FOUR!

Had an interesting weekend. Jared fished on Friday, and I visited w/Allison. We walked around Ikea w/my kids [they like that store a LOT]. I dropped them off at home, with a babysitter and a movie, and Allison and I headed out to Daybreak and spent about 3 hours walking through all their model homes. I am totally sore today, but I loved talking with Allison, and looking at the interesting decorating ideas. Saturday we had a mother/daughter craft day at church, and Morgen came with me at 8:30am to help set up. Crafts started about 10am, finished around 2pm, then we spent another 1 1/2 hours cleaning up. She was an awesome helper! We drove by the Orem mall to visit our SIU cropping friends, and stayed to chat and shop. Today she and I created a little book of pictures that she took last month. We used a $5 scrapbook we picked up at the crop, and Morgen provided the text. I wasn't super-excited to start this, but we both had more fun than we expected ;)

At Red Butte Gardens- of course, the only one looking at the camera is Myles! I'm anticipating our next visit there; the children's garden alone is pretty amazing!
And we celebrated Hyrum's birthday today. He's four, and totally excited about 2 things: his new watch, and the pocketknife/flashlight he got for his birthday. ;) He was pretty sad that he couldn't keep the pocketknife with him. It's for camping, so it goes with the camping stuff. Plus his mom has a suspicious mind, and doesn't trust him with a sharp object.
He got a lovely ice cream cake, and as you can see, enjoyed every bite of it.

decorating tips

If you go to Ikea's website, you can download this cool interactive 'design-your-own-kitchen' tool. And, since I was bored [I finished all my chores, and the kids were outside rehydrating the soil], I played with it a little. I designed myself a new kitchen, and liked it so much that I applied some of the ideas IRL. The cupboards over the fridge prevented me stacking things on top of it. And I couldn't stack things too high on the baker's rack because the top shelf is too shallow.
But, as you can see, swapping the two allows me to stack things on top of the fridge [my pressure cooker, for example]. And, I can now reach into the cupboards above the baker's rack, plus there's room beside it for my mop and broom. MUCH better, thank you! This "new" kitchen is more efficient; I think the only thing I'd want to buy would be new drapes, and a new curtain rod. And I can live with what I've got for now.
Oh, because I moved everything around, the kitchen floor also got swept and mopped, and the walls got washed. :) See what I can do when I'm not reading? LOL
Next job on my list is reorganizing the bathroom cabinets. Then my room, then the craft room. I've done the craft room a few times, and I'm pretty sure that what I actually need in there are some cabinets, mounted to the ceiling in the currently unused space there. And hey, Ikea sells cabinets. Hmmm...

la-dee-dah

Did you know that, for a mere $55, I can take myself, another adult, plus 4 kids to the Red Butte [that word rhymes with cute, not cut] Gardens for an entire year?!?! Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good deal too. The University of Utah runs the gardens, and they sprawl over the foothills on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley. I've been once, with Walker's 2nd grade class, on a field trip. We'll see how the other kids like it...
In other news, Myles is a sucking machine. If it will fit in his mouth, he will suck on it. If it won't fit into his mouth, he licks it. When Hyrum was this old, I followed him around the house one day and snapped pictures of everything he licked. I know, I need a life LOL, but when he's 18 and dating, it will be awesome blackmailing material ;)
Walker is reading Harry Potter 1-6 *again*, preparing for the release of #5 movie in July.
Morgen started piano lessons this week.
Hyrum tore a nice big hole in his sheet last night.
We went to mom and dad's for Father's Day dinner. Jared made home-made ice cream, then left it at their house, since it would melt on our way home :(
And I took the kids for a walk this morning- we're starting that "get into shape for summer hiking and camping season" thing.
Hope you get to do one thing you want to today. Mine for today is blogging.

list of favorites

Pumpkin cookies. Yup, they still head my list ;)

Sleeping baby. Well, all sleeping babies are beautiful, but I am especially fond of *my* sleeping baby. He snores LOL.

Crocheting. Keeps my hands busy, and I can chat with my friends while I feel righteously productive.

Friends. Particularly, friends of my children who invite them over to play on their trampoline, thus freeing me to scrapbook and listen to the snores of that sleeping baby.

Airplanes. Yes, they take my dh away from me, but they also bring him back in a reasonably timely manner.

Digital camera. I have a basic model, and it is still incredibly fun and functional to view and store pictures.

Cellphones. Do I need to explain this?

Ipod. Although mine is not the most updated one, it is still pretty awesome to upload a bunch of songs to it, and rock around the house. Also great for embarrassing my kids when their friends are over ;)

Microwave popcorn. I love the smell!

Netflix. I just figured out how easy it is to arrange for my kids to have movies from them- I set up a queue, and they alternate sending a DVD from mine, and one from the kids'. *sigh* SOOO much easier than trying to remember who had which DVD last, and whose turn is next.

hiking

Friday was our hiking day. Jared had drill this weekend [oh goody] so it was a day trip. 2.2 miles up to Silver Lake- a beautiful hike- it took about 2 hours to hike up, and 1 1/2 to get back down. Jared carried our dinner, two fishing poles, lots of water, and Hyrum for part of the trek. My load was wiggly and drooling, and I think he hid rocks in his diaper LOL. It wasn't a terribly long hike, but it was pretty steep. Hyrum took a couple of tumbles down the trail, because he kept running and would trip on the rocks. No stitches, though, which is good!



And Myles got his fingernails trimmed again. I swear that child has the amazing regenerating fingernails. I clip them, they grow back the next day! His toenails don't grow that fast. Hmmmm.

Oh help!

So, the kids' last day of school is Friday. What on earth will I do with them all summer long? Lots of library visits, and pool visits, and locking them outside with access to the hose and dirt. *sigh* I can throw them food from the window LOL. I guess I'm just bemoaning the loss of any free time I have had during the day. But, on the upside, as they get bigger, they get better at helping with some things!

And this photo of Myles just says "summer" to me.

blah blah blah

Myles is speaking. Cooing, like most babies, but he's added a few twists to the "goo goo gaa gaa" thing. Like he says "Mah-mah-mah-mah" a lot, mostly when he can see me and I'm not holding him. And, I swear, he is also saying, "Blah-blah-blah." *seriously*.

The other day, Morgen tripped over Myles and flipped him from his front to his back. Her calf [the fleshy part, not the bony shin part] hit his head, and whoops! there he was on his back. I think he was surprised, but he didn't cry, and there was no blood or bruising ;) Walker grabbed his chest, and said, "I almost died of fright!" and THAT was pretty funny!

No school tomorrow. But Jared got an early flight, so we're picking him up around noon ;)

fun times

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I went outside today and found the water running in our backyard. Somebody left the faucet on, and it was RAINING. That's an ongoing struggle- to train my kids to shut off the water when they aren't using it. And I've come up with a wonderful consequence: whenever it is left on, they pay me a certain amount towards the water bill for that month. I think that sounds fair!

Love and Marriage

My brother Kyle got married Saturday. He picked a good woman- she's beautiful, kind, funny, and quite outgoing. Plus she's patient with my children [always a plus, as she's now related to them LOL].

We're pretty much done with weddings for a while. Jared's siblings are all married off to people we like, so no midnight assassinations there. And all my married siblings have also used wisdom in choosing their companions [another phew!]. Joy [who is a senior this year], and Alyson [who just turned 9], are still single, but I anticipate they will avoid marriage for a few more years, anyway ;)

And, to honor all these married people that I know, a poem by Ogden Nash, entitled "Marriage Lines"

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.

*grinning* too true...

Did you know?

that pork chops cooked with strawberry preserves are awesome? [Apple jelly also works well with them.] See, my kids each have a day they help me make dinner, and Morgen chose to make strawberry pork chops tonight. Yum!

Oh, and I am slowly killing off my house plants. Really, I water them. I do!!!! But either they're getting too much [doubtful], or not enough, or maybe there's some special thing that people who are real gardeners do with their indoor plants that I somehow missed learning. Hmmph.

Avril Lavigne has an awesome CD out- "The Best Damn Thing"- which rocks.

Fritos are sneaky. You munch on them for 5 minutes, feeling totally empty, and all of a sudden you eat one last chip and =poof! You're completely bloated.

Myles still has no teeth. He is biting, though. Not sure why; maybe because "if you bite things, they will grow" is his new philosophy, similar to the "Field of Dreams" thing.

Macey's grocery store sells ice cream in their deli. Hyrum and I usually get twist cones, and eat them while we shop. So I can now push a shopping cart and hold my shopping list and a pen in one hand, while I hold my twist cone in the other.

Myles believes that all ice cream he sees should be his. He tells us this very loudly, with his mouth wide open to encourage the sharing. Yes, I know, he's too little to be eating dairy products. But I'm not telling *him* that! [and if *you* tell him, *you* get to hold him]

Morgen has no top teeth, so she lisps. When she gets excited and talks fast [happens a LOT], it is very hard to understand anything she says.

I have a neighbor who crochets! And she's my age. Hah!

Hyrum is going to be a monkey when he grows up. Or maybe Spiderman. He is not yet 4, and he can climb our tree, the fence, onto both of our cars, and all over the swing set. I'm amazed he hasn't broken any bones yet.

Walker has read [in the past 2 weeks or so] all 13 books in "A Series of Unfortunate Events," Harry Potter 5 and 6, and a bunch of chapter books from the library. Now to get him working on his math...

Jared got to PA just fine. He's learning about chemistry things. Not the cool blowing up kind, though.

my house is much too quiet- better check for messes...

;)