Paiges Costume Design

Paige's Dress Design

Family Reunion

Before my sister, Jennifer, and her family moved away to Pennsylvania for a few years we had a little family reunion.  We went to Ensign Ranch.  We rented a couple little cabins.  My parent's and Karyn and Jason (and Chandler) stayed in one and Joe, the kids and I stayed in the other.  Nancy and Adam's family and Jen and her kids stayed in tents outside our cabin. Amy and Sloan's family came up one evening and joined us for dinner.

They had super fun horse back riding.  The kids loved it!  We got to guide them around this big pasture.

Abby and Emily feeding the horses.

Jen leading Josie's horse.

We also went to the waterslide.  It is a huge hill covered in plastic with running water.  I was a little nervous at first but it was a blast!  There was a lot to do.  We never made it to the rope swing or the lake for boating.

Giving my filthy kids baths in a tub in our cabin.

   I thought the cabins were fun.  We didn't have to set up a tent so that was nice.  There was electricity, a refrigerator and microwave.  However there was no running water inside.  We just had to go to the water spigot at the edge of our campsite to get water.  Upstairs was a big open loft that was great for kids to play in.  The downstairs had a bedroom with a queen bed and  bunk beds.  We had yummy food every day and a yummy dutch oven dinner one night.  Smore's galore and roasted Starbursts, too.

   Joe and I are going back in the winter.  There are wood stoves so hopefully we'll stay warm.  Anybody want to join us?  P.S.  It's super cheap, too!  There are sleigh rides and sledding.  :)

Summer Time

We had a fun busy summer.  We played in our backyard, once the grass grew in.  Doesn't it look nice!

We played ladder ball and badminton.

We got a trampoline.  You can sort of tell from the picture that it is rectangular.  Joe has a need to be different from all the people with round trampolines.  :)  I like how well it fits on the side of the house, though too.  Romney especially loves it.  He loves to jump and jump.  The kids have slept out on it a couple times.  It's great for putting a sprinkler under and jumping to cool off.  Such a fun investment.

   This summer was also filled with the excitement of getting a dog.  We went and picked her out at the shelter.  Her name is Kaleigh and she is a Border Collie.  She's very good with the little kids.  She is very energetic and playful.  She loves to fetch although she doesn't always bring things back.  She likes to have you chase her around to get it back.  Rebekah is so funny with the dog.  She knows she is in charge and gives the dog commands with all the authority an almost 2 year old can muster.  She loves to give her hugs and tummy tickles.  Romney is mostly afraid or annoyed by Kaleigh.  He doesn't play with her much and doesn't appreciate all her affection.  He just kind of tries to ignore her.  Paige has been begging for a dog for years.  We always had excuses:  We're renting and can't have pets, when we get in a house, after we build a fence, etc.  We ran out of excuses.  Paige adores her and wants her to play whenever she goes outside.  Jacob thinks the dog is kind of neat.  He likes to walk her.  We have to take her in for some training because right now she likes to growl, bark or jump at people.  Not such a good thing.  She is very protective of us!

   I'll have to do another post when I figure out how to get pictures off my cell phone.

Twelve Years Old!

I can't believe Jacob is already 12!  It's gone by so quickly.  Once they hit school, time speeds up.  Now he's a deacon and passing the sacrament.  I couldn't look at him the first time because it was making me cry to see him up there.  (Sappy Mom).

We had some cousins, grandma and grandpa Hull and a neighbor friend come over for a little party.  They played outside with water balloons, slip and slide, and a sprinkler under the trampoline to stay cool.  Then we had a BBQ and cake.

Jacob opening cards and presents.

Miracles

This month in primary we have been talking about miracles.  You are now witnessing a miracle because I am updating my blog.  :)  There is a lot to catch up on so I'm try to make it brief.

I'll start with Paige's 9th birthday way back in March.  She chose a cowgirl birthday this year.  Her friends came dressed up in cowgirl attire.  We played the traditional pin the tail on the donkey and had a horse pinata.  We decorated bandanas with iron ons.  Then I took pictures of each of her friends at the party posing with Paige on her (Fur-real) pony.  We decorated fun foam picture frames with cowgirl related shapes.  I printed out the pictures to put in the frames to take home.  Her cake was a Wanted Poster with her picture.

We also had a lot of family in town close to her birthday so we had a surprise birthday party for Paige with them too.  Oh, and Joe too, of course.  This was my quick attempt at a Mickey and Minnie Mouse theme.  She was very spoiled this year with two parties and way too many presents!


Oh, and while some of my family was in town we did what a family of 5 girls did a lot while growing up.  We had a tea party!  Sorry some of my pictures are so blurry.  Jacob agreed to come as the photographer for the event.  Romney came as a cowboy and his cousin Tommy came as a pirate.

The girls all dressed up!

Lady in Red (aka Nancy)

Karyn made these lovely petit fours.

The food was delicious.  There was quite the variety of little sandwiches and other yummy things to eat.  

We ate on my mom's china dishes.  Paige and I made the little centerpieces.

Let's see....Easter came next.  Here are some of the eggs I decorated.  Aren't they cool!  I used my Silhouette cutting machine to cut these shapes out of contact paper.  I stuck it on and then colored the eggs.  It was so easy and I love the results.

Well that's enough for today.  I'll have to write about the summer this week while Jacob and Paige are at school!

News Flash: Child listens to Mother

Honestly Jacob is a great kid.  But lately he has started acting like a teenager.  He's only 11 1/2.  Today he made me very happy.

This morning he came in my room to look (through the giant pile of clean laundry) for his pajama pants.  I was a little confused but he told me it was pajama day for the 5th graders and he had promised somebody that he would wear his pajamas.  He didn't find them in the clean laundry so I told him they were probably in the (giant pile of) dirty laundry.  He said that was okay because they probably weren't actually dirty.  Of course I wasn't surprise but asked if he meant that he puts clean clothes in the dirty laundry.  He giggled...

When he came down for breakfast he wasn't wearing his pajamas and I asked why not.  He had decided it would be too embarrassing.  So, I talked to him about being trustworthy and keeping his promise.  I told he could even just bring them to school in his bag and if the other kid remembered to where his he could go put his on.  He stopped me there and told me it was a girl, actually three girls.  I giggled.  A little while later he came back in wearing his pajamas.  I was so happy.  He actually listened to me!  It didn't just go in one ear and out the other.  Maybe he thinks I actually know what I am talking about.  Now those girls better come in their pajamas, too.