old people love?

Yesterday J and I were hugging and AP said, "Ugh, young love." Then he quickly added, "Actually with you two it's more like old people love."

I thought I had a few more good years in me, but apparently I was wrong.

bams wedding shower

Just some pictures from my sister's wedding shower. I am only posting a few because I am not a good photographer and the ones I took are terrible (thank goodness Debbie took a bunch right Amber?!). So here are the ones that are meaningful to me. . .

That's right, food first, ha, ha. Between our awesome host Ashley and my mom all of this goodness was gluten-free (except for the powdered sugar brownies).

And here's the guest of honor opening presents from my mom
And with former roommates Effie and Katie. Effie and I went to high school together and she and Amber ended up being roommates a couple of years ago. Total coincidence. Anyway it was fun to catch up with her and to get to know Katie.
My 'lil sis has some awesome friends and it was fun to meet and get to know them. So excited for her wedding in a couple of weeks!

Father's day

We made these little posters to hang up for Father's day. AP came up with the idea of doing bobble-heads and I thought his Mechanic Wars theme was pretty funny.

After seeing AP's AJ wanted to do one like it. They both love playing football with Dad so she came up with this: (I love that she's the one with the football in hand)

And AJ loves the warrior cat series and is always coming up with warrior names for each of us. So of course her poster features a warrior cat name for J complete with description (just like the books):

And little D. We worked on his together (try to excuse my drawing, hee, hee). . .

We had lot's of cookies (J's favorite) and a little D&D battle. We each chose a monster and fought to the finish. I was a dragon, J was a giant, AJ a celestial lion and AP an umberhulk. I won. But I think J had a good father's day anyway.

The yard (and it's work)

We planted our first garden. I do mean our first garden EVER as a family or married couple for that matter. We got it done LATE, but are proud that we did it. And the kids are really excited so I hope we get something out of it. The corn is the only thing that has popped up so far and that is fun to see. Of course the weeds are out of control and that is not fun. You see those weeds in the rocks. The weeds that are WAY bigger than the corn plants. Well they are EVERYWHERE!



I'm just going to admit right up front, I am not great about doing yard work. Just drive by my house and you will know this is true. We finally got the rose bushes under control, but I can't keep up with the weeds! Thanks to my mom (who was out last week) we got a good start on them though. I'm trying to make it a habit now for all of us to go out right after breakfast and pull weeds for 20-30 minutes.

Here are the boys examining a snail we found while weeding.


The other tactic I'm using to keep them out there and involved is having AP play Larryboy and the Rumor weed with D (destroying all the little weeds and trying to find the mother weed) and playing warrior cats with AJ (we are the medicine cats gathering herbs for our clan). Like my mom says, yard work should be fun and rewarding. We're working on making it that way.

Brealle and Jake's quick visit

We picked up Jake and Brealle at the airport Wednesday afternoon and had them stay with us a couple of days. The kids haven't seen each other for about 2 years so it was nice for them to spend some time together. AJ had fun hanging out with her teenage cousin and Brealle was so patient with her. Brealle fixed AJ's hair so they had matching styles. I am so disappointed that I didn't take a picture! They also played cards (Brealle taught AJ how to play speed) and AJ took Brealle on a walking tour of our neighborhood (they came back red-faced and exhausted, desperate for water). They spent most of their time making necklaces and jewelry though (D and I even joined in on that fun for a little while).

AP and Jake spent most of their time trying out each others' DS games and playing Wii. That night we headed to Maverick to hit Redbox and get snacks. They all stayed up late watching movies and talking.

Then Thursday morning (after sleeping in a little) I took them all to the gym with me. I have a yoga dance class and AP and AJ have kids' yoga. Brealle went to my class with me and did a great job! It is a hard class but she kept up and I was impressed. After our classes and lunch we hit the pool for a couple of hours. The boys had a blast on the slides and AJ played with one of her yoga friends. She was excited to pass the swim test (swimming 25 meters) and get a wrist band. Brealle and I mostly hung out poolside. I don't know why but D did not want to stay in the water. In fact he would panic every time I tried to take him in and just wanted to sit in the shade in a lounge chair. I was surprised because when we were at Cowabunga bay last week he had a great time splashing around in the water, but he didn't want any part of it yesterday.

Thursday night I met up with Jill's dad who is taking Jake and Brealle this next week. We' re glad they came to visit. We had a good time and I'm sad I didn't take any pictures!! We're all getting together for Amber's wedding in a couple of weeks though and then spending a few days altogether at my parents so hopefully I will get some good pictures then!

noodle letters

Signing J's Father's day cards:

I was writing in cursive and D looked over and asked, "Mommy, why are you writing those noodle letters?"

I told him it was cursive and I could write faster that way. So after writing his name he made long lines and swirls attaching his letters together so he could have "noodle letters."

live life, love it

One of my all-time favorite quotes is "Moments are the molecules of eternity" said by Neal A. Maxwell. I love this mormon message that goes along with that idea. Watch it and then go enjoy your moments!

http://lds.org/pages/moments?lang=eng

Girls Camp

We had Young Women's camp at Heber Valley this year and it was a blast! I only stayed half the time and honestly was sad to leave. Our theme was "We are daughters seeking for his treasures." We had an AMAZING camp director who did such a great job of balancing the fun and spiritual aspects of camp. That's awesome Shauna on the right.This was our craft the second day; I LOVED the fact that the crafts Shauna planned were ones I am excited to display.

Now back to the the first day. Shauna had everyone stain a treasure box to contain all of the little handouts and trinkets they would get throughout the week.
Each of the YCL's (we had 16 of 'em) were in charge of devotionals focusing on the virtues listed in the 13th article of faith and Shauna had cute little handouts to go along with each one. Of course mine only has a couple of them since I wasn't there for the whole thing.

Here we are all at work staining our boxes.

We did our hike Wednesday morning. This here was our priesthood leadership. Are you frightened?
He may look scary, but Kenny is such a goof that we were thoroughly entertained the entire time. He made everyone gather around the lake in silence so we could listen to the frog choir.

Hiking leaders: Karen, Shauna, me, Becky, and Lisa

And hiking girls (this is only about a third of our total girls; we had a fairly decent hike the day before and the majority thought they needed to recover from that. . . whatever)

Just hanging out in the cabin. I swear Kelleen cannot keep a straight face for a picture; cracks me up. We had a great time playing Moods, pass the pigs, doubles, and mafia. I feel so lucky to work with these girls!

wrapping up the school year

Last couple of weeks of school means... final projects, performances, and parties! AJ had to read a book and do a biography on a historical person and make a soda bottle person to go along with it. She and I have been reading the Little House series together (I gave them to her for Christmas), so she decided to do her project on Laura Ingalls. Here she is with her soda bottle. She did an awesome job on her biography and got 100%
AP's class did sugar babies the last couple of weeks of school. He made an alien baby and named him King R4 (a take on King Arthur).
Just a picture of my boys and their babies (and of course lego creations!). . .

Here AJ is in her 3rd grade concert. I also went to play in her parents vs. kids kickball game and got my first sunburn of the season. The next day I went to help out with her ice cream party where we got sprinkled on (love this crazy weather!).

And finally teacher thank you gifts. I made each teacher a clipboard and had AP and AJ write a little message on the back.

I am usually better about censoring AP's messages before he does the final draft, but we were running short on time so. . .

All I can do is hope she will focus on the part about being really nice and being missed. At least I don't have to worry about how his other two are interpreted.