New Niece!

Welcome to the world Violet! The kids are excited to have a new cousin, number 14 overall for them. Violet was born last Saturday, and even though she and her mom had a rough go of it, she looked great. I am excited she and Soph will be in the same grade in school.

And speaking of school, Jack and Bella met their teachers yesterday. Both are sooo excited to begin the school year. I, on the other hand, feel like summer went by so fast I have whiplash. We still have a big list of stuff to get done around here before colder weather sets in. But in the mean time, I am going to just play with the kids and hang around with them. Jack and I have some Clone War plans we need to get to, and Bella and I may need to get a few accessories for Cinderella Bear while she waits for school to start (Why is it taking sooo long mom, let's just go today! I know my teacher is there!).

Until then, looking forward to seeing little Violet this weekend! Look at those cheeks!

She Flew

In May, our ward had an auction to raise money for the youth. One of the items up for bid was an introductory flight lesson. I bid, I won, I flew! Holly and all the Woodlings graciously escorted me to the Provo airport in the early hours of the day. I felt giddy with excitement, concerned about the size of my derriere when I saw the size of the seat in the plane, and thrilled when we gently lifted off the ground. The pilot-Rich-was a hoot. He let me fly more than I had hoped for and answered all my questions easily. We flew over Utah Lake and over our neighborhood in Lehi. I had forgotten to mention to Nate to come outside, but a few neighbors actually did see the little plane circling above. I loved it, I keep trying to figure out a way I could do this every day!

A recap of the Day

The day meaning my birthday of course. Being as it falls on Pioneer Day-big day if you live in Utah-Nate had/took the day off. He is his own boss, so it's a grey area. We began the day around 7 am with kids too excited to eat breakfast. I insisted on cereal before presents. They hung their heads and reluctantly complied. After hastily consumed bowls of cereal, Bella insisted I open her gift first. Nate informed me the night before Bella was beyond excited about what she chose. Beyond excited. I had psyched myself up to give her a much hoped for reaction from me with excitement equal to hers regardless of what it was. She got me:

I knew exactly where her excitement came from. The Aqua Globe infomercial is on during Saturday Morning Cartoons. She recited it to me then and there as I opened my gift. She did the same thing to Nate in the store. Her passion for them convinced him to buy them in the first place. Lucky for her I have some potted plants this year. They do look cool and I would never have thought of them myself. She is sorely disappointed the water on them does not last "up to two whole weeks" like it says on the commercial. I keep pointing out the "up two" part, but she just looks at me like I am out of my mind. I suspect the water in them will last about five days.

Next up was J-man. He picks out ambitious things. I could tell he was pretty sure his gift would be a hit as well. And there was a plan to go along with it, a plan that would make all his dreams come true-well not all of them, but at least one. He got me:

100 cookie cutters! You can see his plan, we will make cookies and use them all in one shot! 100 cookies! What could be better. He has been lobbying ever since I opened them to break them out and cut away. I told him we will take them to grandma's house next time we go. Bwahahahaha.

Sophie got me-picked out by Nate in absentia-some bath salts. I believe this is an indication that someday soon I may be getting a bigger bathtub with a bigger bathroom built around it. Well-a girl can dream.

Nate got me a bag that I wanted. It is giraffe print with green trim! Yay!

After all the present opening, we got all shiny and clean and headed out to the Gateway. It is basically an outdoor shopping mall in downtown SLC. I bought clothes for me, I even tried them on before purchasing, as I didn't have three other people accompanying me into the dressing room. We are at McGrath's Fish House. This has been my year of branching out foodwise, I dispise that I am soo picky, it really bugs me. So I have been trying new stuff. I had a turkey and crab melt with sun dried tomatoes and artichokes. This is why I picked crab. It was decent, a little too creamy.

We came home and prepared for and attended a BBQ down the street. Good times were had, fireworks let off, good books discussed, and good food shared. I had a great day and slept well that night. The next morning I awoke and had some of this for breakfast. Life is good, 31 years survived.

Stupid Things

So, apparently places to buy new counter tops are not open on Saturdays, which makes no sense whatsoever. Isn't that when people shop for home improvement stuff?!? A few weeks ago, I got a quote from TL custom counter tops. I had some questions, so I called to ask them and have not been called back. Frustrating, I wanted to buy them there So on Saturday, Nate and I decided that we would just go somewhere else and see what we could find. Well, everywhere we went, closed! Fine, they must not want my money!

Also, this weekend our washing machine freaked out. It started making that unbalanced you've shoved too many clothes into me noise and dance. So, I redistributed clothing and the grooving and shaking continued. It seems as though some water has been trapped between the inner and outer tub. The thing is, the washer is almost a year old. We bought it the 28th of July of last year. Hopefully whatever it is falls under warranty, but I am certainly not counting on it.

Also, my camera is dying. It got dropped at Father and Sons and hasn't been the same since. I can get about five pictures out of it before it dies. I checked the batteries, that doesn't seem to be the problem. Since my birthday is coming up, I can probably just make a camera my present this year. But I don't know what I want and anyone who knows me knows I research incessantly, so if anyone has a camera they love, let me know. Nonetheless I am annoyed it's dying.

Also, baby quaking aspens (the biggest tree/weed there is) keep trying to spout all over the yard. The roots keep appearing far away from the main trees and I must battle them all the time, and I still lose.

And then, I keep having this strange muscle spasm in my eyelid that is driving me insane!

On the flip side, the house is pretty clean today. Bella vacuumed and thought it was the greatest thing ever. The kids loved dinner last night and didn't complain at all, sweet and sour chicken. And we have a lot of fun stuff planned this week.

I feel better now I got that all out.

Make Lunch Fun

Sophie sitting on the grass. She was a little distressed at first, then decided it was fun to be free outside and got over the prickly feeling on her legs.

Bella dropped most sparklers, she gets a bit paranoid about being burnt. I like that she errs on the side of caution, unlike...

...This kid, who got too close to all of us with hot metal on fire.
Traditional tank wars. I believe Terry won this year. Nate bought the kids a few tanks and we were surprised to find they had wheels. It was good to see everyone jump and run as the flaming tank came barreling toward us. I would have snapped a pic of this, but I was jumping and running. If not for the curb, that tank would have been in the backyard.

5 Good Things:

BBQ

Excited Kids

Clean House

Fun with Family

Freedom

You will be thrilled, I know I am!

Holly posted our primary talent show! I actually had a fun week getting ready for this. I knew about how it would go, so not a lot of apprehension there, and let's face it, I am all for public humiliation.

L to R: Terri, secretary; Michelle, Pres; Holly, counselor; and me.