Hat Party

Our Relief Society activity this month was a Garden Hat Party. It was sure fun to see all the ladies in their hats. It even got Michelle to dress up in the middle of the week, and that's saying something!!
We had lovely Chicken Salad Crossants (a fave of mine) and some light fruit and salad. It was very nice. We also had a speaker and a musical number. The theme was along the lines that we are all different flowers in the garden, each with our own unique things to offer
Such a cute picture of Michelle and Holly. Both Michelle and Holly are regulars at my water classes. :-)
Had to share this picture of sister Gertonson and Sister Brasher (in the back) Lovely ladies!!
As soon as the mess was cleaned up from this activity, we headed out to get ready for the release of the new Twilight movie " Eclipse"

Parenting Class

For the past 3 months, I've been teaching a parenting class at the Church on thursday nights. I had the pleasure of working with Rozanne Bass through this time as well, some nights we each taught, and some nights it was just me, or just Rozanne. The class was based upon a program called "Let Fix The Kids" by James Jones. I have always enjoyed this program, since the first time it was introduced to me when we lived in Toledo, by the Short family. While I lived in Toledo I noticed something special and different about the Short's children. They were partially home schooled, but it was more then that. Before I moved, I took Sister Short out for breakfast to pick her brain about parenting. She kindly lent me her tapes of this program. As luck would have it, Brent and I were headed to MD to look for a house, and we had a tape player in the Van. We listened to them the whole way there and home. I loved the ideas and principles that the program teaches. Anyone who knows me very well, knows that I am fascinated with parenting theories, this guy takes the cake. In my opinion he has taken books like "Christlike parenting" and put the instructions into action. I always agreed with those books but wanted specific instructions. I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach this class because I was able to really feast on this program, and then teach it. AND I got to build up my very own support system, other parents that i can go to and bounce ideas off of. It was awesome. Unfortunately the class was rather poorly attended. But the family that attended the whole program loved it SO very much! A few others popped in and out, and together we've learned a lot. There have been requests for a daytime class... so there is talk about doing that in the fall, since i kept all my notes. At the last class, I was spoiled rotten by Laura and given a lovely head massage... wow, it was a good one! Lucky for me... Michelle took a picture...

It was a very great experience, I am glad that I got the chance to teach the class.

Eclipse

ECLIPSE

Everywhere I go, I seem to be able to find some "Twihards" who I can go and play with at Midnight on release nights! This time we had a fairly large group of gals! Above is Michelle and her girls Ashley and Kelsey.
We went out for Mexican before the show, and while we waited for our "sweet, kind, and talkative" waiter to bring us our check, we got to play in Ryans glitter. He He He!! It was fun to get all sparkled up! Above is Michelle and I, all sparkly and ready for the show... we even had matching shirts. :-)
Niki and Jen sporting their sparkles and Twilight shirts! Aren't they sweet?
Here is our gang in the theater. They tried to make us squeeze into an almost full theater.. we told them NONE of that! We need more room. So they made us wait, but we got to all sit together, and for a while there, we had the theater to ourselves. :-) Above is Carman being a brat, sitting next to Julia. Ryan eating some popcorn and Jen telling her how it is. :-)
Carman and Julia.... ready for some good times!!
Ryan, making her own good times, as only Ryan can do :-) Can I just say how much I love these gals!?!
Quon and Meghan, apparently Quon was aware of the photo, but meghan... not so much. :-)

Niki and Ryan, I love their great big smiles.
Michelle, Niki and I. What a fun group of girls. I think we really irritated some other people in the theater... but we were really having a good time waiting for the show, and taking pictures and laughing. Seriously, if you want to go and wait for and watch a twilight movie in peace and quiet, may I suggest NOT going at midnight on the night it opens?
Ryan and Jen. Jen is Niki's sister who just moved here. Talk about walking straight into a group of friends... how cool is that? Well I guess it's only cool if she thinks we're cool... cuz otherwise.. how awkward is that? Man.. how do you get out of that one... "um, Niki, you know you're friends? Yeah, they're weird." Hummmm.... wait a minute... is that why we don't see Niki anymore? HEY!! I think I just figured something out. Oh well. :-) We think Jen is cool anyway.
Niki and I. :-) So much fun!
Ashley and Kelsey (michelle's girls)
And we even got a smile out of Cassie, cuz she loves Michelle and Niki, so she'll smile for them! :-)

The movie was good the company was better! Thank you for a fun night ladies!!!

Samuel The Lamanite.

Today, Alex came home from church and told us:

"mom, today at church I was like that guy on the wall (samuel the lamanite) I was trying to listen to my lesson and (insert childs name) was throwing papers at me. I just kept listening and you know what? Not ONE of his papers hit me! "

LOL LOVE THIS BOY!

Canoeing

Michelle and Robert invited us to go on a Canoe trip.... adults only. Although the idea of canoeing all day wasn't terribly appealing to me, the idea of spending the day with friends did, so we signed up and secured a sitter. Brent and I have never Canoed together, so this was a new adventure for us.


Michelle and Robert got quite a kick out of us getting caught up and having to try to get out of various obstacles. There is even a video that I am sure Michelle will post in mockery of us. :-) Michelle and Robert... notice that we are a head of them... this is a safe distance to be from the attacks of Michelle and her super duper water guns. Those things are crazy, one squirt will drench your victim!
Along the 10 mile river ride we saw crazy people jumping off cliffs and then further up the river we saw crazy people swinging off rope swings. Some of our party... not including me... joined up with these crazy people and went for a few swings off these two swings. Even Brent joined in with the crazies.... I told him that I was proud of him for being so brave. I stayed safely on the rivers edge.
At one point we parked the boats and hiked a little bit up off the river bank to a little water fall. We went with Roberts family, and his so cute little baby sister and her hubby posed here in front of the falls and made such a cute picture. Us old folks tried..... we didn't look so cute, but we thought we were pretty funny for trying to look cute like them.
Robert and Michelle
Here is the whole gang! It was such fun.... even when I was being ambushed with the filthy river water. Outdoors woman, I have never been.... so this was a new adventure for me. Like I said in a previous post..... I do believe that this is Michelles purpose in my life.... to help me step out of my comfort zone.
I had to add this picture because Even Katie noticed that Brent and I have the same stance. Funny, I thought we only did that when the kids were around... some one must have been in trouble... probably Michelle. LOL!!!

This was such a fun day... it was hot, but we stayed wet. The day ended with a trip to Qdoba on the way home. The kids had an interesting time. Liza babysat until 12:30, then Caity came over and watched the kids till we got home around 8 pm. Sometime around 3, Liza lost a key to the house, and locked them all out... so they weren't home when we got home. Luckily Caity lives across the street, so they all went over and hung out at her house. They seemed to have had a fun day. Just like we did!!

Nashville Shores

Out family and the Huguley's headed up the Nashville shores on a beautiful Tuesday in June. Michelle and I were so tickled that both hubbies could come along too. It was a wonderful day. We invited Caity (our neighbor) to come along. We truly just wanted her to come and have fun with Michelle's older kids, but she enjoys playing with Katie and seemed to have a great day playing around with her. It was hot... boy was it hot... The kiddie pool was almost a hot tub, it was bordering on not even being refreshing anymore.
Here Michelle and I are pretending to be on a relaxing "ladies cruise".. It was a lovely moment there as we drank our fake pina coladas. :-) Everyone got a chance to go on some slides. Michelle and I watched kids while Brent and Robert went, and visa versa. At the end of the day the 4 of us enlisted the older children to watch in the baby pool and we ALL went and raced down a slide a few times. There was a slide where you had to lay on your stomach, face down on a mat and kick off at the top. It was steep and fast, but really fun, and we could all go at the same time racing for first place!! Brent dominated, but I was only worried about beating Michelle, which I DID!!! LOL!!! (insert evil laugh)
The kids took turns on these fun sliding obstacles... I tried them..... HA HA HA.. what a mess.
Michelle has a really cool underwater camera... we had a fun time taking under water photos too. We packed lunches and ate outside on their lawn, there was a really nice little shaded area for 'brown baggers'. The weather was hot... the water was warm and for the most part children were happy, and stayed close to us.
Katie spent the bulk of her day here in the kiddie pool playing on all the toys here. She enjoyed jumping "over" or on, as the case may be, the waves. She was so funny in the wave pool. She also loved the lazy river, it was just her speed. Tori did some slides, but spent a lot of time here too. Alex and Liza both did a lot of slides, AND they got to go Kayaking. Alex really enjoyed kayaking.
When all was said and done... Michelle and I were left to decide what was for dinner... guess where we landed... yup... Taco Bell. :-) Between our family (which was 7) and the Huguley's (which make 9) we had quite the group there in that little Taco Bell. :-) The kids were all SOOO good, and everyone was tuckered out!! All in all, a very successful day.

Summer Fun

And the summer fun continues..... Last saturday I took a bunch 'o crap over to Sister Stone's home for a yard sale. She has a much better location than I do. It was "hotter than a popcorn fart" (as Michelle would say) and I got attacked by ants for sitting under their tree. Now, don't get me wrong.. I wasn't sitting on the grass, I was on a chair, AND it wasn't a full fledged attack. They beggers did it sneekily... all day long, and when I got home... Boy were my legs burning and itching. The worst part of it is, that I only made like $30! :-( phewy! I took off for a bit near the end of the sale to go and figure out what I was supposed to do with Alex for Cub Scout Day Camp. While I was there, Michelle and Robert dropped by to visit, and invited my whole family over for a "pool party"! FIRST OF THE SEASON!

We are very blessed to have found friends who are sweet and generous enough to share their pool with us. Katie can't quite touch the bottom of the pool so she made good use of the floaties.
It didn't take long before they started slipping and sliding... What fun!! I think Liza is actually catching some air in this one. LOL
Aubrey headed in for the splash!!
LOL!!! I love this one!! It personifies my sweet new friend Michelle. She is such a kid at heart. I just love her! Always willing to try stuff, do stuff, and jump right in. I think that is the lesson that I am supposed to learn from her... to get in there and just do it. :-)
Even Alex took the slide for a spin. LOL I love his scrawny little body flipping sideways like that!! Too funny.
Tori did slide, but somehow I missed it. Here she is chillin. She has become quite the swimmer in the last month. She slaps on those goggles and away she goes. She did the slide and the diving board all on her own, which requires that she jump or land in the deep end, recover to the surface and swim around to the edge. I am so proud of her.
And would you believe that Katie did this totally unprovoked??? She really wanted to try the slide. Turns out she can go down in this floatie and not even need anyone to catch her (although the first few times Michelle stayed close).

Saturday night was such a blast that we thought we would do it again on Tuesday AND Thursday! Actually, on Saturday we were bums, and ate dinner there too, but the other two times I actually earned my keep by doing some camp stuff with Michelle. Finally, after being near that pool for 3 days, I got a turn to get in!! mmm, so nice. Course, I promptly burnt my shoulders... but that's the first time they'd seen the sun in 9 months, so they had to get their "base tan" now we'll be good to go. :-)

I taught water aerobics 6 times this past week. I took 3 sub's for a girl that teaches shallow. It was fun to get back in the shallow pool, but that therapy pool that they insist on 'exercising' in is entirely too HOT! It was fun to show some new people what else we can do in water aerobics, and receive comments like "we don't usually work that hard on Tuesday nights." LOL!! On top of teaching water MWF and Saturday mornings and Tues and Friday night, I also had a presidency meeting on Wednesday night AND I taught my parenting class on Thursday night!

Alex had the pleasure of going to Cub Scout Day camp. I didn't get any pictures of this, cuz I didn't even consider volunteering for THAT one! But he sure had a blast. We worked out a drop off and pick up schedule with some other boys in the ward. Every morning Jessica dropped off Damon on her way to work at 6:45. Then Erin came by with her 2 boys and pick up Alex and Damon and dropped off her daughter Annie (Tori's Friend), and took the 4 boys out to camp at 7:15. The Girls and I went about our day's of swimming and running Sister Brasher to and fro to her appointments, and then every day at 1:30 pm I headed out to pick up the boys. This was of course never an slick move. Each day, I would get there at around 2:00 to get them, and there would be a line, most days I sat in that line for 45 minutes waiting to get the boys. Trust me I thought more than once about NOT showing up on time, and just swinging in there at 2:45, but with my luck, on that day, EVERYONE would be done and out of there in 20 minutes and boy would I look like a jerk! So I dutifully picked up those 4 boys every day on time. :-) I then took The Webber 3 to their dad's work, and then Damon to his home and then home to the girls. Monday and Wednesday Liza had Flute and Horses. It was an incredibly busy week.

Alex got to shoot his first Bee bee gun, and bow and arrow. I was surprised to learn that he enjoyed the gun more then archery... I always thought he would be more of and archery guy. That first day home from camp, he got on the computer and googled guns, bazookas and rifle. It was a sad day for this momma who some how avoided that scene until now. Sure he's had a few little play guns, but light sabers and swords have always won his attention. To be honest, kids who like guns kind of scare me. I worry that they'll turn into the psycho kids who shoot up their schools.... I know, I'm crazy, but seriously..... how DO you know if your kid is going to take it that far or not??? He had a ball anyway, and on Friday Tori, Annie and Katie and I went out to the camp for a few minutes for "family day", and he got to show us a few things and take the girls on a giant inflatable water slide. They thought that was really cool. Alex got a few belt loops and passed off a few more things from his book. He sure likes to pass stuff off, he has been working on it more and more with Brent. It's fun to see them work together on that stuff. This next week is not supposed to be quite as busy, but I am sure that things will come up to make sure that no one gets bored. :-)

Emma Smith: My Story

I just finished watching the movie "Emma Smith: My Story". I had to write my feelings down, while they were still fresh in my mind. I want everyone to know, especially my children, that this church is true. Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God! He did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, he did hold in his hands sacred records, and he did translate those records. Not only do I feel it in my heart and know this to be true because I have prayed and asked God myself, but because why on earth would any man endure the suffering that Joseph endured, for something that wasn't true? After being drug out into the streets and having hot tar spread over his body and feathers stuck to him, he still did not deny what he saw. What person in their right mind would make that stuff up and then stick with it through all that adversity? And not only that, but some how convince other men to pretend with him to the death??? really? My dear children, and dear friends, God has restored his church, and he communicates with us today through a living prophet. There is not a doubt in my heart!

Slip and Slide

The other day we brought out the slip and slide. First went the little girls....
Tori
Hayden


And Katie

THEN the BOYS took over..... It was a whole new ball game when boys began. Before even their first slide, they took all but one of the sliders and piled them up at the end of the side.
Looking for the crash effect at the end of the slide.
Then they tried to pile all the sliders up at one end and slide upon the stack!
SO funny to watch the difference between 4 little girls, who carefully took their turns and when in an especially adventurous mood would walk up the sprinkler side of the slide, and the boys who made slip and slide an extreme sport.