Little of this....

Just a post to catch up a bit...I apologize for not adding more often, but I know I am not alone in Blog neglect!  so here goes:

Our irrigation water came on about a month ago. The line next door to us on an empty lot had a leak, and this is part of what it did to the weeds next to it. it was amazing, it must have misted all night to get the amaount of ice on these delicate,dry plants.

I should have taken more pictures of the whole life cycle, but we ordered Bugville butterfly larvae and had them grow and change, and finally be let go! They come as tiny, motionless caterpillars in a cup full of brown "food", they grow so fast and eat all the goo, spin webs, then go into their cocoons. They all hatched and hung out, until we were ready to let them go. It was a fun experiment, and we all enjoyed watching them. Each girl got to hold a buterfly for a minute before we let them loose, it was kindof chilly that morning, so i am not sure how the butterflies fared, but it was ok.

This is  a more recent picture of Daisy, a day before we got her shaved for the first time! I haven't taken any lately, she is getting so big, so fast! Now she can put her paws up on the counter and table and that is a new challenge! She is quick to steal food! And it's gross when she licks the table. I still haven't gotten past doggy germs, but we love having her around. She spends a lot of time outside now that it is warmer, but we are also working on her inside manners. She is getting much better with some bad habits, bu others have appeared.  She is now almost 6 months old, so just a few more months of puppyhood, and hopefully with all our efforts and some time she will turn out to be a great dog.

This is a picture of a picture, so it looks a little weird. Scott and I passed our ten year anniversary on May 4th. We just had an at home date, I got steaks and we just hung out. it was fun, nothing too exciting since we went on the cruise in February.  Oh, I got Scott an iPad, something we have gone back and forth on, but I decided to splurge for a new toy for him. He loves it, but not more than the kiddos! We have already gotten quite a few fun apps, and it is nice to skype with Scott when he is out of town. Which is often, lately.  Today he is dealing with a forest fire, and if conditions stay the same, there may be a lot this year. 
My birthday came and went, Scott left Sunday the 13th at the crack of dawn to head to Reno, NV for a conference. So he was gone Mother's Day and my birthday. On Monday night Scott had arranged for a few girls to come suprise me. I had just finished putting kids to bed and was starting to clean up when they arrived, so I wasn't quite prepared but it was ok. Carolyn Turnbow, Koryn Knudsen and Liesl Malin came over and brought peanut butter\chocolate pie and ice cream and we just visited. It had been kindof a tough day and so that was a nice ending to it. 31 feels fine, I renewed my driver's license and at least my pictures look quite similar, even if the weight has creeped up a bit! That's ok, cuz i love the four reasons why! Abby and the girls tried to take care of me, make breakfast and cards and stuff for Mother's day and my birthday. The joy of having daughters is that I know they will make my days special as they get older, they are already so thoughtful, and I often miss friends and family during May, so that helps. I know I am very blessed in my life.
Things have been incredibly busy with the end of the year school things and summer things starting up.  Abby had a bunch of field trips, they had field days, water days, ceremonies, and everything else. Baseball started with a vengeance. Both girls have to be on teams with boys, which is not ideal but they both love it and wanted to play.  They have at least two practices and a game each week, and of course end up in different towns on the same nights for a bunch of games. Not sure how we will work that out. Sara chose not to play, which is fine with me, she is more interested in the playground.  Swimmming lesson start next week and all three girls will be in them. One small mercy is that they ended up with different teachers, but the same time! so I won't be driving back and forth 6 times a day.  Some ladies in town are starting a dance studio, so we signed up three girls. Abby in Jazz, Isabel in Tumbling and Sara in Ballet. They are all so excited. But I will be making a lot of trips for that! At least it isn't far in our little town. It is good to be busy, since Scott is pretty much MIA, starting a few weeks ago, until after hunting season. But he is committed to doing some camping and fishing this year, so that will be fun for the girls. We just have to get him out of town and cell phone range!
Whitney turns three on the 30th. She is such a sweet girl, and we all love her so much. She is JUUUUUUUST about potty trained, I am shocked she took this long. It is weird not having a baby, or diapers! No news in that department, but it is not an impossibilty to add to our family someday.
As for me, pretty much the same, still trying to keep up with the girls and Scott and the house and yard. It has been a crazy amount of work getting sprinklers functioning, garden started, lawn worked on and so many other projects. Daisy is worse than a child, sticking her nose in everything we do, literally. The biggest thing is to get grass growing on our dirty weed filled back lot, but the wind sure does blow here and scott is gone so much we haven't put down seed yet. hopefully very soon! Our fruit twigs have all grown leaves and out raspberry\blackberry patch seems to be sprouting back after pretty much dying out on the surface. So we are optimistic. All of this takes time, but we hope to see the fruits of our labors in a few years. Our shade trees are surviving well and fence still looks good. We added rocks to any areas where Daisy would get out and that seems to work. Luckily she would just go to the front porch and hang out until we found her.  Anyways, that is a bitof what's going on, I will write more later!

Crazy Daisy!

This post by : Abby

She is a fun little dog who so far has had a big adventure in our back yard and gotten out. She likes going under things to get out. She goes under the fence, squeezes by people to get to where she wants to go when the path is blocked. She's has not been trained very well but we're doing pretty good with her.
It started when we were going to my cousin's baptism in Tooele. Mom found out that there was a little black goldendoodle there, right outside of Tooele. So we went to go check her out. We wanted a young female puppy. First we looked at Daisy, the smallest of her litter, and then we looked at the second one. When me and my sisters were in the car, we all wanted Daisy.  When we got in the car we all decided on her, we all wanted to call her Cuddles, but mom decided the name.  When we all thought about it, and Mom kept on saying that we may not get her, but now we have a small goldendoodle puppy. When she got here, I don't think she recognized us, because she was all over us, and it seemed like she didn't know us. but she was calm back when we were looking at her. So far she has gotten out of the fence a few times. But we've been trying to work on that, but today she got out again. We do not know what to do with the is crazy puppy.
So far we've got her to jump, stay, sit, roll over, and to stop biting.  She's got pretty big teeth, buuuut she doesn't use them too much, for a puppy. Sh eknows how to stay when mom's getting in the pantry. when she tries to get things, but we can stop her, but now we can have her tempted and then she can look away. Instead of us having to be super duper careful about our stuff. This is "leave it."
I want her to be in the dog olympics because for a young puppy, she already knows lots of tricks. She's gonna be a good olympics dog, cuz when I have her favorite toy and I say Jump, she jumps up with ease. She hasn't got used to us yet, but I know she's going to be a great dog.

Lake Powell in January

It's cold and frozen and deserted!

  Throwing rocks, trying to make a hole

                                       We brought Subway for lunch since there is nowhere to get food. This is the viewpoint above Hite marina

  Here is a gorgeous rest stop on the road to Lake Powell

        

Gotta throw rocks!

  A houseboat rental place

We had never really been to Lake Powell,even though it is quite close to us. Scott wanted to plan a trip down there to check it out. We were hoping to make a loop, riding the ferry and seeing both sides of the lake. However, the ferry is closed in the winter, we found out as we turned off the main road. so we went to plan B and just stayed on the Hite side.  It was a pretty drive as always, if you think rocks are pretty (which we do). We went down to the lake to throw in rocks and found super thick ice. We did finally make a hole. The lake was big and beautiful and silent.we stopped at an overlook and ate lunch while trying to keep the kiddos away from the edge.  We drove over to Bullfrog marina and there was warmer weather and open water. We walked around, stopped at one beach but it was muddy, so we went to the boat ramp which was better. the girls found a bunch of "seashells" and had fun picking a bag full. We also looked at some house boats and just hung out.  Afterwards, we headed back and stopped at the cool rest stop. It had a beautiful little trail and stream. Unfortunately I left the girls' coats in a pile right by the door, so we didn't stay too long in the shadowy canyon. It looks like a great place to hike someday, though.(and of course, throw rocks in the water) So that was a good day trip. The girls liked the lake and are pretty good little travellers, so we had fun. Next time we will go in the summer, I am sure it is a completely different place.

Christmas Time

Whitney liked her dragon from Great Gran! Christmas we always try to be at home so the kids can just relax (and us, too) We had decked out the outside of the house with lights, and the inside with lots of decorations. Scott found a great tree in the mountains for us and we decorated it as well. It was a little sappy, but didn't have the killer needles of last year's tree. In some weak moments, a fake tree starts to saound good, but we love our live trees and are so thankful to live in aplace where we can pay $10 for a permit and Scott can grab a tree at work. We keep planning to go with the whole family, but it hasn't happened yet.  Christmas was a Sunday, and church is at 9, so we planned on just doing stockings before, but everyone was up early, so we just did the presents. All the girls got great things and had fun, and we thank all of you for your gifts. I spent a few days before Christmas purging our toys, so we had room for the new. We cooked a turkey and all the trimmings and just relaxed the rest of the day.

   The day after Christmas, Kim and Jane were able to come down with Christmas #2. Grandpa Kim loves sugar cookies so we made some and got everyone decorating. It was fun. The girls are always up for frosting, baking, and of course, sprinkles. 

 Isabel asked for a Nerf gun and RC car. she got both and loves the truck. The Nerf darts are already MIA, as I expected, but still, Scott and I had fun with them.  It doesn't really work to only have one gun in the house. Perhaps we will get some more. Scottt got an RC helicopter, and it has been a big hit. it is so cool and little, it is amazing to see it fly around the house.  I was a little overwhelmed this year and did not do Christmas cards or neighbor gifts or anything. I felt slightly bad, but I also enjoy simplifying (still feel guilty). Just know that we think of you all often.

While Grandma and Grandpa were here, we took some time to tour another beautiful spot. We have been here once before with my dad and Brigitte, but Kim and Jane hadn't been, and the girls didn't really remember.  Needles Overlook is a beautiful place, and even with a little bit of snow it was a great outing.  The views are spectacular, and I look forward to being able to explore more of Canyonlands as the kids get older.  We all had fun and it was a good day.  Don't forget, if you come visit, we will take you to these amazing places, too! or at least point you in the right direction! 

Fall to Christmas Lights

I apologize, these pictures are out of order.  This is the gang at Temple Square. We ended up going right before Christmas and the traffic and parking were insane. I am pretty certain there was a concert at the conference center acrosss the street (which holds around 20,000 people!)It took hours to get up there, but It was worth it, all the girls are just at the right ages to enjoy everything and the weather was great. The hardest part was keeping the mittens out of the fountains. We saw all the lights and displays, and then headed home, late.

This picture was taken at Thanksgiving, after the big meal we took the girls for a drive to see some Christmas lights. There weren't a lot on, but we went down to the Riverwoods shopping center and it had amazing lights! So we were able to get out and walk and see everything, the girls loved it. They have done a lot of work there, making it nto more of a plaza for shoppers. The decorations were gorgeous, and they also had fountains and lots to see. It was a fun time.

Abby participated in her first year of "real" Junior Jazz basketball. She was on a team with 3rd and 4th graders. She was one of the smallest girls! I am sure that will change over time.  She practiced twice a week, plus a game on Saturday mornings, it was busy. It is so fun to watch these little girls who really have some skills! They can dribble and shoot and make baskets already.  Abby did great on defense, but was a little timid going after the ball. We will work on that ;)  But she had a lot of fun and that is the most important. I don't think they really even kept score most of the time.  Isabel is now doing the instructional league, I will have to get pics of her up soon.  She is having a lot of fun with that, as well.

Scott worked on the sprinkler system for our back lot, but stalled on a few things. Finally, with winter snow threatening, I buried a bunch of the lines, and then had him  smooth it out. We were going to borrow a neighbor's tool to drag out the dirt, but we just improvised with some fence parts and it worked great. Sara had fun helping Dad.  There are still loads of rocks, but they are smaller. Hopefully first thing in the spring we can get the water hooked up and get some grass growing back there. We are pretty tired of the evil red clay mud!It sticks to everything, and it stains.  If we can get the lawn going, we may also do a fire pit if we can figure out a cheap but safe and good looking way to do it. We probably will end up picking rocks on the mountain and doing it that way. It will be so fun to be able to just do s'mores at home whenever we want!  And hopefully my lilac bushes are surviving so they will make us some privacy in a few years.

So I guess that was our busy fall!

Hovenweep and the big Loop

We took Scott's parents on a big loop around this corner of Utah and Colorado. We started by heading to Hovenweep, which is around an hour away.  It is a small valley with many Pueblo ruins surrounding it.  Some are still in very good condition. It is a National monument, so they had little booklets the girls could do to get Junior Ranger badges and certificates. They enjoyed looking for things and doing activities, and they got to take an oath and everything.  The trail is easy and you just walk around and look.  It is somewhere we hadn't gone, still interesting to see these places and wonder about the people who built them.

The next leg of the journey, we drove across the reservation, through the towns of Aneth and Montezuma Creek to arrive at Bluff.  We went for lunch at the Twin Rocks Cafe. I had seen an ad for it, and it was a cool place. They have a good restaurant, a store and a trading post as well.There isn't much in the town, so this place is a nice suprise. The owners were super nice and gave the girls free little sheriff badges and Indian necklaces.  We had fun looking around. We then went to the old fort. We have been there, but Kim and Jane hadn't, so they got to look around. It is always a fun place to go.

After Bluff, we took a drive towards Monument Valley, to a road Scott knew of, called Moki Dugway. It goes up very steeply with switchbacks, and has great views.  The picture above is from the top.  After we got to the top, it was just some more driving to get back to familiar territory.It was a long day and a lot of miles, but really cool to see all these places. Monticello may not have much in the way of entertainment, but it's hard to compete with the things you can see within a day's drive.  Speaking of entertainment, Grandpa in the back set loved watching all the Dora and barbie movies with the girls! 

Halloween seemed to last months this year! We decorated the house up, and also got some cool inflatable pumpkins for the yard. We put them in the back since no one really goes past the front of our house.  The girls loved plugging them in.  There were many parties, including Sara's preschool party, church trunk or treat on saturday, school carnival, and regular trick or treating on monday.  There were amazing amounts of candy, which are thankfully almost gone!  Whitney found her new favorite food group, which used to be cheese, but now is candy! She asks for it so nicely, it is hard to say no. 
We took a trip to Grand Junction for a little visit with old friends, some shopping, and the Pumpkin patch. I didn't take my camera, but we had fun in the corn maze and got some good pumpkins.  It was hot, But it was a good trip.  The girls had been asking about going for months, so it was nice to finally be there.  We carved the pumpkins the week before halloween and it all went pretty well. The girls got busy in the goo and picked out ever single seed for us to roast.  Usually I grab enough for a pan full, but this year we had two full pans! And every seed was gone within a few days.  Whitney stayed strapped in her seat and helped pick out seeds, so she had fun too, away from the knives. 
We invited Scott's parent's down for the weekend because we had the Trunk or Treat\Chili cookoff on Saturday and the Primary program on Sunday, where the kids sing and do a little part in church.  So that was exciting.  We spent the day very busy and came back in time to grab a few things from the grocery store and get cookin' chili. Last year I won 2nd place, this year I wasn't even sure if i was going to make any, but I signed up, made my chili and won the Golden Ladle! So I was happy about that, although now I have to babysit the ladle for a year and not lose it. In this house, that may be tough.  The party was pretty crazy, and the tunk or treating went quickly, with most kids making two rounds of the parking lot before we ended it. Whitney figured it all out VERY quickly and had a great time. She was so cute.  She was a cupcake.  Abby was Brittany Chipmunk again, although she lost her ears 5 min before and I found them 2 days ago.  Isabel was a lion, and sara was an Ice Cream cone.  At the school carnival, she won a prize for "most unique" and was so happy. She got a jack o lantern bag for a prize.  We all had fun at the carnival, and Sara won the cake walk and got a cake, too! She was lucky that night.
Sara Says:   I am an ice cream cone. and don't lick me! and I love love candy and I love halloween cuz there's candy. My favorite part was the halloween carnival. I liked the fishing (game) and I loved the treats and the cake walk cuz I won a cake. and the most thing I love is the coin search and that's it.
We took the girls around close to home, then the little ones stayed back and I took Abbby and Isabel up to a more populated street. i let them run alone and I followed in the van. I think they had a good time. We got a bout 5 kids at our door, so they got a lot of candy. 
So after a lot of anticipation and planning and incessant asking about wearing costumes and how long until halloween, coupled with dressing up fully twice, we had fun and are happy it's over.  well, I am ;)