Happy Pioneer Day and Fiesta Days Utah!

Happy Birthday Utah! I have so many fond memories of celebrating the 24th of July in Utah. You have to brave the crowds, but more importantly the heat to enjoy all the festivities, but I always have had a great time.

Spanish Fork celebrates Fiesta Days on the 24th. During our first few years in Salem, our ward had a float in the parade. I got to ride on it one year in my dance costume. I felt like such a princess and it was a dream come true.

Years later I spent summer, after summer, after summer cheering in the parade, working at the rodeo and running in the Fun Run. My younger brothers rode in the back of pickup trucks with their champions baseball teams and years later were in the parade for student council. We always seemed to know half the people in the parade. It's a great parade and brings back memories of my high school days.

After I got married we would often sit by the Swenson's on the east side of the SF library. You needed a hat to see the floats as you stared into the sun, but if you were lucky there would be a stream in the gutter and you could cool your toes in the water. One of my unique memories is when the Provo Mission missionaries walked in the parade. One of my good friends from BYU-Hawaii had been called to serve in the Provo mission and I saw him walking past. I got to run to him and snap a photo together. Even Trey has been to parade in years past.

Happy 24th of July to all and many more happy celebrations in the future!

Oops!

Sometimes you have a moment when you wonder, what was I thinking? The answer was obvious and it still took forever to figure out. Well, that is exactly what happened last night.

We were driving to Target to pick out a birthday present for a party that was about to begin. Yes, we were going to be late, what a surprise, but in those last few minutes before we left I strapped the girls in the car, cleaned the downstairs and kitchen in seven minutes and was quite proud of myself when we pulled out of the driveway. I love coming home to a house that doesn't need to be picked up, there are no dishes in the sink. I can simply put the kids in their jammies and tuck them in bed. I was feeling good.

While we were driving I was drinking a Diet Coke that had a screw on top and was chatting with the kids. When we pulled into Target I threw everything into my bag and absentmindedly tossed in the Diet Coke. It wasn't like I needed a drink in Target. I certainly wasn't going to be drinking it with Brynn in my arms, pushing Kaitlyn in the cart while trying to keep three boys in view.

We trucked on back to the far left of the store to the toy department and finally found the Polly Pocket aisle when I noticed that there was a mysterious brown liquid that had dripped on to the floor. I thought I had simply selected the wrong cart and that the wheels were leaking something gross by my feet. As I scanned the dolls I looked down again and saw more liquid. This time I looked up at the ceiling thinking it might be falling from above. Of course it hadn't rained that day, but I was still puzzled.

At this point it seems obvious that I need more sleep, but more minutes passed and more brown drops appeared on the floor. Finally a light bulb went off in my mind and I realized this mystery liquid was none other than the Diet Coke I had haphazardly thrown into my backpack. I yanked off the bag thinking everything would just be wet. Oh how wrong I was. The nylon bag made a perfect little lake in the bottom . I spied my phone, camera, wallet, gum, chapstick, money and fruit snacks floating in two inches of cola. Oh no! I also saw Rich's moonlighting check shredded in three pieces near the bottom. What a mess!

I grabbed the phone, wallet and camera, threw the new toys and backpack in the basket and rushed to check out. I didn't dare look behind to see if we left a brown trail as we exited. Back at the van, I took the phone apart hoping it could dry out, laid the check out, checked the camera (it was fine- hurrah!) and tossed the rest.

After six solid hours of blank phone screen, it miraculously started to work, but the check got a failing grade from the bank. Sweet Rich called the clinic and explained the situation and I'm sending it back to them tomorrow so they can reissue a new one.

Pretty good luck that the phone, camera and wallet survived, but there is a moral to this story. Don't put Diet Coke in your bag. Leave it in the car and use the drinking fountain if you get thirsty. That's what I am going to do from now on! And one more thing, I think I'll try to get to bed before midnight- maybe then I can avoid these situations all together!

Don't forget me!

I had to make a quick report on Kaitlyn. I didn't want her to think she was being left out after the last post.

As you can see, she's a big girl too since she's been reading Harry Potter and loving it. Just kidding. She was interested in the book though.

I had set the book up this morning next to the couch so I could get a photo of it for the blog. She thought it looked like a game I had set up to play together. The game was called, Knock Over the Book (original I know). She had a little mischievous smile when I'd set it up and before I could snap a photo, she'd get her arm out and knock it down. After ten tries and one decent photo I finally just gave her the book and you can tell by her face she considered this as her signal that she was victorious in the battle of the book.

She also has a new trick. One I love a million times more than Brynn's. When I ask her if I can change her diaper, she will (most of the time) lay right down for me. What a sweetie!

Also, today I asked her to go get the diaper that was over by the front door since I was in the middle changing Brynn's and to my surprise she ran over picked it up and brought it right to me. What a helpful little girl.

Her black eye and cut is healing nicely and I don't think there will be any scar. I was really worried for the first two days, but it's now almost gone.

That's our little Kaitlyn; busy, sweet, loud, full of life and lots of fun!

I'm a big girl!

Here is Brynn's newest trick. She is so proud of herself as you can see . She can climb onto the chairs all by herself and if she can get away with it, the table too. Oh my! Just when I thought we were safe from stairs and the garage. They keep me on my toes!

I shouldn't be surprised. They are getting bigger every day. They both say "Mom, Mom" to get my attention and then continue to babble totally convinced they are having a lovely conversation with me. Brynn even uses hand gestures. It's quite cute.

They do say a few real words like hot, no, hi, juice, mom and dad. In the next few months I know the list will grow by leaps and bounds.

Wonder what they'll learn next?

Music and Muggles

Last night we were cleaning up dinner and the TV was on the BYU channel. It was showing a rebroadcast of the Pioneer Concert that took place on Friday night in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I was rinsing a dish and wondered what the choir was singing about. They were shouting something and I turned to question Rich and said, "It sounds like they are saying 'Give us the muzzle'." Would they be singing a pioneer song about gun? I really didn't think so.

Rich looked serious and said, "No, they are saying 'Give us the Muggles'. This program was on Friday night, I'm sure they are singing about Harry Potter." Then he cracked a smile. I pushed back on the DVR so we could watch that part over and over again. It really did sound like they were singing 'Muggles'. I laughed and laughed.

For a guy who has never read a page of a Harry book, but who is married to a woman that is obsessed with it and did nothing this past weekend other than read, I thought it was quite clever and appropriate.

Thanks Rich for the laugh.

The End

And so it is finished....

I completed reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows this evening. The book taught me more about five powerful and noble principles in life.

*Honesty

*Courage

*Loyalty

*Sacrifice

*Love


A beautiful book and perfect ending to the epic tale of Harry Potter.


All was well.

A Night to Remember

"And now let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure." Albus Dumbledore

And what an adventure it was. Trey, Josh, Matt and I plus our neighbors Laurel and Ethan Kramer l piled into our van at 11:50 PM and headed out into the darkness in our quest to obtain the new and last Harry Potter book.

Yes, to some Muggles this might seem a bit late for the under aged little ones to be out and about, especially with the swirling stories of Voldemort's return to power. But we had to take the chance (and brave the crowds) to find our prize.

We weren't the only ones with that idea. The store was packed. There must have been at least 700-800 people that wound around the store in a snake like fashion through aisles and around boxes. Wal-mart was not prepared for this kind of gathering and so we waited, and waited and waited. A few people were dressed in robes and glasses and of course we had our "Dark Marks" and there was excitement in the air. They passed out cookies, water and Capri Sun's to the waiting crowd.

The boys got a poster, a bookmark, but the hot items of the night were plastic bracelets in red, blue, yellow and green that each read the name of a House at Hogwarts; Red: Gryffindor, Green: Slytherin, Blue: Ravenclaw and Yellow: Hufflepuff.

We could only manage to get one Gryffindor bracelet, which made little Josh so sad. Then it occurred to me that this event had not happened yet in the MST zone, it was like when Herimone had a time turner and we could do the same thing for a second time! So we made a quick phone call to Utah and asked my parents to see if they could get a few extra during their own midnight book run. I can happily report that they were successful in this endeavor! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Each buyer that passed with the copy of the book in hand made my stomach jump. It was that exciting. I felt like I was waiting in line for a great ride at Disneyland. I made this comparison to my boys, but they didn't quite feel the same level of enthusiasm as me.

Finally at 12:45 AM they got a bit smarter and wheeled out a second pallet of books that was wrapped in dark black plastic with a large warning sign that read "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 12:01 AM SATURDAY JULY 21, 2007!" and put it by the register in the hunting section of the store. This sped up the process since every person had to buy the book from the designated registers. At 1:05 AM we became the newest owner of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.

What a memory! It was like history in the making. Good news, my Death Eater scar never burned. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must have realized that I would not come, ever. I am like Harry, Dumbledore's man through and through. I love Harry. I hope he find happiness in the end, but whatever is to be, I truly know that I found magic; real, pure magic found in the hundreds of pages I have read about a boy; the Boy Who Lived. No matter what, he will never die, for he will always live in our minds and hearts. It truly is "One for the Ages!" as the New York Times wrote. Thanks J.K. Rowling for an amazing journey!

The Dark Mark

T-minus 39 minutes, but who's counting. Oh yeah, ME!!

I had to make a quick report that the Dark Mark has been seen in our home. Somehow Voldemort was able to penetrate all our spells, jinxes and enchantments protecting our little abode and was able to turn our little bunch into Death Eaters. Hope I don't feel it burning at midnight because I won't come running to the Dark Lord, plus I haven't learned how to Apparate quite yet!

Really, Josh, the girls and I made a quick trip to the store tonight to stock up on a few essentials. While we were in the cereal aisle we spotted a 25 pack of tattoos for $1.00. What a bargain. As we inspected the bag I found the ultimate tattoo for tonight. It was a long wrap around tattoo that had curly lines and a skull in the middle. It was the perfect Death Eater mark. I couldn't resist and with a few snips of the scissors and water we all got marked just in time for the book release.

Let The Countdown Begin!

When I think about it, my heart starts to race, my stomach drops and I get all excited. No, I'm not talking about my last ride on the drop zone at King's Island, I'm thinking about how in less than NINE HOURS I will be heading out to our Wal-mart Supercenter to purchase HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!!


Can you believe it? It's almost here. I called my family to see what there plans were tonight. My brother Kurt was worried that if they wait until 2:30 AM to go (when Rhett will need to be picked up from his 2 1/2 week long choir trip) the book will be sold out. My Dad said only 12 million copies won't go that far. I told him especially since they are going to buy 3 just for them. They are as excited as me. I love it!


I will stay off the Internet and avoid anyone talking about the book until I read the last word. I can't wait, and luckily I don't have to for much longer. I finished both 5 & 6 this week and have so many ideas and wonder HOW WILL IT ALL END? Here are a few of my ideas:


Harry will defeat/kill Voldemort and live

Draco Malfoy will turn good in the end

Snape is 100% evil

Dumbledore is truly dead

I pray Ron or Hermione don't die

Will Percy will somehow help Voldemort?

Will Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione find love together?

Will Petunia play a bigger role?

Will Dobby aid Harry again?

Will there be a double wedding (Bill and Fleur/ Lupin and Tonks)?

Will Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother, be a part of the story?

Will a Horcrux be found in Hogwarts?

Will Kreacher help the Dark Lord or Harry?

Is R.A.B Sirius's brother Regulus Black?



Only time will tell. Happy reading!

Little Victories

How many times do we do tasks around the house which take hours to complete and within minutes they seem to be undone? We make the beds, bathe kids, do laundry, make lunch, empty the dishwasher, clean it up, vacuum the house, change diapers, scrub the bathrooms, run to Wal-mart, pay bills, make dinner, clean it up, put kids in PJ's, tuck them in bed, clean the house once again, fold more laundry and know it will be repeated again when you wake up! It's often a thankless job.

Recently I have done four little projects that seem to be a bit more permanent than most. I think they are like four little victories; things that will still be intact when Rich comes home and I can show them off. They are like little bonuses at work.


Put up new blinds in my room after Josh and a friend had a little tennis ball mishap that managed to break three blinds at once (think along the lines of baseball/my room/ ball flies off the moving fan/broken blinds). Wasn't mad since the old ones were brittle and yellow and needed to be replaced. Couldn't justify replacing the same blinds on Rich's side. Hope a second accident takes them out in the near future.

Installed a new door knob on the kitchen/garage door. Girls can easily pull down on the earlier one and escape. Old handle= extreme worry about their safety. $12.37 new handle later= peace of mind.

Kitchen sink faucet spraying backwards towards wall/window. Funny for about 2 seconds. Trip to Lowe's minus the old faucet head= frustration. Second trip to Lowe's= straight falling water in sink.

Somehow remembered to buy small light bulbs during Wal-mart trip. Changed two, cleaned out bugs and dust. Happily discovered fly leg on cheek after cleaning out. Finally a well lit hallway!

Completed projects crossed off "to do" list= Priceless!

The Book of Mormon Challenge

In the beginning of July our Bishop challenged our ward to read the Book of Mormon with our families and by ourselves and complete it by the end of the calendar year. He, being a businessman, gave each family a packet that had a calendar, stickers, weekly reading breakdown and a paper with quotes from President Hinckley.

Last Sunday the bishop was conducting and randomly called up a sister from the audience to bear her testimony about how her families Book of Mormon reading was going. He said this would now be a weekly event and you would not be given warning.

I was relived it wasn't me who had been selected since the sticker chart was still in the car from the previous week and while we had read the Book of Mormon reader (summaries with pictures) to the boys, we hadn't read from the real book to the kids. I truly didn't want to get called up and have nothing to report, so I started reading two chapters a day to the boys and we have eight stickers on our chart.

The only thing I was worried about was that the language would be difficult for the boys to understand. Thankfully they know the stories as well as I do since we have gone through the reader at least ten times. I stop to explain harder words and ask the questions to see if they follow, but they are doing a great job.

Last night we were reading 1 Nephi chapter 7 when Laman and Lemuel tie Nephi because they were "exceedingly wroth". The boys were very interested in this and thought it was amazing when the Lord gave Nephi the strength to "burst the bands." They were acting it out with Brynn's arms.

While we read chapter 8 we began to explain Lehi's dream, but Matt stopped us and gave a full account of what it was about; there was a river, a tree, a rod of iron, a building with mean people and how people drown. It was quite good.

When we talked about how Lehi was so worried that Laman and Lemuel would fall away after what he saw in his dream, the explanation soon turned to how Laman and Lemuel were turing "toward the dark side" aka like Star Wars. How this happened, I'm not sure, but if Matt's involved in anyway, somehow we can always get a Star Wars analogy worked in one way or the other. The kid keeps you on your toes!

Here's to six more months of happy readings and many more Star Wars comparisons!

Bathing Beauties

Today we spent a solid two hours at our little neighborhood pool and had a ball. We hadn't been since swim team wrapped up last Friday and the boys were missing their daily time in the water.

It was another dreaded sweat fest of a day with the temperatures in the mid 90's and intense humidity since a storm was coming in later tonight. Perfect weather for a lazy day at the pool.

We met four other families from our ward at noon so there was a little gang of kids for the boys to play with. Other than our LDS clan, the pool was virtually empty. What a treat!

Trey is the king of crazy dives, Josh kept racing me and the girls up and back (which he won every time) and Matt swam for about 1/2 hour and then retreated to the lounge chairs to play with his Star Wars action figures that were conveniently still in the van from our trip to Louisville.

At least the hot weather made me want to get in to swim with the Brynn and Kaitlyn. 95% of the time spent at the pool this year has been with the girls in their stroller, as we watched the boys swim from the pool deck.

Today was the first time the girls actually smiled when they were in the big pool. It isn't heated to my knowledge and you usually have to inch your way while trying to control your shivers! It was a lot of fun and the girls amazingly left their hats of their heads and had smiles on their faces while they floated in their little inflatables. I'm so glad we have a this extra place to hang out when all the kids are home all day in the summer.

OUCH!

Sweet little Kaitlyn fell down and caught the edge of the coffee table last night around 5:30 PM. She cried for a few minutes and then was up and around playing and eating. I thought she looked like Rocky when they slit his eyelid so he could continue the fight.

I was upstairs getting diapers while Josh was down with the girls and saw it happen. Trey came in from outside playing and saw Kaitlyn too. He rushed upstairs to tell me that Kaitlyn had a cut by her eye since Josh was being a great big brother and didn't want to leave her. I was a bit more than surprised when I hurried down and saw her.

I called Rich who came home from studying and he took her to the hospital around 7:30 PM to get checked out. They cleaned her up, checked on her eye and and determined that the cut was on the crease and seemed to be staying closed. Plus the idea of restraint/sedation for two stitches wouldn't affect the outcome of the scar, so they came home.

It was 11:00 PM when the garage door opened, so they had a long Daddy/Daughter date in the ER. It is always sad to see your little one with a hospital tag on their ankle. It was a long night of mostly waiting, but I am grateful Rich took her in to make sure it didn't need stitches. Rich had been on call on Saturday and Sunday so the last place he wanted to spend Monday night was back at the hospital. Thanks Rich for being a great Dad!

Kaitlyn was a little trouper through it all. When they got back the swelling looked the same, but her eyelid was even more black and blue than when she left. I think the cut will heal faster than the black eye.

What size are you?

Today I discovered Matt and Trey are a size 6. At first glance that might not seem too strange or surprising, but that number not the size of their pants or shirt. Oh no, that size would be 6 inches to be exact. That is how much space was between the step and the gate that they both managed to wriggle under to get upstairs.


I had been downstairs with the girls exercising and didn't want them escaping so I put up the gate. Matt said he need to go up to the kitchen so I followed over to the stairs to take the gate down for him, but to my astonishment, he simply got on his tummy and slid under and was on the other side in a matter of seconds. I was seriously shocked that he could fit through. Trey came over to show me how he could do it too. He had to wiggle a bit more, but still got on the other side.

It made me think about my cousin Stephanie's husband Shane/Sheen when he told us that robbers broken into their home in Phoenix through a small six inch bathroom window. You couldn't think it was possible, but my boys showed me otherwise.

By this time I had to see how far I could get and just barely got my head through the space. I guess I have far surpassed being a size "6" long ago!

Trophy Time!

Tonight was the closing banquet for the Pinnacle Pirates Swim Team. Each of the children received a great looking pirate trophy. I am so proud of Trey, Josh and Matt and for all the hard work they put into swimming this summer. They went from me questioning their ability to float to winning ribbons and gaining so much self confidence. Trey swam in four meets, Josh swam in three meets and Matt swam in one meet and we have a beautiful collection of ribbons they earned. Matt has come so far and been so brave even when he was afraid to try new things.

I will miss going to the pool each morning and watching the boys get better each day. We all loved the Krispy Kreme doughnuts on Thursday mornings and our Friday trip to the vending machine to celebrate a week of hard work. Way to go boys. Here's to next year! I love you!

Go Pirates!

Pirates vs Firefish

The boys swam in their last swim meet of the season on Wednesday night. It was held at the Firebrook pool and was our first away meet that the boys participated in. The pool deck was very small so we were packed in tightly and missed the space our own pool offered. The girls stayed in their stroller while we tried to shade them from the intense setting sun.

The meets last up to three hours since the swimmers range from age 4-18. Luckily we only have to stay through the 7-8 boys backstroke and only takes about 1 1/2 hours to get to that point.

Matt had a great warm up and seemed to be excited about swimming in his second meet, though was quite worried about having to swim next to a lane line and not the wall. We checked the heat sheet and it said Matt would be in lane 6 which is the wall lane, so I told him not to worry.

Josh was the first to swim and he did a great job. He had gotten a record time the week before of just 36.56 seconds with the help of pushing off the wall after stopping for a breath. That time put him in the second heat. He swam hard and only stopped a couple of times for air. He looked great, but couldn't come near that previous time since he was really swimming instead of launching off the wall. He swam his 25 meter freestyle in 45.69 seconds and earned a green fifth place ribbon.

Matt was supposed to swim in heat seven. I waited for him to line up, but I couldn't find him. As I scanned the pool I saw him by the stroller crying. I rushed over and he told me that they were going to make him swim in lane five and that meant there were lane lines on either side. His fear got the best of him and he just couldn't swim his race. He was really disappointed that it was the last race of the season, but we talked it over and he knows he will be older and even more brave next summer so he'll get a chance to swim again then. It's hard to understand all of this when you are barely six years old. He had a great year and I was so happy that he swam in a meet and is getting better every day!

Trey was the last to swim and raced in the 25 meter freestyle and backstroke. The week before he looked like he was so tired during freestyle, so I told him this was the week to step it up. He needed to swim hard and try to break best time which he posted on his first race. He was so nervous when the race started he just swam like he was getting chased by a shark. Well, he did just that. He dove right in and only took three or four breaths. He set a new personal record of 30.11 seconds. That was a full two seconds faster. He won the heat and earned a blue ribbon and a wrist band that said "swim fast."

By now the boys were starving so they got a hot dog and the girls ran around the grass outside the pool while we waited for the rest of the swimmers to complete freestyle. Trey then swam his 25 meter backstroke. He once again swam hard and won the heat. He got a second wrist band and his time was 36.69 seconds.

We got snow cones to celebrate and look forward to the many years of swimming we still have ahead of us. Way to go Matt, Josh and Trey!

GO PIRATES!!

Things I Dislike

•Dark Chocolate

•Black Licorice

•Fur (totally alergic!)

•People who have no patience with children

•Getting in the slow line at Wal-mart

•Dandelions

•Garlic

•Strong cheese

•The Olive Garden

•Secondhand smoke

•Cartoon Network shows

•People who cheat

My Little Indians

I have always had friendly relationship with the sun. When I was young my older brother would always get sun burned while I turned a nice golden brown. My Mom would say the sun "kissed me". Greg didn't think it was fair nor do I think he liked the idea of getting burn vs. being kissed.

Looking back on it now I probably liked it a little too much. Between the little Geo Tracker I drove with the top down through high school and my freshman year spent in Hawaii, I may regret my sun worship in a few years when the lines start to appear and I have to make regular trips to the dermatologist. Oh the ignorance of youth!

As I had children of my own I wondered if they would get my skin. When they were little I kept them out of the sun and lathered in sunscreen. Well the jury's out and I think it's official the boys may have a bit of Indian in them. Before this summer Trey usually had a pale, pasty, ghostly white complexion that screamed "I'm anemic." It's hard to believe this the same kid with his brown skin and blond hair. He looks like a little beach bum. We can thank daily trips to the pool (Mon.- Fri. 11-12) and months of baseball practices and games.

During these activities the girls are always tucked away in their stroller under the canopies, but even with all the sunscreen and shade they both have funny little farmer tans. The cutest part is when Kaitlyn straightens out her arm the crease is a bright white. It makes me smile each time I see it.

Happy summer and sun to all!

Simple joys

After a long day the last thing I want is to hear a crying baby that won't settle down to sleep. Brynn was putting up a good fight and her lungs were letting me know that she didn't like the idea of going to bed. I went into the girls room and picked her up in the dark. She instantly stopped crying and snuggle tight into my chest. As I rocked and hummed her to sleep I thought that this was a pure, simple joy in life. To have a little one that loved you; someone that you could calm by just the touch. I felt her soft hair and skin and reflected on these simple joys in life.


Here are just a few.....


*Your babies first smile

*Watching a baby learn to walk

*Hearing your little one call you Mom

*A gorgeous sunset that has bright pinks and deep blues

*Skipping rocks

*Watching fireflies

*Seeing a mother bird feed her babies

*Daffodils in spring

*A rainbow

*Having a picnic in the mountains

*Feeding the ducks at Salem Pond

*Watching your children succeed

*Taking a nap on the beach

*Spending the day at Disneyland

*Going to lunch with your Mom

*Finishing a great book

*Fireworks

*Eating an ice cream cone on a hot day

*Giving a hug

*Welcoming home a missionary

*Looking at Orion with your Dad

*Visiting a grandparent

*A bride and groom on their wedding day

*Graduation- from anything!



May this day bring joy to you all!

Random Thoughts

What's on my mind.......

The girls watched me clean the toilets this morning. Probably not a good idea. Hope I don't find toys or other objects in the bowl in the near future.

I hate chocolate! It's a melty, oozing mess on hot summer days. It has incredible staining ability. Anything from chocolate flavored Tootsie-pops, a Frosty, frozen fudge bars or M&M's; all are a nightmare to get out of clothes. How many shirts may I lose to these dreaded items? I washed Kaitlyn's shirt THREE times last night and can still see a spot. I may turn into a Tide-to-go commercial soon which is amazing since I haven't even ever used it! I guess I should just buy white so I can spray Tilex on them all and restore them to their original state!

A cold, crisp, sweet seedless watermelon is my favorite summertime treat! My boys would vote for popsicles since we go through three or more boxes a week! Now if I could get them to throw away the wrappers and sticks!

I love a good roller coaster but know Rich will use the recent Six Flag Kentucky Kingdom accident as proof that riding one could be a danger to your health!

I am currently reading 3 Harry Potter books. I am reading #2 to the boys at bedtime, got 200 pages into #6, but decided to read #5 again was nearly done, but with the 21st just days way I'm feeling the pressure to finish #6 before #7 comes out so started reading #6 again today. I must love it to be this crazy! (Or maybe I'm just a bit of a "nutter" as Ron would say.)

I wish I could speak a second language. My brother Kurt got his mission call to Taiwan and will be learning Mandarin Chinese. He enters the MTC on September 6. Better him than me since I don't possess the gift of tongues. After three years of Spanish in high school I can't even remember the things Dora or Diego say on their shows!

I love a British accent. There's cartoon show called Charlie and Lola. I say some of the lines in my best accent to the boys and they roll their eyes at me and laugh! But seriously don't they sound more sophisticated that most Americans!

My favorite cartoon character that the boys watch is "Sheen Estavez" on Jimmie Neutron Boy Genius. He's a hoot. When my cousin Stephanie's husband Shane came out for a rotation the boys couldn't remember if he was Sheen or Shane. So they called him both!

I don't get Yu-Gi-Oh. It's terribly overpriced and the concept of playing the card game is over my head. Trey thinks he's all knowing of the rules, which does not equal a fair fight for his opponents.

I'm a sucker for free shipping. I love it! I hardly ever buy anything that I have to spend shipping on because in my mind it's a waste of money. I'll buy one shirt in two sizes so I can reach the free shipping minimum amount. This is great because I can see which fits better and return the extra to the store. Love it!

I love Shade Clothing's tanks. I wear one almost everyday. The straps are wider than the camisole and they are not quite as hot as the cap sleeves. A wise woman invented these under-tees making it possible for almost any shirt to be wearable. (Unfortunately I have to pay dreaded shipping!)

I don't get why people pierce their tongues. That should be an act of torture saved for those with a habit of using foul language.

Oh, and I love spell check!! Spelling has or never will be a strong subject for me. I have to ask Rich a million times how to spell words when scribbling out handwritten thank you notes. Hope the kids take after their father in that department!

Pinnacle Pirates

We got the boys swim team photos yesterday. They have had a great season and it wraps up today. How the summer has flown by! I'm glad we still have one month left so I can dust off the paper, pencils and books and try to improve their brains instead of their backstroke until school starts!

Pink vs. Blue

How can girls and boys be so innately different? Girls have soft voices and dance and skip. They believe in fairies, mermaids and princesses. They love to play house, dress up, put on makeup, cuddle their babies and carry their purse around while gabbing on a toy phone.

The world is a bit different to a little boy; a lot more rough and tumble. Why does a toy car instantly becomes a battling ram, their finger transforms into gun and they stop and squish every ant they see?

In past years I have been surrounded by boys. I have five brothers and three sons. Trey's first sentence was "shoot the ball." I have hundreds of action figures and match box cars, balls from every sport and a box of weapons overflowing in my storage room. Growing up I had my fair share of Barbies and Cabbage Patch dolls, but I also loved He-man, Transformers, Lincoln Logs, Definitely Dinosaurs and spent hours in the loft dangling our Rambo toys over the balcony in well rehearsed action scenes. We had a ball and I could enjoy bits of both worlds, the pink and the blue.

Once the girls arrived I was in awe that there were loads of pink laundry in my washing machine. Who could have imagined that bracelets and headbands and tights would be part of my daily routine? I bought doll strollers and Cabbage Patch Babies for the girls' birthday. I thought I was doing well.

That was until this week when a little three-year old girl came over to play for the afternoon. Here's how the conversation played out. " Do you have any dress up clothes? No. Do you have any dress up shoes? No. Do you have any crowns? No. Do you have any Barbies? No. Do you have any necklaces? No. Do you have any princesses? No. Do you have a doll house? No. Do you have any......? No, No, No.

I realized I didn't have much to offer in the girl department. I managed to find two Halloween costumes I had bought for Brynn and Kaitlyn to wear in the fall, two beaded necklaces we got at a football game, a single Barbie from my cedar chest that I got when I turned twelve and some Madame Alexander dolls I had gotten from McDonald's Happy Meals. It wasn't much, but it managed to entertain her for a few hours.

So yesterday I went to Wal-mart and Dollar Tree and loaded up on some much needed items. I figured Brynn and Kaitlyn will be asking for it shortly, so better now than later. Only $15.00 later I am now the proud owner of Beach Glam Barbie and Ken, two pairs of dress up shoes, two long and curly hair pieces (as you can see from the pictures we tested them out today), two tiaras with earrings, three Hawaiian leis and two wands. That should do for now.......

Chomper aka Kaitlyn

Don't let these pretty baby blues and dimples fool you. Behind that sweet smile are some seriously ferocious teeth! Don't believe me, just ask Brynn, or check out her leg for the proof. Yes, those are teeth marks and if you look closely you can see that there is not one, but two sets of imprints.

I don't know what it is with twins and biting, but both Josh and Matt and now Kaitlyn have suffered from "attack from the killer canines" for a short time. The crazy part is that they only ever bit their womb mate (humor me please). With the boys I had to resort to the bar of soap, which to my dismay they didn't seem to mind.

But don't pity Brynn too much. She usually starts the incident thinking it's all a big game to steal what Kaitlyn is playing with and she's learn to defend herself from the fangs with a quick whack to the head. What a thoughtful gesture. I think the "kill it with kindness" is a better approach, but I'm not 15 months old either.

What's next? I hate to even ask!

Happy 1 Year Lexington!

(Reader Beware: Novel length post ahead!)

Today marks the one year anniversary of living in Lexington, Kentucky. It has gone by so quickly it's amazing that 12 months have already passed, but the move here was a long time coming.

I remember sitting in my van waiting to pick up Josh and Matt from preschool when my phone rang. It was the match scramble day and I wasn't sure if the call would bring good or bad news. Some schools that Rich interviewed with required you do your intern year at their school, some didn't care if you did it somewhere else. Rich had not requested to match for his intern year so we could stay in Louisville for one extra year. He could do general surgery at U of L instead of internal medicine. It was late in the morning and when I hadn't heard from him by 11:30 AM, I assumed we matched up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin because they required you do your intern year at their school.

Now the phone was ringing and I knew it could go two ways. One would be that you didn't match at all and that would be beyond horrible. You would have to try to find a spot in a program that didn't fill and almost always in a different field than what you tried to match for. The other scenario was that they were calling to tell us Rich matched, but he needed to pick a place to do his PGY1 year. My heart was pounding when I said hello wondering what Rich would say. He told me he matched. My heart skipped a beat because it meant Rich would be a radiologist, he had a spot!! What a relief.

He then broke the big news. When he got the call, she also told him where he matched. This was supposed to be a secret until match day a few days later. He told me he was going to the University of Kentucky! What a surprise and thrill. We wouldn't be moving away too far and it was a great program. Since the University of Kentucky didn't require radiology residents to complete their internship in Lexington, we were free to pursue the one year internship in Louisville. We would have an entire year to find out about Lexington, to sell our home and find a new place to live. It was a great situation for our family.


It's been two years since we knew we would be coming to Lexington and we could not have imagined what a wonderful place this would be for our family. We loved Louisville and all of our great friends, we just didn't like the direction of Louisville's radiology program. Much of our decision to rank UK high was based on the desire remain close to Louisville. We never thought we would find a situation to match our time in there. However, the move to Lexington has opened up new opportunities for our kids. We couldn't find a better elementary school. We are within waking distance of a beautiful park that has walking trails and a river. We are one block from the nicest little league complex I have seen in my life (and that's saying a lot!) and have a neighborhood pool up the street where the boys can swim on a great little swim team. Plus we can still go to Louisville and see friends, attend baby blessings and baptisms and go to the zoo and science center, two of our favorite places. We have loved being in Lexington and know when the time comes to say goodbye it will be very difficult to find a place that can can be as good of a fit .


Now that we knew where we were headed, the next big question was where we were going to live? By the time we really started to look I was quite far along in pregnancy with the girls. We started looking online just for fun and were hopeful about finding something a lot like what we had, but with a basement. With five children, we had out grown our home in Louisville and knew a basement would give them a place to play and store their toys and allow Matt to build his cities without the babies crushing them the minute his back was turned. Plus I didn't think my parents wanted me to call them in the wee hours of the night telling them the kids and I were in the closet under the stairs while the sirens were blaring. And I was not having any more toys in their rooms or in the family room. I had dealt with that for five years and wanted a small toy free zone if possible! That may sound picky, but can't a girl dream?

Rich's Mom came out when the girls were born and we spent hours looking at houses online. We found a realtor and set up a time to go. Kristi took Josh and Matt while Trey was in school, so Rich, his Mom, the girls and I all headed to Lexington to look. The first house was great, but it had a low-maintenance yard. That really meant it was built on a cliff! No thanks and the list went on and on. We were getting discouraged and by our second time I was doubtful we would find anything. Just days before I was to head back to Utah with the kids, my Mom and I with Josh, Matt and the girls in tow came down for one last try. It was the last of the three houses and it just worked. Yes, there was crazy wallpaper (vases, grass and birds!) and old carpet, but it had a basement, was on a cul-de-sac and it just seemed to fit.

Thinking back on it all, I am very glad for it to be a year later. I left the kids in Utah in late June and flew out to close on the houses and move. Rich was wrapping up an intense year of school and it was all overwhelming. The two of us and two movers packed up the house and we spent the night at the Hamilton's (Kristi even left little chocolates on the bed!). Those next three days, we cleaned, unpacked, painted and did very little resting, while Josh and Matt celebrated their 5th birthday without Mom or Dad. When I came back with the kids just a week later my Mom and Kurt flew us out and we said our goodbyes in the Louisville airport where I rented a van and drove to Lexington and met Rich at the house and they flew back to Utah.


The fun had just begun and I was lucky to have two non-moving babies at the time since we peeled wallpaper, painted, got new carpet, changed light fixtures, hung shelves, and organized the house. The boys watched hours of TV, but I kept my guilt to a minimum because I knew once I got it all done, I could stop being a project manager and become a manager of my kids again.


I have to give a special thanks to our Moms for all their help. My Mom spent weeks packing up boxes we got from our daily trip to the "Licorice" Barn (as Matt called it) and transported them to the Hamilton's basement for storage. We scrubbed and cleaned and she fixed a broken closet door, patched a hole in the ceiling and taped blow dryers to the wall when the toilet started leaking just days before we listed the house. Thanks for the yummy tuna casserole and for keeping a baby in your room each night allowing me to remain sane. Thanks Mom. I love you!


To Rich's Mom. Thanks for helping us with the kids, for leaving your own daughter and brand new baby to help us with Brynn and Kaitlyn, for spending hours looking for homes and watching the boys so we could go down for a second trip. For taking a baby each night and going days without rest. I love you!


And thanks to Todd and Kristi for letting us take over your basement for months with all our junk! Todd rented a van, packed all of our things and drove it to us here in Lexington on a day off when Kristi was out of town. It's hard to find friends like that. I love you guys!


It took months to sort it all out and to adjust to the new city, but it certainly feels like home now. And we are always up for visitors!


The entryway The family room The kitchen

The dining room we made into an office

My roomThe boys room The girls room The kid zone (basement)
Your bedroom for when you come to visit!

Things to do when you visit Lexington:


Visit Keeneland Horse Rack Track
Check out Rupp Arean where the UK Wildcats play basketball.

Go to a Lexington Legends (Class A affiliate of the Astros) baseball game.