Let's Go Camping

As we looked at our calendar, our weekends are pretty much taken by other things.... softball, scout camp, girls camp, etc. We decided if we were going to take the kids camping, this would be the only weekend that we would have. As the weekend grew closer, so did the clouds. We decided that we would wait and see if it was going to rain. (nothing like being in a tent and having lightning and rain all around you.) As Mike arrived home from work, so did the dark clouds. We decided that maybe we could go for a cook out and bag sleeping in the wilderness. As we loaded up the van, the clouds began crying a little. We decided to go up Middle Canyon in Tooele. It seemed clear in Tooele and we thought maybe we could beat it. As we arrived in Tooele so did the rain. We kept going and decided we would give it a shot. We found a camp ground and began building our fire. The kids were sitting around the fire when it began lightning and thundering. I sent the kids to sit in the car and then the rain came. The trees were a great protection but not enough. So we got an umbrella and held it over the fire to keep it protected from the rain. After 10 minutes of the rain only picking up the pace, we decided that our cook out would have to wait. So we loaded up the chairs and packed everything in the van and headed home. We picked up pizza to eat instead of hot dogs and hamburgers. We pitched our tent on the wet grass and let the kids sleep out on the lawn. We decided on Saturday we would try it again. We decided to go up South Willow Canyon to find a spot. Everything was taken so we ended up at the Stake Center where there was a fire pit. We began building our fire. We had a hard time catching the wood on fire. The wood we begin to burn, but then it would slowly go out. We spent an hour on the fire and then gave up and went home and cooked our hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. If anything, we got really smokey. We smelled like we went for a cook out, but got the great taste of the grill. So much for camping in the great out doors!

Nutmeg

Sooo Brooke has a new name. We made custard pies for Ellie's birthday and when we sprinkled the nutmeg, Mike said hey Brooke that is the same color as your hair. So now her name is nutmeg. Nutmeg has said some funny things lately and I wanted to share what her little mind thinks of. Jase had gotten some Oreo cookies for his birthday. He has kept them in his closet for over a month, just eating some once in a while. We were eating dinner and Jase shared that Brooke had climbed his shelves in his closet and had eaten all his cookies. Brooke pipes up after he was done and says "I wanted an Oreo, so what!" The funny thing is she said it with attitude and her hands were out in front of her turned upside down and moving up and down as she spoke. Today while we were eating lunch, a cat walked by and Brooke said, "that cat sucks". Why does she have to repeat everything that she hears. Today we made custard pie for Father's day. I caught Brooke putting her fingers in the pie. I told her to stay out of it, she said "just look away." Needless to say, Mike has lots of holes in his pie. One day Brooke was saying shut up. Ashley was telling her to stop. Brooke kept saying it and Ash told her she was sick of her. Brooke turned to her and said, "your face makes me sick!" Of course Ash let her know she was a little brat. (this helps her to know how she should talk.) One day a boy came and was talking in his truck with Ash. Mandy, Brooke and a friend of Mandy's kept watching and bugging them. . The boy kept staring at them and Mandy yelled what are you looking at. Brooke thought this was funny. So when Ash came in she said with her attitude "What are you looking at?" One time at dinner Brooke said she knows the "H" word. We let her know the "H" word was horse. So now anytime someone says horse, she says, "you said the H word. There are so many more things but I'm not a good mom and write them down immediately so these are just a few.

June is almost gone

I swear that school just got out and before I know it school will be starting again. So this is what we have been doing so far this summer..... Birthday, birthday and then birthday.

Brooke started June off with her birthday. She got all her most favorite things (bubbles, bubble gum, and play doh.) Such an easy birthday. Thank goodness, because the next day we had a birthday party for Ashley. She "only" invited 15 teenagers but it was amazing how there ended up being so many more. She claims they were not invited and just showed up. Well 4 lrg. bags of chips, 4 bags of popcorn 10 packages of candy, 6 2 liters of pop, cookies and cupcakes later, we survived a ton of teenagers celebrating Ashley's birthday 6 days early. The next week Ash began weight training and running and helping 3 hours a day at the elementary summer school. (She thinks that she probably doesn't want to be a teacher.) Then she had basketball camp then softball practice. When Ash got home she was pooped! Open gym for volleyball on Tuesday and Thursday. The rest of us went to the Movie's on Tuesday. Mandy had softball practice that night. While she was at practice, I went with Mike to shop for the food that he needed for youth conference. The rain began to fall while we were at Wal-mart. Mandy called saying practice was over. She was able to hitch a ride to Wal-mart. Ashley had her birthday on Thursday. I took her out for lunch and then after open gym, we came home to lit candles on her cake. She got a straightner and a new battery for her phone. (her dad vows he won't buy her a new phone.) Then next two days were crazy because of Mike being in charge of the meals for our ward youth conference. He survived and learned many things that he hopes he doesn't ever do again. Sunday began another week. I got a new calling. I am in the youngest nursery. I still have my scout calling but they informed me I wouldn't have 2 for much longer. I survived nursery and so did the kids. It was Ellie's birthday also. Instead of a cake, she requested 4 custard pies. With her pies, she got a water slide that she had to wait till the next day to try out. Now we began a new week. Repeating the last week events except no youth conference and no basketball camp. We just threw in a few more softball practices and the softball tournament that started Friday morning at 8:00 in the morning. (This is why we didn't want to do all-stars.) Well the end of the tournament got canceled because of rain. So we will finish things on Monday or Tuesday. Thank goodness it is a local tournament. Also, last Wednesday we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. The kids loved the temple and thought it was so pretty inside. I told Mike I felt like a cow being moved through as quickly as possible. I am sure that is the way they have to do it in order to allow all the people that want to see it be able to see it. After the temple, we went out to eat. Jase said that was the best day ever. I am glad they loved their trip. Today is Father's day so 2 more custard pies were made for the great dad that lives here. Nursery went well. Maybe because we only had 3 kids there.

So throw in laundry, yard work that has been hard to do because of rain, cleaning the house, organizing the garage and all the other little things that need to be done, no wonder that June is almost over.

Spring.....Means going crazy!

I love spring. The flowers start popping out, the yard is green (especially cuz we have had so much rain) But spring also means going crazy. Softball season has come and of course I fell into being a coach. So we practice one day and have games twice a week. I would choose not to practice, but my team is not so good that we need to practice. (For instance we have twins on our team and they are left handed. They struggle remembering to step with the correct foot. During our game one of them got the ball and went to throw it in. You could see her brain churning of what foot to step with and what way to throw. Before I knew it she stepped and threw her mitt and kept the ball in her hand. I couldn't help but laugh along with everyone in the stand. This is the team I have this year. Then you have Ellie who hit a home run but got sent back because they were able to throw it into the dirt. Bad call by the ump. It has to be thrown inside of the baseline. But then I was playing catch with her and she moved her mitt and I thumped her hard in the forehead with a ball. So when a girl popped up at shortstop, you see Ellie ducking and getting out of there. Another fine example of this year. Beside softball I have been trying to sew a costume for Ellie's first grade circus, preparing for field day at both Grantsville and Willow Elementary. Grantsville has almost 900 students. That's a lot for field day. Then add in scouts and scout meetings, running kids everywhere, trying to throw Jase a birthday party, clean the house, do the yard, find time to exercise, go shopping, and go watch Mike play in a tennis tournament. That is just one week of spring.

911

Brooke has become my personal secretary. The minute the phone rings she is beating everyone to the phone. She even loves to steal the cell phones and send a text to all who are willing to receive her text. The problem is.... she likes to answer telemarketer calls and she will hide anywhere so that she can continue being a secretary. I was busy yesterday talking on my cell phone with Cheri and working on the computer trying to get my scouting stuff done. I had only been out of the shower for twenty minutes so my hair was trying to dry when the door bell rang. Of course Brooke comes booking it down the hall to answer the door. When I turned the corner, I noticed lights flashing and a police officer was in my drive way. I said to Cheri, what the heck a cop is here. I opened the door and the officer asked if everything was okay. I told him yes. He said that a call had been placed to 911 and they had tried to call back but only got buttons being pushed. I told him it had to have been my little girl. He said, "oh is she in preschool and just learned about 911". I said "no, she is only 2". I couldn't believe it, how did she manage to push those numbers together. The officer was nice to her and told her not to play on the phone. I talked to Brooke after he left and told her that playing with the phone was naughty. She didn't cry but she hung her head and went straight to the bean bag. She was sulking. Before I knew it she was asleep. After she woke up, I asked her if she remembered what she did. She remembered and then said, "I HATE COPS." It made me chuckle because first of all the only time she has heard the word cop, was when I was talking to Cheri, telling her a cop was here. And second because she was the one who had been naughty. Hopefully that is the last time we have to deal with a cop. Unfortunately that is the 3rd time that 911 has been called from our house in Grantsville. So when it is a real emergency, they won't come because they will know our kids have been playing on the phone.

Something to Remember

On Friday, the kids had gone to school so Brooke and I decided to have some breakfast. Brooke requested Marshmallow Mateys. I decided to have some eggs like I had fixed the kids earlier. As I sat down with my steaming plate of eggs, Brooke had slurped her last bite of cereal and began climbing over the bar stools to get to me. She told me that she wanted a taste of my breakfast. Knowing Brooke as well as I do, this meant she wanted to sit on my lap and eat off of my fork and eat my breakfast. I told her this is my breakfast and she had just finished hers. She looked at me so serious and said, " mom, Jesus wants you to share." Now I wonder where she got that from? Maybe because I am constantly telling her to share her stuff and that Jesus wants her to share with others. Well I guess that came back to bite me on the behind! So I did what Jesus would want me to do and I shared. After She was done with the bite that I gave her, she said again, Mom, Jesus wants you to share. So I gave her another bite. This continued until my plate was empty. I can't say I got much to eat in fact maybe 2 bites, so I ended up making myself a new plate of eggs. The moral of this story is don't teach your kids something unless your willing to do it too! I love my little Brookeee. I'm glad she reminds me what Jesus wants me to do!

Look what I created!

This is my newest masterpiece! I don't have everything on it yet but this is a start. My Friend Celeste helped me build a book case to put all my photo albums in it. After we got that done, we discussed how cool it would be to have the making memories shelf that is about 70.00. We didn't like how little it was, so we decided we would build one to our liking. (for half the price) I measured the length of my wall that I wanted the shelf to go on and then I went and got the wood to build it. It took a few hours to build and then half the time to build hers. Celeste painted it during the Christmas Break. We hung it a couple of weeks ago. So what do you think of our ability to build things. I think it is soooooo cute and I come in just to see the shelf. It has made my office/Brooke's room so much nicer.