Isabel's Hair

The girls with their super-straight hair curled for church. It takes a lot of hairspray and a lot of time and then pretty much lasts an hour. oh well, they were excited

This is Isabel's "after" shot. I decided to do bangs to cover her workmanship, and then just layered it a bit to cover the rest of what she did. NOw she wants to grow it really long, so hopefully she can not be so scissor happy in the future

"Before"This is the nice chunk of bangs she cut to the scalp, and on the right side ( the side the scissors connected with) she also added so VERY short layers, it's kinda hard to see in this picture. Love that crazy girl.

New Piano

A company came to Monticello with some pianos for a few days sale. We went to look and actually found the perfect one! It is exactly what we were looking for, matches the house and will work well for us while the kids are young. Great price, too. I hope they like it, and odds are good we will end up with at least one player in the family. The best part about the piano was they delivered it right to the front room and Scott didn't have to lift a finger! He's not even home today. We have been looking online for quite a while, but the delivery was going to be the hardest part, we would have to travel to find a piano store or get a used one from somebody. In that case you never know what you are going to get. The girls all seem to love it, we are wishing we had doors on the front room now! It was an option when we built, but I wasn't thinking it would be the piano room. We may install some since this piano has no "quiet" pedal. The bench is brand new and I think overall it will be awesome. I might even take lessons myself!

It is a Wurlitzer. Somewhere around 40 years old. It sounds good, and they fixed some problems on it, it was a trade-in. We also have the option of giving it back and getting our price we paid towards another piano in the future. it seems like a win-win! yay!

July flew By!

Whitney is now standing! She does it quite a bit but still isn't sure about walking on her own. I am betting in a few weeks she will be running everywhere. She is now 14 months. She crawls like a Komodo dragon and is pretty quick. She now only wants to be up on the couch and has fallen off a few times,we put pillows all over the floor, but now she is attempting to crawl over the back of the couch and fall off that way, too. She is entering the phase of toddlerhood that tests me the most, the "let's see how many times a day I can hurt\maim\kill myself" She still doesn't really talk, but understands a lot. She is getting 3 teeth on top at once, not in the right order, so that has been kinda miserable. It will be good for her to finally be able to chew things, since she is past most baby food.

We moved the big girls into the basement a few weeks ago. Sara got the dollhouse in exchange for Isabel. She still ask for someone to sleep with her, but then crashes a minute later. it's good. I also finally refinished her bedframe which we got for free a while ago. It needed some love. Luckily I have all the little cans left from striping the room, and so she now has a cute purplepink bed. Another project checked off the mental list.

I found this dresser on the online classifieds and had jane bring it down for us from Salt lake. When I started getting ready to paint it, i found that it was solid cherry wood, so i kindof felt bad about covering that up, but the other finish just wasn't going to work. Sorry, i forgot to take a "before" pic. I removed the icky hardware and painted the base hot pink, then the girls voted to just whitewash the drawers. it turned out pretty cute, and will be perfect for them. I hope this will be their dresser forever. I ordered handles online and they weren't here when I took this picture. They are here now, and things are looking good in the basement room.

I wasn't up for painting their whole room right now, so i looked online and found these cute polka dots for less than $20. The girls picked the green and pink, they had tons of colors to choose from. Luckily the quilts we made them are so colorful, almost anything would match.
We have really been working on keeping the room clean and getting organized down there, and so far it has gone well.

Most of Scott's family came down for the 24th of July, which is Pioneer Day, the state holiday. Monticello had a pretty good parade and we all watched it. Scott got pulled away to catch someone doing something stupid on the mountain (the story of our lives lately) but made it back for the end. All the kids got lots of candy, and that's what's important, right? Then Scott, his parents, brother and nephew went on a long ride while the babies napped and all the girl cousins played. We had a BBQ and then watched the fireworks out in our backyard. The perks of a small town. It was a crazy but fun weekend, and we love having people come visit.

On Sunday Ashley and Whitney ended up in the same dress, which I think Grandma Jane gave to us on previous daughters....They were pretty cute together. Having Ashley as an 18 month old walker in the house gave us a taste of what's to come soon.

Scott has been super busy all summer, and especially the last few weeks. One day he ended up with 950 miles logged. And the rest of the summer may be the same, then into hunting season. He still loves it, and i guess we are used to being on our own, but some days are hard, especially when he always works all the summer holidays.

I have just been busy with the kids and house. I am feeling better every day about getting house organized. i just went through our food storage room and unpacked a bunch of stuff that has been sitting for a year. We have a great cold storage room, but it does not have a great light in it, so it has been a bit of a problem. Yesterday i just took a lantern in there and got things more organized. We still have a lot of yard things to do, but we're taking it one thing at a time. The sod is turning into a real lawn and Scott is excited about that. this fall we plan on putting in our trees, and I am really happy about that! Scott also is making plans for framing the basement, and starting on The Man Cave.

Challenge**** If you read this, please comment. I will continue the blog just for the grandparents, but sometimes i wonder who checks this thing!!****

happy summer everyone!!!

Abby turns Seven

Yes, I found some chipmunk pajamas

cake with the cousins visiting for Pioneer Day

friend party

mud cup "cake"

opening "Alvin and the Chipmunks:The Squeakquel"

Finally got the swings on.

Abby had her birthday and it was fun. We kept it pretty simple and decided to just have a late night with a few friends, instead of a big party. She chose this option and we spent the money saved on a new, big bike. Somehow I don't have a picture of it, but we'll get one. She got to go to wal-Mart and choose it. It is a pink, ladybug bike with streamers. Grandma Jane got her a bell for it, so she is set! She is obsessed with chipmunks lately, so she also requested nuts for her birthday. Grandma and Costco came through on that one, too. I keep telling myself, if she was this excited about horse, unicorns, dogs or cats it would be normal, so chipmunks it is. Anyways, the girls came to the party, we had mud cups, painted nails and then watched Alvin. The squeakquel has the chippettes, that is why they like it so much. We had lots of popcorn and finished the movie and sent the girls home. it went well. We also had a cake when everybody came down for Pioneer Day, so they could sing to her. Abby is definitely growing up. She can get her own breakfast and some for her sisters. She is reading like crazy and loves chapter books. Her favorites are "Fiona and Frieda's Fairytale Advenures." It is a series, check it out if you have older girls. She is starting to love to watch the older shows on Disney channel, iCarly being her favorite. Poor Sara isn't too happy about the transition up from Dora the Explorer! Abby is so ready for 2nd grade. She is very smart and I am not at all worried about her at school. She loves riding her bike and scooter. She is generally good but also tends to do a lot of "it was Isabel's idea...i told her not to...." after the deed is done. Oh well. She is a good helper and is already becoming smarter than mom, throwing out her solutions to any problem I might have. She loves her sisters and is loving watching Whitney grow up. She has two loose front teeth, so watch out for some cute pictures coming up. We love our Abigail!

Dad Life (Father's Day Opening 2010)

This is the funniest video! We love our Dad!!

(scroll up and pause the background music before you play this)

More Canada Trip....

These pictures are out of order. This is inside "the Biggest dinosaur in the World" in Drumheller, AB. Scott was napping with Whitney, so we girls just went. We dragged mom along after we left Wainwright.

Big dino foot

In Edmonton we got together with a lot of my family at Auntie Jean's house. My gran was able to come and it was good to get a visit in, and for the girls to get to know her. She will be 97 in September!

Beautiful Isabel the monkey, was loving the monkey bars at Riverdale Mini Park, where we all went to take family pictures. A girl mom knows took them, and I will post when we get the CD.

The result of asking Isabel and Brennan to hug.

Cousins on the merry-go-round. The good old unsafe equipment is the most fun!

Some Mountain Goats on the road....

Looks comfortable, right?? Whitney didn't sleep very well in the car, but she was happy to be facing forward.

This is a glacier truck wheel.

So, After we left Hinton, we went to visit Auntie Jean in Edmonton. She is nice enought to let us invade her house. We got to visit Gran and see her new apartment in the city. it was hard for her to leave Wainwright, but it seems like a really nice place. We went to West Edmonton Mall and the girls each made a Build-A-Bear. We left the next day for Wainwright. There we met back up with my Dad, and he brought Dan. Peter and Pam arrived and after mom was done work, the whole family was together for the first time in years! We hung out, ate, and looked around all the new development in my old home town. It has grown so much! I never would have believed that there would be so many big stores and restaurants and hotels. On the next day, Saturday, we all went out by the river to take pictures. It was fun. I was able to get some cute outfits for the kids here at Target and so we all coordinated. The weather was very cooperative and we knocked out the pics and then just played. After that we were able to visit a friend of Mom's to see her horses. The rest of the time we pretty much hung out, attempted to do a few house projects and just let the kids play. We ate a lot and were able to see more friends and family. After church on Sunday we headed back to Edmonton for a get-together with more family. it was good to see them all. Scott and I also got to go on a mini-date and meet up with my old friend, Ryan and his new wife at the Cheesecake Factory(scott had already had two slices of pie and ice cream). Ryan and I drove back and forth to college a few times and hung out in the summers. There's nothing like a roadtrip to bond. i am so happy he finally found an awesome girl. Wish they lived closer!!
Mom came up in her car later and the next morning we went to Drumheller. They have a huge dinousaur museum and the whole town is dinosaur themed, so it was fun for the girls. We hit the museum around 6:00 on a monday night and it was DESERTED! It was so nice to just wander and let the kids run around. Before that, while Whitney napped we all went to see some fossil shops and the big dinoasaur which you can climb up in. The girls all loved it. They got some glow-in-the-dark dinos for souveniers. The next day we headed to Calgary and met up with my friend Stacey. We went to the zoo and after about an hour started to get poured on. It was fun but crazy. We left and went to Stacey's.She has 2 little boys. The kids were able to play and we were able to visit and it was fun. Nice to be somewhere with toys instead of an empty hotel room. That night we said good-bye to Grandma CC (my mom) and she went and stayed with her friend Brenda, who then took her to the bus station in the morning so she could head back to Edmonton and get her car. We headed south and made it to Pocatello, ID. We slept and then went home. it was really good to go, and really good to get back. The girls all behaved as well as can be expected at their ages and I think we made some good memories. Hopefully it won't be another 3 years before we come up, we also hope to see more Canadians down this way!

Canada Trip, Part One

A nice place to stop for lunch between Banff and Jasper. It's really too bad the camera can't catch the beauty and the color of the water...

Athabasca Falls in the rain

The best part of the trip for the girls, a highly trained chipmunk or two at the top of the mountain. Guess some people can't read the "Don't feed the wildlife" signs.

Going up Sulphur Mountain in a gondola. Banff, Alberta. None of the girls were scared at all!

The Watsons at the top....

Abby and Grandpa Gulka

Playing in the amazing indoor plyground at out hotel. We went there every day while Whitney napped, the girls loved it!

The Watsons by Bow falls, outside banff

So we are already back from our trip!! After months of planning and researching online and coordinating schedules, my whole family was able to get together for the first time in years. The first part of the trip was up to Orem, then to Tooele to see our neice get baptized. It was really nice, even though we had to leave early. So proud of Natalie. We then drove 12 hours to Lethbridge, Alberta, getting there after midnight. The drive went quite well, thank goodness for the DVD player! I had bought some new movies and saved them for the trip. We also had lots of other stuff to do, and snacks. It was mostly smooth sailing, except Whitney refused to fall asleep in her carseat and cried until 10:30 pm when exhaustion took over. Even then,she woke up and screamed for every bump.
In Lethbridge we woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel and went to a church nearby. We then drove to banff. We got to tak ethe scenic route through downtown Calgary and all it's construction, so that was nice. We got to banff, met up with my dad, went for a walk and then cooked dinner together. The weatehr was a little uncooperative, being cloudy and drizzly off and on. We poked around the shops, went for drives and just hung out with grandpa, who we don't get to see often enough.

I tried to get Sara a T-shirt. she did not like any in the store because "that's not a girl shirt" even if it was pink, if it had a cartoon bear or moose or Mountie on it, it was a no-go. Eventually I found a pink shirt with purple rhinestone moose and that was ok. So they all have their souveneir :)
The next day we took a gondola up to the top of a mountain. At the top you can hike another kilometer up stairs to get to the VERY top. We did this and the girls all did quite well. We saw mountain goats and birds and a marmot and of course, the chipmunks. They are currently obsessed with Alvin and the chipmunks, so this was a big deal.

Here are Abby's favorite parts:

My most favorite part is when I got all my new stuffed animals. One of them's name is Peanut. it's one of my favorites now. It's a cute little chipmunk. Also, my most favorite part was when we climbed up a big dinosaur. And we went on a fun gondola. we went so high, there was even snow up there. and we saw a very funny chipmunk because it was standing on it's hind legs dancing! I also saw a mysterious animal in the trees. It was black and small, but it was bigger than a chipmink. And we saw lots and lots of mountain goats. I also met part of my family who I didn't get to meet so soon. I met auntie Jean and saw my cousin Natalie (Gulka). It was really fun cuz me and Natalie made sortof a club. That's all I want to say for now.

We left and drove on the Banff-Jasper highway, and it was all cloudy and rainy, so the views were not that great but we saw a ton of animals. We saw a grizzly bear and a mother with two cubs and then another bear right by the road. Of course, with the requisite tourists snapping photos just feet away from it... We stopped at a big waterfall called Athabasca falls and it was pouring, but I had planned to pend the whole day on this drive, enjoying the outdoors, so we got on our stuff and went through the rain. It was beautiful. Isabel was looking down with her hood on and managed to walk right into in information plaque....right on the nose, poor kid. But she was ok. We passed through some very beautiful country, this is my favorite place on earth and it made me miss home a little. The mountains in Utah are quite different, but it was good to visit and share it with the girls and Scott.

more to come...