cindylouhoo

I was able to do a senior photo shoot for one of my YW tonight, I learned that I still need a lot of practice in posing and that I am better with families and young children. Don't worry Cindy I think we still got some cute stuff. Note to self: plan photo shoots earlier because the days are getting shorter-duh-we ran out of light and need to meet up again to finish this shoot. Thanks Cindy for letting me do this.

1st grade

The picture above is blurry, it's not your eyes

Peanut started 1st grade yesterday. Tears were involved. Although they weren't her tears they were mine. I thought I would only cry when she went to Kindergarten, but no, I am losing her ALL DAY now. Again, I wondered if she is ready, does she know right from wrong, will the kids tease her, will she have someone to play with at recess, what if she gets hurt will the teacher give her a hug, will she know how to navigate through lunch? All these questions went through my mind yesterday, I watched the clock and at 2:50 I jumped in the car to go to the school to pick her up. I missed her, but she did great. She couldn't wait to go again. The only thing that was a problem was that I sent her with cold lunch and the school had changed pizza day from Friday to Tuesday and she missed out on her favorite food, she was bummed. Next Tuesday we will be sure to let her have school lunch.

Muffin meal

A big "thank you" goes out to which ever blog I was on when I saw this Idea. I am sorry I can't give the proper credit to whose idea this is, but it is great. I saw Muffin meals a long time ago while blog surfing and stored it in my brain file and finally tried it last night. Basically it is just serving whatever you would normally serve for lunch, but separating it into the muffin tins. Todays muffin meal consisted of string cheese (cut up), sliced strawberries, grapes, cut up lunch meat, graham cracker, marshmallows and choc. chips. They loved it and ate every last bite. Today we had friends over and our friends loved it too. Hopefully muffin meals will pep up your lunch (or dinner) times too.

soccer

Peanut started soccer, she is loving it. Her first game was on Saturday and her team the "elves" won-GO ELVES! I love this picture, it looks like she is a soccer star, but really this was during warm-ups when she was trying to score on her coach.

Peanut's new do.

Peanut got her haircut today and she is loving it. I like it a lot too.
Before:

After:

cabin

While I was rolling in the dirt at girls camp. Literally..... Peanut and Finley were able to enjoy the week at Grandma's and Grandpa's cabin. They had tons of fun cleaning,
shooting guns,

riding in buckets,
and of course being cute,
Thanks Virg and Sarah for taking the little rugrats.

Girls Camp '08

I had the fun time going to girls camp last week. I haven't been since I was in YW as a teenager. Well, except for time when Cache had to go for bishopbric night and I tagged along.It was so much fun, I instantly reverted back to being 15 years old, I am now a little embarrassed because I was supposed to be a leader and I wasn't much of one. You know, taking the beehives out on snipe hunts, talking about bodily functions, staying up way too late-oh all sorts of fun. I wish I would have taken pictures of my feet because they were FILTHY, I was the smart one to wear flip flops the entire time.skit night

We had a great stake theme: C is for courage, meaning have the courage to live the standards of the gospel so that you can return to Christ. We had amazing devotionals each night with fabulous speakers. There was a zipline, races, crafts, and tons talking.There were butterflies EVERYWHERE

Our ward color and value was Orange for Choice and accountability. Our camp directors were so creative. They chose the theme of Cafe Courage, everything was decorated in orange. The food was delicious, we even had Cafe Rio salads on the last night, mmmm they were so good.

I have to post pictures of the decorations because they were so dang cute.

We even had a chandelier

I had tons on fun and I am so glad to be serving in the Young Womens. We have amazing youth that have such strong testimonies. I love them.

We may be aging, but..........

we are still friends. My friends Nicole and Heather were in town and we were able to get together. Nicole arranged for us to use the banquet room at her dad's restaurant-Joe Morley's BBQ, it was great because our numbers are increasing, and their was tons of room for the rugrats to run around. Joe Morley's has great memories for all of us, since 4 out 5 girls of us waitressed there throughout high school (Shantel you missed out :)). It was fun catching up with everyone, I think we should make it a tradition.Before the lunch Nicole and I met up to take some pictures and pick each other's brains at our photography knowledge. Here are some of the pic's from the shoot.

The Narrows

(Not my picture)

The weekend after July 24th (what weekend was that? it seems so long ago) we took a trip down to Zions National park. Cache has a friend that invited us to go down with a bunch of his friends and stay in Parowan and then the next day travel to the narrows. It was so much fun. I was a little nervous because you hear all the horror stories of flash flooding, but it turned out wonderful. Finley hiked the entire way, which was only about 1.5 miles up, so a round trip of 3 miles. Peanut hiked the entire way up, but had blisters so I had to throw her on my back and carry her down. I was pretty proud of myself because it wasn't easy hiking through a river with a 6 year old on my back. Cache took over the last leg of the journey, he was willing to do it earlier, but I wouldn't let him because I was feeling pretty tough and wanted to see how far I could go.

Unfortunately I didn't take my camera because I was afraid I would drop it in the water so I don't have any pictures, next time I will buy a disposable. I do have pictures of our adventure of dirt biking and 4 wheeling in Parowan. Our friend Al brought his tiny little quad for the kids to ride, they loved it, but on the first ride Peanut tried to turn it while going way to fast and ended up tipping it. We both got tons of slivers and burrs in our legs and arms, not fun. She did get tough and ride it again, but this time I controlled the gas and steering wheel while she enjoyed the ride.feeding the ducks in ParowanThere is Al coming down the monster hill

v

July 24th

I am so behind on posting I am just going to rush through everything, so my pictures aren't in the best condition because all will be straight out of camera which means no editing.

Every 24th my side of the family has a reunion with all of my cousins and Aunts and Uncles. It is really crazy with tons of kids, food, and fun. In the last couple of years we have turned it into a carnival theme with cotton candy and bounce houses. And of course it is not a true cousin party without playing in the "crick"(aka creek) that runs through my parents backyard. My grandparents lived next door to where my parents live now and as kids we would always play in the "crick", we are now handing the tradition down the next generation. It's so fun to see my cousins, as kids we would get together at my grandparents house just about every Sunday. Now all we see each other is on the 24th and at Christmas time. I always look forward to this day. Here are the pictures: