Monday, July 27, 2009

One year of posting!


I have been blogging now for one year and when I look back at what we have done over the past year I am so glad that I took up this little hobby! Other than this blog, I don't have another full year of our life "on record" so I am obviously going to try and keep going with this and try even harder to make it a place where we can all look back at the events in our lives with JOY!!
So here is just a bit of what we have been up to this summer...

THis is Dad and Sam making a VOLCANO!
Sam had "Do a science experiment with Dad" on his bingo sheet a couple weeks ago. They made this cool volcano complete with foaming green lava!

This is Dallin's dirt cake. He made it for a F.H.E treat. He has also been having a great time reading the "Diary of a Whimpy Kid" series. The summer bingo program has been a huge success so far and Dallin has used his blackouts to buy books which was a bit of a shock to me! Dallin continues to love skateboarding and playing with Shaina and Sam. 


Shaina has been busy making videos with Julie. (I wish I could figure out how to post videos without it taking all day, if anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it) She also went to a U of A B-ball camp for a week. I can't get Shaina to go to bed before 10:30 on any given night, so going back to school might be a bit rough at first!
Julie went to Young Womens camp at the beginning of the summer. She did all kinds of great activities and had a fabulous time despite the never ending rain! Julie played Mom for a few days while I went to Seattle for a nieces wedding, I was totally comfortable knowing Julie was in charge. She has been a great help to me all summer. Thanks Julie!!
Max just got back from Scout camp. It was nothing short of a truly epic adventure!  I can't even begin to let you know what happened! They had a great time and Max came home injury free for the first time in his scout camp history!
This is a homemade slip and slide that Max and Julie created one afternoon. It occupied everyone for the better part of the day. The kids have all been having a great time playing together this summer, I am so glad they are friends and that they really do like to be together!
Maryn has been working at Lauph and Learn and keeping on top of her summer school courses for her dental hygiene program. She has been a great help around here with the kids too. When I was gone she took everyone to see a movie and helped keep everyone happy. I can't even tell you how much I will miss her. I am going to fly down to TX with Maryn at the end of the month and help her get set up in her apartment. Seems like yesterday that it was me moving away from home to come here for school. 
This isn't the greatest picture of Russell, but I don't have that many in iphoto. Russ is having a great experience on his mission. He always sounds positive and is working really hard and having lots of success. His weekly letters continue to amuse us and help us see that he is still the same Russell that left here a year ago. He has almost been out for a year, and they say the second half of a mission goes way faster than the first. (not so sure I believe it!)
I really needed to do Caylee's photo challenge cause I couldn't find a picture of me to post. I have been busy having fun with the kids and tending dogs! I have tried with limited success to stay active running and biking. I have read a few books and done knitting and now I'm learning to crochet! This is the first year in a few that I haven't been to camp and I have to say I have missed it, I hope we will have time to go camping before summer ends.
Mark, on the other hand has been at both YM and YW's camp. It really does take a significant amount of his holiday time, but he really enjoys going and I know it's good for the youth to have him there. Like I said before, the scout camp was beyond the typical adventure and I can't even begin to tell the story, maybe I will try to convince Mark to tell the tale here!

I hope you are all having a great summer spending time with family and enjoying the great outdoors! We are off for a week in Montana. I Love SUMMER!!!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Maryn's Culinary Comeback

I don't know if you remember THIS (click here)
but it seems that poor Maryn has developed a bit of a reputation and I have to say that really, until last week, she totally deserved all the mud that got thrown her way!

Summer and it's abundance of  fresh friut must have been calling her name cause look what Maryn created...
And she did it ALL BY HERSELF!!
This is "Welcome to the Neighborhood" shot #2!!
We are all really encouraged by her latest culinary experience. It's so good that she'll have access to lots of fresh fruit in Texas. Now if she can master Kraft Dinner over the next five weeks their just might be hope for her after all!!!!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Summer BINGO!

I am going to preface this post by saying that I LOVE summer, I LOVE having my kids around for two straight months and I LOVE the laid back schedule that goes along with it, BUT I am not a fan of...
  • endless t.v 
  • mind numbing video games
  • children fighting
  • the "Mom, I am bored, their's nothing to do" line
So, I came across this idea that will hopefully help us have avoid the afore mentioned "problems" and help us have a really fun summer together!

We are doing Summer Bingo. Let the games begin!


This is really just for my three youngest( but tonight we sat around and came up with a summer plan for the big kids too) Shaina, Dallin and Sam each have their own Bingo card with age appropriate activities. The card above is Sam's. I will change the cards up at the end of the week

Tonight after supper I sat everyone down and unveiled "the plan" Let's just say I think some of my children might be up a bit earlier than usual to get started on their Bingo.


The idea is really simple, they each have a bingo card with 25 activities to do for the week. For each bingo they fill they receive tickets which can be redeemed for prizes, if everyone fills up their whole bingo card by the end of the week, together they can choose one thing from the list below.
I am really excited to see how this works out. The link above has a lot more details if any one is interested in trying this out too.

On a completely different note... Apparently the city issued the cage to the "Kernal" to catch Magpies and Crows! Yup, that's right, it's o.k for him to have it and it's my job to make sure my dog stays out of his yard! What do you think he's doing with the birds he catches? You might want to think twice next time you have KFC!!!