Last week we....

We had a fun and busy week last week. It was Lehi Round-Up Days and we had a lot of fun activities to be a part of. We went to a late night movie in the park (that got over at 11:00 and took another 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot!), spent a day at the Discovery Gateway museum with our friends the Shepherd's, went to the family BBQ in the park, attended the Horse Parade, rode in the Miniature Float Parade and the Lehi City Parade on Friday night and Saturday morning and went to the outdoor pool (a block from our house and I don't know what we would do without it!) as much as we could! Here are the pictures from this fun past week.

These are just some cute pics we took in our backyard.

This is such a "Daniel" face!

Super cool..and sweaty Landon

Sweet Emma on her scooter. I love Richard in this picture because that hat is so small for his head!

Kate and her buddy, Roy "Grandpa" Littleford. She loved sitting on the float by him and she was so cute waving to all the people!

This is our ward float The theme was "Memories of....." and our ward did "Grandpa's Farm...Udderly delightful!" I helped a little with the float and it all turned out so cute!

I love this picture of Kate enjoying the horse parade with the flag a blowin' and her cute little maxi dress!

Here we are enjoying the horse parade. Part of our ward lives Main Street so we usually have a great spot to sit on a neighbors lawn!

Kate at the children's museum

I loved watching Emma help Kate with her groceries and checking out

There was a new exhibit called "Play It" with larger than life game pieces like these giant foosball men. When you put your head inside it had a voice changer that the kids thought was really fun.

Kate especially got a kick out of it!

There were other things like human dominoes that the kids enjoyed and these ridiculous pool balls!

What a day!

Yesterday was awesome. And when I say awesome, I mean it sucked. Landon started the ball rolling in the middle of the night with much throwing up. I started about an hour later. In the morning Kate joined in on the fun. Then Emma. Then Daniel. 5 of the 6 of us were throwing up ALL. DAY. LONG. I don't think that has ever happened! Richard had to go to work, so the rest of us watched a lot of TV, moaned and groaned and ran to the toilet about every hour. I was lucky enough to be feeling better (not throwing up, but still pretty miserable) enough to comfort each child as they took care of business. I rubbed a lot of backs yesterday, held hair out of faces, wiped down toilets, rinsed out bowls...it was pretty intense! I think the best moment was when Daniel was running to the bathroom with cheeks full of barf and couldn't help but spray it as he ran. When he got to the toilet Emma had not flushed the toilet and she hadn't quite made it to the toilet either. Moments later Kate barfed on my bed! We all had chocolate frostys for dinner because that's the only thing that sounded good. Today we are all still a little weak, but feeling much better and trying to eat- mostly toast and soup. All three of my brothers, one nephew and my Dad ended up with the same thing. I promise we were not kissing, and I don't think it was food poisoning because we all ate together on Sunday and it hit us 2 days later. Weird. Here's to better days!

A great weekend in St. George

This weekend was my nephew Carter's baptism in St. George. Although we wanted to go down as a family, we just couldn't make it work, but Richard suggested that I go with my Dad. I decided to take him up on the offer and we had a wonderful time. Thank you so much, Richard for letting me go and for keeping the kids all safe and sound and alive! We listened to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on CD's and loved it. My Dad hasn't read any of the Harry Potter books and that made it extra fun! We stopped at lots of gas stations and drank lots of Coke! We had dinner with the Wests on Friday night at Outback Steakhouse and my Dad stayed at the Ramada Inn right next to the outlets. I got to stay at Heathers, which was so fun because we got to stay up late and just talk! We haven't done that for years! It was so great- I love my sister! On Saturday, Heather and Brent were busy getting ready for the baptism and their Lake Powell trip that they were leaving for on Sunday. So my Dad and I went shopping at the Outlets and he bought me a dress! We had a great lunch and then he wanted to rest a bit before the baptism. While he rested I got to shop by myself. I didn't really even buy anything, but just wandering and being able to look at everything and take my time was a real treat! Then I got to lay out by the pool and read a magazine for about an hour. Heaven! I can't remember the last time I did that! The baptism was that evening and was so nice. We had a great dinner at Wests afterwards and another fun "sleepover"! After 9:00 Sacrament meeting the next day we headed back home. It was a short trip, but so nice and I loved being with my Dad and sister!

Here we are at Heather's house after the baptism

Heather, Carter and Brent

I did have one little panic moment on the trip. Richard called me while I was busy shopping and said, "I don't want you to worry, Jenny, everyones okay. Don't panic- everybody's fine, but all the kids are in an ambulance right now." A thousand thoughts raced through my head all in a matter of a second, until he said "yeah, there's a Health and Safety Fair over at the park and.....blah, blah, blah." I yelled into the phone right in the middle of the store, "You JERK!" The kids were indeed loaded into an ambulance and having a great day! Love you, honey!

Docking 2011

I'm pretty much going to let the pictures speak for themselves. If you don't know what docking is, see if you can figure it out from the pictures. If you think my boys look stinky....seriously, you should've smelled them in real life! Holy cow! I mean sheep.

You better believe they are proud of every speck of blood!

I can still smell it on them even after their showers.

The whole crew. And yes, that is all blood, not paint.

Daniel and Crosby (Dave in the background) and some of the tails of the day. They did over 900 lambs!

Just in case you didn't see this in the last picture. If you don't know what these are....you probably don't want to know what these are.

That's Landon and Daniel at the top there

They just happened upon this lovely snake on the way home.....yuck! But I still think Richard looks cute- blood and all.

And they loved every minute of it!

The last week of May

I really didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to last week, but here is what I did end up with. (Every time I pull out the camera Kate always ends up with it and I forget to take it back and take pitures!)

This is Emma's Kindergarten celebration (graduation) night. I know she has on her fancy "high" sandals, but look how tall she is!

I love that smug little smile. I should have taken a close up to show the top front tooth she lost and the other one that's hanging by a thread. She always waits until the teeth fall out on their own- that's exactly how I was too!

Landon right after the choir assembly. Landon had a solo this year and did a great job. He sang "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" with a girl in our ward and they were so cute! I love watching him perform and he loves to sing!

Mrs. Johnson and Landon. She is the principal and also the choir director. She does a super job and I really hope she sticks around for a few more years because I want all my kids to be in her wonderful choir!

Daniel at the Dance Festival. Each grade does a dance and this year they all painted their Tshirts. Daniels grade danced to "Bicycle" and he was so cute to watch! We loved his shimmy best!

This was his super cool ending pose!

Landos was so cool and smooth with his dancing. The 5th grade danced to Surfin' USA and we loved his moves!

Saturday morning the boys had an air soft war in the back yard. Richard learned first hand how bad it hurts to get shot after he shot Landon and Landon quickly retaliated and shot him back. Notice the duct tape on Daniel's crotch. He was doing his best to protect himself.

Richard is such a good Dad and a good sport! Later on in the day the boys had another friend join them and Richard let them stand on one end of the yard and shoot at him while he ran around the swingset. I was watching from an upstairs window and laughing while he was being hit and screaming and running. He came in the house with some pretty sweet welts on his chest!

Our plans were to head to Mt. Pleasant on Monday but the weather changed our plans and we ended up going bowling with my family. My Dad whooped on all of us and had the highest score. I was 2nd place and had probably the best game of my life. But that's only because I was bowling on the same lane as Dave and Jon. They are SUPER competitive and athletic and they both did terrible and I BEAT THEM! Aw yeah!

Sure love this little cutie pie!

Dave and Jon- the losers.

I have a disorder.....this is pathetic

Seriously. It's called contestenteritis. Every once in a while I hear about a contest and I enter it because I just know I'm going to win. I know there are others who have this same disorder, or even worse cases of it, but my problem is that I obsess about it and let it consume my thoughts. I'm not going to share all the things (there's not that many) I've entered (and lost, mind you) but here's one. Better Homes and Gardens $25,000 home remodel make over. I've already planned what I'll do with the money- an addition on our home. I could totally win, right? The last thing I entered was the Dove Close-up challenge. The winner received a week long trip for 2 to Hollywood, a week of dance lessons from a DWTS personality and a commercial spot to be aired on the DWTS finale to debut the dance they learned. Plus, the winner received a $5,000 check. I was sure I would win. I mean, why wouldn't I? There were probably only thousands of other girls just like me that entered. I submitted my 60 second video and obsessed about it for a few weeks. I had my trip planned out right down to what I was going to wear on the airplane, the celebrities I might bump into and the way the California morning sun would stream into my hotel window. Of course, I didn't win. Last night I saw the commercial spot. The winner was average looking, I don't know what set her apart from the others, but hurray for her. At the end of the commercial she said, "This has been the best week of my life!" Yeah. I bet it was.

Enough of the rain already!

I know all this water is good in a way, but I am so tired of it. I'm ready to wear flip flops and capris instead of boots and jackets every day. The only thing I appreciate about the rain is that all our baseball games were cancelled last week. And it looks like tonights game might be cancelled too. Maybe Heavenly Father knew I couldn't cope with the stress of all the games and having Richard gone, and trying to help Landon campaign for Student Council so he sent the rain to give me a little break. But I'm ready for the sun and the warmth! Landon made Student Council. His campaign was an Alvin (the chipmunk) theme. For his assembly skit he sang like Alvin about how he would do his best (John Huff recorded the song in his authentic Alvin voice) and the students loved it! There are only 5 boys and 5 girls on the council for next year and he is really excited about it! Way to go Landon! This weekend I sang at a wedding in Alpine that must have cost an insane amount of money. It was at a home that was almost in the mountains and when I pulled up in my car I was greeted by a golf cart to shuttle me to the home. Amazing decorations, a ridiculously huge and beautiful home, fabulous food, pretty good music...of course- I was singing! (John too!) and it wasn't raining. I love singing at weddings like that! This week brings more fun with the choir concert, the dance festival and field day. I must remember to take pictures!