A Sunday Documentary

Thursday Logan came home from school with a head/stomach ache.  Then friday he started to get these weird bumps.  At first it looked like Chicken Pox.  And his lips got swollen and red.  We kept telling him he had "Suga Lips"... ha ha.  But by saturday, the bumps looked more like a rash.  We think it was a Strep Rash, and has been going away with Anti-biotics.  He was so disappointed it wasn't Chicken Pox, ha ha.

On sunday I called staying home from church with him! Poor Logan, it looks bad, but actually he feels much better.

I want to remember just a normal sunday as a family, so here was our day: 

Dallin stayed home too because of a stomach ache, and we had our own little church at home, read church magazines together and I watched "Called To Serve" with my 2 boys.  It was nice.
Then the rest of the family came back.  And when Bruce walked in the door he said our house smelled like the Celestial Kingdom, because of the roast cooking. ha ha

Then Bruce came and laid on the living floor.

Then Sophie came in the living room and we saw she took her cute pony tails out, so her hair looked like it had wings.

Then Lily came in and said to me, "You are a bad guy, I am a dog, and I scratch you!" ha ha, her pretend play makes me laugh.

Then her and Bruce did daddy/daughter acrobatics.

Then I told Dallin to go help peel potatoes, and he complained.

Then when he went in the kitchen, Emma had already started without being asked.

 Then everyone else followed in, Lily washed the potatoes and Sophie climbed on the counter to watch.

{Everyone was excited about the dinner that Emma had planned.  Saturday night I had to go to the store to get stuff for sunday dinner, so I asked the kids what we should have and Emma said, "Can we have roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, rolls and strawberry pretzel salad ?"  And I thought it was so funny that she responded so thoroughly, that I said "Yes".  Then I took her with me at 10pm and we bought everything to have that.}

Then I went to find why Ashlin wasn't helping us... and she really was in her room preparing her talk like she said she was.  

{She was asked to speak at an adult Stake leadership meeting 

and was SO nervous}

  (But I discovered that she DID NOT clean her room like she told me she would the day before, or put her clean clothes away)

Then we ate our yummy dinner Emma planned.

Then after dinner, when we were serving dessert, Logan opened the dishwasher to get a fork and his dessert slipped off his plate in to the dishwasher.... 

 ...then he cried for like 10 minutes.  Not because it spilt (he got a new piece) but because I told him he had to clean it up.

 Then Logan and Lily went outside to play, and Bruce, Ashlin, Dallin, Emma and Sophie ALL took naps.  

Then I saw a picture on Facebook of my friend lounging by some resort pool and I thought, "I wish I was there".  

Then I realized it was beautiful in my own backyard, and I got OFF the computer to go lay by our 2 turtle baby pools and watch the kids play.
It was so lovely.

Then I laughed at this picture of Lily trying to put her mask on.

...Then her and Logan both put masks on and they explored in their pools, ha ha.

Then Emma and Sophie came outside after their naps, and Emma begged me to let her have a Facebook account for most the day.
But I didn't.

Then Ashlin and I got ready to go to the Stake Center so I could hear her speak.  She was the only youth speaker in front of lots of adult leaders. Sis. Chipman had come to our ward meeting and heard Ashlin share her testimony about receiving her Young Womens Recognition award and asked her to come to the Stake meeting.  She did a great job.  Ashlin said she noticed how working on her personal progress goals helped her to feel more love and respect for her mom, and that was so sweet to hear.  I know there are lots of beautiful wonderful girls out there, and moms who are so proud of them.  But I looked at her up there and thought, "I can't believe she was my little baby girl that I held in my arms, and wondered who she would grow up to be."  She is not perfect, but she is very good, and I am so thankful. 

It was a lovely relaxing sunday.

Here She Goes AGAIN...

Why does Emma have Alisa Clegg's awesome light bulb hat on?? 

... Because she was running for office, again.

Emma ran for 6th grade Student Body President, and did not win.

Now she is entering Junior High and running for office again. 

She had to write a little essay and get teacher recommendations.  They called to say she made first cuts. Then she had to be dropped off at the Junior High for a pizza night and deliver a prepared speech to a panel of all adult judges.  She was running for SPIRIT COORDINATOR.

 .... And there she went with her "bag of qualities".  It was filled with different things she put on to represent qualities she possessed... then once she had it all on she sang them this crazy song.  She was SO excited, and not even nervous.

When I asked her how it went, she told me:
"I rocked it".  ha ha.

And she must have, because.... GUESS WHAT??

They called her the next day to say she won!

CONGRATULATIONS MISS EMMA...

HER JUNIOR HIGH'S NEW SPIRIT COORDINATOR.

Friday was a busy day,  because I spent the morning at Ashlin's Golden Scholar assembly.  Way to go Ashlin!  

I finally remembered to take a picture that night at 1am in her bedroom.  ha ha.

We had gone out that night together.  I was going to the new Zack Efron movie with 2 of my friends and Ashlin said, "WHAT?!  I want to go!" I said, "Do you really want to hang out with me and my adult friends??", and she was like YA.  ha ha. It cracked me up.  Luckily Cheri and Rachelle have daughters that age... so they came too.  We went to dinner and the movie... Ashlin covered my eyes with her hand during all the kissy parts (not joking)... then we went to DQ afterwards to meet Vanessa's boyfriend.  We laughed all night, and poor Vanessa's boyfriend looked scared to death to meet the 6 of us.

I love my daughters.

Camping?

A few weekends ago was our ward family campout. It was 1 mile from our house, at the church softball field, ha ha.

Let me tell you, I grumped when they said it was there.  I was like what a LAME WARD CAMPOUT to not even go anywhere.  But guess what???  I loved it.  What was I thinking?  It was beautiful grass, with big lovely trees around (which is better than the desert) and SO close to our house.  I didn't start packing until 5 minutes before we left.  

Families set up their tents all over the field.
The older boys and dads played frisbee, football, and games all night.  They had music, "Just Dance" and a movie going on the big screen.
{YES, even a campfire to roast marshmallows.}  

It was the most relaxing campout.  I didn't have to chase after kids because I could see them across the field.  Luckily it was even really chilly out.

Guess who slept over with the kids?

{HINT:  NOT Bruce}

He grumped and said we weren't spending the night.  So I said, the kids would love it, I will stay.  So we told the kids whoever wanted could stay.  Dallin, Logan, Lily and I camped out while the others drove home and slept in their beds.

The wind in the middle of the night was CRAZY hard, like 35 miles an hour.  It was SO loud.  Then it started raining.  At that point, I was actually going to leave... but it was dark, the middle of the night, and I couldn't find the car keys in the tent.  ha ha.  So, we stayed.  I didn't sleep much, I woke up to every noise... not the kids.

I actually checked to see if Lily was still breathing, she slept so soundly.

We woke up to some yummy food cooking for breakfast.  Bruce and the other 3 kids came back in the morning to eat & visit for a while.  Then we all drove 1 mile back home, ha ha.

Tennis Season

It is so fun watching how Ashlin has improved at tennis this year. She is the Varsity #2 player on her high school team. They were undefeated the whole season until the 2nd to last game. Dang. But only losing once aint too shabby.

You go woman.

She has a sweet serve now:

She is about to win the match below. After winning the first set, she was losing the 2nd set 3-0. Then Ashlin came back up to win.

My favorite picture below...

(Check out my paparazzi skills. Technically, she is in the air, as neither foot is touching ground. ha ha. Ok, barely, but still.)

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

And this is Alex, they have been doubles partners for 3 years, since Ashlin's freshman year. They are the #1 Varsity Doubles team. They're so cute. They do "head high fives" with their hands on their foreheads and cowboy dances when they get a good shot. Alex is a senior, so this was their last season together. Saddest.

PROS and CONS

PRO: Tennis gets you a sweet tan

CON: It also gets you a sweet tennis tan line

ha ha, this is Ashlin and her cousin Macy (who also plays tennis) showing off their white feet at the lake. Crazy.

Ashlin was one of the 3 girls picked to go to the STATE TOURNAMENT this weekend (out of 30 girls on the team).

GOOOOD LUCK!!!!

-aaaand Happy 17th Birthday today too-

A Fancy Door

I saw this carved wood door on Pinterest the other day...

isn't it beautiful?

I immediately started looking on Craigs list/Ebay for an "old or antique wood door" out of curiosity. And GUESS WHAT??? I found an old wood hand carved door the EXACT dimensions our new house front door was designed to be, 15 minutes away. I went to look at it (by myself, so unsafe). The seller was this little ethnic gay guy with a cool accent.

I stared at it forever deciding if it was really what I wanted. It actually had more hand carved detail then I would have preferred.

PRO: it was so unique. CON: it looked so ugly in its current state

It had ugly red stain on one side and crackling light glaze on the other. It needed a lot of sanding and some cracks filled. But it was solid wood with beautiful detail. (And way cheaper than a new door)

I bought it.

Bruce saw it and was like, "What did you just do?"

Sanding it back down to bare wood is our new project.

Its actually kind of fun working on it together.

As its getting back to natural wood color...

it's starting to look beautiful.

I love the scroll carving at the very top.

I just can't decide what COLOR to have it painted???

We're going to have to decide here soon,

because look how quickly our house has framed....