Bday

MY day started with a trip to the dentist

with my boys. But the best gift ever was

NO CAVITIES. Much better than the last visit.

When I got home this is the note I found...

(for some reason everytime I loaded it on here

it posted side ways). Ame is such a sensitive,

sweet girl! And that microwave LAVA cake

WAS a great surprise (thanks for teaching

her that trick mom). A great start to my day!!
Then Ame joined me on a mommy/daughter

date of shopping and root beer floats. Quinn also set up a surprise dinner with some very

dear friends. We could have talked all night,

but evetually we got a phone call for a crying

20 month old who needed his mama!

Then on Sunday, Quinn treated me again, by inviting
HIS family for dinner that HE made (mostly anyway).
He even made this cake (well his sister decorated it
with the berries). Very delicious!
Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures from this gathering.

Nalu just follows Amaya around taunting her!
Isn't he sweet!!!

Although I am NOT grateful to be a year older, I am thankful

for all the wishes and love I felt from so many family and friends!
Of course what is a gathering at our place without

a little dancing...

Fourth of July Celebrations

We had a FUN FILLED 4th of July.

I did a 5K run in the morning (wimpy run compared

to the ones many of my friends are running), then

we took the kids to the Layton Parade, Quinn played some

pick up vball in the park, we walked around the park

and booth for a while, got some shave ice.

Headed home for a few hours to nap.

Then spent the rest of the evening with our

good friends the Wadman's. They were gracious

enough to invite us over for a BBQ.

Then we headed down the street to watch the city

fireworks. We waited and waited...

and they finally began.

Even though LOTS of our neighbors had the really

GOOD fireworks for several nights, Kaipo insisted we

do our own too. We don't spend much on ours.

But he was happy anyway!

This year I tried to be much more mindful

of my blessings and freedoms.

I feel soo much gratitude for all those who

have lost their lives, so I could have the life I do

(as hard as it may be at times), at,

and my children can enjoy life each day!

Friends

This past week I got to go to lunch with some

old friends/neighbors from Riverdale.

It was a lot of fun catching up and much needed

GIRL talk!

Then Saturday night we went to Movie in the Park

with some more friends.

the kids saw Heidi, one of their old babysitters.

She ran up and gave them all hugs and told them

how BIG they all were. She was very cute with them!

Tara and I had some great talk time!

there was even FREE ice cream!

can't beat THAT!!

More Fun SuMmEr memories.

kids and their randomness

Ame has been creating some AWESOME FHE lessons lately.

This one was titled:

"There is Beauty all around when there is love at home".

We talked about what can bring Peace and Love into our home.

Ame LOVES sharing her creativity and

she continues to fill our home with the spirit! And the boys and to share their Scripture Power

Books from Primary too.


From the above pictures you can see the boys were
ready for haircuts. They all got the same one...
NO MAINTENANCE!

Firework is our new pet fish. He's made it 3 days now?!

I always find randomness on the camera.

This time Ash got ahold of it...

what a wierdo!

Hope it was a HaPpY Father's Day for all

The kids are always excited for these SPECIAL

days to honor someone that they LOVE so much!

They spent lots of time making books and cards

for Quinn. Of course it wouldn't be Father's Day

if we didn't serve breakfast in bed.

Nalu didn't get what was going on,

but he still was cute as ever...

(With the help of Jamie and her incredible talent)

I made this sign for Quinn to hang in his office

(which I still need to get hung).

I thought it was fitting...

I was sad to NOT be with my own dad this year, but

the kids and I made ecards and email videos

to express our LOVE and appreciation to him.

And we did get to spend the evening with most of Quinn's

family, to celebrate and appreciate Kimo.

All in all it was a simple, but hopefully HaPpY Day

for our special DAD's!!

the Beginning of Summer

We started a new behavior incentive at our house.

The kids can earn GOTCHA tickets, for good behavior

(listening the first time, not complaining, doing extra helpful things, etc)

After ALL 3 OF THEM earned 10 I said we could

sleep on the tramp, since they have been begging to do it.

Well they earned it more quickly than I anticipated,

in just one week, and so I was bound to

join them on the tramp for a night of restful sleeping...

NOT REALLY. After about an hour Ash went inside

because he wanted to sleep in his own bed.

That made it a little better, but we woke up

several times with blankets all over the place and

the other two continuously rolling on top of me!

FINALLY at about 4:30 Ame and Kaipo

agreed we should go inside and get a few hours

of good sleep. Thank goodness!

Now that they have done it, hopefully they won't

be asking to do it again for a LONG time:?!

But it was a fun memory made!

The beautiful WARM weather has finally made it

so we headed to the pool.

We traded Kaipo for Ella,

for a few days. In addition to swimming,

late nights, movies, makeup, and lots of GIRL fun

the girls also planned a LIMEade stand.
Of course it is never as $$ producing as they would

have hoped, but that is just one of the many

summer fun MUST dos...

and so summer has REALLY begun and we are lovin' it!

Father AND Sons

Quinn decided about 8:00 Friday night that he was

going to take the boys to the Father AND Sons campout.

He has taken Kaipo once before I think.

Quinn isn't much of a camper. I'm not sure why

(I think his snoring might have something to do with it).

Our kids would LOVE to go REAL camping if we

ever took them. But we don't have any camping gear,

so that is the first set back.

Anyways, of course when Quinn announced

they were going athough they didn't do any

REAL camping, Kaipo and Ash were

excited as can be to go!

They loaded the futon mattress into the back

of the Armada, some blankets, pillows,

and they were good to go... a little early morning snacking-

chips and soda
while watching a movie
(like I said, no REAL camping experience)

then it was time for the REAL campfire breakfast.
They did get to sit around the campfire,
roast marshmallows and make smores the night before.
Kaipo had lots of stories about burning plates and sticks
(pretty much anything to do with the FIRE was exciting)

the only real negative that came from this trip was,

despite me specifically telling Quinn there was

bug spray in their bag, Kaipo and Ash were eatin'

alive. He thought it would be nice to sleep with

the windows of the car OPEN...hhmmm

(like I said, not really camping smart in this family).

As long as they haven't contracted west nile virus,

they should be OK once the itchy bites disappear!??!

I am glad they ended up going and having some BOY fun.

Ame and I put Nalu down and had some of our own

GIRL fun. All it took was a movie and TREATS,

and us girls were happy as can be!!

cRaFtY

Ame bought a box of iron on's a while back,

and finally got to make a cRaFtY design

on her very own shirt she is quite proud of the results,

as she should be!!
the start of MANY summer crafts!

Celebrate

Today our same neighbors who did the Easter Egg

Hunt for the neighborhood planned a

Schools Out Carnival...

complete with face painting, games,

cotton candy, shave ice, water slide, bounce house, prizes and more.
Ame and some of the young ladies got to help with the games
AND do most of the face painting. They were LOVING
being IN CHARGE!

Nalu was content most of the time IN the

stroller, as long I kept the cups holders stocked with popcorn

(oh yeah, something else this fun carnival provided).

We just seem REALLY lucky and GRATEFUL

to live in such an AWESOME neighborhood!

The only negative about this carnival

was the weather didn't cooperate to well.

It was WINDY and cloudy.

Thank goodness only a few sprinkles

and the temps were still pretty warm,

so it wasn't too bad.

We all still had a BLAST!!

Dirty Dash 2011

Saturday 8 of my friends and I did the Dirty Dash.

It was a 5K obstacle course through the mud, up in Midway.

Ame decided she wanted to come watch her mom

get REALLY muddy, cheer me on and be the photographer.

A couple of the girls families came, so Ame got

to help babysit as well.

The weather was perfect! Slightly overcast,

but sunny at times and in the mid 70's.

Here we all are: (left to right)
Nancy, Shannon, Jessica, Amy H,

Me, Lindsey, Amy S, Katie, and Amber.

The arches behind us is the the starting line.

Here's how the course was from the get go...muddy to our ankles.
I thought if THIS is how the whole thing is I don't know if
I am going to enjoy this much. PLus I felt like my shoes were
going to come off if I ran too fast?!

None of us knew quite what to expect, since we hadn't done it before.

It was a lot of UP hill, with obstacle along the way, such

as stacked haybails or walls to climb over, each with big amounts of

mud before and after, tires to run through, and a few others

I can't quite remember. SPrinklers of course to spray us

and to keep the course wet. The WHOLE trail wasn't muddy, but LOTS

of it was. My feet felt soo gross, and by the end they were just filled with

rocks and felt like 50 lbs.

We laughed A LOT! Mostly at some particular runners and their

outfits, especially the girl doing it solo in her thong swimsuit.

Yes there were all kinds of costumes!
We were spread out throughout the race, going at different paces.

I mostly ran with 2 other girls, but we waited for the rest of our group

to slide down the blow up slide at the end and then go through this...

to the finish line.

You could pretty much get as dirty as you wanted.

We were dirty, but not real bad and decided at the

end we needed to be MUCH more MUddy, so

we made some slides and dives

and turned out like this...

Afterwards we had 2 choices for trying to clean off-

(both outside community showers)

FREEZING cold fire hydrant water

OR pay $3 for a warm, trickle of a shower.

Some of us chose to pay for warmth, which

consisted of getting a warm/cold powerwash first,

then stand in another LONG line, and shiver

for what felt like FOREVER to then TRY to get

the majority of the mud off, while crowds of

people gawked and wondered why we were

all shivering like crazy, because

NOT wet it was really quite pleasant outside.

The we got to change our clothes in a big tent with

tons of other naked ladies. Ame was my towel holder,

as I tried to be somewhat modest.

Even knowing the end result of fingers turning

purple and having mud caked everywhere,

we are already making plans for next year!!

We know our group is going to get much

bigger next time, as many others

who were reluctant about the idea, now

see and hear stories about what a blast

we had and want to join us next time.

Gettin' dirty sure is fun!!