Books?

As you can tell from the sidebar I love reading. I have a list of some of the books I've been reading recently. I'm constantly looking for new books to read. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

On the road again

We're on the road again. I still haven't finished posting about my trip with Natalie to CT, Kent hasn't posted about the Noorda-Clark family trip to Zion's Ponderosa and now we're on the road again. We came up to Utah again so we could visit with my family and some good friends. It was a good time because Amy and her family are here too. Since they now live in CT, and it's not really cost-effective for me to fly the entire family out there, we're meeting up here with everyone. We got here last night, and we spent most of the day here at my grandparent's house. Then we went to Liberty Park where we walked around, rode the Ferris wheel and swing ride, got snow-cones, stopped at Sizzler (I totally missed Sizzler, but after eating there today I'm not sure I can say that anymore), then to Wal-Mart because Kent forgot to pack Drew's toothbrush and toothpaste... and I realized that I left ALL of my hair care products at home... That boy is really easy to please in almost every way, but when it comes to his toothbrush and toothpaste (and very few other things) he is adamant that he use the right ones.
We are going to the duck park in Layton tomorrow with my sister and her kids, the MacKay girls (we grew up with them from the time I was 3) and their kids. The guys are going golfing (blah) while we go to the park. Then we get to go to the open house for a new temple. Later in the week we get to meet my cousin and his kids to go to Hogle Zoo. My mom, youngest sister Katie and her dd Melia are coming up later in the week. We'll get together with them and my uncle's family when they get here. It should be a fun time.
Well, I keep losing my train of thought. The kids keep popping in here and goofing off so I guess I should go be Mommy for them before they go to bed. Have a great one!

Another quick update from the East Coast

I was all set to post pictures when my Photoshop editor quit working. So… no (good) pictures until I can edit them. Since I last updated we went to the Maritime Aquarium, FAO Schwartz so we could let the kids dance on the famous piano, the American Girl store (where Natalie found a doll that looked just like her for the small price of $120), and Shake Shack.
Michelle, Michael and Varick came over for dinner. Amy made shredded BBQ chicken, a green salad and I made a fruit salad. Yum, yum!
Today it rained cats and dogs so Mikaya's beach party was cancelled. They had their party in the classroom instead. We went to the party, then to Michael's and Target to get some fun rainy day crafts. I taught Amy and her friend Ginger how to make floral hairbows. (I laughed to myself because I was the only one who got the Gilligan's Island reference with a Ginger and a Maryann.) Our flowers turned out really cute, and Natalie can hardly wait to wear them. I might even wear some myself. Oh, I also finished crocheting the blanket for Varick. Yay! I just need to deliver it to them.

These are the hair flowers I made today. A very colorful assortment, isn't it?I wanted to show what at least one of these looked like in Natalie's hair. I really miss my Photoshop!) I know it's a bit overexposed, but here's the purple flower.

Tomorrow Natalie and I are going into the city with Michael. We're going on a boat ride in Greenwich, then going to drop Varick off. From there we'll go to the city, hit Chinatown, SoHo and a few other places. I think we'll meet Michelle for lunch somewhere. We're not sure what we're doing for Saturday or Sunday yet. I'm sure we'll come up with something fun. Natalie and I head home on Sunday night. Natalie is going to be so bummed when we have to leave the girls. I think she'll go through withdrawals. Those will NOT be fun.

Kent and the boys in Zion's Ponderosa

The day before Natalie and I left for our trip east Kent and the boys went to Zion's Ponderosa this weekend with his family. He said it was a lot of fun. They got to ride quads, play games, ride the zipline, and do all sorts of fun stuff. I'm hoping that he'll be able to tell me about it (or type this up himself) so that I can hear about what they did and see the pictures they took. It sounds like they had a great time. For now I'll settle for pictures on Facebook that his sister posted.

Natalie and I Go East

I tried uploading some of our pictures from our journey to CT but Blogger keeps giving me an error message. I'll try posting again tomorrow, and if that doesn't work I'll post them when we get home. We are having a lot of fun. On Friday night Amy, Mikaya, Taylor and Michelle came to the airport to pick us up. We stopped at Michelle's house to see Varick. He's gotten a lot bigger since we last saw him!
Then Saturday we waited for Gavin to get home from golfing to go into the city. We went to Ground Zero, the memorial they have, and then looked at the Statue of Liberty from the shore. It was raining cats and dogs so we didn't want to actually go out there that day.
Since Gavin's work is crazy enough to keep him from doing stuff during the week (I can relate with Kent's schedule), we drove to PA. We went to Hershey's Chocolate World. I took a couple of pictures outside, and 2 of Soren getting into drinks, but that's it. It was a bit of a disappointment. But at least I can say I've been there now. From there we drove through Lancaster, PA and saw several Amish people walking to church, and some driving their horse drawn carriages in the same roads as the cars. There was horse poop everywhere, and we kept driving through it. It was impossible to avoid. It was a very peaceful and beautiful community. We continued through to the City of Brotherly Love- Philadelphia, PA. We went to Independence Hall and then to see the Liberty Bell. We couldn't do the tour, but I got a book about it. We walked for quite a while, hearing the kids tell us how hungry they were, getting cat calls from various men and saw a lot of people wearing rainbows. (You could say that it was a very different feeling from the community we had just left...) We finally made our way back to the car and went to Pat's. They have been featured on the Food Network for having the best Philly Cheese Steaks. I got one, and it was pretty good. We drove home from there, and everyone crashed.
Today we went to the Bronx Zoo. It's HUGE! Having only been to the Hogle and Phoenix Zoos I can say that it's significantly bigger. They had a better variety than we can have in Phx... obviously the animals are smart enough to not like the heat.
I love how green everything is. It makes me want to move out of the desert even more whenever I leave it to see the lush green in other parts of the US. It's rained every single day... another HUGE plus for me. I love the rain. For the most part it's not been driving rains, but good drizzles. Yay!
I'm not sure of everything else we're going to do, but I know that we're going to a beach day on Thursday for Mikaya's class party. Then on Friday my brother-in-law Michael is going to take Natalie and I on a tour of the city. I'm going to be prepared with snacks for my daughter who won't eat much of anything at any given meal, but is starving throughout the day.
Amy and Gavin have been gracious hosts, and the kids are all getting along well. Soren is even warming up to me. He makes me miss my little Drew Dog.
All right. That's it for now. I'll try updating with photos later.

It's almost time!

Tomorrow morning (or today, depending on when you read this), Natalie and I will be flying to JFK to visit my Connecticut sisters. We can hardly wait. We're going to do a ton of fun stuff, and hang out with my sisters, their hubbies and kids. It's gonna be a blast! I just have a few last minute things to do and then I'll be ready. Our darn dryer has lasted 13 years, but it's dying out. Most loads are taking 2-4 cycles to get dry. Hopefully I'll come home to a new one... Hint, hint... I'm so nice that I've done all the laundry, dishes and left the house in a general state of cleanliness.
Oh, Natalie wanted me to say that we both got haircuts today. (She still hates short hair. On me. Only. Because it looks SO ugly. Ask Christine. She can verify this.) She told me later that either I need to get blond hair or she needs to get brown hair. I'd make a terrible blond, so I'm not going to change that! After we got our hair done we stopped at the mall, then the library, and finally got pedicures. It was a relaxing day.
I'll post pictures of our adventures when we come home. I'm out!

Scouts

Okay, as you may already know I accepted a calling into scouts again... same position as before Wolf Den Leader. (Yes, that makes 3 callings for me. Why do I do this to myself?) Okay so today we had our den meeting at Tena's house. She decided that we'd have the boys earn their belt loop for playing chess. The only problem was that neither of us has played before. Two of the boys knew how to play and did a great job. The other two had played with their dads in previous years and kind of knew how to play. Hilarious. We had to have the other 2 boys help the boys because we couldn't really help at all. I am a bad scout leader... couldn't even help my boys out with this one.

Update: The Beginning of a Crazy Week

Yesterday was Lincoln's baby blessing. My kids were alternately thrilled and nervous to miss church and attend sacrament meeting in another ward. Justin and Trevor were brave enough to bear their testimonies in their ward, though. (Yay!) After sacrament meeting we went to Christine and Cody's house for lunch. I got to feed Lincoln his bottle. While I was burping him he spit up everywhere. And I do mean everywhere... my shoulder, down my back and ending on my bum. Plus it was all over the couch. One of Christine's sister-in-laws was kind enough to wipe me off. It was quite a way to break in my new dress.
Then last night at 2:30 a.m. I took Justin to his scout leader's house so they could head off to scout camp. He was nervous about it. He still has major anxiety when he isn't sleeping at home so I was proud of him for being brave about it. I was all set to leave, but then he asked me to stick around until they left. Several hugs, kisses and reassurances later he was all set to go. I had stuck a card with a note in his bag, that I had intended for him to find when he was at camp. However he found it before we even left the driveway so he was able to use that to look at too. I hope it helps him!
I was wide awake when I got home, and when I crawled into bed Kent's jerky movements made sure that I stayed awake. At 4:14 I'd had enough... so I got after him. And then he didn't move at all which made me mad, so I got after him again. What can I say? I'm not exactly rational that late at night. He was kind enough to offer to take Natalie to her 6 year well check appointment today so I could get some sleep.
This morning when I rolled out of bed at whatever o'clock, I found out that Drew had been sick on the floor in the family room. Yuck. He has a terrible headache too. I didn't even know 4 year olds could get headaches. He's sleeping soundly on the floor right now, but he's been sick since I came downstairs. Poor boy.
In the meantime I have several things to do before Natalie and I fly to NY in a few days, and with a day at home (forced though it may be) will allow me to get some of these things done. I just hope that my baby boy feels better soon.
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My little Drew is feeling better. He slept a ton and has been fine for the last several hours. Good news. I'm making my yummy blueberry muffins- from scratch, of course! Drew really wants me to make chocolate chip cookies as I sent the last batch with Justin up to scout camp. Now because Drew slept so much today he's wide awake! He has no interest in sleeping right now. So we're watching the Phantom of the Opera: Behind the Mask. Phantom is one of my favorite shows EVER. I've seen it four times at Gammage. I'm hoping we'll see it again soon. But according to their website they aren't coming here anytime soon. Muffins are done. TTFN!

Natalie's 6th birthday

Happy birthday to Natalie! I can't believe she's already 6 years old. She thought she was already 6 because of her party being held in May, and that today was her 7th birthday. She was rather disappointed to learn that she's really only 6.
One of her friends from her kindergarten class had her 6th birthday party today so Natalie got to go to that. Then our ward Family Ice Cream Social was held tonight, so it was just one big party day for our girl!

Here's the birthday girl! Six years old already!

The boys gave Natalie Blendy Pens (which after seeing extensive advertising on TV she just had to have!) I let Natalie take one thing out of the bag at a time. Drew was very curious to see what she got.

Kent and I gave her my old pink Nintendo DS. She was so excited! She always wants to steal it so now she's gonna have her own! We also got her a fun new game that will *hopefully* keep her happily occupied on our long plane trip next week. She did a happy dance...

Upcoming girl's trip

I'm so excited! Natalie and I are going to fly to NYC in a couple weeks, then go to CT where we'll visit my sisters Michelle and Amy for a week and a half. We're so excited! We're planning to do all sorts of fun things while we're there, and we're going to have a blast. This will be Natalie's first time flying on an airplane, and she's nervous about it. She keeps telling me that she needs me to bring a bag for her to throw up in because she thinks she'll need it. I've tried to explain to her that her brothers have all been on a plane, and none of them have had a problem with it. To be safe, though, I'm going to get some lollipops for her to suck on during takeoff and landing, and have some things to keep her occupied on the flight. I think she'll be pretty excited when we finally go. All of us have missed their families since they live so far away, but she's been particularly missing them, so I think this will be a good thing for her to do.
Of course, since it's just the two of us she's been telling the boys that "it's a girl's trip, so none of you get to come." Her birthday will be just a few days before we leave she keeps how old she'll be when we go. So fun! I'll post some pictures after we come home. We've got a lot going on before we go, so I'll post a lot more until then.

Random goings on

On Saturday morning while Kent and Justin were at the scout camp out I went to volunteer at co-op. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I was actually there by 7:15 a.m. The good part about helping out is first, you get to give service, and second, you get some of the leftovers. Yay!

This time I ordered the Mexican food pack. It didn't come with tomatoes for some reason, but there are enough things in here to make a good salsa verde. I've never made that so I'm curious to see how it turns out.

Natalie really wanted to have me take her picture with the co-op food this time. I have no idea why. I asked her, and she doesn't know either. LOL! (That's from Trevor.)

Here's the food from the regular conventional basket... cucumbers, romaine lettuce, apples, tomatoes, mangoes, cantaloupe (I got an extra one!), pineapple, nectarines, onions, corn on the cob, red potatoes and celery (an extra from the organic side). A pretty good array that typically lasts us the week. The corn was extra wet so we had to use it right away. It tasted fine, but wouldn't have lasted long.

From today Natalie let me do her hair because she was going to the Seare's house. Their girls' hair is always done so cute that I convinced her to let me do hers before she left. Thank goodness for small miracles!

Last night around 11:30 I was gathering my supplies to make strawberry freezer jam. I quickly realized that all my pectin had expired. I couldn't proceed until I had it so Justin and I made a quick trip to WalMart. While we were there we found this shirt for $1. I took a gamble that Drew would like it, and I was right. So cool!

Today I made 10 pints of strawberry freezer jam, 3 pints of strawberries with sugar for when I make crepes later this week, 2 pans of cinnamon rolls and 2 pizzas with homemade dough. I took pictures and have the recipe for the cinnamon rolls on my craft blog (see the sidebar for a link to it). Busy day! There were only 3 slices of pizza left. Kent quickly claimed them for his lunch for tomorrow. That caused such a ruckus that I had to promise to make more pizza tomorrow. I didn't think to take pictures of it until it was almost gone.

I hope I'm as productive tomorrow as I was today!

BTW...

That last post really just chaps my hide! Seriously?! I do all the work and they ALL look more like Kent than me? He's sitting next to me laughing right now, thinking he's so funny... asking, "How much do you hate me right now? Ha, ha, ha!" And, "Why don't we just go upstairs before you get more upset? (With wink and a nudge.)" Like that's going to help make things better? Is it not enough that NONE of them have brown hair or hazel eyes? Now I have confirmation that they look more like Kent than me? Well, at least he's happy about it.

I always knew Justin was my favorite...

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Roots

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Ancestory - Free genealogy

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!