other activities

We went to Green River for a family reunion and Kristl brought some inflatable canoes to float down the river, Brandon thought it would be fun to go down standing up, and dad was just getting used to the ride. I don't have a lot of pictures, I'm not so good at getting them, so here is what we have got. I think Avi took that one in our tent.

Uncle Jason was really great to perform the baptism and confirmation for Avi.


The first day of school didn't come come soon enough for us. The picture I have of Avi is sideways, so I am just putting Dai in. Isn't she cute!!

updating

So I just spent the last half hour trying to update a little journal I have about the cute things the girls do. I haven't had this journal in my hands in about a year, so it was a little overwhelming, but I thought that since this is kind of my back up journal I would post it here too.

So Avi is in the 3rd grade, she had a WONDERFUL teacher; Mrs. Taylor, who is a sister I visit teach as well as our bishops wife. She substitute taught Nathan when her was little. She has a friend, Sadie, show comes here almost everyday after school and they do their homework together. She was baptized on August 6th, and loves being in Activity Days with the older girls in primary. I am her primary teacher, so she really likes that, and luckily she is still good in class even with me in there.

Dailynn is loving kindergarten. She has a good teacher that has so many fun ideas for the kids. She is learning a lot and fast, and she loves doing homework (except for reading). She has great friends really close which is great for me because she still has a hard time being alone to her own entertainment for more than about 10 min a day.

Jeslyn is just her same wonderful adorable self. She LOVES shoes! Anyone that comes over just dumps their shoes at the door, and runs to play. but within a half hour their shoes aren't there anymore because JJ has run off with them. The problem is that she doesn't like her shoes. She loves to put them on, but keeping them on is not her forte. The instant we get in the car, the shoes are off. She is learning more words daily. She isn't afraid to try to say anything, but she still isn't very good at saying anything the first time. Just today she started saying grandma (guma) and grandpa (papa). I don't think we will ever be able to get drink right, it is still "nee" and that was one of the first words she learned. We do have please and thank you though and they are so cute. I tried to get Blankenagel a few days ago, and it wasn't recognizable but she got the right amount of syllables.

Nathan has had a good summer. We have had projects to work on, and he has repicked up a new hobby. He likes to go play disc golf, and has found a bunch of guys at work who will play with him. He has a standing appointment every Tuesday after work to play for a few hours, and has even gone on his lunch break and a few Saturdays to different courses. Other than that he has been working hard and taking us to 7 peaks once a week.

I have been trying to figure out who people are around me. I got put in primary in the first month of being in the ward, so I get the fun task of meeting people other ways than church. One day after primary I was walking around to round up the kids and ran in to my brother's best friend from high school. I come to find out that a month before they had moved in across the street from me, but since they are in a different stake I had no idea, they had just happened to be in our ward that day. Since then I have become really good friends with his wife Allison. Dailynn's little friend on the other side of the culdisac has a mom who is just someone that everyone should experience once in their life. I could spend hours listening to her just be her fun and crazy self. Over the last few weeks I have had a chance to hang out with her and have really cherished those hours. My stake has a volleyball night each week, and going there has been a great help as well. Although I don't see any of these people during the week, it is nice to be able to see them on VB night and know they are excited to see me, even if I am not that good.

We have had a great time living here, and are excited to see what else we get to experience here.

Some things

So I have a few pictures on the computer, I think I will try to do a mass "here is us for the last year" post. So let's not go back a year, that is just crazy. Lets start with the house. I haven't gone through the house and gotten pictures, but we have been busy outside, and I have tried to document that a little. So First off, we on a whim decided to remove the two trees on the east of our property that were diseased and dead. Luckily we have some GREAT neighbors that were extremely helpful! So here are Nathan and LaVar getting ready to get ot work. You can see how sad the two trees look.

It's so fun to watch a tree fall.

We had such a huge mess to clean up, but yet again we had wonderful helpers.

I think it looks a little different, and I kinda miss the trees but it is such a relief to not have to worry about them killing all the neighbors trees.

So in June we went on a vacation home with some friends. We have taken some of them to La Sal a few times before, but they hadn't been there in summer, so we were able to show a different side of the ranch.First up, Repelling! Nathan was having fun going commando (face first). I was being the baby watcher so I didn't get to go, but next time we will be a little less crazy and I will go too.

Arches. We were hanging out next to delicate, waiting for our turn for pictures. My friend Janina has a better camera, so she got most of the pictures there.
We got back to the car after delicate and found that our odometer had turned!
Landscape arch

Dead Horse Point. It was so windy we were afraid we were going to be picked up and thrown off the edge.
Let's go fly a kite!A wonderful neighbor let us borrow a horse for a day. Everyone loved it but Jeslyn.Swimming at the reservoir. For all who know what the reservoir is like, that is the spillway. The last time I remember the spillway being full and overflowing was when I was about 10 years old. It was so great to see.What is a vacation without a fashion show?We went over Hell's revenge in the jeep, and at one point Janina and I were to chicken to stay in the jeep, so Nathan and Zachary took the jeep for this fun ride. I was nervous just watching them, so I was glad I didn't stay in.

Helping Dad drive!Hanging out at the park after jeeping. This is such a fun park!
Hook and Ladder
Goblin Valley. No injuries this time Wahoo!
The dinosaur quary.

I don't have any more pictures, so until I get the camera downloaded again, I guess we are done even though that is just the first week of summer.

ugh

I know, I know, I am totally out of date here. It amazes me how much more there is to do here than there was at the old place. I have a bigger house, that still isn't fully unpacked, a more intensive yard that had way too many flower gardens that need some desperate help. (if anyone likes to do landscape design, I could use some pointers) I also have a very cute and adorable toddler that has kept me on my toes as well as the other girls that are running around everywhere.

So I am asked constantly if I still like the house. My constant answer is that I LOVE IT!!! It's so nice to have a space that is our own, we can do projects to improve it (and there are a bunch we are working on) and we aren't thinking "we will be moving soon, so don't get too comfortable." I don't have pics yet, sorry, I will try to find the camera again and time again to do it. My favorite thing is that while we were painting trying to get ready to move in, I had a niece working on the floor boards while I was doing walls in another room. She got a phone call and stepped away for a few min. When she came back she was shocked to see that Jez had taken the liberty to add her own art to the walls. My niece was so worried and sad that it had happened, but I just laughed and thought it was cute. It's still on the wall, just hidden behind the couch. I do show it to just about everyone that comes in. We have been building shelves, railings, and trying to figure out other stuff that needs to be done and in what order.

One of the best things about this house is the neighbors. In our old house we had two kids next door that were older than my girls, but they played together anyway, and that was about it. Here we have a family next door with 5 kids close to or the same age as all the girls. On the other side 2 houses over we have another GREAT friend for Dai. Within a block from our house there are about 20 kids. There are days that they just play leap frog from one house to the next and I'm not worried about them because they are all good kids. Jez on the other had has kept me worried. With all the kids running from house to house, they hadn't figured out that the doors needed to stay closed to keep babies in. One day I was making dinner and had JJ next to me, and the kids came through like a whirl wind. After the reminder they closed the door and JJ went to go play with them up stairs. Some of the kids wanted to run outside and forgot to close the door. About 20 min later I realized that all the kids were here, the door was open and no one knew where JJ was. I instantly ran outside with her nowhere in our yard. Luckily some ward members had found her about a block away at a 4-way stop and started canvasing the area to find out who she belonged to. They came up to us and I ran straight to her, completely embarrassed and scared. I thanked them and vowed that I would keep an eye on here from
then on. Whoops, she kept sneaking out because the girls weren't keeping the door closed (darn that nice weather). Luckily she has learned her boundaries, and doesn't go past our yard on the east side, and doesn't go past the neighbors yard on the west (they have a really fun play set and the other two are usually there when she starts going that way). Now she just wanders around the back yard where we have all the fun stuff, and Avi and Dai actually keep a really close eye on her when she is out there with them.

This summer is interesting. Avi and Dai think they have to constantly fight. They will even fight that they are agreeing on the same thing. I don't know how to get them to chill out, it is always such stupid stuff they are fighting about and it doesn't make sense to me. I just count myself lucky that there are always so many kids around that they don't fight as much. We have been doing the library reading program that is so awesome. We also have 7-Peaks passes that we have been using like crazy! We go at least once a week. JJ loves the slides and because she does that is one of the best words she says. Dai loves going on the big slides alone, and Avi is still being a little extra cautious about them. Each time we go she tries something new and realizes that she does like it and it isn't scary. JJ just figured out how to have a lot of fun in the water. She likes jumping in and going under the water, she is fearless!

Yesterday was a little milestone for us. Nathan and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. We are so unromantic and claimed our house as our gift to each other, and just went for ice cream as a family. I can't believe that we are so OLD! I know not as old as many of you, but it is so weird to us that it has been 10 years, and it feels like we just got married.

I will see what I can do about pictures, but if you haven't seen my house yet, you are more than welcome to stop by and say hi. It is rarely presentable, but oh well.

Murphy GO AWAY!!!

Murphy's law states "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". Dave Ramsey says that when you aren't prepared Murphy will com after you. I don't know that we weren't prepared, but Murphy is mad!! On Tuesday Dai started getting sick, I kept her out of school, which actually helped a lot to not have to chase her around to different schools. On Wed we had to get the painting done so that we could get carpet on Thurs. While I was painting Dai came up and asked if she could go to the dr. I don't believe in going to the dr. for a sick stomach, but I had been suspecting bladder infection for a few days (even though she wasn't hurting to go potty) so we went to go check it out.
Shortly after arriving, we find out that she had everything in her urine that you can get, and that the infection may be moving to the kidney. She got an ubber shot of medicine that was supposed to take care of the kidneys, and we were supposed to check back in the next day.
The next day, there was improvement. but not enough, so we had to run to the hospital to get some labs done. Dai doesn't like having her blood drawn. Later that night while I was at work, we got the call from the dr. That we needed to get to the hospital because the kidneys were being infected. So I left work early and ran Dai to the hospital.
I spent most of the day expecting to get out of there. At about 2, I started calling to get some help, there was so much to do to get ready for the move the next day and I was in the hospital with my daughter. Right after I found out that we were staying another night. Can you say stressful. Shortly after that I had to go with Nathan to get the U-Haul so we could move. After picking up a few pieces of furniture we had bought for this house, we went home.
Dinner arrived, then helpers. We had some wonderful ladies that came and helped me clean both houses (the pg house had 2 days of no mom messes there and 1 week of no time to clean mess there too). Once we were done with the new house, I went and relieved Nathan who had gone to sit with Dai.
The next morning I had some WONDERFUL helpers that came to move. We got out of the hospital about 11 am, just in time to come to the house and see the men about to unload the trucks. WE HAVE WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!!! JJ made it back to us from being with my wonderful sister all day, and the rest of the night she was throwing up. All day on Sun she wasn't feeling very good either.
Now the rest of us ( luckily not Nathan) have the bug that JJ had on Sat, so we are having a lazy sick day. I just wish that Murphy would leave us alone so that we can get our house in order. I hope he is leaving all of you guys alone.

Houses

IT OFFICIAL

We have our house, and are so EXCITED about it. I don't have pictures yet, but will get to that soon. We will be moving in a week, so lots of work to get everything ready to go. Wish us luck!

Weddings

I have started a wedding business, and I need your help to spread the word. I will be offering decorating, cake, flowers, and others as I build this up. Here are some pictures of the center pieces I have right now, understand that arrangements can be made based on wedding colors.

Short Vase

Tall Vase

Candle Hearts

Umbrella

Garden basket

Straw Heart

Straw Heart with Cowboy Hat

Potted Heart

Dragon fly lantern

Wicker chair before decorations

Wicker chair with decoration

Cornucopia

Christmas Sleigh