Fun Mini Vacation

A few months ago, my Mom called and said some friends had a timeshare we could use for the night in Scottsdale and they had a heated pool! Yeah! We packed up and went over to hang out with Grandma and Katie (who is the cutest pregnant girl in a swimsuit I have ever seen, by the way!) Thanks Grandma, Katie and the Harrison's for such a fun night!

Memorial Day Camping Trip

We had a blast last weekend on our Camping Trip to Black Canyon Lake. We ate, fished, played horseshoes, went exploring and rode bikes. It was so windy the entire time! I was amazed that the wind just never stopped. Each of the little kids got to reel in a fish and we ate them for supper! Super fun weekend spent with family!

The Importance of Following the Directions

Tonight Carly wanted to make chocolate chip cookies by herself. (I was helping Ridge with a project in the other room and couldn't help her.)

Uuuuummmm. Ooooh. Ok. (You know how I felt, right?!) You know this has the potential to be.... interesting. But, time to let go and let her fly on her own a little. She was excited!

She got out all of the ingredients, read the directions and got to work.

We were out of brown sugar, so we tapped into our food storage bucket. (love that.) She put the bowl of sugar on the counter and Reed helped himself to it, dumping the contents on the ground.

Yuck! She came into the office a few times to ask questions and I thought it was going well....until I heard some thumping in the kitchen when she turned the mixer on. Ooops.

I went in to find she had dumped all the ingredients into the mixer at once, right down to the chocolate chips!

We talked about a few life lessons we could learn from this experience, had a laugh and a cry, and started over.

Her second time around went a lot better...minus some extra salt and baking soda that mysteriously made it's way into the batter! Reed didn't mind the extra flavor though!

God job Carly! You are awesome!

Spice up Date Night...one week at a time!

I just wanted to pass on another fun blog that I recently stumbled upon. Sean and I hardly ever go out on dates anymore, however I do think it's important to keep dating my hubby...time and budget and life just seem to get in the way. I know many of you probably feel the same way. That's why I am so excited about this new (to me) blog. The Dating Divas http://www.thedatingdivas.com/ Eleven women take turns posting a creative, inexpensive, (and sometimes spicy) date idea each week! /Their Mission statement: We are wives, mothers, sisters, and friends who strive to enrich marriages everywhere.We want to celebrate the gift of marriage while inspiring others to do the same. It is our goal to provide creative, inexpensive, and innovative dating ideas that will bring joy, fun and excitement back into the relationship. We encourage all married men and women to take a conscious and proactive approach to investing in their spouse. By putting our spouses first, we are taken back to the simple magic of being head over hills in love again. We desire to help make lasting marriages, which in return will create everlasting families. Check out their "date in a can" idea! Fun! Take a look and do something fun with your spouse this weekend!

Family Home Evenings

Hello there. This picture has nothing to do with this post, I just don't have one that does! Keri requested a recent picture of Reed and this is him from last week, enjoying his cream-of-wheat!

I was just preparing a family home evening lesson for tomorrow night and I found a great website with lessons on it. It has the lessons separated by age and includes a coloring page for the kids to hang in their room for the week to reinforce and remind them about the lesson. My kids each have a bulletin board in their room so I thought this was perfect for them! It also has some object lessons listed as well. Just thought I would pass it on. Do you have a favorite source for FHE lessons or ideas? Please share!

http://www.familiesinzion.com/

Here are a couple more sources I found:

http://www.ldssplash.com/fhe/fhe_lessons/family_home_evening_lessons.htm

http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2091&Itemid=200041

Whew! That was a close one!

Tuesday afternoon, Ty and I drove to my mom's to pick up a piece of furniture and on our way home we had ourselves a little adventure...and I'm pretty sure we received some help from above! We were traveling down I-10 in the HOV lane during rush hour traffic when all of the sudden the back end of the truck started making a horrendous noise and bouncing a little. I thought "Oh no! Not a flat tire here!" I had little visability due to the load in the back, making it difficult to change lanes, but I knew I didn't want to pull over on the left. It's one of those moments when time seems to slow and you think a million thoughts in one moment. I put on my blinker and began to slow down so I wouldn't damage the wheel when all of the sudden it started driving smoothly again, so then I thought maybe I had just run over something, but I never saw anything go in or out. I continued to exit and the traffic seemed to part for me to cross all three lanes and get off at the next exit with ease. I am telling you it went from rush hour to 11 o'clock traffic so I could exit. That in itself was a huge blessing.

We pulled over at a gas station and I couldn't believe my eyes. My back right tire had stripped the treads right off and was down to the mesh underneath, but the tire was still full! In the process of the treads peeling, they must have caught the tail pipe and pushed it up against the bed of the truck, clamping it shut, and it just crumpled the metal on the truck body like it was a tin can! It also tore down the protective rubber lining in the tire well and the metal piece it was attached to.

Sean had to come to our rescue and bend the tail pipe out, remove some dangling pieces and change the tire so we could drive back home. Ahh. My knight to the rescue! (Even though he was in a white work truck and not on a white horse, it still has the same effect on a girl!)

This just adds to my testimony that Heavenly Father is aware of us and watching over us.

Hiking South Mountain 2010

Look how chunky Reed was! I love the last one of the boys.

Summer trip to Utah

Wow! I have some catching up to do. We'll start with this summer. It was awesome!

We took a trip to Utah this summer to visit my sister Keriann and her family for a couple of weeks. Sean was able to come with us this time and I loved it! My mom and dad, Cindy and Christian and Cooper went as well. We started the trip with a float trip down the Provo River. We LOVED it! Ridge was very timid and asked several times if he could get out and walk back to the cars. Finally Sean told him he needed help paddling with the oars. Ridge loved having that responsibility and I don't think he complained one time the remainder of the trip down the river.