Boy Scout Campout

Last Friday and Saturday the Boy Scouts in the Deacon's Quorum got to go camping. Justin has a tough time sleeping away from home, so Kent got to go with them. They went up north to Workman's Creek. They had waterfalls (!) there, and they had a lot of fun.

It started raining on Saturday morning. If you look closely you can see fish in the water.
I'm not a fan of bugs, but this beetle (?) is actually pretty. In the picture. I don't think I'd find it so pretty in person.

Who knew that we had such pretty sights in AZ? I love water pictures.A pretty butterfly that stopped for a moment on the car.

Josh Hall and Prescott Conway moving a rock.

Josh Hall, Josh Buhrley, Derek Rudd, Carter DeTemple, Chance Johnson, Prescott Conway, Justin Noorda and Jacob Bailey all try to stay dry.

Doing some exploring...

This reminds me of a Walt Whitman (I think it was him) poem that I learned in junior high. I'm not going to look it up because I really dislike poetry. Even now, if you tell me something is a poem I'm at least inwardly groaning and dreading it. I have so much respect for people that can read it and enjoy it.

The storm rolls in. Love it.

As you can see, there is a great deal of adult supervision at these camp outs. Because we know that the men are so responsible in keeping flammable things put away, we know that Carter, Justin and Josh are totally safe.

Ugh...

The wind has been blowing a ton lately, and the rain has been sporadic. For me this means I have to be extra careful or I'll be sick. And today the sick is winning. If the rain would follow the wind I think my asthma and allergies wouldn't have a chance to do anything. Whenever we're near the ocean my allergies are non-existent. It's heavenly! However, we live in this dust bowl, and my dear, sweet husband doesn't want to leave. I'd move in a heartbeat, although I'd miss my family and friends... But I'd feel better. I told him if I ever win a million dollars I'm moving somewhere with a better climate, and probably near the water. He'd be welcome to join me, of course!
When I got up this morning I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it to church. I ended up going, played the piano for a musical number in sacrament meeting, and put my signs out for the ice cream social. Then several hours after we got home I remembered that I left the signs at the church. Hopefully they'll still be there next week.
I think my allergies have progressed into a sinus infection, and I'm working on losing my voice, which comes with a scratchy throat. Again. I'm so over this. Trevor just came in to see me and started teasing me about my voice. I totally sound like a boy whose voice is changing. And my kids are mimicking me. Nice...
For Memorial Day tomorrow my kids want to go swimming and to see Night at the Museum 2. We told them we could do that if they did all their jobs and cleaned their bedrooms. It's a pretty good incentive usually. So... What are your holiday plans?

Drew's Preschool Promotion

Yesterday Drew had his preschool promotion/graduation ceremony. Although he's 4 he has another year of preschool. He's as big as some of the kids in Natalie's class so I get asked at least once a week. We went to a new bounce place. All the kids put on a men's short sleeve white dress shirt on backwards and then a graduation hat.

Here's Drew with his cap and "gown".

Good friends... Kendrick, Mikey and Drew

Drew had a fun time watching his friends going up to get their certificates. He also did his own hair. It took him longer to do his hair than it took me to do my hair and makeup.

The 3-4 year old class got a promotion certificate, and the 4-5 year old class got graduation certificates. After they did that, and suffered through all the pictures the moms wanted to take, they were let loose to bounce, slide and jump. They had a blast! Here are some pictures from the party.

Drew had a blast going down the slides, jumping and goofing off with his friends.

Kindergarten Graduation & Middle School Performance

On Monday night Natalie participated with the other kindergartners in their graduation. They all wore their best clothes, sang songs and recited poems. It was so cute. I got some cute pictures, but a lady (who I called "Helmet Head") kept moving her big head of hair directly in my line of sight so I didn't get too many clear shots of her.

Treyci (in front), Natalie and Gabby made their way to the front

Natalie has become fake shy in public. I think she secretly likes the attention, but she likes to pretend that she doesn't. She keeps doing things to get more attention. (Notice "Helmet Head's" hair is in the bottom mid-right.)

We came home, and Justin was about ready to go. He had a part in the performance of "Kids". (Don't ask, I have no idea what that is either. Kent took him...) He seemed to have a fun time.

Marce Festa, the "hottest girl in 6th grade" sitting the middle (per Justin) and JustinBecause they both wore the same shade of blue I had to snap some pictures of them. I think they look awesome. Their eyes are as blue as sapphires in these pictures!

Remember that award Kent won...?

Remember that award Kent won for President's Club last month in Dallas? Well they had a form for them to fill out for their wives/significant others. It finally arrived today, about 1 month after it was all said an done. It arrived in a FedEx package that I had to sign for.
I took it out of the package....
Undid the ribbon...

Opened the lid...

And put it on...

What do you think? It's my first little blue box from Tiffany's...

Natalie's 6th birthday party

We had Natalie's 6th birthday party today. Her birthday isn't for another 3 weeks, but during the summertime rush to escape this unrelenting dry heat everyone goes out of town. We have found that she likes to have her friends show up to it, so we've learned to have her party before school is out. This year's theme was luau. A friend of hers had a luau theme a couple of years ago, but we liked it and put a different twist on it so that's what we opted to do. I found a plethora of luau supplies at that cursed dollar store so, regretfully, they got several of my dollars too. I generally make the invitations, but they had them at the dollar store, so that was one of my purchases.

To start I cut out literally hundreds of tropical flowers from cardstock using my Cricut. They already had holes in the center so that made it easier. We cut long strings from jute and straws in 1" sections. The girls made their own leis using those items. Here's a few of them...

When they finished with that they got to paint these cute little wooden pineapples- also from the dollar store. (I am hanging my head in shame.) Natalie LOVES to paint, and since they went along with the theme we got them. I'm not sure how everyone will use them, but they had a great time painting.

After that we made sure everyone had sunscreen on and let them play in the new double Slip N Slide we bought specially for the party. They had so much fun with that. I seriously considered going on it a couple of times in my clothes just so I could cool down. It was ridiculously hot even though we started the party at 10:30.

After they'd done that for about 45 minutes we had everyone get out of the water, where they were instantly dry- no towel required (I'm only exaggerating a bit), and they got to eat. I made pigs in a blanket. Natalie took one look at them, and declared, "I am NOT eating those. They are sooooooo disgusting." I was really worried because a couple of her friends agreed. I made 24 of them, and we ended up only having 2 left. Not bad for 16 little girls! (Yes, I realize that's slightly insane. We invited 21, and 15 showed up. Our parties are generally really well attended. I think it's luck!) We also had cut up mangoes, pineapple, kiwi fruit and strawberries. For drinks I had pineapple sherbet in the punch bowl with Sierra Mist (because it was cheaper than the Sprite) poured on top. At Natalie's request I also sliced up several lemons for the lemonade.

BTW, please don't laugh at the cake. I am NOT a cake decorator. I am a baker. I make yummy , but not necessarily decorative, food. With the theme we tried finding a cake that would fit in the theme... after Natalie soundly rejected a pineapple upside down cake. She chose the flavor and colors, and I did my best to fake a hibiscus. For leaves, she didn't want another cake. Oh no. It had to be cupcakes. So I made several "leaves" using cupcakes. Work with me here! Blur your vision, move away a bit, and I think you can see it...

When they were done eating we did the pinata, which Natalie insisted on having, despite the fact that it was a luau not a fiesta. When they were done with that I gave them each a hair bow that I made (the flower ones), and we opened gifts. Everyone wanted to stand up and see what Natalie was opening. I hope I got everything down right so I can give everyone the correct thank you!Natalie believes that the party symbolizes her actual birthday, so she kept telling us she's 6 now. I finally convinced her that her birthday isn't until next month. I think she believes me.

Congratulations Allan!

Congratulations Allan! My little brother graduated this week from ASU. It was hard, but I managed to keep myself from going to the Obama speech. I didn't think I'd be able to act properly, being a die hard conservative and not a fan of old BO, so I decided not to go. Plus it was H-O-T, with long lines. Not my idea of fun to say the least. Last night he and a couple of other friends he graduated with had a party to celebrate it. After we ate a wide array of Mexican food we visited with some old friends, and then some people swam and others participated in the breaking the pinata. We came home with full bellies, and the kids with full bags of candy from the pinata. Way to go Al!

Dentist appointments

Okay... I had great teeth. Never had a cavity until I was 7 1/2 months pregnant with Trevor. I saw this little black dot in the middle of one of my molars. I thought it was a speck of black pepper, but when I couldn't get it to go away I went to my dentist. Drat! My first cavity at the ripe old age of 23. I was fine until I was pregnant with Natalie, and then Drew. Nothing but problems since then. I don't even know how many cavities I have now. I brush and floss several times a day, but nothing seems to work. I keep getting them. I had my cleaning last week, and they found 2! *&$#! teeth! I had the upper one worked on last week, no problem. On Tuesday of this week, I had the lower one worked on... problems.
Apparently you have 2 nerves on your lower jaw. They numb both of them, and off you go. Well, not for me... of course. I have major dentist drill phobia (yes, that is the clinical term) so I hate going for anything other than a cleaning. I am a dental wimp. I would rather have surgery than have dental work done. Seriously. Well, my dentist is good, and he doesn't tease me when I'm in the chair because he knobs that I'll bolt and never return. He teases me when I see him at the gym, though. It's all good... He numbed me up, and started drilling. I had my iPod on as loud as I could to help cover up the horrible drilling sound, and then I felt it. Searing, horrible pain! He immediately stopped and gave me a couple more injections. He came back 10 minutes later and resumed working. I yelped again, and he stopped. His nurse or assistant (whatever the dental people are called) explained that most people have 2 nerves on their lower jaw. Occasionally one or both of those nerves will branch out into something like spider veins, and then you have to inject more medicine to numb up the area... not real common apparently... of course I would have this... LOL. He had to numb me deeply on the outer jaw- which, BTW, I still feel, and then in the inner jaw... that's right, next to my tongue. I still feel that too.
After all that numbing, I was good to go. He was able to finish relatively quickly. My appointment started at 3, but I didn't leave until 4:55. (I'm shaking my head.) I put on my top clear retainer (like invisaline) so when- not if- I bit myself I wouldn't draw blood. I felt like I'd been in a prize fight, and was grateful that Kent was taking care of dinner and I could get a milkshake for mine. Tooth is fixed, but I still can't open my mouth all the way, and I still have the pain. It's hard to get over the fear of dentists and their drills when this sort of thing happens, KWIM?

Saturday

On Saturday Trevor and I had Cub Scout Day Camp at the stake center. Natalie and Lexi (who spent the night with us Friday night while her parents were on a fabulous cruise in the Bahamas) had dance rehearsal for their big recital that's coming up in a couple weeks. Grandma Julie and Lenny were planning to come visit, and Kent and I were going to go on a date after that. Things didn't quite work out the way I planned...
Trevor and I were at the church at 8:30 for day camp. I, being the rebel I am, opted to NOT wear the ugly cub scout shirt that they want us to wear. Although, in all fairness to me, a boy in our ward ripped off at least half of Justin's patches at a camp out, and not wanting to pay out another $20+ to replace them, I took them off of my shirt and put them on his. Still not wanting to pay out another $20+ and not wanting to wear the ugly shirt, I decided not to buy new ones and/or wear the ugly scout shirt. Anyway... I stayed until 11:30 when my co-leader came and relieved me. I went home, got a quick yoga workout in, and then got ready for our visit with Julie and Lenny. I left at 2 to pick Trevor up from day camp, Natalie was home from dance, and Julie was here alone. Lenny's aunt had fallen and broken her hip, and was about to have surgery, so he was with her. We took her out to eat at Texas Roadhouse for Mother's Day since she and Lenny weren't going to be able to keep their original plans to go out.

Kent and Drew. I think Kent resembles Justin in this picture.
Julie, Natalie and I... Natalie decided she wouldn't smile for the camera if Kent was the photographer.

Justin and Trevor... Justin's turning into a teenager. Yikes! How did this happen?

When we were done eating we parted ways and stocked up on supplies for Natalie's upcoming birthday party. When we got home I was too pooped to even consider going out so we spent a quiet evening at home... well, I did. Kent and the kids went to the spring festival our HOA put on that night. I got a lot of work done so it worked out for everyone.

Amy, this picture is just for you. This is Trevor's back 1 week after the sunburn. You can't totally see it, but all that whitish looking skin on his shoulders and between his shoulder blades is dead, dry skin waiting to peel off. Both of his shoulders look like they were burned with ugly looking blotches. Nice...

I am totally in contention for the Mom of the Year award for this...

Last week, you may recall, Natalie was home sick with a high fever and sore throat. She did NOT have any white spots on her throat to indicate strep. Having abundant personal experience with strep, and given Natalie's recent medical issues I opted to not take her in. She felt fine after a few days, and went back to school last Thursday. She's felt fine since then, and been her usual sassy self. Earlier this week I noticed that she was picking the skin off her fingers. Gross, no? She finally picked so much skin off last night that she started bleeding. I decided the gross factor and risk for infection was high enough to justify a visit with her pediatrician today.
According to her doctor the peeling of the skin of the fingers and toes can be an indication of strep. What? I have had strep so many times that I've lost count (even as an adult), and I have NEVER had picky fingers or toes. She said she wanted to run a rapid strep test, so to appease her, I said okay. It totally came back positive for strep. What?!
Ugh. Well, I feel like a terrible mom now. Here I've been sending my germy sick daughter to school, having play dates, going to dance and running errands, etc... and she has strep. She has no sore throat, no symptoms of strep or anything that would have had me take her to the doctor at all this week. (Well, I did consider taking her in to see if they could cure her of her sassiness, but then I decided against it.) I really don't want to think about how many people we have gotten sick with our recent activities...
Well, if there is a silver lining, her fingers should stop peeling soon. And she got amoxicillin- aka the pink bubblegum medicine. All of my kids are jonesing for it now... nice... She has to miss school tomorrow, and she's supposed to stay home from dance. But I think I'll send her if she's feeling fine. She'll have been on antibiotics for more than 24 hours (3 doses) at that point so she shouldn't be contagious. We did get the okay to proceed with her birthday party on Saturday morning. Now, to make all of the treat bags, get the decorations made and completed. Oh boy... I've got some work ahead of me! You'll be able to check out my craft blog this weekend to see everything I was able to come up with. Later!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today I was the first adult up. I got ready, got Natalie ready, tried to get Drew ready and fed them. The older 2 boys got themselves ready (yay for that!), and Justin had to go to a YM/YW choir practice. Justin went from the practice straight to church, and then Trevor, Natalie and I went. Drew had a meltdown with his hair, so I left him home so Kent could get him ready. During sacrament meeting the primary children sang to the moms (Trevor and Natale went up. Kent and Drew weren't there yet so Drew didn't get to sing), then the YM/YW choir sang to us too. Both were beautiful arrangements, and we had great speakers. We all truly felt the spirit of gratitude for the mothers in our lives.
During RS we had the YW join us, and Susie Jensen gave a great talk about the mothers in our lives. She also had a mystery cook donate cookies to us for Mother's Day. As soon as the Primary kids came in it was almost impossible to save the cookies for the moms.
We came home from church after that, and I had to take a nap. Before I did that Drew, Trevor and Natalie had gifts for me. Drew made a necklace for me in preschool. (Natalie opened it for me before church so I had to re-wrap it so Drew could give it to me.) Natalie gave me scented bath salts in a seashell that she made in school. Trevor gave me a book... does the boy know me or what?

After opening gifts, and without even stopping for lunch I got to take a nap, and when I woke up Kent had dinner almost ready. He made grilled chicken breast, salad with my favorite dressing, asparagus and baked potatoes. Yummy!

When I was done with dinner Kent gave me a yoga mat. I had purchased one a couple weeks ago, and then decided I didn't really need one so I took it back. After doing yoga nearly every day for the last couple weeks I decided that I actually did need one, so I mentioned it to Kent. Now I've got one so hopefully that will keep me steadier!

Oh, I forgot the best part. I had all my card making supplies on my table in the family room still out from Thursday's card class. While I was upstairs taking my nap Kent found all the supplies he needed and made me a card! All by himself! Oh, he also gave me a box of truffles from See's. I'll have to hide those from the kids...

Now I'm watching the Amazing Race finale. It makes me miss Hawaii. I hope we can go back soon! Happy Mother's Day!

Poor girl

Natalie came home from school feeling yucky on Monday. She laid around all day, either sleeping or almost falling asleep and eventually developed a fever. She's got hugely swollen glands in her neck and a fever that's hovering between 101 and 102. She is flushed in her face, and I feel so bad for her. I'm not taking her to the doctor, though. The last 3 times I've taken her with these exact symptoms they've tested her for strep throat, and it's negative. It's always a virus that needs to run its course. I hope that she feels a lot better tomorrow. She's missed the last 2 days of school. She just wants to make it back for Friday's water day. Hopefully she will. She'll be so sad if she misses it!
On a happy note Trevor managed to go to school today, but the shirt really hurt him. He's still beet red and sore. I seriously doubt he'll decide to go without sunscreen again! Some lessons are easier learned by watching others than by going through them yourself. This is definitely one of those for me!

Our weekend

My sister Christine started the weekend off early for us on Thursday when she had her new baby Lincoln Porter. I haven't seen him in person yet, but he is absolutely darling in his pictures. Big sister Evelyn seems to like him so far too.

Friday night Kent and I got to go out. We went to see the new X-Men Wolverine Movie. It was pretty good. Although I could have done without the rear naked bum shots. I know that there were several other people in the theater who liked those scenes.

Then on Saturday I had to finish reading some books, organize my house, drive everyone to and fro, and waited for Trevor to come home from a sleepover. Turns out he went swimming with his friend (and his family) 3 or 4 times on Saturday. Trevor decided he didn't want to wear sunscreen. We asked him if he had learned his lesson. He says he has definitely, definitely learned. Here's how he looked on Sunday. He is still beet red and it's Monday night. He can lift his arms today, which is an improvement over the previous 2 days. However, he cannot put a shirt on because he is so red. Because of that we had to keep him home from school today. They frown on kids coming to school without their clothes on. At least we're nearing the end of the school year!

Trevor's back with the blue Instant Burn Relief Ice Aloe Vera / Lidocaine / Tea Tree Extract on it. Ouch! I'm just waiting for it to blister.

Yesterday we had stake conference. We opted not to go. I can't sit through sacrament meeting, which is 1 hour 10 minutes or so, and there was no way I was going to last longer than that for SC. And Trevor was so sunburned that he wouldn't have been able to put on clothes for church. We watched a session of General Conference, so we did get spiritually fed. Since we were sitting together watching Gen. Conf. I sewed the material together, then tied Justin's blanket. Then I sewed the binding on. Then I had to re-sew the binding on Drew's blanket because there were some issues. He also managed to rip his special pillow case from Grandma Susan at the seam, and he was freaking out about that so I fixed that. (And, Mom, I don't believe that I'll have to pick out the stitches with my nose in heaven. I think that sewing, especially while surrounded by my children, is a good Sabbath Day activity.) I even did a little crocheting on my baby blankets. I think I'm going to have to start selling them because I am done having kids, and none of my siblings or Kent's siblings are pregnant. Pretty soon I'm going to have quite the stash!

Justin with his new blanket. He was thrilled because it was black, red and white with skulls on it. I am getting soft in my old age!

After we got the kids to bed I assembled 100 teacher appreciation gifts. I didn't take any pictures (dumb, I know!). They were cute. I had a 4" x 4" piece of heavy weight decorative paper or textured cardstock, put a 2" x 4" label on it with a poem, punched 2- 3/16" holes and stuck in a caramel covered apple flavored sucker, then hot glued an inspirational rock on it.
After I was done with that I made 4 of the large flower hair clips for Natalie. I'm going to post some step-by-step instructions on my craft blog in a while in case you're interested in making them.

Ugh!

I am so stressed out this week. I'm not sure why. I'm sure that not getting more than 4 1/2 hours of sleep (not continuous either) for the last several days doesn't have anything to do with it. And I'm sure that discovering Smokey has been going around the house marking his territory has nothing to do with it either. (So far he's marked Natalie's room, Drew's room, the game room, TV equipment and Kent's office.) And I'm sure that having my children argue over who gets to chase after Smokey again after Drew lets him loose (for the 3rd time since Sunday) doesn't have anything to do with it either.
To help make things better I made chocolate cake last night. It was going good until I smelled something burning. I'm not sure what happened because I used the exact same amounts of the exact same ingredients in the exact same pan I have used numerous times before, but the cake batter went over the side of the pan, over both oven racks, and down to the bottom of the oven. When the oven cooled down I tried cleaning it, but things were really stuck good. I'm sure that didn't contribute to my stress level either. I'm using the self-cleaning option right now. My house smells like burnt cake. Yummy. But it had to be done. I'm having scouts here in a little while, and we're making cookies. Better to take care of it now than to make the cookies and have them taste like they've been burnt too. Smelly!

Twilight Girl's Night

My friends Emma Knight and Shanna Johnson and I have been wanting to have a Twilight movie night since before the DVD was released. With everything going on it took a while before we found a date that worked for all of us. We finally had it last night. It was a ton of fun. Emma provided the house, Shanna provided the big screen projector and I provided the DVD. We invited a few people and had a great time. Everyone brought a chair to sit on, and the smart ones brought a blanket and/or a jacket. (I wasn't smart!) There were tons of movie snacks, popcorn and drinks. We watched it under the stars in Emma's back yard. It was so fun that way. After everyone left the three of us sat around Emma's fire pit until almost 1:15 this morning. What a fun night out.
I have to say how great the decor was. Emma had 2 tables set up with red tablecloths. Then she had a popcorn machine with popcorn in it and a Twilight book and 2 red apples on top, a metal wired shelves for all sorts of movie candy, candy on a platter that had a bunch of things, including delicious macadamia nut clusters with caramel and covered in milk chocolate. Oh my, those were good. I had to move so I wouldn't eat them all. Heavenly!

6th Grade Field Trip

Today, Earth Day, was the day for the 6th graders to go to the movie theater to see Earth. Justin really wanted one of us to go with to chaperone, and I got elected. He was pretty psyched about that. The movie was beautifully shot, and the kids all really enjoyed it. They also showed a preview for Earth Day 2010 for another show called Oceans. I am already planning to see it. (I was going to be a marine biologist, but since I'm not I watch shows about it.) The movie looks like it will be fantastic. The preview showed a diver swimming right alongside a great white shark. Those are my favorite of all sharks, and I'm hooked just on that one shot.
Back to today... The row I was in had mostly boys, but we had girls in the rows in front of and behind us. I'm not sure who talked more. I had to get after the boys next to me more often than the girls, but the girls were pretty chatty. I got to sit by Justin. When it was over we rode back to the school on the bus. After about 2 minutes I realized that I have so much more empathy for 6th grade teachers! The squeals, high pitched screaming and giggling were just about to do me in. I sat next to Josh Buhrley on the way back to school, and asked him if it was always like this. He said yes, and then we both put our iPods on to try to drown out the sound.

Josh Hall, Jared Verstratton, Josh Buhrley, Marce Festa, Justin Noorda, Spencer Beaudette
Josh, Marce, Josh, Justin, Spencer (sitting)

Smokey

When we got Smokey he was just a puppy. Since he was a miniature schnauzer he could literally fit in the palm of your hand. We fully intended for him to be an inside dog. When we moved to this house Cole decided to be an outside dog, and after enduring a full night of Smokey crying (which echoed throughout the entire house so loudly that none of us could sleep) we decided to try to keep him with Cole. Cole would not sleep in the house so they both slept outside. No more crying. That took care of that problem. Smokey became an outside dog.

We were a little worried when Cole and Smokey met. Cole was right around 100 lbs. Smokey, when we got him, was only 3 or 4 lbs. Cole smelled him and decided he was okay right away so that put an end to our fears.
Since Cole died yesterday Smokey has wanted to be in the house. He even slept inside for the first time. We tried putting him outside, but he wouldn't stay. I decided to keep him inside until I went to bed, but after a few minutes he went on his patrol of the house (he checked on each child and every room). He didn't come back. When I went upstairs I looked for him and found him asleep on the floor of Justin's room. So maybe he'll be an inside dog after all.