Boy/Girl Party. I am too young for that!!

Parker is in 6th grade this year and turned 11 last Friday. Say what??
When did my little home skillet grow up to be old enough to have a boy/girl party?
Just plain crazy sauce I tell you. Parker had his close peeps over for a movie night. Hot dogs were on the menu straight from the fire pit. It was pretty funny to watch all the kids interact. They boys talked alot more to the girls than I remember boys doing when I was his age. His "girlfriend" Katie was there and is so cute! Cracks me up to even type that he has one:) We brought out a mattress that we were getting rid of, set up some chairs, and watched a movie under the stars. We served popcorn buckets with a box of candy. They seemed to have a really great time. Matt and I enjoyed every minute getting to watch Parker that night. He really is such a great kid. He works hard at school. He is so responsible. He rarely ever complains about anything. I really have enjoyed watching him grow up:)

It's back to school time!!!

How sad is it that my last post was about the end of the year!?! I fail at writing on my blog:)

We have had a great summer! We stayed up in Logan with Matt for a few days(we missed you Jenny and family),we had season passes to Classic Fun Center where we spent many days. We went to Cowabunga Bay, Boondocks, and played with friends. I started a new job at American Airlines. This summer has just flown by with lots of fun and exciting things happening!

Oakley is now in 2nd grade. She has one of Taylor's previous teachers and she is excited to have her friend Maddy in her class again. She is still not a morning person and struggled to get up this morning, but I think in a few weeks she will be able to get up easier. (Let's hope and pray!!!!)

Taylor is in 4th grade. She has a great teacher this year also. She doesn't have her two closest friends in her class with her this year so it will be interesting to watch her make new friends in her class. She was our most excited child about school starting! She could not wait!! I think it's because she is excited to see all the boys in her grade:) Yes, she is SO into boys!! We even had the conversation about shaving legs. I had to tell her she has a few years before that nightmare will start!

Parker, Parker, Parker. What to say about my 6th grader? He is my easiest child. He just plays everything cool. He has a teacher who is young and pretty which Matt and I found very funny since Parker picked her as his teacher this year. He has 3 out of 4 of his closest friends in his class. He said he hopes this year his teacher won't get irritated at him for being quiet like his last teacher did:) It's in the genes! And we all know not mine!!

I have loved the summer with my kids, buy I am glad they are now back in school. I love seeing them learn new things.

Part one of June

What makes the last day of school super cool? If your birthday is on that day! My sweet/crazy/funny Oakley turned the big 7 on June 3rd which happened to be the last day of school. Can't you see in her face below that she is super excited to be done with school??? She did have the coolest teacher Mrs.Buttars. If you went to High School with me then you just might know that cool chick!

Oakley was spoiled on her birthday, and the whole weekend! I made Hello Kitty pops for her class. She had not one, but 2 birthday cakes. My favorite was the kit kat cake. Super easy to make!!! She loves Justin Bieber (although she will never admit it in front of her brother). Our family spoiled her like crazy! Some of my favorite things about Oakley are: she is so loving, she likes to sleep in like her mommy, she always gives hugs and tells us she loves us all the time. She is a great kid! She had a friend birthday party at the pool and we were so excited that Matt was in town for her birthday!!

Parker and Taylor were also excited to finish up school and start their summer break. I can't believe that next year I will have a 2nd, 4th, and 6th grader. Ack! I am feeling like I should be old!

June has been a great month for us. Lots of change, lots of running around. I love all the exciting things that are in store for our family!!

Part two of June

I love when the weather FINALLY warms up and we are able to get out and enjoy what Utah has to offer. We took the kids up to Donut Falls for a hike. It was beautiful, but we didn't expect to see snow up there in the end of June!!! Only in Utah:) There was so much water from the snow coming down that it had flooded the trail. So we weren't able to make it up all the way, but it was beautiful!

Then we continued up the canyon to Silver Lake. The kids planned on doing a little fishing. Again, SNOW!! This time it was covering the path around the lake. Crazy stuff to see people wearing flip flops and sliding and falling in the snow. The kids had a great time fishing and I had a fabulous time catching some rays:)

1 Point for the girls!

(Not my sink, but you get the point)

I have a habit of making sure something goes wrong while Matt is out of town.(I do it just to make sure he knows he is needed around here:) Totally kidding!!) I have mentioned before the backing into the garage door that required a new door opener, or the never ending leaking bathroom tub nozzle that turned into a 3 day project for a kind neighbor that fixed it for me, just to name a few.

Today I decided to make a wonderful dinner of Meatloaf and Potatoes for dinner. I peeled my potatoes and put them in the crock pot and put the Meatloaf in. Feeling so great about having a dinner that would be ready for the kids when they got home from school, I continued in the kitchen and cleaned up my mess. I sent all those peels down the disposal. Ladies. DO NOT DO COPY MY AWESOMENESS!!

Next thing I know the sink is filling up with water and will not drain. I called Matt later that night to fill him in on the fun. I told him "No biggie. I can go without the disposal for another two weeks till you get home." Brahaha! Guess who decided to do a load of dishes in the dishwasher? Yep, the smart one over here. I came upstairs tonight to find my sink filled to the top with nasty water. I scooped it out into the other sink. I was almost done and then I heard a big whoosh and noticed my feet were wet. The pipe popped off. Lovely. Then came the call to Matt. It was only midnight where he was, no big deal:) He told me to call my dad in the morning. Pshhhhh! This girl cleaned up the water, re-attached not one but two pipes that had come off, and found the potato peels in those pipes. Pulled out all the potatoes, re-attached everything and now has a working disposal! Now I am not bragging by any means. I am just saying "Woo hoo for the girls team!"

Happy Mother's Day!

What a weekend! We started off with having Matt out of town for the month of May,(Happy Mother's Day to me:) j/K). The kids and I made lunch for my mom on Saturday. It was so great to have lunch with her and show her how much we appreciate her. I am so grateful for all the sacrifices she has made to have me in her life.

Then it was off to the In-Laws to visit and go out to dinner. We had a nice dinner and then played at the park with the kids. I loved that the weather was so great! My Mother-In-Law is so kind to always give me a gift on Mother's Day. Bless her lovely soul she gave me another hanging flower thingy.....my goal is to keep this one alive for more than a week:)

Today was a day of sleeping in, (I made the kids promise they would let me) waking up to very cute notes of how much I am loved. Then off to church we went. I am in the Primary Presidency and we had put together cute pics of the kids that had a border around it and had "Happy Mother's Day" on it with a magnet to hang on their fridge. They put the picture in a card that they had decorated on the outside and then on the inside it had cute questions for them to fill out. Like "Why did you mom marry your dad?". My kids response? I got 2 "He's cute" and 1 "Because he had hair back then!". Holy LOL!!! Love it.

By far the best part for me was seeing a video that the Bishopric put together for the moms. (With help from at least one wife:)
The video had kids of all ages and also some women talking about how they love their moms. My sweet friend Emily had recorded a message from Taylor on it. Can I just say I bawled through the video? It is what I needed and more. Sometimes we wonder if we are doing o.k. and it was so cute to see my Tay unrehearsed tell why she loves me. I just melted. And I must throw out a "You don't know how much that meant to me" to Em!!!!

I am so grateful to be a mom. I wanted to bring these kids into the world. I own it. And I am so proud to be called a mom. It's hard, it has it's days, but there are so many rewarding days that I wouldn't change anything. So "Thank You" to all you mom's out there. What you do everyday is special and amazing!

Surroundings

So I have been checking out my surrounding a bit more than usual lately.......

Plumbers-ummmm such a messy job, but someone has to do it!
Resource Teachers- I think they go unthanked alot. And by alot I mean ALOT!
Zumba Teachers- Could I ever look that hot while shaking it????
Tiny Belly Pregos- (If you can't say something nice.....) Why was I a Beluga Whale?
The word "Teachers Butt."-what teacher wants your to reference your butt to them? Yet, I am getting one now that I am working at home and sitting all day.
Sunshine-I have loved seeing it this week! Holy crap. It took long enough to get here.
Gardner's-Can I get one please?
24 Hours-Not enough time in the day my friends!
Homework- Why am I doing it? It's YOURS!!!:)
Traveling-It's all I ever want to do.....
Weight Loss- I am waiting for that magic pill to be invented!!!
Prayer- Lots of it going out, not sure if I ever get the right message. Just shout it to me. It works alot better:)
Projects- Never-ending
Friends- Can't live without them (sometimes I can't survive a day without texting them:)
Babies- Love them.
Hubby- Miss him like crazy
My kids- Couldn't live without them. You can feel it in the air that they are ready to be done with school for the year.
Softball- gonna coach it this year and couldn't be more excited!!!!
Blogging- Need to be better at it.