Don't give up on me

I am still here, I have not vanished. Everyday I think to myself that I should post something-anything, but I am in lull right now. I am so frustrated with my picture taking, they are nowhere near where I want them, I look at the recent ones I have taken and think these are so amateur of course they are, I am an amateur. Maybe I could make them a little better if I understood Photoshop, but that is a whole other confusing world to me-I just don't get it. I have checked out a book from the library and maybe that will help. Tomorrow the kids and I are going to Lagoon I plan on taking my camera and taking a lot of pictures hopefully I will take some that are blog worthy.

As far as our daily life, we are enjoying the summer days. We go to the pool to swim, which is great. "E" is warming up to the water and is able to play by herself or her little friends, I put "A" in the gym nursery and I sit by the water, read a book and drink a Diet Coke, the entire time thinking This is the fat life. We have also decided to re-vamp our backyard, which we said we would never do. I just finished the rock patio and now moving on to work on the water feature. It is SO much work, but hopefully in the end it will be worth it. We re-vamped the front yard last summer, and I am so glad we did, it is so much better now with the new grass and the ugly ficus (sp?) bushes gone, and we actually have flowers!

Are you having fun this summer? Any fun vacations?

Fathers Day

Out of curiosity..........What does everybody give their fathers, fathers-in-law, and husbands for Fathers Day? Do you go way out? Or do you give a sentimental gift? Maybe a homemade treat? Leave a comment (come on you can do it) and let me know.

W.I.P

I have been experimenting with my blog layout, I really want to jazz it up. So understand that it is a Work In Progress and it will be periodically changing. Right now the colors don't match and it is a little jumbled, someday it will actually look good.

What I Learned...

I spend way too much time in front of the computer lately. I know I have said this before, but I will say it again-I am addicted to reading blogs. Today I was sitting and thinking about all the blogs I have read and realized I have actually learned and improved myself by doing so. Let me list the ways. . .I will start by writing about a really addicting site (if you like blogs) It is a site with tons of links to LDS women's blogs I guess this is the site I am really addicted to. I read one of a women who is a runner and she talked about beating her personal record and how satisfying that was, so this morning at the gym I worked really hard at running the entire tread-mill class (which I have never done) and I did! It was 45 minutes and 3.89 miles of continuous running, that might not be a big deal to some people, but It was for me I am a wimp-especially when it comes to running. The next thing I found on a certain blog was an amazing site developed to help plan menus for your family It lists all sorts of ideas for shopping, organizing your pantry, and tips on how to freeze meals. I don't mind cooking, but I hate having to decide what to cook and this site helps a lot. Oh, and it has a lot of ideas on lunches and breakfasts for kids, which I always struggle with. Moving on, I read a blog of a woman who teaches some sort of religion class maybe Sunday school, maybe seminary she didn't say but they were learning about the lives of the prophets and with each prophet she likes to cook the prophet's favorite food and take it to class. She told of waking up really early so she could make 33 mini loaves of bread and 8 normal loaves to take to class because whoever they were learning about loved bread and milk. WOW! that is magnifying your calling and it made me think that I needed to put more effort into my primary lessons. There are my excuses for reading so many blogs. I don't feel as guilty for gluing myself to the computer when I am actually learning something :) yeah I know I am pathetic.

Our Dancing Star

I almost forgot to post "E's" exciting day! On May 22nd "E" had her dance recital, it was so fun. It was held downtown at the Rose Wagner Theater, they danced to a hyped up version of "Someday My Prince Will Come". She is in a class with her 3 best friends (Picture below is minus one friend) which made the year great. The plan for this day was to go to the rehearsal which was early in the day and then travel over to the Gateway for a snack and picture taking. It didn't go as planned because when we got to the theater I pulled out my camera and the battery was dead! GRRRR. I had checked that morning too and it was fully charged, but I think I must have left it on because it was totally dead. So, I didn't get the cool urban photos I was dreaming up, but I was able to charge the battery during the recital and I got a few after shots.
Here is one of the best.......

The wives get together

Last Friday the wives of ZINCH.COM met at a park and let the kids wear themselves out. It was a lot of fun, the park was amazing, it had a huge playground, a water fountain the kids could play in, and a swing carousel that could be pushed around like an amusement park ride. It was great getting to know everybody better. I hope my husband works with his co-workers for a long time because their wives are GREAT! Here are the pictures from that day:I saw this face all day long. "E" is always begging for something. "Can we play in the fountain-PLEEASE" "Can you run clear across the park to the car, and get my snacks-PLEEASE?" With a face like that, she cannot be denied.
I love this picture of E's little friend.
"A" Loved the swings. His stank eye reminds me so much of his Dad. Cache is famous for his grumpy looks.
Another one of "A" on the swings.
"E" in the Fountain.

The Hike

On Monday we took a hike right above our house. It was so much fun, I didn't know that a place so beautiful was just a few blocks up the street. After hiking up the front of the mountain for about 1/2 mile we entered a small little canyon thatwas so pretty. There were so many trees and rock ledges and birds. I do have to admit that I did let my worries take over every now and then (I worry a lot) I would look up toward the cliffs on the mountainside and would see in my head mountain lions peering down at us waiting to leap on their prey. Oh, I am so pathetic. These worries all started a few years ago when we were up at my in-laws cabin and it was late at night and everybody was asleep, except for me because I am a very light sleeper. I was laying in bed and I heard some weird grunting noises and then a splash in the small pond behind the cabin. At first I thought it was probably the mommy moose and her baby we had seen earlier that day. I decided to take a look out the window and when I did I saw two huge bears crawling out of the pond. It was very exciting, but also kinda scary because we hike and play outside all the time up there, and now all I think about is that there are bears in the area so I am constantly looking and listening whenever we are there. Kind of ruins the fun. Anyway we didn't get attacked by any mountain lions or any other wild animal, nor did we even see any animals. We made it to the top to a beautiful pond and water fall. It was about 1 1/2 mile hike uphill and Eden made it the whole way by herself, she was so proud of herself. Even I made it without getting winded, which made me excited. It was proof the going to the gym is actually paying off. Here are the pictures from the fun night:

Eden Making wishes


Asher cleaning out his mouth after sucking in his wish maker (dandelion) instead of blowing out


Asher still trying to get out the last of the fuzz and asking for Dad's assistance.


oops, I lied. We did see a wild animal. And here is the proof. See that hairy caterpiller on the stick? ooh, he was ugly. Eden wouldn't touch him and Asher couldn't stop touching him.