Accessorize!

I started to crop this picture and then decided not to.

First, look at Riya. Whenever she watches TV, you'll often find her chewing on her toenails just like this. I'm pretty sure I have another picture of her doing this somewhere on this blog...

Second, look at Sydney. This was a few hours after she was dropped off at our house at the last second because Sarah is still in the hospital (of course) and Jerry realized (almost too late) that he had a meeting that morning that he had to go to. She was lucky to be dressed, poor girl. :) I think she is stunned in this picture. haha.

Finally, look at Emma. She was the reason for this picture. This girl cracks us up. She will walk around the house and find anything that she can to put on her body and will do it. This is actually pretty minimal for how she looks sometimes!

Here's the rundown: On here right hand, she is ever so graciously sporting a cell phone case as a glove. On her head, she has a very stylishly placed hat. On her left hand, she is sporting the latest trend - a finger light. Let's not forget her mommy's necklace around her neck paired so perfectly with her orange beaded one. 

What a fashionista. :)

Sarah's Turn!

Today, Sarah's new little boy was born!! He is adorable, of course, and fits right into the Ewell mold!

His sisters were so excited when I showed them the picture that Jerry sent right after his arrival. They were a little worried about the small amount of blood that he had on him but once they realized he wasn't hurt, they were excited again. :)

I don't have a picture of him for this day because I actually got a picture of the girls doing what they like to do best. They brought chairs out from the girls room and lined them up in front of the TV like this and chose to watch Bolt. They mostly sat like this through the whole movie!

(And yes, Riya is still wearing the same shirt from yesterday. So is Emma. So? I'm in my nauseous/exhausted first trimester. That's my excuse.)

They had a fun day today and are looking forward to a sleepover tomorrow night!

Welcome Adorable Baby Ewell! (I'm really creative here... Privacy, people, privacy.)

Almost time...

Sarah (John's sister) is scheduled to go in for her c-section tomorrow and she had a few last things to do to prep at the hospital so we got to have her adorable little girls over for a playdate!

Riya has SOOOO much fun when Rebecca comes to play!

We decided to eat lunch outside today because it was such great weather. The girls were being their normal silly selves and I managed to capture them in a moment of genuine laughter. Look at those smiles!

They crack me up. Silly girls!

Sparkles in my Toothpaste

Do not laugh at me.

I got a new toothpaste and it literally has sparkles in it. It is really neat to see on my toothbrush and I tried to capture it on camera but this was the best I could get.

I seriously have 5 or 6 pictures of my toothbrush with toothpaste on it trying from different angles to show the sparkles.

Don't be jealous that yours doesn't have sparkles.

Don't be jealous that my day was THIS exciting today.

I know you are.

Labor Day

We had a make-shift get together for Labor Day this year. We had Mr. Adorable Baby Boy and his family come over along with Sarah and her family (Minus Jerry. Party Pooper. :) ).

We had hot dogs roasted over the fire pit and all sorts of other yummy goodness! The Shurtz's  brought fixin's for s'mores and, besides the strong wind blowing smoke into all of our faces, we had a lot of fun!

And, yes, those would be jackets you are seeing on the children. I love that it actually starts to cool off here when fall is approaching.

I didn't have that growing up in Texas. :)

Pretzel Crisps

This picture is very dark, I realize. The deliciousness still stands though.

These are our families new obsession.

Pretzel Crisps. They are sold in the deli section of Wal-Mart and they are oh so yummy!

I have Josh Bird to thank for this. He bought some at Sam's Club while we were in Wyoming Logan visiting them. I had never heard of them before this.

Thanks Josh. No, really. They make my tummy happy. :)

Try them!

The Last Airbender

For movie night tonight, The Last Airbender was chosen. I didn't last through the whole thing but the kids LOVED it!

This was what they did during the closing credits and for awhile afterwards. They were doing some "moves" like in the movie - and even posed for the camera!

This is the only one I got that wasn't blurry from so much movement!

Jayden's head has to suffer though. :)

I'm sure John will be thrilled that he's in the picture as well...

Remember when I got my hair highlighted early this summer? The highlights were a bit more that I was hoping for.
You see, I have never had great luck with highlights in my hair. My hair gets very dry and damaged when I get them. I only wanted a few to lighten things up but I got a head full.
After going all summer with my highlights, swimming, being in the sun, and the great hard water we have around here, my hair was pretty fried.
I decided to try a different stylist to see if she could fix my poor, poor damaged hair.
She came highly recommended and for good reason! I LOVED her!
I'm working on growing out my hair but I had her cut off what she felt was needed to get it back to health. She also applied three different colors to my hair to blend the color I already had and to make it look more natural. She told me all sorts of things about MY hair that make complete sense but that I'd never been told before. She "thinned" my thick hair in a way that would work better for MY type of hair and MY hair growth patterns.
I love the end result and while this picture really doesn't do it justice, here is the new look!
I'm pretty sure I'm sticking to dark colors from here on out.

Emma Strikes Again

We have a song around here that gets sung on an almost daily basis.
It goes something like this....
"Emma Emma Emma the Destroyer..." (to the tune of the Dora the Explorer theme song)

This was her destruction today.
Minor? Yes.
Did we have to throw away half of those napkins? Yes.
Did she do this while strapped into her booster seat at the table? Yes.

If she can reach it and is left unattended, she will reach it.

Even still... She's so cute and we love her! :)

We got to have Celeste come back to our house today to play while Dalton was at school and both of her parents were at the hospital with her new brother!

The girls had so much fun playing outside. They soon discovered the "garden" area in our front yard and decided to dig. I figured it wasn't going to hurt anything so I encouraged it by giving them shovels and pails. :)

They did this for a couple of hours. No joke.

When Jayden got home, we decided to get swimming suits on and play with the water hose. It's a good thing John was able to get ahold of Thomas to pass on the memo to bring a change of clothes for Celeste before he came to get her - I'm not sure baby Parker (or Heidi) would have enjoyed the dirt/water clad Celeste. :)

Bundle of Joy

Today was the day our good friends welcomed a new addition to their family. I'm only using this picture because with all of the events of the day, this was the only one I had!
I have edited it a bit so he looks a little less clear - for privacy reasons. :)
Also - I won't say his name.
This is a public blog and he isn't my child.
We'll just call him Adorable Baby Boy. :)

We got the call around 2am that they were headed to the hospital and the kids were coming. We set up a slumber area in the living room for Celeste and Dalton and even though they were super excited, they somehow managed to fall asleep rather quickly!
Morning came and as the boys were getting ready for school, we got the call from Thomas that the new little guy had arrived! This is the (edited) version of the pic he sent to John's phone to show the kids.

They were so excited!
Dalton said, "I hope he likes Phineas and Ferb!"

He is adorable and we are so happy for them!!

Phineas and Ferb - movie time

Apparently, Blogger either wants this picture upside-down or like this. I'll take it like this.

In case you don't know, we are big Phineas and Ferb fans around here. Luckily, we have friends who share our love for them - particularly a certain 7 year old boy who is buddies with my 7 year old boy. :) They were so excited for the new Phineas and Ferb movie to come out so, naturally, it had to be a special occasion! They made corn dogs to go along with the theme and we brought fries. Unfortunately, they were a little soggy by the time they made it to their house.

Oh well.

Here are four of the kids (who knows where Emma was at this moment) staring in amazement at the awesomeness that is P&F. :)

Do you see it?

What is this?? Hmmm...
I'll give you a hint.

It has a heartbeat.

It will be here on or around April 2.
Any guesses?

Must Get Motiviation...

Remember how my laundry day is Monday?
I started my laundry on Monday. Did more on Tuesday and then tonight, this is the pile I still haven't done. I just can't get motivated. I'm really tired of looking at it on my kitchen floor but I can't seem to bring myself to put them in the washer!
Ugh. Maybe tomorrow...

Bomb

Okay - I am technically cheating with this picture as I just got it online but it is the best picture for today. John had a major "bomb" dropped on him today. His words.
Unfortunately, I can't go into ANY details yet. Just know it's kind of a big deal and we have some pretty major decisions to make in the next few weeks. Like - decisions that could affect the rest of our lives. No pressure at all. :|
Just to keep anyone from worrying, it has to do with his schooling. Everyone is healthy. No life threatening news or anything. :)
Stay tuned.

RIP Glasses

Emma has a thing for destroying glasses. She has broken 3 or 4 pairs of my sunglasses this summer alone. She is the Glasses Destroyer.
Jayden left his real glasses on the coffee table this evening and about 5 minutes later, Riya says, "Oh no! Jayden's glasses!"
This is what I saw. GRR!
I guess he's getting a new pair!

More Family Time!

So... we got to go to the Ewell's house tonight! This is John's sister Sarah, her husband and one of her adorable little kiddos. Actually, this picture has 2 of her kids in it... notice her adorable belly? :)
We had a lot of fun playing Killer Bunnies and eating yummy soup and pie!
It is nice having family in the same town! (pretty much)

Visitors and Goofy Emma

I am sooo bummed that I didn't get any pictures of our visitors today! John's sister Ruth Ann and her family stopped by for the night on their way home to New Jersey from Utah and we had so much fun with them! John's sister Sarah and her family came over as well and we had a house (and yard) full of cousins, smores and our fire pit.
It was so fun to see them again and we are so happy they stopped in. My kids got to have a sleep over in our room so that they could have some privacy in the other two bedrooms.

Also - we were outside waiting for Jayden's bus and I told Emma to say "cheese" and she posed like this for the picture. She's so goofy!

One more thing - Jayden took the test for the GT class today - fingers crossed!!

Finally!

I have been on a decorating slump because of this clock. I needed it to be hung up before I could decorate the mantel and then I could decorate the rest of the house. Hanging it was no easy task though - it required a ladder to reach the wall up there. I finally got John to do it tonight at midnight and I LOVE how it looks!
What a relief it is to have it hanging again! Seriously.
Now, to decorate the mantel for summer. Hey, I have a few more weeks to enjoy a summer mantel, right?!

First Day of Second Grade!

I have to be sure to put Second Grade and not just the first day of school. He corrects me that this is NOT his first day of school. It's his first day of second grade! :)
Jayden started school today (again!) at a new school. We decided that the charter school he was going to last year wasn't a great fit for our family and then we moved to a new house that was a lot farther away from the old school. So - he is going to a public school this year.
We are hoping to get him into a GT class this year to really challenge him but he has to be tested for it. Hopefully soon!
Can you believe my little guy is so big?! Wasn't he just a baby?!

Ruined?

This is one of Riya's shirts. It is one of my favorite of her shirts. I think it's ruined. When we went to the hot springs in Idaho, I packed the wet towels in with the rest of the dirty clothes just to get back to the Birds' house. Apparently, the water from the springs has something red in it. It showed up on a few of our white clothes. I  have washed them several times and it is stained. Today, I tried again with Riya's shirt - stain remover and bleach in the wash. Nothing. Boo.
Any suggestions?  John suggested soaking it in bleach... which I haven't tried yet.

Walking Tacos

We had Walking Tacos for dinner tonight and they were pretty delish! Why are they called "Walking Tacos"? Because if you didn't have a "no food in the house except the kitchen" rule, you could walk around eating your tacos from the bag. Basically, you open a Frito bag, put chili in it and top with sour cream, green onions, olives, and cheese (really, anything you like) and then you eat it right out of the bag. We put our bags in bowls because the chili made the bags really hot to hold.
Here is the recipe for them if you'd like to try them yourself:
http://picky-palate.com/2010/01/31/how-to-make-and-eat-walking-tacos/

FYI - You can even dump them into the bowl if you want to eat it like that. It makes it easier to mix up the contents.

Enjoy!

Curls!

Last night, I decided to try a hair curling technique I saw online. It involves sleeping in an elastic headband and waking up to curls. I was wondering if it would work on my hair and I think it did great! This picture was taken several hours after I removed the headband and I didn't put any hairspray in it to hold the curls. If I had, they would have been even more curly!
I really think the curls turned out cute!
What do you think?

60,000 miles!

On our final day of our trip, we hit 60,000 on the van. This van has had a lot of miles put on it since we've had it! We got it in July of 2009 while I was pregnant with Emma and we couldn't imagine trying to squeeze three carseats into John's little Mazda. It had around 21,000 miles on it when we got it.
What's that math there? 60,000 - 21,000 = 39,000 miles in a little over 2 years. That is just under 20,000 miles a year! Yikes!
I guess that is this van's average. It was a year old when we got it with 21K on it.
Poor van. We'll try to go easy on you.... just keep working well. :)

We made it home around 11:30pm tonight and by the time the van was unpacked and kids were in bed, it was well after midnight.

It was a great vacation but it is also so nice to be home!

Goodbye Birds - Hello Castle!

Today was the day we'd been dreading since we left Indiana. Our vacation with family is over. We left Wyoming today around 1pm after we finally made ourselves leave. We never like these days each year.
We drove to Omaha and after trying to figure out the crazy streets around there, we arrived at our castle hotel. Seriously - it was a castle! This was the corner of it - the front looked like it as well!
We didn't pay very much for this room but we couldn't tell - it was such a fun hotel! It had a castle theme throughout and our room was super nice! It felt clean and that's what I think matters the most! The breakfast was great and I was a little bummed we couldn't stay another night...
We are home bound!

Native American Baby?

This picture just makes me laugh. Stacee and Riya would put Emma in this snow sled with a pillow and blanket and pull her around the house. Aimee said it looked like an Indian baby being pulled across the river.
Emma would just lay down and enjoy it like it was her favorite thing to do!
When do I get a turn?

Exhausted!

After partying all morning with her Wyoming cousins, Emma just needed a nap so I put her on Aimee's couch and put one of Aimee's adorable rag quilts on top of her and she was out. She is such a good sleeper and she slept through any and all noise in the house. I just can't help but take pictures of my kids when they are asleep - they are complete angels.
Always.
Of course. :)

Late Nights

We had a lot of late nights and not very many set bedtimes while we were gone - this is how poor Emma fell asleep this night - it was a long but great day!
We all went to church at John's parents' ward, followed by a potluck picnic at the park, followed by a fantastic family fireside by John's dad at their church building. I love to hear him speak/tell stories - he is a great speaker and really knows how to captivate his audience.
This was to serve as the closing of the reunion and there were many tears shed at the end. It even started pouring rain as we were all trying to leave the building. Literally pouring. It was as if buckets were falling from the sky. What great timing that was!

This has definitely been a reunion to remember - thanks to Joseph, Angela and Esther for all of your work in planning it!

LOVED IT!

Lagoon

We had a ton of fun at Lagoon and discovered some things:
1. Emma does not like to ride and kind of ride that goes fast or sudden.
2. Riya LOVES roller coasters and any other "scary" ride her little 38" could ride.
3. Jayden does not like roller coasters after his first try - it was a little scary of a choice for this first time though. He wouldn't go on any other after it.
4. A family of nearly 70 people that all have the same shirts on (each individual family had it's own color of shirt) will be recognized time and time again at the park.
5. Just looking at some of the rides (even the kiddie rides) made me sick to my stomach.
6. All 3 kids LOVED the sky ride.
7. If sandals are not properly secured on Emma's feet, she will lose it while on the sky ride.
8. Carrying around a hideous gorgeous paper mache cow will make people stare quite a bit - or at least do double shots in our direction. :)
9. John looks forward to the day that Riya is 48" and can go on all of the roller coasters with him!
10. We will be one of the last to win anything at the family raffle but it was worth the wait - we got the one thing we really had our eyes on!
11. A suggestion to go on the river rapids ride will result in 3 adults with enough kids that we had to divide in to three different rafts!
12. Watch out for sticker attacks and mascot kidnapping!
13. Riya DOES NOT like Dracula's castle or any kind of that kind of "scary" - only the thrill seeking rides. She buried her head through the whole castle!
14. Lagoon employees will dig through the trash to get a thrown away mascot to keep in their office.
15. One Lagoon employee will express her LOVE of cows to us as we are getting ready to leave in an attempt to keep Molly for her self. Sorry girlie, we are keeping her. :)

One of our tasks was to take a picture of our mascot (named Molly Moo Cow or Molly for short) riding a ride. This was our best attempt. Emma looks so confused about why I handed Molly to her. Emma hated this ride. It was just a spaceship that went up and down and around in circles. She wanted off almost immediately. Poor girl!

Such a fun day!

The Official Kick-off

Today was the Official Kick Off of the reunion and it started at a park. There, we got our team mascots, team shirts and got to make our team banners along with a team cheer. There were bubbles and balloons, pizza and cookies, Red Rover, freeze tag, story time with Grandpa x2 and lots of bug spray! It was a ton of fun!
We also got our agenda for our trip to Lagoon tomorrow and what we had to accomplish in order to get tickets for the awesome raffle that would be held under our Pavilion!
It was so much fun!!

Family Time

Today was kind of downtime day. Everyone kind of did their own thing - some went to the lake, some when boating, some stayed at the cabin...
This is a great shot I got of some who stayed back at the cabin - everyone was just sitting around visiting and playing games. Riya is on the couch with Grandma  and John is on the floor... picking at his toes?... while talking with his brother Mark (headless in this pic) and his dad. Emma is just behind John looking at one of her cousins. I am not sure where Jayden was at this time - probably downstairs in the rec room with his cousin Miriam. They were pretty much glued together the whole time - as usual. :)
We had a great time spending time with family!
Shortly after this picture was taken, I showed my sis-in-law Karen (on the recliner) my FatBooth App on my phone and that created all sorts of excitement and laughter. Everyone wanted to see what they'd look like in a fat suit - who wouldn't want to see THAT?! :)

The Cabin

I am really wishing that I had taken more pictures during our trip but especially of this cabin we stayed in while at Bear Lake. There were seven of the ten Roylance kids with their families that stayed here - it was massive!
It is hard to tell from the outside but it was three-stories with a gorgeous view of the mountains and lake behind it. The garage held 6 cars (I think) and then a pretty big driveway to hold even more. The first floor had a great master bedroom with a private bath, a kitchen/eating area, a living area, a smaller bedroom and a laundry room. The second floor (down) had more bedrooms (not sure how many) and bathrooms, a living area and a nice view of the recreation room downstairs. Yes, I said recreation room. The third floor (very bottom) had a rec room with a small basketball court, a trampoline, a "putting green" and a playground! It also had more bedrooms and bathrooms, another living area and a movie theater room!! We were loving this place! We just let the kids play and hardly had to worry about them - with all the cousins that were there we very rarely saw them while we were at the cabin!
It was 9000 sq ft of fun!

Today, we spent time at the lake for the bulk of the day and then we had our fun girls' party that night. These parties are always so much fun and it always feels like Christmas because we leave with so much great stuff! I love it when I can be around for them!

The Foot Game

I realize this shot is extremely blurry but it was an action shot so I couldn't really help it. :)

This is John (in back) and his brother Joseph trying to step on each others feet while being the last two in the Foot Game. I have never played this game until tonight. It is a Roylance family classic game and pretty fun to play but even more fun to watch!

We made it to Bear Lake today for the start of the Roylance family reunion (although, this part is not officially part of the reunion) and we were shocked with how gorgeous our "cabin" was when we arrived. We had no idea what to expect so we were definitely surprised!

I will post a picture tomorrow...

Sparklers with the Birds!

We always find fun things to do with the Birds!

Aimee had the idea to do sparklers and glow sticks in the dark with the kids and they had a blast! I think this may have been Riya's first experience with sparklers and she wasn't scared at all! Emma kept trying to grab the sparkling part so I got to help her not get burned. :)

Fun idea and even more fun to share it with cousins!

Vacation Time!

Today we left for our vacation to Utah/Wyoming to visit family - some of which we haven't seen for 2 years!

One thing that is always awesome about our trips out west is the very entertaining view on the GPS.

Once we get on I-80, this is pretty much what it looks like the whole way - just a straight, boring line....

At the end of the boring line is always a ton of fun so it makes it more bearable. :)

He's BACK!

Today was such a happy day because we got to pick Jayden up from the airport after being gone for 6 weeks!! It was a LONG 6 weeks without my Jay-man!!
I took advantage of the trip to Indianapolis and decided to check out one of the malls - it was pretty fancy and it had some great stores. One of my new favs is Forever21 so, naturally, I had to make a stop. Jayden and Riya decided to be mannequins while I was shopping. The angle of the picture might be bad but if you can't tell, they both have purses on their shoulders and Jayden is purposely not looking at the camera because he was posing. :) Riya was a little more shy but still wanted to participate.
What goofy kids I have!!

Sleeping Beauty

This picture is dark but I couldn't turn a light on and disturb the sleeping beauty. John and I think it is so funny that Emma sleeps like this. She usually starts out on her back but once she's asleep, she almost always ends up on her tummy with her legs tucked under her and her bottom in the air while sucking on her fingers.
This picture is pretty funny because it looks like her baby is trying to sleep like her too. :)

(Excuse the lack of clothing - I promise I do dress my children.)

Movie Night

With Jayden being gone and John going to one of his monthly LAN parties, we had a Girls' Movie Night tonight instead of our usual Family Movie Night. We have a coffee table (John thinks we should call it a "hot chocolate table" but it doesn't flow quite as well. :) ) in our living room now so we put towels over the top, our usual blanket on the floor behind the girls and ate pizza while watching our movie.

Riya was very in to the movie at this point and she just looked cute trying to keep her greasy fingers from touching anything. :)

Fun night with my girls!

Mall Rides

Riya finally got to go on the rides at the mall today. We went to the grocery store to pick up some things and the mall just happens to be right across the street so she and Emma got to ride THREE rides. She was in heaven - until it was over and she wanted more. She took it like a big girl though and didn't fuss. This was the final ride so Emma got to drive and this is the kind of driver she is - she saw me taking pictures so she stood up. Awesome. :)

Notice the person standing in the background looking oh-so-cool? That would be my brother Steve. He stopped by for a few days on his way back up to Canada. Riya could hardly stand that she got 2 visits from 2 uncles this week!

What a good sport he is to come along while I indulged my girls.

He was just sad he couldn't fit on the rides. :)

Flies

Part of this "country" living that we are having to grow accustomed to is the increase of bugs. Before we moved here, Riya was terrified of any kind of bug - now, she still doesn't like them but she'll deal with them better. It seems that whenever we open an outside door, a fly will come in. We had several a few days ago just flying and buzzing around - driving us CRAZY!

This little guy (look closely on the stem of the lamp) was buzzing around and knocking himself into the light. Then he'd take a break on the stem and go at it again. What a weird-o. :)

In the words of Riya, "Shoo fly, don't bother me 'cause I belong to somebody!"
(That's what you have to say to make them go away, or so she tells us... let the singing continue!)

Wal-Mart to the Rescue

Riya brought out her piggy bank and emptied it out, put the money in a sock and asked if we could go to the mall. Huh? Then she elaborated that she wanted to go for the electronic rides. I didn't see this in our day today so I kept telling her that we might go after we go get groceries. I kept putting emphasis on the MIGHT.
Well - we never got around to getting groceries and she was heartbroken. I told her we'd go tomorrow. Nope - she wasn't having it. I even offered her all sorts of other awesome deals - she wouldn't have those either. So, I got the idea that we could run to Wal-Mart and I could grab milk (to last until tomorrow) and she and Ems could ride on the rides in their play zone (which she always begs to do but I always say no). She was so stinkin' excited, her tears instantly turned to giggles!
Here she is driving the fire engine with Emma in the back pushing buttons and checking out the dog that was stuck to the truck. I took lots of pics but this was the only decent one - they were moving so they turned out blurry. Boo to my camera for that.

In other news - John's sister Sarah and her family are officially moved out here! Well, sort of. Her husband came down with his brother and all of their possessions and they got here last night. After unloading the truck, they realized the air conditioner in the house wasn't working so we got some over night visitors. We love to have company so it was great! Riya loved that her "uncle" (as she kept referring to him - not by his name) and "his brother" were coming and staying with us.

Our Silly Girls

Lately, Emma thinks it's hilarious to lick John and I on the cheek. She also likes to nibble on my cheekbone or my jaw when I'm not expecting it. I will usually say, "Nooooo!" in a high pitched voice and act like I can't get her to stop and she giggles and keeps trying. She's so silly sometimes!

Today, during one of these very wet attacks on my cheek, Riya decided to try it on my other cheek. I decided to grab my camera and snap some action shots with my free hand (Emma lost interest once Riya joined in). I love this picture because it captures how hard she was laughing and she had no idea that I was taking her picture until after she heard the click. Perfect, candid moment. Look at that giant smile!

A Sunday Walk

After dinner today, we decided to go for a walk on the shoulder-less road that we live on. We walked down to our new church building and then turned back for home. When we got to the church, this is what the girls looked like. Perfect. John and I got some good talking in on the way back - the kind like when we were engaged/first married. We love it when we get to talk like that - just endless conversations. We almost always learn fun little tidbits of things we didn't know about each other. It's funny how you can think you know someone so well but then you find out there is so much you don't know.
I love it. I love him. I love those cute little sleeping girls.
I love (and miss terribly) my little Jayden. 10 days left (we hope)!

Fun Playtime

Today we got to have Riya's favorite little boy from church come over to play! She likes Dallin so much that she is often really sad when we have to leave after church and she has to tell him bye. It is really cute!
We had so much fun with him! Emma and Dallin played in the pirate ship for quite awhile together while Riya and I kicked their new giant bouncy ball around in the backyard. There were lots of smiles and giggles today - and some cute little dances!

Braids

I often find myself mindlessly braiding my hair while John and I watch a movie or show (currently, our obsession is LOST). I found a cute way to braid on a blog and I decided to try it without brushing my hair or using a mirror (translation = very sloppily done) and this is how it turned out.
Ideally, the braids (especially the top one) would be more sideways and more even and the bun would be more messy.
Oh well - not bad for having my concentration on the plane wrecked survivors trying to stay alive on a crazy island. :)

Fire Pit in Action

Tonight, we decided to try out our fire pit by roasting some marshmallows and making s'mores! YUM! We had a lot of fun and while this isn't the best picture, it gives the general idea of the night. John constantly working on the fire, Emma wanting to get off the chair and get closer to the fire or on the deck and Riya being mostly hypnotized by the fire (as was I).
We loved it!
The s'mores were yummy, too! :)

Fire Pit

I have wanted a fire pit for so long and now we actually have a great place for it so I've been looking for good prices on them. Today, while at Target, I found a ton of great deals and this was one of them! It was 50% off because it was the floor model and it was the last one in the store. Um - we'll take it!

This is the picture I took to ask John if he thought we should get it. Technology makes shopping so much easier when I need John's opinion. :)

Garage Progress

I was super motivated today to get into the garage and just put things in the rooms where they belonged. We have just been getting things out as we need them but this wasn't working for me anymore. Too bad there isn't a before picture but let's just say that we couldn't see much of the garage floor before today. We can ALMOST fit John's car in there now. My goal before we leave for vacation is to have his car in there.

Sigh.

How long can I use the excuse that "we just moved"?

The Fourth of July

(Sorry, John - I had to use this picture.)

We had a great time this year celebrating Independence Day! I forgot to mention that we went to a fun Ward activity on Saturday, fireworks yesterday (Sunday) and then today we had a great cookout with more friends!

We were too busy talking and eating to get very many pictures (dang it!) but I managed to get three pictures of the whole day. John thinks he looks funny here but I think it's fine. This picture captures the day better than the other two do.

This is about how excited Emma was about the fireworks. They scare her a bit. She plopped down on John's lap and got her hands in their usual positions and cautiously looked up as they were going off - ever so slightly flinching from the sound. John is squinting a little too because it was still pretty light outside during the fireworks. Too bad the sun decides to become a night owl in the summer - it makes for really late firework shows!

We drove home to the sounds and sights of fireworks going off everywhere around us - it was great!

I hope you had a great time celebrating our independence as well! Happy 4th!

Scary!

We were invited to come watch some fireworks with some friends tonight and they were so great! The girls were not wanting to settle down for bed when we got back so John decided to tell a silly/scary story. We turned off the lights in their room and he got a tiny flashlight and Riya thought it was awesome! She really liked how the light could light up our noses! :)

How's this for a final image before you fall asleep?