and it gives you the puzzle map to make any picture, I can't wait to make the next one!  She had a great day and is so excited to get baptized!

Read more...

Her new Puzzle:

This is the map that generates for a new puzzle:

 Seth wanted one of him:

 Then we'll do this one of Grandma:

 It's kind of blurry but we're going to try a larger head shot so maybe the eyes wont just be X's!

Read more...

My Favorite Shot...

The sun was too bright for this to work out.  We were trying to get a picture for her baptism invitation.  I loved the flowers in our neighbors garden but her eyes were either closed or squinting or watering...

She looked like an ANGEL!

Read more...

Remembering Rita

It was two years ago today that Dan's sweet Grandmother passed away.  His Grandpa tries to fill the void in his life but is so lonely and sad.  He told us today that for the first year he just prayed that he could die and be with her again.  We all gather around her head stone sharing memories, tears and flowers.

Rita was such an elect lady and an example to everyone who knew her.  I think she would have been so tickled that owls have become so popular lately.  She loved to collect them and each time a see an owl craft or figurine I remember her and how wise she was!

It is so hard to corral the kids when they just want to run on the lawn and climb on the other headstones {not my kids, other peoples children}!  Seth was trying really hard to stay on the path and helped Luke find a lady bug to keep them busy.

It surprised me to think about how many deaths we've been through as a couple, in the past fourteen years:  Dan's Uncle Bruce, Our baby Dayna, my Aunt Susan, Dan's Great Grandma Hannah, Dan's Grandma Tooman, my Grandpa McDermaid, Dan's Grandma Rita, and my Dad.

Read more...

Visiting Great Grandpa

Man, we are getting to be a crowd!!!

Read more...

Babysitting Derby

Our Activity Days girls are so cute and fun.  They love to have any activity that focuses on Baby Sitting, as most of them are almost 12 and dieing to go and and get paid to sit on babies!

As fast as they could they had to first spin the twister board

They were blindfolded and fed a bibbed 'baby' some apple sauce

 They raced to fold Laundry

 try to find five blocks to spell a word

Help with homework

color pictures

Take a detailed telephone message

They changed their baby dolls diaper and clothes

Read a story out loud

They attempted a hole in one but it was more like one hundred

They jumped rope to the cones and back

After everyone had tried each station

we played a game like I've been tortured with at a baby shower.

Each diaper held a few mini candy bars that were melted and squished up a bit...

We tried to associate each part of the game to something

 they might experience when they were babysitting. 

I think the girls really had a good time!

Read more...

Riding the Bus

I got an e-mail from the school notifying all kindergarten parents that they can send their afternooners to school on a bus.  It was supposed to start yesterday but the bus driver just drove right past us.  Since it was the first day, no one was positive about the bus number and we stood there for twenty more minutes.  One of the parents got the office on their cell phone and everyone scrambled to get their kid to school.  Fortunately buses are slow and have lots of stops, in other words everyone was still on time to class after the fiasco!

Today he was so excited to get on the bus.  It came right on time.  It seems like a nice lady bus driver.  There are about fifteen kids at his stop.  But the best thing for Seth is that riding the bus to school is something Chloe never got to do!!!  The best thing about the school bus for me is that I can walk him to the bus stop, watch him get on, then I have an extra half an hour to do the things I do before they come home together.  I don't have to worry about him getting on the wrong bus or getting off at the wrong time. 

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeazy!

Read more...

Sad, Sad Weekend

Dan's parents invited us to use their condo in Park City for the night.  Dan got home from work and we headed up the canyon.  The kids were so excited to eat out, to ride the alpine slide and to sleep in a bed that wasn't their own.  We had gone out to Cafe Rio then tried to use the room keys.  We thought we had the wrong room but when Dan checked with the hotel he learned that unfortunately the week that was reserved ended today instead of tomorrow. We told the kids we would go and ride the alpine slide AND coaster, but once we got there...  They had only three minutes until closing and weren't allowing any more rides up the mountain. 

Read more...

Labor Day Project

Can you guess what I found at the Layton DI last Thursday:

This blue vintage Samsonite train case would make a

stylish statement when you travel or to hold your supplies!

It is a great size piece, 15.25" x 9.5" x 8"

It has the original tray.  It is in good condition!

Some of my crafty sisters have found these vintage train cases.  My niece painted hers, I think she is going to use it for all of her nail stuff.  When I was cleaning off the grime from years of use I noticed that the binding wasn't coming clean and after trying every kind of cleaner & magic eraser, I took a knife to it and was scraping off the dirt.  I noticed that the strip lifted and ended up prying both of them off and thought it might look really cute with some ribbon or paint in these two strips:

I just had this ribbon but would like to look for something uber cute to fit.  What do you think something with the blue in the ribbon or another color completely, maybe a coral color.

Read more...

Shopping at the Outlet Stores

Just before we left last night, we drove over to Old Navy, just in case they were still open.  They weren't, but posted all over their windows were signs for 40% off the entire store and an additional 40% off the clearance.  Being crushed and barely able to sleep after having missed out on such a sale, we woke up and retraced our steps back up Parley's Canyon {In a different car, of course} and had another fabulous day basking in the sunshine with cooler temperatures and the bliss of getting a really good deal!!!

We had Jack & Josh with us today, so the day was just cuter some how!!!

They're modeling some new beanie hats for the fall, so adorable!

Read more...

Swiss Days

I can't believe we spent five hours in Midway and this is the only picture that I took!  Good thing it's a keeper!!!  We met at Mom's at 2:00 in the afternoon; Laura, Becky, Erin, Mom and Me.  We wedged into Mom's Buick and started giggling soon after.  We'd stopped for drinks {big gulps huh, well see ya later} and by the time we got through the endless traffic and finally arrived we all almost peed our pants.  Swiss Days was so much better this year.  In trips past, we've gone and not bought a thing.  There have been years when the vendors were so similar that it was almost a waste of time ~ if we weren't wasting time together and strengthening our bonds of sisterhood!!!  But not this year, there were boothes everywhere.  The barn had vendor booths, the grocery store had vendor boothes, and there were so many new and different vendors ~ it was so much fun.  Our favorites were back, we visited with the gourd lady and the felting lady and got some really fun ideas.  By the time we stopped for dinner we were exhausted and starving.  Our dinner at Ruby Tuesday was good but the service was slow.  It was just barely 9:00 when we got out of there and the outlet stores were closed...  On our way down Parleys Canyon, we had a little problem with the breaks but thankfully Mom had looked a little tired and everyone agreed that Erin should drive.  We think it was the anti-lock breaks because once we got off the freeway the car stopped making the sound...  Once home we shared some fabulous cup cakes and watched our childhood version of SLN's Church Chat.  And again we almost all peed our pants.  So much fun, can't wait to see what will happen next year!!!

Read more...

The Main Event

Our school's PTA has an annual fund raiser with a silent auction, dinner and BMX show.  Last year there were all sorts of games, bounce houses and blow up slides. 

Don't they look distraught and concerned:

I was surprised that they could have cared less about the missing bounce house

but thought they would have wanted to take a break for being monkeys to watch the BMX show...

They tried watching the riders from up top of the playground equipment.

This little girl was picked out of the crowd to participate in a stunt:

He told her to make sure to keep your arms and legs still, to keep your head very still and

that she must keep her entire body very, very, very still ~ or it makes the rider nervous!

The announcer asked the rider what went wrong
and he said that she blinked...

Once everyone took a sigh of relief they continued on with the high flying stunts!

They kept taking breaks to talk about being drug free and high on life...

I thought there might have been a riot when I heard, "Just Ride Already!!!"
but it was probably just wishful thinking since I didn't really shout that out...

This was the best

and the worst stunt,

but don't worry he was able to walk away!

What a Great Show!!!

Read more...